Fazio's Frets & Friends, Ellisville

If it has frets or strings, chances are Mike Fazio and the instructors at Fazio's Frets & Friends know how to play it. What began as a love affair between Mike and his Harmony guitar when he was 10 years old has blossomed into more than 9,500 square feet of space dedicated to new and used guitars, basses, and amps. Inside Fazio’s, Fender Stratocasters, acoustic Taylors, and guitars from other high-end makers line the walls from floor to ceiling, surrounding a seemingly endless sea of amplifiers from brands such as Marshall Amplification and Budda Amplification. Fazio’s also deals in keyboards, drums, and banjos, and carries a variety of effects pedals to help guitarists re-create the sound of Slash, Hendrix, or the twanging noise during Home Improvement interludes.

Off the show-room floor, 15 lesson studios harbor instructors and their students who span a variety of experience levels. In order to ensure that these budding musicians receive top-quality education, Fazio’s instructors must audition before they can teach. Students without their own instruments can borrow guitars from Fazio’s rental shop, or they can carefully study Fazio’s factory-certified repair-center technicians in order to build their own out of a repurposed cello.