Cypress Edition | January 2023

1975

“WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT BEING IN BUSINESS NEARLY 50 YEARS, WHAT WE HAVE GONE THROUGH, ... AND WE’VE BEEN ABLE TO SURVIVE.” KEVIN PERRY, OWNER

Kevin Perry has been repairing guitars for decades. (Courtesy Great Southern Music)

1990

The shop has moved throughout Houston over the years. (Courtesy Great Southern Music)

BUSINESS FEATURE

With years of training and thousands of repairs made, Kevin Perry has earned the nickname the “Guitar Doctor” over time. He also takes pride in helping musicians nd the right t for them on the retail side of the business. (Danica Lloyd/Community Impact)

Great Southern Music Guitarist brings nearly 5 decades of experience to repair shop, retail store K evin Perry got his start in the guitar repair industry in the early 1970s working as BY DANICA LLOYD

IN TUNE WITH THE DETAILS Repairs oered at Great Southern Music include basic setups, fret jobs, pickup installations, neck resets, bridge repairs and resets, resets of broken headstocks and electric system repairs, among others.

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Gibson, Martin and Fender. “If you were to buy a Taylor guitar and something were to go wrong with it, you would call Taylor out in California. … They’re probably going to send you to me,” Perry said, About 30% of Great Southern Music’s revenue comes from repairs, and the rest comes from retail sales. Customers can nd acoustic and electric guitars ranging from $179 to more than $5,000 as well as new and used eects pedals, strings, picks, straps, capos, cables, pickups, sheet music, drum heads and sticks, elec- tronic keyboards and microphones. Perry said the retail industry has changed drastically over the decades as online shopping has become more popular and musicians can now buy guitars anywhere. The business sells products online to reach more cli- entele and has been oering lessons in guitar, piano, drums, voice and ukulele by local instructors via Zoom since the COVID-19 pandemic began. “As the years have gone by, it’s get- ting dicult to compete with bigger stores,” he said. “That’s why we just keep trying to promote the home- grown, family-owned [aspects]—the history of being in business a long time, knowing what we’re doing, standing by the product.”

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an apprentice and has been pursuing this passion ever since, earning the reputation of “Houston’s Guitar Doc- tor” along the way. He launched his own repair shop out of his home in 1975 and quickly outgrew the space. “As the years went on, I had my son and realized, ‘It’s hard to make a liv- ing just xing guitars, so let’s go into retail sales,’” he said. “Through the years, we branched out, got a little bigger ... moved to new locations and ended up here.” Throughout his career, Perry has sold guitars to and repaired the instruments of several renowned musicians, including country music singer-songwriter Clint Black as well as ZZ Top members Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill. Perry has a philosophy that no two musicians are the same, so he takes the time to understand his customers’ needs to make them feel condent in nding the right t. On top of that, repair work done at Great Southern Music is given a two- year warranty, and Perry said it is one of the only warranty centers in the Houston area for iconic brands Taylor,

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Great Southern Music 12312 Barker Cypress Road, Ste. 1700, Cypress 281-758-3434 www.gsmmusic.com Hours: Tue.-Sat. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Sun.-Mon.

BARKER CYPRESS RD.

290

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM