Upon walking into Hobgoblin, I was greeted with smiles and chatter from both staff members. They had some of what I was after, but not all. Acknowledging that, they recommended another place that might carry the other items — which is an act some stores are wary to do, but I feel it shows respect to the customer and actually makes me want to come back! The staff clearly are very knowledgeable as well as super friendly. Plus, they actually know what an autoharp is. And that wins points with me!
Mike A.
Rating des Ortes: 5 London, United Kingdom
This is a great music shop near Charlotte St, off Tottenham Court Rd. They specialize in stringed instruments, mainly guitars, but the variety for such a small place is amazing. They carry acoustic and electric guitars, and also resonators, quite a few gypsy jazz guitars, and also harps, banjos, African stringed instruments, and several types of Mexican instruments like vihuela, bajo sexto, and guitarron. As you’d expect you can find replacement strings and picks, capos, etc., but surprisingly the stairwell wall is covered with Celtic drums. Downstairs there are even a few conga drums. The staff are very friendly, knowledgeable, and low key in their sales approach. This can be a breath of fresh air, in contrast to the musical instrument«mall» that is nearby Denmark Street and its sometimes hard-sell feel. If you’re visiting the Denmark Street shops, you might as well check this place out, as it’s not far at all and you’ll have an alternative, probably even better shopping/browsing experience here!
Fiona G.
Rating des Ortes: 4 Totnes, United Kingdom
Fantastic place for the cognoscenti this shop offers a huge range of instruments & helpful staff to advise. I love it.
Claire L.
Rating des Ortes: 4 London, United Kingdom
This is such a cool little independent music shop on Rathbone place. They really specialise in musical instruments, especially guitars and you can tell that al who’ve worked here or stepped into this shop has had their heart and soul in music. You can buy really great acoustic guitars in here for a reasonable price. There’s also lots of instrumental paraphernalia and sheet music too. They’ve even got CDs for sale too although there isn’t a huge range as this is not their speciality. If there’s a problem with any purchases, these guys are more than happy to help you and rectify anything, answer any problems and are just generally lovely people. I’m really up for supporting shops like this and they are truly a dying breed — definitely get your next acoustic guitar in here or at least check this place out and support this awesome little shop.
Alanmu
Sawbridgeworth, United Kingdom
It’s been almost 3 years since my friend bought me my Headway acoustic amp as a birthday present from these guys and it always stuck in my head how arrogant one staff member was. Sat there with his ponytail and goatee, nibbling on his sandwich — we asked for the amp and they handed us the display model without a box or cover case refusing to take off some of the price. When we asked him about the technical details of the amp he looked at us like we farted in his lunch and didn’t give us ANY details whatsoever. My friend didn’t have much time so we purchased it anyway but after a year the amp had started to malfunction and the reason turned out to be that there was a lot of dirt and grime in the inputs which was probably because the amp was a display model all the time in this shop! Don’t recommend it.