Old-school rock ‘n’ roll in Kent

Charlie Gelber, owner of OK! Vintage Guitars, discovered his love of guitars at a young age.  

“I started bugging my dad for a guitar the day after I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show for the first time in 1964 when I was 11 years old. So, he bought me a Kay Flat Top from Woolworths.” 

He stuck with his new instrument and became good at it. He formed a band in seventh grade and continued to perform through college. 

“I realized I could never make a good living playing guitar, though, and I accepted that.”

Gelber majored in English in college and began a career in film, working briefly as a cameraman before becoming an editor and director in New York City. He worked for WABC and ABC Sports before creating his own production company, Gelber Television, in 1994. His company worked on documentaries, fashion shows and music in addition to projects for industrial and corporate clients. 

While Charlie admits he did not pick up a guitar at all in the early 1980s, the birth of his son in 1987 inspired him to take it up again. 

“I played the guitar, and it kept him quiet as a baby.” 

It wasn’t until 1996, he said, that “I really got into guitars as a hobby, when EBay got big. Suddenly you had access to a global market at your fingertips. At that time I was selling four to six guitars each year.” 

In 2010, Gelber put his English degree to use and began writing about vintage Gibson guitars in a blog. 

“I was writing up to 20 posts per month at the beginning, and I was thrilled to get 300 readers,” he said.

In 2013, Gelber decided to leave the film industry. The following year, he and his wife bought a house in Kent. At the time he had no intention of opening a retail store. As it happened, the 100-plus-year-old train car at 11 Railroad St., which was formerly the home of an art gallery, was available for lease when he arrived. He went to check it out, and after much thought, decided to open his own vintage guitar shop.

At OK! Vintage Guitars, Gelber specializes in electric guitars, specifically Gibson models ES 335, 345 and 355 from what he calls the “Golden Era of Gibson,” the years 1958 through 1968. 

These instruments can range in value from $1,000 to $100,000 depending on various factors. However, his inventory and knowledge are by no means limited to these particular models.  

Fenders, vintage amplifiers and acoustic guitars can also be found on display in his shop. Some of the most unusual guitars that have passed through his hands are what he refers to as one-offs, when Gibson employees decided to essentially build themselves a custom instrument, with any number of atypical variations.     

Clients seeking to buy and sell vintage guitars come from all over the globe, and from as far away as France and Japan; Gelber has earned an international reputation as the “go-to Gibson guy.” 

He travels to deliver the products, having gone as far as Alderney, a Channel Island off the coast of England. 

Now his blog reaches 300,000 readers, and he sells around 100 guitars and 20 amplifiers each year. Ninety-nine percent of his business is done online through his website, www.es-335.org. His shop is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, or by appointment during the week. He can be contacted by phone at 203-858-0098, or by email at okguitars@gmail.com. 

 Gelber  especially loves to play songs from the Beatles. Sitting on an amplifier at the shop last week, he pulled out several guitars to strum during the interview for this article. 

“I don’t do this for the money,” he said with a smile. “I do this because I love it.”