Of interest...We had a wonderful St. John's Music here in Kitchener a few years ago.
This 2021 list doesn't look promising for Ottawa...

 

I don't remember them. Where was it?

 

I thought the writing was kind of on the wall when their store shrunk by half a few years back.

 

Many was the time when I was the only non-staff person in there, and I was only there to see Darwin, not to buy anything.

 

I would assume it's gone. Ottawa has been taken out of their website. To be honest, the last time I was there, I was wondering how long they can keep it going. Being that the store can't even be seen from the road. You have to look for it.

 

I have to admit I'd never heard of St. John's. I think the only Ottawa music stores I've been in for quite some time are Steve's and Lauzon.

Can we list Ottawa music stores, past and present, just for fun?

Metro ( I think it's still in the Glebe but I remember when it was on Metcalfe near Parliament Hill)
Steve's
Lauzon
Domenic's (on Carling near Maitland, as far as I know it's been gone for a long time)

That's all I've got. I must be missing some, aside from St John's.

 

Metro's gone, I think. There is a Domenic's in Kanata, I think. Steve's, Lauzon, Spaceman, and the 3 L&Ms exist. International Musicland was OK, but died when the owner retired.

What abut Continental Music? I think that was the most hated in town. I got some good deals there though.

I bought my Ibanez Roadstar Series II at Steve's in the mid 80s.

Continental Music became Transcontinental Music, and is now Intercontinental Music on St. Laurent (or at least it was the last time I was in the area). The old fella was still there the two times I went in. And he hadn't changed.

I am most likely to go to L&M Kanata, if I go anywhere.

When St. John's opened, they had a lot of space, and a lot of good gear, including some high end Washburn and Yamaha stuff. That changed.

EDIT: I forgot Fleet Sound in Bell's Corners! I like that store a lot.

 

What abut Continental Music? I think that was the most hated in town. I got some good deals there though.

I bought my Ibanez Roadstar Series II at Steve's in the mid 80s.

 

St. John's used to be on Carling at Broadview, intially under the Dominic's label. Brian Dubbldam worked out of there. Dominic's website says that they are presently operating entirely online.

St. John's did carry band gear (lots of Yamaha, Fender, and Line 6), but seemed to deal primarily in high school band instruments and sheet music. I know we rented our younger son's trombone from there when he was in band, during middle school and early high school. Granata also carries lots of sheet music and is just a little further up Merivale from where St. John's was. I've never been to the Orleans location but the South Keys L&M carries plenty of books and sheet music, as does Steve's downtown. I suspect that the rental market kind of dried up for St. John's as more and more band instruments began showing up on Kijiji when junior decided that maybe playing clarinet or saxophone in junior band wasn't for them. And, considering the total cost we paid to rent the trombone that sits gathering dust these days, I could have gotten a better instrument on Kijiji for less than half that. So, between the rental market drying up, and many other places and ways to get sheet music (including simply downloading and printing out public domain stuff), selling the odd Yamaha acoustic or full retail-price Boss pedal was not going to pay the rent and salaries. Perhaps there could have been a better location, but that may not have been enough. When they were on Carling, at least they were just around the corner from Notre Dame and Nepean high schools, that probablygenerated enough business to cover overhead and maybe a little more.

My first guitar came from Sam's ABC, down on the market, back when it had more pawn shops than chi-chi ristorantes, bulk food stores were known as "biscuiterias", Freiman's (now The Bay) had their fabulous malted milk for 20 cents a glass in the basement, the Lafayette had draft for not all that much more, and Irving Rivers himself really DID corner the market. Sam's eventually moved up to Bank, near Alta Vista, very close to where L&M eventually opened up. Sam's son Phil was in my cub scout troop.

International was briefly situated in a basement location within St. Laurent shopping centre, before moving to a location just behind the main postal station at Riverside and Industrial, and eventually out to a nice location on Strandherd in Barrhaven. Pity they closed. They carried a nice selection of gear.

 

My first guitar came from Sam's ABC, down on the market...

Thanks for this! I had completely forgotten about Sam's ABC. I think my first electric was purchased there.

 

Fleet Music in Bell's Corners is still a fun place to visit, as an alternative to L&M. Or, at least it was 6 months ago...

