all music go round stores are different. I believe they are independently contracted franchises. So each owner is free to run it as they wish. The one in Cary, NC used to be pretty good years ago, I negotiated with them on a few guitars and on a Twin reverb and got really fair prices! Then the management changed. They stopped negotiating. Most of their gear was in rough shape, worked just well enough for them to sell it, and then it will crap out as soon as you get it home and use it for two practices. Which is what happened with my Ampeg svt. Their return/warranty policy is a joke, 7 days. Before I bought the amp I asked if there were a lot of hours on the tubes and if I would need to replace them soon, the sales manager said there's at least a year of normal use on them but he recommends changing tubes every 6 months even if you don't play on them and that's what he does on all 12 of his tube amps, and he restrings all 60 of his guitars every month even if he doesn't play them. If you do a rough estimate of how much all that would cost, it's much more than I can imagine a store manager of one music go round store makes in a year! Anyway, my amp craps out after 2 practices, after their warranty period is up, after a long arguement they finally agree to cover repairs on it. They fix it just enough to make it last another 3 months before it completely craps out. I took it to my tech and he said I had been running on half power the whole time I owned it. One power tube was broken off at the socket so the whole socket had to be replaced, one power tube socket was completely disconnected, both of the transformers were loose and wobbling around inside. And the DI had broken, although I've had the DI fixed numerous times and it keeps crapping out, lots of people have told me that Ampeg DI's are notorious for crapping out. Anyway I spent $350 retubing and fixing that amp up, and now it sounds ridiculously amazing. Night and day difference from the amp that MGR sold me. On a positive note, I learned the hard way what to look for in used tube amps, and learned a lot about tube amps in the process. Somebody posted about them in the musicians section on craigslist, about how they wouldn't let him bring his cab into the store to test an amp, but told him that if he bought the amp, brought it home, didn't like it, he could return it within two weeks as long as it was in the same condition. He didn't like it, returned it in less than a week, and they told him the box was damaged so they had to charge him for that, and then charged him a 15% restocking fee. He paid $350 to try an amp out. He posted that story, and I posted mine, and the guys from MGR saw it and remembered me and called me and threatened to sue me for slander, I told them they can only sue me for slander if what I said wasn't true, and it was, so they proceeded to call me derogatory names, and told me to "F--- off, you (insert slanderous word for gay people here)" Needless to say I haven't gone back to that store since.
BUT! Like I said, not all MGR stores are the same, and not all fall under the same terrible management, thank god! The one down here near Atlanta is a great store! They get a lot more cool vintage stuff in, and every time that I've been in there the employees have been very kind and helpful. From a few of my friends I've even been told that they do negotiate on prices as well.
Sorry about my rant on the NC music go round, I just thought it would be a good representation of how different all the stores can be.
