X -Music

Smiler · 13-10-2008 4:06pm

A that's a sticky one

The website front end is finished and running, the only problem is that we are in the middle of uploading all the images and discriptions into the database. With over 15,000 products - that's going to take some time.

We might open sections of it as time goes on - probably the guitar/amplifier section first. We'll see. But it will be asap.

Oh and unlike most of the other sites - we will be taking Credit card & Laser.

jtsuited · 13-10-2008 4:22pm

was out there this afternoon.

Jaysus it's big. You could swing many cats tied together in there.

Talking to a guy upstairs I had an interesting conversation. Apparently (according to him), thomann did 9.5 million euro-worth of business in Ireland last year.
They are not hiding the fact that one of their main goals is to compete with thomann. The guy said he'd give me the Access Virus TI for 2k. Which is actually a good bit cheaper than Thomann, so they mean business!!

Nice guy too. I sort of had to bite my lip when he was talking about thomann putting numerous music shops out of business in Ireland. The irony being that X-Music are surely not going to help small music shops in Ireland buying at such huge volumes and offering such competitive prices.

A few minor gripes I had:
1. No Waldorf Blofeld. This is unbelievable as the blofeld is probably the biggest selling synth right now (due to it's unbelievably low price). Heck it even had it's own thread on this very board a few weeks ago.

I had 400 euro burnin a hole in my pocket, and it would have been nice to have a new toy this afternoon.
The guy said they won't be doing any waldorf stuff. Understandable position 12 months ago, but seems like a bad idea since the Blofeld came out.

2. The recording/pro-audio room didn't seem to have much organisation to it. Like there was little bits of dj gear (the torq connectiv and xponent) littered between synths and interfaces. A few dj mixers too, but no cdj's or 1210's in sight. Strange that. Maybe they're planning a bit of a tidy up?

It's like a music shop in an aircraft hangar and you could probably have a football match with the space that's there so hopefully they'll be filling it up with all sorts of things over the next while.

I don't know how deep they'll go into the 'pro-audio' world.
One of the reasons thomann became so popular was that you could get pretty much anything. From huge consoles to lighting to guitars to mics to dj stuff.

X-music have a long way to go if they want to really compete with the variety of products that thomann carries (judging by what I saw today - I'm sure it will change).

It is exciting to see a place like this really tackling a huge challenge like this and I do hope they succeed. The place is really amazing looking and will be a pleasure to shop in for many people.

Unfortunately with it just off the Mad Cow roundabout, many will only have a few hours of a window to get there during the day. Outside those hours and you can expect major traffic problems.

Anyways, it's a spectacular place and I really would like to see a gamble like this pay off. In times of recession it takes real balls to invest in something like this.

Smiler · 13-10-2008 4:51pm

Absolutely - The German sites do a ton of business here every year. Our goal is to take that money back to an 100% Irish company, were hoping to do this by really competing with their prices and providing a more personal service.

Only about 40% of our stock is in at the moment. So you can expect to see lots more goodies up here in the next few days/weeks.

If you don't feel like popping out to the Red Cow, were keeping the old Musician Inc shop on Drury St also (rebranded of course). So you'll be able to drop in there and order any of our stock from the main store and have it there the next day - if your in early enough it'll be the same day. It'll also stock all your perishables like strings, sticks, skins etc.

We'll also have the website up ASAP - I promise

And all the prices will be the same across all our mediums.

The basic principle here is that we don't want to be just another faceless music superstore. We want people to feel that they can still drop into us and get all the great personal service that they got from Musician Inc over the last 20 years.

P.S If you feel like avoiding the Red Cow roundabout you can always get off at the Ballymount exit and come in the back way - it's much quicker. And we have signs up to guide you.

Cheers

Mick

PaulBrewer · 13-10-2008 5:02pm

Smiler wrote: »

Only about 40% of our stock is in at the moment.

