Hobgoblin Music

marmalade

Great resource for trad instuments 2nd September 2008

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Hobgoblin is a bit of an institution really, having been based in Parkway in Camden for years, it now lives just off Oxford street.

They have a great website too, and a mail order service, so you can have a proper browse online before you decide to buy.

They stock all the instruments you would need to play traditional folk or acoustic instruments, everything from guitars, banjos and harmonicas, to autoharps, mouth harps and melodeons.

The prices are ok, not the cheapest, and sometimes the instruments are not particularly good quality, but as the only place you can step off the street and buy something that isn't a guitar, I suppose they can get away with it.

The service in the shop varies, some of the staff are extremely friendly and helpful, and one or two are the wrong side of flirty or patronising, or something I can't quite name. I certainly don't always feel comfortable shopping here.

I play a fairly unusual instrument, and have learned a lot about it by experience. I therefore know a little more than the staff, and this seems to annoy them when they can't answer my questions.

The spares and strings can be hugely overpriced too, one set of strings for my instrument costs 10 times as much in here as anywhere else, and the quality of cases etc are really quite shoddy.

A mixed package.