<\/p>\n
Mike Kish has been passionate about electric guitars since his sister handed her 1981 Hamer Sunburst down to him as a kid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kish, the 42-year-old manager and guitar repairer at Funky Music, has always dreamed of working at a mom-and-pop music store, much like the one where he worked to raise money for guitar lessons when he was young. He shared that dream with Funky Music\u2019s owner, Mike Hetrick, a longtime member of the local music scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That longing for a Gainesville guitar business was shared by locals who have seen stores like<\/p>\n
Tim and Terry\u2019s Music and More close in recent memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing our best to live the dream of the community,\u201d Kish said.<\/p>\n
Funky Music came to fruition in January 2024, and the business celebrated the grand opening of its new location Feb. 13 on Northwest 10th Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bigger than its former location on 16th Avenue, Funky Music now occupies the front of the once unused section of the signage shop Signs By Tomorrow and sits aside Goodbike, Hetrick\u2019s bike sale and repair business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we always joke about is, what is more Gainesville than a bike-sign-guitar shop?\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s just eclectic. It has a soul. That’s Gainesville.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funky Music\u2019s interior certainly has soul, too. The walls are lined with skateboards, paintings and posters of music icons like Elvis Presley and Johnny Rotten. Copies of the DIY punk fanzine Razorcake are scattered across the store. Behind the front counter, Bluebell, a sleepy gray cat, lies in a chair, surrounded by an assortment of guitar necks, straps and cases and walls and bins of tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And of course, the main wall showcases an array of electric, acoustic and bass guitars, with more placed on the floor around a pile of amps. They sit atop a rug that patrons have said really ties the room together, referencing the film \u201cThe Big Lebowski.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of Funky Music\u2019s electric and eclectic collection would be possible without the community, Kish said. From the support of local bands like the Dixie Desperados to help from the crew over at The Ox, the community\u2019s assistance is instrumental to the store\u2019s success, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jimmy Millsaps, a drummer of 50 years, has been a part of the local music scene for a long time. He has seen music stores come and go and has played in various bands, including the Dixie Desperados with Jeff Sims, the former owner of the old Sims Music and Sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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As a seasoned multi-instrumentalist, Millsaps recognizes the importance of brick-and-mortar music stores like Funky Music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShops have died in this area because of the internet \u2026 and we buy from them, we do, but having a local store is really such an advantage,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can put your hands on things, and you can get things immediately without having to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
A guitarist for around 16 years, Kyle Flinchum often gets his hands on a particular Fender Telecaster he\u2019s been eyeing at Funky Music. He stops in to buy strings for his Ibanez Steve Vai Signature, hang up flyers for his bands\u2019 upcoming shows or simply hang out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flinchum, the 25-year-old guitarist of bands Cathluina and Vzulize, prefers to support local shops over large corporations, as businesses like Funky Music show up for and give back to their communities, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFunky Music is going to be a big supporter of the local music scene, and they have been already, whereas a place like Guitar Center is really not present in those communities,\u201d Flinchum said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aside from being a bandmate, Flinchum has been teaching guitar for five years. He hopes to become an instructor at Funky Music, as the store plans to utilize a vacant room in its new space for lessons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Decades after Kish himself took guitar lessons, paid for by his work at a local music store, he manages his own shop, one dedicated to allowing music making to be as easy and fun as it gets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contact Isabel Kraby at ikraby@alligator.org. Follow her on X @isabelgkraby. <\/i><\/p>\n \n The Independent Florida Alligator has been independent of the university since 1971, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Isabel is the The Alligator’s Spring 2026 music reporter. She is a junior studying journalism at UF and is from Ormond Beach, FL. In her spare time, she loves going to concerts, crafting and practicing guitar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.alligator.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mike Kish has been passionate about electric guitars since his sister handed her 1981 Hamer Sunburst down to him as a kid.\u00a0 Kish, the 42-year-old manager and guitar repairer at Funky Music, has always dreamed of working at a mom-and-pop music store, much like the one where he worked to raise money for guitar lessons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2283659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2283658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Gainesvilles-\u2018little-rock-and-roll-guitar-shop-has-a-new.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283660,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283658\/revisions\/2283660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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