Thursday, 9 August 2007

The pitfalls of buying gear

I'm revising my opinion of Turnkey, the music shop on Charing Cross Road. For the uninitiated, Turnkey says it has the cheapest prices in Europe, and I think it possibly does - not that I've really done the research. However, most times I've been there, I've either had really bad service (earlier in the year they told me they definitely had a certain item that wasn't actually in stock when I went to pick it up), or felt slightly alienated by the boys' club atmosphere.

However, when I went there the other day, I got a pleasant surprise. OK, so there was still the ubiquitous teenager playing the same three chords over and over again on a synth in the corner. And then another teenager in the guitars section playing the opening riff to Metallica's Enter Sandman ad nauseam.

But I got a blinder of a deal on an amp I've been intending to get for ages - years, in fact - that just happened to be in stock when I asked. Hooray! The nice man in the shop gave me a stonking discount and I can honestly say it probably is the cheapest I would find anywhere. And I didn't even go in there for the amp, I went to look at keyboards. Now that was a good salesman.

So, Turnkey, you are redeemed.

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