Funny thing about GC's Acoustic amps

[cewillm]

Hi ya'll, just a quick observation.

Has anyone else noticed that Guitar Centers tend to make their house-brand Acoustic combos, heads, and cabs as difficult to demo as possible?

In one of the GCs by me, the Acoustic line is located on the wall outside the "rumble room" where you'd be blocking the flow of foot traffic if you pulled up a stool and had at it. In another store, all of the Acoustic stuff is shoved into a small corner of the Rumble Room.

In both cases the stuff seems to be stacked atop one another in a way that would force you to rip apart the stack in order to build your own rig. Compare that to their other head/cab combos which are generally "pre-built" for you and much easier to change around.

[ben12390]

all the ones at my Local GC are all on their own rack, opposite of the other amps. every model they have is on display and easy to get to. but granted, we dont have a rumble room. and i can literally name every amp they have there. and it isnt much

[throbgod13]

they make it difficult to demo all bass amps.. between dead amps, missing speaker cables, power cords and comically short "security" cables, i'm not sure you can demo very much at any time..

unless it's one of the two Markbass combos.. lol..

the only Acoustic amp that i've ever witnessed having any electricity flowing through it was a single 260 ministack.. and that was after 30 minutes of getting a "worker" to find a loose instrument cable.. in my local GC, demo instrument cables are fastened to the display racks with an industrial 1/4" zip tie.. and more than half of those cheap cables are broken.. and no, a "worker" will not be helpful and find a cable.. unless you harass them.. and when they do, it's one of those 3.00 plastic 2 meter hosa cables..

i don't know what disgusts me more about GC.. the stark selection of next to nothing.. or the snarky, condescending "workers" who's time is of an importance not to be understood by the dirty, unwashed masses.. or the comical pricing of said stark selection..

[echoSE7EN]

Originally Posted by throbgod13

...the snarky, condescending "workers" who's time is of an importance not to be understood by the dirty, unwashed masses...

Had some things to trade in towards some high-ticket items. I rolled in at 7:45 on Saturday night. Now, I thought they were open until 9pm. They aren't. However, this is the convo that followed:

GC Emp: *after standing around for 10 minutes waiting to be helped* "Hey...what's up man?"

Me: "Not much. I've got some stuff I'd like to trade in towards some stuff."

GC Emp: "Do you know exactly what you're looking for?"

Me: "I was going to look around for a bit."

GC Emp: "Well bro, you've got 15 minutes."

Me: "uh... it's only 7:45. You guys close at 8:00?"

GC Emp: "Yeah. Us 'gigging' musicians need the time." *followed by my s*-don't-stank-laughter*

Granted, I could have done a quick peek online to see that they closed at 8:00. I could have even paid attention to the writing on the front door. The point is, the person was very "snarky" about being a "gigging musician".

It's Baltimore. You're not really gigging anyplace important if your shift is ending at 8:00 pm. Period. You aren't playing the Filmore. You aren't playing CBGB's, or the Viper Room. Maybe you're playing the local VFW...or a bowling alley on league night.

My last band played everywhere from NorVA to Philly. We obviously didn't make it...but I can promise you I wasn't bitching about earning commission on a potential sale 15 minutes before we were opening for an act, or headlining "Professor's Peabody's Pleasure Paradise", or whatever local bar we happened to be playing. I just hated the tone of that person.

[WyrdoBass]

My GC's actually pretty good about all of this... the Acoustic amps are prominently displayed and pre-made into different working stacks all the time... as are the other amps they have. The selection tends to be mostly Acoustic and Ampeg, with some MarkBass and GK stuff, but the Acoustic products are definitely easy to access and try. Idk, maybe my experience is the exception.