Sounds Live

I have purchased two instruments from this shop by mail order after telephone enquiries. The staff are well-informed, professional and extremely helpful. Both guitars arrived well packaged in just one day after order and were beautifully set up to my requirements. All in all, highly recommended for the serious guitarist.

Sounds Live is a place I love to just wander into, even if I'm not buying anything. The staff are all friendly and aren't trying to hassle you or anything. They will ask you casually if they can help, and be very informative if you have questions and if not they'll leave you to have a browse. The prices are also extremely fair, and I've bought lots of things from them and had no problems whatsoever. Friendly service, great prices and a big selection, cant beat it really! They also have a good website so you can have a browse before going if you really want to! I seriously expect that I will end up buying something there again soon!

First, and last, experience shopping with Sounds Live. Browsing their website, I found a couple of guitar signal processors I was interested in, which were reasonably priced. On Saturday morning I telephoned the shop twice to check if they had these in stock. Both times, the phone rang for several minutes before being forwarded to a message telling me they were closed on Sundays (???). Living within reasonable driving distance of Newcastle, I drove to the store, only to be told that one of the processors they don't actually stock (contradicting their website), and the other they don't keep in the store, but have in stock elsewhere for online customers. They then offered a more expensive model, but confusingly went on to tell me they'd sold the last that morning. I explained that if they answered their phone, they could have saved me a wasted journey, but they offered no explanation. Fortunately, another music store, 'Guitarguitar' which was around the corner saved the day, as they had ample stock, and for the same price.