We received your order today, so you should have 40.5% tomorrow!

jtsuited · 13-10-2008 5:03pm

Smiler wrote: »

Absolutely - The German sites do a ton of business here every year. Our goal is to take that money back to an 100% Irish company, were hoping to do this by really competing with their prices and providing a more personal service.

Only about 40% of our stock is in at the moment. So you can expect to see lots more goodies up here in the next few days/weeks.

Cool. Figured that was the case.

Smiler wrote: »

If you don't feel like popping out to the Red Cow, were keeping the old Musician Inc shop on Drury St also (rebranded of course). So you'll be able to drop in there and order any of our stock from the main store and have it there the next day - if your in early enough it'll be the same day. It'll also stock all your perishables like strings, sticks, skins etc.

that's a nice touch for your city market. fair play.

Smiler wrote: »

The basic principle here is that we don't want to be just another faceless music superstore. We want people to feel that they can still drop into us and get all the great personal service that they got from Musician Inc over the last 20 years.

P.S If you feel like avoiding the Red Cow roundabout you can always get off at the Ballymount exit and come in the back way - it's much quicker. And we have signs up to guide you.

Have to say it's great seeing an Irish company doing this.

Must take the Ballymount exit next time. Jaysus ye have it all figured out!
Best of luck.

Smiler · 13-10-2008 5:04pm

PaulBrewer wrote: »

We received your order today, so you should have 40.5% tomorrow!

_sparkie_ · 13-10-2008 6:50pm

does anybody know what drum bands x-music stock? i hear there is a big pearl section, any meinl or paiste?

Open Up · 13-10-2008 8:22pm

Jesus if I see any more Pearl stuff I swear I'm gonna... I'm gonna be heading out there on thursday to check the place out. Looking forward to it. Now if they have Yammy and Zildjian stuff I'll be a regular. However I'm pretty sure there's no agent for either of them in Ireland anymore which is brilliant. :rolleyes:

smelltheglove · 13-10-2008 8:27pm

Open Up wrote: »

Jesus if I see any more Pearl stuff I swear I'm gonna... I'm gonna be heading out there on thursday to check the place out. Looking forward to it. Now if they have Yammy and Zildjian stuff I'll be a regular. However I'm pretty sure there's no agent for either of them in Ireland anymore which is brilliant. :rolleyes:

As far as i could see when i was down there there was a load of electronic kits,Brady kits,some savage DW kits not a drummer myself but they were the brands i saw most of of course there was a couple of pearl kits aswell ie. the joey jordison one

Open Up · 13-10-2008 8:30pm

Sounds like a bigger, cheaper (?) Music Maker then...

ENN0 · 13-10-2008 8:58pm

Really nice place...but very disappointed with the lack of DJ gear! I mean you guys could make a killing and get those f&@*s over in sounds around a good kicking if your prices are anything like thomann....

dudara · 13-10-2008 9:08pm

Went out there on Saturday with the S.O. as he's into his guitars and wanted to check out the new store.

Thanks for the free hot dogs, the energy drinks and I enjoyed the Beatles cover band.

My main gripe, and the reason we didn't buy anthing there, was that there were no prices on anything. Zilch.

I'm sorry Mick, but you've already lost us as customers by not having the courtesy to display prices.

PaulBrewer · 13-10-2008 9:22pm

dudara wrote: »

I'm sorry Mick, but you've already lost us as customers by not having the courtesy to display prices.

That's very unfair. The gaff was only open a matter of hours!

One might suggest you had the courtesy to ask?

PaulBrewer · 13-10-2008 9:27pm

Open Up wrote: »

Jesus if I see any more Pearl stuff I swear I'm gonna... I'm gonna be heading out there on thursday to check the place out. Looking forward to it. Now if they have Yammy and Zildjian stuff I'll be a regular. However I'm pretty sure there's no agent for either of them in Ireland anymore which is brilliant. :rolleyes:

Yamaha is now distributed directly from the UK. However they do have a full time Rep here who was a Danfay employee.

