London shops

Doctor J

Like the Luftwaffe, I too am drawn to the lights of London taahn, for a short while at least. Is there an area with a decent number of guitar shops near to each other where a man might pass an hour or two?

This is purely to keep the missus entertained, you understand

Welease

Isn't Denmark St. still awash with guitar shops? Never been down to visiit there myself though..

Doctor J

Ah yeah, Denmark Street rings a bell alright. Cheers.

Dord

Denmark St. is the place alright, but also make sure you check out The Bass Gallery on Royal College St.
They have a lot of nice bass gear and its also home to Sei Basses.

Doctor J

A clumsy man like myself doesn't go within a stumble and trip of the likes of a Sei bass

feylya

There's a few shops down in Soho IIRC.

Dord

Doctor J wrote: »

A clumsy man like myself doesn't go within a stumble and trip of the likes of a Sei bass

:eek: You could end up accidently stumbling and dropping your credit card on the counter. Next thing you know you'll be walking out of the store with a Sei and a very confused look on your face.

fish-head

The best guitar shop in the world is there, Wunjo Guitars. Check it out! Full of interesting and vintage guitars and get this... they encourage you to play them!

Dord

fish-head wrote: »

The best guitar shop in the world is there, Wunjo Guitars. Check it out! Full of interesting and vintage guitars and get this... they encourage you to play them!

Seriously?! No dirty looks involved? :eek:


:pac::pac::pac:

Doctor J

fish-head wrote: »

get this... they encourage you to play them!

That's crazy talk! Why would you lie to me through the medium of words?

smellslikeshoes

Joe Robot wrote: »

Denmark St. is the place alright, but also make sure you check out The Bass Gallery on Royal College St.
They have a lot of nice bass gear and its also home to Sei Basses.

Those basses are astonishing looking.

punchdrunk

+10000 on Wunjo
sound lads! noice gear!

Johnny Storm

Denmark St is yer man. Tottenham Court Road Station is nearby which is located at the bottom of (ie underneath) a huge office block called Centerpoint. This is highly visible from all over London so will find yourself drawn there like a magnet.
Prices in Denmark St do not seem cheap. I'd imagine they are fairly negotiateable. Be aware that almost all the shops there are owned by the same company.
Some well worth-while sights to be seen eg 7-sting Fender strat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark_Street

For better prices but on mass-market type gear see downstairs in the Virgin Superstore just a few hundred feet down oxford st from Centrepoint

Soundhouse/Turnkey has a good selection of guitars upstairs, this is on Charing Cross Road. Just keep going from Centrepoint down Charing Cross Road past the start of Denmark St.

If you know either the post code or the address of where you are starting from and where you want to go - this website is brilliant for telling you how to get there by tube/bus:

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

Doctor J

Cheers Johnny, I know Tottenham Court Road and Oxford street area well enough, I'll be bringing the oul GPS yoke too just to make sure I find em all

Johnny Storm

Doctor J wrote: »

Cheers Johnny, I know Tottenham Court Road and Oxford street area well enough, I'll be bringing the oul GPS yoke too just to make sure I find em all

Excellent plan

Charing Cross Road is the extension of Tottenham Court Road when it crosses the end of Oxford St.

11811

there's a really cool vintage guitar shop(can't remember what its called) down tin pan alley off denmark street, well worth checking out, if its still there, i was there about a year ago...

punchdrunk

don't forget macari's, just a few minutes walk straight down past soho soundhouse,some great book shops along there too!

Ancient1

Doc, I stumbled upon Denmark Street by pure accident a few years ago and went insane. Watch yo self, especially in front of the vintage one.

11811

[QUOTE= Watch yo self, especially in front of the vintage one.[/QUOTE]
hehe - too true:D
there were some incredible guitars in that shop when i was there,as well as some real rare vintage amps, major price tags tho... not for the faint hearted!
I set my eyes on a fifties p-bass inside when i was there, girlfriend had to physically drag me out of the shop!
as for killing a few hours, a fellow could spend weeks around the area looking at guitars.

fish-head

Doctor J wrote: »

That's crazy talk! Why would you lie to me through the medium of words?

No sh1t!

Sample conversation

Me: "Oh wow, a 68 Gretsch Tennessee Rose! Looks amazing."
Lovely Shopfellow: "Here, plug it into this vintage Vox amp and see how you like it.."

Doctor J

It's cool. I'm not on a vintage buzz at all at the moment, and I've got big plans starting with the letter "B" so the credit card should return intact. I just want to check out some stuff that you can't play over here.

judas101

fish-head wrote:

Me: "Oh wow, a 68 Gretsch Tennessee Rose! Looks amazing."
Lovely Shopfellow: "Here, plug it into this vintage Vox amp and see how you like it.."

wow, i'm not sure how i'd react to courtesy and good customer service in a guitar shop.

