Dallas shops?

[slamzilla]

Perhaps the wrong forum but alas I am moving to Dallas next week and need some advice on Dallas area shops that carry good gear. Any advice would be helpful. I know they have GC but I am spoiled by having a great shop here in Austin, Bass Emporium.
Thanks in advance!
Zilla

[giantjerk]

I've been in Dallas (Plain-o) for two years this January and I am not aware of any bass only or oriented shops. Steve Anderson out in Frisco is a really great guy. Charlies Guitar shop is not as great as I expected it to be. The GC on 635 seems to have the best bass selection.

Oh and the local music scene here is not great either.

[Rav]

The only shop in the Dallas area thats even remotely good is Larry Morgan Music in Garland. It mostly caters to high end guitarist and bass is sort of an afterthought and hit or mis on inventory. ( mostly mis recently unfortunately )

The positive side is that Phil McNeese works there and he is one damn fine bassist/instructor and an all around good guy. He can usually steer you to what you need for bass related stuff.

All that being said on a scale of 1-100 with bass emporium being well in the 90's LMM is somehwere in the 30's as a bass oriented shop.

Hope you enjoy Dallas. Welcome to the area.

-Rav

[Aftershock8]

I second that. Phil is great to work with.

GC on 635 and the GC on 75 are probably your best bets in finding decent bass gear.

[slamzilla]

Thanks for the replies, I too am going to be in Plain-O. I thought the music scene was pretty decent in Dallas. Where are the best places to check out live music apart from the big corporate venues.
Thanks,
Z

[RickenBoogie]

Yeah, Larry Morgans is, at least, a Mesa dealer. And it's hit or miss to be sure, but if you happen by when it's hit, you'll find plenty to drool over. The GC's mentioned are good, for GC's anyway. Dallas used to be a great place, with a great music scene. Not anymore.

[slamzilla]

What happened? Did the venues shut down or did everyone move to Austin? I have been here most of my life and IMHO the Austin scene has gone downhill as well. Still the same old 6th street and SXSW but nothing that really stands out. SXSW always attracts a huge crowd but I rarely hear about anyone hitting big through it.
Z

[Brian Barrett]

Twice a year, once in Arlington and once in Dallas there is probably the best selection of bass gear ever in Dallas area. Those of course are the two big Guitar shows. I'm there (LowEnd), Bass Palace, The Bassmint and Good Guys always have booths with all basses. I always bring my entire inventory New and Used.

[Rav]

Originally Posted by Brian Barrett

Twice a year, once in Arlington and once in Dallas there is probably the best selection of bass gear ever in Dallas area. Those of course are the two big Guitar shows. I'm there (LowEnd), Bass Palace, The Bassmint and Good Guys always have booths with all basses. I always bring my entire inventory New and Used.

Yes, you guys showed up with some nice basses. The problem is that's not really whats lacking in Dallas.

At any given time I know of at least a dozen really nice basses for sale in Dallas. If you know the right people you can always find a pretty top end bass around these parts.

The real problem is everything else.

I went to the Arlington show and the Market hall show this year and not a single vendor had anything in the way of bass gear.

Yea a couple of vendors ( the ones mentioned ) had some nice axes. But not a single vendor had a selection of preamps, amps, cabinets or effects for bass.

Here is a summary of the Guitar shows in Dallas, 50 vendors with the exact new inventory you can buy any day of the week at GC. The latest mid line ( guitar only ) Fender, Gibson, Jackson etc etc etc. The 20 hottest selling guitar effect pedals. The same 20 hottest selling guitar amps. All for the bargain basement price of exactly what you can buy it at GC for. And all of this for the $20 per person entry fee and $5 for parking. Wow what a deal. I pretty much decided never to go back to another one this year at Arlington.

The only bass gear is 3-4 booths of just basses, nothing else to speak of. No EBS vendors, no ashdown vendors, no ampeg vendors, no mesa vendors, no GK vendors, no eden vendors, etc etc etc etc etc.

Outside of that you have the odd used vendor trying to sell the worst 1971 pbass ever made with a neck that has more humps than a tilt a whirl for $20k

What Dallas really needs is a bass specific store. If you guys could uproot from TN or if bass emporium wanted to move up from Austin then we would be in business. But for some reason no one wants to service this market.

Larry Morgan at one time had 1/2 a dozen Modulus, 3-4 alembic, a fodera, 1/2 a dozen really nice fenders and some other choice bass's on the wall. In addition they had a pretty well stocked bass amp room that covered the majority of what Eden, Ampeg and Aguilar had to sell. Then one day they just didn't have it anymore and never bothered to have much of anything at any given time in stock. I have no idea why it seemed to sell pretty fast.

Anyways thats just the sad truth of Bass gear in Dallas.

