How can GC be so lame?!?
I was in Salt Lake City this week, doing biz for my employers. Since there isn't a music shop worth the name within a 100 miles of where I live, I took the opportunity to go to a GC.
Ya know...it's a huge store, hundreds of git'rs and basses, live gear, kb's, parts, you name it.
So how can a store with so much offer so little? One guy out of eight that new the difference between a full-body and thin-line acoustic...none of the accessories I wanted...an acoustic I'd been dying to try out not even in stock (a brand they're an \"authorized dealer\" for :roll: )...salesmen that don't know the difference between a synth and a controller and a workstation...the \"bouncer\"/door checker guy was so dumb I coulda stuck a Les Paul up my @$$ and walked out by telling him it was hemorrhoids.
I don't know which is worse - GC or eBay?!? :shock:
Ya know...it's a huge store, hundreds of git'rs and basses, live gear, kb's, parts, you name it.
So how can a store with so much offer so little? One guy out of eight that new the difference between a full-body and thin-line acoustic...none of the accessories I wanted...an acoustic I'd been dying to try out not even in stock (a brand they're an \"authorized dealer\" for :roll: )...salesmen that don't know the difference between a synth and a controller and a workstation...the \"bouncer\"/door checker guy was so dumb I coulda stuck a Les Paul up my @$$ and walked out by telling him it was hemorrhoids.
I don't know which is worse - GC or eBay?!? :shock:
Comments
Peace
JV
Digitech in Big Sandy (lower Salt Lake City) has techs that are musicians.
You'd think a music store would seek staff with a working knowledge of the products.
Anyways not to stick up for gc, but they did just have a big sell. (and I ain't talking about their monthly flyer delals ) so maybe they haven't restocked? jus' a guess. The gc's around here, atleast at the big one most seem to know what they are talking about. father time has finally givn me the ability to know when someone is full of bs, patronizing me, or actually knows his stuff. So I don't know what's up with the Salt lake personel. Perhaps they are all trying to figure out who their daddy is?
And the guy was dumb at the check out, ... you don't have have a LP ... why? :P
My favorite music stores in my area are the small independantly owned shops where they greet you at the door and the staff knows what they have and how it works. They have to charge a little more for thier gear, but at least they can answer a half way intellegent question. I also find with the small shops in this area that they will haggle with you on price and many times come very close to or beat the price of the major chains.SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS. Bigger doesnt always mean better.
Sorry for going on but this is a touchy subject with me. most of my musician friends have voiced the same opinion to me so we all know where you are coming from.
Gutiars aside, they are trained to know what's \"nice\", what's \"not worth it\", what's \"quality on a budget\", etc. They might remember a few things about it, but that's about all you're going to get.
:shock: I ain't never been in no GC that had a room like that!
eBay can be risky, depending on what you're buying, although the deals are often great.
Chain stores BITE, and I'd never ask for a recommendation or opinion. To me, the value of these stores is simply to go see the thing hands on, 'speshly git'rs.
I meself do a ton of biz with MF online...not counting that bad summer when they moved their warehouse and went through a inventory software nightmare (that was the summer I bought my 2031a's, and BOY was it a hassle!!! :? ) and once when they just plain sent the wrong item, they've been fine. They even sent me the right item, no shipping asked, and would've taken back the wrong item for credit if I hadn't decided it wasn't worth shipping, and kept it for future use.
I'd gone into the GC in Salt Lake 'cuz I wanted to play a git'r I was sure they'd have - they're a dealer - and see if I wanted to step up from the one I have to the one I'd seen on MF...but I wanted to actually play it. Plus...when you buy a git'r online, you're not picking it out, which does matter if it's made of wood you can see...
They also own Musicians Friend, Music 123, Vintage Guitars.com, and many, many other on-line stores..
They have basically become the Wal Mart of Guitar Stores.
They have a new Non-Haggle price policy..(In other words,,\"We aint giving you a discount\"..)..
They rarely have anything as far as archtops, and every kid and his brother has played every axe in the store. (They ought to sell them as USED gear..)..
Not to mention their monopolistic collaboration with Gibson. Nobody, in Houston carries Gibson but Guitar Center and Fullers Guitar..(Fullers is a mom and Pop and gives excellent service..)..All other Gibson dealers have had to drop the Gibson product because of GC & Gibson's policies..
They had a Guitar Contest they sponsored every year but have dropped that as well. Lot's of changes since theire aquisition by Blaine Capitol (Mint Romney), about 9 months ago.. Stick around.. I don't think they'll be around much longer..
