Lexington, KY - Arriving at the decision to expand a business - not to mention relocating to a different market - can be a torturous experience. Just ask Old Town Violins' Joe Hislope.
"It was agonizing to come to the point of making the decision to open a shop, because of all of the overhead and expenses and all the headaches it would involve, plus the dedication of being here everyday to unlock the door," he said.
Even more agonizing is to discover, after investing in such a business, that it can come with an unsavory "dark side." (See sidebar at bottom of page.)
Hislope and his wife, Heidi, proprietors of the stringed instrument dealership on Lexington's north side, had for years run their business from their home in Berea.
"When we operated out of our home," Joe Hislope recalled, "we kept our overhead very low. We operated on an appointment basis, so it was a very simple and low-cost operation to run."
To build clientele, they had been working with instructors in the region to supply their students with instruments and attending music festivals and fiddle competitions as vendors.
"The downside of that," noted Hislope, "was that it's very difficult to serve the public properly unless you actually have a dedicated location and shop with regular hours."
While building their instrument business, Hislope was beginning to look for an exit from the high pressures and dissatisfactions of his day job as accounting manager for an automotive parts supply manufacturer in Berea.
The Hislopes also had been tending to the care and feeding of their own musical skills, studying the fiddle under sought-after Lexington stringed instrument instructors Daniel and Amy Carwile. The customer service issues they were encountering in their home-based business were underscored by what they were hearing from their instructors at Carwile String Studio.
"They wanted a better local source for themselves and for their students. After checking around, I found that many violins here in town were being rented or purchased from out of town. A lot of people from here were going to Cincinnati or Louisville or someplace in Indiana, even," Hislope noted
"Amy and I did encourage Joe and Heidi to move their shop from Berea to Lexington," said Daniel Carwile. "It just made sense in light of the universities, the string music programs in the schools, and the overall 'arts climate' in Lexington."
The Carwiles know their way around a violin/fiddle. He is U.S. Grand Master Fiddle Champion and, like his wife, Amy (they met at a fiddle championship), is the holder of a long list of other noteworthy fiddle competition blue ribbons. Noting that the bowed instrument family is highly specialized and demanding of specific expertise and accessory products, Carwile said it was important to have in close proximity a "specialty shop" devoted to string.
"For example," he offered, "you can go to Old Town and try out 10 different rosins if you want. Where else can you do that? I doubt that is even possible in Louisville or Cincinnati."
In September 2007, Hislope reached a decision to combine his bachelor's degree from Eastern Kentucky University in business administration with a lifelong passion for acoustic music (28 years as a guitarist in gospel bands). He and Heidi, herself a musician as well as a bachelor's degree holder from the University of North Alabama, followed the Carwiles' advice and rented the cozy, refurbished circa-1907 home at 151A East Third Street in Lexington. Old Town Violins was open for business.
"We didn't want a sterile, retail-type environment. We wanted something that had the right kind of vibe for a violin shop. We wanted to be in something old, something relatively nice," Hislope said.
The shop is a study in the warmth of wood - from hardwood floors to instrument-lined walls. And the couple has made it a point to furnish only with antiques, right down to a vintage brass cash register.
Stocking the shop with inventory was not a problem. While operating out of their home, the Hislopes had been building quite a supply, purchasing at estate sales and on eBay.
"We have a two-story house in Berea with five bedrooms. Out of the entire house, two bathrooms and the kitchen were the only rooms that didn't have fiddles in them," Joe explained with a smile.
"So we had a sizable inventory when we opened our doors here," he continued, conceding that buying online, sight unseen (or sound unheard) is a hit-or-miss proposition. "You don't know what you're getting until you have it in hand. There were many, many purchases that went to the junk pile. Almost everything had to be reworked - setup, repairs and so forth. We managed to purchase some good quality instruments that needed some work. We could buy them low enough and put some money into repairing them properly, setting them up and then turn them for a profit.
Since then, we have upgraded our inventory considerably, revamped it, culled a lot of less desirable instruments and replaced them with good quality instruments."
That effort involved doing a lot of research and developing relationships with numerous instrument suppliers.
The pride of the Hislopes' inventory are older instruments of Italian, French and German origin - foremost among them, those from the German violin maker Ernst Heinrich Roth.
"The 1920s-era E.H. Roths are master-made German instruments - really quality instruments," said Hislope. "They are not extraordinarily expensive yet. They are appreciating in value quite rapidly. For some of the better models, in some markets the price will exceed $10,000. In this market, they're not that expensive, so you can stay well under $10,000 and have a nice, German master-made instrument from E.H. Roth."
Parents in the market for a starter instrument for their child are well advised to go into the shopping process with an understanding that quality can unleash talent, while poor quality can discourage it, Hislope said.
"You don't want the instrument to be a limitation. I've seen it so many times, whether it be with violins, guitars or anything. If it sounds better, it's more pleasing to you to practice and to play," Hislope said.
For a lower-priced, entry-level instrument line that would bear the Old Town Violins label, the Hislopes turned to the other side of the world.
"We went through numerous, numerous Chinese suppliers and workshops," Hislope said. "We found the quality can vary tremendously from one to another. So we had to go through many, many different Chinese suppliers until we found a good quality, reliable source. Everything that comes from this company is top notch." These instruments are priced at $1,000 and under.
To make quality affordably accessible, the shop offers a modified rent-to-own program with a minimum rental period of six months, giving new players young and old some time to test their interest, skill and level of passion before deciding if the instrument is right for them. While rental instruments are not for sale, rental payments do build equity that can be applied against the purchase of a "step up" instrument.
While in name the business focuses on the violin, Old Town carries other bowed instruments, including violas, cellos and basses.
"We think it's a beautiful shop, and we really love it," added Hislope.
For more information about Old Town Violins, check the company's web site at www.oldtownviolins.com.