Netflix: Norman’s Rare Guitars

[jisham]

Just watched the Netflix documentary on Norm’s Guitars and enjoyed it big time. He clearly changed the used guitar market (you can debate if it’s for the better or worse), but the doc also covers his recent illnesses and what they may mean for his shop. I found the whole thing fascinating and quite enjoyable. 

Edited January 12 by jisham

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                      I watched it also and thought it was well done. Norm and a few other early dealers really started the whole "VINTAGE" guitar market. Back when he was buying and selling, they were just used guitars. He had the foresight to realize that they were more than that and went on to be.....................well............. NORM.

[cmatthes]

I caught it around New Years - I really enjoyed it.

Norm, Paul & Jol, George Gruhn, Stan Jay, Jimmy Wallace...those guys were definitely pioneers.

[Disturber]

2 hours ago, cmatthes said:

I caught it around New Years - I really enjoyed it.

Norm, Paul & Jol, George Gruhn, Stan Jay, Jimmy Wallace...those guys were definitely pioneers.

Duh, it's not on Netflix here in Scandinavia/Europe. That sucks. Anywhere else I can watch it??

[The Shark]

8 hours ago, cmatthes said:

I caught it around New Years - I really enjoyed it.

Norm, Paul & Jol, George Gruhn, Stan Jay, Jimmy Wallace...those guys were definitely pioneers.

Gil, Buck Sulcer, Eugene Robertson, Bart Wittrock, Tom Wittrock, Jimmy Wallace and Mr. Briggs were my mentors.  I burned out.  I chose not to fade away.  

I met Norm at the 1990 Dallas show.  I had a killer Mini-Moog.  He had to have it.  A Theremin too.  I've not watched the documentary yet.  Did Norm mention he was a keyboard player?  He hung around Criteria in Miami.  

[RobB]

BITD, the Guitar Ghetto on Sunset was the place to go. GC, Freedom, Mesa Boogie, Carvin, Voltage, Sam Ash, Betnuns…they’re all gone now except for GC  

Norm’s was the place with the GOOD stuff, and the prices reflected it. The first time I played a real ‘burst was at Norm’s. 

Edited January 14 by RobB

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                              I read and liked his book as well.

[cmatthes]

On 1/12/2025 at 10:38 PM, RobB said:

BITD, the Guitar Ghetto on Sunset was the place to go. GC, Freedom, Mesa Boogie, Carvin, Voltage, Betnuns… 

Norm’s was the place with the GOOD stuff, and the prices reflected it. The first time I played a real ‘burst was at Norm’s. 

Serial and I trekked out there in the '80s just to experience it.  I thought he was going to buy a Grafitti Yellow Strat Plus that was just killer, but he didn't.  I bought a RAT and t-shirts from every shop.

[RobB]

6 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

Serial and I trekked out there in the '80s just to experience it.  I thought he was going to buy a Grafitti Yellow Strat Plus that was just killer, but he didn't.  I bought a RAT and t-shirts from every shop.

Sounds about right. The guys at Norm’s must’ve thought it was cute for a BAMF (me) to be demoing a (then) $20k ‘burst. Vintage dealers can smell poverty on customers. It’s their superpower. 

Edited January 14 by RobB

[tommy p]

I watched it a couple of weeks ago.  The part with the kid who was a big Richie Sambora fan was heartbreaking.

[Pieman]

Is the shop anywhere near the fires?

And the warehouse?

sure hope not

any update on his health?

 

[velorush]

8 minutes ago, Pieman said:

Is the shop anywhere near the fires?

And the warehouse?

sure hope not

any update on his health?

 

I was curious, too, as I know nothing of the geography. I used Google Maps to come up with this:

That seems way too close for my comfort, but I just looked up YouTube and they posted a "Guitar of the Day" video just yesterday.  Michael does mention them working with the community in the first bit:

 

[kizanski]

Five minutes in and I've already seen Collin Hey and Machine Gun Kelly.  

This had better get really good really fast.  

[RobB]

Watched it today. It was well done. It didn’t gloss over Norman’s neglect of his family or how his kids have ZERO interest in carrying on the family business. 

The real jaw dropper was the footage of his storage warehouse! Just unbelievable. 

[kizanski]

4 hours ago, RobB said:

Watched it today. It was well done. It didn’t gloss over Norman’s neglect of his family or how his kids have ZERO interest in carrying on the family business. 

The real jaw dropper was the footage of his storage warehouse! Just unbelievable. 

Yeah, the combination of the family not sharing the passion for the business coupled with the warehouse/inventory brag looked to me like a pitch for a buyer.   

