Shai Ashkenazi

Back in 2019, we listed Imperial Vintage as a must-visit location in our guitar-shopping guide to Los Angeles. With stores in Burbank, Sherman Oaks and Orange County, a comprehensive online inventory and a client base rich in celebrities, collectors and professional musicians, owner Shai Ashkenazi has carved out a considerable niche. He has also assembled a formidable collection along the way.

As a vintage guitar dealer, there must be a constant temptation to earmark special instruments and put them to one side. How does Shai decide what’s for him, and what’s for the store? “Fairly easily,” he says. “I’m not a musician. I’m strictly a businessman. Basically I have a certain set of rules for stuff I buy for me. Because, as the owner of three guitar shops, it can get very crazy very fast if I don’t have guidelines about what I buy and what I don’t. I can have a thousand guitars a year if I hoard everything! I can’t do that. It’s got to be like, ‘What am I into? What am I not?’”

And he’s into Telecasters in a big way. “I love Telecasters,” he says. “I love their shape, I love their variations. I like simple. I love simplicity and minimalist design. Two knobs and two pickups. I don’t like buttons and switches and complications. But I really like cornerstone guitars, so I’m a lot more into Blackguard Teles than late 50s or 60s Teles – which, by the way, I do collect! But if it’s all-original or almost all-original, I’ll try to keep every Blackguard that comes my way.”