ASTORIA Gordon Stylers life reads like Whos Who with a rocknroll soundtrack.

His list of friends includes politicians, musicians and poets. He grew up with musicians like Country Joe McDonald, and band members from Jefferson Airplane and Blue Cheer.

Not to mention California Gov. Jerry Brown.

In 1976, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead convinced the notorious Hells Angels to vote Styler its disc jockey of the year for the nations Bicentennial.

Now, Styler known as Gordo and his store, Astoria Guitar Company, have become a destination for guitarists of all ages.

 We do business mostly with professional musicians, he said. Ive sold a lot of guitars at midnight after touring bands had finished their gig.

 Ive had people come from as far away as Kamloops, [British Columbia], Styler said. We have the largest stock of vintage guitars in the Northwest. No one can touch us.

Stylers inventory consists of guitars built or restored by his brother, Bill, and other friends.

As a teenager, Bill won a blue ribbon at an industrial fair in California for a guitar he built that had a neck made of magnesium-aluminum alloy, which hummed with harmonics.

Musicraft, Inc. bought the prototype and manufactured the Messenger guitar right here in Astoria in 1967 and 1968. The most famous Messenger guitar belongs to Mark Farner, who played it on Grand Funk Railroads first three albums.

Bill Styler lives in Priest River, Idaho, in an old logging camp that now provides almost all of the temperate hardwoods the Stylers use in their guitars. The tropical hardwoods they use, such as mango and mahogany, are from a farm in Kona, Hawaii.

The only thing we dont grow is rosewood, Gordo said.

Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra) is endangered, so end-users must verify the wood is legally harvested, according to 2008 amendments to the Lacey Act. How the end-user might do this is unclear, but it could include third-party certification like CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species).

Many small guitar manufacturers stopped using rosewood altogether after the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife carried out multiple raids on Gibson Guitars factory in Memphis, Tenn.

The rosewood the Styler brothers use is reclaimed from old guitars. We believe that before 1980, every guitar that was made, whether it was $19 at the hardware store, was a quality product, Styler said. These old ones are much better than new.

Not only did the same craftsmen who made higher-end instruments make those $19 guitars, but the wood has hardened over the years, becoming more resonant and producing a richer sound, Styler said.

Some of the cheaper guitars these days are made of laminated cardboard, he added.

Styler and his brother started Astoria Guitar Company after two sudden deaths in their family. So I thought maybe we should do something to take our minds off of it, Styler said. We opened up here in Astoria six, almost seven, years ago.

Styler recently moved his guitar shop to 1153 Commercial Avenue downtown. He had been located along the RiverWalk in the Uppertown Station building.

The last three years, it just got brutal out there trying to survive, he said. When tourism dropped, the traffic to his store dropped as well. He would see only the same dozen passersby each day.

This is such a great opportunity; this is the core of downtown, he said. Ive had a lot of influx already the difference is amazing!

Even though hes still getting the store set up, Styler said hes had numerous people stop in to look at the beautiful guitars lining the walls.

If I dont have what you want, it doesnt break my heart to send you to someone else, he said. This business is very much built on personal relationships.

The Styler brothers relationships are part of what makes their business successful.

For the guitar parts, Bill just has to call up a friend. My brother has been at this for so long that he has a huge network of people, Styler said.

If he needs pickups for an electric guitar, Bill goes straight to the source. He calls old friend Bill Lawrence, whose wife packages them on the kitchen table.

Today, ghosts from Stylers past keep showing up at the shop. Most recently it was British guitarist John Turnbull, who has played with a number of bands, including Skip Bifferty and Ian Dury & The Blockheads.

I just know all these guys and they just keep popping in, he said. And I say, Sign the guitar.

The guitar is an Old Kraftsman covered in the signatures of musicians Styler knows. Once hes collected enough signatures, he plans to donate the guitar to the American Cancer Society.

This is a labor of love, he said, gesturing to the guitars around him.

Styler was a suit-and tie government official as a young man in 1974. He left that world after a brief stay and has been in radio and concert promotions for much of his life.

Its all twists of fate and being in the right place at the right time, he said.

Ive had such a good time with my life that it hasnt bothered me I never got rich.