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Guitar Center Rant

#61
My GC experience (my only one)...

walked into GC in Boardman, OH...

see Squier Deluxe Active V on wall...

tell Sales Dude..."I wanna try that bass...plug it into an ordinary amp...I wanna hear how the bass sounds, not the amp"...

Sales Dude says, "Yeah...you're right...ok...try this..."

I say..."OK..." and continue to play it for about 10 minutes...I like it

I say to Sales Dude..."I like this. Wrap it up...I'll take it"

Sales Dude says..."I have another one in a box in the back..."

I say..."Nope...THIS is the bass I played...I'm taking this..."

Sales Dude says..."Right...That's' a real bass player talkin'...taking home the bass you played..."

I smile (I'm rolling my eyes to myself :rollno:)...

I buy the bass and go home...

What does GC do for me? not much...they have basses...I try them...If I buy, I buy...If I don't...Oh well...

Long boring story...but TRUE! :eek::eek:

:D
 
#62
PilbaraBass said:
My GC experience (my only one)...

walked into GC in Boardman, OH...

see Squier Deluxe Active V on wall...

tell Sales Dude..."I wanna try that bass...plug it into an ordinary amp...I wanna hear how the bass sounds, not the amp"...

Sales Dude says, "Yeah...you're right...ok...try this..."

I say..."OK..." and continue to play it for about 10 minutes...I like it

I say to Sales Dude..."I like this. Wrap it up...I'll take it"

Sales Dude says..."I have another one in a box in the back..."

I say..."Nope...THIS is the bass I played...I'm taking this..."

Sales Dude says..."Right...That's' a real bass player talkin'...taking home the bass you played..."

I smile (I'm rolling my eyes to myself :rollno:)...

I buy the bass and go home...

What does GC do for me? not much...they have basses...I try them...If I buy, I buy...If I don't...Oh well...

Long boring story...but TRUE! :eek::eek:

:D
Click to expand...

and the point of this long and boring story is? the guy offered you a brand new one, you say no, he agrees.... and nothing else??

I don't live in the US, but man I'm getting sick of all the GC rant... hell if you guys hate the damn store so much, don't go there! and most of the time the rants are about nothing: "ooh I hate the action on that bass" so what?? you because you hate it, someone one else might like it... I've yet to find a reasonable rant here...
 
#64
bass_fish said:
and the point of this long and boring story is? the guy offered you a brand new one, you say no, he agrees.... and nothing else??

I don't live in the US, but man I'm getting sick of all the GC rant... hell if you guys hate the damn store so much, don't go there! and most of the time the rants are about nothing: "ooh I hate the action on that bass" so what?? you because you hate it, someone one else might like it... I've yet to find a reasonable rant here...
Click to expand...

you've missed my point...

my rant is intentionally long and boring...

why?

because I have no beef with GC...

none at all...

I don't live in the US, either...and my only experience has been neutral...

they do what they set out to do...

nothing wrong with that...
 
#65
Summation of parts of this thread: "So there's this store in town that always pisses me off when I go there. So I went there again yesterday and GUESS WHAT? It pissed me off again! But I sure showed them. They were wanking away, but I plugged in and wanked away louder so that everyone was noticing ME! LOL!!!1111one!!! That sure showed them!"

Some of you really need to take a step back and look in the mirror.:rollno:
 
#66
I've always liked Guitar Center. Although I do the bulk of my shopping from a different store, I have bought a few basses and a bunch of accessories from GC. It's nice to have one around and it's the place I choose to kill time when I'm in the neighborhood and have time to kill.

But. I have a $5 mini-rant.

I went in there last week to buy a Mogami cable. GC is the only dealer in the state who carries Mogami, so I was going to buy from there regardless. As I was grabbing my cable, I saw a tag that had the price listed for the 10ft. cables at $39.99. Pretty cool I thought...$5 off. I walked the 20 feet to the counter and was rung up at $44.95. I asked the guy if the cable wasn't $39.99 and he just lifted the box to show me the tag on the bottom. Yeah, I know, I said, but there's a sign over there that says they're $39.99. "Shouldn't be" he said. "Well there is" I said and stupidly waited for him to walk a few steps to confirm it, but I was met with a blank stare and an "all prices are on the bottom of the box" reply. I handed over the cash and slunk out of there with my cable not actually believing I had gotten into a confrontation over five stupid dollars. I guess I was just raised to believe that advertized price was the price you pay.
 
#69
gmstudio99 said:
Summation of parts of this thread: "So there's this store in town that always pisses me off when I go there. So I went there again yesterday and GUESS WHAT? It pissed me off again! But I sure showed them. They were wanking away, but I plugged in and wanked away louder so that everyone was noticing ME! LOL!!!1111one!!! That sure showed them!"

Some of you really need to take a step back and look in the mirror.:rollno:
Click to expand...

+1: the best post of this thread
 
#70
John Deacon said:
Considering it was $2200 I wouldve thought that they wouldnt want something that expensive in reach of 5 year olds. Stupid me.
Click to expand...


