PRS Dealers

Strat54

Funny how things change, I just had a look at World Guitars stock and they only have three new PRS in stock and they are all from 2016/17. Wonder if they are stopping doing them? When Jeff was alive they always had large stocks, now it seems like GG, Wildwire and Music Street are the main stockists for the brand. So many other dealers like Guitars4You ,Mansons and Sounds Great are no longer stockists either. Wonder why? 

Jonathanthomas83

GG and Peach have a few. Think things are a bit different with WG and PRS nowadays for one reason or another.

sweepy

Maybe PRS are going for the Box Shifters ?

Twinfan

Sound Affects in Ormskirk are still a large PRS dealer.

Strat54

Seems a shame that their old school original dealers are no longer selling them. Always have a love/hate relationship with the brand myself, but I do quite fancy this one. Not often you see a swamp ash bodied Custom with maple neck....

https://images.guitarguitar.co.uk/cdn/large/130/170428310209007-655031f.jpg?

Musicman20

World Guitars also had Musicman and recently G&L, then stopped. 

Whitecat

Musicman20 said:

World Guitars also had Musicman and recently G&L, then stopped. 

I suspect they dropped G&L because they didn’t want to compete with the GAK/Andertons/PMT consortium that was basically becoming the new U.K. importer. 

crunchman

Guitar Village have a good selection of PRS, and there is a 15% discount this weekend in the Boss Gone Mad Sale.

Coda have a good few PRS as well.

guitars4you

Strat54 said:

Funny how things change, I just had a look at World Guitars stock and they only have three new PRS in stock and they are all from 2016/17. Wonder if they are stopping doing them? When Jeff was alive they always had large stocks, now it seems like GG, Wildwire and Music Street are the main stockists for the brand. So many other dealers like Guitars4You ,Mansons and Sounds Great are no longer stockists either. Wonder why? 

I can only answer for my self and it was a while ago now that I stopped selling new PRS Guitars - Can't vouch for other dealers - I think there are still few good independents with a good selection like Wild Wire, Sound Affects, Peach

But it is an interesting question and I don't really have any specific answers - Only a few maybe's

SimpleSimon

Guessing during Jeffs tenure at Machinehead he nurtured a close relationship with Paul and PRS from day one, back then there were no real 'boutique' brands so Guess PRS fitted the bill for people looking for something 'high end' other than Fender and Gibson. Fast forward to WG and the whole 'its a high end guitar thing' they practically pioneered the boutique guitar outlet with more high end brands under one roof. Nowadays there a much more brand availability  so i wonder with Jeff sadly departing has meant the old relationship with PRS went whilst newer ones developed with more growth potential in other brands for the new owners?

Whitecat

SimpleSimon said:

Guessing during Jeffs tenure at Machinehead he nurtured a close relationship with Paul and PRS from day one, back then there were no real 'boutique' brands so Guess PRS fitted the bill for people looking for something 'high end' other than Fender and Gibson. Fast forward to WG and the whole 'its a high end guitar thing' they practically pioneered the boutique guitar outlet with more high end brands under one roof. Nowadays there a much more brand availability  so i wonder with Jeff sadly departing has meant the old relationship with PRS went whilst newer ones developed with more growth potential in other brands for the new owners?

I’d wager it’s something along these lines. PRS prices have gone crazy in the past few years - it makes sense for them to focus on other exclusives. 

richardhomer

Peach and Sound Affects stock lots.

As I understand it, once they took distribution in-house they imposed similar minimum stocking policies as Gibson & Fender. For smaller dealers this meant tying too much cash up in one brand.

chris78

I heard they sell direct at the National dentist conference these days

Bridgehouse

chris78 said:

I heard they sell direct at the National dentist conference these days

Open your wallet wide and say Aaaaaaaarggghhhh

Strat54

I've never actually met a dentist that plays (or rather hangs them on walls) a PRS. I used to have a lot of dentist clients who seemed to be more obsessed with wasting their ££'s on sports cars.
I wouldn't say that WG pioneered the 'boutique guitar outlet' either, that credit in the UK must surely go to Chandler of Kew.They were selling gear that no one had heard of back in the 80's and were responsible for bringing Tom Anderson and PRS to the UK.

guitars4you

Strat54 said:

I've never actually met a dentist that plays (or rather hangs them on walls) a PRS. I used to have a lot of dentist clients who seemed to be more obsessed with wasting their ££'s on sports cars.
I wouldn't say that WG pioneered the 'boutique guitar outlet' either, that credit in the UK must surely go to Chandler of Kew.They were selling gear that no one had heard of back in the 80's and were responsible for bringing Tom Anderson and PRS to the UK.

