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Post by jonnymosco on Oct 25, 2020 12:40:00 GMT
Just read this on FB:
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT 2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for many families and businesses. Our recent social media inactivity and the absence of guitars on our website, has understandably led some of you to believe that The Acoustic Music Company is in decline. Thank you to those who have written to us expressing concern. Let's clarify things......TAMCO is stable, business is healthy and we aim to be here for many years to come....still with the Brighton shop and online. We have, however, decided that we will focus on our core strength – expertise in mandolins. We will therefore no longer trade in acoustic guitars nor will we offer to sell them on consignment. We are working on a new modern website which we aim to launch in early 2021. To all of our guitar customers, we truly appreciate your business during the last 19 years. STAY SAFE – PLAY SAFE
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Post by grayn on Oct 25, 2020 15:26:21 GMT
Only went there once, when I got my James Goodall guitar. Best guitar I've ever owned but I wasn't keen on the guy there. He totally slagged off my Fylde Eric Bibb, that I wanted to trade in and then gave me more than I'd paid for it. Glad they're still going though.
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Post by dreadnought28 on Oct 26, 2020 3:23:24 GMT
It’s sad. In its heyday TAMCO had a great inventory of high end acoustic guitars that, at the time, was second to none in the UK. Well worth a 500 mile round trip.
Trevor is a character but I’ve always got on well with him. I’m an oddball myself. Probably had 10 or so guitars from him over the years and some excellent deals. I suspect my mandolin collection, currently 3, may grow.
One of my best days ever (literally) was around 2010 when Trevor organised an evening with Ervin Symogyi. £20 for about 4 hours in the basement of a little cafe including an excellent buffet!
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TAMCO!
Oct 26, 2020 7:08:07 GMT
Post by grayn on Oct 26, 2020 7:08:07 GMT
Only went there once, when I got my James Goodall guitar. Best guitar I've ever owned but I wasn't keen on the guy there. He totally slagged off my Fylde Eric Bibb, that I wanted to trade in and then gave me more than I'd paid for it. Glad they're still going though. I forgot to mention that, that same day I went to TAMCO, I'd spent the morning at a guitar shop in Worthing, run by our very own Michael Watts. Michael had been a complete gent and his playing was sublime. I was most annoyed with myself, that I couldn't find the guitar I wanted and ended up buying from a fairly rude, or should I say eccentric, chap, at TAMCO.
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Post by forestdweller on Oct 26, 2020 8:05:00 GMT
Ah Trevor is quite a character. He is not shy of completely ripping into an instrument you may own that he felt was inferior. He was at one time quite a big Brook stockist, until he fell out with them. A few year later when I was there trying guitars out he brought out one of the remaining Brooks he had in stock which he couldn’t sell. No wonder as it had dirty dead strings- used this to try and convince me that Brooks were crap. I’ve had several instruments from him over the years- a lovely Bourgeois slope D, a Weber octave mandolin, a Weber Mandola, an Old Wave 5 string, and a couple of Eastmans. So glad he is still going to be stocking mandolins though. He has had something of a battle with TNAG over the years, so to specialise in something they don’t do quite as well is a good move. He is a character for sure, but despite all his apparent rudeness Trevor is a good bloke!
Robbie
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TAMCO!
Oct 27, 2020 9:59:18 GMT
Post by andyhowell on Oct 27, 2020 9:59:18 GMT
Only went there once, when I got my James Goodall guitar. Best guitar I've ever owned but I wasn't keen on the guy there. He totally slagged off my Fylde Eric Bibb, that I wanted to trade in and then gave me more than I'd paid for it. Glad they're still going though. Hmm, maybe his struggles are understandable then :-)
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TAMCO!
