Hey Guys, I went guitar hunting yesterday , but since I reached most shops late in the evening, I couldn't make my choice yesterday due to lack of time. I'm sharing my experience. You may or may not have had the same experiences so DON'T SCREAM if you disagree on something! :rule: Bhargava's - rotest: :ar: They have a nice acoustic collection and the prices are decent too. There are 2 problems I faced. One, the person dealing with me was a security guard. He didn't know about the wood or any other specification. This was frustrating. Finally, when I settled on a guitar, I was asked to go upstairs into their main shop and speak to the owner. The owner didn't BUDGE with the price AT ALL. He was very curt and said "Please don't mention any reduction in price". Plus, he was busy staring into his computer screen looking at CCT's he had installed on the various floors. Their attitude was like "It's no problem, if u take ur business elsewhere". Disinterested , is the word I'd say. But there prices are still good! CONCLUSION - (GREAT PRICES, BUT THEY'RE ATTENDANT IS A SECURITY GUARD AND THE OWNER IS TOO STUCK UP) Furtados - :beer: Well, the one in Lajpat Nagar is well stocked but the one in Ambience Mall Gurgaon is definitely better stocked. I don't know if it was the time (7:45pm - they close at 8) or something else, but I was left to my own devices to choose a guitar. There was noone helping me. There was one guy, but he handed me random guitars to check. The service at Ambience mall is DEFINITELY better. GOOD thing about both the stores, they keep their guitars TUNED which really saves time. CONCLUSION - GREAT SERVICE(but don't go when theyre about to close), WELL STOCKED, AND ALL GUITARS ARE TUNED!!! OnStage - :annoyed: If you ever want to buy a "PLUTO" head to onstage. They have a decent collection. Other than that, they do stock Fenders and Cort too. Unfortunately, they don't deal in Yamaha . The problem with this shop is their guitars. Almost EVERY guitar that I played BUZZED on a specific fret. The other problem was all the guitars were out of tune and the guy who was helping me was STUBBORN about tuning them with an electronic tuner. He was confident about his manual tuning capabilities but I wasn't convinced that it was "standard". I found a good "Cort" which I wanted to buy but after checking it, I found it BUZZING on fret 2, even after "Standard" tuning . These guys ought to take more care of their guitars. There's no point stocking so many if theyre all going to BUZZ! CONCLUSION - GOOD RANGE OF GUITARS, GREAT IF U WANT TO BUY A "PLUTO", THEIR GUITAR'S BUZZ , AND THEY DON'T USE AN ELECTRONIC TUNER TO TUNE THEM (even after u repeatedly ask them!). RangarSons - :welcomean :gather: This was my next stop. I had a good experience with this shop because the owner and the helpers are very warm and nice people and really accomadating. Unfortunately, the shop has a VERY LIMITED guitar collection. The owner swore by a band called "Farida" but I wasn't too happy with it after playing the Cort (at Onstage) and the Yamaha(at Bhargava's). These guys mostly deal in spare parts and repairs. I think that's their USP. CONCLUSION - NICE PEOPLE, MAKE U FEEL AT HOME, VERY HOSPITABLE, GOOD FOR SPARE PARTS & REPAIR, POOR RANGE OF GUITARS Music Square - (YAMAHA DEALERS) :rock: Okay I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this shop or not. It's in the same row as Bharat, OnStage , Rangarsons. I didn't enter this shop in my earlier visits to Lajpat since from the outside, you feel the shop only deals in Keyboards / Pianos. However, I was wrong. The guy is a YAMAHA distributor and he supplies the instruments to all the other shops (even Bhargava's, at least he said!). The basement has A LOT of guitars. They knew what they were selling. I asked for the same YAMAHA model I had played at Bhargavas (FG-700 series) and almost at once the attendant described the guitar and why it was awesome (and he didn't even have it in stock!). They told me their shipment was going to come in another 2 weeks, took down my number and told me they'd called me. I spoke to the owner and asked for the best price, told him what Bhargava's was offering and he said, he can negotiate only after he gets the shipment. But he seemed open for negotiation, which was great!! He quoted me about 900 more than what Bhargavas quoted but said the reason for the lower cost at Bhargava's was because they had "purana maal" (old stock), which is kindda true because I remember