ianrendall Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Got in touch with a local music shop that proclaims to have 'all the big, quality names'. Standard fare for a non specialist town shop - Squier, Tanglewood, PRS, Blackstar, Aria...you get the picture. Asked them what bass combos they had in...... All they had was a second hand Behringer 😂 I just siged and politely declined. Anyone else frustrated with the blinkered attitude and ignorance of local music shops? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Guess they are going for as quick a turnover of stock as possible with limited storage space... A lot easier to shift guitars Although I would expect them to at least be stocking a few entry level combos, surley basses can't be that unpopular? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrendall Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 Another local music shop opened recently to great fanfare. All they seem to care about is their drum department and which local shoe gazing oik will be playing in their shop on Saturday mornings. They have a Squier VM Jag bass for sale at £349 and a MIM Jazz at £799. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrendall Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 [quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1432201604' post='2779052'] Guess they are going for as quick a turnover of stock as possible with limited storage space... [/quote] It's a HUGE place. It's a former warehouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 [quote name='ianrendall' timestamp='1432202023' post='2779058'] It's a HUGE place. It's a former warehouse. [/quote] ah fair enough... maybe they are just idiots... plenty out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertbass Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Try being left handed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceBass3901 Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I'm noticing more and more shops stocking less and less bass gear, let alone decent bass gear! My local shop only has 2 unloved Fender Jazz basses and a second-hand Precision copy and then 2 ratty looking Fender bass combos... They used to stock a load of Overwater basses, plus a number of Squiers and a few acoustics, but now it is just a handful of secondrate gear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Many music shops haven't made the leap to online selling and are finding they can't survive in the internet age, so they will stock what they know they can sell. I would guess that for every bass player purchase they get they will sell something to 100 guitarists. They are not "idiots" just businesses trying to get by. That's why the stock is always skewed the way it is. The days of having a local music shop with a stock of great bass gear (even for me in London) have gone and will never come back, but great shops catering for bass exist. You just have to make it a day out to get to one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Ahh well, what can you do? You can't MAKE them cater for your whimsical tastes. Local music shops just aren't for me, as a bassist with my tastes in bass. C'est la vie. I occasionally drop in due to some naive hope that things might change one day, but it's usually a short visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I went into a very well known Exeter guitar shop a few weeks back and was a little taken aback by how little bass gear they had. To make matters worse the 'room' had been reduced by 30% since I'd been there last. The basses were ok in general, but the amp selection was dreadful. It was even worse in the other music shop in Exeter. The bass gear is right at the top of the building, in a shabby room in the eves. The selection of gear was poor and the manner in which it had been put on display even worse. Bass dedicated shops are too far off, even for a day trip, for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrendall Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 (edited) Perhaps I was a little harsh in my criticism. But the fact that many bass players are are left with little option but to travel many miles to get decent stuff should give these local shops the incentive to tap into that market. I did lightheartedly suggest on Facebook to the recently opened music shop that they might consider getting some Markbass or Musicman stuff in. They just replied with a 'like' and a 'LOL 😀' Edited May 21, 2015 by ianrendall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 The internet has "spoiled" it for everyone, by showing us just what a massive range of bass guitars, amps etc. is available. So it's little wonder that most of the people on here who have a higher than average interest in gear are going to be disappointed at what is available in the shops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Maybe that's why places like Bass Direct & GBBL are doing so well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anaxcrosswords Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Funny enough the one music shop in the Trafford Centre - and it's a small one - seems quite bassist friendly. 4 or 5 bass combos last time I went in; nothing big and mostly Ashdown, but they had a nice Trace Eliot combo too, looked like about 150W. At least 3 lefties on the wall too, admittedly not very good apart from a Squier Jazz (bought one from them for my daughter early this year and it's very good quality). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassy Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Bass is a minority interest compared to guitars, and with a lot of people buying on line anyway why would they bother to stock much? I can totally understand why this is happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 As someone who had a shop for two years I'd just like to say spend a fortnight the other side of the counter before you judge too harshly - us bass players are a difficult bunch to sell to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrendall Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 [quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1432211692' post='2779215'] As someone who had a shop for two years I'd just like to say spend a fortnight the other side of the counter before you judge too harshly - us bass players are a difficult bunch to sell to [/quote] Oh I hear that! 😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChunkyMunky Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 [quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1432208995' post='2779176'] I went into a very well known Exeter guitar shop a few weeks back and was a little taken aback by how little bass gear they had. To make matters worse the 'room' had been reduced by 30% since I'd been there last. The basses were ok in general, but the amp selection was dreadful. It was even worse in the other music shop in Exeter. The bass gear is right at the top of the building, in a shabby room in the eves. The selection of gear was poor and the manner in which it had been put on display even worse. Bass dedicated shops are too far off, even for a day trip, for me. [/quote] I have an idea of which shop that could very well be. I laughed when they were charging £3,200 for a Zon that was worth about £2,000 or so. I'm betting it's still there too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subbeh Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 [quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1432209709' post='2779188'] Bass is a minority interest compared to guitars, and with a lot of people buying on line anyway why would they bother to stock much? I can totally understand why this is happening. [/quote] I totally agree, we're pretty much a niche part of the industry and as many people admit they use shops to try what they want then but then buy online for a better price. The same people often turn around and bemoan the lack of bass stock. I really don't blame most stores for not having more bass gear in stock. Luckily there are some great places like bass direct that are geared up for us and sites like this with a great community selling well looked after gear at great prices with members often happy for people to try their gear at meets etc. The US stores I've been to are generally pretty good, I was in a branch of Sam Ash a few weeks back and they had an awesome selection, from fenders, warwicks, gibsons, Yamaha and Ibanez to fancy single cuts and more high end boutique options as well as a solid selection of used and budget gear. [quote name='bertbass' timestamp='1432203029' post='2779070'] Try being left handed! [/quote] Indeed, being a niche within a niche market can be a real kick in the nuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 The last bass I bought in a shop was around 1995 and I took the day to travel to Birmingham. I bought it from The Bass Place, which only stocked bass gear. Needless to say it closed down many years ago. It would seem that bass gear is not commercially viable to stock in any quantity, especially without an online presence (and then the need to price match the profits away), and as fewer shops do so that trickle of sales dries up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 (edited) My local music shop has less than 5 basses in, loads of guitars and tons of keyboards. I was talking a drummer friend recently about how difficult it is to find a good keyboard player - if there are so few why do shops dedicate so much more room to keyboardists?? Edited May 21, 2015 by TheGreek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Simple economics. The shops will know what sells best and stock accordingly, the ones that don't will go bust. Places like Bass Direct, Bass Gear etc are great and will do well as long as there aren't too many of them. There are few enough bass players out there relatively speaking and the savvy ones will know where to find the bass they want. High st music shops are possibly left with the less savvy to sell to these days hence the fairly dull ranges of basses and amps carried (the old faithful middle of the road combos etc). If all the music retailers have a killer bass dept then each one would probably only shift a handful of basses / amps each year and they'd all be wasting their time with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlungerModerno Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 +1 to the online thing - really hurts the ability to make a decent mark up on small quantities of bass equipment. Depends what the business model is of course. It's good that things are more competitive for us bassists (better gear at competitive prices) - but we have squeezed a lot of retailers out in the process!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 There are one or two shops that cater comparatively well for bassists - PMT in Birmingham has a reasonable selection across a good range of prices. A couple of years ago, I was able to compare four or five different Peavey 5-strings, from the budget Millennium to the rather less budget USA Cirrus. They'd got a range of manufacturers in too. One thing that has been killed off by the internet is the second-hand instrument shop. While there are places like Bass Direct selling higher-end gear second-hand, places like Musical Exchange in Birmingham have gone now, the ones that had instruments in second-hand for £75 in the late 80s (about £200 now apparently). That's all moved online now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anaxcrosswords Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 The online thing is interesting though. In all but one of my purchases a necessary part has been trying the instrument out first, for the usual reasons of feel, playability, evaluating whether or not it's 'the one'. Plus, I suppose, the opportunity to haggle a little - maybe not a price reduction, but would you be preapred to thrown in a bag, couple of leads... Are we all happy to have moved away from that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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