From what I hear, Yamaha won't be represented there for 'political' reasons.

PaulBrewer · 13-10-2008 9:30pm

smelltheglove wrote: »

As far as i could see when i was down there there was a load of electronic kits,Brady kits,some savage DW kits not a drummer myself but they were the brands i saw most of of course there was a couple of pearl kits aswell ie. the joey jordison one

Ronan who is in the Drum department has a beautiful Brady kit . He's one of the guys who I've been speaking to about our Drum Recording Masterclass so I hope to have him and his drums down to record.

studiorat · 13-10-2008 9:30pm

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Yamaha is now distributed directly from the UK. However they do have a full time Rep here who was a Danfay employee.

Ahhh! I remember getting a clutch cable and lever for me auld RXS. Them's were the days!

Savman · 13-10-2008 11:23pm

Smiler wrote: »

Absolutely - The German sites do a ton of business here every year. Our goal is to take that money back to an 100% Irish company, were hoping to do this by really competing with their prices and providing a more personal service.

Kudos on the service ethos, it's an important factor for me anyways, but I'm more interested in the product range tbh. Will take a trip over this week and check the gaff out.

frobisher · 13-10-2008 11:27pm

Smiler wrote: »

Hiya Lads

Mick from XMusic here. Any questions you have I'll do my best to answer for ya all.

Cheers

Mick

Hi Mick,
Welcome to the board. It's great to have someone from a shop come on so there can be open communication. I always think that transparency in business is best, warts and all. Looking forward to getting out there this week myself for a good poke around.

ogy · 14-10-2008 12:07am

Hi Mick,
Welcome to the board. It's great to have someone from a shop come on so there can be open communication. I always think that transparency in business is best, warts and all. Looking forward to getting out there this week myself for a good poke around.
Yesterday 23:23

ah remember the craic when brewer first turned up! how times have changed:)

PaulBrewer · 14-10-2008 12:08am

ogy wrote: »

ah remember the craic when brewer first turned up! how times have changed:)

Yer still talkin' about it ain't ya, Punk?

PaulBrewer · 14-10-2008 12:09am

A lad tryin to make an honest livin ....

Smiler · 14-10-2008 12:17am

dudara wrote: »

W

My main gripe, and the reason we didn't buy anthing there, was that there were no prices on anything. Zilch.

I'm sorry Mick, but you've already lost us as customers by not having the courtesy to display prices.

Thats an absolutley fair point man - no probs. But I would say in our defence that we only moved in on Monday.

It was a tad annoying for everyone that no prices were up (constantly having to check the computers an all) but we said we were going to open this weekend - so we did and I think most people who came out were happy with the level of service they recieved.

Anyway if you'ld like to pop out in the future everything will be priced up for ya.

Cheers

Mick

TelePaul · 14-10-2008 12:23am

Smiler wrote: »

Thats an absolutley fair point man - no probs. But I would say in our defence that we only moved in on Monday.

It was a tad annoying for everyone that no prices were up (constantly having to check the computers an all) but we said we were going to open this weekend - so we did and I think most people who came out were happy with the level of service they recieved.

Anyway if you'ld like to pop out in the future everything will be priced up for ya.

Cheers

Mick

Might try get over Saturday. It's all very exciting.

Has anyone seen the pro audio section?

i57dwun4yb1pt8 · 14-10-2008 12:29am

im gonna let the dust settle for a few weeks before I go there.

if it seriously aims to capture the land back from the germanians then I will become a firm customer.

having Aidan and Ro in drums is a big bonus as well- great guys .

Smiler · 14-10-2008 12:34am

DaDumTish wrote: »

having Aidan and Ro in drums is a big bonus as well- great guys .

Indeed. We tried to pick the best guys we could - for all departments

Like I said before - we want people to feel they can drop into us anytime , even for just a chat:).

dudara · 14-10-2008 7:36am

Smiler wrote: »

Thats an absolutley fair point man - no probs. But I would say in our defence that we only moved in on Monday.

