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 2 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