I fancy a road trip.... which town has good guitar shops???

riffpowers

I fancy having a day out trying loads of different amps as I'm in the market for a new one.
There's not much near me (north east england / county durham) so I was thinklng of having a day out somewhere.

Does anyone have any ideas about which towns have a good selection of guitar shops??

Moltisanti

that's a actually quite a difficult question, believe it or not I have the same problem in the NW. There are loads of guitar shops, but not one that has all the stuff i'd want to try. Sound Affects Premier is the best one round these parts.
For amps i think Guitar Guitar in Newcastle would be your best bet, but whether they have what you want in stock is another matter, they seem to keep most of the good stuff in Epsom...

Kebabkid

It's a bit of a journey but do it as a county and hit Surrey.

These are the 'Surrey Ring of Music Shops' and believe there might even be some smaller ones in some of the other surrounding villages.

Guitar Guitar is in Epsom
30 mins away is Andertons in Guildford
20 mins from there is Guitar Village in Farnham

Would Birmingham be a goodie?

You could just hit Peach Guitars and be done with it!

impmann

Stevenage - Coda Music. Done.

skunkwerx

Kebabkid said:

It's a bit of a journey but do it as a county and hit Surrey.

These are the 'Surrey Ring of Music Shops' and believe there might even be some smaller ones in some of the other surrounding villages.

Guitar Guitar is in Epsom
30 mins away is Andertons in Guildford
20 mins from there is Guitar Village in Farnham

Would Birmingham be a goodie?

You could just hit Peach Guitars and be done with it!

+ Brighton aint much further and theres Gak and probably others there too! 

meltedbuzzbox

impmann said:

Stevenage - Coda Music. Done.

peach is quite close from there as well apparently (never been myself). 

Birmingham has PMT and GuitarGuitar but they are a few miles apart. 

Isn't there anything in Manchester?

riffpowers

Moltisanti said:

that's a actually quite a difficult question, believe it or not I have the same problem in the NW. There are loads of guitar shops, but not one that has all the stuff i'd want to try. Sound Affects Premier is the best one round these parts.
For amps i think Guitar Guitar in Newcastle would be your best bet, but whether they have what you want in stock is another matter, they seem to keep most of the good stuff in Epsom...

Exactly!! They've got nowt decent in stock in the store. 

Bridgehouse

meltedbuzzbox said:

impmann said:

Stevenage - Coda Music. Done.

peach is quite close from there as well apparently (never been myself). 

Birmingham has PMT and GuitarGuitar but they are a few miles apart. 

Isn't there anything in Manchester?

PMT and Guitarguitar in Brum are significantly closer to each other than Coda and Peach...

johnl

Brighton's a good bet. You've got GAK, Badlands, about 3 vintage guitar shops and a load of other small independents.

interstellar

Nashville

richardhomer

meltedbuzzbox said:

impmann said:

Stevenage - Coda Music. Done.

peach is quite close from there as well apparently (never been myself). 

Birmingham has PMT and GuitarGuitar but they are a few miles apart. 

Isn't there anything in Manchester?

Manchester isn’t well served given the size of the city. PMT is okay if you’re after Fender/Marshall/ Blackstar/Vox, etc - but not if you’re looking for less mainstream brands.

Soundsgreat is like a small Dawsons these days - with the odd ‘boutique’ line thrown in.

And then there’s Dawsons which has a more limited stock than PMT.

impmann

Bridgehouse said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

impmann said:

Stevenage - Coda Music. Done.

peach is quite close from there as well apparently (never been myself). 

Birmingham has PMT and GuitarGuitar but they are a few miles apart. 

Isn't there anything in Manchester?

PMT and Guitarguitar in Brum are significantly closer to each other than Coda and Peach...

Yes but one is PMT and the other is GuitarGuitar...

dangriffiths

Peach and Coda

riffpowers

I'm interested to try -

Mesa
Marshall
Engl
EVH
H&K 
Orange

EricTheWeary

Birmingham has PMT, Guitar guitar, Fair Deal and the Little Guitar Shop. All a drive apart. Not long although 
depends on traffic. Fair Deal is in a new location which is a lot easier to access if anyone remembers the old store, also walking distance of one of the big comic collectible shops, should that be of interest. Fair Deal and the Little Guitar Shop you'd have to park on a meter, the other two have limited free parking then free on street parking. 

Moltisanti

the big problem with amp shopping is that even if you can turn it up a bit there's no way you can do a proper test.

What i do is find something i want to try, find it used, buy it and try it properly. Then if it's not a keeper i move it on and lose nothing

mr-mac

How's about Glasgow (may need to check stock as shops smaller) off top of head... @ICBM can you correct me or add any i missed (did southside ever get back on track after Charlie's illness or did it close for good?)

Guitar Guitar, Marchant City Music, Kenny's Music, cc music, and the highlight of tour is a visit to Strung out guitars (say hello to icbm)

Kebabkid

skunkwerx said:

Kebabkid said:

It's a bit of a journey but do it as a county and hit Surrey.

These are the 'Surrey Ring of Music Shops' and believe there might even be some smaller ones in some of the other surrounding villages.

Guitar Guitar is in Epsom
30 mins away is Andertons in Guildford
20 mins from there is Guitar Village in Farnham

Would Birmingham be a goodie?

You could just hit Peach Guitars and be done with it!

+ Brighton aint much further and theres Gak and probably others there too! 

Yep. This is true

riffpowers

Moltisanti said:

the big problem with amp shopping is that even if you can turn it up a bit there's no way you can do a proper test.

What i do is find something i want to try, find it used, buy it and try it properly. Then if it's not a keeper i move it on and lose nothing

You’re right . I recently did the same thing with an orange rocker 30 and borrowed my mates jubilee which also didn’t work for me. I just get sick of moving stuff on all the time !

timmysoft

Don’t bother, buy a dog instead 

Jack_

I hear Fucking, Austria is nice this time of year.