Shopping for Musical Instruments stores,
Before moving to Qatar one of my concerns was to see if Doha was carrying repectable Musical Instruments stores for Popular music, say R'roll, Blues etc... I always seek for this type of commodity when I travel and found that many poeple, having that same passion, are also desperate to find out where are the good spots.
Well, for the musicians that would need a great selection of Boutique gears or Top of the line all tube amplifiers or any major brands like Fender, Gibson Gretsch or any else, sorry but this is not the place.
Still there is a place which I qualify as being much satisfying if you have more than one option in your musical taste. I am a guitar player and found a Roland, Ibanez, Shure, etc... Dealer that is taking care of a more than decent line of Musical Instrument gears. The place is called Badie studio & store.
may want to browse their website http://badiestudio.com
Price wise, don't expect a great bargain of the decade because they know they're much alone in that business over here but they are fair and among all, they do have professionnal gears.
The only thing I would suggest is if you need to have specific strings or if you expect to find a hot effect pedal, don't bother to try to find what you need around... Carry your stuff from Home or shop on the Web.
Anyhow, do not get desperate... You can still find a satisfactory compromise which will obviously fill your thirst for palying music during your stay by shopping at Badie...
Good luck
Cheers CoolhandLuke, yep, you are absolutely right. They are a last resort and if you cant wait for something off the net then this is your best (and only) bet.
If you are travelling, you will want to take your stuff with you as even their basic stuff is expensive for what it is. Go for eBay or something like that that will deliver out to Qatar. I have had a Fender Jazz bass and also a great SWR amp sent out from the US with no problems.
Good luck, we need more musicians in Qatar!