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Published on Mar-12-2018 9:00am
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In 1969, Queens native Stan Werbin blew into Ann Arbor, Michigan with just one thing on his mind — biochemistry. Werbin was enrolled as a graduate student at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and while the degree materialized, it never got used. Instead, folk music called his name, even harder than when he bought his first Guild F-20 from Sam Ash on New York's famed 48th Street.
While knocking out the occasional open mike tune ("we called them hootenannies") at the city's canonical coffeehouse The Ark, Werbin, along with his then partner Sharon McInturff, started haunting flea markets and ringing numbers in penny-savers. They were on the hunt for old guitars.
Ann Arbor, already ripe with music stores, seemed stifling. The collection grew, and soon enough, the duo landed in East Lansing, where on July 5, 1972, Werbin hung a shingle outside a basement door with a new, telling name — Elderly Instruments.
Now,
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