Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: Jonny on April 09, 2010, 12:25:39 PM
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I must say the Belfast Guitar Emporium was better than others that exist in Belfast and I came back hoping to pop in and see the guys I got to know.
It's gone. GONE FOREVER!!
Yes, it is now called 'Music Matters' with a bloke and an old woman as employees. And the shop was as bare as a male builder's ass crack.
Sad times.
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dang, i didn't realise that, the sign was still up when i went past it about a week or two ago (at night). that sucks. where am i going to try tokais and vigiers now?
music matters is in lisburn, i think... i'm guessing they're expanding? not the worst music shop i've ever been to, but not a patch on BGE.
EDIT: I'm guessing that it actually has stopped trading this time if it's changed to music matters... a couple of years ago they claimed to be closing down and then, er, didn't.
EDIT #2: yes I'm aware of the irony that I just ordered a bunch of guitar stuff online. :lol:
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It's just another Matchetts Music, providing all the beginner stuff because parents don't know what quality goes into an instrument. As long as its cheap and their kids dont bother them and stay after school to go to orchestra practice.
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wow. judging from the recent posts here, music shops seem to be dropping like flies in the U.K. and E.U... At my shop business is slow sure but we're still hitting a bit above our minimum operating revenue and own all the stock in the shop itself..
damn recession!
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Oh, for those looking, I think one of the ex BGE chaps has set up in Pottinger's Entry, across from The Doc Shop/Morning Star, in half of the computer shop that's there (yeah, pretty much, it's in the "InShops"). There's not piles in stock, pretty much a lot of Cort Guitars and Black*Star amps, but it's something.
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that's a pity. it was more a "guitar" shop than the others, and was the only one around with actually interesting stuff in stock. of course, the problem with the more interesting stuff is, you're not gonna sell as much of it!
hopefully, when the ecomomic climate improves, somewhere like it will spring back up. Northern Ireland could do with somewhere that has more than Squier strats and marshall mg's
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dang, i didn't realise that, the sign was still up when i went past it about a week or two ago (at night). that sucks. where am i going to try tokais and vigiers now?
music matters is in lisburn, i think... i'm guessing they're expanding? not the worst music shop i've ever been to, but not a patch on BGE.
EDIT: I'm guessing that it actually has stopped trading this time if it's changed to music matters... a couple of years ago they claimed to be closing down and then, er, didn't.
EDIT #2: yes I'm aware of the irony that I just ordered a bunch of guitar stuff online. :lol:
One of the biggest problems that "Good" shops face is that people use them to test stuff out and then go to an online "box shifter" with no staff or retail premises to upkeep to save a few quid.
I know only too well the intense difficulties in keeping a shop or facility open - see my recent thread about my £3000 electric bill.
The costs for business owners keep going up and up whilst the actual trade keeps going down .
Sadly it is only a matter of time before we lose most of our shops and we will be much sadder for it
It is only the shops selling beginner stuff that can survive as first purchases are still usually done in a shop as the customer needs the advice or guidance.
Higher end stuff tends to be where it gets tricky as players have more confidence to shop around
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Hopefully people will become nostalgic of buying guitars in shops and return to them. I'd rather have the help and guidance of a person face to face rather than a F.A.Q section. Plus, it's fun to haggle prices and see what deals you can get from your favourite shop (some thing I've done recently).
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Oh, for those looking, I think one of the ex BGE chaps has set up in Pottinger's Entry, across from The Doc Shop/Morning Star, in half of the computer shop that's there (yeah, pretty much, it's in the "InShops"). There's not piles in stock, pretty much a lot of Cort Guitars and Black*Star amps, but it's something.
where's that?
One of the biggest problems that "Good" shops face is that people use them to test stuff out and then go to an online "box shifter" with no staff or retail premises to upkeep to save a few quid.
I know only too well the intense difficulties in keeping a shop or facility open - see my recent thread about my £3000 electric bill.
The costs for business owners keep going up and up whilst the actual trade keeps going down .
Sadly it is only a matter of time before we lose most of our shops and we will be much sadder for it
It is only the shops selling beginner stuff that can survive as first purchases are still usually done in a shop as the customer needs the advice or guidance.
