Trip to Brighton (slightly disappointed)
Apr 28, 2024 10:51:38 GMT
Wild Violet, Phil Taylor, and 6 more like this
Post by forestdweller on Apr 28, 2024 10:51:38 GMT
Well, having gone through what I hope was my last ever Ofsted as a head of department 2 weeks ago (went very well btw) I decided yesterday to take my daughter Cecily to Brighton for her 18th Birthday. She is a very fine natural musician who seems able to pick up any instrument very quickly, but is mainly a keyboard player, and likes producing music on the computer. She is neuro divergent, so this trip was quite an epic thing for her, the aim being to chose her present, something to help her with her producing. She decided on some nice headphones.
Obviously in the past a trip to Brighton was quite an exciting prospect. Not only is it a city by the sea full of very beautiful looking people but of course we also had Tamco. Since Tamco's demise the only shops now to make a pilgrimage to is GAK and Hobgoblin. Not quite the same, but then we were on a specific shopping trip.
We decided to go to an actual music shop for two reasons- firstly to get some advice, secondly to actually try them out. After all you can go into a John Lewis or PC world, or HMV to try headphones, so it was quite a surprise then that when we did manage to pull the salesman in GAK away from him playing around with an Arturia Synth going through an Electro Harmonix pi pedal, we were greeted with absolute apathy, and an attitude that we were interrupting his Saturday morning play time. Answers to my questions about headphones were mainly mono syllabic, and the only advice we were really given was "for your budget there is Rode and Audio Technica" (in other words these are the two most expensive headphones in your price range). Further questions about their suitability were merely met with "sorry, don't know, I've never tried them". OK, can we listen to them then? "Sorry, since Covid we don't allow customers to try headphones or microphones". Ok, what if we took them home and didn't like them? "Sorry, we don't accept returns on headphones or microphones since Covid".
Anyway, we went upstairs to have a think about the whole situation as my daughter was zoning out with her autism and was getting a bit anxious at the lack of advice. I took the chance to try a Cordoba C10 nylon string guitar. It was about the only decent thing I could take down off the wall as all the other departments were roped off. Couldn't be arsed to ask to go in and try the posh Martins and Taylors. Actually the Cordoba was very nice- sounded far nicer than the Alhambra 6p I learnt on as a teenager, and far easier to play as well. I would say for just over £1k it was a bit of a bargain.
Anyway, to cut a long story short (about GAK anyway) I did ask for a discount on the Rode headphones when we went back down (I got £7 off- woopie!) and my daughter absolutely loves her new headphones (but as I was paying for them she got told off by the same shop assistant for playing on one of the computers in the shop - it was all I could do not to walk away there and then!)
On the way back to the station we popped into Hobgoblin. Again a slightly miserable experience as there were no nice guitars there. I did however ask to play an Ashbury Tenor mandola that was actually really really nice, and for £600 sounded better than I had any right for it to at that price
My daughter had a whale of a time sampling herself (on her phone) playing some handpans.
I'm not sure what to make of my trip. My daughter got out of the house, which for her was quite an achievement. She had an amazing time, and obviously felt inspired and came away with a really nice present for her 18th. However, I am shocked at the apathy I was met with. The assistant in GAK could quite clearly see (or at least I would hope he could) that my daughter was autistic and that we were looking for a present for a special birthday, and the fact that he couldn't give us the same standard of care as his assistant was giving two fellas in the same section of the shop I just found so disheartening.
I don't know, maybe I was just mourning the absence of Tamco. Trevor could be prickly to certain customers at times, but I always got on very well with him and enjoyed my trips there over the years.
Robbie
Obviously in the past a trip to Brighton was quite an exciting prospect. Not only is it a city by the sea full of very beautiful looking people but of course we also had Tamco. Since Tamco's demise the only shops now to make a pilgrimage to is GAK and Hobgoblin. Not quite the same, but then we were on a specific shopping trip.
We decided to go to an actual music shop for two reasons- firstly to get some advice, secondly to actually try them out. After all you can go into a John Lewis or PC world, or HMV to try headphones, so it was quite a surprise then that when we did manage to pull the salesman in GAK away from him playing around with an Arturia Synth going through an Electro Harmonix pi pedal, we were greeted with absolute apathy, and an attitude that we were interrupting his Saturday morning play time. Answers to my questions about headphones were mainly mono syllabic, and the only advice we were really given was "for your budget there is Rode and Audio Technica" (in other words these are the two most expensive headphones in your price range). Further questions about their suitability were merely met with "sorry, don't know, I've never tried them". OK, can we listen to them then? "Sorry, since Covid we don't allow customers to try headphones or microphones". Ok, what if we took them home and didn't like them? "Sorry, we don't accept returns on headphones or microphones since Covid".
Anyway, we went upstairs to have a think about the whole situation as my daughter was zoning out with her autism and was getting a bit anxious at the lack of advice. I took the chance to try a Cordoba C10 nylon string guitar. It was about the only decent thing I could take down off the wall as all the other departments were roped off. Couldn't be arsed to ask to go in and try the posh Martins and Taylors. Actually the Cordoba was very nice- sounded far nicer than the Alhambra 6p I learnt on as a teenager, and far easier to play as well. I would say for just over £1k it was a bit of a bargain.
Anyway, to cut a long story short (about GAK anyway) I did ask for a discount on the Rode headphones when we went back down (I got £7 off- woopie!) and my daughter absolutely loves her new headphones (but as I was paying for them she got told off by the same shop assistant for playing on one of the computers in the shop - it was all I could do not to walk away there and then!)
On the way back to the station we popped into Hobgoblin. Again a slightly miserable experience as there were no nice guitars there. I did however ask to play an Ashbury Tenor mandola that was actually really really nice, and for £600 sounded better than I had any right for it to at that price
My daughter had a whale of a time sampling herself (on her phone) playing some handpans.I'm not sure what to make of my trip. My daughter got out of the house, which for her was quite an achievement. She had an amazing time, and obviously felt inspired and came away with a really nice present for her 18th. However, I am shocked at the apathy I was met with. The assistant in GAK could quite clearly see (or at least I would hope he could) that my daughter was autistic and that we were looking for a present for a special birthday, and the fact that he couldn't give us the same standard of care as his assistant was giving two fellas in the same section of the shop I just found so disheartening.
I don't know, maybe I was just mourning the absence of Tamco. Trevor could be prickly to certain customers at times, but I always got on very well with him and enjoyed my trips there over the years.
Robbie
