retailing founded 1964 headquarters 645 titus avenue irondequoit new york united states key people armand schaubroeck and bruce schaubroeck products music instruments dvds posters lessons accessories website houseofguitars.com house of guitars inc. is a store selling guitars percussion and other music related items in irondequoit a suburb of rochester new york . billed as the largest guitar store in the world it has a prodigious collection of new used and vintage guitars amplifiers and other musical instruments a large collection of music recordings on vinyl records cassette tapes and compact discs music videos t shirts and other rock memorabilia . the store s slogan is for the rising young stars from earth . an alternate slogan they have is the store that ate my brain . in numerous ads on late night local television in the 1970s the house of guitars insisted the house of guitars is cooler than hollywood . contents 1 history 2 unique store layout 3 cultural impact 4 references history edit the house of guitars was initially founded in 1964 by brothers armand bruce and blaine schaubroeck in the basement of their mother s house in irondequoit new york . in 1972 the schaubroeck brothers relocated the house of guitars to its present day location in the former irondequoit grange hall building 1 at 645 titus avenue . since the initial relocation in 1972 the house of guitars has purchased three additional adjacent buildings interconnecting these buildings for means of expansion 2 this had led to what some consider a bizarre maze like layout where separate store rooms containing music related equipment are connected via long hallways sharp turns un level floors et cetera . ... 30 years of cool have taken a toll on the three story stone building that once was the irondequoit grange hall . the floors creak loudly under trampled carpeting and so many bands have signed the walls that the messages are nearly illegible . 3 the store is said to have obtained the first vox amps that came over to the united states . schaubroeck had put in an order to vox in england when the beatles came to america having known that george harrison used vox amps . 4 the house of guitars continues to be owned and operated by the schaubroeck brothers at the present time . unique store layout edit the interior of hog . the store is divided into two distinct sections the front part facing titus avenue houses all varieties of electric guitars acoustic guitars and bass guitars as well as drums keyboards and amplifiers . the rear section accessible from a back door near grange pl . or from the front through a short maze of corridors houses the music collection . at first sight the music store appears as more of a rummage sale with nearly everything arranged in a state of disarray however simply asking an employee for help is an option as most employees know where everything is . in addition to music on cd cassette and vinyl records the store also sells videos t shirts magazines posters music books and thousands of other rock memorabilia items . the angled ceilings are covered with signed photographs posters and drum pads while the walls are covered in sharpie signatures from musicians who have visited in the past . cultural impact edit house of guitars sometimes referred to its abbreviation the hog has appeared in several magazines . this includes an august 1997 issue of people magazine which features a page long article on armand schaubroeck and the house of guitars . in this article schaubroeck is quoted as saying if you want a hard to find guitar we can hand it to you in six or seven different colors . 5 one of the characters in the 1994 film pcu wore a house of guitars t shirt throughout the film . the wall street journal also published an article about the store on june 12 1997 . hog also appeared in details magazine as top guitar shop in february 2002 . in 2008 it was named in the top 200 largest music product retailers . several popular musical acts bands have at one time or another shopped at the house of guitars including metallica ozzy osbourne mathew sweet aerosmith jon bon jovi the ramones and m tley cr e 6 7 many national acts stop in when they have gigs in the rochester area . the house of guitars has employed a non traditional approach to commercial sales . one example of this is their bizarre surrealist early television commercial ads of the 1960s 1980s shot on 16mm film which can still be viewed on local area television from time to time . 8 references edit irondequoit . images of america . thomas cole richens and patricia s. wayne . charleston sc arcadia publishing 2006 entrepreneur.com 2003 . irondequoit salutes the hog . retrieved 2008 09 16 . curtis craig 2008 . the hog . rochesterinsider.com . retrieved 2008 09 16 . http www.houseofguitars.com no byline 1997 08 11 strum major from people magazine nelson emily 2004 . meet the masters of the house of guitars . wall street journal . retrieved 2008 09 16 . scheller william g. & kay ; africano lilian & nina 2007 . finger lakes . new york a guide to unique places . globe pequot . p. 115 . isbn 0 7627 4425 1 . retrieved 2008 09 16 . cs1 maint uses authors parameter link houseofguitars.com . page link history . retrieved 2008 09 16 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title house of guitars & oldid 735942864 categories music retailers of the united statescompanies based in monroe county new yorkrochester new yorkprivately held companies based in new yorkcompanies based in rochester new yorkcompanies established in 1964retail companies established in 1964hidden categories cs1 maint uses authors parameter navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page 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