Going Bananas for Robin Trower

by Rick Landers

Robin Trower fans can now test drive Fender's new Robin Trower Signature Series Stratocasters at select Fender dealers. Modern Guitars Magazine recently spoke with Alan Rosen, General Manager for one of the top guitar shops in the San Francisco Bay area, "Bananas-At-Large", about the new limited edition Robin Trower Tribute Stratocaster, the Trower Signature Series, and the very special "single edition" Paul Olsen Custom Art Series Stratocasters that will soon be available exclusively from Bananas-At-Large.

Sorry Alan, but the first question has to be "What's with the name?"

Alan Rosen: Yeah, I guess I should expect that, but we call our boss, J.D. Sharp, the top banana. Nobody really remembers why the shop is called "Bananas-At-Large". There was a "Bananas-At-Large" retail store started around 1972 by three guys: Fred Waxler, Glen Quan, and Billy Stapleton. They used to search out big city pawn shops for what were then called "used guitars". Today we call them either classics or collectibles. Anyway, they combed the countryside to find them and then sell them to visiting rock stars or those early pioneers in the early days of the collector market.

One story I've heard says the guys got the name from the fact that all of them were pretty wacky, as well as guitarists, that roamed "at large" for the guitars. A little while ago, we were told that Fred, Glen and Billy were sitting around in perhaps some altered state of consciousness, this was the early '70s you know, watching an old 1954 "B" movie with Cameron Mitchell and Ann Bancroft called "Gorillas at Large" and one of them suddenly popped the idea while bantering. The rest is history.

The first store lasted about a year. Fred returned to playing music, Glen designed the "Badass" bass bridge and went into manufacturing, and Billy Stapleton went to work for some other music shops.

It didn't take Fred too long to get sick of low or non-paying gigs, so in the beginning of 1974 he persuaded one of his band mates, J.D. Sharp, to help him run the new store in Marin. Bananas opened in May of 1974 and relocated to our current San Rafael location in 1989.

How did you end up at Bananas?

Rosen: I have been playing music since I was 4 and professionally since I was 9. My first job was at a local music store called Nicolla's FV Music in Fountain Valley, California, when I was 14. By the time I was 15, the owners let me run the store when they couldn't be there. Since then, I've worked in a bunch of stores all over the area. Bananas-At-Large first hired me to run the Installation and Design Department, do some sales, build a stronger customer base, and develop the store's artist relations division. I was able to do that and ended up managing the place in a short time.

The Bananas web site says that the shop's been called the place "Where the pros buy from the pros". What noteworthy players roam the aisles?

Rosen: If MG readers go to our site they'll see a long list of celebrity clients that we've been fortunate to support. It's a partial list really, of those that gave us permission to list their names. There are others, but we respect all of our clients' privacy so we don't just post names without asking

That's one reason we are so popular with "high profile" clients. We also don't make a big deal out of their shopping with us. Like I said earlier, we prefer to stay mum on anecdotes or anything like that about our more famous clients. I will say that we have been very successful with finding gear for our good friend Neal Schon (Journey, Santana, Soul Sirkus and solo work) on a private sale basis. We recently sold one of his best pieces to a fan out of Canada. The guy actually flew here to pick it up!

How about vintage guitars?

Rosen: We carry very little in vintage guitars. We specialize in new products mainly. Like the new Robin Trower models, we do specialize in Master Built re-issues from Fender and Custom Shop one of-a-kinds from Gibson. We get some of the best hand-picked pieces from all major manufacturers. My personal friendships with specific people in these companies and a lot of other companies have ended up with Bananas getting some amazing little gems.

What relationship do you have with the Fender Custom Shop that resulted in Bananas helping to bring about the Robin Trower Signature Stratocaster?

Rosen: We are one of Fender's largest dealers. In fact, we're probably the largest independent dealer in the Bay area, and we carry more of their Custom Shop, and more specifically their Master Built guitars, than anyone. Over the years, the Master Built team and I have developed some strong friendships, so it's been a natural progression for me to bring the Signature Robin Trower Stratocaster idea to them.

