Calling all Londoners!

[Prince Vultan]

Haha. I'm pretty sure we must have brushed shoulders on more than a few Saturdays then! Costers was a regular stop for me too! Did you round those Saturdays off with a trip up Edwards or XL's too?

I worked at Fair Deal for a year before moving to City Music. Bit of a dive, wasn't it? I found a decomposed rat in the bin behind the counter once! The one you can't remember was George Clay's.

Great days indeed!

[Mazrim]

George Clays! Of course!
Thanks man.

Heheh We're more than likely dandruff brothers then.
Yes, I used to end up in a right jumble at Eddies or Exposure.
Sometimes XLs and sometimes the Institute too.
I basically folllowed the main shoal of rockchicks like some ever-hopeful predatory loveshark.

I was at Eddies for the last gig before it burnt down a few days later(sobs), I was backstage with Orange Goblin.
I had many great nights and played some great gigs there too.

So where are you living now then?

[Prince Vultan]

Stop it! You're making me all misty-eyed!

I'm in Nottingham now. It's always nice to get back to Brum though - looking forward to spending this weekend in the shadow of the Rotunda as it happens!

[Mazrim]

Went in to PMT in Birmingham yesterday to pick up an Eleven Rack, I couldnt get my treble.
It now has a Jackson corner with not only USAs but custom shops too. One of which is one of the finest soloists I've ever seen.
Its about fucking time.

[Endrik]

Nothing to do in London? Bloody hell, I wish I had your problems!

[Kimling]

So, I went to Denmark Street the other day, not expecting to find much of interest. But... I found a shop which had a used lightning sky Soloist at an acceptable price (high for you guys, but pretty decent considering the prices home in Denmark) I'm currently in the market for a 24-fretter shred guitar, so the Soloist would be a perfect match!
So I ask the guy behind the counter if I can try it out...

Me: Hello, can I try the Soloist you have hanging in the corner back there? I'm looking for a nice 24-fret guitar
Mr. Counter-guy: How interested are you?
Me:Sorry, what do you mean?
Mr. Counter-Guy: Are you going to buy it?
Me: Well, I'm not totally sure, that kinda why I wanna try it out
Mr. Counter-Guy: Well, we can't just let anyone come in from the street and try the guitars, they will decrease in value if we do so.
Me: Okay, then it doesn't matter. Just forget it
Mr. Counter-Guy: No no, I'll let you try it

Besides making me feel like a 12-year old drooling over a guitar, I could never afford, he himself, was playing a guitar when I walked in. So if I play a guitar, I'm gonna ruin it's value, and if he's doing it, it is okay?

I've heard about the douchebags working in those shops, but come on? Although it was a nice guitar, I'm certainly not buying it from them

[bratfink]

Sounds like a British shop keepers mentality. They think you are a distraction to their day of doing nothing in a shop, not that they should be serving you in the best possible way to ensure you want to buy their products!

One of the reasons I left UK, I really hated the people, I hated the politicians, I hated pretty much everything about it. I only felt really happy when I was all by myself or with close friends out in the middle of nowhere, Dartmoor or similar. Even in my house in a shitty area of Coventry I couldn't get away from the bullshit, it drove me mad. Glad to see the back of the place. (I am English, just in case any of you wanna start something!)

There is a very early RR in a shop in Coventry on Far Gosford St, it was delivered damaged and has never been sold or repaired. I tried to prize it out of the shop keepers hands once but never even got to look at it! This guy is a true dick, he has a bunch of vintage stuff but never seems to actually want to sell any of it.

[Nightbat]

Me: Hello, can I try the Soloist you have hanging in the corner back there? I'm looking for a nice 24-fret guitar
Mr. Counter-guy: How interested are you?
Me:Sorry, what do you mean?
Mr. Counter-Guy: Are you going to buy it?
Me: Well, I'm not totally sure, that kinda why I wanna try it out
Mr. Counter-Guy: Well, we can't just let anyone come in from the street and try the guitars, they will decrease in value if we do so.
Me: Okay, then it doesn't matter. Just forget it
Mr. Counter-Guy: No no, I'll let you try it

Besides making me feel like a 12-year old drooling over a guitar, I could never afford, he himself, was playing a guitar when I walked in. So if I play a guitar, I'm gonna ruin it's value, and if he's doing it, it is okay?

That's why I hardly walk into a musicstore anymore
If someone were to treat me like that, I'd ask him if he wanted to earn money or keep running his fucking art gallery into the ground -at a level every other customer could hear-
followed by a "Kiss my ass and keep your precious shit" before walking out

[Rsmacker]

There is a very early RR in a shop in Coventry on Far Gosford St, it was delivered damaged and has never been sold or repaired. I tried to prize it out of the shop keepers hands once but never even got to look at it! This guy is a true dick, he has a bunch of vintage stuff but never seems to actually want to sell any of it.

