Guitar Center Stage Fright!!!

[totallyfrozen]

Huh? Mammoth does instruments now?

Back when I lived in Anchorage.. they were strictly a CD store. Best place to get bootleg recordings I've ever seen. Prior to the internet and p2p that is.

I haven't been back that way for at least 15 years now.. I always wondered if they'd survived the internet revolution, nice to see they found a niche.

(also sorry for the hijack)

Forrest actually owns 3 stores in Anchorage that I know of. Only 1 of them is a CD store. The other 2 are instrument stores. The main one is downtown on 5th--that's the oldest one. The newest one is in the Dimond area off the Old Seward Hwy.

I know that Mammoth has been in the instrument biz since the late 90's. I was in a band back in 2000 with a guy who was personal friends with Forrest and we used to be able to walk in there any time of day (and sometimes after hours) and BORROW stuff for our gigs if we needed to!

Yeah they survived but they had to DRASTICALLY improve their customer service. Their prices are still pretty high but have come down some.
BestBuy is in the Dimond Mall now and is literally about 3 blocks distance from Mammoth's Dimond store. Mammoth can't compete with BestBuy's prices, of course--but hey have a much better selection of gear.

(--and now, back to your regularly scheduled program)

 

[Dogbertday]

The GC's I go to seem to be fully staffed with a lot of sullen-looking young men covered with tattoos and piercings.

Ed

And maybe their girlfriends who hate being there hearing their boyfriends play a bunch of bull. I think th last thing they're looking for in a replacement boyfriend is someone who shows off at guitar center

 

[Thorsoundcore]

i know exactly what you mean in some light...there are always certain songs i want to play on certain basses at my GC,and when i get there,alot of the time i forget which song it was,and just end up playing something else.then i'll remember later... but when other people are around?? i don't really do much,i just try to play alittle bit lower so they can hear themselves at least.honestly i don't really care what they think of my playing though...

 

[Korladis]

I usually just start off by playing Sabbath's "War Pigs." It's a groovy bass line that's good for trying out basically the whole instrument.

 

[strozey]

I only shop @ Ray's Music Exchange they allow you to thoroughly play everything, and accept IOUs as well

 

[stratovani]

When I go to my local GC I love plugging in a guitar or bass and just letting 'er rip. The look on those young hotshot's faces when they see an old greybeard kicking their asses is priceless!

 

[iridiumrocks]

Seems that whenever I am there, the only other people in the bass section are 13 year olds with tight-Wentzesque-black-girl-pants trying to play something from the chili peppers...badly. So, that usually loosens me up a bit.

So true! I generally find that they more they try to "look" like a rock star, the worse their playing is. The crappy players always want to play the loudest for some reason.

 

[Sol Badguy]

I get GC stage fright all the time! But some of the songs they play in the store I know so I can play along, helps sometimes. A little off topic: one time I was in GC trying out a bass and started to play Money by Pink Floyd and across the room some guy on guitar joined me! That happen to anyone else?

 

[jarrhead]

So about 20 years ago I was in a local music store in San Jose doing my best Jaco on a fretless jazz at a polite volume (no doubt keeping the store staff entertained) and this shirtless punk rocker looking guy with a spiked collar and leather pants plugs in a Sting Ray about 15 feet away, cranks the amp, and goes comando wackity popity. No stage fright on his part whatsoever. He looks annoyed at my existance. Annoyed myself, guitar salesman told my then jazz snob self he palyed in a local band called Red Hot Chili Peppers. Oh well...

PWN3D!!!11!!!!!1

 

[jarrhead]

So true! I generally find that they more they try to "look" like a rock star, the worse their playing is. The crappy players always want to play the loudest for some reason.

This makes me feel so much better about myself that I go in shorts and tshirt and play real stuff.

Never like chili anyways..

And hell I look better than the other 13 year olds.

 

[chaosMK]

I have plenty of confidence in my ability. I wouldn't call it showing off, but I don't mind playing some of my cool proggy lines. Usually I'll play some of my tapping stuff in odd time signatures.

I'd feel more nervous if I was playing some classic lines that everyone knew and I was playing them kind of poorly.

 

[Mr-Wunderful]

I just play the basslines that I play in my bands since that's what it will be used for any way.

 

[Pitbull Growl]

I tend to break out into something cheery and upbeat like Soul Coughing's Moon Sammy... or I just bust out the good ol' Pressure bassline ala Bowie/Queen and start doing my Vanilla Ice dancing. Word To Ya Mutha!! Tends to kill the metal/shredfest vibe. Try it sometime

 

[vbasscustom]

I think you're right for the most part; however...Today I went in (BestBuy instrument center) to get a set of flatwounds and a really cute girl with short, red hair and big blue eyes was behind the counter. While she rang up my string purchase, I was talking to her about this fact that so many guys come in here and make alot of noise. I wasn't flirting with her (I'm married) just trying to get a feel for her perception. I asked her if she goes home with a headache everyday, etc.

She said that most of the guys who come in are total teenage wankers. She said, 'I'm a teenager and sometimes I still want to go over and kick them out of the store!"
But then she said--
"But every once in awhile a guy will come in who really knows what he's doing and you're just floored!"

Then she told me about a local Blues guitarist who's blind (I knew exactly who she was talking about--he's an AWESOME guitarist) and he went in there and just blew her off her feet!

