Re: guitar shops in Bangkok

to answer my own email, here's what I found about buying a cheap, good
guitar in Thailand:

I got the Nancy Chandler map of Bangkok (available everywhere for
about 160 baht), and found that there were guitar shops along atsadang
street (very near khao san rd), and in a block of stores near the
thieves market in chinatown. I went to both areas. About 15 guitar
stores on Atsadang, selling low end guitars for very cheap prices
($6-$100), the most expensive being low end Yamahas. Most aren't very
good guitars though. I was looking for one with a small body (for
travel) that sounded fairly good, and didn't find anything. So, I went
to Chinatown, but it was Sunday, and most of the shops were closed.
The few I went into sold guitars at much higher prices than on
Atsadang, about twice the price for identical guitars.

There are other places to buy guitars in Bangkok, like the big dept
stores, but they have mostly the same stuff you can buy on Atsadang
for half the price. There's supposedly a shop near Soi Cowboy but the
prices are comparable to the US. There doesn't seem to be much of a
market for used instruments in Thailand, unlike the US.

So...I went up to Chiang Mai (I had other business there too), bought
the Nancy Chandler map for CM also, and went around looking at all the
shops I saw on the map. CM is a more sophisticated musical place (many
guitarists here), and the guitar shops show it--the instruments are
usually in tune, and all sound much better than ones of similar price
in Bangkok. I finally bought a "Dream" for $30 from a guitar shop on
Loi Kroh Rd, which runs from the eastern canal/klong/moat of the old
city to the night market area. The sound is very nice, the tuning
heads are steel, and it feels solid but has a nice tone (at least for
$30. My only gripe is that the strings are a little to close to one
another.) The guitar store is down about 300 meters from the eastern
canal on the right. It's by far the best store of the 6 that I looked
at for quality and price. Again, buy the map to see the exact
location, if you can't find it.

I thought I'd post this info for the sake of others with similar
questions.



[EMAIL PROTECTED] (AsiaWanderer) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> It's a big city, and not that many guitar shops. Where are they?
> 
> thanks in advance