I'll put money on that being Strings & Things, the bloke in there is a total cunt, a real nasty, shit-breathed, yellow-toothed wankstain, not even an attempt at being civil, let alone pleasant. Ever.

Many years ago, he had an ESP Kamikaze in there and I was toying with the idea of taking it off his hands. No fucking way he, or his bitch of a pigfucker wife were going to let me try it though. I pulled out a wad of cash to show I was serious, though I also was thinking of chopping in my USA thru-neck Warlock on it (the pics are on here somewhere, it's a beauty, and this was at a time before BC Rich had a distribution deal in the UK, the only ones you saw were brought in by people like me), and they still wouldn't let me even touch the fucking ESP. What a shower of cunts.
I always take great pleasure in going in there and sneering at the guitars in there gathering dust, even took my niece in to see about buying her first guitar...then said to Mr Cunty that I would go down to Exchanges to see what they had too. Fuck them. I guess the building is bought and paid for, along with the stock, they don't seem to need to make any sales.

Noise Works is better, just up the street, though it was better when it was up on the London Road (and called something else that I can't recall), it was a goldmine.

Exchanges in Brum was brilliant when it was all on one floor, all the guitars crammed into the bottom corner, 3 guitars per stand, all sorts of stuff in there, and they would do deals. Now, everything is in the computer, tagged and logged, every pickup surround, every locking nut, the lot. Now it's a typical soul-less Guitar Centre clone, it's shit. My mate Pete set up the vintage dept in there and one day someone brought in an old 1960s Fender amp, in the box, all the paperwork, mint, found in a dead relative's house. Pete carefully extracted it, went for lunch, and when he came back, found some dumb cunt had taken the box, crushed it and just managed to catch the dustbin lorry as they emptied the bins... Pete went MENTAL!!! They never got the box back...

When Belraj owned Fairdeal, we stuffed him up with a load of old junk, he he.

Any of you whippersnappers remember Jones & Crossland? It was up where the comic shop is now, I remember they had a Washburn RR2v that I lusted after. Eeh, the folly of youth.

These days I avoid all the music superstores, but will do a handbrake turn when I see Cash Converters. They are clued up on prices, like everywhere else, thanks to the internet, but there's always the chance of getting a bargain, certainly more than in Exchanges (or whatever it is called these days). There's unfortunately a never ending supply of poor fuckers down on their luck who will sell their prized axe for pennies so they can buy smack - they never go to music shops, they just head to Cash Converters.

[RacerX]

I'd ask him if he wanted to earn money or keep running his fucking art gallery into the ground -at a level every other customer could hear-
followed by a "Kiss my ass and keep your precious shit" before walking out

Stay classy, Netherlands!

[Mr Sandman]

So you`re not going to buy it then?

[Kimling]

I think I will let this one pass

[bratfink]

Rsmacker - You are correct, it was Strings and Things. That guy did sell me a brand new in box Boss EH-1 Enhancer pedal (about 10 years after they stopped making them), but he wouldn't let me anywhere near the RR. Like you I had a wad of cash and I even had my other RR1 with me (which I had just picked up from Noise Works - having had a fret level done) so he could see I was serious about buying it.

He's just a fossil jelously clinging to his collcetion, which he probably keeps in a shop for tax evasion reasons. They are trying to regenerate that whole area, what with the Beer Engine becoming a trendy wine bar (I had some epic lock in's there years ago!) I bet him owning that shop is the only thing preventing that whole street from being bulldozed and rebuilt.

[ginsambo]

I recently got an import Jackson from this chap in Guernsey, Channel islands. Looking at his low feedback, I was to thinking it would be a wind up as guitar hadn't arrived yet and two weeks beforehand, the fella's only gone and sold a mint RR1 Lighting bolt graphic for £500 on Ebay for a Buy it Now...So I think bollocks, definitely a con merchant, have to try and recover my funds from Poopal.... then my import guitar arrives, just as described, turns out Customs held on to it for the VAT....FFS.

Anyway, regarding the early 90's RR1, someone got a bargain, my guitar hadn't even been played, the RR1 was described as MINT!

Unfortunately you either have to be unemployed or off sick with gonorrhea or something, to be able to trawl Ebay UK all day long in order to spot those bargains, they are so rare and when they do randomly appear at 10:47 in the morning, they are snapped up by some work shy kid somewhere straight away. USA or Ebay.com is a better bet.

Nothing against work shy kids by the way. I hate work just as much as the next fella! Actually that's a lie, I love my job landscaping.

[Nightbat]

Stay classy, Netherlands!

Classy? Us?

Nah, really, I'm the most laid back guy you can sell something to, call me by first name, make lame jokes, take time to answer a phonecall.
But treat me like some kind of retarded kid that thinks his weekly alowance will be able to 'pay for the shiny' and there'll be hell to pay

Apparently salesmen (especially those of instruments) tend to forget that there's a rule to never piss off someone who contributes to your salary