GAK has gone!

So I was lying in bed last night (steady!) scrolling through the nonsense YouTube usually recommends to me, when I came across a video posted a week ago discussing the closure of Brighten-based musical equipment shop Guitar Amp & Keyboard.

Cue stunned gasp!

At first claiming to just be “closed for maintenance”, it has now been confirmed that GAK has officially gone into administration. This is very sad news for UK and, I assume, international musicians, as it was a very popular fixture of the music scene. Even guitarist John Squire from The Stone Roses sold his second-hand gear through them, I believe. At least, they sold one of his acoustic guitars a few years ago.

Sigh, the one time I didn’t have £10,000 on me!

I unfortunately never visited GAK in person, having never found myself anywhere near Brighton. However, their online store has given me, or “gave me” since I should be talking in the past tense, so much joy over the years.

And now it’s gone.

After my parents divorced in 2001 and I started to listen to slightly edgier music besides classical, I also picked up the guitar again. I had learned for a few years as a kid, finally giving up at around 15-years-old due to, well, simply not being interested in guitar music. It made perfect sense to me at the time, even though I regret the decision now.

If your “hobby” becomes an agonising chore, then perhaps you should call it a day.

Then, in 2004, having forgotten everything I’d learned as a teenager and knowing even less about electric guitars, I scoured the internet for where to purchase one. I eventually settled on GAK, who’s website became like a Bible to me. Even if I didn’t have the money to buy a guitar, I’d still trawl their site to increase my knowledge of electric guitars and the mountain of peripheral gadgets. It was laid out in a simple list design (something smartphones have generally killed off) and was joyfully comprehensive!

My first electric was a Fender Mexican Standard Stratocaster, which I absolutely loathed. My first amplifier was a Marshall transistor effects combo thingy, which I loved. Both came from GAK, who I continued to go through for the next 20 years. I’m a bit fuzzy on what my last guitar from them was, but, based on my email records, it seems to have been a semi-hollow jazz guitar with one pickup at the neck.

GAK was always a reliable company and I now regret never making the effort to pop down to Brighton for a shopping spree and maybe to hit the gay bars. It is “the San Fransisco of England”, after all.

Goodbye, GAK, you will be sorely missed by so many poor souls afflicted with Guitar Acquisition Syndrome.

Do stay in touch, darlings.

Toodles!