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Music

We Interviewed the Founder of Tym Guitars About Mechanics, Marketing, and Multi-Tasking

"How many friends have you met in a record store or guitar shop? Without these spaces we're becoming lost as people."

All photos by Mark Tainton When you think of DIY and punk rock, you probably think of bands screening their own merch, putting on shows in basements, and packaging 7”s in hand-stamped manila envelopes. But how many of you can brag about making your own gear? That’s just part of what Tim Brennan has done with Tym Guitars. Located in the city center of Brisbane, Australia, Tym Guitars serves as the showroom for Brennan’s hobby of building pedals, amps, and cabinets. It also serves as a record store, stocking a variety of punk, psych, and metal records. Additionally, Brennan releases records from a slew of regional bands, as well as the occasional international act like Swervedriver, Earthless, and Mudhoney.

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Not impressed yet? Tym Guitars also houses rehearsal spaces, a recording studio, a repair shop, and a stage for in-stores. So next time you pat yourself on the back for screening patches for your crust band, take a gander at all the shit Brennan does on a daily basis. The man is an inspiration, so we had to know more about how the hell this guy managed to create the coolest shop on the planet.

Noisey: First off, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk about Tym Guitars. I feel guilty pulling you away from your work, but your blog makes it seem like you're interested in documenting and talking about everything that goes into the store. Is documentation a crucial part of the process of building and repairing things?
Tim Brennan: It may not be crucial in the era of social media and the web, but it’s very easy to do and I'm personally a fan of seeing how anything I'm interested in is done. As a kid, if I wanted to know how something worked, I just pulled it apart. There was no instant reference to find out how it worked. Giving other people access to what I do is important for me so they understand that everything with my name on it is made by me, by hand. I don't mass-produce anything here. Hopefully that means a better understanding between the builder and potential owner.

I know you were pretty obsessed with Mosrite guitars and The Ramones early on in life. Was this the way your fascination with building and recreating vintage gear started out? Or was there a basic interest in the mechanics of gear before there were specific tones you were looking to recreate?
Definitely a basic interest in the mechanics came first. I'm completely self-taught in everything I do. It stems from the way my brain works. I certainly have less understanding of how some things work than other people doing what I do, but I tend to rely on the aspects of what I do understand and then just experiment with it. When I started playing guitar, I bought a cheap Les Paul copy and an old solid-state amp and taught myself. As I played more, I began modifying my gear to suit what I wanted. When I discovered the Ramones, I wanted a Mosrite like Johnny, but they simply weren't available here in Australia. I ended up making one instead, which I played for ages in my band, and people would come up and ask where I got my guitar. I started making some for touring friends, which lead to people from other cities, and eventually other countries, asking for them. Early on, I bought gear that my favorite bands used. I used an MXR Distortion into a solid state amp because of Bob Mould, I wanted a Big Muff because of Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jr, As I got more into the technical side of things I actually found I liked modding and making stuff more than I liked playing it in bands.

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I have to admit that I don't even know what Tym Guitars was in the beginning. Was it just guitar repair? Some used gear?
It actually started properly when I made that first guitar, which was around 1996. At the time, I was working on guitars for friends. Once I understood what the solid body electric was, I just made that Mosrite copy instead of buying more cheap guitars to sacrifice. The actual shop didn't come along until a few years later. I was working at a big retail chain stocking shelves, gradually cutting back my hours there and working more on repairs and building stuff. Meanwhile, I was collecting anything and everything I could afford—guitars, amps, pedals, speakers, cabs, valve radio equipment. The shop started out of necessity—I ended up with hundreds of guitars, pedals and amps and my workshop was just full of stuff, so I started selling it while I was making guitars and pedals.

I love that aspect of Tym Guitars. It’s such a far cry from the cookie-cutter megastores, where you know exactly what's gonna be on the sales floor before you even walk in. It's even a bit of an anomaly for an independent guitar shop because so much of the inventory is stuff you've built, stuff you can’t find anywhere else. Have you ever considered trying to get broader distribution for your pedals and amps?
I'm not opposed to the idea; it's just impossible if I keep doing things according to my philosophy. I want to make stuff by hand and as such, I can't stock my shop, let alone have stock left to send to a distributor. The reason Johnny played a Mosrite was because it was U.S. made, cheap, and no one else was famous for using one. I kind of felt that attraction to black sheep gear because it was weird, cool and usually cheap. I'm not trying to supply everybody in the world with my stuff. I just want to make quality gear and have people appreciate it. About half of my pedals sell overseas, so they are attainable within the restrictions I have placed on my methods.