Higher end stuff tends to be where it gets tricky as players have more confidence to shop around
I've actually bought several things from them. Not a ton, but if everyone who played guitar in NI gave them what I gave them I reckon they'd still be in business. Granted, I do buy a lot of stuff online too, but that's mainly because the stuff I'm buying online I can't get here (no dealers), or is ridiculously more expensive here (I'll pay an extra £20 on e.g. a £500 item to buy local, not an extra £200- and that's before you even consider that that shop ISN'T actually local to me, and is a ~100 mile round trip).
I refuse to order something which a shop claims will be able to get into stock because (a) I've had problems with that before when something took 6 months to turn up and (b) that kinda defeats the purpose of getting to try it first. There's a distinct lack of higher-end stuff here, too. And by "higher end" I don't mean "more expensive Fenders", I mean stuff like suhr, tyler, all the british builders etc. Not one dealer here for any of that stuff (actually there's one dealer for JJ, and that's about it, and they have about 2 guitars in stock, one of which has a gigantic ding in the front which they offered me about £80 off for :lol: ).
Sorry for the rant, but it goes both ways. If the shops don't have what I want in stock, of course I'm going to go online. Even the odd shop which did stock the brands I was interested often didn't have the exact model i wanted in stock... and often when i did go in to try something with the intention of buying it if I liked it, I didn't like it. :lol: or at least didn't like it enough to buy it.
EDIT: the stuff I ordered was that new VHT special 6 amp (not available in the UK yet, as far as I know) and a set of sperzel locking tuners, mainly ordered to get me over the free postage threshold at thomann. As i said, those "local" guitar shops aren't exactly local, I'm not going to drive 100 miles to buy some tuners (which they probably don't have in stock anyway) when 2 clicks online will get them posted to me.
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Wasn't a pop at you Dave - just commenting on the whole situation.
People with proper retail premises are under real pressure with rising costs (including myself ) and if not enough business comes in then it all comes tumbling down.
With a lot of businesses and shops - it's a case of use them or lose them
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I prefer to buy from a shop....go in try..buy...get to look closely at guitar and test it out properly
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Oh, for those looking, I think one of the ex BGE chaps has set up in Pottinger's Entry, across from The Doc Shop/Morning Star, in half of the computer shop that's there (yeah, pretty much, it's in the "InShops"). There's not piles in stock, pretty much a lot of Cort Guitars and Black*Star amps, but it's something.
where's that?
Here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=co2&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&resnum=0&q=pottingers%20entry&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
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^ thanks. I'd never heard of it, but that's close enough to the city centre to check out next time I'm there. :)
Wasn't a pop at you Dave - just commenting on the whole situation.
People with proper retail premises are under real pressure with rising costs (including myself ) and if not enough business comes in then it all comes tumbling down.
With a lot of businesses and shops - it's a case of use them or lose them
no worries... I did kinda go off on one there. :lol: I just get a bit annoyed, as some shops (here anyway) don't exactly encourage you to use them. Some are good, though, including the emporium which just closed (i guess that's always the way :( ). I'd actually prefer to buy locally, except as I said, they rarely stock what I want.
Regarding getting to test something out in a shop- I often miss stuff when I test in a shop. It's not a panacea, that's for sure. :lol: Or maybe I'm just an idiot.
EDIT: I don't think that's fair about matchetts, I haven't been in for a while, but the last time I was in it had some nice stuff. 2 Mac music in banbridge too has some nice stuff (last time I was in, anyway). But I'd agree that BGE had the best selection of stuff, and was by far the nicest shop to try stuff out in. It actually felt like one of the bigger shops in England or Scotland.
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Additional:
The original Prop. of the Guitar Emporium has apparently got a new shop opening in Holywood in the very near future, if it hasn't happened already. He's put it about that it'll be carrying "lowden , martin ,taylor ,turner and loads of second hand gear", so I don't know. Sounds like it's going to be a combination of high-end acoustics and interesting junky stuff.
Mind you, it does mean going to Holywood, where I understand my very presence will lower property prices.
