Meet the Dealers: London Calling
As some of you may be aware, we also have an European HQ, based in Liverpool, England. Continuing our "Meet the Dealers" series, we'll talk about two great shops we visited during our latest trip to London, when we also gave a little hand to a massive band...
Well, they say when you're tired of London, you're tired of life. So we were rightly excited when an opportunity came about to visit the city again, to check two of our coolest and best dealers in England: Macaris and Wunjo.
Both shops are amongst the most traditional and well-respected guitar shops in London, based on Denmark St, in the West End.
Denmark St. was the legendary epicentre of the musical explosion that took place in the Sixties' Swinging London. It was home to Britain's own "Tin Pan Alley", several recording studios and music shops. A place where everyone such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Small Faces, Yardbirds and others would roam.
Today, it remains very much a place that all local musicians hold dear, and a must-visit when looking for great guitar gear in London. Sadly, the whole Denmark st seems at risk of becoming just a thing of the past, due to property developers, but so far the local community has been fighting a good fight, and we're pleased to see independent shops such as Macaris and Wunjo doing so well - and both selling Eastwood and Airline guitars!
Even tough we are still better known in North America, it's great to have a sense that the British musicians are really catching up, now!
Almost as to confirm this impression, earlier that same day we visited Damon Albarn's Thirtheen recording studio, where Gorillaz were on the first day of rehearsals for their forthcoming tour.
Guitarist Jeff Wootton is often seen playing a Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster, but he was now looking for a new sound, and both he and Damon loved the look and tone of his new Airline 59 3P. Jeff also ordered an Airline Town & Country DLX, so expect some exciting Airline sightings when the Gorillaz tour finally kicks off!
Back to Denmark street, then. Our first stop was the legendary Macaris, which has been there since the Sixties. It's still a small, family business, and THE place to check out cool fx pedals, such as the whole Colorsound range. Really - this is the place to find all those new, reissue Tone Benders! For this alone, worth a visit..
Of course, we were visiting Macaris because they are also official Eastwood & Airline dealers, so we wanted to have a look at what they had, right now. And, oh boy... were we in for a shock! Oh, in the best possible sense, we must say... because they had one mega rare, now discontinued Eastwood Magnum Bass!
After Macaris, it was then time to visit Wunjo, a guitar shop that's very popular with a more younger crowd. We chose to do some live streaming from there, for our Instagram. Well, we had fun... did you?
Wunjo have a cool selection of our guitars, as well as some truly mouth-watering selection of vintage gear! We wanted to buy half of the stuff in their shop...
More than work, it was a pleasure to check those shops - because, let's not forget, that here at Eastwood we're all musicians too, and there's a reason why you don't see our guitars in just any (usually massive) shop: we like our dealers to be shops that we, as customers, would love to visit!
This was sadly a short trip, but we hope to bring you more reports from visits to other of our wonderful dealers!
- by Ivan S.
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