Oct 27, 2020 11:32:47 GMT
Post by skyetripper on Oct 27, 2020 11:32:47 GMT
Only went there once, when I got my James Goodall guitar. Best guitar I've ever owned but I wasn't keen on the guy there. He totally slagged off my Fylde Eric Bibb, that I wanted to trade in and then gave me more than I'd paid for it. Glad they're still going though. Hmm, maybe his struggles are understandable then :-) Sounds like virtually every 'small' guitar shop I've ever been in - the guitar they are trying to sell you is the best ever made and the one you're trying to exchange is - 'dreadful, very hard to sell these', 'and look at the warp in the neck', 'the intonation's all over the place', 'you must have only paid around £100 for this?' etc. etc. (I've had all of these in my time) Although the bigger shops can do it too. Went to JG Windows for a Martin event day last year and a couple of Martin reps thrust a Martin M36 into my hands. I was quite won over by the guitar (there's a thread on here somewhere) and it was at a very good discount on the day, but the main reason I walked away was when he asked what I had currently. I told him I had a Larrivee at which he raised his eyebrows and said 'Ah.. A cheap Martin copy'. Not a good way to sell guitars I think. Although I do still check TAMCO for their Mandolins on a regular basis... ;-)
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Post by andyhowell on Oct 27, 2020 11:44:59 GMT
skyetripper We are seeing a major shake-down in thespecialist market fuelled in no short measure by the internet, or rather by how well companies use the internet. TNAG had the internet at the centre of their offering from the start and after the loss of Michael Watts it took them a while to defelop an alternative but they have now. I've been to TNAG and thought it interesting. To play a Greenfield or a Casimi is wonderful experience but its not really my world. Ther is probably only room for one TNAG in tbe UK and certsainly they are the only dealers reallt into the collection/investment thing. There's nothing wrong in this I guess as people collect all kinds of things, but I'm not that interested in it. It's the demise of the next tier down that is sad. Ivor Mairant's was always worth a visit. I've never been to Frailers which I should and I've been to Forsyths a few times. Perhaps, my ideal small dealer would be Celtic Chords, which I always visit when I am in that part of the world. The big boys — PMT, Andersons, Guitar Guitar — are fine for what they do but I'm sad to see the slow death of stores run by people who know what they are talking about :-)
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Post by skyetripper on Oct 27, 2020 12:07:14 GMT
skyetripper We are seeing a major shake-down in thespecialist market fuelled in no short measure by the internet, or rather by how well companies use the internet. TNAG had the internet at the centre of their offering from the start and after the loss of Michael Watts it took them a while to defelop an alternative but they have now. I've been to TNAG and thought it interesting. To play a Greenfield or a Casimi is wonderful experience but its not really my world. Ther is probably only room for one TNAG in tbe UK and certsainly they are the only dealers reallt into the collection/investment thing. There's nothing wrong in this I guess as people collect all kinds of things, but I'm not that interested in it. It's the demise of the next tier down that is sad. Ivor Mairant's was always worth a visit. I've never been to Frailers which I should and I've been to Forsyths a few times. Perhaps, my ideal small dealer would be Celtic Chords, which I always visit when I am in that part of the world. The big boys — PMT, Andersons, Guitar Guitar — are fine for what they do but I'm sad to see the slow death of stores run by people who know what they are talking about :-) Sorry if it sounded like I was slagging off small guitar shops - far from it! As a young plank basher, there seemed like there were endless smaller, independent guitar shops in Sunderland and Newcastle and they were treasure troves. I stand by the comments I got whenever I tried to trade in a guitar though. It always seemed that the guitar I had was a piece of junk compared to the one I wanted. I'm lucky up here in that we still have some good guitar / music shops. The Guitar Shop in Newcastle and Core Music in Hexham, both of which are run by enthusiastic and friendly people. I'd go so far as to say The Guitar Shop is by far my favourite guitar shop of all time - he only ever has maybe 10 guitars for sale at any one time and they're invariably interesting and well set up. I'm sure there are others, but these are the only ones I get to visit. Agree about Ivor Mairants - I remember going to Denmark street as a spotty teenager and being overwhelmed by the range and quality of guitars in Mairants in particular. I seem to recall they had a lot of very good classical guitars at the time. I went there a couple of years ago with my daughter and it was a bit of a pilgrimage, so very sad to see them go. TNAG is a very nice place to go window shopping mind...
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TAMCO!
Oct 27, 2020 17:46:33 GMT
Post by curmudgeon on Oct 27, 2020 17:46:33 GMT
I have bought and sold many instruments from/to Trevor. He IS a character, and I know folk who he has upset and those who like him. He has always been very fair and reasonable with me.
