This is confusing having duelling parallel threads with the same name and topic, but here goes...

In my hometown of Ottawa, the Ottawa Folklore Centre is certainly the place for all kinds of folk-oriented supplies, including repairs of course. In their new location they have all kinds of room for workshops and mini-concerts, which are usually going on any Saturday. Other stops on my well-worn circuit are Songbird Music (centretown, Gladstone at Bank)--several rooms full of real good used instruments at good prices and the small and funky Used Sound a few blocks west on Preston near Gladstone.

Stateside, when we visit my in-laws in southern Vermont I always, always go by Maple Leaf Music in Brattleboro. It's the kind of place where they not only let you play the good instruments, when Kate the owner sees me come in she practically makes me try a Froggybottom (and they are real nice, but I question the efficacy of the name for a high-end brand). It's also my source for Alaskapiks, those brilliant innovation in fingerpicks which you can't get in Canada.

Bill