Tom Lee Music in Hong Kong?

[ztevie]

Hi!

Any HongKong people on this board? I will travel there later this year, and would like some info, if possible?
I have already found out that the main music shop to visit is Tom Lee, which supposedly has tons of Jacksons...
My questions are:
1. Is the above statement true? About tons of Jacksons that is?
2. How is the price range in comparison to US or Europe?
3. Do they have used guitars? I guess there should be some, but is there "tons" of used aswell?
4. Do they have any PC-1:s in stock? I'd really like to try one.. That guitar has the perfect specs for me, I'm just worried the supposedly fat neck might not be for me....
5. Do they mainly stock low price Jacksons, or do they have plenty of the really good stuff too?

Eehh.. well that's about it.

[Stinkbug]

I am curious too. I was there earlier this year and I drove by Tom Lee Music. I really wanted to check it out, but didn't end up having the time. I think there are two locations. I suspect anyone that can answer your questions will know if there are.

[ztevie]

Yes, there are 2 locations, but one of them is the main shop for a guitarfreak like myself... So I've been told anyway.
THey have a website www.tomleemusic.com They have some stuff listed under guitars which I suppose is used, but no prices and no Jacksons... And they don't answer by email...

[Mass Defect]

Been there last may. I've seen a lot of Jackson imports and some (not alot) USAs. Didn't see a PC1 though. Relatively much cheaper imports but the USAs look as if they are priced almost the same. saw some Jstars too. Dunno if they are used or whatnot....

[RandomFan]

great prices,not sure about the USA's. had two PC1 while ive been there...

[ztevie]

great prices,not sure about the USA's. had two PC1 while ive been there...

Really? Sounds great! Hope they still have 'em..
When were you there?

[fender06]

hello guys, i live in HK and may answer your questions
1. there are so many Fender, Gibson, ESP, Musicman...etc, and Jackson too!
2.the price is more or less the same as the USA
3.they dont sell used guitar
4.i dont know if they sill have PC1, b ut they sell the whole range of any mainstream guitar brand

[ztevie]

hello guys, i live in HK and may answer your questions
1. there are so many Fender, Gibson, ESP, Musicman...etc, and Jackson too!
2.the price is more or less the same as the USA
3.they dont sell used guitar
4.i dont know if they sill have PC1, b ut they sell the whole range of any mainstream guitar brand

Ah, sounds great, I would like to try out a few MM Petruccis too... And ESP is also interesting.. Fender and Gibson just don't do it for me..
How about Japanese made guitars? Do they have Fernandes, Edwards in stock?
How about Suhr?
So they don't sell used guitars? Too bad... Anyone else sell used stuff in HK?
Since I live in Europe(Sweden), US prices is a bargain for me... So I might come home with a new axe...

Seems like it's a pretty big shop?

[[NEX]]

the only sweet one I remember was a cheap (around 1300USD) priced ESP NV-STD might not be the style around here but since I just bought a guitar by the time i was there I didn't took it (most ESPs there have Japan like prices i think). Although I bought a PodX3 live there was the only place around there were i could find it and try it.

[fender06]

yes, TomLee is a big shop in Hongkong. As i remember, they also sell Japan-made Fender as well as Fernandes(in a very few quantity).

[slayest]

1 & 5. Yes they have Jacksons but no where near "tons". They have 10+ branches and I can't tell you how many Jacksons they totally have. But in the main branch in Tsim Shat Sui there are generally 10-15 non-US Jacksons, while the number of US Jacksons seldom passes 5, sometimes even none. No custom shop ones. Really good stuff? Yes there is an EVH franstein on display but not for sale. They have some collectable Gibson and Fender though.

2. They have good prices for Gibson and Fender, reasonable prices for ESP, MM and PRS, but not on Jackson. And the price of Jackson keeps rising dramatically in recent years. I saw a KE-1 rose 20% within less than 1 year! Now the price already becomes far more than that of US. I don't know the price in Sweden. But I heard that Germany has similar price for Jackson.

3. They don't sell used gears. I know 2 small shops in Hong Kong selling used gears. One have outrageous prices, the other have OK prices, but focus mainly on vintage-style pricy guitars like Gibson and Fender, no Jackson. The latter also stocks new G&L, nash and Suhr. However, both of them are not regular shops on the street, and I'm pretty sure that finding their locations will be a real pain in the x for a visitor even if you have the exact addresses.

4. Tom Lee does have PC-1 from time to time. But you may need to ask the salesman for it since they may not put it on display. Be sure to try it before you buy it cause the neck is indeed too fat to be comfortable for quite a few ppl I know who were captured by the Fender-ish look and spec of PC-1. Also, the tone is too dark for my taste.

