The Forever Home: Inside Thunder Road Guitars’ New Admiral Location Chapter
Julius Ayo
September 9, 2026
The Forever Home: Inside Thunder Road Guitars’ New Admiral Location Chapter
After three moves in 14 years, Thunder Road Guitars has finally found the place it plans to keep.
“We’ve moved our business a few times and are now in our forever home here in the Admiral District of West Seattle,” owner Frank Gross said during a recent video interview with Seattle Today.
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That “forever home” is inside the century-old Ashcroft Building at 2611 California Avenue SW—a property Gross purchased rather than leased. Thunder Road opened there in June, beginning a new chapter for a business that has steadily grown from a small online operation into a guitar shop with customers around the world.
The story began in the fall of 2011, when Gross launched Thunder Road from a live-work space. The following year, he opened the company’s first storefront at 3916 California Avenue SW. As the business grew, it moved to the Alaska Junction in 2015 and then to Morgan Junction in 2019. Each new location gave Thunder Road more room, but the latest move represents something different: permanence.
The new Admiral shop is also home to The Bass Shop, Thunder Road’s sister store, which has shared space with the business since 2019. The Bass Shop is operated by Chad Beeler and gives bass players a dedicated destination alongside Thunder Road’s guitar-focused collection.
Inside, the walls are lined with instruments, but the shop is deliberately selective about what it carries.
“We kind of stick to what we know,” Gross said.
That means guitars—not drums, keyboards, or a little bit of everything. Thunder Road specializes in pre-owned and vintage instruments, along with carefully selected models from iconic American brands such as Fender, Gibson, Martin and Rickenbacker.
It is not simply a showroom for rare and expensive guitars. Repairs and lessons are also offered alongside the sales floor, making the shop part of musicians’ everyday lives—whether they are searching for a vintage treasure, fixing a trusted instrument, or learning their first chords.
One guitar on the wall was especially difficult to miss: a Jackson Custom Shop Thunder Mod with a bold polka-dot bullseye finish. The model is made exclusively for Thunder Road and comes in several custom designs.
“You can only find them at our stores in Seattle and Portland,” Gross said while holding one during our visit.
Those exclusive guitars give musicians something they cannot simply order from any online marketplace—and offer another reason to visit the shop in person.
Although Thunder Road remains firmly rooted in West Seattle, its reach extends well beyond the neighborhood. The company operates a second location in Portland and ships instruments to buyers around the world. For some customers, a long-distance search for the right guitar now ends inside a century-old building in the Admiral District.
For Gross, however, the search for the right home appears to be over.
