[linux-audio-user] "How Will They Know"

[Adam Sampson]

"Mark Knecht" <markknecht at gmail.com> writes:

> Hobgoblin looks like an intersting site. May I ask - did you buy the
> instrument over the net or do you live somewhere near them?

I went to their shop in Crawley (a couple of hours' drive from here),
since I wanted to try out the instrument before I bought -- and it's a
good thing I did, since I was originally planning on getting the
similarly-priced Ashbury bouzouki, which turned out to have a
fingerboard far too narrow for my fingers. ;)

They had a really impressive selection of instruments when I went
(including second-hand), and were quite happy for me to sit there for
a couple of hours trying out all of them until I found one I liked --
the local music shops here in Canterbury only have a few mandolins in
stock, and don't sell bouzoukis at all.

I have bought strings and bits from Hobgoblin over the web, and been
very happy with the service. I don't think I'd want to buy an acoustic
instrument without playing it first, though -- there can be
significant differences even between instances of the same model...

-- 
Adam Sampson <ats at offog.org>                         <http://offog.org/>