RUDY'S SHRINE TO GUITARS.

While Rudy Pensa Says "I'm Really Not A Businessman," He Has Crafted A Shrewd Strategy For Prospering In A Competitive Climate

Gazing out his office window at a frenetic New York street scene ... throngs of people, an armada of honking taxi cabs, and huge flashing billboards ... Rudy Pensa points to an unobtrusive little Korean delicatessen. "New York has some of the finest restaurants in the world. Do you think they consider that deli a competitor?" he asks. "It's the same way with guitars. I'm on the same block with Sam Ash and Manny's, but I don't view them as competitors. They do their thing, I do mine, and I don't even think about them. I just try to offer the best guitars and the best service I can." Over the past 22 years, relying on this simple approach, Rudy and his wife, Fran, have built Rudy's Music Stop into a thriving business in one of the world's most competitive markets.

Rudy's Music Stop could more accurately be described as Rudy's Shrine to the Guitar. Every detail of the four-story showroom reflects Rudy's personal passion for the guitar. Fine guitars are showcased like works of art in hand-crafted wooden display cases that look like they were taken from the library of an English manor house. Hygrometers and humidifiers are everywhere so Rudy and his staff can maintain optimum temperature and humidity conditions throughout the store. At an immaculate repair shop that's better equipped than some small guitar factories, instruments are set up to perfection before being placed on display. The ground-floor electric guitar showroom even has a permanent display of some historic instruments from Rudy's personal instrument collection: a D'Angelico archtop, a D'Aquisto jazz guitar, and several vintage Fender and Gibson instruments.

"We use them to give customers, particularly the kids, an idea about the history of the guitar," he enthuses.

"I'm really not a businessman," says Rudy. "If I were, I would have opened ten pizzerias around New York and made millions." Despite such protests, he maintains a firm grasp on one important principle: the need to differentiate yourself from the competition. While the chain stores in the New York area advertise aggressive pricing and virtually limitless selection, Rudy has focused on creating a friendly and intimate environment for people who are serious about guitars.

Part of the appeal of the store lies in the inventory of exquisite, hard-to-find instruments. Rudy's stocks all major guitar brands in depth, but in addition to the standard Fender, Gibson, PRS, Taylor, and Martin models, he also displays numerous one-of-a-kind instruments that he orders from the different factory custom shops. "I put together instruments that I think are musically valid and particularly beautiful," he says, "and having something really unique and different in the store attracts customers."

In addition to the product selection, Rudy's staff is an equally important draw. The average tenure of the 14 employees is nearly ten years, and Rudy likes to describe the team as "my extended family." At a time when some stores turn their personnel faster than their inventory, how does Rudy manage to attract and hold good people? "We hire only those people who really love guitars, and then we try to make it a fun place to work," he says. "It's pretty straightforward."

On the selling floor Rudy's is a decidedly low-pressure environment. The sales staff is endlessly patient in getting guitars out of display cases for customers and answering questions, and Rudy is even easy-going about lost sales. "We like to sell everyone who comes in the door," he admits, "but sometimes it doesn't happen." While he can tolerate lost sales, the one thing that sets him off is disgruntled customers. "If a customer walks out of here unhappy or angry because you were rude or mistreated him, you're out of a job," he declares. "New York is a big city with 12 million people, but there aren't that many guitar buyers, and we can't afford to have any of them mad at us."

Rudy's customers have included such notables as Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and just about every other famous guitarist who has ever passed through New York. While the store caters primarily to serious players, Rudy makes special efforts to address the needs of beginners. He carries a selection of entry-priced electrics and acoustics (between $200 and $500) that are carefully set up. "I can't understand parents who say, `Buy the kid the cheapest thing you can find because he could quit in three months," he declares. "Beginners more than anyone need an instrument that has a good action and makes a pleasing sound. A bad guitar will do more than anything to make a kid give up."

Growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the son of a classical cellist, Rudy tried piano, violin, and oboe, but at age six he began his life-long love for the guitar. By the time he was 12, he was playing in several rock bands. Electric guitars were all but impossible to come by in Argentina, so Rudy built one out of solid rosewood. ("I still have it, and it's a terrible guitar," he says, "but I thought it was great at the time.") Inspired by the release of the Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper" album, for his next project he put two headstocks together on a classical guitar to make a 12-string and then painted the guitar white. ("It sounded more like a sitar than a guitar because it buzzed so much," he notes.) Once he discovered that the best guitars came from the U.S., his dream was to buy a guitar in New York.

The dream came true in 1974; however, the trip had a rocky start. When he climbed into a cab at JFK airport and instructed the cabbie to take him to "Mannix on 48th Street," he was greeted by a puzzled look. "Manny's was the only store I'd ever heard of," he says, "but I thought the name ended in an x." Once the linguistic issues were resolved and Rudy made it to 48th Street, he was smitten. "I couldn't believe that I was walking down the street where the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and every other famous band had been."

For the next several years Rudy divided his time between touring in a rock band in Argentina, shuttling instruments back and forth between New York and Argentina, and working at Alex Music on 48th Street. By 1978 he finally came to the realization that he was never going to be a great guitar player and that the thing he enjoyed most was working with guitars. That year he and Fran opened Rudy's Music Stop in a second floor space on 48th Street. Initial inventory consisted of his own stock of used instruments, and every time an instrument was sold, the money immediately went to buy more guitars. He left his first NAMM show in Chicago as the authorized dealer for Gretsch, Larrivee, and Alembic guitars.

Since opening on the second floor, Rudy's gradually took over the entire building. The repair shop that used to occupy the fourth floor of the building was recently moved to a nearby building to make room for an elegant classical guitar showroom. "Classical guitarists are in a different world from other guitarists, and they don't come to 48th Street," explains Rudy. "We hope to change that with the best selection of instruments in the city."

Ever since Manny's began selling at 40% off in the 1930s, 48th Street has been a shopping destination for musicians from around the world. Rudy's still sells to visitors from Asia and Europe; however, in the past five years one of the biggest changes on the street has been the presence of American tourists. "Since the crime rate has gone down and they've cleaned up 42nd Street, people from Oklahoma and Iowa are starting to visit New York," he says. "It sounds funny, but for the first time we're seeing people from other parts of the country."

In the 22 years since he opened, Rudy has witnessed major changes in the industry, and he's seen a dozen stores close or be taken over on 48th Street. Despite the consolidation, he remains unshakably optimistic. "The guitar business is the best it's ever been," he gushes. "When I first came here, all that anybody sold was solid-body electric guitars. Now we're selling acoustics, arch tops, mandolins, dobros, four-, five-, and six-string basses, and electrics."

While other retailers around the country fret about the growth of chains, he remains unconcerned. "When you create a huge chain and open in lots of places, you have to go for volume," he explains. "I'm a different kind of operation. I deal with selective products and special services that are hard for a chain to offer. As long as there are people who really love guitars and we keep focusing on what we do, things will be great."

RELATED ARTICLE: TENNIS AND GUITARS

In 1979, Guillermo Vilas, the Argentinian tennis star, walked into Rudy's looking for a guitar. Vilas had just set a record for 57 consecutive victories (a record that still stands) and was a national hero in Argentina. As a fellow Argentinian, Rudy was initially awestruck by the tennis star, but the two soon found common ground in their enthusiasm for guitars. Rudy offered to give Vilas guitar lessons in exchange for some tennis instruction.

"Like all boys growing up in Argentina, I had played soccer," explains Rudy, "but Guillermo really got me excited, about tennis." In addition to providing instruction on basic court strategy and the mechanics of striking the ball, Vilas also offered some useful life lessons. "When I asked him how he could win 57 matches in a row, he told me, `You have to believe in yourself totally, you have to have a match plan, and you can't waste time worrying about the guy on the other side of the net,'" explains Rudy.

Rudy thinks of Guillermo's coaching when he plays tennis three times a week, and when he's at work. "In tennis or in business, you need focus, you need to have confidence in yourself, and you can't spend your time trying to react to the competition," he says.

These days Rudy's can also claim to be the guitar shop of choice for tennis pros. New York resident John McEnroe is a friend and frequent customer, and past tennis customers have included Mats Wilander and the late Vitas Gerulitas.