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EDIT: I don't think that's fair about matchetts, I haven't been in for a while, but the last time I was in it had some nice stuff. 2 Mac music in banbridge too has some nice stuff (last time I was in, anyway). But I'd agree that BGE had the best selection of stuff, and was by far the nicest shop to try stuff out in. It actually felt like one of the bigger shops in England or Scotland.
I've been, Gibson, Epiphone and not so interesting other things. A lot has disappeared.
So dont get your hopes up.
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I've been, Gibson, Epiphone and not so interesting other things. A lot has disappeared.
So dont get your hopes up.
Thanks. :)
Additional:
The original Prop. of the Guitar Emporium has apparently got a new shop opening in Holywood in the very near future, if it hasn't happened already. He's put it about that it'll be carrying "lowden , martin ,taylor ,turner and loads of second hand gear", so I don't know. Sounds like it's going to be a combination of high-end acoustics and interesting junky stuff.
Mind you, it does mean going to Holywood, where I understand my very presence will lower property prices.
interesting, thanks. Holywood isn't terribly easy to get to for me (not as easy as the BGE, anyway), but I'll keep it in mind. I hope they don't only do acoustics, though.
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I've been, Gibson, Epiphone and not so interesting other things. A lot has disappeared.
So dont get your hopes up.
Thanks. :)
Additional:
The original Prop. of the Guitar Emporium has apparently got a new shop opening in Holywood in the very near future, if it hasn't happened already. He's put it about that it'll be carrying "lowden , martin ,taylor ,turner and loads of second hand gear", so I don't know. Sounds like it's going to be a combination of high-end acoustics and interesting junky stuff.
Mind you, it does mean going to Holywood, where I understand my very presence will lower property prices.
interesting, thanks. Holywood isn't terribly easy to get to for me (not as easy as the BGE, anyway), but I'll keep it in mind. I hope they don't only do acoustics, though.
I read that as Hollywood - and I thought - long way to go to buy a plectrum
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holywood is still fairly awkward to get to. :lol:
EDIT: there are some other similarities too. In hollywood you have to dodge special fx explosions for films. in holywood...
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I've been using the same shop for strings, cables and other small general cr@p for 15 years - solely because I have a great relationship with them and enjoy the chats.
The advent of the internet has seemed to divide actual shops in to two types: you've got a choice between 'normal traditional' shops and expensive boutiques.
Normal guitar shops are stuck in 1995 - thanks to the internet most buyers are hugely educated and savvy about what they're buying. I'll often walk into a guitar shop shop knowing an infinite more about their stock than they do ('cause I'm a forum geek).
And the boutique guys are even $%&#ing worse, most people would wet there pants to live as close as I do to a particular shop. But the thing is... I don't want to be bombarded with cups of $%&#ing tea whilst being chaperoned to a leather $%&#ing sofa whilst being told the social significance of the building I'm stood in and how much the $%&#ing popuri in the executive $%&#ing sh1tter cost.
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World Guitars by any chance??? :lol:
I used to use my local place a lot (Sounds Great) but they don't seem to get any good stock in any more. My favourite place now, which I travel a good hour or so to get to, is Guitars4You.
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^ ^ :lol:
I don't like all that personal service either, asking if you'd like coffee etc., it makes me feel uncomfortable. Obviously I prefer the guys in the shop to be nice, but just hand me a guitar and let me try the amp and I'm happy. That to me is good service.
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My local shop, Electrohill in Green Lanes had to move cos of rent increases. They had a great shop, double fronted, with parking outside and lots of goodies inside. At least the business is still going though.
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My Local shop (Guitar Bar in Hoboken), has a great policy of price matching. Even without that, I can get DR strings from them for less than on the internet. The owner (Jim), is a gigging musician (he'l be playing in the UK next month with Ian Hunter [barbican 2nd May I think is one gig]). He also knows what is great gear and what isn't and for a small shop he carries a nice stock. One of the great things that I've got from him is NOS coiled cords, as has D&L and GwEm (Jim uses them too). As far as I'm concerned, I would rather let him stay in business than give somewhere like guitar center the cash.