-Rav

[Brian Barrett]

Rav

Hey man, I understand your issue, but you also have to understand there is a much better chance in selling basses for dealer's making these long trips to these shows then bring cabs and heads and preamps which all take up a lot more space in the trucks and also is much heavier.

If you came by my booth I can promise that you didn't see the majority of my stuff in any other booths. On the other hand I have brought specific cabs to shows when customers called ahead and requested I bring something. At this last years arlington show I had a couple of Schroeder cabs Aguilar Head, and Epifani head and a Walter Woods.

I know this isn't about Guitar shows, but I want to make sure that the wrong impression isn't given off and that an understanding of why and whats brought. As for the majority of the booths, I agree, its the same crap you find new at GC and most other stores. But the fact that you can go to a Guitar show and see, MTD, Benavente, Wal, Vintage Fenders, Elrick, Pedulla, Sadowsky and many other customer builders some probably never heard of would be worth the charge of entry considering they where all brought with out the guarantee of selling a thing, and thats just my booth. Keep in mind the Expense we make for out booths, Cargo Vans, Hotel and time away from our shops and family's.

I have a lot of Dallas area customers that come to the show to check stuff out and just to say hi once or twice a year.

Anyways, I hope you do check in some other time and I'm sorry it was a let down for you. I know Kurt at the Bassmint is an Eden dealer and had a couple of eden cabs and heads with him at Arlington. Now that you have been, just check in with any of the bass dealers and there manufacture list and ask them to bring something down if your seriously interested in something.

Thanks and Merry Christmas to everyone at TB,
Brian

[slamzilla]

I will definitely be checking out your booth at the next one Brian. I am always checking your selection online and you seem to have a wide range of really cool basses to offer. As for the Dallas scene, well, we will have to change that.
Z

[Rav]

Brian,

Not really slamming your business model. I understand what you do and why. I just don't think the guitar shows in Dallas are really of much use to most bass players.

As I stated I for one am not going to another one. Arlington really slammed that home for me. I went there with $3500 in hand with the full intention of buying some gear and there really wasn't anything in the place worth the $45 it cost me plus my wife to get in.

I couldn't even get a deal on strings there. Only one booth was selling DR strings at all. ( the DR factory booth ) Not only did they only have 4 string sets they had a pricing deal with the local stores not to undersell them. So they were selling strings for $2 more a set than I could get them from a local dealer.

There was only one booth selling picks and they were only selling them as singles alacart out of bins and not in bulk.

There was only one booth selling leather guitar straps and they are out of South America and completely lacked in quality.

Unless I was specifically going in to buy a bass from one of you guys and made arrangements in advance to have something there I wanted to see I don't really see any point in a bass player wasting their time.

I really tried to find a deal on anything there to justify my time and expense getting there and getting in and it just didn't happen.

Again not begrudging you anything. I'm sure that what you do works well for you. But with all due respect I wouldn't pay $20 a person for the privilege to get into your store no matter how good it was.

None of this does anything to address the problem that Dallas doesn't have a bass shop at all. And for a city this size its just a sad state of affairs that one doesn't exist.

-Rav

[Brian Barrett]

I appreciate your input. I actually use to bring an Aguilar 750, Glock Heartrock and a number of cabs. None ever sold, so i stopped. You bring $3500 in hand next Dallas and contact me before hand, I'll bring all that stuff.

Also, you keep mention the cost to get in. I have nothing to do with that. I pay anywhere from 600-900 for a 10x20 booth, plus hotel and van rental. So I have to consider what sells.

Sorry It didn't work for you, for many its worth it. $20 and they get to see what Ritters, Fodera's, Sadowsky's and many other feel and sound like in one spot..... hard to beat in my opinion. I'm not sure if you found me or not, but I got screwed up this year and stuck in a back room. There where a few that didn't show like Warrior and other's because of the show promoters screw up. I agree the prices are getting crazy to enter, but insurance for all those people is crazy as well because someone always once to sue someone for stubbing there toe, so i guess its warranted.

Thanks
Brian

[Brian Barrett]

Originally Posted by slamzilla

I will definitely be checking out your booth at the next one Brian. I am always checking your selection online and you seem to have a wide range of really cool basses to offer. As for the Dallas scene, well, we will have to change that.
Z

Hey man, look forward to meeting you and hanging out. We always have a lot of guys hanging around and playing. There are some great players in Dallas and good guys.

[Spector_Ray]

You guys need to try living in Lubbock for a while to try to find any bass gear!

[Rav]

Originally Posted by Spector_Ray

You guys need to try living in Lubbock for a while to try to find any bass gear!

Ok you win.

[Rav]

Originally Posted by Brian Barrett

I appreciate your input. I actually use to bring an Aguilar 750, Glock Heartrock and a number of cabs. None ever sold, so i stopped. You bring $3500 in hand next Dallas and contact me before hand, I'll bring all that stuff.

