Professional musician Dennis Massengale discovered in 2009 that his skills on the stage could have a business application. Now he wants to take it to the next level, having built a fully-functioning recording studio inside his new music supply store.
Mr. Massengale, singer for Chattanooga band No Big Deal, acquired Joe Chambers Music World on Ringgold Road in July 2009 and renamed it ChattaMusic, with the goal of building an outlet "for musicians by musicians."
"I actually had gone in to buy some strings from Joe and he said, 'Dennis, why don't you buy the store from me,'" Mr. Massengale said.
Thus propositioned, he told his wife, Karen, about the opportunity.
"She said, 'Why wouldn't you own a music store?'" he said.
Eight months later, they opened the doors of their new store.
With the recent addition of the recording studio for local musicians and aspiring performers, Mr. Massengale hopes to bring his experience behind the microphone to the masses, for whom studio time has been prohibitively expensive in the past.
"Everybody needs a good demo," he said. "We'll let people record as many songs as they want in an hour for $150, that's ridiculously competitive."
But a bigger reason for the addition is to further the store's reputation as a one-stop shop for fast-fingered dreamers.
Wesley Crider, a Chet Atkins-style chicken picker, offers guitar and banjo lessons, and often hangs out in the store's "man cave" with Mr. Massengale. Other instructors teach mandolin, violin, bass, piano and voice.
Mr. Crider, who won the 2004 International Thumb Picking Championship in Nashville, stumbled into his job after he became friends with Mr. Massengale, an oft-repeated refrain from most of the store's employees.
"Me and my brother thought we were checking out Joe Chambers on a rainy day, and we ran into Dennis and we've been friends ever since," Mr. Crider said.
Mr. Crider and Mr. Massengale's No Big Deal bandmates often break out into impromptu jam sessions to try out new instruments or just to pass the time, Mr. Massengale said, sometimes using the store's elevated center stage which was installed for that purpose.
"It's not unusual to come in at 4:30 in the afternoon and have a bunch of guys sitting around telling lies," he said. "People come in here and drink coffee and it feels like home - that's what I want."
In addition to a wide array of guitars, amplifiers and miscellaneous supplies, ChattaMusic also offers guitar repair courtesy of "MacGyver," as David Dawson is called by associates.
According to a joke, Mr. Dawson can repair any instrument with nothing but an avocado and a toothpick.
"I love music and I love instruments, and I love working with wood," Mr. Dawson said. "Some of this stuff I'm working on are just guitars Dennis threw away, that were just in pieces."
As Mr. Dawson worked on a broken guitar one day at the store, Monte Coulter, director of percussion studies at UTC and principal percussionist in the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, was demonstrating a new Roland drum synthesizer he had just purchased at ChattaMusic.
"Dennis knows most of the performing musicians in town, and he's shared the stage with most of them," Dr. Coulter said. "Dennis understands musicians, and we need that."