“A large part of the Subway tradition is our easy-going 60′s business style and the biggest part of our style is my relaxed, unconventional, anti-corporate approach to just about everything”. Fat Dog (1)

I met Fatty, proprietor of Subway Guitars, in the 60s when I was hanging out on the edges of the music scene and he was working at Prune Music, a hippie alternative music store on what was then Grove Street, now MLK Jr. Blvd. I wanted to buy a guitar he’d put together that I couldn’t afford: a light brown Silvertone single cut-away body with a Hagstrom neck and a Telecaster cut away shape on top. Fatty said he’d sell it to me at a good discount if I could get his 1949 Chevy Fastback running.  Two weeks later he had his car and I had my guitar which he called a Pfuntomatic and I now call my Cruisomatic.

Fat Dog, the name he goes by that’s a nickname his mother gave him, came to Berkeley from the East Coast in the early 60s to study medicine but his intention to be a physician morphed into buying, fixing, and selling guitars. About those times he said: “The cultural revolution was in such full bloom, and music was the weapon…[it] was like being a gunsmith at the height of the Revolutionary War.”

Subway Guitars has been in existence since 1968. The shop is located at the corner of Cedar and Grant in a building painted from roof to sidewalk with a blue and white sky and cloud motif. Parked outside you’re likely to see a vintage car from the 30s painted to match that’s owned by Fatty (also known as Fat Dog).

Subway is obviously more than a guitar shop. It’s an atmosphere. You can call it an eccentric successful hippie enterprise or whatever you want, but it’s likely you’ve never seen a place quite like this. Its customer list is a stunning roster of local, regional, and world-famous musicians. Some days there can be a tour bus parked outside with a featured act inside conversing, joking, playing instruments, or just hanging out. It’s the premier shop to find the unique and the unexpected. You might find a guitar for less than $65.00 or an early 1950s Fender with a tag well into the six digits. During Subway’s 50 years Fat Dog has been committed to making guitars affordable to everyone as well as selling and constructing quality instruments.