Dear Friends:

It is with a very heavy heart that I must inform you that Sarasota Guitar Company has closed its doors for good.

It’s been a wonderful run and we sincerely thank you all for your friendship and support. We live in a remarkable community and it has been SGC’s pleasure to support live original music through three years of Noise Ordinance sponsorship, by helping establish the greatest little open mic in the region at the Starkeeper Café, and sponsoring programs and events at WSLR radio. Thank you Eddie Midler, Claire Franklin, Kat Derr, Dean Johanesen, Rick Quimby, John and Cindy Snyder, and Rich LaPenna. Keep up the great work keeping local original music alive in the 941.

We are blessed to have been able to devote time and energy to causes near and dear to our hearts. Thank you George Generoso and Caroline Sansone of the Five O’Clock Club for inviting us to be presenting sponsors of Giving Hunger the Blues two years in a row. We are proud to have played a part in helping to raise close to $200,000 for the All Faiths Food Bank. We ask the community to continue to support the food bank as well as the other organizations we’ve sponsored and held fundraisers for over the past few years, including Mote Marine Laboratory, Goodwill Manasota, Harvey Milk Festival, Racing Dog Rescue, Pine View School’s Pinestock, Save the Gulf, Sun King Music Festival for Dan Toler, and Rock Out For a Cause.

We are excited about the future of music in southwest Florida. Kudos to Johnette Isham and the crew at Realize Bradenton for their success with the spectacular inaugural Bradenton Blues Festival. We are proud to have been the very first company to commit to a corporate sponsorship of the event and to have stuck to our commitment during a very difficult year.

We made a conscious decision to take the road less traveled. And there is not a thing about the way we treated our customers, the community events we sponsored, the friendships we established or the crew we worked with that we’d change. Justin, Al, Kat, Bryan, Doug, Tim, Sean, Cody, Tucker, Jeffrey and Ian – you guys are the best. Thanks for being a part of the SGC family.

One last thing. Please support locally owned and operated music stores, especially Fogt’s Music on S. Tamiami Trail . Don’t let the chain stores take over the world. Too much is at stake. Community is at stake.

With gratitude,
and wishing you a safe and prosperous new year,

Scott