So the morale of the story:
If a cute chick is in there, she may actually be listening to you to see if you can play anything worth a crap!

That's a TRUE STORY!
HA! HA!
So now everytime you go into GC to wank out...remember that!

Sorry gents, I know that doesn't make it easier for you. In fact, I've just guaranteed that most of you'll NEVER remember ANYTHING musical when you walk in there again!

Cheers!

ill be sure to remember that next time. although, at my local store, theres only like 25 year old guys, and one big dude who is a bass attendant. hes a really cool guy.

 

[ReMmy]

Okay, here's how I do it...

I put on my "Jaco Shreds" impression.

That way I sound so totally ridiculous that what I am playing might fool some into believing it to be sublime artistry rather than total incompetence.

Then I play the first 3 parts that I know of Tom Sawyer, stop when that runs out of steam, (it gets hard) and then I warm up the ol' thumb with some Sienfeld-ish slop... er, I mean slap.

By that point I am sure I have intimidated the music store employees enough, they will clearly understand that I am a serious musician. (If they didn't already know it after I asked if they had a Pete Wentz signature in stock. Some of these music store employees are such dummies they don't even know who Pete Wentz is. Can you imagine!?!)

i got a whole days worth of laughs out of this post... and that jaco link! HUHlarious!

 

[jarrhead]

I can't help but ask how you guys get the slightest bit of stage fright playing at a store.

 

[Sera Wohldmann]

I think calling it "stage fright" is slightly misleading, but then again, I'm not sure what else to call it. As funny as this thread is, and as much as I want to laugh, I can't help but say it happens to me too.

I mean, I walk in the door, and for a handful of reasons a lot of people are going to stare at me. For one, the bass "room" at the local GC is pathetically small, it's literally an open corner that bleeds straight into the guitar emulator amps. So in one 20ft line you've got all the pre-teen slap virtuosos on one side and the shredmeisters on the other. So I go in and am surrounded by a few people who either...

A: Want to see me crash and burn, regardless of what I do. I swear this type stalks GC customers just to revel in cynicism.
B: Stare at the chick playing bass.
C: Stare at the chick in metal casual wear (for lack of a better term), and wonder why I passed up the Hannah Montana signature Washburn.
D: Stare at the general space around the chick and wonder where her kid went. No, I've never had a child, but if I'm in a Guitar Center I must be looking for a VeeWee for Junior, if you ask these guys.
E. Stare at my brand selection just so they can criticize every little thing.

Considering this particular combination of crowd drawing, it's no wonder I can walk into a Guitar Center knowing exactly what I want to check out, track someone down who can get me the cables I need in the first place, finally set everything up and tune, and then, suddenly, the only thing I can do is play "The Trooper." Sure enough, it looks like "A" got exactly what he wanted.

And I suppose it looks like stage fright. I don't think it's quite the same though, especially if you stumble upon a combination that possesses you. NOW I can suddenly remember how to play, I just need to disperse the crowd. This is why I bring a guitarist as a wingman. Have a good one set up just a little ways down and draw their attention to his chops, OR have a bad one, or someone who can't even play, set up somewhere they're going to get watched heavily and just let them go stupid on it. It helps to at least teach them how not to break stuff, then sit back and Riff In Peace.

Boy, with this much prep work going into a trip to Guitar Center, it's a wonder they get any of my money at all. Oh, wait, the GAS...

(Disclaimer: In no way am I trashing any brands mentioned in my post, nor the riff - though I think anyone will get tired of hearing it after the first couple hours.)

 

[ImMoreBetter]

I find the basses themselves more frightening than the other people there.

It doesn't matter how many times I tell myself that it is "just a B string" and that it's "just an extra one on top," I find myself staring at my hands, completely lost.

 

[SLIV]

The first few years I started playing I felt uncomfortable in music stores but then again, those were the years I bought a lot of equipment. Once you have your rig, there's no reason to actually play in a store.

Most music stores are terrible places to try out equipment. You can't hear anything, there are too many variables to sort through, the social context is less than ideal.

In the early 90's I was a beginning bassist and lived in Austin. I had the symptoms of "stage fright" in music stores and while searching for an amp came up with the solution to just play the same three whole note melody over and over, turning knobs and such. I had a sticker of a fairly big local band on my bass (ED HALL, in case you're curious). In one of the more pretentious of the shops, a sales guy came up to me quite reverently and asked me if I played in ED HALL. I knew the ED HALL guys and later told them what happened and they laughed. I asked how they felt about music stores: "walk in, buy strings and picks and slip out." Nobody knows who they are and its best that way.

I think it dawned on me at that moment in the store that what happens in music stores is kind of out of touch with what happens in clubs/bars/recording studios. You would think they are significantly connected but they're not.

Nowadays, when I go into a big music store like GC, I put on my "ethnographic" lens and look at the place like an anthropologist. Its an interesting site to say the least. Perhaps music stores are like little incubators where musicians try to find the goodies that will make their sound for their (next?) project, but once they have it set, they don't need it anymore.

 

[vagus]

I've always just plucked a way half arsed and the second I see someone look at me like That guy really sucks then dove into quarter note triplets at 200 bpm and working my way from chromatic runs into the circle of fifths and then a handful of modes at least until their jaw drops because of my incredible playing and I slyly put the bass back on the wall and say "ehhh just not quite the feel I am looking for"