The Barometer Online

Issue date: 2/4/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Jeff Wick Top: Kent Buys, owner of Troubadour Music Center, shows off the shop's Babylonian tar. The instrument continues a 8,000-year-old design: the infinity symbol created by the front and the back of the tar represent fertility. Bottom: Kent Buys works on a guitar in the shop. Repairing instruments is a major part of the Troubadour's business.

For some, music is the sound that comes from the speakers of a stereo, but for Kent Buys, owner of Troubadour Music Center in downtown Corvallis, music is more than just chords and notes.

"Culture is transmitted through music and artifacts," Buys said.

Within a vast world of music, Buys' small restoration and repair shop was established in 1970.

"Little stores like this are rare," said Darrel Jones, a frequent customer and a local music teacher.

Buys first started in the music industry in Claremont, Calif. in 1967. As the apprentice of Charles Chase at the Folk Music Center, he learned management and instrument restoration.

"He changed my life," Buys said of Chase.

Chase, the owner of the Folk Music Center, is also the grandfather of Grammy-winning singer and guitarist, Ben Harper.

Violins, guitars and more exotic or antique artifacts such as sitars, flutinas, mandolins, banjos, dulcimer, cellos and other instruments cover the store, resting on the floor and hanging from the ceiling and walls.

"We specialize in anything with strings," Buys said.

Troubadour is a full trade-back shop, meaning that anything that is bought in the shop can be brought back and traded at any time.

Buys' ninth apprentice, Aaron Wootton, also works in the shop full time, along with Buys' son Ryan.

Wootton, who plays bass in two local bands, has been Buys' apprentice for over a year.

"I will be doing bass lessons soon," Wootton said.

It is clear that the only requirement for this store is an interest in and love for music.

Continued...

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