Fad

judas101 wrote: »

wow, i'm not sure how i'd react to courtesy and good customer service in a guitar shop.

to be honest, soiling oneself and leaving immediatly would almost be expected from an irish person, considering customer servide here

i bought a lovely DD-6 on denmark street last month, theyre really sound in there, went through how it all works, nothing major, but i nice touch

Doctor J

Denmark Street is a fairly impressive place, shop after shop, you kinda get blinded after the first five or six though :pac:

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. As with the shops here, it's largely low budget crap and the same old brands, though seeing some G&Ls, Warwicks, real ESPs and EBMM was interesting. The 65 Jazz bass in Wunjo for £4500 was interesting though you could've put a Mars bar between the strings and the frets. The 75 Jazz with several non-original parts for £2200 restored my contempt for guitar shops. The rest of their stuff was... well... let's politely say not to my taste The vintage place was ok but wildly overpriced and nothing really stood out, other than a 63 strat but £13500... **** right off.

judas101

well Lonon isnt exactly the place to grab a bargain no matter what your looking for.

nice place but uber pricey

Doctor J

Dunno man, thought the whole place was a kip - Starbucks, Burger King, McDonalds and Subway every 50 metres gets a bit monotonous

feylya

Ah man, I could kill for a Starbucks right now.

Doctor J

Oh man, I am sick of them. Seriously, you can always see at least one Starbucks from any point in London, ****in nuts.

feylya

Yeah, I got sick of them from Dundrum town centre but I haven't had a proper one in months. Ridiculous amounts of mediocre coffee for reasonable amounts of cash.

So, what did you buy in London?

punchdrunk

hmmm peppermint hot chocolate...

anyways you'd be mad not to go to the states if you were looking for a vintage guitar!

Doctor J

I bought a few CDs by Muddy Waters, King's X and Tony Williams Lifetime, that's about it. Honestly, the guitar shops did nothing for me, the vintage stuff just wasn't worth it, definitely New York offers way better value and the new stuff was largely the same old same old. All the while I had the Duke on my mind

feylya

Ah, you were doing comparisons. "Yeah, it's nice but the Duke is nicer....and cheaper "

Doctor J

About half the price for twice the guitar, that's the one

feylya

Have you started putting Bacchus business cards between the strings on the Gibsons yet?

Doctor J

Eventually, that's the plan

Ahh, it's just the way it goes, there was plenty of Gibsons over there but nothing that really tickled my fancy. I haven't really had much time for them since the dude in the studio with the sharp G, every other fret in tune issue. If that's the standard that gets let out of the factory then I don't want to know. You ordered another Ran yet?

feylya

Na. My Eggle is better :eek:

Actually, I can't say which is better. I guess I'll just have to get one of each

Dord

I need to take a trip over to London soon. If anything just for a browse and maybe a gig or two. Haven't been there in years. Last time I was there I got an Ibanez SB-7 pedal, piece of crap. I was young and naive though.

Doctor J

It was a let down, to be honest, and hugely expensive. You'd be halfway to buying a feckin bass for the amount of money you'd spend getting and staying there. Lots of Stingrays, a few Warwicks and pretty much everything else you can try in Dublin.

Internet buying ftw

Dord

Ahh yeah, internet buying is great. My credit card company thinks so anways...

*looks at latest bill*

I've got other reasons for going over there anyways, one of my brothers lives there.

Doctor J

Hmmmm... I must try that with the missus

"Baby, my brother lives out in Japan, I have to go there!"

Dord

Doctor J wrote: »

Hmmmm... I must try that with the missus

"Baby, my brother lives out in Japan, I have to go there!"

ROFL! :pac::pac::pac:

gerthewanker

Denmark street is THE place to be for guitars really.Tottenham court road has a good all purpose store called Turnkey and Virgin(Zavvi) on Oxford street has a HUGE guitar center underneath it aswell.Nothing I seen can compare to the sheer amount a variety on offer from all these store but the downside about these places is that 9 times out of 10 the shop will be packed with little teen twats trying to impress people by playing guitar fast(and badly):cool:

Timans

Denmark Street is brilliant.

Must have about 10 music shops on one small street, I bought my first bass there.

Johnny M

I know what u mean about denmark st doc j...i went with high hopes and money in my pocket and was let down.very f*ckin pricey for even the run of the mill stuff. ok nice vintage gear but c'mon some of the prices were ridiculous..and that was in sterling never mind euro! I got a set of bare knuckle pick ups was the only upside. and the tokais were cheap enough.
You should go on a trip to the states..guitar centre on sunset blvd in LA is a must see ..now THEY have a vintage section that will blow ur friggin mind. plus tons of new gear and lots of original axes donated by famous guitarists etc to drool over and with the xchange u can grab a real bargain new or old. I'm in asia at the moment keepin an eye on guitars and prices wherever i am ..Bangkok is pretty good for new and used stuff i'll try get some pics up just for fun...

Johnny M

oh yeah and you might get to see some famous faces droppin by there too...in LA that is!

gerthewanker

Guityar centre seem to be a very good chain alright they beat the pants off any european store on prices.Pity they dont ship to europe!:mad:

moonboy

denmark street is the business. met robert plant guitar browsing when i was there.