New Music Store Hopes To Strike A Chord

Pat Flaherty stands inside his new music store ‘G-strings – Guitars & More’ located on A Ave West in the former Adams Camera House location.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – He has been helping area country music lovers keep the tunes streaming out of their car radio speakers for decades. Pat Flaherty has been selling radio advertising and is a very familiar face to many in the area.

Flaherty, who is 81 sees the opening of his music store, ‘G-Strings – Guitars & More’, as a way of giving back to the community that has supported him during his career. Flaherty hopes that the store will fill a need, he has observed, of no music store in the area. A place where the guitarist, drummer, clarinetist or other player can come and get their needed supplies, such as strings, reeds, drum sticks or even valve oil. “Kids in school might need a mouth piece or reed,” says Flaherty.

“You don’t have to go to Des Moines to get strings, picks, your musical accessories,” said Flaherty.

The name of Flaherty’s store instantly gets your attention. He said that when he choose a name, he wanted something clever and his son in Kansas City came up with the name. The double connotation of g-string plays into the memorable name. “I personally have probably talked to 100 people. I’ve had 1 negative response, the rest have said, ‘what a name'” said Flaherty. “Guitars all have a G string. That’s what we wanted to get across. G strings, guitars and more. And the more, of course, is everything else we sell.”

Flaherty also said that they will be buying and selling used instruments.

Flaherty said that his inventory will continue to grow, as three more shipments of inventory are set to arrive in the coming days.

The new store, located at 209 A. Ave West in Oskaloosa, occupies the same location that Adams Camera House once used; across the road from the former Hardees location.

Store hours are 3pm to 6pm Monday through Friday and open all day Saturday.

Flaherty plans a grand opening in the near future.