Also, Tom Lee has a lot of LTDs, few Edwards, but barely any Fernandes. There is another small shop who is a Fernandes dealer, but they don't have new stuffs for years. And the location is also hard to be found for a visitor, so I'm not going to point you to there as I'm pretty sure you'll end up buying nothing from them even if you go for the length to find them.

Just my 1 cent though. Hope it helps.

[ztevie]

Just my 1 cent though. Hope it helps.

THanks! Helps a lot actually...
I won't go through the hazzle to spend time trying to find some shop hidden away somewhere, cause I will probably only be in HK 2 days, where 1 day can be spent for guitar...
So I'll concentrate on Tom Lee, and I will see what they have in for the moment and see if I find something I like with a reasonable price tag.

I will be in mainland China for 3 weeks, but I don't count on finding any decent guitar shop there, if they even exist...Please tip me if you know of any? I'll be visiting Chengdu and Zhuhai.
I saw a music shop in Zhuhai 2 years ago. Very small and the guitar inventory consisted of 1 electric and 1 acoustic... Brands were unknown, and they were VERY cheap, and played and felt even cheaper. But I don't know, there may be some nice shop, but how the hell I'm supposed to find them, I just don't know!

[sk8boardbob2]

^Last time i went back to China, I found two stores Harbin that sold decent guitars. One had an Ibanez Prestige, some cheap Ibanezs, two low level Jacksons and a bunch of knockoffs. The other was smaller but had a better selection. There was an S Prestige, Flower Jem among other Ibanez Prestiges, one or two US fenders and a mix of imports. The majority of stores I tried oinly carried those Jem and Gibson knockoffs you used to see on eBay.

[iced_earth]

The Tom Lee is easy to get to, not to far away from the major shopping areas.

As for guitar shopping in China, I've looked in two cities - Dongguan and Shanghai. Dongguan is mainly an industrial city and I went to a few small music stores. The best guitar I saw was an Ibanez Gio. Most stores has maybe 5 electrics, mostly Chinese brands.

In Shanghai there is a street with over a dozen musical instrument stores. You have your choice of Fender, Ibanez, ESP, Jackson, etc... all of them fakes (every store's fakes were slightly different on top of that). The most expensive guitar I saw was a Fender Squire Hello Kitty guitar. I picked up a JEM that I made into a clock. I would NEVER buy a "real" guitar in China, too many chances to get ripped off. Also, compare prices and always bargain.

[slayest]

If you wanna spend 1 day in Hong Kong to visit Instrument shops, Here are the 3 branches of Tom Lee that worth visiting:

1) TSIM SHAT SUI branch:
G/F., 1-9 Cameron Lane, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon
2) WAN CHAI branch:
City Centre Building, 144-149 Gloucester Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
3) CAUSEWAY BAY branch:
G/F-2/F., East South Bldg., 29 Percival St(at intersection of Hennessy Rd), Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Other branches seldom have stuffs that can't be found in these 3. The latter two are much smaller than the 1st one, but still have about 20 decent guitars/basses each. And they are much quieter so you can testdrive more comfortably. You can even chat with the salesmen a lot, try to make friends with them, then try to bargain. =) But if you get there by major holidays (e.g. the month of Xmas or Chinese lunar new year), chances are most gears are already on sale and you don't need to bargain.

You may already know that you can find maps to these locations via:

http://www.tomleemusic.com/Corporate/AboutUs/used/ypages.htm#MUSIC_STORES

If you will drop in Time Square (a major shopping mall in Hong Kong) in CAUSEWAY BAY, there is a instrument shop call Parson in 9F (or 10F?). They are the dealers of Washburn and Peavey in Hong Kong. The shop is large but mainly occupied by pianos. No high class guitars in display so there's no need to visit them in purpose. But if you simply have leisure time to walk around... The Time Square is only 10mins walk from Tom Lee CAUSEWAY BAY branch.


The situation in Zhuhai remains the same these years. I'm pretty sure which small shop you're talking about. They are famous for sporting local bands, not for the stuffs they have in stock. There are few larger shops in Zhuhai and they concentrate on piano and Chinese traditional instruments only.

Not sure about the shops in Chengdu but I'm sure that there won't be a real good one, or it should have been known.

Most major instrument shops of mainland China crowded in Beijing. There are two streets which got the nickname "Instrment streets". One sells good stuffs, the other sells cheap ones. But the prices are always outrageous. Even much more than buying online from US, then ships using the fastest (and surely the most expensive) method, and pays full custom taxes. So these shops only worth looking at, not buying from.