Give me Ebay anyday of the week, over those guys.
You younger guys don't know the PAIN we went through in th 70's with elitist gear stores...GC was supposed to be the antidote...meet the new boss, same as the old boss\"!..
I'm old enough to remember the 70's. I knew a guy who worked at a local guitar store that quit his job. They were taking cheap knock-off guitars, filing out the headstock, and replacing the knock-off logo with a Gibson, Fender, etc... logo on the headstock and selling them as originals. He refused to do that. Somehow, with the volume of guitars sold by GC, MF, et. al., I just can't imagine that happening nowadays. You might get a bad guitar, but at least the company logo on the guitar should match the guitar and their quality with today's manufacturing should be pretty good. But I don't have any great insight in that area. I just can't imagine GC, MF, or the other sellers swapping logos on a guitar to raise their profit. Ebay, on the other hand, is full of fake guitars from what I have read on some different web site reviews/comments. I know some of you have had great luck on eBay, but I have heard of others getting ripped off. Buyer beware as in every thing else.
Ain't that the Truth!
And I've heard about the ebay sellers who do that...apparently, you can get Les Paul knock-offs made in Asia somewhere that're so accurate only an expert can tell the difference. Or a git'rist, I s'pose... :roll:
I rebuilt the first guitar I bought. I've rebuilt or modified guitars, mainly doing some inlay work, or neck rebuilding, but never built a whole guitar.
If I ever come across an Ibanez 5pc Wizard Prestige neck with maple fretboard..I would build a guitar around that. That neck is fantastic.
I keep a search going on eBay...but haven't found the neck yet.
By the way, the nearest GC for me is 4.5 hours by car. So I envy you guys who have the good fortune to even complain about those mega guitar shops in your shopping area.
(pathetic whimper) cof-cof-cof ...I'm ...cof-cof ....I'm d-y-i-n' Bro's...
I think I could use a polish cloth...maybe another cord...yeah...a cord.
(mind wanders) (begins playing with stapler) :oops:
When you shop on ebay, remember that it's caveat emptor, buyer beware. You have to be REALLLLY careful about what you buy and who you buy it from. The most important thing to remember is to NOT get \"bidders' fever\", where you decide that you MUST have a certain item.
Just remember that there's oodles of that git'r around...it's not like you're trying to buy a '52 strat or a '57 GoldTop.
Of even greater importance is the seller's feedback. Don't just look at the number; READ IT. You'll get a good idea of what the person is like to deal with.
Also important is whether the person is a musician, or is just selling the git'r as a commodity. Be especailly cautious of pawn shops, who list on ebay often.
And INSIST on very detailed photos. A crappy - or even so-so - photo can conceal a lot.
I tell you all this as one who, despite being an ebay veteran of 10 years, got burned - no, SMOKED - on a Peavey bass. http://www.guitarworkstation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7727.
I'm suffering the same illness. I have approximtely 214 instrument cords; yet I was ready to buy a new git'r cord - with a 90 degree plug at one end - for no other reason that my 'binez has an output jack on the front instead of the edge.
Please...\"help me...help me be human...\"
There are a few things I don't like. It seems every guitar I pick up off their wall is not set up or tuned at all. It seems like they just take it out of the box and slap it up.
There is another music store here that is much smaller (Guitar Source). Much better service and all the guitars are in tune and set up to play.
Better prices at one, better service at the other.
Same here, I pass by three of em on my way home from work each night; Hollywood store, Sherman Oaks store and the Northridg store.
There are too many guitars on the walls at the GC stores I frequent to keep everything in tune at all times. What I do is simply take the axe over to the keyboard section and get the middle A off the kB - then tune, takes no time at all.
I think I may have said this before somewhere around here, but I'm not really interested in what the GC sales guys say anyway (unless I need to know what they have in stock, or what the bottom line is on an item). If I want an opinion on stuff, I ask the musicians I play with or I research it online or in discussion forums, like this one, or I try the stuff out myself. Another good technique is to ask someone at your local music store whose opinion you trust. I have a local store where I get all of my small stuff like picks, strings, guitar and mic stands etc., One of the guys there is a gigging guitarist and I run questions by him all of the time cause I know he knows what he's talking about - like you guys here. So, it really doesn't bother me about the GC dudes, they're just trying to make a living like the rest of us.
JV
I said no thanks, I'll order it online.
Even my wife almost fell out of her chair in laughter.
They're so lame because they can be.
When you ask for stands, does he ask you \"why do you wanna sit up there??\"