Guitar center is going under!

[Hand slap]

My mind wonders if Musican's Friend is structured so that, if GC goes, it survives. I like MF better than GC.

Doesn't GC own MF as well?

 

[kdogg]

The lack of understanding in this thread of how private equity investing works is pretty startling.

This could be said of a great many subjects discussed here at TB.

 

[Deak]

I got three words for you: Sweetwater.

I got three words x2 for you.

55 point inspection. What a joke.

Three obvious fails. Two returns, One I live with.
It will be quite a while before I make another online instrument purchase without hands on.

Sweetwater has a great business model and the community support for Fort Wayne, as well as it's employees, should be considered by any other company as great learning tool.

My rep is great to work with and I have mentioned and praised him many times in my reviews of purchases, but the inspection, that's a big nope for me. Just stop advertising it. I can accept "things that happen" but not when you make such a big deal out of how great the inspection is, and then it isn't.

I'm like a kid in a toy store when their catalog arrives but once bitten, twice shy x 3 has left a scar.

 

[Root 5]

I recall hearing from a reputable source that GC owes Fender ~ $250million! Maybe been said here already.

 

[lfmn16]

I guess they are in major debt and likely won't survive the next year, though apparently they plan to leave a Hollywood and 1 other of their best stores open. All the other stores will be selling off their stock.

Can't say I am too sad to see them go, maybe now we will see more local music stores again. It also should be a good chance to snag some great sales depending on how they try and liquidate.

Do you believe everything you see on the internet? I'm not even sure why someone would put a hatchet piece like this together. A lot of innuendo and conjecture.

 

[tripp2k]

Not sure how many they have in DFW metroplex (I know of 5 but maybe more), but there should be a single, centrally located store decked out and staffed with trained salespeople who know how to sell. Get rid of the "wassup, dude" dredge of the earth oxygen users they normally hire. Close the other stores in DFW. Use the store's warehouse as a logistics center for online sales.

EDIT: For those familiar with DFW, I'd make the LBJ/DNT store the one.

 

[ptg]

Seriously, I’d pay a $49/year membership to go and demo stuff, if they actually carried a range of equipment and had staff that knew what gear fit the sound/feel you were looking for.

Sorry, I can't understand why anyone would pay to shop.

Hello, do you sell bread here?
Yes, I do. Come right in!
Thanks!
Wait! Give me $50 and I'll let you in and you can buy my bread.
Um...See 'ya.

 

[maplenecked]

I just started playing bass but I appreciated GC’s Online Used section as a drummer for years. The availability wasn’t always perfect but it kind of made their inventory more of a hunt. Could usually find good prices that were returnable to your local store minus shipping, can’t beat that IMO.

There are more overpriced “Mom and pop” shops than good ones in my experience. Zampino’s Drum shop in Ohio and Chuck Levin’s in Maryland are the only small/locally owned shops that have gotten my money. Such wonderful stores btw...

So I don’t have that mom and pop nostalgia that others have. I wonder how much of that is based on reality or fantasy??? I do have nostalgia for going to guitar center with friends and family to check out gear. And will be very sad to see them go. My music hobby benefits from them being around. Y’all realize you can return any live wire to any guitar center at any time and have it exchanged right?

The timing of this thread is interesting for me because I just saw that Fender basses are 15% off if you log in and put them in your cart last night. I may pull the trigger on a RW P bass or the 50s black Lacquer, but am kinda not in the mood for it showing up with a bad setup and contemplating paying full to Sweetwater instead and ordering a setup with the strings of my choice.

Dunno, man! First world problems!!! Cheers

 

[Spidey2112]

For GC right now, the bond rating is meaningless. It does not change the interest rate (coupon) that they have to pay. It does not change maturity terms or principle. It likely makes no change in the trading price of the bonds either; If the bonds were ever investment grade, then the losses were incurred when they dropped below investment grade. Although rating agencies make distinctions between grades of junk debt, it makes little practical difference.

Rating agencies do not declare companies to be in default; only the bond holder can do that and it requires a trip to court to have contractual obligations enforced. So, the individual narrating knows little about bonds and certainly won't be someone from whom I will take investment advice.

So, if GC is pushed into default, that is not the end of GC. It just means that the bond holders take control of the company and work out the best way to make themselves whole. In fact, there is a strategy to be played in this. Bonds heading toward default often trade at a fraction of the face value. By buying a large number of bonds, if the company works out its troubles, then you make a big capital gain. If not, you can get hold of a viable business at a very reasonable price.

Now, THAT was informative...

 

[cactus1]

I can't get over the number of posters on here who seem absolutely giddy over the prospect of GC folding. This is in no way a positive sign for mom and pop stores. A huge company like GC has advantages in everything from cost of inventory, name recognition, internet presence, all the way down to the ability to negotiate more favorable lease terms for their locations. If they can't make brick and mortar locations work, it is even more likely that small operators with none of these advantages can't either. All it means is fewer music stores in the U.S.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I guess they are in major debt and likely won't survive the next year, though apparently they plan to leave a Hollywood and 1 other of their best stores open. All the other stores will be selling off their stock.

