Japan guitar store report, August 2024

[la szum]

Holy fuck I would have LOVED to see them in 1986. Akira Takasaki is

Made enduring Motley Crue's Theater Of Pain show somewhat tolerable.

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

So I guess I neglected to write this up, but I was lucky enough to visit Tokyo recently and got to spend a couple of hours in Ochanomizu in Tokyo (and even took the subway there from my hotel in the Ginza district). I have never seen such a concentration of guitar stores! Very cool experience. The one thing that I did not like (in part because I had injured a calf muscle the day before) was that most of the stores are divided into different floors (which has been mentioned before). And most of them do not have elevators. So if you want the high end room, it is likely up 3 or 4 floors ;~))

All that said, I did not play that many guitars. I played a lovely PRS PS 24-08 SH with a one piece top in pink! Also played a Gibson L5 and it was lovely, I definitely need one of those some day. I believe this one was from 1971.

Here is the only photo I have of one side of the street:

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Long and short is, if you are in Tokyo, definitely check out this street! Lot's of gear to run through and just so cool that there is such a high concentration of guitar stores in a two block area. I would estimate 20 stores in 2 blocks, but it may be less.

 

[laxu]

So I guess I neglected to write this up, but I was lucky enough to visit Tokyo recently and got to spend a couple of hours in Ochanomizu in Tokyo (and even took the subway there from my hotel in the Ginza district). I have never seen such a concentration of guitar stores! Very cool experience. The one thing that I did not like (in part because I had injured a calf muscle the day before) was that most of the stores are divided into different floors (which has been mentioned before). And most of them do not have elevators. So if you want the high end room, it is likely up 3 or 4 floors ;~))

All that said, I did not play that many guitars. I played a lovely PRS PS 24-08 SH with a one piece top in pink! Also played a Gibson L5 and it was lovely, I definitely need one of those some day. I believe this one was from 1971.

Here is the only photo I have of one side of the street:

View attachment 36824
​

Long and short is, if you are in Tokyo, definitely check out this street! Lot's of gear to run through and just so cool that there is such a high concentration of guitar stores in a two block area. I would estimate 20 stores in 2 blocks, but it may be less.

I think the store that says Guitar Planet was one of my favorites. Had a lot of old Yamahas, a Gretsch I was almost tempted to buy in the window too.

At some point you feel like you have seen too many guitars and have a hard time deciding what you want to try! What if the store next door has something even cooler?!