Neon guitar last homage to prominent Edmonton music store
A neon guitar spinning and twinkling on the side of an Edmonton building is the only symbol left to remember one of Western Canada's largest music stores.
The sign was created in the early 1990s for Mother's Music, a local store owned by Warren Price and his family that supplied professional musicians with equipment and premium guitars.
The sign served as a beacon for musicians for 10 years until the Price family closed its 109th Street and 103rd Avenue location in 2009.
For years, the weathered guitar hung from the building while the property's new developers tried to figure out what to do with it. That's when David Olsen, the building's real estate agent and spokesperson for the Price family, stepped in.
"I told the new owners either they could throw it out or donate it," Olsen told CBC News. "When the family found out it was being donated, they were overjoyed."
The sign was donated to Edmonton's Neon Sign Museum.
A crew from Skyline Services works on the rotating guitar. (Martin Weaver/CBC)
The museum was created in 2014 to preserve signs that were crucial to businesses in the city's past. Heritage planners work with the Alberta Sign Association to review all the signs they receive and decide which ones have enough historic value to restore and incorporate into the museum.
Tim Pedrick, past president of the Alberta Sign Association, believes the Mother's Music sign will strike a chord with young and old.
"People are already commenting, 'Oh, I remember Mother's Music,' " Tim Pedrick said. "It brings generations together."
