Bygone music/bass shops you were fond of?

[pst62]

Iconic store in the Teesside area. and also an early workplace of the legendary Jim Cairnes.

[obi 2 kenobi]

McCormacks and CC Music in Glasgow. 
Bought a laney 4x10 amp & cab from the former and they delivered it in their branded van. 
Bought the a JV precision and later a JV jazz from CC music in early 80s

[The fasting showman]

A few from Birmingham.

The 3rd pic from inside the original Musical Exchanges on Broad St. The last one is Yardleys, prior to Exchanges  moving there. There's an equal amount of great shops from Birmingham in the '80s I can't find pics for alas.

[SuperSeagull]

A few from me, as already mentioned The Bass Centre where I got my Ashdown gear in 1999 ably advised by Steve Lawson and a few years later watching Steve and Michael Manring perform in the shop.

 

Tiger Music in Sydney Street in Brighton, a real old fashioned guitar shop with great staff.  I bought a Fender P Lyte there in 1991 and they wouldn’t take my 1980s Ibanez Roadster in p/x as nobody wanted them back then. Also a Peavey TKO combo that is still going strong at a local church.

 

And then there is Largs of High Holborn, I only ever went as a small child in the 1960’s but it was where my parents met in the 1950s. Mum worked upstairs in the musical instrument dept, Dad was downstairs where they built hi fi systems which you chose from a a range of different components before they were built into cabinets to match your decor. A bygone age!

[NJE]

11 hours ago, neepheid said:

Bruce Millers in Aberdeen - where I bought my first bass.  Closed 2011.

 

I lived in Aberdeen for a while and the only thing that got me through my dull as dishwater job was walking up to Bruce Millers, looking at guitars and seeing if the new bass magazine was in. 

[simisker]

10 minutes ago, SuperSeagull said:

 

What an amazing room! I want to live in it.

 

And is that the world's most stylish ashtray in the foreground?  

[SuperSeagull]

11 minutes ago, simisker said:

 

What an amazing room! I want to live in it.

 

And is that the world's most stylish ashtray in the foreground?  

Suspect it is! A couple more, the room in use and what I believe is part of the switching system that my Dad built so that any combo of deck, amp, tuner, speakers could be heard. 
 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by SuperSeagull

[NJE]

Growing up in Pembrokeshire West Wales there wasn’t a lot of choice, but my weekend pilgrimage with my best mates was to Creative Electronics in Haverfordwest.

 

It was affectionately known as Charlie’s after the original owner and was the first place I saw a bass. In fact I went in there looking for one and was struck by a real Fender bass (these were not easy to see in real life). It was a yellow/orange mustang with competition stripe and I was told I didn’t want it 🤣.

 

Bought a few guitars from there and still have my Yamaha jumbo acoustic I got from there. Most of the time we just hung out and bought plectrums, I remember it so well.

[EJWW]

7 hours ago, Cato said:

Musical Exchanges in Birmingham was the first guitar shop I ever went into as a teenager in the 80s

 

Might be rose tinted memories, but no guitar shop I've been in to since has come close to the sheer eclectisism and variety of new and used stock that Musical Exchanges had in those days.

 

For a while me and my mates would go there just to hang out & try stuff we couldn't afford just about every weekend & the staff seemed more than happy for us to do so.

 

It was a genuine Aladdins cave.

+1 from me. 

 

Exchanges was THE music shop of my youth. I bought/PX'd more gear than I care to remember. 

 

I even did my school work experience here which consisted of messing around with bass gear and vacuuming.

 

A guy called Woz ran the bass department. Amazing player. Wonder where he is now?

 

Incredible to think we also had the Birmingham Bass Centre just around the corner from Exchanges as well. Great times. 

 

We're lucky to have Fairdeal in Brum which has improved its bass great offering in a big way over the last few years and deserves to be supported lest it goes the same way as PMT...

Edited 6 hours ago by EJWW
Misspelling

[chris_b]

I went to school in West Ealing, only a short walk from Marshall's shop in Hanwell. I spent many lunchtimes looking at the basses and getting in the way of the staff.

 

33-37 Wardour Street, W1, the Flamingo Club was in the basement, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go was on the first and (maybe) second floors floors, and Pan Music was on the third floor.  They always had a fantastic selection of basses hanging on the wall. That's where I saw my first Fender Precision bass in the flesh. I bought my Vox Foundation from Pan.

[casapete]

I can still remember getting a train down to ‘that’ London when I was around 14, with a mate who

wanted to buy a guitar. £5 return on the train! We walked from Kings Cross down Tottenham Court Road,

and went in every music shop we saw, including the Fender Soundhouse where we gaped at all the latest

models. Then on to Macaris etc, and down Denmark Street, and eventually Shaftesbury Ave where we got

my mate a brand new Avon SG for £39, cardboard box included. Carried it all the way back to the station,

and sat with it on our knees playing cards on it all the way home. Happy days. 

[Mike Brooks]

Such great memories! I remember most of the London ones mentioned. 

 

For those who never had the good fortune to visit The Bass Centre in Wapping...

 

 

[Mediocre Polymath]

I think probably the shop I spent the most time in was in Canterbury, where I went to university. A place called – I think – castle street music, or something like that. It was a guitar shop on castle street, and businesses in Canterbury tend to go for pretty straightforward names.

 

It was a funny little shop that, like most shops in the city, was actually two tiny old storefronts knocked together, with a little doorway between the two. I went in there a few times a month and played basses, bought strings, etc., and made awkward conversation with the guys who ran the place. I'm sure I was an irritating nuisance as I never had the money to buy anything big, but they didn't chase me away. Sadly they shut down not long after I graduated, so I never got to go back there as a taxpayer with cash and buy something shiny to pay them back for all the time I'd taken up.

