LANCASTER – Clayton Karcher has a job many other guitar players no doubt envy.
“Yep,” he said. “Just get to play guitar on my down time and get paid for it.”
Karcher is the guitar department manager at C.A. House Music at 236 W. Sixth Ave. and has worked on and off at the store since 2017.
His duties include customer service, doing minor guitar repair work, stocking and sales. Karcher, 21, also plays bass and has been playing music since he was 14.
“I’m really into blues, rock,” he said. “I’m a big John Mayer fan, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan. I like a lot of modern stuff, too.”
Karcher is also a fan of Eddie Van Halen, who died last week.
“Losing him was like losing Jimi Hendrix,” he said. “He changed the way everybody saw the guitar. That guy changed everything.”
Learning to play guitar is difficult and can be intimidating. Therefore, Karcher must try to ease a beginner’s mind when they come into the store.
“People always get turned down when they see a $1,000 price tag, something like the American Fender Stratocasters, and whatnot,” he said. “I pick up an import Fender and play a blues lick on a $120 guitar. So they’re like, ‘Oh, so you don’t need something fancy to play.’ Eric Clapton could play a whole show on a $200 guitar if he wanted to. It doesn’t really matter how much you spend on it. It just matters how much time you put into playing.”
He said new players will get frustrated and their fingers will hurt. But Karcher said they must forge ahead with learning.
“You just don’t give up on it if you really want to do it,” he said. “And get lessons if you need more help.”
C.A. Music does offer lessons, but Karcher is self-taught.
“Learning theory kind of turned me off to it (taking lessons),” he said. “But once I heard some songs I liked and I wanted to learn how to play them, I kind of got into.”
Like many guitar players, Karcher doesn’t have just one or two guitars. He has 13.
Besides the city location, C.A. House Music has locations in Zanesville, St. Clairsville and Parkersburg, West Virginia. Karcher got his job from being a customer and knowing the staff. He is the only employee in his department.
As with almost everything else, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected musical instrument sales. But unlike other things, the pandemic has been good for sales.
“When the whole stimulus thing happened guitar sales went up,” Karcher said. “People were sitting at home and didn’t have anything to do. So guitar sales in general across the country are up. There’s a lot more people playing music now, which is kind of cool. It’s a weird time. But as a whole, I think it will probably benefit he music community at least. There’s a lot more people trying to learn songs that they like.”
Karcher said for him, music provides a song for every emotion he may feel.
“There’s always going to be a song that you can relate to,” he said. “And you can always relate to the same songs for different reasons. It’s just always been a comfort-zone thing for me. It’s always been something that relaxes me. There’s always a song for everything you do in life. Something will always fit.”
He has been recording music with friends at Columbus studio recently and wants to put a band together once the pandemic dies down.
“I’d like to play some original music, because I’ve been in cover bands most of my life as a musician,” Karcher said. “So I’m kind of over that and just kind of want to play my own stuff from now on.”
While he said he enjoys computer games, photography and hiking, Karcher music and guitar are his main interests away from work.
jbarron@gannett.com
740-304-9296
Twitter: @JeffDBarron