Sounds Live being taken over by PMT.

equalsql

Very sad news. Another family business going under and being overtaken.  I spoke to the returns dept this morning and some staff are staying but quite a few are on final notice

At least the staff have not had the rug pulled from underneath them like those poor sods at Digital Village.

See https://soundslive.wordpress.com/ for more info.

StefB

Apparently they had to sell £35,000 of gear per week to keep the high street shop open.

I've heard they are retaining a web presence as Sounds Live, but that a few major manufacturers will not support them unless they have a retail shop to display stock in.  Very sad, but the way of the (Thomann dominated) world and at least PMT are stepping in to maintain the shop presence and expand their own network.

Jalapeno

Always found them competitive to Thomann, and good reliable service. Shame.

dogload

A mate of mine went into the shop recently with a fistful of cash and was met with complete apathy. He was told that he couldn't buy the item (some sort of DI box) from the shop- even though they had one on display- but had to order it from the website!

It's a shame that they're going though.

guitarfishbay

I just ordered from them recently, got a great price on a Hiscox case.  Unfortunately this is the future of music retail.  I quite like my local PMT shop but I reckon in the next couple of years we're going to lose more options.  

lloyd

Times have changed haven't they? Not enough people use guitar shops often enough (me included) so we'll see a lot more of this over the next few years.

It will be left to the big boys in big warehouse type affairs on the edge of town for the chance to get to play a guitar before buying (on the internet!).