Editor’s note: In our occasional series we call Gearing Up, we profile some of the people around town who make, repair or sell the instruments and other equipment that musicians use. Check out the first, second and third installments.
Tom Brucker stands outside his time capsule of a hi-fi store and repair shop off Nolensville Pike helping a friend load an old DVD player into a van. Brucker says he’s trying to keep as much equipment as possible from being tossed when Hi Tech Service closes its doors at the end of May.
“It’s like adopting puppies,” Brucker says of all the receivers, speakers and other home stereo gear he’s parting with. “It’s part of finding a good home.”
Brucker moved to Nashville in 1978 and started working at Anderson Audio, where he repaired stereos, televisions and more. He eventually bought his own testing equipment, all of which went with him whenever he changed jobs and still sits on a crowded work table in his shop. In late 1984, Brucker and business partner Tommy Harmon bought out a dealer they worked for and opened Hi Tech in Madison. Later, they moved the shop to its current location at 2934 Nolensville Pike, and Brucker took full ownership in 1987.
On a tour of the shop, Brucker points to amplifiers, receivers and turntables that still need repair — the shop ceases taking new repair orders May 1 as he winds down the operation. Without notes, he identifies each piece and its owner. He passes a giant turntable from the 1930s, capable of playing 14-inch discs, which he’s repairing for the Southern Baptist Convention. He notes that Jack White also has one, but it’s better. He knows this because he fixed it himself.
Helene Kreigh has been the officer manager at Hi Tech since 2014. She says the shop’s customers love to tell their stories.
“They talk about the good ol’ days, stereo pieces they bought using their allowance, and that one album on that one pair of speakers that changed their lives forever,” Kreigh says. “[Hi Tech] will be greatly missed by so many.”
To clear the store, Hi Tech will have a giant parking-lot sale on Saturday and Sunday, which will move indoors if there’s rain. Brucker cautions that not everything in the store is for the person wanting to buy their first stereo system — much of the gear is of the sort that, while it may be working now, it’ll need maintenance and probably more repairs over time. He also says he wanted to have a sale last year, but COVID changed more than a few plans. The pandemic also encouraged more audiophiles and vinyl lovers to invest in the equipment they use to listen to music. Brucker sees a new generation of stereo lovers geeking out over their setups, and he estimates that his sales increased 25 percent during the pandemic. He points to how listening to analog media on a quality stereo rewards the work that goes into it, in a way that streaming music from a phone — or even listening on CD — does not.
“When you sit there and listen, well, what does that do to your body?” he says. “In Europe, they play music for people in hospital — they recover faster. People listen to music to relax and calm down. There’s a physiological response. They call it ‘warm sound.’ When stereo equipment delivers that physical reaction, you’re gonna listen to it for hours. … Four or five bars [in Nashville] play records for people; it’ll be back. If COVID had never happened, it would be all the rage.”
Patricia Billings of Atomic Art & Sound agrees that listening to vinyl is an experience you can’t get elsewhere. She loves holding a record, looking at the art and making a connection with the music. She says Brucker was a mentor with infinite patience whenever she had questions as she learned the art of turntable repair, and she hopes Hi Tech leaves a “legacy of sharing information.” Brucker says he has 10 filing cabinets full of service manuals to archive, preserving multiple manufacturers’ guides for future technicians. “I’ve had a mission for the last 12 years to bring new techs up to speed, so they can mentor,” he says.
During my visit to Hi Tech, regular customer Jeff Moritz wanders in and sits in a chair behind the counter. When he introduces himself as a customer, Brucker corrects him, saying Moritz is a friend. Moritz first dropped off an amplifier for repair about 10 years ago. Brucker quoted him three weeks but took only one to do the job, and he’s been coming back ever since. As Moritz describes his love of old cassettes and discusses the current high price of tape, Brucker pulls out some old tapes, recorded in Tokyo in 1978, and offers them to him.
Though Hi Tech is soon to be no more, Brucker isn’t putting away his soldering iron for good.
“I’m gonna specialize in cassette decks. There are online interested groups — tapeheads.net, professional technicians who help. That’s what it takes to keep those things ticking.”
