Denmark Street

LesbianWithAGun

I saw a 1960's red Fender Stratocaster in the window with a £116, 000.00 price tag on, and, that guitar wasn't there long.

prowla

I might go there today.

fandango

springhead said:

Matt_McG said:

Last time I went to Denmark Street to buy, I came away having bought nothing. I was shopping for an octave/harmony pedal, and was planning to buy there and then. Literally couldn't hear myself, even when I physically crouched down in front of the amp with my head against the speaker, because of some teenager playing Wonderwall on an out of tune guitar, through a HRD with the treble set to "pain".

I'm a pretty decent player, but I wouldn't have the brass neck to play as loud as that kid, anywhere in public, and if I did, I'd bloody tune the guitar, and I would expect to be told to turn it down.

I asked the guy if he could ask them to turn down, and was told that I should just buy the pedal (even though I couldn't hear it), and if I didn't like it, I could bring it back.

That said, I had decent service when trying some guitars in Maccari's recently. I didn't buy, but they made some helpful suggestions, let me try some things, and were friendly. I'd go back, if they had what I wanted.

Maccari's have always been a little bit apart from the Denmark St shops, not just due to their location down the road.  I've bought stuff from them over the years and always had a decent experience in there.

Maccari’s used to have two shops - one in Denmark St until a year or two ago, and the now sole shop in Charing Cross Road. 

peteri

Thing to remember with Hanks, is you're buying from the Harrisons - they don't even try hard to hide it, if you're happy doing that - well I'm not.

I've looked at a few guitars in there to educate myself a bit, all had something not right - making me think they're all cut and shut jobs basically.

For example the 1960 Les Paul, is a 1960 Les Paul (I think), but the neck has been shaved down so much you're surprised the truss rod is still in it, completely ruined as both an instrument and an investment

roberty

Regent are great. They had a 56 junior in when I worked around there, wish I'd bought it now. I thought I was going to buy a flat in London but that didn't happen. I used to go and stare at the Les Pauls in Macaris on my lunch break sometimes. Happy days

scovell001

I went there a couple of years ago. I actually felt sorry for them up there, it was so busy just in the street when I went (August), I don't think its a great sales environment at all.

I went into NoTom & they had a 1999 R9 Les Paul I was quite interested in for £5k which I thought was a bit steep for what it was at the time.  I think I was told a bit of a story that it was a Murphy model even though it had no COA with it !

Went into Hanks and was quite surprised how they sold anything in there & didn't stay long.

Interesting place for sure, although as others have said, not what it once was

clarkefan

Kinda surprised nobody's mentioned Andy's,  I used to love that place, it was a bit mental.

Them closing was the end of proper Denmark St for me.

Warblington

MikeP said:

All the vintage stuff I've seen there there in the last ten years or so has been really low grade rough,  refinished etc at mint prices. 

IMHO there are two places to visit for vintage guitars. David J Pym, a renowned expert on authenticity and has an unbelievable collection, secondly Mike at ATB guitars. You pay but you know what you're getting.btw, not affiliated to either.

Blueingreen

Never really liked it apart from for books and sheet music, they used to have a fabulous range in the days before you could source stuff online.  Guitars were always overpriced and staff were often condescending poseurs.  I always assumed they did most of their business either with starry eyed tourists who naively paid over the odds or London scene insiders who got better deals.

I knew a guy who became part owner of one of the businesses and it did nothing to improve his character.  He was obviously mixing with (putting it euphemistically) chancers and it rubbed off on him.  He went from being a nice bloke and talented musician to a cynical, wannabe wide-boy who thought the way to live was to screw the other guy before he screwed you.  Maybe his personality would have soured with age even without the Denmark St involvement, but I suspect it wouldn't.

 

Clecko

Jalapeno said:

I think the sniffy-too-cool-for-school brigade is a thing of the past these days. Most are a lot friendlier (a trend led by Wunjo IMHO). 

Got a boutique pedal (can't recall which shop exactly, might have been Wunjo electric) recently, and he did a web search and knocked off £50 without me even asking ... I will go back there. But other stores were really chatty & friendly.

They did that with me when I bought a Yamaha THR from there last year. I was so impressed that I also bought the guitar I was using to try it in some sort of polite reflex action.  

GJK1959

clarkefan said:

Kinda surprised nobody's mentioned Andy's,  I used to love that place, it was a bit mental.

Them closing was the end of proper Denmark St for me.

Ha.. yeah I remember snooping around Andy’s - always advertising in the Melody Maker. Angel Music were good, and of course the 12 Bar Club. In Highgate there was Wild Guitars owned by the late Dave Wild  - I bought a few tasty guitars from there.

jumping@shadows

Having been on both sides of the fence, from bunking off school to go and hang out in the 4 floors of smokey chaos of Andy’s, V&R, both Macari’s, the several MG shops, Philippe Daubrille and Dave King/Celine’s workshops, weekly gigging at the 12 Bar and 100 Club, Blues Bar, Charlotte Street, drinking in the Pillars Of Hercules and all the rest, then working in V&R for about 7 years and becoming part of the network between the shops and the extended UK vintage scene of Gary Winterflood, Richard Henry, Clive Brown, Charlie Chandler, Phil Harris etc, and beyond to Norm, Dave Hinson et al in the US, it’s nothing like it once was, explicitly as it was deeply grounded in dishonest practice and criminal activity and most got their comeuppance and lost their shops..
It was the Wild West for a long time, and you wouldn’t believe what went on as daily practice, and now that’s harder to pull off, and the reality of running a crushingly expensive premises in a utterly saturated sector means the scene died, and I confess the guitars are the last thing I go to see should I happen to be local. 

Arktik83

LesbianWithAGun said:

I saw a 1960's red Fender Stratocaster in the window with a £116, 000.00 price tag on, and, that guitar wasn't there long.

Was probably confiscated by the local constabulary for being a blatant fake.  A certain shop in Denmark Street was infamous for that kind of thing.

I used to go to Denmark Street when I was a kid and we were in the craze of Nu Metal so it was loads of shred and pointy guitars which is what I was in to at the time.  Before the Internet retailers really established themselves.  It was a great spectacle but the people who worked in the shops stank, attitude amongst other things.  Went back there years later to give it a second go and it was more the same snooty sales people.  

It's naff now, it feels like a relic being left behind.  I can see why they have to charge stupid amounts of money for guitars because I bet the rents are astronomical but because they cram as much stock in to as small a space as possible I think it puts a lot of the big ticket buyers off, sure they would go and see what is on offer but any serious parting of cash they would probably go somewhere like Peach, Andertons or World Guitars where the experience is better.  With Denmark street it feels like it's broke but ain't nobody trying to fix it. 

Shame really because you could have really had a day out there.  Have a nice breakfast in a cafe, have a browse in Denmark Street, lunch somewhere then off to Chinatown to have a great chinese and a few beers but as it stands you've seen all of what Denmark Street has to offer in 30 minutes.

prowla

Well, I went there yesterday and I only went into a couple of shops and didn't see anything that grabbed me. There are a load of really overpriced pedals about!

I did go to the Bubba Gump restaurant on Leicester Square for dinner though; it was good but rather pricey.