Is it just me

Grocer_Jack

Actually it's near the Moulin Rouge metro innit?

Bill_S

I’m sure it’s supply and demand. Here in Spain the guitar shops are really very disappointing...unless of course you’re looking for a Spanish guitar. 

stickyfiddle

I tend to buy drive pedals when holiday-shopping I like particularly like anything locally made that is a bit harder to get elsewhere. I got my beloved Anarchy Gold Class and a Selah Feather drive in Perth, a Mythos Daedalus in Nashville and a Ninevolt Surfing Bear as well as admitedly-not-Japanese MXR Dist+ and Arc Klone in Japan.

Despite trying very hard I couldn't quite find a guitar that clicked in Nashville

guitars4you

Strat54 said:

NelsonP said:

I was in the US last year with work and had to spend an evening on my own in Joliet, Illinois. 

So I went to the guitar centre there which was within walking distance of my hotel.

It was a thoroughly disappointing experience.

Maybe we're more spoiled with the guitar shops we have in the uk than we think.

Guitar Center are to blame for spreading that dull type of guitar shop around the globe, it happened here in the late 90's....every store seem to get the same refit with just grey metal bland walls and shelves ala Sound Control and their ilk. One by one the shops with character, dust and wood vanished as the corporate look spread....kind of like Debenhams with guitars.The kind of shops you don't want to linger in.Up north we have Reidys....a glass palace of huge propoertions and dullness where guitars are 20ft up off the floor.
 Nice to see though that some of the character shops like World and Guitar Village have survived. Refreshing also to visit some good old style stores in the US last year like Rudys, and Carmine St. The street in Paris with the guitar shops is okay too.

large amount of truth in the GC influence - I worked for Academy of Sound for a few years and a perk was a yearly visit to LA and the NAMM show which included a visit to GC's 'flagship' store on Sunset Blvd - My boss, amongst others, saw this store as a barometer of the market place - If they did not copy it as a blue print they were certainly influenced by it and at the time its success - We ended up with so many stores looking the same as though all stores were owned by NEXT - So yes they sucked character out of our trade

OilCityPickups

musicman100 said:

is just me or do others on here that get disappointed with guitar shops in general when visiting a new city.
Maybe I’m just spoilt but still!!!!!
My last day in the beautiful city of Helsinki today so I thought I’d do a bit of guitar window shopping, what a load of crap. 

Not much choice n ridiculous prices?? 

That said i did play a lovely 5420 in gretsch orange which played great but not a €1100 guitar!!!!

I'm a very regular visitor to Finland, and Helsinki is not the best place to buy guitars or beer ... like most capital cities it has inflated prices. I stay 100k north of there, in Tampere ... which has some great music shops ... and Turku on the coast is similar. Nordic brewery bitter is glorious in Tampere ... and only little more expensive than beer in Britain. But buying British bitter there is silly expensive.