How about a general description of the Robin Trower Custom Shop Signature model?

Rosen: First, let me tell you that as soon as we get one of these guitars in the shop, whoosh, it's gone! So, at the moment we have none in stock.

Now to your question: There will be two Fender Robin Trower models available. One will be a limited run, team built, Robin Trower Tribute Stratocaster in Arctic White [see image above]. No other color will be available. These will be limited to a quantity of 100 guitars. Basically, it's a '72 Stratocaster. It will come with a CD and DVD.

The other model is the Robin Trower Signature Stratocaster that features some hot custom-wound '50s single-coil Strat pickups in the neck and middle positions, with a Tex-Mex single-coil at the bridge. The guitar has one of those big '70s style headstocks and a custom "C" shape maple neck. This won't be a limited run model. Senior Master Builder Todd Krause worked with Robin on the model, that's essentially a '72 Strat with a few changes, like the bullet truss rod rather than an American Standard. It's got the five-way switch with noise canceling in the 2 and 4 positions. I understand that Robin loves both of these models! Your MG readers can get the exact specifications from Fender's website.


Bananas is especially proud to offer Trower fans the exciting new Custom Paul Olsen Art Series models. Fender's sending us some Custom Shop Robin Trower guitars finished in an Arctic White base. These will be Fender team built custom Stratocasters that Paul Olsen will then paint based on the album covers he designed for Robin. Paul's also painting a single "compilation" edition that will incorporate artwork from all the Olsen designed Trower album covers. Once Paul's done his thing, we'll pass the guitars to Emmett O'Hara, a superb guitar tech from Santa Rosa who does work for some of the top professional guitarists on the planet. Emmett will re-assemble the painted guitars and set them up for the lucky few who end up as owners.

[Above: Paul Olsen's concept artwork for the Olsen Art Series Trower Stratocasters based upon Olsen's Robin Trower album cover artwork. Top row, left to right: Long Misty Days; In City Dreams; Go My Way; and, For Earth Below. Bottom row, left to right: Twice Removed from Yesterday; 20th Century Blues; Bridge of Sighs; and, Compilation. Images copyright 2004 Paul Olsen.]

When will the Olsen Art Series Stratocasters be available?

Rosen: First, if I may, let me give your readers a little background on these Custom Olsen Art Series models. Paul brought the idea to vintage guitar veteran Mike Indelicato, owner of Eguitars and Mike came to see me about it. We put our heads together and came up with the idea of painting one per album and the compilation one. We are taking pre-orders now at a discounted price. Any that are left for sale will be go back up to their original price. They should be ready, realistically, sometime this month or next month [February, 2005]. But, like I said, we're taking orders for them right now.

What's next for Bananas in the guitar department?

Rosen: We are always "looking for the next best thing" in the words of the late great Warren Zevon. We continually get new exciting pieces in. We're very excited about the upcoming NAMM show in Anaheim and can't wait to see what else we can get our hands on.

We are looking forward to the delivery of the Limited Edition Eddie Van Halen Charvels and we're pumped about the Gibson guitars Neal Schon is endorsing.

I think it's very cool that Gibson is issuing a long overdue and well-deserved Neal Schon Signature Model Gibson Les Paul! Considering Neal's legendary work with Journey, Bad English, Hardline, and superb solo efforts, I personally couldn't be happier for the long over due Neal Schon Signature Model Gibson Les Paul coming soon. If I can put in a plug here, I ask MG readers to keep an eye on Bananas.com for details on a limited edition early release of the Schon Signature Model that will be available exclusively through Bananas.

Contact Information

Company: Bananas-At-Large
Contact: Alan Rosen
Telephone: +1 (415) 457-7600 (USA)
Website: www.bananas.com
Email: Email form