 

All the chat about the Denmark street of old reminded me of a funny experience I had a few months ago. My company's office is about five minutes' walk from there, and I swing by the shops from time to time to buy strings and fill my lunchbreak. There was one day when I popped into Wunjo to get some bass strings and chatted for a bit with the bass cellar guys about some instruments they'd recently gotten in. I came out, walked to the junction with Charing Cross Road and found myself absentmindedly thinking "hmm. Should I got up to the Virgin Megastore or get on the tube and go straight up to Camden?"

 

It passed in a flash, but for that moment my brain was fully transported back to the summer of 2003, I was 16 and frittering away my paycheck from the supermarket.

 

[peteb]

9 hours ago, casapete said:

JSG / Spectre Sound in Bingley near Bradford was another superb shop. You entered down a long tunnel like corridor into a shop rammed with guitars and amps. Plenty of new and s/h kit, I bought many items there over the years, and well worth the 100 mile round trip for me. 

 

I used to go to school in Bingley / live in the next town and I can safely say that JSG (later Spectre) was a big part of me starting up playing in bands. We used to go walk across town to go there at lunchtime (or get the bus on Thursday late night opening) to hang out, look at guitars that we wouldn't be able to afford for several years and try out ones that might be our next instrument.

 

On weekends and Thursday nights, there were always local musos hanging out who would give impromptu lessons and advice about gear or playing or whatever. A few years later, I was the one of the guys giving advice or showing kids how to play Smoke On The Water or Wishing Well properly. Quite a few of my mates / bandmates worked there and as I walked in they would put the kettle on, or if they were busy, ask me to put the kettle on, or answer the phone, etc. Then we would go to the pub after they locked up. As I said, a big part of my early musical journey. 

 

The demise of these sort of places (and Electro in Doncaster was another one) was a symptom of the decline of local music scenes. It's where musos would hang out, put bands together and share knowledge. All gone now unfortunately... 

 

[Stew]

J G Windows in the central arcade, Newcastle.   Brilliant shop, popped in every Saturday.  Bought my first Fender Precision there in 1978, lovely colour Antigua.  Unfortunately it was stolen from our van in the mid 80's along with all the other bands gear!

[BlueMoon]

This will probably encourage a new thread with a title something like: “They don’t make them like they used to”.

 

Here is a pic (taken today) of a strap that I bought in Hodges & Johnson circa 1975. Still going strong and being used today, some 50 years later. And………not made in China!

 

 

[SH73]

GAK and three music shops that gradually shut over 13 years

[kiat]

8 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

There was 2 I vaguely remember in Leytonstone high road, Freedman’s and Holiday Music, would’ve been around 78/80, I was having bass lessons as a teen and it was probably the first place I saw a fender jazz for sale but couldn’t afford anything like that then, I’ve made up for it since 😁, I found one pic but nothing for freedman’s 

Crikey, I'd forgotten some shops used to have metal shutters even then, hopefully deterring the thieves.

[kiat]

56 minutes ago, BlueMoon said:

This will probably encourage a new thread with a title something like: “They don’t make them like they used to”.

 

Go on then @BlueMoon 😉, I'll add the oldest musical thing I've got. 

 

56 minutes ago, BlueMoon said:

 

Here is a pic (taken today) of a strap that I bought in Hodges & Johnson circa 1975. Still going strong and being used today, some 50 years later. And………not made in China!

 

 

 

That is in really good nick for 50 years old. Well looked after!

[NHM]

I think probably the shop I spent the most time in was in Canterbury, where I went to university. A place called – I think – castle street music, or something like that. It was a guitar shop on castle street, and businesses in Canterbury tend to go for pretty straightforward names.

 

It was called County Music - a lovely shop, good staff, a decent selection of gear for a small outlet, always happy to match online (GAK) prices. 

[chris_b]

For our Belgian members. . . .

 

Anyone remember Euromusic, Parys Flore, Rue Du Midi, Bruxelles?

 

I just found the receipt for my Fender Precision, which I bought in 1969 from there.

 

Great shop and friendly staff.

 

 

[NigeJ]

9 hours ago, kiat said:

Sounds a fantastic place, I never had the pleasure. Wanted to see what it had looked like from the outside, but found this cool image instead with a bit of story... (source)

Im partly responsible for the expansion to Musical Exchanges when they opened the downstairs showroom. I did the building/painting/flooring in there. That's how I got a job in the shop. Brilliant place and atmosphere. 

[miles'tone]

Another Bass Centre Wapping grommet here, used to go to the M.I. upstairs.

I remember they had a real 50s P bass (mk1 shape) previously owned by 10 Years After for about £1500! I wanted that bass sooo bad. Great shop. 

 

I miss Crane's in Cardiff too.

 

 

[Rosie C]

3 hours ago, Stew said:

J G Windows in the central arcade, Newcastle.   Brilliant shop, popped in every Saturday.  Bought my first Fender Precision there in 1978, lovely colour Antigua.  Unfortunately it was stolen from our van in the mid 80's along with all the other bands gear!

 

I was going to say J G Windows. My dad bought me my first bass there, around 1985.

 

The photo doesn't have the shop name, but it's on the right with the "gramophone records" sign   

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Rosie C

[KevL]

5 hours ago, SuperSeagull said:

Suspect it is! A couple more, the room in use and what I believe is part of the switching system that my Dad built so that any combo of deck, amp, tuner, speakers could be heard. 
 

 

 

 

That's some demo room, @SuperSeagull. Well done to your dad helping to build it.

 

Some lovely, classic hifi there, possibly Garrard turntables and QUAD electrostatic speakers. That wee girl doesn't too impressed by it, though, even with Ron Mael at the controls.