The new location at 227 Courtyard Drive in New Braunfels expands not only its retail space. RCS Guitars and Gear will open more practice space, stage, and audio and video production capabilities in the near future, said Kyle Reed, general manager for RCS Guitars and Gear.
“The goal here also is to have, you know, cameras mounted and set up to be able to do audio, video and light in here,” Reed said. “It could be a soundstage. People could use it for different things. One step at a time; I’m just waiting for the go-ahead.”
RCS’ owner—Robert Carl Steves—lives in Spring, but also spends a significant amount of time in New Braunfels, Reed said. The idea for the shop was born out of his hobby of building custom guitars and making repairs. An abundance of guitars, basses, amps and other gear he and Reed accumulated over the years were sitting in storage, and eventually the idea to sell some of it and offer repairs prompted the idea of opening the shop.
The new space provides separate rooms for gear such as replacement strings and pedals as well as an acoustic room and a main room filled primarily with electric guitars, basses and amplifiers.
“We do [sell] some new stuff but a lot of used gear ... a lot of what we have [is] a lot of cool vintage stuff. We can do repairs—everything in-house,” Reed said.
He added that the shop was also founded on a need to offer more repairs and vintage gear in New Braunfels rather than have the area’s growing number of professional and amateur musicians travel to Austin or San Antonio for the same service. Reed and the store’s other two employees—Jordan Peña and True Labowski—work both the retail side of the store and on instrument repair.
“New Braunfels is just a really cool hot spot right now. For me, it has been for a long time for music; you know, there’s tons of great musicians here,” Reed said.
“New Braunfels is just a mecca, you know? There’s so many musicians here.”
BRANDS AVAILABLE: Danelectro, Fender, G&L, Gibson, Guild, Hofner, Ibanez, Jackson, Supro, Taylor
PRICING: Because the condition, value and rarity of each instrument can vary greatly, prices run anywhere from $200-$4,000.
RCS Guitars and Gear
227 Courtyard Drive, New Braunfels 830-837-5553. www.rcsguitarsandgear.com
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Sun.
