Guitar Center in trouble?

[toowrongfoo]

The Olathe store in KCMO did just that. Is depressing, and fairly empty, at least compared to the glory days.

Isn't that weird? I mean, I never thought to myself "man, why are there no lessons here?" Anyways, it's all sad.

 

[Brent Davenport]

Overall, I won't miss GC. They never cared about players, only spenders, and didn't really know how to help people.

But, to be fair, last year I walked into my semi-local GC and was remembered by the sales guy who sold me the only brand-new off-the-rack bass I ever bought, ten years earlier. I was truly flabbergasted—and barely remembered HIM.

I just left my local GC 20 minutes ago talking about which new bass and amp I'm going to buy in a few weeks. One guy was my salesman, but another employee (bass player) came over when my original employee got a call, and spent a decent amount of time talking with me about options knowing that I wasn't his sale. I appreciated that. He was just a bass guy that enjoyed talking shop.

 

[jd56hawk]

Mine has maybe 15 that when added up all come to about $3000. Piss poor selection.

Sam Ash is in the same strip mall as Guitar Center, probably 150 yards away. Not quite as many basses, maybe only 30 to 35, but they are better when it comes to buying used basses.

 

[Greg Waldon]

Never bought much new stuff from GC. I have gotten some very sweet used deals from them though. My go to for used basses. I would miss them in that respect. It is bad when any resource has to close up shop whether it is the local owned music store or national chain store as each fills a need. My local store doesn’t stock much as far as instruments. I think they may suffer the same fate as GC SOON.

 

[Element Zero]

I worked at my local GC from ‘04-‘14 and there were rumors of bankruptcy and massive store closings every 6 months.

 

[4SG]

Not sure about yours but my local GC only has a crap selection of basses, few if any of which are properly set up. Some sales staff are friendly, some not, but none that I'd call knowledgeable. Granted I'm in Los Angeles where there are amazing non-big box guitar stores. But, if my GC is like everyone else's, I'm surprised they're still in business. I get my gear online or from mom & pop shops.

 

[Laurent]

Invalid Link Removed

Rockin Robin in Houston for sale

Too bad, this is an amazing store. I once bought an amazing Vintage Russian Green Muff in that store and tested it on Berg NV215.

 

[gitfiddl]

Yep, yep, and yep. As far as online(including EBay stores), GC=Musician’s Friend=Music 123=Woodwind Brass. I guess they wanted to create the illusion of competition, but you order from any of them and it all ships out of the same big warehouse in Kansas City, MO. Ten years ago, they even had an outlet store there for damaged, shopworn, returns, etc., but that’s been closed down. That stuff now is handed off sideways to a local liquidator, Cargo Largo, who has lot auctions and retail, as well as an EBay store. Often it ends up in the hands of bottom feeders who populate the local flea markets and swap meets.

The same situation exists all over. Pipe and cigar aficianados deal with Cigar.com, CI, and Pipesandcigars.com shipping from the same warehouse. The same applies to FieldSupply, DuckSupply, and Cigarpage.com.

 

[Two-Spirit]

I always thought musicians friend would drive music stores out of business. I never expected them to fail.

 

[Brent Davenport]

I like my local mom and pop shop, but unless you want a Fender bass and Fender amp, you're out of luck.

 

[ll Rip ll]

Nice try…no.

4 companies???

 

[Charlzm]

Of the last 6 basses I obtained, one was purchased new via Reverb, three were bought used from the classifieds here, one was bought used at a swap meet and one was a Kiesel custom build. I did buy a used 7 string guitar from GC about 6 years ago.

Disclosure - I worked at a GC from 2007 to 2011.

 

[Jeff Scott]

... tired of wading through walls of poorly set up instruments. I'm not going to buy something that I need to perform work on unless I'm getting a screaming deal...

It' funny that you say that. I was in Guitar Center today and played both a Fender Elite 5 Jazz and a Stingray 5. The factory setup was really nice on the Fender, so it made it feel like that much better an instrument. The setup on the Stingray was horrible! To someone who didn't know, the Stingray would have seemed like a sub par instrument. Of course they offered to set it up for $50.....

I was at my local GC a couple of weeks ago (not really sure why I still go there once in a while) and checked out a SR5 HH they had locked up. The action was quite high and it was nothing more than a matter of lowering the saddles as the neck had excellent relief to it.

As to needing a screaming deal, basic setups are so easy to do, if one knows which end of a screwdriver to hold. Any music shop I've been to includes a setup for free. I don't need those services though as I do my own setups (since the early '70s). Why pay someone else to turn a few screws?

 

[ll Rip ll]

I've decided to just buy instruments directly from builders. I get FULLY custom for less than what big boys charge for it. Accessories aren't as important to see in store IMO. I can just order them online.

 

[foolforthecity]

That's the thing. The GC gear selection has become very generic. Just sub $1000 cookie cutter basses. Barely any amps.

Agreed. Seems like their corporate statisticians are aiming towards volume sales of products more in line with younger newbies. They don't really cater to seasoned vets whose needs and desires have become a bit more specialized, for lack of a better word.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

First we've heard of it!

This month.

 

[foolforthecity]

They'll be fine.

I don't think I've ever seen a Sam Ashe. We had a Mars Music for a few years, but it went belly up pretty quickly.

Brent, looks you're from Houston, so I'll mention that the San Antonio MARS Music mentioned by another TBer turned into Sam Ash years back in San Antonio. Don't know if that's what happened in Houston.

 

[bearfoot]

Well, if GC goes under, something else will fill in some of its void, including small businesses. It does seem that the days of the truly huge guitar shops are mostly over.

I don't think brick & mortar is done. There are just too many advantages to it that online business will never have. The amount of online business however does mean B&M has to innovate, and corporate structures like GC are horrible at that. Advantage in the short-term to the small business.

We have a mid-size GC here. This year, I've bought a Ditto x4 looper there (new), a Fang Metal Distortion pedal (used), some strings (new lol), gassed over a G400 Epiphone SG guitar (blasphemy) , and last week I bought and then returned a (used) Crate B100 combo that had an intermittent input jack. Got a full refund just as a 2nd clerk/manager started to squawk "but it works...."

They appear to have put it right back up for sale unrepaired, which brings us back to one reason why GC is (maybe) going under.

 

[JimmyM]

Yes, this is the year that GC will finally go bankrupt, unlike the past 14 years where they were going bankrupt. And if not this year, next year for sure...or the year after...or the year after...rinse, repeat.

 

[japhy4529]

My Guitar Center currently has 92 basses.

70 at my local GC (58 new, 12 used).

New offerings are primarily from Fender, Ibanez, Schecter and Mitchell. Nothing I have any interest in checking out. If I WAS interested in any of these models, I would likely just buy one online. Why buy one from GC that is poorly setup and has likely been used and abused?