Your Friendly Local Music Store

Let's be honest, we're always looking for a bargain when we're out shopping. And this is especially true when we're put shopping for musical instruments. There seems to be some primal impulse preprogrammed into us that because music is fun, it should somehow be free...

Anyway, the cutthroat business of capitalism is nowhere more apparent than in the music retail business, with online stores, Ebay outlets, Amazon etc all getting in on the act. With all this, it can be hard for a local bricks and mortar outfit to compete – especially given that many smaller businesses tend to be run by people who are musicians first and businessmen a distant fifth.

They can be awkward to get too – especially given parking restrictions in towns and cities. They can rarely match the prices of the online only sellers (because business rates, running costs, employees salaries). They may not have the product you're looking for. They can and will (occasionally) mess stuff up.

And yet...

I've lost count of the number of times I've had students come to me with instruments bought unseen online with bent necks, appallingly unplayable actions, intonation out of whack past the fifth fret. I even made the mistake myself in my early days, buying a secondhand guitar from the Free Ads section of the papers (the 90s...) with a Floyd Rose tremolo system, which for those of you not au fait with this piece of design is a complicated and technical design 100% NOT for beginner guitarists like I was.

The problem is, with any specialist purchase, it's essential to know what questions to ask. If you don't know about guitars, why would you ask about “action”, “intonation” - you would just assume it works, the same as if you were buying a laptop. But guitars aren't like that. They are dynamic systems, working in balance, with a lot that can go wrong if they've been poorly made.

This is where your Friendly Local Music Shop steps in. These guys are musos through and through, experienced and well versed in what to look for. They don't stock crap, because all that generates is dissatisfied customers who know where to come if they have an axe to grind. So right away, that's one level of protection.

Secondly (and this is a big one), you try an instrument, you like it – you walk out of the shop with that same instrument. That is a BIG plus – not one like it, not one similar but in a different finish, you walk out with that very instrument. That is a big, big deal, even in these days of CNC computer controlled mass production.

Lastly – when you need that last minute pick/ battery/ set of strings/ reed/ replacement part... where are you going to go? Who you gonna call? The internet, where it takes three or four days to get something out to you, and even then it may be the wrong thing (because they made a mistake, or you made a mistake, didn't quite know the term for what you wanted...).. Without your support, these places will fold. And they won't be there when you need them. Something to thing about.

By the way, our FLMS is Just Music, located on 42 Leicester Road, telephone number 01509 234 881. You're welcome.