Noted Musicians Join Sad Refrain Over Store : Fire: None of the businesses damaged in the Studio City blaze have elicited as much sympathy as the Valley Arts Guitar Center.

In the good times, musicians famous and not so famous come to the Valley Arts Guitar Center to get their instruments repaired, catch up with old friends and occasionally break into jam sessions.

Thursday was definitely not a good time for the Ventura Boulevard music store, but its patrons still faithfully stopped by--this time to offer condolences to owners Al Carness and Mike McGuire as they surveyed the wreckage of a $2.5-million fire that gutted two businesses on the block and heavily damaged theirs.

“I spend so much time here, it’s like a home away from home,” said guitarist Laurence Juber, who used to play with Paul McCartney and Wings. “It’s more than a store--it’s like a social club.”

Juber left his Studio City residence for Valley Arts on Thursday after reading the morning newspapers. Guitarist Randy Meisner, formerly of the Eagles; Lee Sklar, a bass player for Phil Collins and James Taylor; and Stewart Levin, a composer-arranger for television’s “thirtysomething” were among the other artists who either dropped by or called.

Guitarist Larry Carlton said he hopes to organize a benefit concert.

“It’s in everybody’s hearts and I’ve started a list of contacts,” said Carlton, formerly one of the city’s top studio players and today a well-known solo artist.

“I’m sure I won’t have trouble finding support for them. There’s a lot of love for that store. I can’t think of any other store that has such a relationship with the customers and artists.”

Of the businesses hurt by Wednesday’s suspected arson-caused fires, none seem to have elicited such sympathy as Valley Arts, whose owners estimate they lost at least $600,000 in guitars, drums and keyboards, not to mention their boyhood dream.

Pier 1 Imports and Strouds Linen Warehouse, the stores gutted by the fire in the 12100 block of Ventura Boulevard, are national chains. But the Valley Arts Guitar Center is a family owned operation that McGuire and Carness bought with money they saved playing gigs and selling guitar strings.

The second floor of the music shop, which is just west of Pier 1, burned and the ground floor was ruined mainly by smoke and water from the firefighters’ hoses.

“I was on the phone all night,” McGuire, who also makes guitars, said. “Duane Eddy called from Nashville and Larry Carlton called me from a session.”

McGuire and Carness took guitar lessons at Valley Arts’ original location on Laurel Canyon Boulevard when they were 10 years old. They became friends, and as young men decided to buy the store. They relocated to 12162 Ventura Blvd. 17 years ago, quickly becoming a fixture in the music industry.

Autographed album covers, greasy with smoke, still covered the store’s walls Thursday. Upstairs in the percussion room, warped cymbals and charred conga drums lay under dangling pieces of water-swollen ceiling. Downstairs, guitars of all shapes and sizes appeared intact but some of their faces were blackened by smoke and McGuire said their sound still has to be tested.

“The sad part is, a lot of those guitars were custom-made to the musicians’ own order,” Carness’ wife, Fern, said. “They may not be burned, but they won’t have the same tonality and feel.

“It’s like a woman--you just can’t replace them exactly.”

McGuire and Carness said they have insurance, although they are not certain it will cover all their losses. They plan to reopen as soon as possible. On Thursday, with employees’ help, they began taking inventory.

“This is our life, and not just ours, but our employees,” Fern Carness said.

They have yet to determine which instruments, if any, were damaged beyond repair.

Juber said he had some amplification equipment in the store “but nothing irreplaceable.” Professional rocker Jon Walmsley believes he lost a rare and valuable Gretsch country guitar, but said, “No one was hurt and that’s all that really matters.”

Fern Carness, who watched her husband stay up all night making lists of fire cleanup tasks, said she took down the Christmas tree at their Chatsworth residence first thing Thursday morning. She worries too much now about fire, she said.