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Grant guitars

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 5:18 pm
by shadowriter
Just wondered if anyone remembers or owns a Grant Guitar.
Just reminiscing (as olduns do) and remembered being in my local music shop (probably 80s/90s,
memory no too good now) listening to Dave, (the owner and brilliant guitarist) playing a strat and with another
superb guitarist playing a Grant strat copy, comparing the two and concluding there was no difference
in sound and playability. Always regretted not buying one. Anyone got any memory of them.

Norman

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:55 pm
by JimN
Yes - around 1976, Frank Hessy's shop in Liverpool used to stock Grant copies of the Stratocaster for about £52 (white or sunburst) and copies of the LP Standard (sunburst, albeit with a bolt-on neck) for about the same price. There were a couple of construction details I didn't like (eg, a metal truss rod cover on the "Strat" headstock), but overall, it looked like a good £52 worth.

I have no doubt that the LP copies were nowhere remotely near as a good as a Gibson (probably with s/c pickups disguised as humbuckers), but the Strat copies looked reasonable enough - and £52 was still a significant amount of money in 1976 - two weeks' net wages for most people and probably about the same real terms price as a low-end Fender or Squier Strat today.

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 3:40 pm
by shadowriter
Thanks Jim, Frank Hessy's, wow that brings back memories. In the seventies I used to love going to Liverpool
looking round the guitar shops. Can't remember their names, most of them sadly gone. I used to buy all my bits
pedals and stuff there, it was miles cheaper than the Blackpool shops. Lovely people, I played lots of the clubs there
and they always made me welcome. So many happy times. Thanks Jim for kickstarting a lovely nostalgia hour.

By the way, I was watching an old Pipeline convention DVD 2001 with the secrets and a guitarist with the same name,
Jim Nugent. Would that by any chance be you?

Thanks again Jim.

Norman

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 9:02 am
by RayL
shadowriter wrote:By the way, I was watching an old Pipeline convention DVD 2001 with the secrets and a guitarist with the same name,
Jim Nugent. Would that by any chance be you?
Norman


To spare Jim's blushes, yes, that's Jim playing lead guitar with The Secrets in 2001. If you have the Convention videos from other years, you'll find another full set from The Secrets in 2009, and Jim can be spotted playing alongside Mike Beddoes of the Canadian instro group The Falcons on a 'Saturday Night Session' in 1998. Oh yes, and The Secrets also played a 'Saturday Night Session' in 2000 with guests who included George Geddes, another familiar name on this forum.

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 9:12 am
by shadowriter
Thanks Ray and thanks again for those wonderful convention dvds
still get loads of pleasure from then now.

Cheers
Norman

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 9:38 am
by shadowriter
Gutted, just looked and 2009 is the only one I can't find.
sod's law strikes again.

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 8:19 am
by RayL
In addition to George, all the other ShadowMusic moderators have appeared on the Pipeline stage
David Martin (with Legend in 2002)
Dave Robinson (with The Vibratos, 2003)
Iain Purdon (with Shazam, 2012)

and these members of The Shadows
Licorice Locking (with Local Heroes in 1998 and The Foot Tappers in 2007 and 2009)
Alan Jones (with The Reflections 2001)
Warren Bennett (with The Vibratos, 2003)

and not forgetting the host of the Shadowmusic website, who left his PA console to play his keyboard . . . .
Bob Dore (with The Shadders, 2012)

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 5:13 pm
by shadowriter
Thanks Ray, great info.

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:37 am
by StuartD
Hi

Grant Guitars were copies that were Imported by Jimmy Grant, a Scotsman. He had a store, in Glasgow I think and also distributed them.

Incidentally, as some of you will know, he was the man who bought all the old stock from Baldwin, loaded it in a truck and drove round the UK selling the guitars at rock bottom prices. I remember getting Baldwin Double Six, which I still have, for £35 in the early 1970

Regards

Stuart

Re: Grant guitars

PostPosted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 3:01 pm
by dave robinson
That's interesting Stuart and could explain how I got my Baldwin Double Six for peanuts at a music store in Newcastle in the early seventies, I think I paid about £60 brand new. It ended up three years later as PX fodder for an eight channel Yamaha mixer I needed from the music shop at Bingley, whose name escapes me. :)