EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of a new BurlingtonToday series — 'THIS IS BURLINGTON' — that showcases the people, places, organizations and businesses that make our city so special. Click HERE to read every story in the series, which will run throughout the month of November. This article originally ran on Nov. 16, 2023.
Even if they don’t know it, any and every musician in Burlington has likely bought an instrument from Tim Park at one time or another.
Guitars, drums, basses, keyboards, saxes, harps, and glockenspiels – Park has sold it all for more than two decades across several stores. Currently, he is the store manager at Long & McQuade on Davidson Court – and before that, when the store on Mainway.
“Before all of that, I was running my own business, a rehearsal and recording studio called the Music Gym,” Park says. “I did pretty well from 1988 until about 2006, but the Long & McQuade needed some help, so I came on part time.”
From there, the Music Gym changed how it operated, and Park decided to switch to working at Long & McQuade full time in the guitar department.
Park got his start in music in Grade 7 when he joined the ukulele group at Frontenac Public School.
“That started back a long time ago, that’s all I’m going to say,” Park jokes. “There were three groups of about 50 kids, we used to tour around schools, performing in libraries. I didn’t really get serious until I was about 16.”
Park started taking guitar lessons then from teacher Carter Lancaster, whom he still sees somewhat regularly. Lancaster himself has shared the stage with Gordon Lightfoot, so he knows his way around a fretboard. He has been playing guitar ever since.
Any reader who has stepped foot in the Davidson store would remember the wall of Gibson and Fender guitars that greets them just past the entrance. In his own collection, Park primarily uses a Fender Telecaster and a vintage Martin acoustic. He added that the majority of his gear nowadays comes from his own store, and says there isn’t really much temptation to take as much home as one may think.
“I still play locally, both in bands and solo,” Park says. “And the good thing is we can try things out in the store. It’s good for us to learn about the products, we can take them home for a few days.”
When Park isn’t working or performing, he’s likely volunteering with the Burlington Sound of Music festival, or the Arts and Culture Council, though he says he used to do more when he ran his own business.
“As the president of the Arts and Culture Council, we try to do a lot of promoting of the arts, and that’s something I’d do no matter what – music store or not,” Park says.
Long & McQuade has long been selling instruments to members of the Burlington Teen Tour Band. Park laughed at the thought of how many people have come through his stores as members of the band.
“We’ve got a couple of people who work here who were members of the Teen Tour Band,” he says.
Locals and regulars come into the store all the time, sometimes with certain instruments that the staff will get excited to work on, such as a pre-war Martin guitar. Other times, it’s the odd celebrity coming in.
“Ryan Reynolds came in here about 10 years ago and bought a ukulele,” Park says. “It was a nice one too, I don’t remember the actual price but I know it was quality.”
Anyone interested in instruments is invited to just swing by, hang out, and enjoy the music with the staff.