I really don't accept that. You are operating as a shop. Sorry to sound harsh here, but even in a niche market where people will happily spend hundreds on instruments, you need to price items.

I think most people who came out were happy with the level of service they recieved.

Wouldn't argue with that. It really looked as if the staff were willing and able to help anyone who asked.

Anyway if you'ld like to pop out in the future everything will be priced up for ya.

Cheers

Mick

I really appreciate the reply. It's good to know that you're listening to customers. Who knows, the next time we're on the N7 or so, we might call in again.

TelePaul · 14-10-2008 8:58am

Smiler wrote: »

Indeed. We tried to pick the best guys we could - for all departments

Need a dynamic general manager?

Red Sleeping Beauty · 14-10-2008 12:39pm

I never liked Thomann anyway!

I wonder will there be a delivery service available out of the old Drury St shop ? As in, could I go in to town say I want such and such, pay for it there and have it sent out to me ? Rather than trekking to the Mad Cow roundabout which is way out of my way living on the opposite side of the m50 and not having a car.

Smiler · 14-10-2008 12:43pm

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

I never liked Thomann anyway!

I wonder will there be a delivery service available out of the old Drury St shop ? As in, could I go in to town say I want such and such, pay for it there and have it sent out to me ? Rather than trekking to the Mad Cow roundabout which is way out of my way living on the opposite side of the m50 and not having a car.

Absolutley.

Red Sleeping Beauty · 14-10-2008 12:53pm

Good stuff and if you can order online paying with Laser that's a plus too. There's a guitar shop in Glasgow that I've been to a few times (girlfriend's Scottish) and their prices compete with the likes of Thomann and the in store/web prices are usually the same give or take the odd fiver/tener that it costs for delivery.

I'm hoping though that there's loads of fiddley stuff in stock, just stuff like Graph tech nuts and saddles for all shapes and sizes or exact replacement screws and whatever for a Fender... All the extra 5hite that Thomann have and that Musician sometimes had in stock but not always. Musicmaker and Waltons were always lousy with accesories like that.
Mind you though, if waltons did have what you were looking for you can be assured that whatever aul fella behind the counter you asked wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about . "Eh, acoustic tuneomatic bridge? Eh what's that? is it something to do with them big wooden gutiars?" :rolleyes:

danjokill · 14-10-2008 2:32pm

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

Good stuff and if you can order online paying with Laser that's a plus too. There's a guitar shop in Glasgow that I've been to a few times (girlfriend's Scottish) and their prices compete with the likes of Thomann and the in store/web prices are usually the same give or take the odd fiver/tener that it costs for delivery.

I'm hoping though that there's loads of fiddley stuff in stock, just stuff like Graph tech nuts and saddles for all shapes and sizes or exact replacement screws and whatever for a Fender... All the extra 5hite that Thomann have and that Musician sometimes had in stock but not always. Musicmaker and Waltons were always lousy with accesories like that.
Mind you though, if waltons did have what you were looking for you can be assured that whatever aul fella behind the counter you asked wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about . "Eh, acoustic tuneomatic bridge? Eh what's that? is it something to do with them big wooden gutiars?" :rolleyes:

Guitarguitar.co.uk ???

It's a super shop!!!!

Rockshandy · 14-10-2008 10:51pm

_sparkie_ wrote: »

does anybody know what drum bands x-music stock? i hear there is a big pearl section, any meinl or paiste?

At the moment the stock looks like this!

Pearl, DW, PDP, Gretsch, Spawn Kits
Sabian, Meinl, Zildjian Cymbals
Pearl, DW and Gibraltor hardware

plus a few more on the way!

bibi-phoque · 15-10-2008 10:38am

What about the Drums Roland stuff (like KD-85)?

PaulBrewer · 15-10-2008 12:15pm

bibi-phoque wrote: »

What about the Drums Roland stuff (like KD-85)?

