2NGD - Collings & Avian from GUITARLAIR in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[pandaroo]

I heard about Guitarlair in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I was looking through Colling’s international dealers listing so I checked them out and lo and behold, this place is a guitar heaven!! For those of you who reside in the South East Asian region, including Australia and New Zealand where guitar options are limited, do yourselves a favour and check this place out. Marc Warman the owner of Guitarlair is a top notch bloke to deal with and is a luthier himself.

Guitarlair mainly carries guitars from small boutique makers from around the globe including US, Canada, Ireland, China, Singapore, India, Czech, South Korea and last but not least his own line of guitars, Lindsay Marcus guitars which are great hand-built guitars for tremendous value. His stock and selections are huge!

www.guitarlair.com

I now can reduce my reliance on sight unseen purchase and can fly to Kuala Lumpur and my return airfare from Australia to KL is only about USD260, definitely worth it. I have attached some pics of Guitarlair's showroom. I have no affiliations with Guitarlair, I just wanted to share to those who reside in the South East Asian region including Australian and New Zealand that this place exist for those who is always searching.

As for my NGD, I was really wanting to bring back something new and different and of the 4 hours I have spent there, and whilst all of them were fantastic guitars, I eventually brought back a standard spec ‘ed Collings D2H, as this guitar spoke to me the most, and Marc cut me deal for buying two guitars that made it even easier to decide. Don’t get me wrong the Kevin Ryan and the Froggy Bottom was probably the best ones I have ever laid my hands on but I simply couldn’t afford them.

The second acoustic I chose was really something different which impressed me immensely. The Chinese made Fleishman designed Avian Skylark. Amazing value fit and finish with bevel armrest and demi-cutaway, less than 15 inch lower bout but the bass and warmth and volume from this is incredible for the value. When I got back and did a bit of research on the guitar, noted that this was awarded the Guitarist Choice awards for 2014 and 2015 from Acoustic Magazine, so I am not alone who thinks that this is a great guitar.

NGD #1 - Collings D2H


NGD #2 - Avian Skylark with Demi-Cutaway and Bevel Armrest



GUITARLAIR

Wall 1 - Collings, Bourgeois, Mcelroy, Breedlove, Bedell



Wall 2 - Rozawood (Czech)


Wall 3 - Kevin Ryan, Furch


Wall 4 - Lowden, Avalon


Wall 5 - Lindsay Marcus


Wall 6 - Northwood, Kronbauer, Gwood, Lakewood, Mcknight


Wall 7 - Maestro, House

[marty bradbury]

Congrats on 2 beautiful guitars! Wow the collection they have is unreal. To bad I'm in the U.S. Don't know if we have a store here with all the make and models the store you went to does.

[Alex6strings]

.................

[Plethora]

Originally Posted by pandaroo

I heard about Guitarlair in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I was looking through Colling’s international dealers listing so I checked them out and lo and behold, this place is a guitar heaven!! For those of you who reside in the South East Asian region, including Australia and New Zealand where guitar options are limited, do yourselves a favour and check this place out. Marc Warman the owner of Guitarlair is a top notch bloke to deal with and is a luthier himself.

Guitarlair mainly carries guitars from small boutique makers from around the globe including US, Canada, Ireland, China, Singapore, India, Czech, South Korea and last but not least his own line of guitars, Lindsay Marcus guitars which are great hand-built guitars for tremendous value. His stock and selections are huge!

www.guitarlair.com

I now can reduce my reliance on sight unseen purchase and can fly to Kuala Lumpur and my return airfare from Australia to KL is only about USD260, definitely worth it. I have attached some pics of Guitarlair's showroom. I have no affiliations with Guitarlair, I just wanted to share to those who reside in the South East Asian region including Australian and New Zealand that this place exist for those who is always searching.

As for my NGD, I was really wanting to bring back something new and different and of the 4 hours I have spent there, and whilst all of them were fantastic guitars, I eventually brought back a standard spec ‘ed Collings D2H, as this guitar spoke to me the most, and Marc cut me deal for buying two guitars that made it even easier to decide. Don’t get me wrong the Kevin Ryan and the Froggy Bottom was probably the best ones I have ever laid my hands on but I simply couldn’t afford them.

The second acoustic I chose was really something different which impressed me immensely. The Chinese made Fleishman designed Avian Skylark. Amazing value fit and finish with bevel armrest and demi-cutaway, less than 15 inch lower bout but the bass and warmth and volume from this is incredible for the value. When I got back and did a bit of research on the guitar, noted that this was awarded the Guitarist Choice awards for 2014 and 2015 from Acoustic Magazine, so I am not alone who thinks that this is a great guitar.

NGD #1 - Collings D2H


NGD #2 - Avian Skylark with Demi-Cutaway and Bevel Armrest



GUITARLAIR

Wall 1 - Collings, Bourgeois, Mcelroy, Breedlove, Bedell



Wall 2 - Rozawood (Czech)


Wall 3 - Kevin Ryan, Furch


Wall 4 - Lowden, Avalon


Wall 5 - Lindsay Marcus


Wall 6 - Northwood, Kronbauer, Gwood, Lakewood, Mcknight


Wall 7 - Maestro, House

Any thoughts on the Lindsay Marcus guitars ?

[pandaroo]

Originally Posted by Plethora

Any thoughts on the Lindsay Marcus guitars ?

The Lindsay Marcus guitars pack in a lot of guitar for the value. Craftsmanship is really very good. Tastetful appointments on entire range. Tonally is on the modern side hence their popular body shape is the grand auditorium, so think Taylor and Furch. If bass is your thing then this is not for you. A lady customer was playing her Lindsay Marcus while I was looking around and it sounded really good and I was impressed hearing from afar.

[welshruss]

Hi, Great photos. Did you carry the guitars on the flight back to Aus?

Russ

[pandaroo]

Originally Posted by welshruss

Hi, Great photos. Did you carry the guitars on the flight back to Aus?

Russ

Yes i did, got great deal, even after the air fare and hotel, i was still in front compared to Ozzie prices. I see u got a couple of Bashkins, im sure they are great guitars. His design contributions on the Avians are pretty impressive.

[silverspear]

wow.. the Lowden and Avalon wall picture is calling out to me.

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

[gitarro]

I visited Guitar Lair a couple of days ago and it definitely has the best selection of good guitars among any guitar shop that I have ever visited in person.

It has a guitar for every reasonable budget, all the way from the solid top laminate back and sides budget option to the Kevin Ryan Nightingale. I noodled on a high spec Avalon and a Lowden F50c while I was there - pretty nice sounding guitars. The Avalon for one had very detailed Celtic motif inlays.

The owner of the shop was very helpful and is to be commended for introducing this initiative to pioneer the boutique guitar shop in Malaysia which has hitherto (with one or two exceptions) only had fairly basic guitar shops and smaller versions of Guitar center. He has also got his own range of guitars under the Lindsay Marcus brand.

[gitarro]

Originally Posted by pandaroo

Yes i did, got great deal, even after the air fare and hotel, i was still in front compared to Ozzie prices. I see u got a couple of Bashkins, im sure they are great guitars. His design contributions on the Avians are pretty impressive.

I brought my Bashkin to the shop for a set up and had the chance to see some Avians there and there is certainly a family resemblance with my guitar.