Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Guitar Center amp rant
- Thread starter Lowner
- Start date
You think Albuquerque is really that small! They would not put a GC here if it is that small. You need to travel more.syciprider said:Hey, if I had to run a store in Albuquerque then I'll match anyone too. Don't wanna lose all four of my clients.
There is a map called the map according to Californians and New Mexico is a lost state. Colorado is the State of Aspen.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
syciprider said:
first, ther are other options to microsoft besides "a string and 2 cups" I use open office on SuSe Linux for my menial computer. Unfortunately the only games in town for music production are all Mactel or WIntel. SO I run one of those too. My servers and thin clients are all some flavor of BSD or Linux.
Hippies were a bunch of drug munching sex addicts. I am clean and sober and monagamous. Not everybody that is a non-conformist is a hippie, commie or homo.
Calaverasgrande said:
Not that there isn't monopolistic issues in the computer industry, but you aren't supporting them with those made up statements. Did you know that Windows servers only accounted for 35% of WW server revenue in Q4 2005. Also, sales of Linux servers are growing at a faster rate than the rest of the server market.
And on the PC front, while Mac and Linux are still far from overtaking MS, they are far from declining in market share.
And of course I wouldn't take an amp or guitar to GC for a repair, they don't have in house repair people. There are plenty of independent techs around. Sometimes you can even take your products to the authorized techs that GC uses yourself. I have done it with Mesa before.
Smallequestrian said:
Indeed; 95% of the music shops in Manhattan and New Jersey sent their amplifier repairs to Triple S Service in Bloomfield, NJ even before Guitar Center was on the scene...
I am guessing, but I would bet Jimmy Copollo earns as much doing repairs and set-up work in his New York Guitar and Bass Boutique as he does making and selling gear. (by the way, he makes a very nice 5-string Jazz-copy)
I did my work experiance in a local music store in the UK not so long ago. i was horrified.
I was tought to push the customer, not to let them play something they have stated as out of there price range, and to only let them plug in if they have stated a will to buy on that day!
naturally, i brokew all the rules, and managed to sell more than the manager on one of the days i worked there (mainly due to me getting some old guy to buy a stevie ray vaughen strat!) but i feel so awkward going in that shop now, its like a library, dare anyone pipe up.
and something major i would ask you all to check, What does your warrenty cover? At this place, the answer was, unbeknown to many a customer, next to nothing.
I was tought to push the customer, not to let them play something they have stated as out of there price range, and to only let them plug in if they have stated a will to buy on that day!
naturally, i brokew all the rules, and managed to sell more than the manager on one of the days i worked there (mainly due to me getting some old guy to buy a stevie ray vaughen strat!) but i feel so awkward going in that shop now, its like a library, dare anyone pipe up.
and something major i would ask you all to check, What does your warrenty cover? At this place, the answer was, unbeknown to many a customer, next to nothing.
Bob Lee (QSC)
In case you missed it, I work for QSC Audio!
- Jul 3, 2001
- 12,668
- 2,036
- 67
- Disclosures
- Former Technical Communications Developer, QSC Audio
I bought a slightly used MIDI sound module that was on a GC scratch & dent sale clearance table. It was a very good price, but the thing died a few weeks later. I admire that GC replaced it for me with a brand new one which would've cost quite a bit more.
Mom and pop stores can survive and even thrive if they find a specialty niche to position themselves in and excel, that the big boxes can't touch. GC and Sam Ash have a relativley small assortment of sheet music, but one local store in Santa Ana is about 99% sheet music, so I go there when I'm looking for stuff like that. Another local store in Huntington Beach has hundreds of instructional videos for rent. I like learning and refining my playing techniques, so I occasionally go there to rent a video for a few days. Some mom and pop stores specialize in pro audio and can offer good expertise. Some smarts and effort can go a long way.
Mom and pop stores can survive and even thrive if they find a specialty niche to position themselves in and excel, that the big boxes can't touch. GC and Sam Ash have a relativley small assortment of sheet music, but one local store in Santa Ana is about 99% sheet music, so I go there when I'm looking for stuff like that. Another local store in Huntington Beach has hundreds of instructional videos for rent. I like learning and refining my playing techniques, so I occasionally go there to rent a video for a few days. Some mom and pop stores specialize in pro audio and can offer good expertise. Some smarts and effort can go a long way.
