I suppose I must have stumbled upon Retro Gear Shop at some point during my career. I was looking for specific high-end compressor, and they were one of the first results to pop up - I actually looked into the website for the first time and was really pleasantly suprised.

Not only do they have the lowest prices, from what I can see - they also offer a variety of vintage and used gear (many of which are priced lower than Reverb listings), and they also offer repairs. They even sell parts (things like vintage Marinair transformers).

Anyone use them? I just shot them an email because im curious where they are based - but I think its very interesting. Hard to find such dealers nowadays in my experience. Id rather buy a piece of used gear from someone who can fix it if needed, rather than from a stranger garage.

Any feedback on them?

As of a couple years ago they had an unmarked storage space/shop/storefront kind of place in East Nashville that had a mind blowing collection of vintage gear of all kinds (from mics to full consoles and everything in between) as well as select new items that they are dealers for (I bought a Benson guitar pedal from them for example, and arranged the purchase and pickup via text messaging with the owner).

They are really good. Excellent with product support as well. Good pricing and some great old and new gear.

I've been buying and selling stuff with Mark @ Retro for almost 10 years. He is a stand up guy and his staff of techs are great. His head tech has been doing work for me prior to him working at Retro and is outstanding. And if you're in Nashville you can head to their showroom and gawk at all of the cool stuff they have. Highly reccommend!

bought my Zahl AM1 and many other things from Mark over the years. Good dude

A few years ago, I bugged Mark for months to help with a very unorthodox trade for some rare early Avalon compressors, and he managed to pull it off It turned out to be a win win, and he was extremely helpful and fair. My only time dealing with Retro, but a very good experience)

mark gets my trust
retro gear shop is my fav gear dealer hands down
honorable mention to zen pro audio at #2

I don't know. Their prices seem fairly on par with market prices. 14,000US for a vintage U67. 4,900US for an original KM86. 105,000!!!US for a 10 channel BCM10? I had no idea 10-1073's would cost you over a hundred grand??? Total rip off if you ask me. Hard to get my head around that one.

I'd rather buy 16-1073's for way less....if I wanted 1073's. Apparently, the BCM10 chassis is worth $67,000!

Not doubting the good experiences people have had, but my experience was far less favorable. Bought a 500 series comp that ended up being out of spec with the API rack. I ended up running around for almost 2 weeks taking measurements, calling API, etc. Finally proved that it didn't fit, Retro Gear confirmed the 2nd unit in stock was the same measurement as mine, and we reached a conclusion that likely it was a design/ batch fault. Tried to send it back, and Retro Gear wanted me to cover shipping on a defective unit. That was after they put me in contact with the designer of the 500 series compressor, who wanted me to send him my rack to hack it up so that his compressor would fit.

Discourging me to not return a defective unit by asking me to modify my gear and also not *initially* covering shipping charges (even though their website did and still does state that they will cover) is really poor customer satisfaction.

EDIT: Just for clarification, RGS did end up paying shipping after it was proven that the unit also did not fit the API rack.

Remember, it's easy to be a great coach when your team is winning .

Mark will sell your vintage items also. If in Nashville stop into the store. Great resource for good mic’s as well. He has been able to go overboard with help, when in needed, for my purchases.