Post by vinman on May 3, 2024 15:23:28 GMT
We live near Brighton. I try to avoid going into Brighton if at all possible, these days, it's 'orrible. Anyway, I've bought two mandolins from Hobgoblin Brighton. I felt the young guy serving was very helpful, on the second occasion I had a reasonable budget of around £1K and had an instrument in mind, I tried it and was underwhelmed. I tried 4 or 5 others and eventually settled on a used "The Loar 600" F style. IMO head and shoulders "better" than the various Kentucky's on offer. The guy in the shop was very helpful. I'd buy another instrument and or paraphenalia from hobgoblin if need be.
As for GAK, Quite recently I bought a Vintage 880AQ. For £240 or so it's pretty good, looks good, sounds good, plays good. I can't say I liked the place overly, the guy that served me wasn't rude as such, just a bit "meh, what ever" if you get my drift. The rest of the staff struck me as being far too cool for school, I won't be buying another instrument there or anything else for that matter. Should I feel my playing warrants a "quality" instrument at some point, I'll go elsewhere.
On the otherhand I've bought several instruments from Allodi Accordions in Lewisham ( London) The first was a cheap and just about adequate Chinese instrument, this was to see if I could get a handle on the music lark. The last was a top line Italian instrument. Emilio Allodi is an absolute gent, you can spend as much time, and try as many instruments as you need to. He will answer any number of questions you may have about tuning, size, number of voices, cassotto, musette, double octave etc etc etc. www.accordions.co.uk . He repairs, tunes and otherwise fettles accordions of all kinds, shapes and sizes. He'll be retiring sometime this year and will be much missed in the accordion community.
As for GAK, Quite recently I bought a Vintage 880AQ. For £240 or so it's pretty good, looks good, sounds good, plays good. I can't say I liked the place overly, the guy that served me wasn't rude as such, just a bit "meh, what ever" if you get my drift. The rest of the staff struck me as being far too cool for school, I won't be buying another instrument there or anything else for that matter. Should I feel my playing warrants a "quality" instrument at some point, I'll go elsewhere.
On the otherhand I've bought several instruments from Allodi Accordions in Lewisham ( London) The first was a cheap and just about adequate Chinese instrument, this was to see if I could get a handle on the music lark. The last was a top line Italian instrument. Emilio Allodi is an absolute gent, you can spend as much time, and try as many instruments as you need to. He will answer any number of questions you may have about tuning, size, number of voices, cassotto, musette, double octave etc etc etc. www.accordions.co.uk . He repairs, tunes and otherwise fettles accordions of all kinds, shapes and sizes. He'll be retiring sometime this year and will be much missed in the accordion community.