You sir/madame, are not looking hard enough:Calaverasgrande said:
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
http://ardour.org/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/linux
An article with other links, from SoundonSound
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/mirrorimage.htm
The options are there now... 5 years ago, I wouldn't have said that, but the tech and the software is getting *very* mature, to the point of production quality.
Thanks for the links but you cant be serious, the music production software for open source platforms is NOT up to snuff. I wish it were. The options I have seen are pretty much geared towards either MP3s or midi. Only a few have any functionality which includes midi and audio. The ones I have tried were not as wide or deep as Sonar (my current production program). Where is the DXI and VST suppport? The other major problem in this area is driver support for audio interfaces (like my 828MKII) or dsp cards (like my TCpowercores). Sure its possible to bang out a tune in linux, but not 24 /96 mixed on a 64bit buss with dsp reverb and 3 band compression.jellisii said:
I also am skeptical of using a system where my vst AND my audio interface must be accomodated through a wrapper or virtualization layer. This can not bode well for latency!
Though to be honest there were a couple in you links I hadnt tried yet. I may install one of those releases on my kitchen linux box just for fun.
The bathrooms at the Rockville, Md. store are the most disgusting places I have been in short of a sleazy dive. I thought that they would be that way temporarily but it's been 2 years that the hand printed signs over the urinals saying do not use with unmentionable @#%& coming out of the toilets have existed. I would just call a plumber but, hey maybe no funds to pay for the repair. One working toilet. They do not clean them everyday like the article says. Not here.
I will preface this by saying to the people on this board who work at /have worked at GC: Maybe you work/have worked in better conditions than i worked in and if so, more power to you. Me on the other hand...
I was the warehouse manager at a GC for 3 years. The store I worked at had a similar roster of clueless idiots and a few guys who knew their stuff.
The thing that bothered me most, was the training centerd on agressive sales, and not product knowledge. The manager used phrases like "get in front of a customer", "no one is here JUST to look." On stressful days I would sometimes go out to the keys department, find a MOOG and just start twisting knobs to make some noise. A new salesman came over to me once and said "that's pretty cool did you write that?" Confused, I said "wha?" and he told me they were supposed to ask people that, regardless of what they were playing.
I also remember taking a speaker out to Pro Audio and heard a guy looking at a PA tell the salesman "I'd like to think about it." The salesman countered with "is there a reason you don't want to take it RIGHT NOW?"
Even my old guitarist was looking at a Mesa head. The manager told me to "lean on him" so the store would get the sale. I said I work in the warehouse, I don't get commission. They said if he bought the amp they'd buy me lunch. He did, I never got my lunch.
So after 3 brutal Christmas seasons of busting my ass with little appreciation of my hard work, we decided "we shan't work together again." (I was a department manager who consistently got good reviews, and they still payed me less than $10 an hour!) I now work at a "mom and pop" store that has been around since 1939 with an emphasis on sheet music, and band and orchestra instruments. Sure GC trounces us in guitar sales, but we hold our own.
Plus I can get up in the morning and actually WANT to go to work. Something about the non-corporate atmosphere makes a difference.
P.S. Now that you mention it, every time I plugged into an amp, the MIDS were scooped, hmmm....
I was the warehouse manager at a GC for 3 years. The store I worked at had a similar roster of clueless idiots and a few guys who knew their stuff.
The thing that bothered me most, was the training centerd on agressive sales, and not product knowledge. The manager used phrases like "get in front of a customer", "no one is here JUST to look." On stressful days I would sometimes go out to the keys department, find a MOOG and just start twisting knobs to make some noise. A new salesman came over to me once and said "that's pretty cool did you write that?" Confused, I said "wha?" and he told me they were supposed to ask people that, regardless of what they were playing.
I also remember taking a speaker out to Pro Audio and heard a guy looking at a PA tell the salesman "I'd like to think about it." The salesman countered with "is there a reason you don't want to take it RIGHT NOW?"
Even my old guitarist was looking at a Mesa head. The manager told me to "lean on him" so the store would get the sale. I said I work in the warehouse, I don't get commission. They said if he bought the amp they'd buy me lunch. He did, I never got my lunch.
So after 3 brutal Christmas seasons of busting my ass with little appreciation of my hard work, we decided "we shan't work together again." (I was a department manager who consistently got good reviews, and they still payed me less than $10 an hour!) I now work at a "mom and pop" store that has been around since 1939 with an emphasis on sheet music, and band and orchestra instruments. Sure GC trounces us in guitar sales, but we hold our own.
Plus I can get up in the morning and actually WANT to go to work. Something about the non-corporate atmosphere makes a difference.
P.S. Now that you mention it, every time I plugged into an amp, the MIDS were scooped, hmmm....
I thought it'd be better to resurrect a dead thread than to start a new one for my one stupid comment. Save some electronic trees, or something, and earn some carbon offsets.
Just came back from GC. I went there specifically to try out the Warwick "Dark Lord" I knew they had there. The amps in the bass room weren't all scooped, the knobs were in random positions. The cool thing though was that the only heads that powered up were not connected to cabinets. The cabinets were connected amps which had no power cords, and the amps with power cords had no speaker cords plugged in. The only exceptions were 2 tiny Markbass combos. They sounded OK, I guess, but a low wattage 2X10 practice amp is hardly ideal for a bass tuned to F#. It cried before I got it loud enough to hear over the GC din. I did steal a speaker cable from the back of a power cord-less amp and plug in a head into an 8X10, but being GC either the head, cab, or cord weren't working and all I got was a clipping input light. Of course it turned out to actually be a guitar cord, but that's par for the course.
I felt bad for the poor little combos, being the only amps available for scores of hackers/wankers/wannabes to show off their mad slap skillz, so on my way out I unplugged them.
Just came back from GC. I went there specifically to try out the Warwick "Dark Lord" I knew they had there. The amps in the bass room weren't all scooped, the knobs were in random positions. The cool thing though was that the only heads that powered up were not connected to cabinets. The cabinets were connected amps which had no power cords, and the amps with power cords had no speaker cords plugged in. The only exceptions were 2 tiny Markbass combos. They sounded OK, I guess, but a low wattage 2X10 practice amp is hardly ideal for a bass tuned to F#. It cried before I got it loud enough to hear over the GC din. I did steal a speaker cable from the back of a power cord-less amp and plug in a head into an 8X10, but being GC either the head, cab, or cord weren't working and all I got was a clipping input light. Of course it turned out to actually be a guitar cord, but that's par for the course.
I felt bad for the poor little combos, being the only amps available for scores of hackers/wankers/wannabes to show off their mad slap skillz, so on my way out I unplugged them.
GC rants seem pretty standard in these forums. I've never been crazy about them, but I've never lived someplace where I didn't have other choices. What keeps everybody going back? Seriously- is it just that they probably have more stock out to play than a locally owned store? The locals have always known what GC charges and will usually match prices and I like having the clerk maybe know something I don't about their products. So is it the number of instruments/amps at GC or something else that I'm missing that keeps everyone going back?
I really didn't mean to rant - thought it was funny really, but didn't want to make a new thread. I stop in from time to time BECAUSE of the clueless staff. Sometimes they have something pretty cool very cheap because it's old, and they have no idea what it is. Their new stuff doesn't impress me.
Let me see if I've got this right, you're playing a guitar through an amp at GC and the sales guy messes with the settings on the amp after you have set it the way you like it?
I'd want to strangle that guy!Let me see if I've got this right, you're playing a guitar through an amp at GC and the sales guy messes with the settings on the amp after you have set it the way you like it?
As far as the Midrange thing, it's the mids that give the bass it's voice.
Scooped mids have their place, but the so-called smiley face EQ isin't the one and only sound. I love mids! Low and Hi, and I boost them both! I change the frequencies but I always 9 times out of 10 have the mids boosted.
They hire schmucks that know nothing.
I was on my way to a gig and needed a couple of extra mics...I went to the "pro audio" desk and asked if they had a couple of 57's in stock. The little fellow turned his head like a Beagle that just heard a kitty! He smugly said (like I was the nitwit) ..."well...we might have some "vintage guitars" in the GUITAR department!
I will never darken their door again!
MB
I was on my way to a gig and needed a couple of extra mics...I went to the "pro audio" desk and asked if they had a couple of 57's in stock. The little fellow turned his head like a Beagle that just heard a kitty! He smugly said (like I was the nitwit) ..."well...we might have some "vintage guitars" in the GUITAR department!
I will never darken their door again!
MB
