I'm That Kid at Guitar Center

[organworthyplayer337]

Hello. I'm young. I'm sure some people assume I'm a no talent hack with too much money (they may be right). Give me condescending looks and comments.

But I must confess; I do ask to play the expensive basses sometimes. However, not because I want to look cool (but, because I spend too much time on TalkBass).

Now, I don't slap loudly and I play at a considerable volume. I respect the instrument I'm holding. I also respect people's time and space. So, I guess I'm only kinda that kid at Guitar Center.

Just wanted to say that not all us young ones are loud, annoying hacks. Some of us conduct ourselves with integrity and dignity.


Also, I'm only half serious.


Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Video or it did not happen.

 

[dbase]

I remember you now .. you are that "KID" in GC..... Are you sure you're not Billy Sheehan??

 

[pcake]

you are NOT "that kid". "that kid" at guitar centers is the one who plays super loud to make sure we all recognize his budding rock star potential. he's not usually that good, and he drowns out all the people who are actually trying out amps or guitars. we had a duo of these guys who used to come in together - my husband named them team shred. they were not only super loud, hit wrong notes and had technique issues, but they also hit rock star poses while they played. i'm sure they thought we were all very impressed, but in reality we all thought they were hysterically funny - and they'd have been just as funny at any age.

 

[Yango]

Meh. I stay away from music stores as much as possible these days. Do whacha like.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I saw/heard a bad case at GC on Wednesday, but they were young adults, I'm guessing under 30.

These two guys were playing together on something they had obviously rehearsed together a lot. They were pretty tight, but their attack just kept getting louder and louder.

Finally, after 3 attempts, the manager got them to turn down the amps.

I was standing right beside these two knobs, at the counter, and no one working the desk could hear the customers.

Since they were playing the same thing over and over, and OVER, I assume they weren't there to test out the instruments, but to show everyone how great they are.
No, I'm not bitter because I suck, I'm just not impressed.

 

[Michedelic]

No, you're not that GC kid; you're too self-aware. Cluelessness is part and parcel of the 'that kid' experience.

 

[dbase]

I remember back in the day when I was 19 and "The Kid" came into a Wurlitzer Organ store looking for a Red Gibson SG. I worked there as my 1st part time salesman job ever. The 1st floor had all the organs and pianos, the 2nd floor was where all the musical instruments, drums and amps were displayed. My actual job was to keep "The Kids" from touching the instruments. I would demo for them but unless they were really going to buy they couldn't touch anything. I didn't like that policy because if you cant just try something how do expect them to buy it. I only lasted 2 months because I never sold anything. What did I care, I was 18 and didn't give a rats ass.
Anyway, one day a "Kid" came in to buy a guitar and at the time the VOX Super Beatle was out and since we were the only authorized dealer in the area we had one of those monsters standing in the corner. He wanted to hear it and against company policy, I plugged him in and let him play. The Kid ended up drawing a dozen or so other "Kids" in the store over to hear this thing blast. It was loud but overall the amp internally was cheaply made. It just looked impressive and the Beatles used them. After making a lot of noise, my manager gave me the eye which meant, unplug him. I ended up selling him the guitar on Lay Away and was real proud of myself in the belief that if you let them play plus shovel them enough sales BS, they will buy. Three days later, the kid came back to cancel the deal because he bought a used guitar at a nearby pawn shop much cheaper. So much for my sales commission and 1st job....
The "Kid" BTW was Todd Rundgren. His band at the time was "The Nazz" 1965....... Just a little folklore story from your uncle Dbase.
On a side note... I ended up playing in a Psychedelic band called "The Assorted Flavors". The Nazz was the house band at a local dive bar. We replaced them in 1968 as the house band... Woo Hoo!!

 

[McG]

Since I retired I only go to GC at 10:00 on a Monday morning. No "kids" or wankers of any age at all. If anyone is playing it's someone who knows what they are doing.

Damn I love retirement!

 

[GIBrat51]

Nah, you're not "That Kid"... not at my GC, anyway. Two weeks ago, I couldn't stand him any more; so I strangled him with the wound G string off the Squier guitar he was abusing, and a couple of other customers - after they stopped applauding - helped me carry him out to the dumpster in back of the store. I'm sure he's comfortably settled in at the land fill by now...