As it's co owned by the guy who owns Roland I think it's reasonable to expect that Roland will be well represented!

bibi-phoque · 15-10-2008 12:17pm

Yeap, I dropped by xmusic last saturday, and all the TDs were there (TD3, TD9, TD12, TD20). However, there was no stock for single items (like toms or accessories). I'm dying to get a mesh pad for the kick pad, when will Roland be in stock?

PaulBrewer · 15-10-2008 12:20pm

Ask them! It shouldn't be a problem as Roland Ireland is only around the corner!!

Rockshandy · 15-10-2008 9:49pm

bibi-phoque wrote: »

Yeap, I dropped by xmusic last saturday, and all the TDs were there (TD3, TD9, TD12, TD20). However, there was no stock for single items (like toms or accessories). I'm dying to get a mesh pad for the kick pad, when will Roland be in stock?

Any of the Roland Drum Stuff wont be a problem to get in for you. just ask myself, Ro or Aidan and we'll order it no problem.

Forgot to introduce myself earlier, i'm Brian and i'm working in drums at x music, so any questions on drums direct them to me and i'll do my best to get a quick and friendly response to you guys!

i57dwun4yb1pt8 · 15-10-2008 10:40pm

dadumtish goes into waltons today for one ambassdor snare side head , and 2 top heads ( cos music maker didnt have any )

that will be 48 euro sir

dadumtish walks out with just the bottom head cos he was not that desperate .

hope they go to the wall soon

TelePaul · 15-10-2008 10:48pm

Rockshandy wrote: »

so any questions on drums direct them to me

Could you close the drum section in favour of an expanded guitars/bass/propoer instruments section? :P

PaulBrewer · 15-10-2008 11:44pm

TelePaul wrote: »

Could you close the drum section in favour of an expanded guitars/bass/propoer instruments section? :P

Extend to where? Kildare? The place is huge!

PaulBrewer · 15-10-2008 11:45pm

DaDumTish wrote: »

dadumtish goes into waltons today for one ambassdor snare side head , and 2 top heads ( cos music maker didnt have any )

that will be 48 euro sir

dadumtish walks out with just the bottom head cos he was not that desperate .

hope they go to the wall soon

Should a gone to X-Savers ..........

(shyt, that was corny even by Dav's standards)

Open Up · 15-10-2008 11:48pm

Doesn't he mean just extend into the drum section? Which would remove any reason for me to go there!

i57dwun4yb1pt8 · 16-10-2008 11:47am

x-savers - haha thats nice

well, its like this lads - look after the drummers and the band will look after it self ;-)

PaulBrewer · 16-10-2008 12:21pm

DaDumTish wrote: »

look after the drummers and the band will look after it self ;-)

Bad Drummer = Bad Band

_sparkie_ · 16-10-2008 11:44pm

thanks for the reply brian, i should be out this saturday for a visit.

rovers_runner · 17-10-2008 1:24pm

Hey lads, looking to pick up an acoustic to get back into playing.
You got any Ibanez models in stock ?
Also what time you open till this evening and what are your Sat hours ?

Thanks

i57dwun4yb1pt8 · 17-10-2008 1:26pm

you may want to use the phone mate

Smiler · 17-10-2008 1:37pm

rovers_runner wrote: »

Hey lads, looking to pick up an acoustic to get back into playing.
You got any Ibanez models in stock ?
Also what time you open till this evening and what are your Sat hours ?

Thanks

Hiya

This evening were open till 6 (Late on Thurs till 8) Saturday is 12-6 and Sunday is 12-5

Most of our Ibanez stock hasn't arrived in yet so I'd give it a week or so. Should be in next week. I'll post up when it's in. We have some Ibanez in here but not a hugh amount. Lemme know what your looking for and we can get it for ya.

Cheers

Mick

rovers_runner · 17-10-2008 1:40pm

Mick, thanks for the feedback, will call out tomorrow and have a look for a start.

jakeguitar13 · 17-10-2008 4:35pm

hey, when will the website be up

X -Music

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