| First time I've ever preferred GC over Sam Ash
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Scenario: Sam Ash opened up across the street from a long-established Guitar Center about twenty minutes away from my home and right up the street from Rondo.
I walked into the brand new Sam Ash today, finding instantly a Carlo Robelli URB that played quite nicely, was strung with quality strings and sounded fair. This immediately got my hopes up as I stared from the center of the store around to what seemed like miles of Strats, Teles and Les Pauls. Then I turn the corner and there's the bass section, and who do I find there, but two Sam Ash employees sitting there slappin' and poppin' all the basses in the store. I walk over and one female employee, who I later found out works in the drum department, was just moseying around and decided to pick up a bass.
Another two employees were just yelling nonsense at each other, cussing and stuffing, yes, I mean STUFFING sets of strings into the racks. If they weren't they only place that carried LaBellas within a hundred miles for tight situations, I would never walk into that store again. All the basses on the walls had significantly warped necks, with all too much relief in the neck. A used Geddy Lee was priced at $575 and the intonation was gone after about the fifth fret. They had no vintage items and the only other used instrument in the bass section was a 1984 Ibanez Musician with a few paint chips priced at $400 without a case.
All the amps were stacked back to back, only the Hartke heads were plugged into cabs, and there were no cabs on the floor except Hartke, a used GK 210RBH and a new SWR cab. (Think someone's trying to get on Hartke's good side?) Their stock of effects was pitiful at best so I wandered over to the acoustic room because, hey, I've been looking for a beater twelve string for noodling.
A good portion of the acoustics were severely out of tune, suffered from the most severe fretbuzz I've ever witnessed, and the room was more humid than a sauna and Martins and Taylors adorned the bottom row on the wall, and beginner models were far out of reach. I'd seen two or three multi-thousand dollar instruments with nicks and scratches, and later an employee ran out shaking an Ovation mandolin screaming "We're gonna do mandolin surgery!"
I gave up on the basses, and the acoustics, and decided to try out one of their $79 clearance Guitar Research guitars through a small Kustom combo, before hearing something over the loudspeaker saying that there was a clinic that was to be taking place and everyone was instructed to turn off their amplifiers. Yep, they might as well close the store, noone's allowed to play any instruments...
So I go across the street to Guitar Center, never happier to be in good ol' GC than today. I'm greeted by a staffer smoking a butt and soon after by a room full of guitarists. Looks like I'd hit right in the middle of Guitarmageddon, but at least they had vintage pieces adorning the wall, items had at least mediocre setups, and there was a new bass that cost more than $979. And while Sam Ash refused to believe the Mike Dirnt P-Bass was on the market already, Guitar Center stocked not only one, but two of these beautifully bastardized slabs of ash.
I think I have a newfound respect for Guitar Center, at least in respect to Sam Ash...
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- Timothy P. Lyons
Your Neighborhood Friendly Candyman
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