Harry West

Harry West was the founder of Fine Musical Instruments located in Statesville, North Carolina.  The store was an early pioneer in vintage stringed instrument sales and in fact, Stanley Jay once called Harry, "the father of us all."  His store was later renamed Harry and Jeanie West's Fine Musical Instruments to provide credit to his loving and supportive wife who helped run the store.  Their son, James, does much of the repair work as well as purchasing and selling.  This family operated, small town retail store has influenced the vintage market around the world.  Harry's amazing knowledge of vintage instruments led to the appreciation of engineers such as Lloyd Loar, for example, who revolutionized the Gibson products beginning in the 1920s.