THE T-SHIRT CLUB
FOR GUITARISTS
FEATURED SHOP OF THE MONTH
APRIL 2024
GUITAR PICKERS
Jason Ward has wanted to open his own guitar shop for as long as he can remember, and in July 2020, his dream came true when he and his wife Rita Ward became owners of Guitar Pickers in Wilmington, NC.
When Jason was eight years old, his dad (Allen Ward, who worked at Finkelstein’s Music, Wilmington’s oldest guitar shop) started teaching him how to play guitar on a 90’s Mexican Fender Stratocaster.
After studying small business, receiving a degree, and working in a welding factory, Jason received the call of a lifetime: His friend Eddie Benton, who originally opened Guitar Pickers in 2013, was ready to retire in 2020. Jason refused to let the shop close, and within four weeks, took over the business. Three and a half years later, after remodeling the space, bringing other brands into the shop, and partnering with Adam Carswell, Guitar Pickers’ manager in charge of the shop’s day-to-day operations, they are now the go-to shop in town!
Guitar Pickers is mostly a used and vintage shop, but they carry newer brands, including Blueridge, Oscar Schmidt, and Mojotone. And rather than lock up high-end guitars in glass cases, they are more than happy to let people who have never held a Gibson or Martin do so.
FUN FACT: Jason and his brother Jon are in two-piece surf punk band called Photoclub -- Jason plays guitar (Gibson Les Paul’s, Ibanez Destroyers, Fender Telecasters, and his acoustic is a Gibson Hummingbird) and Jon plays drums.
