Confessions of a Vintage Guitar Dealer

The Memoirs of Norman Harris

By: Norman Harris, David Yorkin - contributor, Richard Sambora - foreword, Joe Bonamassa - preface

Narrated by: L.J. Ganser

In Confessions of a Vintage Guitar Dealer, Norman Harris tells how he became the world's leading seller of vintage guitars. As founder and owner of the legendary store Norman's Rare Guitars, he has sold some of the finest fretted string instruments to the biggest stars in the world, including George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and many others.

In 1970, Harris moved to Los Angeles in hopes of hitting the big time in music. His first plan was performing, but plan B was buying and selling guitars, and he had no idea how much opportunity for this there would be. Many groups came to LA also hoping to hit it big, but those who didn't might have to sell their instruments. This helped make early 1970s Los Angeles a haven for beautiful vintage guitars. At the same time, Hollywood was beginning to realize the value of time-correct instruments in film, and the recording industry recognized the high-quality sound vintage instruments produced. The value of these instruments has grown dramatically since the '70s, and the vintage guitar market has become an international phenomenon - with Norman Harris at the center of it all.

©2016 Norman W. Harris (P)2020 Tantor

Really great.

If you love guitars, you’ll love this audio book. Can’t wait to visit Norm the next time I’m in LA.

Overall a pleasant journey

Knowing that Norm is a really decent, simple guy, my expectations were set appropriately. I enjoyed the stories of his hunts for great vintage gear, and the characters he met in that quest. The only minor complaint was this. The narrator did not seem to know the difference between the word "provenance" and "providence", and he displayed this about 5-6 times in the book. I expected that it would have been caught by the editors before it was made available to the public. No big deal though.

Heaven for Vintage Guitar Fans

Norm’s story is manna from heaven for any fan of vintage guitars. A great read and lots of insightful stories.

Loved, loved, loved this book!

Everything about this book was phenomenal. Of course the content was perfect - Norm is such a fantastic person. The first hand stories are just amazing. The narrator was perfect and did such a phenomenal job.

If you love guitars, just buy this book

I'll keep it simple. This book is informative and funny, and for any true musician it's a wealth of guitar knowledge.

Now I'm going to Tarzana

What a great history of California music from a very different point of view. Encounters with guitar owners who shared their history of music with Norm as they talked guitars. It's a long way from home but now I'm going to Tarzana to drop in on Norm. Besides, I do want a cool 12 string.

Enthusiasm

If you love music, and you love, guitar and instruments, and you just love being in love with something new and learning this is the book for you. Great stories about people you’ve heard of people you haven’t heard of. great to hear from somebody who is just so in love with something that they’ve made it their life and they’re sharing it with us.

Great!

I’m Bree eating listen if you love guitars and/or are familiar with Norm.
A kind man and shrewd business owner.

Guitar OCB

Absolutely loved it. I’ve been a guitar collector for many years, and this was a treasure trove of stories.

If you play-just get it!

Great collection of great stories-it’s too bad that the days of finding a diamond in the rough are mostly gone-now you have to be on guard buying from “reputable” (Ha!) dealers that are known to dissect expensive guitars, then build fakes using the butchered components-very careful to keep components with traceable nomenclature spread out on the fakes enough to deceive all but the most serious buyer/collector. Such is life tho!