Also, you keep mention the cost to get in. I have nothing to do with that. I pay anywhere from 600-900 for a 10x20 booth, plus hotel and van rental. So I have to consider what sells.

Sorry It didn't work for you, for many its worth it. $20 and they get to see what Ritters, Fodera's, Sadowsky's and many other feel and sound like in one spot..... hard to beat in my opinion. I'm not sure if you found me or not, but I got screwed up this year and stuck in a back room. There where a few that didn't show like Warrior and other's because of the show promoters screw up. I agree the prices are getting crazy to enter, but insurance for all those people is crazy as well because someone always once to sue someone for stubbing there toe, so i guess its warranted.

Thanks
Brian

Brian,

Yea man I get where you are coming from for sure. This is a case where your needs to make the show work for you and my needs to make the show work for me just don't meet up.

You guys get more of a shaft by the shows that we do, I'm certain of that.

I did find you. I even sat down and played a few bass's. Phil McNeese was there the same time I was, he was trying to buy a fodera from you.

My issue specifically is I'm very very happy with the bass's I own at the moment and can't really see a hole in my lineup that I need to fill bass wise. So I was sort of blind to what you had for the most part since it's not what I was jones'n for.

I would have dropped some serious cash on a preamp or amp. I still am not satisfied with what I have and have nowhere to go sit down and plug in and find out what I need. I could mail order but that could get pretty damn expensive to mail order and resell until I find what I like.

I appreciate you guys coming to Dallas, and anyone looking for a bass if its worth your time and cash by all means go check out the lowend booth.

Just don't expect me to show up

-Rav

[Spector_Ray]

Originally Posted by Rav

Ok you win.

I've been bitching about that for years. It seems bass is a total afterthought until somebody's in a bind. I don't know what it's going to take to make retailers see that there's a huge market out there for bass gear.

[Stu L.]

Rav, I'm somewhat with you on the Guitar Show thing. But, I do disagree with a few points. For one thing, I bought one of those South American leather straps back in April, and it is not lacking in quality as far as I can tell. And Tony from DR usually only brings 4 string sets, but I bet a call ahead of time and you'd get 'em in pink if that's what you wanted.

Brian, I always see your booth, browse through, and keep on going . You were screwed in October, plain and simple. Those rooms sucked. Maybe one of these days I'll catch up with you and chat a few. Like Rav, I was looking for amps at this last show.

I hate how every booth acts as though SRV is a god, and Charley's is some mecca because he shopped there. Truth be told, he shopped at more than one store folks

I was talking to Marcus at LMM, and he was telling me that they were going back to the high end gear that made them who they were. I'm not sure if that included bass gear, so it may be worth a trip or phone call if you haven't been in a while.

There was a decent little store down in Corsicana for a while, but I closed it a few years back now

[Rav]

Originally Posted by Stu L.

Rav, I'm somewhat with you on the Guitar Show thing. But, I do disagree with a few points. For one thing, I bought one of those South American leather straps back in April, and it is not lacking in quality as far as I can tell. And Tony from DR usually only brings 4 string sets, but I bet a call ahead of time and you'd get 'em in pink if that's what you wanted.

Brian, I always see your booth, browse through, and keep on going . You were screwed in October, plain and simple. Those rooms sucked. Maybe one of these days I'll catch up with you and chat a few. Like Rav, I was looking for amps at this last show.

I hate how every booth acts as though SRV is a god, and Charley's is some mecca because he shopped there. Truth be told, he shopped at more than one store folks

I was talking to Marcus at LMM, and he was telling me that they were going back to the high end gear that made them who they were. I'm not sure if that included bass gear, so it may be worth a trip or phone call if you haven't been in a while.

There was a decent little store down in Corsicana for a while, but I closed it a few years back now

only in 4's but pink yes, check.
Ok, I was wrong on the straps, check.
The bass guys definitely got screwed on the room 100%, check.
Charleys is just GC lite to me. All Guitar entry level and zero bass., check.
If I want a high end gibson guitar go to LMM. roger that. ( Marcus's idea of getting back to their roots I'm sure. )

I'm trying not to offend anyone ( esp Brian ) and still trying to get the point across that the guitar show left me feeling completely screwed this year. I was all excited to go buy a preamp/amp and slapped down some cash and walked around for 3 hours and didn't find a single vendor worth giving money to. ( my perspective of course )

I think the DR booth sort of sums up the whole event target to me. ( We will only take and sell 4 string sets at the show because thats what 90% of the bass players need ) Well guess what guys, GC already sells them for less and the other 10% of us want something more from a vendor even if it is just for 6 days a year.

I'm really jaded by the event. And it would take something pretty special in a Dallas guitar show to make me show up for another one. Somehow I don't think 4 string sets in pink would quite be enough.

-Rav