 

[Gaolee]

I go into GC as a practice habit when I'm traveling for work, since they let anybody play anything. My habit is to play unplugged on whatever is on the low rack. There's always THE KID around. The last time I was in a GC, there were two sets that qualified. One was a couple guys who went from the drums (playing poorly and chopping out loudly with no hint of groove or rhythmic consistency) to bass (same deal - shred and slap without an apparent purpose) to guitar (loud power chords and pentatonic noodling that went nowhere and made no sense). Since there were two of 'em, they had to outdo each other both in volume and number of meaningless notes. Tuning them out was good concentration practice. After a while, I went into the acoustic guitar room to play one of those quietly and work on a couple things. A young man and woman came in and started thrashing on the guitars. I guess they were acoustic punk rockers, in their minds. Or something. More concentration practice. I sure hope those people bought something from GC while they were there.

Moral of this story is that nope, you aren't that kid.

 

[Basshappi]

I was "that kid" only once in my life.
I was 13 and wanted to join my friends band, they needed a bass player and so I said that's what I would do. All I knew about bass was that it had four strings and Gene Simmons played it. But playing in a band was so cool and I wanted to be cool too.

So after mowing many lawns, my sainted mother took me down to the local music store. After assessing how much I had to spend the nice man behind the counter took down a bass and plugged it into a small amp. Not being familiar with amplifiers and such I didn't think to look at the volume knob when I turned on the amp and proceeded to pluck the thickest string.

Everything in the very large store vibrated.

I was utterly mesmerized.

I was transported into a separate dimension in which only I and this incredible sonic vibration existed. As the sound faded away the only thing I could think to do was pluck it again!
I was actually startled when my mother snapped my name and admonished me to turn it down.
But I knew right then that this was the instrument I was born to play and at that moment my life took a different course.

 

[Marial]

I have played the Chili Pepper's version of Higher Ground poorly in a GC. I have been THAT KID.

 

[McG]

My actual job was to keep "The Kids" from touching the instruments. I would demo for them but unless they were really going to buy they couldn't touch anything.

Reminds me of Coast Music, the local Costa Mesa music instrument store in the mid 60s. You couldn't touch anything without being a serious buyer. It was a very conservative store and really only wanted to sell to classical and jazz folks. It got to where we couldn't even go in to look at stuff, they would tell us longhairs to leave without even asking if we were serious buyers.

Fortunately by the late 60s a one off store geared towards rock bands opened where we could play anything we wanted without even asking.

The "Kid" BTW was Todd Rundgren.

Wow, cool story!

 

[cyrusnj]

I stopped in Sam Ash yesterday to try a few Warwicks and also to let my wife experience the kids cabin fever without me.

Once inside and trying out a Rockbass Fortress, I proceeded to be bear hugged from behind several times by a young man (bigger than me) with pretty severe mental issues. I smiled a time or two and he eventually let go and walked away. After politely asking him to stop after the second time, I got up to look for whoever he was with. I immediately saw what looked to be his brother, who I realized had been standing by us the entire time playing with DJ gear, and must have seen everything, certainly "heard" everything as did the entire store. I shot the rocket scientist brother a look and then said that perhaps he should keep a better eye on him. He apologized and went back to the DJ gear he was playing. That brother was "The Kid" as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

You don't need to be a kid to act like a jerk at GC or Sam Ash.

Sometimes I plug into something and think WOW, and then it's wham-bam-bam on the ole fretboard.

My go-to riff are the chords from Ace of Spades, which usually brings a sales associate over pretty quickly, especially if I have a Rickenbacker in my hands.

 

[fjadams]

you are NOT "that kid". "that kid" at guitar centers is the one who plays super loud to make sure we all recognize his budding rock star potential. he's not usually that good, and he drowns out all the people who are actually trying out amps or guitars. we had a duo of these guys who used to come in together - my husband named them team shred. they were not only super loud, hit wrong notes and had technique issues, but they also hit rock star poses while they played. i'm sure they thought we were all very impressed, but in reality we all thought they were hysterically funny - and they'd have been just as funny at any age.

Before my boy retired from the business he wouldn't play any guitar if somebody else was playing. He always said I don't play guitar wars. Would wait until they finished playing or just not play at all. He didn't like to play loud in stores as he mostly was looking at what the guitar felt like. On stage, a whole different story. For a while his stage setup was a JC-120, Fender silverface Super Reverb, Marshall 50w half stack with the head replaced with one of the 200w ones and a full stack. When the Super got stolen he replaced it with something else but I can't remember what right now.

