Cowtown Guitars

Cowtown was opened in 1990 by Mark Chatfield in the Shapter Center strip mall at the corner of Rt. 161 and N. Meadows Blvd on the north side of Columbus, Ohio, a city sometimes called "Cowtown". The store was operated by Chatfield, who also toured as Bob Seger's guitarist, until he sold the business to longtime employees Jesse and Roxie Amoroso in 2011.

After owning the store for less than a year, Jesse and Roxie Amoroso moved Cowtown to a new location in the arts district of downtown Las Vegas. The shop was now closer to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, where Amoroso continues to do appraisals for Pawn Stars. With the success of shows like Pawn Stars, and American Restoration, both of which are filmed in downtown Las Vegas, there have also been rumors of Cowtown Guitars acquiring their own reality television series.

In 2012, Cowtown became the official broker of a 1963 Fender Stratocaster once owned by Jimi Hendrix. Jesse Amoroso was one of three vintage guitar experts to appraise the guitar, after which was authenticated by the specific modifications made by Hendrix personally, its unusual green pickguard, and a telltale black mark on the inside of the electronics compartment. These details were confirmed by Amoroso along with Hendrix's brother, Leon, who remembered seeing the guitar around the apartment he shared with Jimi in the 1960s. The guitar originally belonged to studio head Henry "Juggy" Murray at Juggy Sound. It is believed that Hendrix used the guitar to record Blues in ¾" and My Friend for a Noel Redding solo album.

When Cowtown Guitars relocated in early 2012, guitarist Jake E. Lee agreed to cut the ribbon at the grand reopening ceremony.

In June 2013, Jesse and the Stratocaster visited Seymour Duncan who had originally custom wound the pickups for Hendrix in the 1960s. Duncan authenticated the pickups and pickguard.