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I appreciate your philosophy that building things by hand and maintaining quality standards takes precedence over making money and becoming a big business. Even though I see this as a more idealistic approach to running a business, I also wonder if it ultimately winds up benefiting the Brisbane scene at large by fostering a new generation of musicians, and, by extension, if it winds up fostering a stronger customer base. Are you really the most altruistic craftsman of our generation, or are you just the savviest?
Haha, I've been called a "marketing genius" as an insult by people who think I do this as a clever business plan. Nothing could be further from the truth. For me, the way endorsements work in the music industry makes no sense. People who can afford quality gear get it given to them. This means that the kid starting out in a band, who wants to use that piece of gear because his hero is using it, actually pays for the product. The manufacturer isn't taking a loss on that item; they're charging the kid to cover the cost of the endorsement. For me, I'd rather give the poor kid the item and charge the band that can afford it. Ultimately we will have better music and a stronger scene because small bands will flourish into better and bigger bands that will in turn be able to afford quality gear. I've had some pretty big bands get upset about this model, but if they still don't get what I'm trying to do after I've explained it, I don't want them using my gear anyway. I come from a punk/DIY grounding and never understood or admired the business side of music. For me, music is essential to humans and I prefer to work with people who understand that and have a mutual respect for what I do. When bands use my gear to make great music, that's worth more than any dollar amount I can put on a product. Some of my all time favorite albums have been recorded with stuff I made—I've been paid.

And now you also run a small record label. Operating a guitar shop in the age of big-box guitar stores and the internet is tricky enough, but operating a small record label is an especially tricky business. Was this something you initiated out of passion for vinyl, or did you see yourself filling some sort of void within the Brisbane scene?
Operating any independent retail shop is tricky now. Online auctions and big chain shops killed the new and second hand markets. I believe we need these independent spaces to interact with like-minded people. How many friends have you met in a record shop, or guitar shop, or at an in-store? Without these spaces we're becoming lost as people. Sure, you can buy records online, but it's not as fun or interesting as standing next to someone at the racks who says, "That album is awesome" as you flip through records.

The record label started due to my inability to sit still and be satisfied. There were two Australian bands I loved who hadn't done anything for quite a while. I told myself that if I could get The Nation Blue and Turnpike to record a song for me, I'd start a label and release it. To my surprise, they both said yes. At the time, I wanted vinyl simply because it's better. It's tangible. It has substance. It feels good and most importantly, it sounds good. I was sick of everyone experiencing everything online. I remembered the Sub Pop record club singles and how exciting it was when they turned up. I remembered catching the bus to town and having to choose one LP from the record shop because you couldn't afford two. I remembered reading about this ‘great new band’ in the NME or MRR and ordering the record without hearing it, and waiting six weeks for it to get here. Vinyl was, and is, special. The label started as a distraction and has turned into something completely unexpected, with 32 releases in 2 1/2 years and about 8 to 10 scheduled for the rest of this year. The bands I've got to work with are mind-blowing for me, just like the people I work with doing pedals.

So you put out records. You own a record store that also doubles as a guitar shop. You host shows. You fix gear. You build pedals and amplifiers. Oh, and you make skate decks too. Are there any other hobbies you have that are going to be absorbed into Tym Guitars?
These are all things I love and am passionate about. I don't believe in the whole "growth is good" thing when it comes to business. Why do you need to be bigger than you were last year? I never meant to have this huge shop in the inner city. It just happened this way over the last 18 years. I've never pushed it or tried to do something that didn't feel natural. I've never started anything new with profit entering the equation. I’d like to get the studio working more and be able to afford to let young bands demo there for free. I'd like to get more kids into in-stores to appreciate and engage with the scene. I'd like to keep making new pedals that help people make great music. I'd like the label to keep releasing interesting new music. I'd like to keep covering the rent so we can keep this space. Tomorrow I might meet someone who inspires me to take Tym Guitars somewhere I hadn't expected. Twenty years ago if you said I would be here I would have said you were crazy. I would have even told you that a week ago.