Earliest recollections of guitar shops

[bazmusicman]

That shop in Queens Road Watford is still there and run by the same guy, STAN. I bought a left handed Burns Electric Shortscale Jazz Guitar from him about 1963/4
£75.00 plus £5.00 for case probably worth a small fortune now! I bought it second hand of cause and on HP! STAN has always done a lot of second hand stuff- or pre owned has it called now in shops.

Baz.

[GoldenStreet]

Over on the other side a Burns Bison bass keeps close company with a Bigsby-loaded Les Paul goldtop, while the electric count is completed by a first generation Framus Hollywood. More Selmer and Futurama amps provide a suitable backdrop, with a Grampian Vibro-Major combo offering a less-obvious option.

That looks like a natural top Epiphone Texan, centre stage with the Les Paul on the right.

Bill

[David Martin]

It was Sherwin's in Hanley for me. A traditional music shop - pianos, organs and brass they suddenly started to stock a few of the new fangled electric guitars and amps! Bought a Futurama 11 deluxe and later a Selmer Zodiac twin 30 (well my Dad did!)
Later Chatfield's took over as the main guitar amp shop in the area, even selling fender and Gibsons! Up until then most bands purchased amps from Ernie Beard who sold Leak amps from his front room at Birches head!

Ernie Beard? Good heavens, that's a name to conjure with. We couldn't afford Leak in the days before proper guitar amps became available so we had Linear Conchordes and built our own cabs...

But mt first encounter with electric guitars was to have a vox Shadow from Blaney's Record store in Newcastle under Lyme, followed ultimately by a red vinyl covered Hofner Colorama, and later still a Galaxie. I clearly recall staring through the window of the Otet record store at at Burns Artiste but that was way out of my league...

And I remember Mr Chatfield well. He used to let me play his Flamingo Pink Strat which I said I would buy one day - he told me that by the time I could afford it there'd be something better... Oops!

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Vox Shadow - so bad they didn't put their name on it!

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[Iain Purdon]

My mate across the road got himself a Rosetti Lucky 7 from Ryemuse in South Molton Street. I was well impressed because it was electric and mine wasn't. So I travelled to London clutching 14 guineas and Ryemuse sold me the same thing. The salesman there, Mr Jepson, looked a little bit like Norrie Paramor.

We set to as a duo, him on lead, me on rhythm, and staggered our neighbours at a New Year's Eve Party (31.12.63) with our performance of Geronimo. They pretended to enjoy it.

This is a stock photo of the beast. Sore fingers ...

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[cockroach]

Those two photos remind me of how lucky people are these days- those two beasts were the equivalent back then of a budget Chinese bottom of the range starter guitar like a Squier Bullet Strat nowadays! I wish Squiers had been around then.....

[Billyboygretsch]

Yes some of these early guitars were horrendous. High actions non fixed bridge - my bridge ended up in all sorts of places. Tuners, or machine heads as they were known then, sticking not holding in tune. Flat fingerboards, rattles cheap varnish finishes.
Still we bought them in their thousands treasured them learnt our craft on them and now it seems many want to buy them at high prices. I still pick up my old Egmond and enjoy it.
I remember the guitarist with a blues group - The Producers - found an old Hofner in a skip many years ago and played some incredible bottleneck on it.
I would also say that some of the mid 60s Fenders were pretty awful yet people are prepared to buy them, without viewing at very high prices. A new Squier may be a better playing guitar.
Nostalgia can be costly !

[ecca]

Vox Shadow, that was the one I had except it was red.
All but unplayable.
............ but wished I had one now.......

[GoldenStreet]

My mate across the road got himself a Rosetti Lucky 7 from Ryemuse in South Molton Street. I was well impressed because it was electric and mine wasn't. So I travelled to London clutching 14 guineas and Ryemuse sold me the same thing. The salesman there, Mr Jepson, looked a little bit like Norrie Paramor.

We set to as a duo, him on lead, me on rhythm, and staggered our neighbours at a New Year's Eve Party (31.12.63) with our performance of Geronimo. They pretended to enjoy it.

I too have happy memories of a visit, as a 15-year-old, to Ryemuse in August 1965, and ending up with an immaculate, used Framus archtop 2 pickup double cutaway job in cherry sunburst (never did know the actual model identity!), with a little 10 watt Selmer Truvoice thrown in for good measure - all for the princely sum of £50! I think it was Dick Jepson, a real gentleman as I recall, who came to the rescue towards the end of a hot summer's day touring the West End music shops, during which it appeared unlikely I would find anything to match my modest means!

Pictures from the December, 1964 issue of Beat Instrumental...

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Bill

[Iain Purdon]

Wow! That's him

Great photo, Bill. Thanks!

[GoldenStreet]

Alastair Rushworth RIP...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2 ... -obituary/

Bill