Which guitar shops do you miss?

Limehouse_Blues

Another for Musical Exchanges. Got my first proper amp there in 92. A nice little Marshall Lead 20. Also bought a Yamaha acoustic there a few years later. Many a mid 90s Saturday afternoon I spent there marvelling at the walls of wonder and that great vintage room at the back.

Does anyone have any photos of the shop?

Limehouse_Blues

Some pics of mx here

http://planetbotch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/memories-of-musical-exchanges.html

Strat_a_tat_tat

John Ham, Swansea. (Brother of Pete Ham of Badfinger fame)

BGG

Rock City and Guitar Express in Newcastle.

Stevepage

Machinehead Music. I agree with the OP that the owner that took it over run it into the ground, such a shame. One of the best shops in the country.

I miss Andy's in Denmark Street too. Always interesting stock and interesting people. A proper guitar shop with amazing stories and customers to go with it. To me, a huge part of music culture in London.

erky32

did all that Denmark st disappear , it was decades ago since I visited that paradise, always thought I'd go back one day, but it sounds like it's vanished?? I live in SW France for last 13+yrs so a tad out of touch ....what happened?

Alnico

Fets old and new in Fazackerly, Liverpool.
It had been going since the late 60's or early 70's and i found it in 1980 with my Dad. It was an institution and not because of it's stock but that was always excellent. It was the Pipe smoking old fella who ran it, 'Dave'. He was a big name on the Folk Scene or so i was told and he regularly had some Folk instruments that were world class.
More than anything it was the people you met in there, the musicians who went in as customers and the friends of Dave who were always really friendly and would often come over and stop/show a young learner how to play what he was attempting properly, in a sort of impromptu 10 minute lesson. I learned songs that way while i was there and the experience of the shop was more real and grass roots than anywhere could manage these days. It wasn't flash, it was very understated as a shop but it was something greater than the sum of it's parts.

It was an institution.

Jimbro66

Kingfisher Music in Fleet, Hants. A great shop in its time with a serious selection of quality guitars and amps, plus PAs and recording gear. You might remember their long ads at the back of Guitarist mag.

And very soon I'll unfortunately be adding Chandlers in Kew as a sadly missed store

markslade07

Yet another vote for Musical Exchanges in Brum, though I did get a couple of cracking deals when it closed down, so I can't complain too much! 

Nitefly

In the early/mid 60's there was a guitar shop on Park St, Lytham, Lancs, run by an Australian bloke called Ken - I bought my first "proper" guitar from him (Harmony H75 on the drip, since you ask!).  He moved it all to St  Albans Road in St Annes, but disappeared in the 70's.

In Blackpool there was Tower Music, run by a nice old chap by the name of Norman Heap - that was the first time anybody let me play a real ES-330, and I've wanted one ever since! (Managed to scratch that itch at last or my 60th birthday...).  I think he also ended up in St Annes, on St Davids Rd South, but he'll be long dead now.

There was another shop in Blackpool in the 60's, on King St or Cookson St, run by a greasy individual by the name of Dixon or Nixon - long ago now...

Jalapeno

Jimbro66 said:

Kingfisher Music in Fleet, Hants.

And Kingfisher in High Wycombe - a Dominos Pizza gaff now - bought my Fender Strat there.

Machinehead was an occasional visit, but I liked it.

Guitar Slinger in Berkhamsted - he had hoovering my wallet down to a fine art !

Stevepage

erky32 said:

did all that Denmark st disappear , it was decades ago since I visited that paradise, always thought I'd go back one day, but it sounds like it's vanished?? I live in SW France for last 13+yrs so a tad out of touch ....what happened?

There's some shops left but most of them have gone bust. It's certainly not the guitarist mecca it used to be.

LordOxygen

Ah yes, Musical Exchanges. I was a young teenager in the early 90's I remember visiting the shop in Brum with my Dad, I never had any enough money to buy anything other than strings, but it was well worth a visit once a year. 

TTony

Anyone remember Tim Gentle??


Still using the same logo, 40 years on ...

IvisonGuitars

Anyone remember Head, Hands & Feet in the cattle market in Hereford? That was my only portal to the music world as a young lad, used to get the bus into Hereford from our little village and spend the afternoon in there. Sometimes they had some much gear in there, you'd have to climb over it to get to the counter.

I'd often see Pete Overend Watts in there from Mott the Hoople, he be bringing in an old Watkins Rapier or some other old guitar he'd found at a car boot so Colin, the owner, could fix it and then Pete could sell it in his junk shop, the Dinosaw Market.

Great days indeed!

Kebabkid

Chandlers (Kew) from the 80s & 90s
Allbang & Strummit (Central London)
Peter Cooks (West London)
Gigsounds (Mitcham)

olafgarten

I was at Denmark Street last week, there was a few shops there, but Yamaha Music nearby was bigger than all of them combined. 

stickyfiddle

ThorpyFX said:

Oxford guitar gallery

Oh yes this. I worked on the same street for a couple of years and would pop in regularly for a chat. Lovely guys and great shop.

Moltisanti

A1 in Manchester was awesome back in the day, they had a TON of weird and wonderful stuff, I was playing a Jackson in there in about 1993 and an employee (Richard HenryI believe) told me to play a "bloke's guitar like a Tele" instead

dogload

BGG said:

Rock City and Guitar Express in Newcastle.

Ah yes, Guitar Express... where my Fender XII came from! Went downhill though and became JC's Guitar Emporium before, well... he fell foul of the law, I believe.

I really miss McKays up on Westgate Road. I think up until around 1998, most of my liquid assets ended up there. It was the place to get secondhand bargains. There was a particular smell that the shop had too - lemon oil and guitar polish I think. The guy who ran the place was good craic too, and it was such a shame to see it getting crappier and crappier, due mostly to people trading their gear online via Ebay and the like.