A local music shop where everyone is welcome
at 201 Front St, Minocqua, WI | Open Tues – Sat 10-5, or anytime by appointment
Acoustic instruments, lessons, repairs, jam sessions, and more; a place to hang out and get inspired.
We started playing just a few years ago and it’s not easy to keep going, especially when you’re older. It was hard for us – music shops were intimidating, lessons were hard to find, online resources plentiful but overwhelming.
We quit a bunch of times, until we started playing with others – that opened up a whole new world for us! One that we want to keep growing and sharing, especially with anyone new to playing or new to playing with others in a group. We hope to not only get you started, but keep you going.
And we want a neighborhood shop where everyone feels welcome, regardless of music knowledge or experience. Our hope is to spark a new interest, rekindle a past hobby, or otherwise inspire and motivate you to play more. Ask about lessons and jams and local events.
Our goals is for this shop to be a music hub for the Northwoods, a place where musicians feel supported, where people of all skill levels find inspiration and community, and where folks can learn more about the local music scene.
Koji Taylor from NBC Newswatch 12 stopped by the shop a few days before we opened. It was the day we unpacked some new instruments from one of our favorite instrument manufactureres here in the US, Troublesome Creek.
Koji spent a couple of hours here and then knocked out a fantastic news segment for that evening! Thanks, Koji! You did a really nice job of telling our story.
Speaking of Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Co., a recent segment on the PBS News Hour highlighted this nonprofit and their mission.
We’ve seen firsthand what addiction can do and what the ultimate cost can be. The full scope and impact of what Doug has created to help people in recovery is hard to put into words. And on top of that, these are some of the finest instruments we’ve ever seen, made by some of the finest people there are! Troublesome Creek and all the people who work there are an inspiration to us here at Island City Acoustics!
Check out the video and consider making a donation to Troublesome Creek. Stop by the shop to explore a selection of their guitars, mandolins, and banjos.
We are proud to be an authorized dealer for:
Follow us on Facebook or Instagram for regular updates on all the stuff going on at the shop!
Fiddles!!!! 🎻 we’ve been trying to up our fiddle game here at the shop. So we have some in stock at the moment along with a viola. And we have some more on the way! including some great vintage fiddles from the early 1900s that a friend of ours is finishing set up on for us right now. We’ll have those at the end of the month. We even have a couple of really nice fiddle outfits from Eastman strings. Wait, correction-we have one Eastman fiddle outfit at the moment, we had two that came into the shop, but Sylvia just decided to keep one! 😄 I guess that’s one of the dangers of owning your own acoustic instrument shop! I did order another one and it will be here this week, thankfully! 👍🏼 And of course, we are also bringing in all the accessories to go with the fiddles, and we even have some extra fiddle cases that are also being shipped to the store as we speak. This is just the beginning……
And here’s an interesting fact that I learned when trying to understand the main difference between a Violin and Fiddle other than playing style. Often times a fiddle will have a flatter radius on their bridge to allow players to take advantage of doing things such as playing a double stop (two strings at once). which makes a lot of sense because a mandolin also takes advantage of double stops and after all mandolin’s and Violins, are tuned the same. so if you’re not busy today, why don’t you quit “fiddling” around and get down to the shop! I know that was corny, but I’m tired and it’s been a long week! We’re open every day of the week, Monday through Saturday 10 to 5 and Sunday 12 to 4, come down and see us at 201 Front St. #eastmanstrings #islandcityacoustics #shoplocalminocqua
Free strings?! Yes indeed! 🤟🏼 Make Music Day! Since we are an authorized Elixir dealer, they reached out to us and offered us 12 free packs of Elixir Attune 12-53 light gauge strings to donate to the first 12 people to come into our store and sign up for the free string change event for the Make Music Day which will happen on June 20 here at the shop at 201 Front St. No “strings” attached, sorry, i couldn’t help myself on that one. 😁 I have the sign-up sheet out, so come on down to the shop and we’ll see if we can get you set up to get your strings changed on June 20! There will be no charge for the strings and no charge to install them for you. 🎶 #elixirstrings #islandcityacoustics #makemusicday
You’re doing what?! That’s right everybody, we are going to be open seven days a week from now on!! Look how surprised these two guys are 😄 Our hours will be 10:00 to 5:00 Monday through Saturday and 12:00 to 4:00 on Sunday. And don’t forget tonight is the beginner Bluegrass jam here at the shop from 5 to 7 so come on down and get your Bluegrass on! 🤘🏻🪕🎻
