Peach v Coda

mellowsun

Must organise that acoustic GASfest you talked about last year @TimmyO

stickyfiddle

Hurry!

Jalapeno

TimmyO said:

I have GASed hard.
Time to head home. Pictures in about 3 hours when I get in!

Yeah, but was there a conclusion ?

TimmyO

Jalapeno said:

TimmyO said:

I have GASed hard.
Time to head home. Pictures in about 3 hours when I get in!

Yeah, but was there a conclusion ?

Yes the conclusion was Coda

Jalapeno

So wedge still firmly in pocket then ?

TimmyO

Jalapeno said:

So wedge still firmly in pocket then ?

Nope!

I'll do a roundup here of the shopping experience and what I *didn't* buy and then post the NGD thread :-) 

Firstly, the shop and the staff were amazing. Endless stream of coffee, lots of help getting parades of guitars out on stands for me to flit between and the perfect balance of attention and being left to it. Excellent experience

The main thing I didn't buy was the £12,000 Alpine Spruce and Brazilian Rosewood Lowden S50. That thing was some sort of other-worldly experience - unlike any guitar I've touched - you barely had to tickle it and it was ringing. None of us were pretending I was going to buy it but I appreciated the opportunity to give it a go.

On the Lowden front I was really impressed at how full the smaller S models sound, but the Fs were the ones I liked most.

There was a used F35 in Cedar and really figured Walnut that I kept coming back to - the others I liked were a couple of F32s (Spruce and Rosewood) - a regular one and a cutaway one with a pickup.

I played but couldn't afford an amazing Redwood and Ziricote (!) F50 and a Myrtlewood F35 - the latter was really interesting, I'd not seen anything in that wood before and it sounded great. 

The Collings OM1A I expected to love I really didn't, and the Collings dreadnaught I didn't expect to like was simply the best Dread I've ever touched - utterly brilliant. 

The Collings Small Jumbo SJ was really good and if I'd played it somewhere else that didn't have these other distractions I may have gone with it. 

There were a couple of interesting J45 variants but they were outshone by other things (however much I still think they are the planet's coolest guitar) 

The most interesting thing for me was something that many of you have been saying - you have to get out and play stuff - because if you'd put a gun to my head and said order one (or even half a dozen) of them blind I'd not have come up with the one that stood out head and shoulders (under 3k anyway) from the rest.

I was pretty sure I'd come home with a Lowden.

I was pretty sure I'd come hone with something either Cedar topped or Mahogany backed.

I was wrong on both counts (see next thread) ... 

edbolivar

I have done Peach and Coda on the same day at least 3 times, each time walked away with something from Coda.

But I think both are good in different ways...

Last time I was in coda I played a beautiful Lowden and made the stupid mistake of not buying it, when I decided to buy it a few days later it was gone...

very interested to hear what you took home if not a Lowden.

Adamski

I wonder how many here have been to the new Peach? It's utterly incredible! Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Lowden etc all have their own ROOMS the size of many stores whole acoustic sections. Yesterday I walked away with a wonderful rosewood Gibson J-45 and I was utterly happy in my choice knowing that no one place would have the same amount of comparison stock. 

Best store in the UK - hell I haven't been to a better store across the world. Even Paul Reed Smith said it's one of the very best he's been to. 

TimmyO

Adamski said:

I wonder how many here have been to the new Peach? It's utterly incredible! Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Lowden etc all have their own ROOMS the size of many stores whole acoustic sections. Yesterday I walked away with a wonderful rosewood Gibson J-45 and I was utterly happy in my choice knowing that no one place would have the same amount of comparison stock. 

Best store in the UK - hell I haven't been to a better store across the world. Even Paul Reed Smith said it's one of the very best he's been to. 

I'm guessing most haven't as it's not been open that long.

I'm glad I did Coda - they had 49 (!) Lowdens in stock and that's initially what I was expecting to be going for - plus (and this turned out to be important) their used stock is outstanding. 

Adamski

TimmyO said:

Adamski said:

I wonder how many here have been to the new Peach? It's utterly incredible! Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Lowden etc all have their own ROOMS the size of many stores whole acoustic sections. Yesterday I walked away with a wonderful rosewood Gibson J-45 and I was utterly happy in my choice knowing that no one place would have the same amount of comparison stock. 

Best store in the UK - hell I haven't been to a better store across the world. Even Paul Reed Smith said it's one of the very best he's been to. 

I'm guessing most haven't as it's not been open that long.

I'm glad I did Coda - they had 49 (!) Lowdens in stock and that's initially what I was expecting to be going for - plus (and this turned out to be important) their used stock is outstanding. 

Agreed on the used stock - Coda always seems to get the best used acoustics in. 

dindude

Coda is much closer so have had my business in the past, would love to visit the new Peach shop though. Have to say the Peach website is blooming fantastic - just pulled it up and clicked on electric guitar, then sorted by price and every guitar from £115 to £10,000 is there on one single scroll-down page which shows you price, whether in stock or not, and a decent sized photo. You can get to your price point in seconds.

Compare that to other sites that you have to click on dozens of pages to get to what you want.

dangriffiths

I love and have bought from both.

John at Peach is a great chap and the new showroom is huge and well stocked.  He is a great player and happy to take time to chat.

Coda I have dealt with Marc and Ryan and they were cracking too - make it fun and the selection of brands and stock is good.  

Both look after us lonely lefties.

Jalapeno

Peach has been good (that's where I met Robben Ford at his tutorial), but too far away now they've moved to Colchester for anything other than an all-day pilgramage.  Coda is 30mins away.