Favourite Music shop

koneguitarist

What was your favourite music store growing up. The one  where you hang around, staring at guitars you couldn’t afford. Especially the ones no longer with us. 

Mine was the Sound Center shops in Cardiff or Tredegar. Always had s/h fenders and Gibsons. Simms Watt, Orange, Park amps etc, loads of curly cables and bits and pieces strewn everywhere. 

Loved the place back in 70s. 

richardhomer

Guitar Player in Rochdale. Virtually lived there on Saturday afternoons. Still close friends with Arthur Bird who was the owner.

PolarityMan

Kingfisher music and there was also one in sandhurst that i cant remember the name of were my 2 "local" ones growing up. 

koneguitarist

I remember Kingfisher. There was a place in Camberley called In Tune, or Tune in, was that near you? Bought a late 60s Tele there. 

PeteC

In Leeds - Kitchens ( origin of the very rare Kitchen-Marshall PA amps and the only pkace you could look at Gibsons at the time  ) , and Stephens at the bottom of Merrion Street for great second hand gear.  Miss them terribly, in fact all the great independents.  Used to love a trip down to Denmark St or to Musical Exchanges in Brum too.  

mudslide73

Mine are the usual West Midlands ones: TR Music in Walsall and Musical Exchanges in Bham. The two really local ones for me were Arcade Music in Cannock and S&J in Lichfield - both had great lads there. I went to Cannock College and I'd go in Arcade at least twice a week. Strangely though I've never knowingly bumped into @HarrySeven ;; 

Stratavarious

Cranes in Cardiff, GAK in Brighton and and one I think was called Sound City in Newcastle - near the bridge.  Those were all haunts when I was younger.   Windows in the arcade in Newcastle used to be nice when the guitar dept, was downstairs.  I hope they survive.

Chandler’s in Kew was great - possibly the best.. but I am talking years ago.   

I worked in some of the Denmark Street shops back then too - 80’s.  Well past its heyday now but I do like to pop in those Tin Pan Alley shops left when down.   Got my old Les Paul from there.

Deadman

It was called Williams and it was in Darlington. Downstairs was full of keyboards, sheet music and very grand pianos. Upstairs was guitar heaven. Sadly, long gone now.

Stratavarious

Deadman said:

It was called Williams and it was in Darlington. Downstairs was full of keyboards, sheet music and very grand pianos. Upstairs was guitar heaven. Sadly, long gone now.

I got my first guitar there!  

How could i forget,

Deadman

Stratavarious said:

Deadman said:

It was called Williams and it was in Darlington. Downstairs was full of keyboards, sheet music and very grand pianos. Upstairs was guitar heaven. Sadly, long gone now.

I got my first guitar there!  

How could i forget,

Good man! What was it then? And when? (without going too far off topic)

Philly_Q

I never hung around in the shops, I was too scared to go in, generally speaking.  I just used to look in the windows.

In Swansea there was John Ham, Duck, Son & Pinker and another place in the arcade I can't remember the name of.

When I went to University in Bath, there was a much bigger Duck, Son & Pinker and a place at the bottom of Widcombe Hill which was pretty good, they had things like Ibanez, Aria and Washburn.

In those days all towns had those funny music shops which didn't sell guitars - except maybe cheap classical ones - but they had loads of recorders, pitch pipes, sheet music and stuff like that.

MagicPigDetective

Didn't have many about in my area. Mid Wales Music Centre in Newtown was my only local store, where I got my first guitar, and pedals, a good, friendly store but not full of high end stuff. The next nearest was Salop Music Centre in Shrewsbury where I got my 2nd guitar, a Washburn. I remember visiting Dawsons in Chester and thinking it seemed very polished and professional in comparison, but not as friendly and laid back. I don't remember looking at many high-end guitars to be honest; either they didn't have any, or it was the fact that I and my mates we're not massively into the gear, we were fairly happy with low and mid-range stuff, what we could afford. Perhaps there was an early 90's grunge rejection of shiny expensive things going on. I've more than made up for that over the last five years though!

Philly_Q

richardhomer said:

Guitar Player in Rochdale. Virtually lived there on Saturday afternoons. Still close friends with Arthur Bird who was the owner.

I think @guitars4you has told me this before, but weren't they also Bird Brothers who had another shop called Rock Island? 

I bought my Hamer Special from them in January 1982, after seeing a tiny little ad in Sounds, phoning up and sending them a cheque for £250.

guitars4you

Philly_Q said:

richardhomer said:

Guitar Player in Rochdale. Virtually lived there on Saturday afternoons. Still close friends with Arthur Bird who was the owner.

I think @guitars4you has told me this before, but weren't they also Bird Brothers who had another shop called Rock Island? 

I bought my Hamer Special from them in January 1982, after seeing a tiny little ad in Sounds, phoning up and sending them a cheque for £250.

Yes, 2 brothers ran the 2 shops - Richard can tell you more as a) his neck of the woods and b) as he mentioned earlier he knows Arthur, one of the brothers, very well - Think Rock Island was Oldham - Think both finished early 80's

PudWud

In Manchester we used to do the Oxford Road trio of shops nearly every weekend from being aged 14-16. 
Sound Control under the bridge, followed by Music Ground, then finally Johnny Roadhouse. 
The guys in Sound Control used to let us sit and play anything we wanted and just hang out, and same for Johnny Roadhouse. 

PolarityMan

koneguitarist said:

I remember Kingfisher. There was a place in Camberley called In Tune, or Tune in, was that near you? Bought a late 60s Tele there. 

oh i had forgotten that one, I did buy a guitar there once I think..an epi les paul. 

the_jaffa

I grew up in Carlisle which wasn't exactly overflowing with shops but there was Northern Sounds and, later, Rainbow Music that I used to go to and look at stuff. The bigger excitement came with trips to Newcastle and Windows and another one whose name escapes me.

A very occasional trip to London and Denmark Street was just amazing though.

munckee

The only guitar shops I ever went to in my first stint of playing before kids was K&S in my local town and then PJ Walker in Southsea. 

More recently I liked Nevada music in Portsmouth which is now PMT but is a bit soulless since the change. 

I like ambling about Denmark St and Guitar Guitar Epsom is pretty good. 

Jalapeno

Hammonds of Watford was the ONLY one for a long time, plus the pawn broker in Queens Road for 2nd hand stuff.

These days all require transport but my favourites are: Thame Vintage & Modern, Coda in Stevenage, Guitar Village, and Andertons (mainly for breadth of stock - mail order more often than a trek)

Stratavarious

Deadman said:

Stratavarious said:

Deadman said:

It was called Williams and it was in Darlington. Downstairs was full of keyboards, sheet music and very grand pianos. Upstairs was guitar heaven. Sadly, long gone now.

I got my first guitar there!  

How could i forget,

Good man! What was it then? And when? (without going too far off topic)

Will have been around 1979

I had discovered Hendrix in the Darlington Library vinyl collection - great library with art gallery - which meant I suddenly stopped going to Williams for piano grade sheet music and went all rock and roll..  I drooled over the electric guitars and got a Hondo II Les Paul copy, then my strat.

i got a CryBaby Wah at Williams too which I used for decades.  

I shuttled between stores in Newcastle and Darlington a lot. Loved the Newcastle stores and would spend most weekends as a kid in them.

There was another couple in Leeds, one out towards York and one in the centre I visited a lot too.  Can’t remember names.

McToot

JSG (later Spectre) in Bingley. I used to get the bus over there when I was about 14 and spend 3 or 4 hours. The only thing I ever bought was a Mars bar (they sold them next to the picks) and a small Ohm practice amp.