Considering that bass survived the 70's ,a 5 year old should be no problem.:D

Nice that it's out where you could actually play it without haveing to go through a someone on the sales staff, and the whole "that bass is AWSOME d00d!" routine.
 
#71
I know some awesome and knowledgable GC employees. There are 3 GC's within 5 miles of me. I have spent a fortune in these stores. I've been satisfied with every purchase. I'm a grumpy older guy who hates young wankers blasting away. I know when to go to GC when the wankers aren't there.
 
#72
PilbaraBass said:
My GC experience (my only one)...

walked into GC in Boardman, OH...

see Squier Deluxe Active V on wall...

tell Sales Dude..."I wanna try that bass...plug it into an ordinary amp...I wanna hear how the bass sounds, not the amp"...

Sales Dude says, "Yeah...you're right...ok...try this..."

I say..."OK..." and continue to play it for about 10 minutes...I like it

I say to Sales Dude..."I like this. Wrap it up...I'll take it"

Sales Dude says..."I have another one in a box in the back..."

I say..."Nope...THIS is the bass I played...I'm taking this..."

Sales Dude says..."Right...That's' a real bass player talkin'...taking home the bass you played..."

I smile (I'm rolling my eyes to myself :rollno:)...

I buy the bass and go home...

What does GC do for me? not much...they have basses...I try them...If I buy, I buy...If I don't...Oh well...

Long boring story...but TRUE! :eek::eek:

:D
Click to expand...

Love it!!!

All I am gonna directly say about this thread topic is this...

GC is what it is, we vote with our dollars, if you don't like them, don't go there.If you go there and you know you are taking the lead on what you are looking for, then fine. The fact is they are a big box type music shop, don't expect every employee to be a virtuoso or the worlds finest salesman.

Customer service is lacking in a lot of places these days, but when we here in the good Ol USA whine about a shop that has thousands of brands of things we sound very spoiled and petty to someone in another country that is lucky to have 3 choices to our 3,000.....

I was in a GC last weekend outside of St Paul, (Woodbury or some such place - nice town!) and found it to be quite amazing at having all that stuff available to look at....

So I guess I am saying it is what it is, take it or leave it.If they really do wrong by you, let us hear about it...otherwise....
:bassist: shut up and play yer bass :bassist:
:D
 
#74
King Biscuit said:
You saw a kid plugging a bass into a guitar amp...what's it to you? How do you know that's not the sound he was looking for?
Click to expand...

I don't know, maybe because its a GUITAR AMP. Designed for guitars, not basses. Is the sound that hes looking for a blown speaker? I think not. Clearly that was an immature comment when you don't know what you're talking about. :rollno:

Anyway, GC wouldn't be so bad if they weren't like vultures trying to make money off commission.
 
#75
So you say you saw a kid headed witha bass over to the guitar amps? did u just let him do so or did u go enlighten him? if u just let him go you are just as bad as GC employee's. and have no room to complain about the store. as much as i hate GC, they aren't baby sitters.
 
#76
Reynolds 101 said:
I don't know, maybe because its a GUITAR AMP. Designed for guitars, not basses. Is the sound that hes looking for a blown speaker? I think not. Clearly that was an immature comment when you don't know what you're talking about. :rollno:

Anyway, GC wouldn't be so bad if they weren't like vultures trying to make money off commission.
Click to expand...

You can play bass through guitar amps. I saw a YouTube video of some recording artist going though all her gear and she actually used Mesa Boogie guitar amps for her bass. I used to play bass through my friends battery operated Marshall Smokie amp, never damaged it even the slightest.
 
#77
quasiz_bassist said:
I try to do that to, but it usually ends with bouts of laughter...:crying: hahaha

One time I went, and there was a kid and his dad shopping for a bass. Kid was a little jerk, yelling at his dad, "No you're going to buy me this one!" as he points out a highend warwick....
Click to expand...

Counterexample:

I was in the Bass Emporium the other day, and their was a little black kid who couldn't have been any older than 12 sitting there with a beautiful high end bass in his lap with his dad standing next to him. I walked by and said "Nice bass" and went on into the display area.

Then the kid started playing. Holy crap. Slappity slap all over the neck, tasteful as hell. There's no way I was going to play a note while he or anyone else that had seen him play was still in the shop. I hope his dad bought him that bass; he deserved it.
 
#78
I've got no beef with them, though I'm not a big fan of their business model and big box stores of any kind in general. I've only been in a few and some were horrible and some okay.

On the other hand, I am completely baffled by the concept of a musical instrument store piping in loud music constantly.
 
#80
Over here in my corner of England the choice isn't so great as you guys get I dont think. Sure some shops are great for service and the owners genuinely seem to want to help you, but for once I would love just to walk into a instrument shop to see a massive range to try out. I think thats what GC is trying to acheive. Give people a big enough range to choose from and most should go home happy.

Anyway all I'm saying is I'd love to have one nearby to me, beats having to get all your gear off the net....
 

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