MusicMaker & Goodwins - thumbs up

dubber

Have been recently searching for a new acoustic in Dublin and I'd just like to give a bit of praise to the Irish retailers - Goodwins and Musicmaker in particular. I found their staff very enthusiastic - I think I played nearly every guitar in their shops. Ended up finding one in Musicmaker, they beat thomann on price and threw in a bunch of free stuff. You can get a greater selection online, but you can't beat trying an instrument out in person and it looks like the Irish shops are getting competitive on price as well.

Rigsby

Nice to hear something positive for a change about our music shops, as one you mention, does not come in for a lot of good press on this forum.

dubber

Rigsby wrote: »

Nice to hear something positive for a change about our music shops, as one you mention, does not come in for a lot of good press on this forum.

I had gathered from a few posts here that they had gone through a "dodgy" patch alright (hadn't been in there for many years myself)... which was a pity, I remember as a kid (20 yrs ago), being interested in a strat and the guy there plugged me into a Marshall stack a turned it up to "11" to try out ... which looking back was a pretty cool thing to do (I did end up buying the strat .. it never did sound as good through by £50 practice amp though!).

quicklickpaddy

In fairness to them, MusicMaker in particular have really upped their ante in the last few years. They stay on the ball with more or less everything, are competitive and it's always enjoyable to go in there. And the same can be said for Dublin Guitar Centre too. To be honest I think we're fairly spoilt in that "Guitar Quater" of Dublin City. Especially with SomeNeck Guitars opening in the last few months. The only problem is that for the size that they are, I think it's a shame that Waltons don't try harder. I don't like going in there and I've never been impressed by price, service or selection. X-Music seem to be heading the same way which is also disappointing.

All things considered though, I don't think we're doing too badly at all with choice - even within a mile radius in the City Centre. Shops are also responding to that in price and service and they all have their own appeal to them

il gatto

Used to be expensive most places but these days, with Thomann, Musicstore, eBay etc. they need to compete. They can't charge 40% more and expect to survive. I'm glad they do compete though as even though I'm rarely in them there's a magic to going in that online hasn't got. And tbf to Music Maker I've bough stuff there down the years and their prices were ways the best I noticed in Dublin.

Rigsby

quicklickpaddy wrote: »

In fairness to them, MusicMaker in particular have really upped their ante in the last few years. They stay on the ball with more or less everything, are competitive and it's always enjoyable to go in there. And the same can be said for Dublin Guitar Centre too. To be honest I think we're fairly spoilt in that "Guitar Quater" of Dublin City. Especially with SomeNeck Guitars opening in the last few months. The only problem is that for the size that they are, I think it's a shame that Waltons don't try harder. I don't like going in there and I've never been impressed by price, service or selection. X-Music seem to be heading the same way which is also disappointing.

All things considered though, I don't think we're doing too badly at all with choice - even within a mile radius in the City Centre. Shops are also responding to that in price and service and they all have their own appeal to them

il gatto wrote: »

Used to be expensive most places but these days, with Thomann, Musicstore, eBay etc. they need to compete. They can't charge 40% more and expect to survive. I'm glad they do comPeter though as even though I'm rarely in them there's a magic to going in that online hasn't got. And tbf to Music Maker I've bough stuff there down the years and their prices were ways the best I noticed in Dublin.

Most of the "bad press" has not been about choice or prices, though I'm sure we all agree that there is room for improvement in this department. The main negativity with some of these shops concerns their attitude, which in my experience has not changed at all, in one of the shops mentioned by the OP.

Matt Bianco

dubber wrote: »

Have been recently searching for a new acoustic in Dublin and I'd just like to give a bit of praise to the Irish retailers - Goodwins and Musicmaker in particular. I found their staff very enthusiastic - I think I played nearly every guitar in their shops. Ended up finding one in Musicmaker, they beat thomann on price and threw in a bunch of free stuff. You can get a greater selection online, but you can't beat trying an instrument out in person and it looks like the Irish shops are getting competitive on price as well.

+1 OP

Have always enjoyed dropping into Goodwins as staff are very welcoming and guitars well set up and maintained. Suffers I'm sure from being off the old main drag but good to see it hanging on in there

quicklickpaddy

Rigsby wrote: »

Most of the "bad press" has not been about choice or prices, though I'm sure we all agree that there is room for improvement in this department. The main negativity with some of these shops concerns their attitude, which in my experience has not changed at all, in one of the shops mentioned by the OP.

I agree that that was a problem but now, (bar Waltons which I've had a bad experience with attitude from the staff recently and I wouldn't so much as buy a string off them out of principal) the vast majority of the shops seem a lot more accommodating. I'll also give SomeNeck a special shout here too. The guy who owns it couldn't have a better attitude towards customers. He's sorted me out a few times and I haven't even bought anything off him yet! I've bought amps out of Musicmaker and Dublin Guitar Centre so far this year and I'll give them both credit where credits due - great prices and very pleasant to deal with.

il gatto

Rigsby wrote: »

quicklickpaddy wrote: »

In fairness to them, MusicMaker in particular have really upped their ante in the last few years. They stay on the ball with more or less everything, are competitive and it's always enjoyable to go in there. And the same can be said for Dublin Guitar Centre too. To be honest I think we're fairly spoilt in that "Guitar Quater" of Dublin City. Especially with SomeNeck Guitars opening in the last few months. The only problem is that for the size that they are, I think it's a shame that Waltons don't try harder. I don't like going in there and I've never been impressed by price, service or selection. X-Music seem to be heading the same way which is also disappointing.

All things considered though, I don't think we're doing too badly at all with choice - even within a mile radius in the City Centre. Shops are also responding to that in price and service and they all have their own appeal to them

il gatto wrote: »

Used to be expensive most places but these days, with Thomann, Musicstore, eBay etc. they need to compete. They can't charge 40% more and expect to survive. I'm glad they do comPeter though as even though I'm rarely in them there's a magic to going in that online hasn't got. And tbf to Music Maker I've bough stuff there down the years and their prices were ways the best I noticed in Dublin.

Most of the "bad press" has not been about choice or prices, though I'm sure we all agree that there is room for improvement in this department. The main negativity with some of these shops concerns their attitude, which in my experience has not changed at all, in one of the shops mentioned by the OP.

Yeah. I remember about 12 years ago I was there just nosing about. Was looking at a Marshall Slash special edition JCM800. Wanker comes up and say "that costs £1,500. You still interested?" as if to say you should touch that, it's out of your league. I just said "no. I already have one" and ignored him until I wanted a pedal or somesuch. I didn't have a Slash edition but I do have a JCM800 head so I wasn't just being arsey. Nice to see his face drop when I said it. Stuff like that was scarce enough with young guys at the time. Had a job and got a good deal on it.

dubber

One thing I will say, the art of the old yarn is still alive and kicking though (in order to make a sale) ... you still need to arm yourself with knowledge and take any "information" given in certain shops with a pinch of salt.