I totally concur Richard. It is a different analogy but, when creating a piece of artwork, what we leave out is equally as important as what we put in. The relevance of space can never be underestimated ....... hope that made some kind of sense lol
I am 60 years old been trying to play guitar for years but not got any better due to work and not practising enough, I have bought guitars off a few big stores, even though their staff seemed helpful I always left thinking they wanted the biggest sale they could get out of me, only just started watching you on UA-cam, when I retire next year I will hopefully be buying an affordable telecaster style guitar from you, your philosophy is really refreshing, cheers
Good decision! You don't want to turn into one of the bigger stores (box sellers). The service your provide is more personal and it would be good if you can continue that if possible.
Best guitar dealer in the UK right now and absolutely the right way to go. I have a feeling you will be flooded with ideas for guitar brands Richard. There are so many great luthiers out there, mostly small brands that really don't get the sort of exposure they deserve. I can think of a few but will drop you an email 👍
Great video. Always love how honest you are. So just out of interest, you said you plan to downsize and only focus on the guitar brands you love. Does that still include Faith Guitars?
It does yes. Let me be 100% honest - as you have indicated I am! :) Do they stir me in the same way as an Auden, Dowina, Furchor Eastman - of course not. Are they an honest high quality product - yes. Quality is superb. Incredibly rare to have any major issues - in fact their guitar cases are more of a problem than the guitars themselves. Where I would start to question them.... you can buy a hand made - all be it simplistic Dowina for £699. Made in Solvakia. You can but an £899 Auden with immense Brad Clarke pickup system - partly hand made in China and partly completed by hand in UK which is out of this world (Auden Neo series).... so its a case of Faith being the perfect "bridge" between mainstream and the world of hand made guitars. So yes - Faith is still very much part of my list of recommendations even though you wont hear me waxing lyrical "as much" purely because I have other things that are distracting me !!! Hope that sounds honest and fair.
I really like your way of doing business. I bought an FGN from you a while ago, and I am very happy with it. What's your thoughts on Epiphone? I noticed that you don't sell them in your shop. I wonder if there's a reason.
This philosophy works as long as the brands you love are the ones that sell. You might respond that popularising those brands is down to your salesmanship and enthusiasm. The music business is, like others, a fashion business. As long as you cover a number of price points/bands, hopefully this will work for you.
In 26 years of being in business I’ve only ever experienced year on year growth. I reset when I opened Richards Guitars this is another point of reset - however one which is designed to protect and nurture the direction I want the business to go in rather than one caused by a breakdown because I didn’t. Richards Guitars is already proof of what you have said. I’ve already demonstrated that a business can be successful on being honest and selling quality rather than what the world thinks is available through marketing and media. All I am doing is making sure I don’t go off track and am reinforcing the values that’ has made this business a success to this point.
Please check out Macmull guitars, I would love to know if it’s just hype or if the passion is real. They say they match the resonance of the neck with the body and then tune the pickups to each individual guitar.
i love your passion, i dealt with several times back in the day when you was in L/Spa, i was new to the world of guitar at that time but you was always helpful and give everyone who came in a great service, i only discovered you was on here a couple of months back but catching up on your videos and POW the enthusiasm of you years back is still there ...sadly like me a little greyer though ....seriously though that passion you have will see you through whichever way you take your business and you didn't have to share this plan with your customers but shows how open you are
Have you heard of Maestro guitars from Singapore. I traveled 3 hours to a guitar shop to try out some Furch guitars and discovered Maestro guitars and bought one of those instead. Ps I also own an Eastman and love it
I just responded to a face book question about a Taylor guitar which was new and set up by the shop. The owner outlined several issues of unhappiness with the instrument. I gave him my advice but what I really wanted to say was "go to Richard's Guitars and buy a £799 guitar from him". The fashion side of the business should be limited to the cheaper one's not actual instruments. Woolworth's used to sell "guitars". So more power to you I wished that I had known about your business before I bought mine. I also admire the fact that you had a business fail and then you learned your lessons and restarted, I find that rather inspiring.
Yes the concept of failure.... Thats something I could talk about all day. Back then we were doing 2 million pounds a year, selling 10 guitars a day, 7 days a week and someone that day had been saying how proud I must have been of my "success". I went home and told my wife about it because little did he know that same day I had been physically sick in the toilet because of the anxiety of being in the building - that I was suffering a deep depression - and I had become a stranger to my own business. As I said to my wife at the time "I must be the most unsuccessful successful person I know" :) Success and failure can be measured in so many ways - possibly the greatest success of my life was having the breakdown that took control of my destiny for that moment in time. It enabled me to reset - to think about life and what I wanted from it. The result - a beautiful business that I now love and can genuinely be proud of. Thanks again for the feedback and support.
