Why does Guitar Center hate bass players? And freedom?

[Adam Bomb]

This has probably been discussed many times before. But even though I love when the GC catalogue arrives, I’m always a little hurt by just how few pages we merit. Four pages out of 30 or so is a good issue. And the new one—with Jacob Dylan on the cover?—is smaller than usual, but we didn’t even get one page. We got one-third of one page. One bass, and one stack.



Every time I go into a GC, bass players are in there, trying stuff out and buying it. Often there are more bassists than guitards. And yet I have never seen a demo bass placed at the pedal display, for example.

Why do they take us for granted? Is our money not green? I know it’s called Guitar Center, but damn.

--Bomb

p.s. And puppies. Why does Guitar Center hate puppies?

[Ric5]

It is called GUITAR CENTER ... not bass center ... it is what it is ...

[Adam Bomb]

Originally Posted by Ric5

It is called GUITAR CENTER ... not bass center ... it is what it is ...

See, that would make sense to me, if they didn't sell basses and bass amps. But they do. They have a fine selection, IMO. But they don't advertise it?

Maybe bass players do more homework than guitards and are less affected by advertising? Maybe TB is doing their heavy lifting for them?

?????????????????????????????????????

--Bomb

[Depth_Charge]

Being a guitar store they will be getting a lot more incentives/bonuses/manufacturer pressure to sell certain items which end up in the catalogues, and may not be getting the same offers for bass related gear.

[macribas]

Fine selection? Only if online. In my local GC, which I visit at least once every two weeks, they have always the same basses. Fender (Squier, MIM, MIA) takes half of the section, with only a couple of Am Std Ps and Js. Ibanez takes a quarter, with those narrow spacing SRs, then the other quarter is disputed by run-of-the-mill EBMMs (no Sterlings, only Stingrays and Sterling by MM) and Schecter, with one or two Moduluses. Really depressing.

[Adam Bomb]

Originally Posted by Depth_Charge

Being a guitar store they will be getting a lot more incentives/bonuses/manufacturer pressure to sell certain items which end up in the catalogues, and may not be getting the same offers for bass related gear.

This makes a lot of sense.

Originally Posted by macribas

Fine selection? Only if online. In my local GC, which I visit at least once every two weeks, they have always the same basses. Fender (Squier, MIM, MIA) takes half of the section, with only a couple of Am Std Ps and Js. Ibanez takes a quarter, with those narrow spacing SRs, then the other quarter is disputed by run-of-the-mill EBMMs (no Sterlings, only Stingrays and Sterling by MM) and Schecter, with one or two Moduluses. Really depressing.

Yeah, I was being a little facetious. A better selection, at least, than the little local shops around here I used to try to support.

--Bomb

[elgecko]

Originally Posted by macribas

Fine selection? Only if online. In my local GC, which I visit at least once every two weeks, they have always the same basses. Fender (Squier, MIM, MIA) takes half of the section, with only a couple of Am Std Ps and Js. Ibanez takes a quarter, with those narrow spacing SRs, then the other quarter is disputed by run-of-the-mill EBMMs (no Sterlings, only Stingrays and Sterling by MM) and Schecter, with one or two Moduluses. Really depressing.

Moduli...the plural form is Moduli!

[BillyIVbass]

Less bass players than guitar players. That's also why guitar stuff is cheaper. It is super lame, but eh that's how it works.

[waleross]

Go to the Bass Emporium or just grow up.......I buy online mostly and Guitar Center is just like all the other mega-stores they Love money. So,if you go in person with no money and bang around their stuff (guitars,drums and basses) and never buy anything ,they hate you, flash some cash, its a different story. Have a good night...........................

[chuck3]

*** ... If you drive a car challenge your new and used car dealers next bro. Who gives a f*** about Gc?

[macribas]

Originally Posted by elgecko

Moduli...the plural form is Moduli!

Nice, thanks!

[A-Step-Towards]

Yeah there are probably 10 guitar players to 1 bass player and half the bass players were previous guitar players.............i've been a bass player from the start tho

[RadioPilot]

I'm pretty sure they don't like me because I haggle them down a lot. Their selection is OK, but service is usually horrible. I've just come to live with being ultra-assertive in that establishment.

[xjeremiahx]

Bassists don't make up the majority of musicians. It's simple really. We're a smaller market share, and frankly, we're picky as hell. It sucks, but it is what it is. I've struggled to get more gear & new gear into my store, but through some TB members, and some loyal customers, I've been able to add a few cool things here & there to my store's bass section, but it's hard to convince our buyers to get their hands on all the cool stuff that only a few people will actually buy.

I met the guy who runs "platinum.guitarcenter.com" and flat out asked him the same question that this thread is titled. He was so taken aback that he didn't even know what to say. I ran down a list of gear that we don't carry, and would benefit from carrying, but none of it happened. And frankly, if it DID happen, half the bass community would throw a stink about GC carrying their precious toys.

Bassists = few
Bassists = elitist

Small market share and picky to boot? Tough sell any day of the week.

[macribas]

Originally Posted by A-Step-Towards

Yeah there are probably 10 guitar players to 1 bass player and half the bass players were previous guitar players.............i've been a bass player from the start tho

Agreed. To reinforce your statement, I have noticed that a big chunk of GC sales seem to be for beginners, people that don't have a band or plan to play professionally. Let's face it: it's much more appealing to play guitar on your own than it is to play bass. It is what it is, I guess.

[macribas]

Originally Posted by waleross

Go to the Bass Emporium or just grow up.......I buy online mostly and Guitar Center is just like all the other mega-stores they Love money. So,if you go in person with no money and bang around their stuff (guitars,drums and basses) and never buy anything ,they hate you, flash some cash, its a different story. Have a good night...........................

I am afraid he's not as lucky to have a Bass Emporium around... he lives in California.

But I doubt that one person flashing money would make them bring more stuff over for him to try out.

I used to love Guitar Center, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars with them, and continue to buy there frequently. Their managers always took good care of me (I guess it goes under the "flash some cash" area?).

But I don't like their bass section. They don't carry any of the gear I care about today. Like I said earlier, it is what it is, I guess. But I truly wish they had more stuff on display, so we could benefit of their big chain perks like financing options and omnipresence.

[Caca de Kick]

Small market share and picky to boot? Tough sell any day of the week.

Which to me is odd because of all the musicians and bands I've run across, it's always the bassists who has money and/or a more stable job than guitarists.

[D.A.R.K.]

who needs gc when you have juststrings.com and tb classifieds?

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by D.A.R.K.

who needs gc when you have juststrings.com and tb classifieds?

Exactly. And there are plenty of other online suppliers who give you a better price than GC and the gear you buy from them hasn't been "Handled" by every 14 year old wanker in the county.

[s_mcsleazy]

well the only big guitar shop we have in glasgow atm is guitar guitar. they have alot of basses but its a ratio of 1-8 to be honist. plus after what happend to sound control in the uk then im glad we atleast have that.

sound control was like the uk's guitar center only it sold synths and pa stuff too. for years they were going strong selling a bit of everything but after a while they stoped buying in used gear wich at the time was a good percentage of there gear (bout 10-15%) so they mostly did new gear after that. wich still wasnt too bad. shortly after they got brought out and had to change there name to "reverb" when they fired about 25% of the staff and decided that they needed to get rid of most the stock and not order in any new stuff. in the last couple weeks of the place being open they had about 10 basses and 200 guitars that they just couldent shift.

my point is it could be worse.