I hate Guitar Center

[Gerlan86]

Here in Sydney we don't have GC instead we have Allan's Music, overpriced stuff, VERY rude sales staff most of the smaller shops in CBD went into liquidation because of companies like Allan's. (Billy Hydes is not that bad though)

 

[FunkyMan]

i hate when they try and EQ things for me... I bet i know way more than they do about that kind of stuff

Same here! lol

Well, I would like to express my opinion. I live in Latin America, and here things are very hard for musicians, just imagine that the normal salary is about 900 BsF, and order/buy a mid-class "say" bass like one of mines (Ibanez EDB-605) costs 7000BsF. . this is due to inflation, and unfortunately that our currency is devalued.. imagine how hard it is working so much to buy an instrument blindly, risking that the bass doesn't meet your expectations.. and music stores rarely have quality instruments, only trinkets

One of the reasons for which some countries (Like yours) are developed and advanced is that their people are complaining and always demand the best, so everything is always well organized (sometimes) and because of that, somehow I agree with your complains, but my point is that, you should thank God you have those fantastic big stores with such a variety of accessories and instruments, and they have the facility that if they haven't something in stock, they can get it other day, and that people with 2 months of work (Without outgoings, Without spend a penny, if you depend of your parents for example) can buy a decent 1000$ (and more) bass! I went to visit USA and went to GC and samash.. Great stores IMO

 

[crow01]

very old OP...

I agree with FunkyMan, being in the US we demand a lot. And anybody can pay for anything they want. The american dream right?

I mean I heard of somebody that worked in MCDonalds in the day and as bouncer in the night. Dude had a half stack and a Music man worth $1500 usd.

In Latin America they hike the prices 2 or 3 times as much. So buying a music man or such an expensive bass is way beyond anybody's dreams.

 

[cdginger]

At my guitar center theres a bass section with about 15 squiers, 5 p/j american fenders, 1 mtd kingston, some sterling musicmans, and a stindgray or two, and some schecters and maybe a used warwick if youre lucky.And of course stocked with markbass ampeg and GK. But at least they let you play it. At my local music store they wouldnt let me play anything that was over 400 bucks. Then i bought a ric and the store is mine.

 

[Gerlan86]

......you should thank God you have those fantastic big stores with such a variety of accessories and instruments, and they have the facility that if they haven't something in stock....

[derail] god? you mean thank the goverment. [/end derail]

On the topic of buying stingrays, over here they go for about $3000+, so yes they are pretty overpriced, specially for full time students

 

[HeavyRockBasser]

I made one purchase, there, and I'll NEVER go back. I won't even buy a pick from them. If I can't get it from a Mom-N-Pop, I don't need it.

This was a few years ago, but... I went in. Tried out some stuff. Decided on a Ric and and a 100W Roland. They quoted me, and got me to plunk down $200 to put 'em on hold. Returned the next week, with the balance. The guy that quoted me was nowhere to be found. The new guy rolls out a 60W amp, and when I point out the mistake, he says that the quote is wrong - that they couldn't possibly sell that rig, for that price. The receipt for the deposit clearly said 100W. I spend the next hour arguing with him and his manager, and requested a refund. They tell me that they don't do refunds, and I'll have to settle for store credit. Meanwhile, customers are watching this going on, and they don't seem to care.

I had my eye on a comparable rig, in another store, but couldn't afford it, without my $200 back. So, long story short, I ended up with the 60W amp, and they lost a customer for life.

Also, when I realized some hardware was missing, off the bass, I returned to the store. They took the missing part off another bass, and put the now-defective bass back on the wall for the next guy.

Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives in L.A. so I don't need to ever go back. hrb

 

[ksandvik]

It seems the quality of GC stores is everything from wow (their flagship store in San Francisco) to ugh (some small store somewhere in the wilderness.)

 

[zachdecou]

Hip haircuts talking loudly about when they were in LA or NY last week and how sexy the tracks for [rapper name here] sounded in the studio... Such is the staff at my local GC. Yawwwwwn...

One thing my local GC employees do that I think is hilarious...

I can grab the crappiest guitar of the wall, plug it into the crappiest amp, play the crappiest crap with the worst tone, and the employees start talking to each other (loudly so I can hear them) about how great that bass sounds and how that amp is the one that Victor Wooten is really playing and he has it hidden behind his ampeg stuff. Or, that's the same bass Bootsy Collins used on the James Brown stuff...

