I had a very pleasant, late afternoon visit with Kevin McElroy at Frost Gully Violin in Freeport. There was a nice piece of Irish or Celtic recorded music playing in the background. Kevin is a New Englander with family ties to Downeast Maine and to the north shore of Boston. He has been fixing instruments all his life. He studied music instrument restoration at UNH in Durham under the famed Hans Nebel. Nebel is from Bavaria and was fortuneate enough to escape Nazi Germany in 1944. Kevin founded the business here in Freeport 12 or 13 years ago. A unique, full service store, Frost Gully provides the opportunity to buy a violin, a cello, a viola, a mandolin, or simply to buy bows. No worries if you can't buy an instrument, Frost Gully has music instrument rentals. Right now Kevin has 300 rental instrument contracts which he is particularly proud of. I shouldn't neglect to point out that you can also sign a contract where you can rent-to-own an instrument. As long as a school has a music program, Frost Gulley provides rental instruments to grade schools all the way through to colleges. He supports musicians at the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Bangor Symphony as well as the Mid-Coast Symphony. This store is so unique that you won't find another like it between Freeport and Boston. Kevin likes the variety of interesting and diverse people in the Freeport community. Kevin has clients who come as far away as Winnepesaukee, NH. He says that people always have a reason to come to Freeport. Kevin appreciates Freeport's busienss-friendly environment. For more information, drop in the store located next to Royal River or go online at www.frostgullyviolins.com
2 comments:
Kevin sounds like a good guy from your review. I do have some negative feedback should you encounter his partner, Justin. I took our family heirloom to have him take a look at it as it will need some work. After inspecting the instrument for about 5 minutes and charging me $45 he informed me that given the value of the instrument and the cost to repair it was not feasible. The news was not too much of a surprise. What did surprise me was his complete insensitivity to the fact that this instrument has sentimental value to me even though it had no value to him. This is the worst of the pompous, arrogant attitude that unfortunately can be stereotypical of musicians. This shop may be great if you have a lot to spend or are already an established professional musician.... If you are anything less than this, you may want to find another place to do business.
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