Bygone music/bass shops you were fond of?

[AndyTravis]

A1 in Manchester, visited a few times before it changed to Academy of Sound. 
 

still ace for a time.

 

died when Sound Control took over and eventually croaked it.

 

I wish I’d had the Bass Centre Manchester when I had a decent job - that was another cool little place.

 

GBBL - because Drew is lovely and it was ridiculously close to my house.

[Stub Mandrel]

Music Exchange and Bass Centre  in Birmingham, unused to go there with bandmates in the late 80s/early 90s.

[Stub Mandrel]

6 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. 
 

 

 

Quad electrostatic speakers!

[Stub Mandrel]

Peter Noble now in Whitchurch and closing

 

I got my first bass amp from the  Llanishen store about 86.

[Acebassmusic]

9 hours ago, casapete said:

Bernard Deans, Scarborough

 

I bought my very first bass guitar from Deans just along from the Stage Door in 1982. It was a Kay "Les Paul sort of shaped" thing! 😁 It was awful but got me started.

 

About a year later I part exed it for a Hondo II at Bulmers in York. Bulmers wasnt a music shop as such but sold second hand goods. As they stocked a lot of used music gear and PA it was a haven for us skint kids.

 

Before venturing into proper music shops like Deans the closest I came to a shop was receiving the Bells Music catalogue which I obsessed over, probably driving my parents mad. 🙄 It was a sad day when I found out that a big part of my adolescent life had ceased. 

 

Another shop I miss is Mars Music in Houston. I moved to the States for a few years with work and obviously checked out the local shops. This particular one just blew my mind when I first visited it. It was huge and seemed to stock everything. Penny whistle? Certainly Sir. Double bass? Check out our selection in the string department. Bass guitars? Sorry Sir our stock is quite depleted at the moment were down to the couple of hundred on display! 😲 It even had a full stage, lighting and PA set up permanently in the middle of the shop which they put on gear demonstrations and clinics. The whole place could have been an aircraft hanger. As with many places now long gone.

[Jackroadkill]

8 hours ago, The fasting showman said:

 

 

Is that a young Jez Woodroffe (wearing glasses)?

[Steve Browning]

30 minutes ago, Acebassmusic said:

Before venturing into proper music shops like Deans the closest I came to a shop was receiving the Bells Music catalogue which I obsessed over, probably driving my parents mad. 🙄  

 

Oh yes. Way better than any glimpse at a Health and Efficiency. Proper smut for the aspiring and skint adolescent musician. 

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, Acebassmusic said:

Before venturing into proper music shops like Deans the closest I came to a shop was receiving the Bells Music catalogue . . . .

 

I drove past Bell's yesterday. It's now a Hairdressers!!

[Raslee]

The Bass Centre, Birmingham circa 1997.

The story: Been learning a few months on a cheap Ibanez, still pretty crap & no amp - practicing through my cheap midi hifi. 

Amazing talented bass player in my best mates band takes too many psychedelics at the time and takes a trip to jam with Buddah and disappears for many years to come. I have his bass for a few months and get asked to join my best mates band. Little did I know at the time was that this heavy bitch of a bass I borrowed off the first bassist was a Jaydee. Meanwhile Buddha bass get his bass returned to his parents and then loses the Jaydee, or gave it away I believe, on a pilgrimage in India. Anyhow, the bass centre - plans to buy a Squire and used Peavy TNT amp (super heavyweight), saved the money - on budget. Travel from Shropshire to Birmingham with the vocalist in his 76 bay window VW Camper and it sort of turns into a bit of a Cheech & Chong journey…smoke everywhere and not just from the VW. Anyway, arriving somewhat spiraled eyed I end up stoned beyond all comprehension and sign my first ever loan…Stingray & Trace Elliot combo…bloody skint, great times, great shop - long live listening to Funkadelic at the Birmingham Bass Centre 🤩

Edited 20 hours ago by Raslee

[ezbass]

Whilst I visited The Bass Centre when it was in Wapping, I preferred it when it moved to the site, a stone’s throw from Liverpool St. I could legitimately pop in there pretty much any day of the week, without making a special trip out to Wapping. 

[casapete]

3 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

About a year later I part exed it for a Hondo II at Bulmers in York. Bulmers wasnt a music shop as such but sold second hand goods. As they stocked a lot of used music gear and PA it was a haven for us skint kids.

Wow, I’d forgotten Bulmers! Bought a few things from there when it was a general s/h shop, and then later they

actually had a dedicated music section, with the occasional gem or bargain to be had. Great shop.

 

 

[casapete]

3 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

Before venturing into proper music shops like Deans the closest I came to a shop was receiving the Bells Music catalogue which I obsessed over, probably driving my parents mad. 🙄 It was a sad day when I found out that a big part of my adolescent life had ceased. 

Still got my Bells catalogue, from the early 70’s I think. Pored over it constantly, and then I discovered

the ads in the back of Melody Maker for mostly London shops and that became my bible. 😁

[tubbybloke68]

11 hours ago, SuperSeagull said:

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!

