Hi there
Just found this thread (yes I know it's a bit of an old one) and forum while researching for something I'm starting to write up on old guitars and history I recall … and was sat struggling to prompt my memory for the names and locations of the old shops I used to make a Saturday afternoon pilgrimage to in Brum during the mid 80's after a ride along the Walsall-Birmingham railway line or 51/951 bus.
What I've read above has helped put a fair few names to some shops I remembered but I couldn't name from memory
I now have on my list :
Musical Exchanges (obviously !) both the mind blowing mecca at 89 Old Snow Hill and the little one on the right down Broad Street, I recall going in both shops, though Broad Street closed soon after.
Less far down Broad Street and on the left was one which, from what's been said, must have been George Clay, they had a lot of Tokai replica stuff in there.
I don't recall Woodroffe's apart from my friends going to a liquidation auction, which is probably why.
I recall James Pass in Smallbrook Queensway, and opposite it was another music shop, near the bridge over Dudley Street, for which I can't recall the name, though they had more varied musical stock as well as guitars.
At the far end of Smallbrook by the roundabout I recall two shops next door to each other; Jones & Crossland and City Music, if memory serves, with a vague recollection that it might originally just have been J&C and City might later have moved into one half. And yes, Reakes round the corner in Suffolk Street, which was a bit too 'classical' for me.
Further up Suffolk Street at the corner with Navigation street near the nightclub was another small shop. I can't be sure of the name of this one though I have a suspicion now it might have been City Music at one time. Tried out some Yamaha SG's in there.
Then over by Lewis's in Priory Street Queensway, I recall two shops. One was where Forbidden Planet is now and the shop stamp inside the cover of a book I bought there, along with the address is the store name "Music 80". They had a lot of second hand stuff. The other was a tiny place let into the corner of Lewis's building on the ground floor, blink and you'd miss it, tiny window and door, no idea what it was called now, but they had a lot of Hagstrom guitars on the wall. Later had a Fender Katana (!) hung in that small window.
Of course in my home town of Walsall we also had The Music Shop and TR Music in Stafford Street, a music shop in Weston Street near Broadway and a little shop in the old leather museum.
I miss these old shops, full of dusty old valve amps and lots of clunky old Japanese copies on the walls. I guess eBay pretty much did for many of the 'used' emporiums and most stores nowadays are very 21st century clean and shiny .. I remember when genuine hoof work was required to go poke round the backstreets of 80's concrete and industrial decay and find this stuff !
Now I'll go and explore the rest of this forum