BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY. Mike Schlenker (right) with Luther Allison back in the day. “One of the all-time great blues players and a great dude,” Schlenker said. Schlenker’s long-running music gear and repair shop, Speed of Sound, closed earlier this summer.

“At some point it’s going to sink in,” says Mike Schlenker, who after almost 25 years of running Speed of Sound – a music gear store and repair shop in Eau Claire – decided to close up. “Maybe my wife and I will go out of town, we’re having drinks on the water or something, it’ll all come crashing down.”

In such a strange year, the reality of leaving the shop behind after all these years and with all these memories hasn’t set in quite yet. There’s enough distractions in the world simply by existing right now. But Schlenker, not one to talk about himself in glowing terms, says whenever the music world returns to some semblance of normal, that’s when he’ll probably feel it.

All I’ve ever done since I was 20 is sell guitars. I’m probably not going to be a good car salesman.” –Mike Schlenker, former owner of Speed of Sound

Apart from the shop, he’s a gifted guitarist and he’s played with countless bands over the years like the Sue Orfield Band and Another Carnival back in the day. For Schlenker, music isn’t something you just leave behind. It’s a lifelong passion and a timeless joy. You can bet he’ll still be a fixture in the local music world as long as he can.

“All I’ve ever done since I was 20 is sell guitars,” he joked. “I’m probably not going to be a good car salesman.”

When he opened Speed of Sound in May of 1996, those early days were marked with late nights getting the store ready, organizing everything, and slumping back home in the wee hours of the morning. “It was a lot of work, man,” Schlenker said. “But that’s what it took to get it going.”

As the years pressed on, more and more of Speed of Sound’s sound systems and lighting rigs could be found in venues all over the Valley from bars like The Plus and The Stones Throw to churches big and small – even our own Volume One Gallery is outfitted with Speed of Sound gear.

But one of the biggest parts of the whole business was its repair team. Schlenker has known Keith Lewer, an expert at guitar repair, longer than his own wife. And Derek Farber, a family friend, has done top-notch repairs on tube amps and electrical work for years. Both those guys brought an uncanny energy to the place – and their work inspired immense customer loyalty. Looking over paperwork while closing up, Schlenker would see the same names pop up for repairs 40-50 times over the course of many years.

Speed of Sound catered to musicians, specializing in audio and video gear as well as guitar repair. (Source: Facebook)

“It’s a musician’s shop, so to speak,” Schlenker said. “You want to bring in your old tube amp, yeah, we got the guy. You want to bring in your old ’50s Gibson or whatever, we got the guy. Those guys really made the shop what it was.”

Schlenker said that’s also what made the decision to close Speed of Sound an incredibly difficult one. He refused to announce the closure until he could confirm Lewer and Farber could take their customers somewhere else. And it worked out – Lewer is taking his guitar repairs to Offbeats Violin & Guitar and Farber is now over at Elite Audio & Service.

“Those guys helped make the shop feel complete,” Schlenker said. “I felt like I got credit for stuff that maybe I shouldn’t because those guys were just really good.”

So it’s a bittersweet end for Speed of Sound in an unprecedented time for live music. But Mike Schlenker’s shop legacy lives on through his customers, repair guys, venues, and musicians everywhere who have stopped in. And while Schlenker is content to relax a bit and play some golf, there’s always going to be more work to do, and more music to make.

“I’m gonna be working. I gotta work. I want to work. I don’t have any desire to sit around,” he said. “The music thing is definitely gonna keep going.”