Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, Long Island

Jun 17, 2024

Mind blown! Thanks to our pal Johnny Cola, we got an invite this morning to Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, Long Island. Well Strung has been selling off the huge lot of vintage guitars that were at the Songbirds museum in Tennessee, so what you’re seeing in these photos are all vintage guitars, no reissues. It was the most impressive room of vintage guitars I’ve ever been fortunate enough to stand in. Beyond the hard-to-process sheer number of original vintage instruments they had, if you know what you’re looking at, they have some of the most iconic and historic guitars at the store—guitars made famous through various books and magazines.

Eddie Cletro’s 1950s Strat with the rosewood neck is here, as well as a rosewood Strat made for Jimi Hendrix that he never received (he died before taking delivery). They had not one, but two prewar Martin D-45s (I played one—mind blown). They had a Stromberg Master 400 signed by Hank Garland. They had two original 1950s Flying V’s and a 1963 Gibson Explorer started in the 1950s, completed in 1963. They had Eddie Bertrand’s sparkle sunburst Stratocaster that he used in Eddie and the Showmen. They had an incredible array of 1954 Stratocasters, including the 2nd and 3rd serial numbered Strats! A wall of original Les Paul sunbursts. And on and on and on….

The main reason I really wanted to stop by was to see the 1959 custom made “Stan Welch” Mosrite guitar. It was pretty mind blowing—I love seeing early, Semie Moseley-hand-made instruments from the 1950s. They also had one of the very rare original 1960s Mosrite six-string basses in blue sparkle finish. David (the owner) was agreeable to letting me use photos of their Mosrites in the upcoming book, so—mission accomplished.

We had to hit the road to Baltimore, so our visit was limited to an hour. Now we’re driving down the highway and my head feels like I stuck it in a blender. It was complete sensory overload. Thanks again to David Davidson and the crew at Well Strung guitars and Johnny Cola and Dawn (and our good pal Roy Wilson, who we stayed with last night—a consummate host here on Long Island). What an incredible morning!

See ALL THE PHOTOS at the original post!