Gibson Garage, London...

Offset

rlw said:

Even mrsrlw enjoyed the place and got a sense of what Gibson does and why, and why we all need more than one guitar.

Hmmmm... I may reconsider my disinterest in visiting the place :-)

mrkb

Offset said:

rlw said:

Even mrsrlw enjoyed the place and got a sense of what Gibson does and why, and why we all need more than one guitar.

Hmmmm... I may reconsider my disinterest in visiting the place :-)

Do they have a specific Partner Education area, and is the outcome guaranteed?

rlw

mrkb said:

Offset said:

rlw said:

Even mrsrlw enjoyed the place and got a sense of what Gibson does and why, and why we all need more than one guitar.

Hmmmm... I may reconsider my disinterest in visiting the place :-)

Do they have a specific Partner Education area, and is the outcome guaranteed?

They kind of do actually.....although outcomes may vary.

prowla

I was in London the other day and took a wrong turn which brought me out on Oxford street; I decided I'd leave going there for another day, though.

Switch625

Switch625

^^^

Photo dump of my visit last week. Lovely place, friendly staff. My mate tried out a £10k Explorer, they're happy for people to pick a guitar out to try.

euan

I’m definitely a lot less snooty about the place knowing they are so welcoming with people trying stuff 

Offset

Great photos @Switch625 , thanks.

Chris.B

Has anyone noticed if there are any lefty guitars on display?

euan

There are some in those pictures yes. I spotted some LPs and 335s

rlw

Chris.B said:

Has anyone noticed if there are any lefty guitars on display?

There are several shown in the above pics.....

Chris.B

That's good to know, I'll go and have a look next time I go to London.

Thanks @euan and @rlw ;

joeW

Switch625 said:

^^^

Photo dump of my visit last week. Lovely place, friendly staff. My mate tried out a £10k Explorer, they're happy for people to pick a guitar out to try.

Great photos - I didn’t see any archtops, were there none at all?

Nerine

Some of the merch looks real cool. Those Kramer t shirts look ace. I don’t own a Kramer, but I’d buy one of those t shirts. 

I’m going next week with my mate. Looking forward to it. 

Can we expect it to be monumentally busy, or not too bad?? 

Switch625

Nerine said:

Some of the merch looks real cool. Those Kramer t shirts look ace. I don’t own a Kramer, but I’d buy one of those t shirts. 

I’m going next week with my mate. Looking forward to it. 

Can we expect it to be monumentally busy, or not too bad?? 

I went on a weekday lunchtime and it was pretty empty bar a few people. I imagine on weekends it might get busier. But it's also tucked away down a side street so not much foot traffic going on around there.

Philly_Q

Switch625 said:

Nerine said:

Some of the merch looks real cool. Those Kramer t shirts look ace. I don’t own a Kramer, but I’d buy one of those t shirts. 

I’m going next week with my mate. Looking forward to it. 

Can we expect it to be monumentally busy, or not too bad?? 

I went on a weekday lunchtime and it was pretty empty bar a few people. I imagine on weekends it might get busier. But it's also tucked away down a side street so not much foot traffic going on around there.

Also very close to the West End Donor Centre, if anyone wants to pop in and give blood.

Nerine

I went yesterday. 

I didn’t really want to leave tbh. 

Staff were very cool. Some beautiful guitars in, plus you can try out a Mark VII, which I’m now gassing heavily for. 

Very cool shop. Some of the merch is really nice. I bought a couple of Tees whilst I was there. 

Would definitely go back. The prices are a bit mental, but everything is very well presented. It’s not cringey or trite, and honestly some of the comments earlier in this thread read pretty silly and churlish. It’s well done, IMO. 

I played a Pelham Blue ML LP. It was excellent. The ticket price was £8,990.00, though. Eeek. 

Anyway, I’ve been in other shops that sell high end gear that sort of stack it up, leave things laying about, let things get dusty, and honestly those sort of surroundings make the stock look bad and less worth the money than it looked in the Gibson Garage. 

Levels. 

ToneControl

I went last weekend (23rd March) quite a nice place to visit.
tbh the T-shirts were probably more interesting than the guitars, most of it is just the same model in different colours.
Staff were friendly, there was a big queue downstairs to meet some band that had been or would be playing I think.

They frequently offered to let me try stuff.

I suppose unlike any other shop, they are probably happy to let you look at all the pretty colours and try stuff out, but not buy, since if you then buy mail-order, Gibson still make money.

Thinking about it now, they should have more amplifiers, and more historical stuff - old lap steels, old gibson amps.
I'd run it as a showcase (like this), but also as a museum, to attract visitors and reinforce the brand.
It did all seem to be Les Pauls and 335s really, which gets a bit samey.

Did it have all the Jazz box models in there? 
I think they should have one of everything really.

rossi

Also very close to the West End Donor Centre, if anyone wants to pop in and give blood.

How many armfuls will buy a LP special from there  or do you just get biscuits still .?

mark123

I look at it like Bullys special prize when they missed out on 101 with 6 darts " look what you could have had " ......
Just c@ck tease yourself playing a £8000 Custom shop Gibson , put it back on the stand and go home to your either standard Gibson or Chinese Epiphone and playing it seems worse since playing that £8k custom.
 ....Personally i'd walk straight past it...