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When it first started it was very much your budget stuff, cheap guitars and amps with the odd interesting preowned item. But now Pete who runs the shop is an official Boss and Fender stockist, as well as a good number of other brands, and he's actually downscaled much of the 'cheap' stuff and stocks Mexican and American Fenders, Chinese and Japanese Ibanez, the latest Boss stuff, and is expanding his range of pedals to include more brands and more boutique stuff.
I don't think he makes a huge killing like a bigger shop in a bigger town, but he supplements this by working as a function musician during weekends, and he's actually got quite a few famous customers/contacts - Chris Buck always comes in to stock up when passing through as he's from a village a few miles up the road (where I used to live, in fact), and they had a competition to win a rig donated by the bassist from Thin Lizzy last year. There are always guys popping in there who have travelled from far and wide, or they'll 'pop in' on their way home as it's only about 5 miles off the M4.
He seems to supply a lot of working musicians and does 'web price or lower' deals for his regulars like me. I'm still pinching myself that we have a really good music shop about three quarters of a mile from my house. I can walk there in about five minutes.
He's got a decent guitar tech too, so it's basically an ideal solution for me. I only tend to buy stuff elsewhere if he can't order it in, or it's not the kind of thing he'd stock (like some of the really obscure pedals I like).
So he must be doing alright with the sheer quality of stuff he's getting in now, and the deals he gives to regulars. In five years it's really transformed.
Peter Cook’s is especially missed - great shop.
CCGX is 3 miles away and that covers most of my needs. If I feel like a trip (maaan) I like Mudpie in Brighton, Wunjos in town and Guitar Village isn’t far away down the M3.
Very few left now, and none of any real merit. A small 'beginners' kinda shop, which is really friendly, in Sedgley.
I tend to head to Birmingham, although Coda is 'my' shop - some 3 hours away
That Wazmeister Towers ought to be a shop (to quote the wife)... "as it's got enough bloody guitars and pedals in it..."
Stock and Chapman(All Saints)
Barrats (used to have 3 locations)
A1 music-then Academy,then Sound Control in this location.
Highway Music (Deansgate)
Muir Music (Chester Road)
Sounds Acoustic(Next door to Muir)
Swanns(Oldham Street)
Highams Harmony House
Renos
Mamelok
Mayer Harrison (Hulme)
Nield and Hardy (Gorton and Stockport)
Rhythm House (Stockport)
Music Exchange (Stockport)
Reynolds (Salford)
Soundland (Salford-may not be correct name)
Tony Savile
Gary Sharpes Shop in Ancoats (I cannot remember the name)
North Greater Manchester--
Rock Island (Oldham)
Prince Music (Oldham)
Spectrum Sound(Bury)
Dr Rock (Bury and Rochdale)
Tractor Sound (Rochdale)
Shorrock and Shorrock (Rochdale)
Accordion Shop (Rochdale)
Guitar Player (Rochdale)
Beats (Rochdale)
Twangs (Rochdale).
There's Hertford Guitar Studio (was going to say website is a waste of time because it never changes, but it's changed!). They're more about lessons and tuition, but have a small shop front selling random guitars, amps and consumables. Also a drop off/pick up point for getting gear to techs if you don't know them directly. Seems to be run by nice people, always friendly and interested in what I might be up to/where playing etc. when I go in.
20 minutes down the road in Harlow there's https://www.giggear.co.uk/ - they used to have a shop in Hertford, but closed it and merged it with the Harlow store, which is a big warehouse affair. Decidedly less personal service, but much larger range of stock (although often with shit strings/bad setup etc. on the wall).
And of course 20 minutes up the road the other way is Coda.
Used to have a shop in Ware too (next town along) but that has long since converted into a "music college" (and was originally mostly piano/keyboard rather than guitar).
PMT in Romford and Giggear in Harlow are about 20 mins away.
Allegro Music in Chelmsford is a general music shop but has a reasonable guitar section upstairs...again this is about 20 mins away.
I use CCGX. I've got a couple of guitars on consignment sale in there at the moment. If the traffic is bad though, it can be 40 minutes.
I can get to Guitar Village, Andertons, or a couple of Guitar Guitar branches within an hour or so as well.
It's not quite the same as having Chandler's 2 miles from home though, or Digital Village (pre dodgy administration) 5 minutes walk from my office. Being able to try out a pedal in my lunch break was good. Or being able to cycle to Chandlers on a Saturday and have a mooch around.
As others have said, we have two well established ones in Swindon. Haven`t bought from one of them for years - the other I`ve used for guitar set up work regularly, and bought a 2nd hand amp there in 2018.
I am still guilty of buying strings from Amazon.........
Being on the south coast we have a decent spread although some driving required, the portsmouth ones mentioed above plus Southampton shop/s then within an hour we have andertons, absolute music, guitar village, guitar guitar, the smaller ones in reading and just about brighton.
i was sorry to see it go, I spent a lot of time over the years chatting with the guys there
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
I bought my Helix from there & the odd pedal.
we also have Nottingham Guitar Centre, which I am convinced is owned by a lottery winner. I cannot see how he can turn a profit. The majority of his stock seems to be sourced from that auction house in Bath. So most private sales would be way cheaper. Then the workshop has a slower turnaround than anywhere I’ve seen, so I just get on the train and go to Tim Marten in London if I need anything doing. I was quoted three weeks for a set up once. So now I don’t even go in there.
Hot-Rox gets a lot of my custom.
Music Inn, I’ve not been in it since about 1993
The most impressive place Ive seen recently is RichTone. I went in on a Wednesday and it was really busy. Friendly and stuff was well priced.
i used to like Chandler’s in Kew too - until they sold a couple of guitars for me. Very poor experience.