Music man

Brandon Dolph is a multi-instrumentalist member of the band the Funk Exchange and owner of Blue Note B’s Horn Shop, 1155 W. Fourth Street. He recently opened a second location on the corner of Rock and Oddie Boulevards in Sparks—1525 Oddie Blvd.—and is having a grand opening party on July 21.

How long has Blue Note B’s Horn Shop been open?

Since 2012.

And you first opened here in the old Sundance Books location?

Well, this is actually an expansion. I went into business out of my house—in the garage.

It started out small.

Well, yeah, but then a bunch of music stores were contracting through me. I was doing some work for different stores. And then the pros kind of were finding me. I was like, “I’ve got to get out of the house.” So then when Maytan decided they were ready to retire, we came and found a spot with some studios and a place where we could do some repairs, not in the house, you know?

So the new one is over by Bob and Lucy’s in Sparks, right?

Right next door to it—Rock and Oddie. It’s 1525 Oddie Blvd.

Will the new place offer all the same stuff?

It’ll be repairs, rentals and sales—no lessons there. We’ll repair wind instruments over there, and then the orchestral and guitar work is done here. We’ll have technicians in both places. We’ve got specialists for each thing. I won’t be doing guitars and pro audio over at that place. It’ll be band and orchestra only.

How long have you been thinking about this? Why Sparks?

Sparks is up-and-coming. The real estate is in the right place right now. It’s time to do it before it gets unaffordable. It’s been underserved for a long time. … I work with a lot of directors over there, and a lot of people are moving to Sparks—people from the Bay Area. It’s slowly catching up to Reno.

Tell me a bit about the grand opening day.

We’ll have a band. That’ll be announced as soon as I pin down exactly who it is.

I guess you’ll be busy, so not the Funk Exchange?

No, not us. And there are these ladies who cook super good Mexican food over there—that already go there all the time. I’m going to talk with them and probably have them come work the event, too—sell some food. I’ve got vendors bringing up a bunch of instruments and stuff for people to try, from marching instruments to orchestral. We’ll have a bunch of stuff in there that we don’t always have.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to pack around a tuba.

That would be an opportunity for it. We should have some sousaphones and some tubas there.