02/07/2026
💣ALERT… RANT INCOMING 💥
This may seem a little petty or whatever else, but I’m due a little rant and I’ve reached the point of needing to explain.
Customer arrived in store yesterday to purchase a new lead as his current “cheap online” one had broken within a couple of months. He is very new to guitar so naturally had a lot of questions, which I was more than happy to answer. We got on to talking about pedals and which pedal should he buy first, I mentioned starting with an entry multi effects board or modelling amp. Now the modelling amp peaked his interest - so we talked about the Fender Mustang LT25, so I showed him the amp, plugged in the guitar and let him test out for about 15mins. He said he would think about it and maybe come back and purchased his new lead.
Now, this is the bit that takes the biscuit, he arrived back in store this morning first thing, to tell me he bought the amp from an “exclusive online retailer” for £13 cheaper than our price and asked about plectrums and more advice on the difference in materials and thickness or pics - which being me, gave him the advice and said thank you very much.
Then the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became regarding the whole situation. If he had bought the amp in store, I would have thrown the cable in free of charge.
Equating to paying £1 more for a cable and amp, plus all the advice, recommendations and being able to test it out.
Sadly, we are not a free government supported advice service, we pay our rent, rates, bin charges, taxes, PAYE, national insurance, VAT, customs (&more!) and still at the very end of everything still have a corporation tax bill to pay!
A lot of these online stores do not pay anywhere near the same the amount respectively to our society and don’t give the advice and let you test out the instruments or accessories.
We do however try to give the best price we can in store and on many occasions, can match the online price.
The end of this story is very soon there will no music shops left to try new instruments, get advice, need a single string, pick up a capo if you have a gig in a couple of hours and lost yours, and much more.
More and more music stores are closing every week that have great selections of instruments and people working in them. If they don’t have it in store they may be able to order it into store PLEASE ASK THEM, or they can recommend another local store that stocks it.
They will also check it’s all in good order, give them a set up (which you don’t get with online retailers who just move a box from place to another) and have a smile with the service.
We understand times are tough at the minute and believe it’s the same for your local businesses and services. But we are here to help and will do our best for you.
THANK YOU to all great customers, that have been super supportive over the years.
Please, please, please support your local stores…whoever they may be.