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I am in Scotland and there are no good Vintage Guitar shops


Bruno

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I went to 3 shops today after my meetings and could not find one decent vintage shop. The only thing that I came up with was new shops selling new gear :cry:

 

I am staying by the big castle so that is a bonus :thu:

 

If any of you guys know of a cool vintage shop please let me know :)

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I went to 3 shops today after my meetings and could not find one decent vintage shop. The only thing that I came up with was new shops selling new gear
:cry:

I am staying by the big castle so that is a bonus
:thu:

If any of you guys know of a cool vintage shop please let me know
:)

BELLO!:wave::cool: Scottish women??!!:confused::thu:

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I was in Edinburgh last summer and wandered around the city - only saw one music store - period - and it was a mom-and-pop that focuesed more on classical instruments (woodwind, brass) versus guitar and drum.

So, you're SOL while in Edinburgh!

Get drunk on Bellhaven Ale in the meantime - it's a good enough diversion! :cool:

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I was in Edinburgh last summer and wandered around the city - only saw one music store - period - and it was a mom-and-pop that focuesed more on classical instruments (woodwind, brass) versus guitar and drum.


So, you're SOL while in Edinburgh!


Get drunk on Bellhaven Ale in the meantime - it's a good enough diversion!
:cool:

To be fair to Edinburgh, your post is misleading - there are at least a couple of biggish chain music shops in town: Sound Control in the city centre and GuitarGuitar out in Corstorphine (GuitarGuitar being the more interesting of the two, despite a couple of members of staff being a shade stuck-up).

As someone who has good access to Glasgow and Edinburgh, I feel almost spoilt for choice of music shops - it's actually quite a thriving scene here in the central belt at the moment. However, can't think of any vintage guitar shops in the whole of Scotland or even the north of England...

Contrary to my earlier (slightly sarcastic) comment, I'm sure there is the odd vintage piece out there, it's just your Donald Duck whether or not you happen to find it. With the rise in popularity of eBay, folks here are more likely to sell online than to trade-in their beloved '59 Les Paul at some generic chain store that doesn't particularly care for SH guitars.

As others have stated Bruno - get wired into the vintage whisky. After all, "when in Rome"...

:thu:

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In order for there to be vintage guitar shops in Scotland, there would first have to be vintage guitars...


... and staying beside a big castle is only a bonus if you're looking for vintage real estate.


:thu:



yup.

don't know why americans expect loads of cool vintage gear in shops in europe. all the good stuff was in america when it was new. it was all hard to come by in europe, esp in the UK where there were luxury taxes, etc. not to mention it was twice as expensive to someone in europe since most european countries were still recovering ecomocially from WWII.

OTOH you're probably more likely to find UK stuff--Burns and whatnot, but that stuff is more treasured in the UK than in the US so the prices will reflect that.

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You could try phoning up Moon guitars in glasgow and see what he has, plus then you could come through and visit a far superior city to the one you stay in :D . It's a small place but he I think he sells some nice guitars, other than his own hand made ones.

 

well, he did last time I went about five years ago. a right miserable bastard though

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yup.


don't know why americans expect loads of cool vintage gear in shops in europe. all the good stuff was in america when it was new. it was all hard to come by in europe, esp in the UK where there were luxury taxes, etc. not to mention it was twice as expensive to someone in europe since most european countries were still recovering ecomocially from WWII.


OTOH you're probably more likely to find UK stuff--Burns and whatnot, but that stuff is more treasured in the UK than in the US so the prices will reflect that.

I kind of half agree with you...

 

Yes, in post-war Britain, Gibson and Fender guitars were at first almost impossible to get hold of, and when they did become available they were very expensive - for the reasons you mentioned. So yeah, save for a few British manufacturers and a few imported products, most of the cool guitars were in America.

 

However, when it comes to amps, we had some really cool home-grown stuff - Vox, Marshall, Orange, HiWatt, Sound City, Matamp... From what I've seen, these pieces are at least as treasured in the US as they are in the UK (and not all of these products were exported to the US at the time of manufacture).

 

Honestly, I just don't think we're quite as vintage-obsessed over here - this is borne out by the fact that a pre-CBS Strat will fetch less in the UK than in the US - despite the fact there are actually fewer of them available here! (source: recent vintage column in UK guitar mag). Perhaps that's why many of the vintage British amps have found homes overseas, and why the vintage guitars are being returned to the the US - who knows? Of course, it also ought to be considered that America is a richer country than most European countries (certainly far richer than Scotland) and is therefore better placed to host a uber-expensive vintage market.

