Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: dave_mc on July 15, 2006, 09:09:13 PM
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Ok, I need your help guys! I know a lot of you on here are from England, and maybe you could help me.
Seems like there's a good chance (not totally confirmed, but a good chance) I'll be able to have a few days in London from the middle of next week. Now, I'm fully aware there are good guitar shops in London, lol, despite what the thread title may have you believe.
I know about Denmark Street, and the surrounding area (Soho soundhouse, etc.). I also plan to make trips to the Wembley Guitar Centre, Holiday Music (Leytonstone), and Machinehead (Hitchin) as they have a lot of stuff I'd like to try. I don't think it's worth a trip to Charlie Chandlers, as going by the website anyway, there's nothing I REALLY want to try there- not worth wasting half a day on anyway, as I want to see some of the sights too, even though I was there last summer :lol: .
Basically, I want to get to try what I can't try here in Northern Ireland. I'm mainly after more vintage style valve combos- no marshall, fender, Gibson, etc. as it's pretty common here. I also like high gain tube heads/combos...
So basically, what other good guitar shops, with a wide range of less well-known kit, within say a 30 minute limit from central London by train/tube are there?- the closer the better, but if somewhere is truly awesome (within reason) I'll travel. Are there any glaring omissions in my list of shops?
Links to their website (if they have one) would also be appreciated. Thanks for the help, guys.
If I haven't given enough info about what I want to try, ask and I'll post more, but I didn't want you guys to have to read 6 pages in the first post.
:drink:
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http://newkingsroadguitars.co.uk/index.html
http://www.petercooks.co.uk/
http://www.abcmusic.co.uk/ who have shops in and around London including Hounslow and Kew (so Charlie Chandlers may then be worth a visit)
On Oxford St theres soundcontrol (under the virgin store) and theres Ivor Mairants (just off Oxford St)
Theres also a pretty reasonable store at 301 Broadway, Bexleyheath (the wifes cousin lives down there) and theres always Feline down in Croydon.
MacCarris (spelling) on Charing Cross Road, though to be honest don't get your hopes up over Soundhouse or most of Denmark St. They're mostly box shifters, Wunjo, Andys and Vintage & Rare are about the best there.
I think those are the main sites of interest.
Oh yeah if you are into Sci-Fi or fantacy books, Forbidden planet is only a couple of hundred yards from Denmark St (infinitely better than the Belfast store of the same name).
Rob...
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http://newkingsroadguitars.co.uk/index.html
http://www.petercooks.co.uk/
http://www.abcmusic.co.uk/ who have shops in and around London including Hounslow and Kew (so Charlie Chandlers may then be worth a visit)
On Oxford St theres soundcontrol (under the virgin store) and theres Ivor Mairants (just off Oxford St)
Theres also a pretty reasonable store at 301 Broadway, Bexleyheath (the wifes cousin lives down there) and theres always Feline down in Croydon.
MacCarris (spelling) on Charing Cross Road, though to be honest don't get your hopes up over Soundhouse or most of Denmark St. They're mostly box shifters, Wunjo, Andys and Vintage & Rare are about the best there.
I think those are the main sites of interest.
Oh yeah if you are into Sci-Fi or fantacy books, Forbidden planet is only a couple of hundred yards from Denmark St (infinitely better than the Belfast store of the same name).
Rob...
Awesome, thanks Rob. That Ivor Mairaints, where is it exactly off oxford street (i didn't know it was there last year, d'oh!)?
And I know full well about Denmark street, lol, I was there last year. It's more a "well I'm here so I might as well check it out" rather than an awesome guitar place...
:drink:
EDIT: oh, and roughly how far down charing cross road is macCarris?
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http://www.ivormairants.co.uk/ifindus.html
Link fixed :
I was going to reserve this week for window shopping (in my case), but I now think I'm heading home for a week instead (yippee).
Rob...
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^ that specific link doesn't work, but www.ivormairants.co.uk does- thanks rob! Enjoy your holiday at home!
:drink:
EDIT: oh, and I'll just be doing window shopping too. Although Northern Ireland, for its size, is actually pretty good for gear, you have to take your chance to try better gear when the opportunity arises, not when you're only buying, lol.
:drink:
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Hehe I will
Enjoy your shopping and hope you find (and get) something that you want.
Rob...
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^ thanks, man.
Anyone else with anything to add, feel free to chip in.
:drink:
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Machinehead (Hitchin)
If you're going as far afield as Hitchin, make an effort to go to Coda Music (http://www.coda-music.co.uk) in Stevenage - a veritable aladdin's cave of great stuff. Unlike many shops, they don't quibble if you want to try something & some of the staff actually know what they're talking about! :)
(FWIW, there's also a branch in Luton, but the Stevenage one seems to have more stuff...)
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So you start a thread called "Good Guitar Shops in London", and then decide to go out to bloody Hertfordshire?!
A bit off topic, but you can always tell people that don't know London by the way they underestimate its size...A mate of mine agreed to meet someone (coming from southampton) in Camden, before a gig that was in Brixton - wtf?!
TBH Dave, Machinehead is gonna be a long way to travel (but they do have some good gear) and it won't be within your 30 minute limit, I wouldn't have thought
And remember they're closed Wednesdays (you said the middle of next week)
Unfortunately I can't contribute to decent guitar shops, but bloody hell Hitchin seems a long way to go
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^ ^ thanks antag- I had considered coda, but figured it was maybe too far (EDIT: it's closer than Hitchin. But only by like 5 minutes. And there's more stuff I want to try in Hitchin...). I may take a look though. I have checked their website before, and it's true they had plenty of good kit- but I don't think they had anything that I couldn't get to try closer to the centre of London.