I actually tried this after hearing them go on over a crappy amp I plugged into to check out the fretboard of a bass that I already knew sounded decent (I use ears instead of an amp anyway). Grabbed a Rogue piece of plywood to see what they would say about it.

I never buy much of anything from there, but if I'm in town, I like to go in for a minute and see what kind of fabrications I can coax out of the employees about their lowest end stuff. Good fun!

 

[Mr_Sore_Fingerz]

GC ends up being like any big-name company that deals in something that requires a certain level of expertise and not just a warm body. I work for Best Buy and its the SAME OLD STORY...it's a crap shoot, you either get someone who is totally on the ball and knows everything or someone who couldn't tell you their left hand from their right hand. Unfortunately, GC in most people's area tends to be nothing but warm bodies wearing a lanyard. I would KILL for a job where I sit around and jaw-jack about instruments all day long, wearing whatever clothes i want, and making COMMISSION on top of that....but alas, i don't have one that close to me.

Anyhow, I feel your pain =(

 

[PZapdos]

Yesterday I made a nice 40minute drive to GC to check out some 6'string basses and everything else they have there. When I got there I saw that they had VERY few things for bass and very few basses. It was like 13 fender jazz's/fenders 3 warwicks 7Ibanez's(4 of them being those cheap one's)and a few other random basses. They didn't even have the GT-7 that has been there eversince I first playing guitar(3+ years ago). And what I don't get is they also had NO 6'ers!!! . I asked someone there about it and he told me they weren't in "style" anymore... When where they ever in style/popular!?!
Well I walk off and go to the drum room and have some fun then back to the bass room. I saw they had a bongo bass so I try to plug it in and the guy comes over to me and gives me his life story. blah blah blah blah blah while I'm thinking 'can you plz bugga off!'. Then he tries sell me a 5string bass and tell's me a whole bunch of stuff that I had already known about them like the benifets of having that extra string and blah blah blah blah blah blah yackity shmackity. He never did bugga off and just let me play the bongo. So to this day I am still a bongo virgin.
Okay thats the end of my rant. 1 and a half hours of driving just to play a few 6'string basses to make sure that's I am really set on one and only getting a life story from one of the employ's.

Side note, I understand he was just doing his job on trying to sell me a bass and he seemed to be very kool. I just didn't want to talk to the sombich.

did you ever tell him to leave?


Plus - ive noticed about every single brick and mortar music store you can go to has about 90% guitar stuff and 10% bass.

It sucks.. but its true.


and on the guy trying to sell you stuff - he's probably being paid commission.

Also - GC sucks


best place ive ever been is Alto's Music in NY (i think there are others but its the main, big one)

Its 2 times any GC and everyones FRIENDLY and if they arent super friendly.. they STILL KNOW THEIR ****

and they don't get paid commission, so they dont push product on you like crazy. theres a sign that says "Feel free to test any equipment you would like" And every amp is plugged in (like.. 50+ bass ones.. even more guitar, even keyboard amps! i even tried an electric violin there once!) And has a cord coming from it so you dont have to go search for one. Most of the basses are in tune too

 

[Hollywars]

GC is okay to just kind of try to try things out. If you have friends there, you get good deals. If you have friends at the indie shops, you get REAL GOOD DEALS. I bought a Line 6 Spider 3 15 watt combo for my friends to come over and jam on, it was on sale for like $50, which is probably a little more than half price. I take it to my friendly indie used gear shop where I know nearly everyone by name, they take it for like $80. If anyone is ever by DC or in Maryland, stop by Atomic Music in College Park. *end plug*.

I feel it's just kind of hard to really try things out at Guitar Center when they have the little hardcore kids playing metalcore, the radio blasting classic rock or Metallica, and the drum section nearby.

 

[TonyRockyHorror]

It seems the quality of GC stores is everything from wow (their flagship store in San Francisco) to ugh (some small store somewhere in the wilderness.)

Yup. I mentioned that yesterday in the thread. I was so pissed when i closed down. I've shopped at that store hundreds of times. Loved that place.