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Why do you expect that when every European on this forum has complained about available gear at some point or another ?

Honestly, outside of vintage gear, someone living in Scotland shouldn't have any problem getting hold of anything (I certainly don't). The UK is the biggest guitar-gear gig outside of the US (bigger than Canada and in a far smaller physical space! ;)).

:thu:

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Alright Hanglow - how's it gaun ya big mad weedgie bam ye?



well, he did last time I went about five years ago. a right miserable bastard though

He just a seemed a bit shy to me (well, shy for a weedgie ;)). I think guitar techs/luthiers are cast from the same mould as I.T. guys - pathologically miserable c***s... ;)


Did you ever buy an amp kit, BTW? I remember you were considering buying some bits from ampmaker.

:thu:

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Alright Hanglow - how's it gaun ya big mad weedgie bam ye?





I was in there a couple of years ago. He certainly
makes
some very nice guitars, but the S/H misc stuff hanging in the wall wasn't anything to scare Vintage & Rare. Perhaps I just came 'round at a bad time - but they were mostly copies or clapped-out late '70s Fenders with dry fingerboards and worn frets... Hmmm...




Did you ever buy an amp kit, BTW? I remember you were considering buying some bits from ampmaker.


:thu:



Allright mate -

I got into making my own effects pedals, and am currently addicted to this at the moment. Have made modded 808, bluesbreaker, orange comp, about five fuzzes and have got a few more things half built! so haven't ordered it yet.

What I might do first is order this http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga5.htm

as I believe its a VJ clone, and mod the crap out of it.


but the ampmaker kit is still on my mind, I imagine it would sound a wee bit better than a modded VJ

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Well it's true to a certain extent. Now that the internet exists. I'm sure prior to that it was a nightmare.

Yes - the internet has certainly made it easier to source equipment that was already here, and has made pricing more competitive - but things weren't so bad before either...

 

One thing that has certainly changed in most parts of Britain is that people now have more disposable income than they used to. When I was growing up in the '80s, it wouldn't have mattered if we'd had the internet, most people just didn't have the cash to buy U.S. Fenders, Gibsons or hand-wired tube amps (or most any other sort of tube amp). This was reflected by the relatively few shops that stocked high-end equipment - it wasn't so much that there was any problem obtaining these things - more that there wasn't much of a market for it, for economic reasons and also because guitar-based rock/pop was seriously out of fashion between the early '80s and late '90s.

 

I'd imagine what you're saying is more true of "mainland Europe", where the guitar market is smaller than North America or the UK.

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Allright mate -


I got into making my own effects pedals, and am currently addicted to this at the moment. Have made modded 808, bluesbreaker, orange comp, about five fuzzes and have got a few more things half built! so haven't ordered it yet.


What I might do first is order this
http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga5.htm


as I believe its a VJ clone, and mod the crap out of it.



but the ampmaker kit is still on my mind, I imagine it would sound a wee bit better than a modded VJ

That sounds fantastic, Hanglow. Building electronic stuff is pure minted, as the banter puts it :cool:.

The VJ clone looks great - nicer even than the Epi!

I'm loving the ampmaker kit. I have it connected to an Eminence 'Cannabis Rex' speaker (so-called because of its hemp cone - ah'm no' gaunnae smoke it nor nuthin' :D) and it's housed in a nice Session cab (remember Session?). This setup sounds great in the house, takes my Pod XT very well too.

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You could try phoning up Moon guitars in glasgow and see what he has, plus then you could come through and visit a far superior city to the one you stay in
:D
. It's a small place but he I think he sells some nice guitars, other than his own hand made ones.


well, he did last time I went about five years ago. a right miserable bastard though



For a while I lived round the corner (Shawlands, in Glasgow) from Jimmy Moon's shop. We had a fire in the flat and the old Strat ended up the worse for it (couldn't even see the {censored}er for smoke in the room to attempt a Lucille) so I took round to his place for repairs. He wasn't exactly the chattiest bloke, but then he did have trouble with my accent (Black Country). Did a first class job on the Strat. His shop had a few of his guitars in it, and some nice vintage ones - a peachy ES 175 I should've bought, like all the peachy guitars I should've bought over the years...

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