Southport Magazine

Strumming up lots of biz and buzz!
Story & Photos by Kris Beasley
Guitar anyone? Have you ever thought about taking up a musical instrument? Well Strings and Beyond have you covered if you ever do! Located in Southport, this thriving supplier will make your heart sing, and your guitars hum.

1 – You are located in Southport, but are most of your customers local?
Our business is mostly eCommerce so we ship all over the US, but we do have a great local following. Having such a big online presence allows us to have a huge selection of products that are available to all of our walk-in customers, so it’s great to be able to provide our local musicians what they need in a convenient location.
2 – What kind of musical background do you have? Do you play the guitar?
That’s always a funny question to answer because the answer is pretty much no. I have a guitar and I know how to string it and strum it, but I leave it up to the real musicians to play music that you’ll actually enjoy listening to.
3 – Are you from this area? if not… where?
I’m originally from Charlotte and graduated from Virginia Tech, but my family always came here to vacation growing up, so this was a second home until I was fortunate enough to make it a permanent home.
4 – What is your number one selling item?
For Acoustic guitar it’s definitely the Elixir Phosphor Bronze Light Gauge Strings and for Electric Guitar it’s the Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Strings.
5 – What makes Strings and Beyond stand out from the crowd?
We always say that we’re a mom and pop shop on the internet. We are a small, family-run company that treats our customers how we would like to be treated even though we’re shipping tons of orders a month. We hand write a personal message on every invoice and we always include a fun freebie in every order, whether that be a cool sticker or some free picks. And, we provide exceptional customer service. We have a great group of people who work really hard to ensure that customers are happy and keep coming back.
6 – Do you have any NEW products or Specials you’d like to tell us about?
We have some awesome new coated Electric Strings from Elixir that last longer and are great for playing in humid environments like coastal areas. They’re called Optiweb strings so they feel cleaner, like an uncoated string, but you get the benefits of the coating so the crisp, natural tone lasts longer.
7 – What’s one myth about playing the guitar?
That strings don’t need to be changed often. Of course it depends on how much you are playing and where you store your instrument, but fresh strings = fresh tone. And, new strings really make a difference in your sound quality. We recommend changing strings every couple of months, unless you’re playing a lot of gigs and they should be changed every week.
8 – You carry a lot of brands of strings – what is the difference?
The Holy Grail for every guitarist is finding the right string for their instrument and their playing style, and the right pick if they use one. The metal composition of the strings determines the tone, so strings can sound really mellow, or super bright, and they all come in different gauges just like shoe sizes. What’s great about a lot of our string manufacturers is that they’re here in the USA so they’re top quality, and some of them still use the same winding machines from generations before. Since there are hundreds of types of stringed instruments, we do our best to carry them all – from classical to bass, and sitar to ukulele, if you need strings on it then we probably stock them. And, all of the accessory items too like tuners, picks, straps and pickups. That’s the beyond part.
9 – Tell us a little about the history of Strings & Beyond.
We started in Charlotte, in the upstairs of my parent’s house. It was mainly just a hobby, and we grew organically over time. We created the website in 2002 with just a couple of brands, right around the time that people were gaining trust in shopping online, and we found that guitarists are a quirky bunch that are pretty particular about what they need. So we slowly kept adding more products to our selection so that we could be more of a one-stop shop. Our goal was to provide musicians with a great selection of top quality products at affordable prices that can be delivered right to their doorstep, all while making it a fun and enjoyable shopping experience so that they’ll keep coming back and tell all of their friends about us. And word of mouth has been the best advertising for us since day one. In 2010, we were too big for the house so we moved to Southport because we love this area and we also wanted to make Strings and Beyond a great place to work. All we needed was a post office so the pretty seaside town was just a bonus.

FUN Questions:
Who is your favorite musician? (and why)
Can I be cheesy and say the guy with the guitar at the local bar? They’re out there doing what they love so that it can be enjoyable for us to relax and have a good time. I’ll drink to that!
Who is the best guitar player of all time?
Such a hard question. There are so many, but I got to see Joe Bonamassa perform live and I was blown away.
Do you have a favorite local band?
Sgt Rock!
What’s number one on your bucket list?
To keep my wife happy!
Strings & Beyond
877-830-0722
Store Hours: M-F 9-5
Website: 24/7
www.stringsandbeyond.com
help@stringsandbeyond.com

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