 

Hy did sell me a module for replacing the rectifier tube on my tweed amps with a solid-state rectifier. Local musicians and gearheads threw and attended his 90th birthday party at the shop. I took a few minutes off work to attend, and had a small piece of cake.

Silly me, I almost forgot the old Treble Clef on Sparks St., back when Brian Murphy worked there. The ground floor was all records, but if you went down the stairs (and is my memory distorting things or were they sort of spiral, or at least angled in some way?) they had music gear. I recall seeing Messenger guitars there, whose only endorsee at the time was Grand Funk's Mark Farner.

Brian DID work out of the store on Carling at Broadview. I know because it was he I brought my buzzing Kalamazoo archtop to there when we lived a little further down Carling. Now, whether it was Dominic's OR St. John's at the time is a fuzzy area. I honestly can't recall when it switched over from one to the other, and what side of that changeover Brian was there. He went on to the Folklore Centre after that.

Dominic's did have a brief life out in Hazeldean but couldn't seem to make a go of it, at least enough of a go to pay the rent and staff. I think Dominic's started out on Bank St. in the Glebe, as primarily an accordion-focussed shop. In fact, I think they even rented from my late uncle. I'll have to check with my cousin, if no one else here knows.

Finally, when we moved to our current area, there was a small music store in the strip mall on Greenbank. Forget what they were called, but they were the quintessential mom-and-pop music store, with a few budget brands of guitars and amps, harmonicas, handheld percussion (tambourines and maracas), music stands, and some Boss and Danelectro pedals. And last but not least, Simply Guitars on Baseline near Greenbank, that carried some decent gear, if not a lot, but specialized mostly in lessons. They folded when the landlord started being a pain in the rear.

 

I taught guitar at "The Blue Note" on Bank north of Somerset for a while in the early 80s. Hank, the owner, taught me some steel guitar lessons. I can still play "Harbour Lights" if you hand me a lap steel in the right tuning. Hank's cohorts were Dave and Dorothy.

And "Weiner's Pawn Shop" in the market. I bought my dobro there in the mid-70s. Mr Weiner had an assistant who he treated like he was an idiot. Weird.

 

I was unaware that Sam's had ever been on Metcalfe. It was still on the Market when my family moved to Laval in '65 and when I returned to work on the market in '70, and by the time I came back for visits, it was at the Bank St. location.

 

I used to work at the Folklore Centre when it was on Bronson. I started as co-op student in 1996 and Arthur kept me on afterwards working Sundays and Monday nights. I also did a co-op with Brian in the repair shop. Terry Calder also worked for him at that time. That would have been in 1997. Brian had been there a few years by that time and did indeed take over from Ed when he moved to Denver. Brian is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.

Another shop I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread yet is Used Sound on Preston.

 

Songbird...
Used to be located on Bank St., way South on Bank St.
At some point they moved to where Spaceman is located now.

Q: Weiner's Music.
If you were facing that block head on (circa 1976), Steve's was kind of in the middle. The junkier pawnshop to the left. Weiners was to the right. Kind of cramped and narrow, guitars hanging down from the ceiling.

Was that Weiner's music?

 

Songbird...
Used to be located on Bank St., way South on Bank St.
At some point they moved to where Spaceman is located now.

Q: Weiner's Music.
If you were facing that block head on, Steve's was kind of in the middle. The junkier pawnshop to the left. Weiners was to the right. Kind of cramped and narrow, guitars hanging down from the ceiling.

Was that Weiner's music?

I believe that Weiners was on the left facing the stores. The one on the right with the guitars hanging from the ceiling, i have no idea what they where called. Bought a few guitars and stuff from them also. The middle store we used to call ' Le gars Francais' The french guy. All i know is that he spoke french. lol. Fond memories of those stores. There was another store on Cumberland called Gervais Music. They sold Egmond guitars i think.

 

Aw bummer. I spent a bit of time at St. John's when I first started playing. Rad store.

 

The store certainly had a good product selection, although I remember shopping for a practice amp and was looking at the Fender Mustangs - I was shocked that they were pricing those amps at MSRP and not the 'street' price. I went to L&M and purchased the same amp quite a bit cheaper. I left with the impression that everything would be overpriced..but perhaps that was just a pricing error on those amps at the time.