Loved tiger music, brought my Ibanez MC924 from there which I still have to this day. It was up for £450 , it had( has) a slight blemish in the wood/ varnish on the back . I genuinely only had £400 on me and left the shop with my mate feeling really dejected having played and fallen in love with it there and then. We got about 50 yds down Sydney st and the bloke came out and shouted at me to come back as he’d decided to let me have it. I was about 18 and I think he must have felt sorry for me, he obviously saw how I was smitten by it. Lovely guy he was and i think that big beaming smile on that spotty little oiks face must have made his day as much as it made mine! Happy days x 

[Steve Browning]

5 hours ago, tubbybloke68 said:

Loved tiger music, brought my Ibanez MC924 from there which I still have to this day. It was up for £450 , it had( has) a slight blemish in the wood/ varnish on the back . I genuinely only had £400 on me and left the shop with my mate feeling really dejected having played and fallen in love with it there and then. We got about 50 yds down Sydney st and the bloke came out and shouted at me to come back as he’d decided to let me have it. I was about 18 and I think he must have felt sorry for me, he obviously saw how I was smitten by it. Lovely guy he was and i think that big beaming smile on that spotty little oiks face must have made his day as much as it made mine! Happy days x 

Paid the princely sum of £260 for my 66 Precision at Tiger Music. Headless basses were all the rage at the time. It had been in the shop for ages.

[The fasting showman]

11 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

 

Is that a young Jez Woodroffe (wearing glasses)?

Different shop, alas.

Some of the founders of Musical Exchanges from left; Dave ( the owner), Stu and Gary Chapman who recently worked in PMT in Birmingham and latterly Fairdeal.

[Skybone]

Most definitely Electro Music on Doncaster, great shop, great staff. I recall the veritable joy of discovering a whole floor of basses & bass gear, loads of variety, not just the obligatory FSO's. Bought my first 4003 from there (as well as many guitars, amps and other music related stuff).

 

[NHM]

I've fond memories of Greenhalgh's in Fore Street, Exeter, where I bought my first bass (a Jazz copy) in 1977.

[knirirr]

Some from Oxford:

 

Blackwell's, which used to be a good place to go for sheet music. Later, it became a discount bookshop and then a restaurant. Now it's part of Wadham college. 

 

ABC, where I got my first decent bass amp (Trace Eliot BLX130) in 1994. Later a Threshers, then Sainsbury's, now to be demolished. 

 

Russell Acott, old location shown here when they had moved out of the centre and the site had been taken over by All Bar One. I never got around to visiting after they moved and it's too late now. 

Edited 8 hours ago by knirirr

[Geek99]

Does anyone remember James Dace music in Chelmsford?

[miles'tone]

15 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

A1 in Manchester, visited a few times before it changed to Academy of Sound. 
 

still ace for a time.

 

died when Sound Control took over and eventually croaked it.

 

I wish I’d had the Bass Centre Manchester when I had a decent job - that was another cool little place.

 

GBBL - because Drew is lovely and it was ridiculously close to my house.

I bought my first 'proper' bass from A1 (a semi acoustic Charvel Surfcaster which I still have).

We used to make the pilgrimage there from sleepy North Wales every now and then. Amazing place at the time. It felt magical to us as teenagers because we knew that's where The Stone Roses bought all their gear, including Mani's famous Ric 4005.

Happy days! ✊️🍋

[Stew]

Another great music shop in Newcastle was McKay's on Westgate Road.  Tiny shop but full of second hand bargains.  I bought my first practice amp from there, a Wem.

[ricksterphil]

On 09/08/2025 at 06:49, 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.

 

Me and my band used to travel up to Birmingham in the 70's to go round the music shops, of which there were many, I reckon 5 or 6. I remember Musical Exchanges and have been in there many times.

We bought a Traynor PA in one of the shops and our drummer's dad was paying. He knocked them down from £420 to £240. At the last haggle, we were leaving the shop without buying anything until the manager said, 'oh ok, I'll take your offer' An excellent and early lesson in the art of the deal, long before anyone had heard of Donald T Rump

Edited 5 hours ago by ricksterphil

[ian61]

I'm from the isle of Wight with a big holiday season, pubs, bars, beach side cafes etc, so we had a couple nice shops. Tom Taylors in Sandown. Remember an Orange 120 bass bin rig in the window, crazy and so 70's.

 

In Ryde there was 'Guitar Centre' which was actually the converted lower half of a two up two down house, but full of stuff. Saturday afternoons were always fun as the local heroes would drift in....

 

And Teagues the sprawling classical instrument store which had a tentative go at the 'pop' stuff. Saw my very first bass amp ever in there, an HH 15" combo... I was only 13 and totally hooked.

Edited 3 hours ago by ian61

[BlueMoon]

3 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Does anyone remember James Dace music in Chelmsford?

Yes……..mainly piano and organs if I recall correctly. They had two shops; one in the precinct behind the Chancellor Hall and one in Moulsham Street. Very personal service…..but not cheap.

[obbm]

The first music shop I encountered was George Potter in Aldershot in 1963.  They were mainly involved in providing instruments for military bands but hada few guitars and basses.  It was there that I bought my first real bass, a Framus Star bass.    The following year a brand new shop opened just 10 miles away in Guildford called Andertons, and the rest is history.

 

I also remember visiting Monkey Business in Romford when I happened to passing on business.

 

Not strictly a music shop but I bought my first real amp, a Linear 30, from Radio Component Specialists (RCS) in Croydon.  That was followed by 4 Bakers Group 25 speakers which were fitted into a cabinet the same size as a Marshall 4 x12.

 

When I briefly worked in London in 1965 I used to break my journey from Waterloo to Islington at Leicester Square and walk up Tottenham Court Road gazing into Macaris and all the other music shops, especially the shop under Centre Point.  Alas I had no spare money for any more gear then.