inquiring if they had a BRAND new piece (in case I decided to buy) and they did not. CONCLUSION - NICE GUYS, KNOW WHAT THEY'RE SELLING, YAMAHA DISTRIBUTORS, BASEMENT IS WELL STOCKED, OPEN TO NEGOTIATIONS! Bharat Music House - :sadbye: Hmmmmm, so I've bought all my instruments from this shop till date, I've referred everyone I know to go to them and its been almost 10 years. But now I've realized , they are toooooo expensive (I know , took me 10 years ). The Yamaha that I checked out at Bhargavas and Music Square (I await their shipment), was being sold by Bharat at almost 5000 extra than both those shops. I was quite astonished after he quoted the price to me. I told him that the others were giving it for 5K lesser and he whipped out his Price List (making deliberate efforts to hide it from me), took his calculator and punched some numbers (again hid it from me) and finally looked up and said, "Nahin, ho hi nahin sakda" (No, It can't be possible). "Oh logee tuaanoo kuch hor vech rahe hain" (Those guys are selling you something else). Well, he kept saying that and 10 years of my association with them ENDED in a flicker. Anyway, in case you're looking to buy "ARIA" guitars, then you will find a GOOD stock at Bharat. However, you MUST negotiate like crazy! CONCLUSION - TOOOOO EXPENSIVE, DECENT RANGE OF "ARIA" GUITARS, IS TOO SECRETIVE ABOUT IT'S PRICE LIST AND CALCULATORS! I'm going to visit "Furtados" Ambience Gurgaon once. Their shop is a collaboration between FURTADOS and MUSIC SQUARe. In fact the name of the shop is "MUSIC SQUARE". Hopefully, I'll find the guitars I'm looking for or a better one. I'm just concerned about the price. Being in a mall and everything they're bound to be costlier . But if they throw in a nice COVER , a few picks and a Strap , I wouldn't mind paying that extra "1000". Anyway to conclude, I know that I went late to these shops and probably that's why the service was poor but it shouldn't be that way! :NoNo:
Talk about amps as well. (Spread it around - YOUR AMP IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR THE SOUND THAN THE GUITAR!) Onstage LN has a small crappy selection of Hartke and Line 6 Spider IVs, and lots of Fender Passports, which is not a guitar amp at all (the shopkeeper says he's getting Fender Blues Jr, Twin, HRD and so on next month). Five minutes walk away is Furtados with it's mostly-tube-amp-from-10-watt-to-I-swear-I-saw-a-500-watt selection, with some decent solid states as well. Good for an Indian shop. And +1 on Bhargavas not giving any discount, but their prices are good otherwise. Check out Onstage Noida (sec 18) for really great (my experience only) bargains.
JD Musicals hello everyone, I feel everyone reading this should checkout this shop. The owner is a soft spoken person and really helpful. Though not a big store , but best equipment is available as the guy himself is a musician. Prices are good. Discount offered on some products.
Addendum to a good thread: Don't go to Bharat Music House in Delhi See https://indianguitartabs.com/showthread.php?t=45545
you saw wrong. their is only one 500W audio-range (bass) guitar tube amp i have ever seen, and it was a DIY design on the net. probably never replicated for practical reasons. the highest power tube amp in production is the ampeg SVT-CL, which is a bass amp pushing 300W. and definitely not available in india. oh, it weighs in at about 50kg, i think. the furtados sales guy tried to convince me once that a 50W laney head was "max 200W" because he was clueless and couldn't tell head from ass. they said, "see it's written on the back panel." and it was. next to the power input socket. which means that the amp has a consumption of up to 200W. i asked the sales guy as to how exactly you would get 200W out of a pair of 6L6s and he was like "hey, why are you trying to argue with me? i sell this stuff for a living! i know my facts better!" a bit later is when i established that furtados mumbai connects their heads to their cabs using guitar cable and even tried to sell me one when i asked for speaker cable. they probably still do that, despite three warnings on three separate occasions that eventually, the cable will give in and smoke the OT. so yeah, the instrument stores have no idea of what's going on inside those amps and it's embarrassing discussing them with most of them. which is why ansar gets two thumbs up from me. he knows his stuff well and also has the practical sense not to "overthink" his amps like i do mine.
