Renovations have been going on inside the cavernous building since November.  Each of the Strings and Things product lines will have its own storefront, and the storefronts have been designed to tell the history of Memphis music, Lovell said.
  Acoustic guitars will be displayed in a shop patterned after an old general store in the Mississippi Delta, bass guitars in a shop styled after a Beale Street pawn shop, and electric guitars in a space modeled after Main Street, circa 1950s.
  Lovell and Lawing have had people scouring the city and Mid-South for weathered old wood, aging sheets of corrugated tin, and doors, windows, wrought iron gates and other architectural items caked with many layers of paint.  Lovell said the old materials are helping create a visual quality that customers won't find in a chain superstore.

  Elsewhere in the building, plans call for classrooms for individual and group music lessons, two recording studios run by building tenants, a gourmet coffee franchise, sound stage and soundproofed bays for band rehearsals.
  Strings and Things will also move its guitar repair shop and its rental business, which deals in light and sound systems and backup instruments for touring shows, as well as its sound system sales business, which sells to churches and performing arts facilities.
   As opening day approaches, Lovell and Lawing plan to make their presence known outside as well, with a banner, then a 30-foot reproduction of a Les Paul guitar mounted on their store sign. Lovell said the music mall was conceived as a way of providing

adequate room for the growing business of Strings and Things as well as rental spaces for other music-related products and services. "I don't think there's anything like it in the world," said Lovell.  "When people see this, they're going to think they've died and gone to music store heaven."
  The project also will breathe new life into a Midtown landmark that's seen at least two other redevelopment plans come and go since Taystee Bread closed in September 1983.
  It opened as Memphis Design Center in 1989 after a renovation by Memphis Design Group, a venture of partners Galvin Mah, Dr. Willie Young and Robert Tom.  In 1991, it became Designers Showcase Mall, specializing in furnishings for upscale homes.  Most recently it was the meeting place for Holy Trinity Community Church, which moved to a freestanding building.
  "Taystee -- they used the building and they used it right," said Lovell.  "Since then, it's been a building without a cause."
  Lovell said because the store has a well-defined clientele, "we could probably move into a warehouse on Brooks Road and do just as well."  But he and Lawing believe it's important to build a facility they hope will become a melting pot for the Memphis music scene.
  "Look, I'm 49 and Charlie's 50," said Lovell.  "We're not building any more music stores.  I'd say our commitment is to the musicians of the town."
  Lovell and Lawing got to know each other in the late 1960s or early 1970s when they were salesmen for competing music stores.  They joined forces in 1971, starting out buying used musical instruments on Beale Street and reselling them.
  When the business outgrew their home storage spaces, they opened shop at 205 S. Cooper.  After that building was firebombed during a 1978 strike by Memphis firefighters, they moved the business, 

officially Strings and Things in Memphis, Inc. to Union Avenue.
  Lovell said the Union store has long since outgrown its 6,000 square feet.  It's jammed with guitars, speakers, amplifiers and other musical gear and has grown to occupy duplexes in the rear of the store along Monroe.
  The Taystee Bread building has about 83,000 square feet on three levels, plus 105 spaces in indoor and out door parking lots.  The Union store has nine parking spaces. 
   The partners aren't sure what will become of the Union Avenue building once Strings and Things moves, Lovell said.  He said they had heard from potential buyers, but they were also considering whether to hold onto the building and lease it out.
  Teaching facilities, Lovell said, will be directed by guitar instructor Phil Black.  "The old school of running a music business was to teach music and create a market for your instruments.  That's something we've neglected."
   Such a large building required a large vision, said Lovell.  "I'd like to say we masterminded this whole project, but we spent 2 1/2 years talking about what we were going to do."
   Lovell and Lawing are both active in the Community Bible Church that meets on New York Street in Midtown.  Lovell lives in Nesbit, Miss.  Lawing lives in Midtown.
  On the banner that will announce the future location of Strings and Things is a clue to how the vision was created.  It refers to Jeremiah 3:33 as the Biblical basis for the project.
"This is the Scripture we came across; it basically says 'Step out and I'll show you what to do,' " said Lovell.
  In the King James Bible, the verse says, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

Call reporter Wayne Risher at 529-2776 or E-mail risher@gomemphis.com