How Frank Gross Built Thunder Road Guitars One Guitar At A Time

How Frank Gross Built Thunder Road Guitars One Guitar At A Time

From The Tone Mob Podcast by Blake Wyland & Sound Talent Media

August 4, 2026 · 1h 6m · Episode 529

About this episode

Blake Wyland interviews Frank Gross about his journey in building Thunder Road Guitars and the challenges of running a guitar shop.

This week on The Tone Mob, Blake sits down with Frank Gross, founder of Thunder Road Guitars Seattle, for a conversation about music, retail, risk, reinvention, and the strange magic of simply refusing to disappear. Frank tells the story of leaving the band life behind, moving back to Seattle, and slowly turning Craigslist flips, pawn shop finds, and a tiny workspace into one of the most respected guitar shops on the West Coast. We dig into the early days of Thunder Road, the importance of branding, the realities of bootstrapping a business, and why “just show up and try” might be the most brutally useful advice a new business owner can hear. We also get into the brand-new Thunder Road Seattle location, building an in-person retail experience in an increasingly online world, the chaos of moving a working guitar store, punk and screamo war stories, favorite Boss pedals, gigantic pizza, and why guitar shops still matter. Check them out at https://www.thunderroadguitars.com/ Support The Show And Connect! The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577 You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from…

People in this episode

Host: Blake Wyland

Guest: Frank Gross

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Thunder Road Guitars, Craigslist, Tonemob.com, Sweetwater

Places: Seattle, West Coast

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