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Guitar center

Right? Whenever I see the obligatory posts with people bashing on anybody slapping at a GC, I just picture the token 60 year olds that walk in there and play with the finesse and experience of a 15 year old. Nothing says 40 years in a hobby like thumb-plucking whole notes on P bass with with the tone knob rolled off. :roflmao:

Seriously? When was the last time you someone thumb plucking whole notes anywhere?
 
So what? It is true, though, Guitar Center is garbage. The employees are terrible.

i live near the hollywood, west l.a., lawndale, sherman oaks and pasadena guitar centers, and occasionally we go farther afield. overall we've had good experiences with 90% of the employees.

my local gc keeps the more expensive instruments on the top row, about 20 feet off the ground.. i've never had a problem getting an employee to bring one down for me to try out.. but then, i think the Spartanburg SC store is the only good store in the country, compared to most of the rants i see on here every week.

sometimes i find a really cheap bass up 3 levels where no one can reach them *LOL* i assume a customer got a ladder, took down the expensive bass and put the cheaper one up there so they'd have a place to put the expensive bass while finding a cord and an amp.

I shouldn't have generalized, but the one here in Sherman Oaks they are pretty terrible a lot of the time. Not only rude, but have no common sense.

there are some guys there who've been very cool to us. not sure about their common sense, but they've always been as helpful as possible. that being said, once when a rep their needed the manager to okay our trade-in, the manager wouldn't come help us because he was on a personal call for over 45 minutes. the sales guy was very embarrassed. the rep kept trying to get the manager for us, who finally signed off on it from his desk without coming out and looking at the amp we were trading *LOL*

there are a couple guys in guitars who are bigtime snobs, though. they love telling newbs things so the newbs can admire them. but i've run into that at other stores, too.
 
how about you just enjoy GC and samash etc while theyre still around
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I don't think this thread turned out as the OP intended lol.
:laugh:
Maybe you're the reason they locked them up.
:roflmao:


what do we do when we don't get what we want? = we whine on TB! :laugh:
 
I remember an old mom and pop guitar shop that would do a similar thing, back in the '70s.

if you asked to see an instrument that would bring you over to it and you would stand there and they would take it down from behind the counter and hold it up in the air so, you could see it.

If you then asked to play it, they would ask if you are going to buy it then.
Next, they would sit right in front of you, let you play just a few notes reach in and take it back.

These were no-name Japanese knock-offs of Gibsons and Fenders. Their only 'name brand' they sold
was Univox :Ol
 
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Locked cars vs. bass guitars? Not exactly an apples to apples comparison......

Why not? These are expensive, fragile objects. There is no reason for someone to "hand over the keys" to an expensive instrument unless you are a serious buyer - no more than a dealership would let someone test/joy ride a car.
 
I wanted to play a Musicman stingray special . So i stopped into a guitar center in miami all musicman basses are locked on the wall . i just left !
I also had been wanting to try a stingray special. A few months ago I was in l.a. and dropped by the gc of Hollywood. They had them placed on the highest spot on the wall, maybe it was locked as well. I bugged a sales guy who had to bring a ladder on wheels. I did not notice until he handed me the bass and a cable that the nearby amps, all mark bass combos, seemed to have broken or missing knobs. After plugging in to 4 different amps I could not find one that was working properly. The bass felt nice and was definitely lighter than other stingrays I have played throughout the years but I never got to hear what it sounded like...so it goes
 
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Why not? These
The entire point of my analogy is that if the op needed assistance to "test drive", the bass, maybe they should have just asked.
My comparison actually has nothing to do with car vs. bass. Apologies if you missed that. Cheers

Seems you analogy compared a $1200-$1500 musical instrument (probably a 1/3 that on average in GC) that weighs around 8 pounds, to a motor vehicle that might be $20k - $40k, weighs 3000 - 6000 pounds, and is able to move at triple digit mph. Not sure if the need to keep these two objects secure from unauthorized operation is exactly equal. If that's not what you meant, then you are correct, I missed it. Cheers...
 
Seems you analogy compared a $1200-$1500 musical instrument (probably a 1/3 that on average in GC) that weighs around 8 pounds, to a motor vehicle that might be $20k - $40k, weighs 3000 - 6000 pounds, and is able to move at triple digit mph. Not sure if the need to keep these two objects secure from unauthorized operation is exactly equal. If that's not what you meant, then you are correct, I missed it. Cheers...

for what it's worth, the analogy made sense to me...
 
I do not like idiots playing guitars, but I also do not like the fact that locking up guitars forces salespeople to make judgement calls on their customers.

I did not say that they have to make judgement calls on customers, anyone that asks may try the guitars. It merely keeps them out of the way to protect them from incidental damage.
 
Seems you analogy compared a $1200-$1500 musical instrument (probably a 1/3 that on average in GC) that weighs around 8 pounds, to a motor vehicle that might be $20k - $40k, weighs 3000 - 6000 pounds, and is able to move at triple digit mph. Not sure if the need to keep these two objects secure from unauthorized operation is exactly equal. If that's not what you meant, then you are correct, I missed it. Cheers...

I learned in a junior high debate class many years ago that any analogy, beyond making a point, will fail eventually.

Congratulations.

More to the point(sort of) has anyone ever heard from the OP again?
 
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