Not with a broad brush but am removing all guitars that disproportionately take up out time in the workshop especially where our calls for improvements have been ignored. I love the vintage electors and can’t see them going anywhere and there are excellent Cort Cort Electra and electros etc too - what is going is more of the £200 to £400 guitars that drive me insane but total focus for example on LAG which have proven themselves to be unbelievably high quality and they start at £229 so there is my focus point.
D'angelico?... Supro amps then perhaps??? Money has no value if you are not happy in your work... neither is being broke... hope you get the balance right... good luck.
Expanding a business almost always involves delegating, delegating is almost always the start of problems. If one can keep that to a minimum, one retains that all-important personal touch. By the way, on first reading I thought you were going to say less GUITARS is definitely more! That would break my heart, I adore my family of Faith's.
I certainly do! And also the guitar shop down by the railway bridge at the bottom of town? My first ever guitar was bought for me when I was 8 years old - again from Leamington at the same location as the guitar shop at the bottom of town but then I believe it was like an odd second hand shop? My mum and dad bought me an electric guitar and amp from there.
I totally concur Richard. It is a different analogy but, when creating a piece of artwork, what we leave out is equally as important as what we put in. The relevance of space can never be underestimated ....... hope that made some kind of sense lol
Brilliantly put Peter. You can never underestimate the relevance of space. Brilliant x
I am 60 years old been trying to play guitar for years but not got any better due to work and not practising enough, I have bought guitars off a few big stores, even though their staff seemed helpful I always left thinking they wanted the biggest sale they could get out of me, only just started watching you on UA-cam, when I retire next year I will hopefully be buying an affordable telecaster style guitar from you, your philosophy is really refreshing, cheers
Love your philosophy, good luck and I look forward to hearing more from Richards Guitars.
Fan of Jerry Maguire by any chance! You had me at hello!
I think this is a good idea. Can’t wait to see the D’Angelico’s. Best of luck. 👌
Sounds an eminently sensible USP. Good news and good luck.
Ahh... but if "less is more"... just think how much more "more" would be!
Love my furch. Cheers man!
Good decision! You don't want to turn into one of the bigger stores (box sellers). The service your provide is more personal and it would be good if you can continue that if possible.
Best guitar dealer in the UK right now and absolutely the right way to go. I have a feeling you will be flooded with ideas for guitar brands Richard. There are so many great luthiers out there, mostly small brands that really don't get the sort of exposure they deserve. I can think of a few but will drop you an email 👍
Great video. Always love how honest you are. So just out of interest, you said you plan to downsize and only focus on the guitar brands you love. Does that still include Faith Guitars?
It does yes. Let me be 100% honest - as you have indicated I am! :) Do they stir me in the same way as an Auden, Dowina, Furchor Eastman - of course not. Are they an honest high quality product - yes. Quality is superb. Incredibly rare to have any major issues - in fact their guitar cases are more of a problem than the guitars themselves. Where I would start to question them.... you can buy a hand made - all be it simplistic Dowina for £699. Made in Solvakia. You can but an £899 Auden with immense Brad Clarke pickup system - partly hand made in China and partly completed by hand in UK which is out of this world (Auden Neo series).... so its a case of Faith being the perfect "bridge" between mainstream and the world of hand made guitars. So yes - Faith is still very much part of my list of recommendations even though you wont hear me waxing lyrical "as much" purely because I have other things that are distracting me !!! Hope that sounds honest and fair.
I really like your way of doing business. I bought an FGN from you a while ago, and I am very happy with it. What's your thoughts on Epiphone? I noticed that you don't sell them in your shop. I wonder if there's a reason.
This philosophy works as long as the brands you love are the ones that sell. You might respond that popularising those brands is down to your salesmanship and enthusiasm. The music business is, like others, a fashion business. As long as you cover a number of price points/bands, hopefully this will work for you.
In 26 years of being in business I’ve only ever experienced year on year growth. I reset when I opened Richards Guitars this is another point of reset - however one which is designed to protect and nurture the direction I want the business to go in rather than one caused by a breakdown because I didn’t. Richards Guitars is already proof of what you have said. I’ve already demonstrated that a business can be successful on being honest and selling quality rather than what the world thinks is available through marketing and media. All I am doing is making sure I don’t go off track and am reinforcing the values that’ has made this business a success to this point.
