High Voltage

Getting to Know Local Instrument Peddler Zack Hosey

originally published September 3, 2008

“I’ve always loved music since I was a kid,” says Zack Hosey, owner of local music store High Voltage. “When I was nine, my dad got me a guitar that was a Gibson copy.”

After being turned on to Dinosaur Jr.'s Bug by a guy in a record store, teenage Hosey realized he wanted to learn to play guitar.

“At the time, new guitars had pointy headstocks or were brightly colored, but everybody I saw making music was using old Fender guitars." Hosey began to hunt down "the cool guitar," scoring a 1968 Red Mustang as his first big find.

Someone showed him how to play three chords, and he figured it out from there. Time flies. Not too long after moving to Athens in 1991, someone broke into his house and stole the Red Mustang. It would be three years before he got another guitar, and this time he chose a royal blue Mosrite - the guitar The Ventures first made famous.

Hosey made the local scene playing guitar in a band with Joseph Plunkett, Coley Dennis, Chris McNeal and Josh Lott called Doomhammer, which had a sound like heavy Misfits. They played two shows and called it a day.

What Zack was then, and still is, is a hunter and collector at heart, forever looking for guitars. He's become the guy who gets all of the guitars, an urban character referred to as Z-Dog. Woof.

Eventually an opportunity presented itself around a year ago, and Zack had the ultimate coup, mixing business with pleasure when he set up and unveiled his shop, High Voltage. “I realized I had just enough room for guitars and amps,” he says, and yet somehow he has also made room for eclectic items such as vintage guitar straps (one like Jimi Hendrix wore), Casio keyboards, a 2966 Vox guitar organ, a couple of 150 Elvis microphones from the 1960s, and a supply of vintage guitar amp tubes. With its to-die-for guitars, solid amps and rare accessories, High Voltage is a rock musician’s dream - but anyone will love his shop.

Entering High Voltage offers one a rock and roll experience spun on electricity and romanticism. The first thing you notice is the wall of guitars, what seems like a million of them, gleaming on a backdrop of pressed-tin underpinning built by Zack’s friend Adam Music. You can't help but follow the layout of stacked amps that march in place around the room and the miscellaneous items haphazardly spread throughout; it’s crazy. His shop flows over you like mysticism and makes you look and look, and you cannot stop looking.

Being in High Voltage reminded me of the scene in Dylan Thomas’ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog when the protagonist finds himself in a foreign, amicable room where furniture is stacked everywhere. His eyes don’t miss a thing. Much like that made-up room, High Voltage is beguiling.

Hosey says, “People ask, ‘Can I come in?’ like it’s a museum rather than a place with stuff for sale.” What storeowner would not love to hear that comment? Especially as the inquiring party walks around on a hardwood floor you put in yourself, or admires the thick black industrial shelf on the back wall where one can get access to mammoth amps by climbing the sliding metal library ladder.

Established musicians tend to just show up at High Voltage and knock on the door, asking for an item when they need something for a show. When Hosey opens the door, people are all high voices, looking confident he’ll have what they need. One guy came by and got a vintage pair of olive green recording headphones, and a local musician playing PopFest wandered in needing a guitar pick. Hosey dug around the counter and found one. The man knows his stock.

What started as a weekend obsession of going out looking for guitars has turned into a one-of-a-kind world that's completely Hosey. Much like his attire (black and white gingham snap button shirt, well-fitted bootleg jeans and lace-up Vans), his world features an attention to detail that’s as sharp as any artist’s desire to wholly represent their works' essence.

“I want to keep doing things the same way and carry only vintage stuff,” Hosey says. “This is the kind of shop I grew up with and freaked out over.”

When it comes to freaking out, he’s in good company. Not too long ago Tad Kubler from The Hold Steady saw him inside the 40 Watt and said, “Hey Zack! Can I get in the shop tonight?” When Kubler previously visited High Voltage, he walked in and immediately went up to a green cabinet made for The Yardbirds and a Space Echo and said, “How much?” Then, he wrote a check and loaded it up.

One member of Against Me! exclaimed, “I can’t believe you have all this shit,” when he entered High Voltage, and in all modesty, Hosey says this is the general reaction big-name bands have to the shop.

Artists know High Voltage is the creation of a dependable guy. The Black Lips call him when they’re looking for stuff, The B-52s borrowed equipment while recording their last record in town, and local and Atlanta musicians spread the word to friends and acquaintances about the shop. Hosey says he can count on business to pick up when big shows and festivals take over town. His best customers are John Neff from Drive-By Truckers and Of Montreal’s BP Helium.

“I try to offer unique vintage and used instruments at an affordable price, and I try to offer instruments that sound good and play good, like amps that will make your tone better. I carry vintage Marshall, Fender, Hiwatt and Supro.”

In case a musician is looking for repair work, Hosey has connections with Steve Hunter, acclaimed local amp technician, and two local guys who handle guitar repairs.

To visit the shop and meet Zack, go to 285 West Washington Street, in front of the 40 Watt Club. Because Hosey puts a lot of care into searching for new guitars and equipment, it's best to call for store hours or to make an appointment. You'll be pleased to meet him. Zack Hosey is one of a kind, with lots of gentlemanly valor and really nice shining eyes. His spirit is Southern and universal and rock and roll.

Darin Beasley