About Backstage Music

On May 3 of 1978, two bass players had just wrapped up their college careers, and having worked part-time at the local music store (now closed), they thought "Hey! Instead of getting a real job, let's open a guitar store!".  

That turned out to be a pretty good idea. 

Over the nearly 40 years since, "selling guitars" has morphed into a booming audio/video design and installation business, expert guitar and tube amp repairs, band instrument rentals, PA rentals, music lessons, and, yes, we still sell guitars. Lots of guitars, basses, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, violins, keyboards, drum kits, strings, djembes, cajons, slides, and well, you get the picture.  

We still sell a lot of the lines we started with, like Takamine and Pearl.

These days, there are three owners, and Allen is the guy responsible for the retail operations.  Don, Matt, and David help make sure Allen gets it right, Tony handles the repair division, and Jim handles the A/V contracting business. But, we're all qualified to answer the phone and treat you like family. You can read that as "treat you like the family that we like", if that makes more sense. 

We are a real brick and mortar store, and our guys can help you with just a call or an email. We have a small, dedicated staff, and we answer the phones during business hours.  If we're here outside business hours, we'll answer then, too.

We really, really don't like stinky, half-effort customer service, and we figure you don't either. We'll do our best to live up to not just your expectations, but also to our own. We'll treat you the way we want to be treated.  If you're in our store, we'll probably offer you a cup of coffee. On the phone, don't be surprised if we get off-topic and ask where you're from, how the weather is there, and if you like fried catfish. (We love good, fried catfish. And BBQ.  And tacos.)

We don't have an electronic answering machine.  We won't ask you to listen to the menu or press "1" for English.

We belong to the Greater Starkville Development Partnership (that's an overly-big name for our local chamber of commerce), NAMM (the National Association of Music Merchants), and the IMSO (Independent Music Store Owners Group). 

We are in North Mississippi, at 115 Highway 12 West, Starkville, MS  39759.

Hours are 10-6 every day but Sunday and major holidays (i.e., Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and July 4th).

Give us a call at 662-323-3824, and we'll be glad to help you. Or, you can come by, and we'll get you a cup of coffee.