Any good music stores in San Diego?

Hey, I'm heading out to San Diego in two weeks. Wondering where (besides a Guitar Center or the like) one goes to check out great gear.

Thoughts?

Corey

ORIGINAL: lazarous

Hey, I'm heading out to San Diego in two weeks. Wondering where (besides a Guitar Center or the like) one goes to check out great gear.

Thoughts?

Corey

Hello,

http://www.google.com/search?q=music+stores+in+san+diego&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

GK

Hey, JV... I have plenty of 'puter places here in Mpls. I like the idea of stopping out to see Carvin. GC is boring... we have four within a 20-minute drive from each other here in Mpls. I've seen all the starter guitar packs I need to see.

I'm looking for funky, family-owned, where they won't mind if I'm just browsing. What am I looking for? Frankly, nothing. I'm pretty well set... but, I'll have a bit of cash burning a hole in my pocket, and I haven't be to SD in almost 20 years, so, what the heck. I'll be hanging out with a lefty-guitarist friend, and trying to find a simple interface for him to use with Garage Band so we can start trading tunes across the net again.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! Keep 'em coming!

Corey

Freedom Guitars. Funky store owned by two rather dubious British siblings. A lot of vintage gear as well as new gear.

Taylor Guitars is out in El Cajon. That is a must visit.

Center City Music is the Gibson capitol of San Diego. They might have a billion guitars inside...no one's really sure.

Moze Guitars is a funky old school shop owned by Moze for the last 500 years. It's out in La Mesa now...about 20 minutes from downtown.

Top Gear Guitar Pro Shop is primarily a repair facility, but if you ask them nicely and bring some Vegi burrittos from Robertos' you'll get to see the cool gear being fixed.

The Blue Guitar has been a San Diego institution since I was a wee lad. They fix things...Steve (owner) used to be my primariy luthier. He's fixed lot's of road dogs and brought them compeltely back to life.

David N Jones Violin Shop is the real deal. He's a certified genius repairing anything acoustical and wood...but has been the violin guy since the late 70's.

ElRayo Guitarworks is a repair/restoration/supplies shop. Fairly new, but the owner is old school.

Dusty's Guitar Store is a weirdo guitar nut that is at heart a very cool guy. Takes a bit to get used to him and his 'style'. He reportedly has a ton of vintage Gibson's, Fenders, Gretsch's and the like...but you have to press the magic button to get a viewing.

That's off the top of my head. If I think of more I'll most.

MurMan: I'm only there Friday evening thru Sunday evening... Bummer I'll miss the factory tour of Taylor. That'd be excellent!

For the record, I'm a bass guitarist, recording engineer, FOH engineer, and all around audio geek.

Thanks for the excellent suggestions, folks!

Corey

Murman is right....if you get a chance, go check out the Museum of Making Music. It is definitely worth a visit. It is located up in Carlsbad. Judging from your background, you'd get a kick out of it.
JV

Nate: I have no idea! I'm out visiting a buddy. He's putting me up in some hotel near his place.

Corey

Hey everyone! Thanks for the suggestions for places to stop in San Diego. Got back LATE last night after a great weekend. Only had the opportunity to stop at three places we discussed, so here's the synopsis:

Fryes: Wow. Nice place. They don't sell any good headphones though. I looked. :-(

Guitar Center: Met a nice kid who's Christian band was recently signed. He gave me a decent (not incredible) deal on a pair of Beyer 770's. Nice phones. Much better than the crappy earbuds I flew out with. Yikes.

Carvin: I've had mixed feelings about Carvin for years. I've played a number of their instruments, worked with a number of their amps, at one point ran sound where their monitors and mains were installed. I've always felt they have an "interesting" definition of how to correctly measure specs, but the gear is usually fairly light, sounds good, just isn't as loud as I think it should be.

Walked into the very clean store at the main factory. Nice little PA just inside the door, with an acoustic bass guitar hanging above it. Farted around with the bass for a short bit... nice bass, but they wouldn't ship it back for me because they didn't have a case for it. Checked out one of their electrics... didn't catch the model, but it was a very pretty bass, and well made. Nice neck. I need another electric bass like I need a hole in the head, so back on the wall it went.

After looking around a bit more, I headed into their Pro Sound Reinforcement room.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

WTF? So, being the hands-on kinda guy I am, I head over to try to figure out what the bleep is making this very cute looking PA hiss like a bed of cobras from an Indiana Jones movie. Mute the CD channels, turn down the mixer, etc. Basically, anything with signal gets dumped. Followed their signal chain, and from what I could tell, it's Mixer, to Crossover, to Amps, to Speakers. No EQ to see.

With everything down, it's STILL Hissing. And I'm talking a LOT, not a little bit. I head out to the sales fella and ask "Say, I was wondering... do you know what's causing the hiss in the PA in there?" and he says "The Speakers."

Um.

"Well, yes, they're definitely the final element... but what I'm asking is why is there so MUCH hiss? Which component is it coming from? Is it the amps or the board?"

Sales Dude says "All high-powered PA's I've ever seen will have a little bit of hiss. It's the nature of having a LOT of power available."

Okey dokey.

"Well, that's true to some extent. However, I've run quite a few good sized systems, and I've never heard this much noise."

Disdainful look from Sales Dude: "Well, I hate to tell you, but they ALL do that. That's just the way it is, man!"

So, here's my thinking about Carvin: As it's been for years, they seem to make very solid instruments. Stay the 'F away from their PA gear. For the same money you can get gear that doesn't hiss like a steam engine about to start down the tracks. Oh, and their folks on the phone are much more knowledgeable than Sales Dude was.

Other than that little bit of nonsense, it was a great trip! Thanks for all of the suggestions. I wish we'd had more time to hit some of the other places suggested.

Corey

LOL....the *speakers* were actually making the hiss?? Now, who would have figured that out?? Good thing he was there to straighten you out on that. Did you hit him over the head with the bass?
JV

so he said its the speakers huh? maybe ask him if unpluging them
would stop that? or is it the fact that a 800 watt power amp is plugged
into some powered studio moniters?

i was joking. i would have wanted to say hey "mr music
store guy" if you unplug the speakers will the hiss go away?

or

hey man if i plug an 800 watt power amp in to my studio "powerd"
will they be "hissey" too?

good thing i pursue beening in comidy.

jimmy

Freedom Guitars, definitely. They've got lots of vintage Fenders and accessories like original foot switches, too.