About Us

BRIEF HISTORY

Guitar.co.uk  is owned and run by Merchant City Music in Glasgow, Scotland UK. Merchant City Music was incorporated in November 1992 and started trading soon after. There was two sides to the company when it was formed. There was a recording studio, Apollo Recording, situated in the basement and a ground level shop, selling strings and second hand guitars.

The first Merchant City Music website went live under the guitarstrings.co.uk domain and was one of the first to offer guitar strings to buy on-line in the UK.

In 2001, the shop, Merchant City Music and website, guitarstrings.co.uk, separated from Apollo Recording which moved to the South Side of Glasgow. The increased space allowed for expansion in the mail order division. The mail order department grew again in 2004 when it introduced a warehouse for holding and sending out stock.

Merchant City Music has always gone that little bit extra for our customers. Not only do we offer the cheapest prices consistently across the board, we also back this up with exceptionally friendly and helpful service that has to be experienced to be believed!

Our extra attention to detail means that every single guitar that we sell has been lovingly set up to the highest possible standards. If it's not right we'll fix it.

Through all the changes that have occurred to Merchant City Music over the years, one thing still remains the same:our staff are friendly, approachable and always willing to help.

QUALITY CONTROL

We are an independent, guitar specialist, and not a 'general' music store. As such we are able to offer quite a bit extra than most other music shops in terms of customer service and product quality.

Every guitar we sell is thoroughly checked, accurately tuned, set-up and cleaned before we put it up for sale. We pride ourselves on the 'off the shelf' quality of our stock. Our customers regularly enthuse about how our guitars seem to simply 'be better' than the same guitar tried out elsewhere. The answer is very simple, we take that bit more care, we don't simply take it out of the box and chuck it on a wall.

We have a thorough check procedure that every guitar goes through. If it needs adjusted, we do it, and usually the guitars we spend the most time on are the best examples of the type. If there is any basic deficiency in the product we don't put it up for sale. You only need to talk to the returns departments of our suppliers to know that we won't suffer poor quality stock, we are right on the phone and send it straight back to them!

Every member of staff is a proficient guitarist themselves (although we never bore you about it!), and has a strong personal interest in guitars and music generally. Call us or pop into the shop and you will be talking to someone who understands your requirements and will always try to help you find the guitar that suits you.

MEET THE STAFF

Richard Cameron - Director

Has the 'Power of Sound' embedded into his fingers. Forgotten that he's actually quite good at the guitar, it's been that long since anyone heard him. Has been at the Merchy since he was, but a lad.

Richard "Paul" Bremner - Sales and Social Media

Known as "Paul" to all so as to avoid confusion with our illustrious leader. He is responsible for the majority of what you will see on our social media outlets. Top guitarist and there is a rumour that he likes cake.

Matt Spicer - Sales

Seen either gliding along on a mini skateboard or lighting up the strings on a guitar, Matt provides a breadth of instore expertise. He regularly busks around the UK, and is very useful behind a mixing desk to boot.

Matthew MacDougall - Sales

Matthew is a 6 string aficionado and even more knowledgable when it comes to 7 and 8 strings.

Matty! Johnson - Sales

Matty plays drums, bass and guitar so he's got you covered in all departments.

Peter Hulley - Web Manager

Lover of all things acoustic, Peter can usually be found taking pictures of new guitars, drafting email updates and generally keeping the site well spruced. Fond of church and a good coffee.

Darren McLelland - Technician and Dispatch Manager

Active musician and skilled guitar technician, Darren's house is filled with almost as many guitars as many small retailers. Where does he sleep?