Agree that in the late 70's and early 80's I was influenced by Chandlers - There adverts, what they stocked and even visited the store once for inspiration, so yes certainly an early influence of a boutique based guitar store - Maybe just before my time but wasn't Top Gear/Denmark Street run on a similar ethos in the early 70's

Strat54

False alarm, WG just posted a pic of a huge PRS delivery!  

guitars4you

Strat54 said:

False alarm, WG just posted a pic of a huge PRS delivery!  

that's how rumours start !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  - Still, in the past would you have ever expected one of the major UK PRS dealers ever get down to only 30 left in stock, let alone 20, 10 or 3 - something still a bit weird about it

Strat54

guitars4you said:

Strat54 said:

I've never actually met a dentist that plays (or rather hangs them on walls) a PRS. I used to have a lot of dentist clients who seemed to be more obsessed with wasting their ££'s on sports cars.
I wouldn't say that WG pioneered the 'boutique guitar outlet' either, that credit in the UK must surely go to Chandler of Kew.They were selling gear that no one had heard of back in the 80's and were responsible for bringing Tom Anderson and PRS to the UK.

Agree that in the late 70's and early 80's I was influenced by Chandlers - There adverts, what they stocked and even visited the store once for inspiration, so yes certainly an early influence of a boutique based guitar store - Maybe just before my time but wasn't Top Gear/Denmark Street run on a similar ethos in the early 70's

Absolutely. There's a superb community page for Top Gear on Facebook and people post all the old pics.

https://www.facebook.com/Top-Gear-Music-London-289183784906634/

Chandlers was a place of wonder too back in the day. Don't think I ever left the store without buying a guitar or something. 
Their clientele was enviable too. Shame it all went pear shaped. Doug was a super nice guy and an incredibly fair dealer. 

guitars4you

Strat54 said:

guitars4you said:

Strat54 said:

I've never actually met a dentist that plays (or rather hangs them on walls) a PRS. I used to have a lot of dentist clients who seemed to be more obsessed with wasting their ££'s on sports cars.
I wouldn't say that WG pioneered the 'boutique guitar outlet' either, that credit in the UK must surely go to Chandler of Kew.They were selling gear that no one had heard of back in the 80's and were responsible for bringing Tom Anderson and PRS to the UK.

Agree that in the late 70's and early 80's I was influenced by Chandlers - There adverts, what they stocked and even visited the store once for inspiration, so yes certainly an early influence of a boutique based guitar store - Maybe just before my time but wasn't Top Gear/Denmark Street run on a similar ethos in the early 70's

Absolutely. There's a superb community page for Top Gear on Facebook and people post all the old pics.

https://www.facebook.com/Top-Gear-Music-London-289183784906634/

Chandlers was a place of wonder too back in the day. Don't think I ever left the store without buying a guitar or something. 
Their clientele was enviable too. Shame it all went pear shaped. Doug was a super nice guy and an incredibly fair dealer. 

saw that facebook page some while ago - interesting pics

Still speak to Doug occasionally via Collings - Not sure how much longer he'll wish to be involved with such a distribution channel - Not easy today

crunchman

guitars4you said:

Strat54 said:

guitars4you said:

Strat54 said:

I've never actually met a dentist that plays (or rather hangs them on walls) a PRS. I used to have a lot of dentist clients who seemed to be more obsessed with wasting their ££'s on sports cars.
I wouldn't say that WG pioneered the 'boutique guitar outlet' either, that credit in the UK must surely go to Chandler of Kew.They were selling gear that no one had heard of back in the 80's and were responsible for bringing Tom Anderson and PRS to the UK.

Agree that in the late 70's and early 80's I was influenced by Chandlers - There adverts, what they stocked and even visited the store once for inspiration, so yes certainly an early influence of a boutique based guitar store - Maybe just before my time but wasn't Top Gear/Denmark Street run on a similar ethos in the early 70's

Absolutely. There's a superb community page for Top Gear on Facebook and people post all the old pics.

https://www.facebook.com/Top-Gear-Music-London-289183784906634/

Chandlers was a place of wonder too back in the day. Don't think I ever left the store without buying a guitar or something. 
Their clientele was enviable too. Shame it all went pear shaped. Doug was a super nice guy and an incredibly fair dealer. 

saw that facebook page some while ago - interesting pics

Still speak to Doug occasionally via Collings - Not sure how much longer he'll wish to be involved with such a distribution channel - Not easy today

Don't know Doug that well.  I live just under 2 miles from where Chandlers was, and I spent a lot of money in there, but that was after Doug left.

I'd guess he's reaching the kind of age where he would be thinking about retirement anyway.  I know Chandlers didn't appear to be doing that well the last few years, but Paula seemed to be wanting to retire anyway.  She wasn't running it day to day.