by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Sep 24/97) - It's probably one of Rankin Inlet's best kept secrets. For the past couple of years civil servant Tom Thompson has run a guitar shop tucked away in the upstairs guest bedroom of his home.

He carries a wide variety high-end acoustic and electric guitars including California-made Taylors.

"This is really what they call the golden age of the acoustic guitar," said Thompson standing behind his shop counter.

"They've learned so much in research and design in the last 10 years with respect to tone, woods, the shape, the positioning and thickness of the bracing and the addition of the computer design technology for making necks and things.

"It's a good time to be in the business," he added.

Before opening the guitar shop, Thompson operated a sports shop for about eight years.

"It was growing too big, too fast and it was taking up too much of my time," he said.

"This is a little more laid back. I sell guitar strings and picks regularly but guitars maybe once a month, or one every two months."

Thompson grew up listening to the Beetles and since his teens has enjoyed playing the guitar, but not for a large audience.

"I play a lot of acoustic stuff like Neil Young, Paul Simon, that kind of stuff and I can still play all the old Beetle tunes."

Thompson said that the acoustic sound is coming back in the music industry.

"The unplugged was just phenomenal for MTV and people like that," he said.

Rock and blues star Eric Clapton's biggest selling album, was his unplugged album.

"People respond to an acoustic guitar, it just has that universal appeal. You can play classical, you can play rock you can play folk, you can do slide."

Besides occasionally playing, Thompson likes to swap guitars with friends, particularly one guy in Newfoundland, a lefty like him.

"I got this old '71 Gretsch from him a week ago," he said. "Now, we're trading for an old 89 Gibson. He wants this one really bad because he collects Jumbo 200s and this is a Jumbo Jr."

"It may be one of a kind, made in 1994, and it's lefty. He wants it to complete his collection so I'm going to ship that up to him."

Thompson's guitar shop isn't very well known, but it's doing well. Since opening he's sold close to 50 guitars and has done many repairs, mostly cracks from the dryness.

"It gets down to five and six per cent humidity in winter. A friend of mine had a guitar here in town and he actually watched it crack in front of his eyes. They can crack real quick when it's so dry." said Thompson.

The best part of his guitar hobby, Thompson says is the people.

"It's fun to have people in here. We've had impromptu concerts here. There's some really skilled musicians and singers out there and they come in here and play guitars and sing. I should actually have had a tape recording going and I could have my own unplugged album."