One of my most treasured instruments is my Lebeda F5 that I bought from him in 2007, I had the chance to trade it for a Collings once - and decided not to.
I'm sorry that he has decided to discontinue with guitars, he bought into the UK fine brands that were unavailable elsewhere : Baranik, Berkowitz, Big Hollow, Borges, Brock, Brondel, Caldwell, Carruth, Chasson, Circa, Claxton, Collings, de Jonge, Doerr, Fay, Fischer, Franklin, Franklin Guitar Co, Hatcher, Kinnaird, Kwasnycia, Kraut, Laskin, LeGeyt, Leach, Manzer, Ogino, Rein, Schwartz, Simmons, Somogyi, Stehr, Tippin, Traphagen, Traugott, Wilborn, Wren
(Ok I took this list from his website).
I remember when John formerly of Tiger Music worked with him, and I probably first met Michael Watts there.
I wish Trevor all the best for the future.
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Post by dreadnought28 on Oct 28, 2020 0:11:43 GMT
skyetripper We are seeing a major shake-down in thespecialist market fuelled in no short measure by the internet, or rather by how well companies use the internet. TNAG had the internet at the centre of their offering from the start and after the loss of Michael Watts it took them a while to defelop an alternative but they have now. I've been to TNAG and thought it interesting. To play a Greenfield or a Casimi is wonderful experience but its not really my world. Ther is probably only room for one TNAG in tbe UK and certsainly they are the only dealers reallt into the collection/investment thing. There's nothing wrong in this I guess as people collect all kinds of things, but I'm not that interested in it. It's the demise of the next tier down that is sad. Ivor Mairant's was always worth a visit. I've never been to Frailers which I should and I've been to Forsyths a few times. Perhaps, my ideal small dealer would be Celtic Chords, which I always visit when I am in that part of the world. The big boys — PMT, Andersons, Guitar Guitar — are fine for what they do but I'm sad to see the slow death of stores run by people who know what they are talking about :-) TNAG have closed their UK showroom, you will have to travel to Nashville to try before you buy. Online still exists but most of the guitars will be shipped over.
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TAMCO!
Oct 28, 2020 8:15:06 GMT
Post by curmudgeon on Oct 28, 2020 8:15:06 GMT
Yes, they took over Carter's vintage didn't they?
It's a very strange move to close down their second London venue and transfer the business to the USA. Difficult to understand the final proices for items bought in the UK with shipment from the US.
I note that Guitar Village in Farnham seems to have a far smaller stock now with notes like "Pre-order".
My most recent purchase was from TFOA in the Netherlands who really seem to have their act together.
We lost so many great places in 2007/8 - wither Guitar Junction (Worthing) and the Acoustic Centre (Wapping)
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Post by andyhowell on Oct 28, 2020 8:15:26 GMT
[mention]dreadnought28 [/mention] I’d not caught up with that. It’s worse than I thought ! Do they have any operation here now?
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TAMCO!
Oct 28, 2020 11:49:38 GMT
Post by andyhowell on Oct 28, 2020 11:49:38 GMT
Yes, they took over Carter's vintage didn't they? It's a very strange move to close down their second London venue and transfer the business to the USA. Difficult to understand the final proices for items bought in the UK with shipment from the US. I note that Guitar Village in Farnham seems to have a far smaller stock now with notes like "Pre-order". My most recent purchase was from TFOA in the Netherlands who really seem to have their act together. We lost so many great places in 2007/8 - wither Guitar Junction (Worthing) and the Acoustic Centre (Wapping) Cotten guitars I think — Carters is still going.
This explains why the last time I looked at TNAG a chat box appeared but it seemed I was talking to a robot!
Never went to Guitar junction but I spent many happy hours at Acoustic Centre in Wapping. A very good store in its day.
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TAMCO!
Oct 28, 2020 19:54:04 GMT
Post by dreadnought28 on Oct 28, 2020 19:54:04 GMT
Nobody would take over Carter Vintage Guitars! It’s Cotten Music. I’ve known them for years, Kim is one of the nicest people I’ve ever dealt with.
TNAG still have an office here. On the usual number and email address.
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