 

[fjadams]

The worst I ever saw was at a Music Go Round. A bunch of kids must have been cutting class and were in there. One kid said he was looking to buy a bass. His buddy was in there picking up every bass, plugging it in and slapping as hard and fast on every one. He never let the kid who was actually looking to buy one try one. Kept telling him a bunch of made of BS about every one, like the pickups were the wrong ones, body was made of the wrong wood, neck wasn't right, blah, blah, blah. Kept telling him that he'd find the right bass for him and show him how to slap as that was the only thing you needed to know to be a bass player. I doubt the kid ever bought one. After about 15 minutes of this the clerk told him he had to turn the amp down and stop beating his basses. Then they left with the one kid talking about not knowing why they even bother going in there as the clerk was such an ahole.

Fortunately when I want to try a bass out I get to plug into a Fender 100T and the 610 bottom at my local store. Doesn't need to be loud to get great tone out of it. If I was looking to buy another amp it'd be at the top of my list.

 

[Sbassman Scratch]

I have a special lick that I play in GC. I made it up myself. I play it because I get performance anxiety if I try to play Smoke on the Water (the bass part, not rhe guitar)
My GC is next to the pet food store and I stop in when I buy cat food. But I think I may look funny sitting on an amp, playing my lick with cans of catfood on the floor.

 

[BrewsterRooster]

In 1981, at 13, I paired up with a guitar-playing buddy and we rode our bikes 10 miles (one way) from the 'burbs into Denver to visit a shop called ProSound. I think it's been gone for years - and so have I, not having lived in Colorado since '91 - but it was a hot store at the time. After chaining our bikes together on the sidewalk, we went in all googly-eyed and barely spoke above a whisper. It was like being in church. I walked up to a used rack and had the opportunity to plug in some early 70s P-bass that sounded so huge and "album-like," it just melted my world. Even so, I didn't play for more than a couple minutes...and at a reasonable volume. Yes, I distinctly remember wanting to open it up and let it fly, but I resisted the temptation. My buddy was an accomplished guitarist even at 13 and he behaved about the same with a couple guitars that interested him. The biggest difference between us and the archetypal "GC kid" is that I think both of our parents raised us to be considerate of others - even in the music store! Go figure.

I am normally a pretty controlled person, I don't get overly assertive unless there's good reason, and I have disdain for chronically rude people. That said, I went to GC about a year and a half ago to look for an inexpensive 4x10 cabinet. They had one of their Acoustic rigs set up with the 300W head on top of a 1x15 and 4x10 stack. I asked the sales guy a couple questions about it, and then asked if he'd mind me unplugging the 15" cab so I could hear the 4x10 by itself. He said that would be fine. I picked a J-bass and plugged in for what would probably have been a peaceful two-minute demo under normal circumstances, but ever since I'd set foot in the store, The Kid was about 20 feet away caterwauling on some screechy rig that I was doing my utmost to ignore. As I was trying to dial in a tone at a reasonable volume, The Kid actually turned up in response to the few notes he heard me play. That got on my last nerve and I did something I ordinarily would not - I very intentionally smoked him. I quickly dialed in the most nasal tone I could muster, cranked it, and went off on a barrage of quasi-Jaco improv in a key that was deliberately opposed to whatever The Kid was noodling in...I think I wound up in F# minor, so he must have been tuned C standard. I even slapped a few passages just to add an exclamation point to the sonic assault. This went on for no more than 30 seconds and The Kid packed up and left. Then I turned it down and explored the cabinet's sound at a reasonable volume. The Kid was probably 16, I have a salt-and-pepper goatee and gray temples with an age-appropriate gut. I imagine it made for a pretty unique visual.

After I finished up, I turned it off, returned the bass to the wall, and re-connected the 15" cab. I walked out by the sales guy that had spoken to me at first and thanked him for the information. Two other sales guys were nearby, giggling, and the one who had assisted me said "Man, you have a great touch!" I choose to believe it was a tongue-in-cheek validation of my Kid-mashing technique.

I'd never done that before and probably never will again, but I have to admit it felt nice. I may also have kicked open the door to a new category of GC life forms: The Loud Graying Fat Dudes.

Take that, sonny!