I notice that an IIS member asked in another thread about where they could get a reasonable guitar and amp, and thought I would suggest one place that has some incredible bargains in music equipment, which is Artist Guitars in St Peters, Sydney:
https://www.artistguitars.com.au/
I have bought some equipment from these guys and can't fault them. Sure most of what they sell is house branded, China or Asian made gear, but hey it works just fine. You don't need a $4k Rickenbacker if your just messing around or learning. The important things are: can it stay in tune, is the action reasonable, and the electronics work. It's similiar to the debate about telescopes, be it a TAK or a Chinese made APO, they both can do the job for most people.
Artist Guitars does provide demo videos for most of the gear they sell, so you can check out the sound before you buy, which is important.
I have bought an eight piece drum kit from them, a drum amp, headphones, cables, etc; can't fault any of it. I am sure there are many other music shops that have similiar product lines, and I know there are a fair number in Newcastle. My electric guitar is a 20 year old SG copy made by Cort, but it sounds just fine for my purposes, and hold tune for months. But the masterpiece is my 1972 SYairi (YW-30) six string acoustic, hand made by Mr Yairi himself in Nagoya Japan; purchased new in Canada by me and I will never part with it.