 

[4001]

A friend of mine bought a Gibson Les Paul from GC years ago. When he brought it home, I looked at it and it was stamped "SECOND" on the back of the headstock.
They charged him full (GC price) for it as if it was perfectly fine.
I couldn't see any real problem with the guitar, maybe a blemish in the finish, but they thought they were getting away with ripping him off.
They (GC) gave him a hard time when he brought it back. He eventually kept the guitar, but demanded and got some money back on it.

 

[T. B. Player]

This thread was started almost 7 years ago...and we're still saying how badly it sucks.

As a friend of mine who owned a music store once told me, the person he hates to see come in to the store is a musician - we're the worst customers because we know what we want, we're usually just looking, and if we see something that strikes our fancy, we just try it out.

The first time the local GC had a MarkBass head, I tried it while the salesman talked about it. I said, "You know, this is all well and good...but this Warwick is going to sound different through it than this Marcus Fender Jazz will." He didn't know what else to say.

The best customers - soccer moms. Retail stores are made for them. They bring their kids in, they play (or try to), then mom buys little Johnny a Fender P or an SWR amp or both. If there's somebody that's playing well, I've seen sales people talk to them to get them to stop playing and get out. If people are playing guitar and it's out of tune, they'll let them play forever since it forces the musicians out because our ears can't take it.

If it sucks so badly, here's a tip - don't go there. I only stop in to a music store anymore when I haven't played for a while so I can keep the fingers from freezing up. Ibbys are great 34 scale basses, but their string spacing is too tight on their 6ers. As for jazz guitars, I need a 25 1/2" scale with a 3" body thickness. Anything else just isn't right, since most guitars are 24 3/4" scale.

If you want to find deals and some great pieces, hit Music Go Round. I found a used Roscoe LG 5 string for $1400 and a used Washburn J6 (which they don't make anymore) for $400. If you can find them used they go for about $750 now. Don't even get strings at GC anymore.

Z

 

[Brado]

GC is ok if you need to buy a tuner, a cable, some picks, other small things...other than that, I go elsewhere for all other things "bass." like amps , cabs & basses. My advice to any & all who are offended by, dissapointed with, sick of, or above GC.....Well....., just don't go there anymore. & if you do, well, you should know what you're getting in to.

 

[Buslady7803]

that sucks, the one here is cool. lots of basses to look at...you can pull down ANY and plug it in with no hassle. i'll see guys there just tooling on em with no sales dude bothering them. i found a good starter bass, thats all i wanted. i wished they had more wicks cos i wanted to try them out, they had one. so i skipped that took the Ibanez

 

[zenbanshee]

The Guitar Center in Manchester, CT, is pretty nice. Yes, there are the 15 year old jack***es who have to try to play speed-metal on guitars and amps they cannot afford, but the store is huge and they have a nice selection of basses. They even have all of their high-end basses and amps in a small, isolated room so you can actually grab a bass, close the door, play and hear yourself.

Aside from the usual Ibanez, Squire/MIM Fender and Epiphone stuff, they have a good assortment of Music Man, MIA Fenders and Warwick, along with Markbass and Ampeg amps all nestled away in the smaller room. They easily have close to 100 basses on display at any one time.

I've purchased some equipment there (including my Jazz Bass) and have never had a problem with any of the staff. Hell, sometimes if I'm in the area, I just go in there to kill time (I find that works best when I don't have any money to spend).

 

[cirrusb2002]

Hey guys, just a note, I'm working in a music store that specializes in production, PA, DJ gear, lighting, as well as some guitar, bass & drum stuff. The bass amps are pretty decent
(Genz-Benz, Ampeg &TC Electronics) & as a TBer, I try to make sure the gear is set up to demo well & keep the players happy. My question is, how long does it take for anyone to make up their mind about the gear they're testing in a store? We try hard to service the customer, but we had a guy in today who played(tin ear included) 3 1/2 hrs of Maiden! One screaming headache later, he finally quit, without purchasing! Glad it wasn't my customer. Thoughts?

 

[mokeanL]

what ive learned is gc just hires random people, none of which actually play instruments

EDIT: none of thier bases are setup so testing them will make your opinion of the bass worse. thats north carolina for ya!

 

[60's Bluesman]

well that sucks he wouldnt let u try the bongo but think of GC this way is a whole hell of alot bigger then us ppl in the middle of nowhere will ever have. my local store has a total of 4 basses and one bass amp when i was there last week. now dont that make them 13 fenders u saw seem alot better now