The doc could have been about 30 minutes shorter.  Certainly if they cut out all of the superfluous Tom Petty content, they would have been half way there.  

[Saul Goodman]

On 1/12/2025 at 3:02 PM, Disturber said:

Duh, it's not on Netflix here in Scandinavia/Europe. That sucks. Anywhere else I can watch it??

Pirate Bay

[kizanski]

On 1/12/2025 at 3:02 PM, Disturber said:

Duh, it's not on Netflix here in Scandinavia/Europe. That sucks. Anywhere else I can watch it??

You’re not missing much.  

[velorush]

Got about 2/3 through last night and enjoyed it very much - if nothing else, just gawking over all the guitars. Amazing, also, how many photos and videos of the early days were available. As I've explained to the kids, we didn't have a camera in our hands every minute of every day. 

Edited January 22 by velorush

[kizanski]

I liked the part where they mentioned that Norman was hired for several movies as a Technical Expert.
Among others they cited Back To The Future, where Marty McFly plays a 1958 ES-345 in 1955 and The Buddy Holly Story, where Buddy Holly plays a 1976 big headstock Stratocaster in 1958.

Did he just show up, take his paycheck and then skip all the way back home?
Any half-assed guitar fan can spot these inaccuracies in a second. Even at 12 years old I saw the Strat Gary Busey was using and said, "Isn't that a new Strat??"

[cmatthes]

9 minutes ago, kizanski said:

I liked the part where they mentioned that Norman was hired for several movies as a Technical Expert.
Among others they cited Back To The Future, where Marty McFly plays a 1958 ES-345 in 1955 and The Buddy Holly Story, where Buddy Holly plays a 1976 big headstock Stratocaster in 1958.

Did he just show up, take his paycheck and then skip all the way back home?
Any half-assed guitar fan can spot these inaccuracies in a second. Even at 12 years old I saw the Strat Gary Busey was using and said, "Isn't that a new Strat??"

Busey slung a white 70s Telecaster in the movie poster/promos and also a shiny new red Mustang.  Because you know, those are the guitars one thinks about when you think "Buddy Holly".

[hamerhead]

Saw it last night and thought it was good. Other than the name of a guitar store, I really didn't know anything about Norm's. The sheer number of collectable guitars he has is staggering.  And I thought Dave's in LaCrosse had a lot! Holy crap!

Having unknowns in the store jamming was cool. The Richie Sambora with the kid story was great. Could have done with less celebrities/wannabes and more guitar players. And I thought the Bonamassa connection could be an interesting turn.

I hope he's doing OK health-wise.

[kizanski]

18 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

The sheer number of collectable guitars he has is staggering.

Could have done with less celebrities/wannabes and more guitar players.

Exactly. The warehouse full of guitars that are too collectable or in such primo condition that they can't even be displayed at the store seems greedy to me.
You create a dearth of available guitars and then capitalize on the scarcity. 
One could argue that Norm has done more to facilitate these astronomical prices than 100 or more collectors.

As you may have gathered by now, I'm not a fan of his work.

And yes, too many celebrities and too few guitar players.
Do I give a crap about Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Garland or Jeff Daniels?  I mean, yes, I really enjoy their work, but I don't care about them in this context.

 

[Biz Prof]

17 minutes ago, kizanski said:

And yes, too many celebrities and too few guitar players.
Do I give a crap about Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Garland or Jeff Daniels?  I mean, yes, I really enjoy their work, but I don't care about them in this context.

Verily, verily. We already got enough of those guys and their vintage gear interests via outlets like Guitar Aficionado.

[Biz Prof]

 

On 1/22/2025 at 10:36 AM, kizanski said:

and The Buddy Holly Story, where Buddy Holly plays a 1976 big headstock Stratocaster in 1958.

 

23 hours ago, cmatthes said:

Busey slung a white 70s Telecaster in the movie poster/promos and also a shiny new red Mustang.

At least he didn't try to play a buttered sausage. 

Edited January 23 by Biz Prof

[kizanski]

5 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

Verily, verily. We already got enough of those guys and their vintage gear interests via outlets like Guitar Aficionado.

I'm not a consumer of that periodical (or any periodical for that matter), and I would argue that there is nothing less Rock and Roll than following the word "guitar" with the word "aficionado."

But I digress...

Of all the tens of thousands of guitar players who go there just to go there and have bought countless guitars from there and blahbiddyblahblahblah, the majority of the "documentary" (I put "documentary" in quotes because the more I reflect on it, the more it looks like an investor pitch and less like a documentary), is testimonial content form actors.