Eventually, Andy did get his first electric guitar, which he bought with his own money when he was nine years old. It was a Crown guitar with lots of switches and a bad electrical hum that Andy thought was normal. At fifteen, one of Andy's football friends told him that his dad had a Gibson guitar and amp unused in a closet, and soon Andy was able to buy the 1955 Les Paul Special with an old brown Gibson amp in cream puff condition for $125.00. Andy played in local bands from the age of twelve with some older teen friends and that allowed him to start collecting guitars. Within the year he had about twenty pieces stashed away.

At sixteen Andy played lead guitar for a local Miami band and they entered a Battle of the Bands sponsored by WFUN Radio, filling in for a band that canceled. In this statewide competition of ninety bands, his band, ChinaDog, won the grand prize and first place. When he was twenty, Andy left home to pursue a musical career in Nashville and played for Grand Ol' Opry artists like Bobby Bare, Mel Street, Del Reeves and Lorrie Morgan. He returned to Miami, continuing to play club dates, private parties and conventions, ultimately leading to the formation of his own booking agency, Andy's Entertainment Factory. During this period there was a lapse in guitar collecting, but the collecting desire returned with a vengeance in the late '80's, and has been going strong ever since. Today, Andy frequently goes to guitar shows to buy and sell instruments, keeping the selection at Andy's Guitars ever changing from week to week.