Melbourne Guitar Gallery

Melbourne Guitar Gallery is a store staffed and run by music professionals and enthusiasts. You can find us at 30 Johnston Street in Fitzroy.
The shop is owned by Gerry Hale, a multi-instrumentalist who has played with Paul Kelly, Uncle Bill, Colin Hay and Bill Monroe to name but a few. Though officially a guitar shop, a wide range of acoustic instruments such as mandolins, banjos, dobros, pedal steels, fiddles, ukuleles, concertinas, dulcimers, autoharps, harmonicas and even nose flutes are stocked. We also have possibly the widest selection of strings in town, accessories such as pickups, bridges, tuning heads, tuners, amps, effects pedals etc. Simple repairs, fitting of pickups, guitar setup etc can be done in the store while major repairs are handled by our luthier and instrument technician.

Lessons and workshops are a large part of our focus and cover just about all the instruments in the store. While one on one lessons are always in demand, our Wednesday evening workshops are also proving to be very popular, for beginners in particular. We can assure customers who buy an instrument from us that we'll be of every assistance possible after you walk out of the shop. Whether you need your instrument setup, some new strings or lessons, don't hesitate to give us a call or drop in to see us in person.

Repairs

If you're having a problem with your guitar or any other instrument, we can help. Set-ups, fitting of pickups, fixing annoying rattles and squeaks, etc. are usually done in our small shop repair centre, while any major structural repairs are done offsite by our luthier.

We also have a banjo & mandolin specialist onsite.

Guitar Gallery Staff

The staff at Melbourne Guitar Gallery are working musicians, stringed instrument players in particular, who know the store's carefully chosen stock well, from beginner's guitars to top-end F5 mandolins. Most are available for lessons at the shop, and all are welcoming and generous with whatever specialist knowledge they have. They love being around such an enticing array of instruments and they're sad to see some of them leave the shop; but they try to arrange a happy home for each and every one.

Gerry Hale

Gerry decided at an early age that the musicians life was for him. While he was still at high school he was earning as much as his teachers playing gigs on the weekend. Starting on guitar, fiddle and mandolin at the same time he quickly got a solid grounding in all three and, at the age of 17, found himself onstage with Kenny Baker and Bill Monroe...but that's another story. Gerry has performed with Paul Kelly, Colin Hay, Deborah Conway, and Renee Geyer among others and has always maintained a band of his own from the bluegrass of Uncle Bill to the Dan Hicks repertoire of The Innocent Bystanders. He plays banjo, lap steel, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, dobro and a smattering of pedal steel and various South American instruments. Other loves include wine, cheese and Czech beer.

Kim Wheeler

Our resident left handed, double bass playing, all singing nerd gone right. Kim looks after our computers, makes sure the office can communicate with the sales counter and is often found behind the counter especially if someone is after buying a double bass. Kim started out heavy and electric in a band called Boxmonster and she now plays double bass with Gerry in The Innocent Bystanders. She's still heavy and electric somewhere deep inside though.