 

There were also a lot of really good deals on gear on KJ from Ottawa last year.
Put the 2 together and makes me wonder if OTT was hit harder by COVID-19 economically than other areas?
The GTA was spending money like it was raining down on them.

 

Got a great used, old tube amp at Weiners around 1972 and gave it away years later. Wish I could remember the brand name. 12 " speaker, killer tremolo. Grill cloth was light blue/g Atreen. Got a really nice Ibanez PF400 guitar in 1979 at Continental traded for a strat about 4 years ago.

I was a steady customer at St. Johns for years with many good experiences but then some bad experiences so quit going there. At least two of the staff now work at L+M on Hunt Club. One of them told me St. John's headquarters closed the Merivale store on too-short notice sans decent explanation.

 

My first amp was a Sanox I believe. It lasted a few months and then one day, poof, just a bad smell and no more sound. After that I got a used Traynor or some sort- can't remember. It was really f'n loud and screechy.

 

Had a decent TCM 12 string. Separated at the heel but was OK for about 5 years. Liked to play Shawn Phillips songs.

 

Larocques. Oh man, now you've sent me down a rabbit hole. There was a Loblaws across the street from Larocques on Rideau (I can see the yellow ceramic tile front in my mind), and beside it was the Rideau theatre, where 2nd run movies went to die, but also where folks would go for Labour Day dusk-to-dawn movie extravaganzas, whether they were beach party movies, Hammer horror flicks, or William Castle monster movies. My friend Andy and I went to see a double bill of Dr. No and FRom Russia With Love there, and the only seats we could get were in the front row on the far left. From that vantage point, EVERYTHING looked like it went uphill, even when it was going downhill.

 

Coulthards Music in the market, Guitar Man on Rchmond Road near Woodroffe and Simply Guitars on Baseline near Greenbank...all from different eras....all gone now.

 

Coultharts Music in the market, Guitar Man on Rchmond Road near Woodroffe and Simply Guitars on Baseline near Greenbank...all from different eras....all gone now.

I had forgotten about Coulharts Richard. Great place back in the 60-70's used to go there . Bob Coulhart was one of the best rock drummers in this area (MRQ band) His dad owned the store and was quite the guy lol

 

Wasn’t coulharts on McLeod st. late 70’s /80’s? I used to hang there and gawk at the gear. Bought my first guitar at Sam’s ABC music in the market in ‘77. It was a Mansfield gretsch looking thing. A pretty good guitar for $100.00. I also bought an Ibanez fuzz/wah pedal that I recently had reconditioned, killer. I too miss having a variety of small shops to visit, they were quirky, unlike the few bigger stores we have today.

 

Yes it was. Great store, good selection of guitars amps drums etc.. I also miss all the small stores. I am greatfull Spaceman music is still open in Ottawa. Was there yesterday and swapped a few things. I try and buy used 98% of the time.

 

Someday I'm going to feel like walking in to the local music store and just browsing around and maybe buying a few things, and it's not going to be possible.

It feels like that's coming or something very much like it.

I try hard to give the bricks and mortar stores first shot at any music gear needs I have. These days that's mostly parts and strings.

I do that because I don't want the scenario above to come true.

But, more and more, I'm forced to go on-line anyway, because the bricks and mortar stores have no stock and their lead times are much longer than the dedicated on-line stores.

Or, they tell me they can order it......Why would I add a link in the chain?

It just seems like it may be harder to find a physical music store at some point.

 

Someday I'm going to feel like walking in to the local music store and just browsing around and maybe buying a few things, and it's not going to be possible.

It feels like that's coming or something very much like it.

I try hard to give the bricks and mortar stores first shot at any music gear needs I have. These days that's mostly parts and strings.

I do that because I don't want the scenario above to come true.

But, more and more, I'm forced to go on-line anyway, because the bricks and mortar stores have no stock and their lead times are much longer than the dedicated on-line stores.

Or, they tell me they can order it......Why would I add a link in the chain?

It just seems like it may be harder to find a physical music store at some point.

Well, do distinguish between retailers of new equipment and vintage places. When something can not simply be ordered from the manufacturer or distributor, it will need to have a bricks-and-mortar location. Yes, people will still sell vintage pieces via Kijiji, etc., but people spending more money for non-budget items will expect those items to be serviced and ready to use, which implies a store with competent staff.