Please check out Macmull guitars, I would love to know if it’s just hype or if the passion is real. They say they match the resonance of the neck with the body and then tune the pickups to each individual guitar.
Hi Richard, it seems like you have no more Lakewoods in stock, anymore. How come?
Got my Faith venus from you ....More than happy 👍👍
i love your passion, i dealt with several times back in the day when you was in L/Spa, i was new to the world of guitar at that time but you was always helpful and give everyone who came in a great service, i only discovered you was on here a couple of months back but catching up on your videos and POW the enthusiasm of you years back is still there ...sadly like me a little greyer though ....seriously though that passion you have will see you through whichever way you take your business and you didn't have to share this plan with your customers but shows how open you are
Thank you so much for finding me again! Yep...... greyer by the day! :) I really appreciate your kind words. They mean a lot. Thank you.
Have you heard of Maestro guitars from Singapore.
I traveled 3 hours to a guitar shop to try out some Furch guitars and discovered Maestro guitars and bought one of those instead. Ps I also own an Eastman and love it
Ohhhhhh..... I have indeed..... Hmmmm..... Yes I remember being very interested..... Will take another look!
Specialising is the way.
do you have magic guitar?pls make a review of that brand,its a great one especially magic sd4000.. 😁
If only other owners of businesses had your attitude whether it’s selling guitars, fridges or cars more power to your elbow.
I just responded to a face book question about a Taylor guitar which was new and set up by the shop. The owner outlined several issues of unhappiness with the instrument. I gave him my advice but what I really wanted to say was "go to Richard's Guitars and buy a £799 guitar from him". The fashion side of the business should be limited to the cheaper one's not actual instruments. Woolworth's used to sell "guitars". So more power to you I wished that I had known about your business before I bought mine. I also admire the fact that you had a business fail and then you learned your lessons and restarted, I find that rather inspiring.
Yes the concept of failure.... Thats something I could talk about all day. Back then we were doing 2 million pounds a year, selling 10 guitars a day, 7 days a week and someone that day had been saying how proud I must have been of my "success". I went home and told my wife about it because little did he know that same day I had been physically sick in the toilet because of the anxiety of being in the building - that I was suffering a deep depression - and I had become a stranger to my own business. As I said to my wife at the time "I must be the most unsuccessful successful person I know" :) Success and failure can be measured in so many ways - possibly the greatest success of my life was having the breakdown that took control of my destiny for that moment in time. It enabled me to reset - to think about life and what I wanted from it. The result - a beautiful business that I now love and can genuinely be proud of. Thanks again for the feedback and support.
Is this the end of the cheaper guitars like vintage and cort
Not with a broad brush but am removing all guitars that disproportionately take up out time in the workshop especially where our calls for improvements have been ignored. I love the vintage electors and can’t see them going anywhere and there are excellent Cort Cort Electra and electros etc too - what is going is more of the £200 to £400 guitars that drive me insane but total focus for example on LAG which have proven themselves to be unbelievably high quality and they start at £229 so there is my focus point.
Sure.... now that I just ordered a 1964 ES 335 VOS vintage burst custom shop. $5723. 24 months zero interest. 🇺🇸👊🏼
Hi James . Not entirely sure what you are telling me ! lol Maybe I have missed your point in some way
@@RichardsGuitarshop Less is more in the title.... i’m just excited the guitar I ordered..... and it’s not even built yet 😄🇺🇸👊🏼
@@jamesfyffe2610 OOOOOHHHHHHH YES!!!!!! LOL...... Sorry I am always late to the party.
But of course - stay profitable in business as an independent.
Thought you weren’t going to list them? You just can’t help yourself 😀
Did I? 😂
D'angelico?... Supro amps then perhaps??? Money has no value if you are not happy in your work... neither is being broke... hope you get the balance right... good luck.
Expanding a business almost always involves delegating, delegating is almost always the start of problems. If one can keep that to a minimum, one retains that all-important personal touch.
By the way, on first reading I thought you were going to say less GUITARS is definitely more! That would break my heart, I adore my family of Faith's.
Faith are still in my family too - dont worry :)
i can remember regent guitars as im local to leamington,remember Buzz stop music shop?
I certainly do! And also the guitar shop down by the railway bridge at the bottom of town? My first ever guitar was bought for me when I was 8 years old - again from Leamington at the same location as the guitar shop at the bottom of town but then I believe it was like an odd second hand shop? My mum and dad bought me an electric guitar and amp from there.
@@RichardsGuitarshop yes i remember the one at the bottom of town i think it changed to a news agents-good days