^ deg0ey- I think I researched machinehead when I was going last year- I didn't make it through lack of time, lol, but I think it was half an hour on the train. I'll take a look though. And report back, lol.
EDIT: aye, King's Cross to Hitchin is 30 minutes, if you get the right one (unlike my feeble attempts to get to Oxford last time, when I ended up on the darn 2 hour train... :( ). Of course, knowing my luck, it'll take 3 hours to get to King's cross... :lol:
oh, just checked, king's cross should be grand- about 6 tube stops from where I'd ideally be staying (a few changes though :( ).
Finally, just to point out- Hitchin may seem a long way to go, and it is, but it's a lot shorter from London than it is from Northern Ireland... :(
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Oh yeah if you are into Sci-Fi or fantacy books, Forbidden planet is only a couple of hundred yards from Denmark St (infinitely better than the Belfast store of the same name).
Rob...
oi, them's my mates! and it'll always be the talisman to me... bloody corporate takeovers :evil: :evil: :evil:
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oh, just checked, king's cross should be grand- about 6 tube stops from where I'd ideally be staying (a few changes though :( )
Ah that's good - Changes aren't difficult as long as you decide in advance where you need to be, otherwise you get demolished by the locals...There's nothing worse than being stood in a tube station tryina look at the map on the wall :lol:
If in doubt, print one off of TFL :P
Where will you ideally be staying? Anywhere we mighta heard of?
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If your going to Hitchin you have to go to Stevenage - trouble is CODA is in the old town a good 30 minutes walk away
Also (as I was born in Hitchin but haven't lived there for 25 years, thank the Lord) someone decided to put the train station 30 minutes walk away from Machine Head (or indeed the town!) - So pack a Kendal mint cake :D
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^ ^ degoey- probably queen mary university, if they have any room left (this kind of was unexpected, hence the rush, lol). Really cheap, and really handy (mile end- about two stops east of the tower of london). I stayed there last summer, I think it was like £130 for a week (with ensuite). Awesome- that's not much more than most hotels would charge you for a single night. And safe patrolled grounds as well. Fridge in each room too, which was pretty awesome for breakfast needs (seeing as how it was self-catering).
^ elliot- aye, I know they're quite a bit away, I've been checking out multimap, lol. Ah well, it's not ideal, but I'd rather take a half hour train journey and walk for 20 mins to half an hour than to try to figure out how to get there one-errand from Northern Ireland...
:drink:
one last question- I keep seeing adverts for "the bass centre" in brune street, near liverpool street station. Now, in some of my old magazines, there's an advert for the house of guitars at the same address. Is this still there, or is it solely bass guitars?
It's not too far from central london (3 stops, maybe) but it's a waste of time if it only has bass guitars...
Thanks for any help.
:drink:
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How many days are you staying for dave? I don't see how you're going to have time to fit in trips to all these places :lol:
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^ probably wednesday to sunday. I can do it. :twisted:
any word on the house of guitars shop? EDIT: don't worry, it seems to be just acoustics and basses :(
:drink:
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Oh yeah if you are into Sci-Fi or fantacy books, Forbidden planet is only a couple of hundred yards from Denmark St (infinitely better than the Belfast store of the same name).
Rob...
oi, them's my mates! and it'll always be the talisman to me... bloody corporate takeovers :evil: :evil: :evil:
Hey they still get business from me but they should be called Forbidden Planet Lite (or something similar)
Rob...
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^ probably wednesday to sunday. I can do it. :twisted:
any word on the house of guitars shop? EDIT: don't worry, it seems to be just acoustics and basses :(
:drink:
Hehe, I had no internet when I was home last week and therefore the answer is too late to be of any user to ya dave but here goes,
They do guitars too down in the basement (bassment ?), and usually have quite a lot of interesting 80s and 90s guitars around (2nd hand). But they are pretty dammed amazing for basses.
BTW If you are a leftie, Crack Converters in Lisburn have a Tokai Love rock for sale.
As for Denmark St the only thing that really appealed to me (apart from a couple of nicely shaped young ladies) is the Ric 4005 for sale in music ground though I did have have a massive hangover on the hottest day of the year and was facing a 14 hour bus trip.
Rob...
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oi, them's my mates! and it'll always be the talisman to me... bloody corporate takeovers :evil: :evil: :evil:[/quote]
Hey they still get business from me but they should be called Forbidden Planet Lite (or something similar)
Rob...[/quote]
fair point, these days most of the shop is bloody toys and other merchandise! it was a great place ten years ago though...(goes into nostalgia trip...)
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I was just beating out the Talisman/Forbidden planet thing on Slugger o'Toole this evening...They will still get my business too, kilby, altough rather less willingly than the old smithfield shop used to. Too many kids in the new shop by half.
And back to the topic at hand. Apologies.
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Hey Dave I forgot to ask, did you find anything interesting ?
And back to the topic at hand. Apologies.
Hey what are you apologising for ;) (unless it's to the non Belfast residents at which point I should join in ;) ).
Rob...
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ah, thanks for asking, rob!
I got to try shedloads of stuff. Not everything I wanted to, but close. I kind of messed up in that (a) I was looking at the wrong charlie chandler's website, so I should have gone to the one in kew and (b) I forgot that stevenage was on the way to hitchin, and by the time I realised it was too late and I hadn't left myself enough time (or energy) and didn't know where coda music was anyway.
So yeah, i'll priobably end up going back though.
I did make it to machinehead in hitchin, the wembley guitar centre and holiday music in leytonstone though- not to mention several days to denmark street.
Unfortunately, it was very warm, so it was energy-sapping to even be bothered to try out stuff- soundproof rooms are apparently not heat-proof... :(
But yeah, it was awesome.
:drink: