Old disco/electronics shops in the 70s

[melthebell]

i remember mid 80s there was a couple of electronic shops at darnall...one past pyramid carpets on the other side of the road??? and a proper sort of disco equipment one further down staniforth rd towards where take 2 club was?

[docmel]

Hi

Johnson Electrics previous to London Road resided on the Ecclesall Road and previous to that in the mid sixties were at Staniforth Road in Darnall, originally being a domestic electrical retailer that cashed in on the guitar group boom.Spent many Saturdays in there drooling at the guitars and amps we couldn't afford.

 

I worked at Johnson Electrics for a short time in the early 70's. The managers name was Phil and the other sales guy was Jim who played a very mean guitar.

 

Had a great time there - all the club bands came in.

[studioman]

I was at King Ted's school from 65 to 72, and because I lived at Hunter's Bar, one of my routes home was down through the Botanical Gardens and out onto Ecclesall Rd just opposite Berkeley Precinct which had what was the previous Johnson Electrics shop.

This one was not mediocre in any way if you were a guitarist.

In 1968, at 14yrs old, I was growing up, had already seen Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd in 67, but my guitar was only a semi-acoustic, and I needed something better, when David Carr in my class, a fabulous guitarist, had recommended me to visit Johnson Electrics for my guitar and bass gear.

I can remember that it was the last shop on the left just before you turned towards FineFare supermarket.

The guys at Johnsons were always very welcoming.

Most of the gear was out of my financial reach, but they had second hand gear and they were great at trading.

AndyTaylor, my guitarist friend, and John Speight, drummer would sometimes visit Johnsons together, but I was there maybe twice a week, it was so good.

On the wall were Fenders and Gibsons...and they were the genuine, not copycat ones. This is also before some cheaper Fenders started being made in Mexico and Japan. All of the Gibsons and Fenders were US built. They also sold Futurama guitars, Antorias, Hagstroms, Watkins, Vox Teardrops and Hofner Violin guitars and basses, Burns, Tokai, Aria, Framus & Fernandes and many others. They had Marshall, WEM, Sound City, Hiwatt, Acoustic (a special US brand of bass amp used by JPJ of Led Zeppelin), Ampeg (I think), HH of Cambridge, Fender, Vox, and Selmer amps, and my friend and I used to drool over Dynacord amp stacks from Germany.

There were also a few places that you could trade electronics equipment, that I used in Sheffield. One was a very small shop at the bottom of the Botanical Gardens on Ecclesall Rd, very near to Johnson Electrics, run by a guy who looked a bit like the actor John Alderton, at the time. He bought, sold and fixed amps and speakers, Lineaers, Selmers, Leaks, etc., he even got me a Sound City amp for trade price plus a few quid. I was always taking stuff to him to trade, but I don't recall his name. He once sold me a very early pale blue Tygan covered Watkins Dominator valve amp/speaker combo for £28, and these are so sought after nowadays that they tend to go for around £1500-3K. He was a very nice guy. He also moved onto London Rd, again just down the road from the later Johnson Electrics, but I remember him telling me some time later that he was going to move to New Zealand, and as far as I know, he did.

If you wanted parts, jack sockets, valves, etc, it was Bardwells, just off London Road a bit further along. Mr Bardwell died years ago, but some of the staff from the 70s and 80s are still at the 'new' shop. Again, very nice blokes. No Mullard valves though now. :-(

Those were the days.

Edited October 30, 2015 by studioman