Can't say I am too sad to see them go, maybe now we will see more local music stores again. It also should be a good chance to snag some great sales depending on how they try and liquidate.

Well, we still have a Sam Ash in town. We also have more of an upscale privately owned store. Being honest, I will not miss them.

On a slight departure, but with some relevance to the subject at hand. It seems to me that in general there are a lot less full time professional musicians than there were 20 years ago, not to mention a lot less venues to practice your art.

Over the last 40 or so years there has been a tremendous drop in the market place for live music. I am making a lot less than I was in the 80s per gig. Adjusted for inflation, I was knocking down about $25-to $30k a year part time in a five piece commercial band, playing 3-4 gigs a week on a fairly consistent basis in a cow town. For those of us that don”t live an a musical Mecca (Nashville, Vegas, Greater NY) where is that gig? Gone to DJs, streaming music, and popular music not meant to be replicated live.

It’s not too much of a stretch to see that the overal reduction of paid gigs, coupled with reduced compensation for musical work, would lead to less working musicians, and the ultimately the failure of another big box retailer that supplies the gear?

I tended to view GC as a more of a store for hobbyists than a store for a true pro. Sure they have some stuff, but by and large, most of what I’ve seen on the floor is a lot of mid level equipment with a high markups. Which is normal for a retail business.

Anyway, here’s to live music! May it live forever, but as us dinosaurs fade into oblivion it will soon be a distant memory of another trashed industry.

A that concludes another chapter of “Today’s Discouraging Word.”

 

[mbasile]

Well...I went to Guitar Center yesterday to pick up some bass strings before practice. I stood there for 10 full minutes without anyone at the register ringing me out. I asked three different employees if there was someone who could ring me up and they all said "There's no one at the register? I'll go find him..." I had to bug the guy at the 'Lessons' counter to come ring me up at the register, AND, he seemed annoyed at me because of it...

Go shag yourself Country Club Hills Guitar Center. You suck, your business model sucks, your employees suck.

There are NO mom and pop shops near me though because of the poopie show that is GC.

Sorry, I can't understand why anyone would pay to shop.

Hello, do you sell bread here?
Yes, I do. Come right in!
Thanks!
Wait! Give me $50 and I'll let you in and you can buy my bread.
Um...See 'ya.

Not shop, have access to pretty much every amp and bass available so you can actually know what something sounds and feels like.

Hell, I’d even be happy if GC would ship stuff to stores on refundable partial deposit instead of of having to buy it and return it.

 

[4001]

....waiting for the massive 80% off clearance sale..... been doing that for awhile now... I worked at a music store in 2012 and the discussion then was that GC was in big trouble and to expect it to go under in the next few years....five years later now and it's still in business.
One thing I noticed is that I haven't been receiving the typical GC mailer they have sent out regularly over the years...printing costs $$...
The store stock has been thinned down a LOT over the years... I remember the GC on Milwaukee Ave. on the N/W fringe of Chicago... they had a wall of guitars that went on forever..... their "flagship" store in Arlington Heights, IL is nowhere near the glory days of the late 70's and 1980's .......
I just buy strings nowdays anyway, so if they do eventually go under, I'll have to get my Rotosounds elsewhere....

 

[ZAR14]

This is still going around?
If you believed all this crap they would've shut their doors in 2014....

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Sorry, I can't understand why anyone would pay to shop.

Hello, do you sell bread here?
Yes, I do. Come right in!
Thanks!
Wait! Give me $50 and I'll let you in and you can buy my bread.
Um...See 'ya.

Costco?

Maybe provide a members discount.

 

[Chrisk-K]

Sweetwater’s 55 point inspection and the concept of sales engineers are jokes.

 

[Bad azz tone]

They have a decent warranty too I believe. I bought my Carvin BR510 from them even though Carvin had them for sale on Ebay, because the carvin warranty didn't seem as nice. Though I have had 0 issues anyways.

I kind of hope GC dies off and we see more local music shops pop back up, I saw some jokes about this being karma for all the mom and pop shops GC ran out of business.

It's bad joo-joo to sell guitars that are so far from being playable, that the beginners give up playing them in the first few days of trying. Never tempt BAD joo- joo!!!!!!!

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Sweetwater’s 55 point inspection and the concept of sales engineers are jokes.

I've had nothing but positive experiences with them, and my guitars have always arrived from them in near perfect condition. As they say, YMMV. I love that I get to actually pick the instrument I'll receive.

 

[Mechanical]

I've had nothing but positive experiences with them, and my guitars have always arrived from them in near perfect condition. As they say, YMMV. I love that I get to actually pick the instrument I'll receive.

Agree. I think it's dumb for an online store to not show the actual product you will buy. Like CarMax or CycleTrader...

 

[ptg]

Costco?

Maybe provide a members discount.

Sorry, with all due respect, still not going to pay someone so they can sell me something.