Which guitar shops do you miss?

frictionfraction

Thetford Music.  Spent many many hours in there playing guitar but mostly just enjoying a good chat with Richard, Glyn and Lee 

Bucket

Jalapeno said:

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

Ah yes, I remember it. Wasn't a great shop by the time I started playing though, and closed down a year or two after I found it.

Used to be my closest music shop though - only a few miles from me when I lived in Amersham.

Philly_Q

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

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

I didn't know the Pete Ham connection!  

That was the first music shop I used to visit just to stare in the window - I remember they had a Fender "The Strat" and one of those silver 25th anniversary Strats.  I got my first guitar and amp there.

Strat_a_tat_tat

Philly_Q said:

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

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

I didn't know the Pete Ham connection!  

That was the first music shop I used to visit just to stare in the window - I remember they had a Fender "The Strat" and one of those silver 25th anniversary Strats.  I got my first guitar and amp there.

Yes... when Pete died, I remember there being a few cabs with Badfinger stencilled on them. Tragic.

John was a really nice guy. He and this team put up with the 14 year old me hanging around for ages every Saturday morning... before buying a Gibson medium plectrum and couple of first E strings and going to catch the bus home... ready to repeat it all next Saturday.

Do a Google search and you'll see info about the SG that Pete was given by George Harrison... it was auctioned a few years ago.

Philly_Q

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

John was a really nice guy. He and this team put up with the 14 year old me hanging around for ages every Saturday morning... before buying a Gibson medium plectrum and couple of first E strings and going to catch the bus home... ready to repeat it all next Saturday.

If that was around 1979/80, I was probably outside looking in the window when you were buying that plectrum. 

Strat54

guitars4you said:

Strat54 said:

What about Mark Hopkins Guitar Gallery?  

you've got a good memory - pushing 20 years or so - I suppose it still exists now as Guitars4You - same principle regarding quality not quantity

Bought a couple of Cunettto era Relics from you back in the day, you always had interesting guitars for sale. 
Here's another a went to JC's Guitar Workshop....lots of vintage Fenders in Newcastle...they had a '54 Strat for £4995 when I first went! 

EricTheWeary

Another for Musical Exchanges. Sort of a Moroccan bazaar stuffed with guitars as I remember it. Going into Birmingham city centre seemed an adventure, then Snowhill was risking your life and at the end of it rows of ES335s down a musty corridor. Not so much a shopping experience more an Indiana Jones style adventure. 

Shark_Eyes

markblack said:

Kebabkid said:

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

my Dad owned Gigsounds. Nice to know it's missed

I only ever went into Gigsounds once, but the man serving me was super helpful, unfortunately I was skint at the time, so couldn't buy anything other than strings.

I was gutted to see it had closed.