Following on from recent OPS regarding the recent closure of more local guitar shops - Does your town, city, suburb still have a guitar shop ?
I know we can blame Brexit, the internet, the economy, the general decline of the high street with related issues like parking and business rates - Along with other factors like the quality of staff etc
However one big factor now is the level of funding required to set-up, open, run a store - Along with the appropriate required dealerships - It is almost a case now that if you don't have the Gibson/Epiphone account, the Fender account, the Marshall account, either Martin and/or Taylor, then you will be already fighting something of a losing battle
Brands like Yamaha, Schecter, PRS, Blackstar, Mesa Boogie, Laney, Musicman etc will add credibility to your store, but a mixture of these on their own, without Gibson/Fender/Marshall will already put your business plan on the back foot
Second hand/vintage alone and your biggest competitor is instantly Reverb, E-bay, even FB, Gumtree, Facebook etc - This will include what is available for you to buy and sell on, at sensible/profitable prices, as many sellers will try and get a better prices on the appropriate used sites
The above is a general statement as there are still guitar stores who specialise in certain areas that survive - But when I look at many towns now in the UK, that are just about devoid of any local music store, it is obvious that the MI Trade is now more polarised than ever before - I'm not defending, questioning, or attacking such activities - I'm not even questioning those who will say I only shop on-line now - It is just an observation that does your local town still have a guitar based shop, that allows you to buy a set of Ernie Ball strings, Boss pedal, a guitar stand, a gig bag, or a tuner ?
Maybe better to reply/comment along the lines of I live in XYZ and no longer have a store in my town - Or I live in ABC and have a local store called ERTY - I had a chat today, with a retired colleague from the trade and we mentioned many towns that he would visit in the past, that had a guitar shop, but they all appear to have now closed down
Comments
Kempster & Son is a small, old school shop still run by Mr Kempster and iirc briefly featured on a TPS short when Dan needed to buy something. Back in the day Simon "SVL Guitars" Law worked in there and was the resident tech.
Holmes Music is a larger shop, does a bit of everything and also runs lessons for most instruments out of teaching rooms upstairs. The titular owner also is pretty well plugged in to various charity and local good causes and it's common to see them donate the use of drum kits/PA to charity gigs and suchlike in the area.
Both are salt-of-the-earth type places that you'd dearly like to spend your music-making money in, but the usual constraints of the limited ranges and stick they can hold mean that choice is quite limited.
https://treeoflifeguitars.co.uk/
Pop in, say hello, spend some money!...
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
One town over in Warwick there is another guitar shop that seems to never be open and when it is open, the hours are very irregular. The range in there is quite ecclectic with a few second hand pieces that are nice but seem very ambitiously priced. I have to admit though I've never been in and only seen through the window due to the opening hours.
If I ever want to go and have a 'gear fix' these days, I make a day of it and head into Birmingham to spend a few hours looking around GuitarGuitar and PMT.
That said, most of my recents purchases have been from off the Classifieds here, eBay or Gumtree.
I live in Streatham, South London and as far as I know the only guitars for sale are in Cash Converters.
There used to be a guitar shop within walking distance, Gigsounds between Streatham and Tooting, but it closed at some point, I have no idea when. I only went there once to buy some strings, I think that was in pre-internet days - or at least in the days when online music stores were useless places which listed loads of things which weren't actually in stock.
The next nearest place would be Croydon, home of Feline Guitars. I think there were one or two music shops in Croydon but I suspect they've also gone.
Havant has a tiny guitar shop that used to completely shun the internet but I see how has a website: http://www.havantmusicmart.co.uk/
PMT Portsmouth (which is actually in Farlington) is 10 mins away.
Chichester has one used / vintage shop run by a guy who played guitar all his life and will not use the internet.
Also had Guitar Sounds which sadly closed after Christmas.
I haven't been in in a few years tbh, I simply haven't needed anything.
I drove past yesterday and had one of those lovely new Fender Meteoras in LPB hanging in the window and I definitely don't need that. Nope.
GAK
Brighton Guitars
Mudpie Music
Badlands Guitars
Hobgoblin
The Acoustic Music Co
to name a few ....
I just think with a big purchase like that, who's going to be too lazy to travel to Glasgow that one time?
I've bought strings there and they were very expensive.
https://www.langleyguitarcentre.co.uk/
i havent been in Kempsters for a little while, but it has generally had a small but good stock of Fenders, amongst a few other brands. I think I’ve seen Rickenbackers in there too. About 12 years ago I bought a MIM Tele there, my first Fender, followed a year later by a Highway 1 Strat, my first American Fender. I think they also still sell drums and they have a good stock of classicals.
Holmes have tended towards the lower price brackets in recent years, they probably still have Squiers in.
A few years ago they diversified into vinyl records.
There was a guitar shop in Cirencester, but that disappeared a few years ago.
About 45 mins drive away is World Guitars in Stonehouse. Proper high end electric gear. Unfortunately they stopped doing acoustics. The nearest place for quality acoustics is now Vintage and Rare in Bath, about an hour away.