Swan's Music, Oldham Rd, MCR

TTony

Is where I bought my first acoustic...
 
Just found the receipts in the case! They're undated, but it would have been sometime in the summer of 1981.

TTony

Yamaha FG 350w.

  
Still plays beautifully. 

Neck straight and true. 

Never had a set-up, just always been right. 

Freebird

I'll give you £90 for the case and the guitar?

TTony

Freebird said:

I'll give you £90 for the case and the guitar?

I think you probably meant a more-reasonable £900?

Answer is still no though

Freebird

TTony said:

Freebird said:

I'll give you £90 for the case and the guitar?

I think you probably meant a more-reasonable £900?

Answer is still no though

I though 3/4 of the cost price was perfectly reasonable, given the rule of thumb is 2/3 

Lovely guitar though, does it sound like a J45?

TTony

I’d gone into the city to buy a synth (it was 1981!) or an acoustic to take off to Uni.  

Once I’d realised that I had no idea how to play a keyboard, my search was narrowed down.

Remember sitting in the showroom playing this for ages - so long that the sales guy had buggered off somewhere and left me to it (with hindsight, they’d probably heard enough teenagers attempting to play Stairway, even in 1981).  I tried others, but this felt right and sounded right - and always has done.

Having decided, I then had to go back home, empty the piggy bank, and head back into the City with a load of cash to buy it.  

I’ve recently bought a Faith PJE Legacy Neptune electro, and a Taylor 12 string.  This old Yam is certainly not embarrassed in such expensive company.

Freebird

I could swap you a 1981 era Roland synth for it ...

TTony

Freebird said:

  

Lovely guitar though, does it sound like a J45?

I really don’t know, never having had or played a J45 @Freebird.

It’s got Rosewood back & sides and - I think - a Spruce top.  After 40-odd years of settling in, it’s got a nice warm, softish sound, but still plenty of clarity and plenty of volume too.

I’d keep this over the Faith and the Taylor.

CasperCaster

@TTony I never knew you were a Manc. Being from Preston, and (I assume) a couple of years younger, I didn't get around Manchesters music shops for another 5 years or so. 

ronnyb

We could start a 'show us your receipts' thread. Here's mine from A1 music in Manchester. Traded in an SG for which they allowed £269 p/ex. Still got the SJ. 

Nitefly

VAT at 8%!

TTony

CasperCaster said:

@TTony I never knew you were a Manc. Being from Preston, and (I assume) a couple of years younger, I didn't get around Manchesters music shops for another 5 years or so. 

Don’t call me a Manc-er @CasperCaster

I lived in a small town in South Cheshire for a few years, the main advantage of which was the train station on the line into Manchester Oxford Road.

Don’t fancy school today?  Get the train into the City and spend a few hours wandering around music shops!  

richardhomer

Yes - remember it well - a very ‘respectable’ old-school music shop. Chase was a little further down the road and was the fore-runner of the PMT-style music superstore - except their prices were super low. The city had some great music shops around that time - A1, Mameloks, Deansgate Music, Renos, Barratts.... I’m getting all misty-eyed....

TTony

@richardhomer - Chase may well have been where I’d been temporarily tempted by the new-thing synths!

ahhh, happy days, simpler times ... 

CasperCaster

TTony said:

CasperCaster said:

@TTony I never knew you were a Manc. Being from Preston, and (I assume) a couple of years younger, I didn't get around Manchesters music shops for another 5 years or so. 

Don’t call me a Manc-er @CasperCaster

I lived in a small town in South Cheshire for a few years, the main advantage of which was the train station on the line into Manchester Oxford Road.

Don’t fancy school today?  Get the train into the City and spend a few hours wandering around music shops!  

Fair enough! At least your small town was on the train line! The village I'm from is a good distance from the train. It wasn't until I attended college in Leyland that bunking off for a day became an option! 

richardhomer

TTony said:

@richardhomer - Chase may well have been where I’d been temporarily tempted by the new-thing synths!

ahhh, happy days, simpler times ... 

Almost certainly - they were probably the original ‘hi-tech’ dealer. They advertised in International Musician and had a number of shops IIRC.

Freebird

Nitefly said:

VAT at 8%!

20% is a temporary measure, alledgely!

CasperCaster

@richardhomer I remember most of those stores too. Barratts and A1 were particular favourites given their proximity to Oxford Road railway station. Back in the day I also remember Johnny Roadhouse, and that it sold all sorts of secondhand stuff, not just musical instruments. I bought a secondhand Ibanez Sonic Distortion pedal there for £12. My Hohner bass was purchased from Mamelok, and later part-ex'd for a Tokai Jazz Bass in A1 (after a particularly lucrative New Years eve gig). Barratts also owned a music shop in Preston, on the corner of Meadow Street. Happy days. 

SteveRobinson

Around that time I bought my first Gibson on the same street.

I don't have the guitar, swapped it for an Epiphone in the mid 90s.

SteveRobinson

I bought the guitar on HP. Signed the forms, paid my deposit and walked out with the guitar and got the train back home.

I was expecting paperwork in the post but nothing ever arrived. I'd had the guitar six months when the shop phoned asking if I had one of their guitars. Being an honest kind of chap I said yes I did. It seems the shop had a fire which destroyed all their records. I've no idea how they found me.

Also I had failed the credit check. My mum had to pay the balance and I paid her back over a year.

richardhomer

SteveRobinson said:

I bought the guitar on HP. Signed the forms, paid my deposit and walked out with the guitar and got the train back home.

I was expecting paperwork in the post but nothing ever arrived. I'd had the guitar six months when the shop phoned asking if I had one of their guitars. Being an honest kind of chap I said yes I did. It seems the shop had a fire which destroyed all their records. I've no idea how they found me.

Also I had failed the credit check. My mum had to pay the balance and I paid her back over a year.

I bought a Music Man amp from Rock Island in Oldham on a ‘House Account’ - which basically meant they liked/trusted the customer to pay them back. No interest, no credit check, no formal credit agreement. I don’t know if they had a high level of defaults - but they got every penny out of me. As @TTony said - simpler times.