I suppose I shouldn't discount places like Chicago Music Exchange or Reverb. But while one can feel confident that a fuzz pedal makes its way safely from far away and across the border, I would imagine that fewer would feel comfortable about a pre-1960s acoustic making its way over a similar distance.

An uncle of mine had a thriving business making and selling quality baby furniture, and importing things like strollers. My dad contracted with him to make the brackets for the sliding doors on the front of cribs, and I spent several summers stamping them out. But my uncle eventually realized that a) he couldn't anticipate the changing safety requirements for cribs that would leave him stuck with unsellable stock, and b) people re-used furniture purchased for offspring #1 with #2, and #3, and passed on that furniture to relatives and friends, and even adult children where feasible. So he switched to making and importing patio furniture, which had a much shorter usable lifespan and typically the purchaser was the last user.

I mention this because there are plenty of music stores whose traditional product line was band instruments. Trombones, trumpets, flutes, saxophones are a lot like that baby furniture. They can be resold and resold, and kids in band in middle school are not exactly pining for a flugelhorn just like they saw their idol play on Ed Sullivan. Our local Kijiji has a LOT of band instruments (I'll exclude woodwinds from this discussion, since they have more limited lifespans). I rented our younger son's trombone from St. John's Music, but that was in 2008. If he was starting middle school band, you can be damn sure I would have bought a 2nd hand one off Kijiji.

Much like my uncle, the business model of music stores is changing in a way that you describe. There will still be some vestiges of what used to be, and megastores in major urban centres like Cosmo (the Walmart of music stores) will likely stick around, along with smaller vintage places. But you have to wonder about the in-betweens.

 

I think L&M will be the future of brick and mortar. They’ve found a successful formula, have multiple income streams, they manufacture their own products and sell those products, pocketing all the markup along the way, have bulk purchasing power, and due to Yorkville being a major distributor their competition buys from them, yet they’re smart enough to not undercut their own clients.

Is this good or bad? Hard to say. The selection is better than a lot of the old mom and pops, but it’s a bit bland when every store sells the same products.

The two successful independents I’ve been to are extensions of Yorkville. One basically looks like a family run L&M, and the other is more high end/boutique focused with a lot of vintage turnover that gets a lot of product that walks in the front door and is then sold online, dramatically expanding their market.

 

My first guitar and amp was from Weiner's pawn shop on the market in '68 and then a couple more over the next few years from one of another pawn shops a few doors down. And yes, not many people liked them but I bought a crap acoustic around '73 from Continental when they were on the east side of Bank St. and then a Gibson J40 in '79 when they were on Rideau. How about the Blue Note on Bank Street near Laurier? Bought a used '77 Strat there in '79. Still have it. There were a number of other places around the city that I can't remember the names.

 

How about the Blue Note on Bank Street near Laurier? Bought a used '77 Strat there in '79. Still have it. There were a number of other places around the city that I can't remember the names.

I taught guitar at the Blue Note for a couple of years in the 80s. Hank, Dorothy and Dave.

 

Just out of pure curiosity, not that I necessarily want to put too much money into a business (it's not my bag, baby), how many people here would consider the prospect of opening a music store, like the old ones this thread is talking about?

Understandably, they have come and gone, but maybe, in a few years, "what's old is new again" will be cool?

Just to explain where my appreciation lies: I used to love stores like Metro Music, Retrotown (when it was in the narrow building), and my favourite...

Used Sound

My personal opinion as my observations on this website have gone is there is a market for old stuff, and old stuff now covers such a broad range, Vintage 50 stuff to nineties stuff. That's quite a variety. I mean, yes there is still Spaceman...

 

Just out of pure curiosity, not that I necessarily want to put too much money into a business (it's not my bag, baby), how many people here would consider the prospect of opening a music store, like the old ones this thread is talking about?

Understandably, they have come and gone, but maybe, in a few years, "what's old is new again" will be cool?

Just to explain where my appreciation lies: I used to love stores like Metro Music, Retrotown (when it was in the narrow building), and my favourite...

Used Sound

My personal opinion as my observations on this website have gone is there is a market for old stuff, and old stuff now covers such a broad range, Vintage 50 stuff to nineties stuff. That's quite a variety. I mean, yes there is still Spaceman...

Would absolutely love to!