Play Your Own Music in Carson City: Vince Gates’s music store with instrument repair, lessons in piano, guitar, voice and more, and a recording studio.
A music store built around lessons
Play Your Own Music is a music store, teaching studio and recording space at 112 East John Street, Suite B, in Carson City. Its website calls it Carson City’s music store “since 2007.” Carson Now profiled owner Vince Gates in February 2014, when the store was in the Carson Mall on South Carson Street. The article said Gates is a guitarist who spent several years as a consultant and sales representative for music businesses in California and Nevada, visiting more than 200 music stores in Northern California before opening his own.
The 2014 profile described a store that sold guitars, string instruments, sound equipment and accessories, rented instruments to students, did repairs, and had four practice studios and a recording studio. It reported more than 200 students taking weekly lessons from six instructors. Gates told the paper, “I really do believe we have musicians here who are the best on the planet.” Details such as the location have changed since then.
Today’s shop
The current website says the store repairs, sets up and refurbishes guitars and stringed instruments, and carries strings, cables and other accessories. Its news section, last updated in December 2023, highlights individual guitars such as a Taylor T5Z and a refurbished 1965 Fender Mustang. Hours are listed as weekdays 11 to 6 and Saturday 11 to 5.
Lessons and recording
The site lists lessons in piano, guitar, ukulele, voice, flute and more. Named instructors are Curt Mitchell for guitar; Dale Poune for guitar, bass, dobro, lap steel, songwriting and vocal performance; and Shaolin Gates for piano, voice, guitar, ukulele, flute and songwriting. Mitchell and Poune were also named in the 2014 article.
The Suite G recording studio offers album, demo and project recording, song development, audio editing and transfers from LPs and cassettes to digital, according to the site, which cites “30+ years experience.”
Contact Play Your Own Music
112 East John Street, Suite B
Carson City
775-885-7529
Business website
Researched October 20, 2026 from the business’s own website and independent evidence. Source 1 · Source 2. Independent researched listing; not an owner interview. For corrections or removal, email cody@702alliance.com.
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