Not sure this applies everywhere, but here in London I've noticed a lot of my old favourite guitar shops gradually disappear. The Guitar Centre (ne BassCentre) moved from Wapping to Shoreditch to online only - gutted, Shoreditch was local, and they did good repair work for me. Leytonstone's Holiday Music - with the best stock of Lefties in Europe, important for me - moved to an industrial estate in Essex (crap for non-car owners), then, afaik, went online only - and now (I assume from lack of website) are out of business entirely. Denmark Street used to be nice for a look (though never lived up to its claim to be the best in London; prices were not always outrageous, but they rarely had lefties in stock and really seemed to specialise more in budget options than what you'd expect from what was supposed to be the height of the guitar shop world per its own publicity....).
This has left me thinking - both London *and* elsewhere - would be nice to have a thread where people can flag up shops / repair places/ whatever local to them who do good stuff and are well priced.
I'll kick this off with reference to Matchetts in Belfast. Most of the guitar shops I used to hang out in back in the 90s in Belfast are long gone now, but Matchetts are still going strong. Helpful staff (some of them have been there forever as well, which is a good sign its nice place to work) https://matchettsmusic.com/ Good stock of stuff, were always fairly priced in my experience. I dropped in last a couple of years ago; all seemed to be much still the same. Spent a grand or two there during the nineties, including my beloved 1994 US Std (still not my favourite neck profile, and I wish I'd gone for the metallic red over the burst, and maple over the rosewood, but I still love that old guitar and will never sell it). Highly recommended if that's your patch.