Upscale Guitar Store to Open in September

The former location of Adventure Subaru will become the new home of Sunrise Guitars when it opens at 2781 N. College Ave. in September.

Co-owner Don Nelms will relocate his upscale music business into an 8,500-SF building there and will include an adjoining 3,000-SF performance venue. Nelms did not say specifically when the business would open, but a soft opening is planned for the week of Sept. 5. A grand opening celebration will be held the following week.

The new location will have a 7,500-SF showroom, six rooms for music lessons, repair area, temperature- and humidity-controlled vault for instruments and media room. The adjoined performance venue, which will hold up to 120 people, includes a reception area and stage.

In 2014, Nelms purchased the former Ben Jack’s Arkansas Music with the intent to relocate it. The guitar enthusiast and collector, who has been in the automobile business most of his life and sold over 150,000 vehicles, joked that he has owned 20 guitars, and Sunrise Guitars is his 21st.

Sunrise Guitars sells both electric and acoustic guitars, stringed instruments, such as banjos and ukuleles, and accessories. “We sell more than guitars,” Nelms said. “It’s a stringed instrument store.”

Some of the top brands include C.F. Martin & Co., Taylor Guitars, and Fayetteville-based Bayard Guitars.

Store co-owners include Nelms’ son, David Nelms, and Roy Shorter, longtime CFO of the Nelms business.

Tim Nelson is general manager and has worked for Sunshine Guitars since December. Nelson moved to Northwest Arkansas from the Kansas City area and is a guitar expert who has worked in the industry since 1988.

Regular business hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

At 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15, Taylor Guitars Road Show 2016 will make a stop at the new store.