every music shop in Hobart just has fender rumbles in terms of bass amps. Pathetic.
No one even sells used stuff either.
No one even sells used stuff either.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Is your guitar center like this?
- Thread starter KablesP
- Start date
I used to live in the Cincinnati area where there were 2 Guitar Centers a Sam Ash and a few other local small chain guitar stores (Willis Music and Buddy's Music). I purchased equipment from all of them and each has its pros and cons depending on what you're looking for and each had specific basses they would push (or make more available than others).
Good luck on going into any of them to find a new Rick or German Warwick or USA Spector. GC seemed to usually have a reasonable selection of MIM and MIC Fenders/Squiers along with Stingrays, Schecters and Ibanez basses. Sam Ash always had a good selection of Squiers and Fender Blacktops. Willis always had a small selection but some nice Fender models the others didn't usually carry. Buddy's usually had a couple of unique basses the big box stores didn't carry in stock.
At the end of the day the thing that best differentiated GC from its competitors was the extensive used gear selection (on line) and the outstanding return policy. This alone was the biggest reason most of my gear money was spent at GC.
I've since relocated to Southern California and haven't had much time to hit the local guitar supply houses but regardless I continue to purchase thru GC on line. Their virtual stores are better than any brick and mortar guitar store I've ever visited. I do all my own sets ups so no concerns on that front.
Good luck on going into any of them to find a new Rick or German Warwick or USA Spector. GC seemed to usually have a reasonable selection of MIM and MIC Fenders/Squiers along with Stingrays, Schecters and Ibanez basses. Sam Ash always had a good selection of Squiers and Fender Blacktops. Willis always had a small selection but some nice Fender models the others didn't usually carry. Buddy's usually had a couple of unique basses the big box stores didn't carry in stock.
At the end of the day the thing that best differentiated GC from its competitors was the extensive used gear selection (on line) and the outstanding return policy. This alone was the biggest reason most of my gear money was spent at GC.
I've since relocated to Southern California and haven't had much time to hit the local guitar supply houses but regardless I continue to purchase thru GC on line. Their virtual stores are better than any brick and mortar guitar store I've ever visited. I do all my own sets ups so no concerns on that front.
The GC we have in Millbury, MA, is all right if you're looking for low to medium end stuff, but if at all possible I try to avoid going there on weekends. It seems like all the local Steve Vai wannabes are there, and playing different things at exactly the same time! They do have a decent selection of basses, mostly low-end Fenders, Ibanex, Squier, and the like, but they do have MarkBass and GK amps in addition to the usual Fenders. The staff seems knowledgeable, and they generally leave me alone when I'm trying out stuff. I do enjoy their acoustic guitar room, however. They have a nice selection, with several nice 12-strings I might be interested in someday. All in all, our GC is not too bad. Not stellar by any means, but not a dump either.
The one in Little Rock has alot of stuff including MIA. They also have Ampeg, Mark Bass, Orange, Fender, Acoustic, ect.
If you want it tuned and the action set you might as well carry a tuner and a set of screw divers and allens with you.
I go there to get flats and stuff I can't find somewhere else, because it is almost a 2 hr drive from where I live. If I'm not in a hurry for something and can wait 3-5 days then Musicians Friend makes more since to me. At least whatever I buy from them is not going to need anymore setup and tuning than GC stuff does, and I don't have to deal with the sales people.
If you want it tuned and the action set you might as well carry a tuner and a set of screw divers and allens with you.
I go there to get flats and stuff I can't find somewhere else, because it is almost a 2 hr drive from where I live. If I'm not in a hurry for something and can wait 3-5 days then Musicians Friend makes more since to me. At least whatever I buy from them is not going to need anymore setup and tuning than GC stuff does, and I don't have to deal with the sales people.
I have 3 within an hour of me and they are decent. They all have pretty good selections of gear for the mostmpartmthe sales staff is pretty knowledgeable. There are a few local stores around here and there is a huge store up in MD .. I have never been there but I hear it is huge and is on the scale of a well stocked GC but it is a private store. There is also a Sam Ash about 90 minutes from here...
You know, that is the one thing about GUITAR Center.
You dont expext to go into Vic's Drum Shop in Chicago and find a wall of GUITARS.
I do not understand why a place called "Guitar Center" dosent have ALL of it's instruments in the absolute BEST playing condition, 24/7.
How does anyone sell an instrument that isn't even set up to play it properly?
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
This isn't a GC story but up here in the frozen north we have Long & McQuade. 100+ stores across the country and generally well respected due to their customer service and willingness to open credit accounts with just about anybody. However.....why is it that salespeople need to take your new guitar out of its case and look it all over, play it, pass it around and generally start mucking it up while you're at the cash paying for it. The more expensive or unique it is the more handling it gets. I asked the guy playing my son's new Mustang x-mas present if, when he bought his last car, he had to watch the car jockeys do donuts around the parking lot before he got the keys and he gave me a sheepish look and put the bass back in the case.
Ditto here.. Oh man how I miss the NYC 48th guitar bazaar of the 70s. Not huge for amps, but you'd get all the trade ins and sell offs from one of the biggest musician cities in the US on a single street lined with a dozen indie shops. Amazing.
fukc guitar center and their shady/uninformed sales people. Couldn't care less if they went out of business tmrw. They'll lie right in front of your face, just to make a sale.
a bass guitar is still a guitar.
I'd expect them to have them and stuff for them.
What I wouldn't expect them to have is things like double basses.
just before Christmas, i went to one of our two local GC's with my friend while he bought his daughter her first little acoustic guitar.
it was just so...uninspiring? i don't know how many low-to-medium range instruments i can look at and still get excited. all pretty much assembly line stuff sold at prices that are just high enough for me to feel like they're not actually that great of a value.
and maybe GC is somewhat to blame for this...but i wrapped my hands around some of the newer model Epiphone Les Pauls that are going for $500 and up, and they felt as cheap as balsa wood. now, i know i'm talking Epiphone here, but i feel like they built them better than that before. (i have a '96 Epi Les Paul that sort of tries to get close to being like the real thing, even if it isn't.)
it was just so...uninspiring? i don't know how many low-to-medium range instruments i can look at and still get excited. all pretty much assembly line stuff sold at prices that are just high enough for me to feel like they're not actually that great of a value.
and maybe GC is somewhat to blame for this...but i wrapped my hands around some of the newer model Epiphone Les Pauls that are going for $500 and up, and they felt as cheap as balsa wood. now, i know i'm talking Epiphone here, but i feel like they built them better than that before. (i have a '96 Epi Les Paul that sort of tries to get close to being like the real thing, even if it isn't.)
I ordered something from Thoroughbred one time and the packing material was three of their tshirts. how fkn cool was that
He was talking about drums, not bass guitars, so yeah the fact that they have a big drum selection is a little odd, but hey, as someone who plays drums as well as bass, I can't complain about the fact that they do. And the GC I've been to actually does have uprights, violins, banjos etc.
The GC here is actually pretty good. I can't comment on service much (because of limited experience with it, they for the most part come in, say 'let me know if you need anything' and then leave you to do your thing) except for that a guy knocked the price of a bass down for me when I realized I was about 10 bucks short and I was going to put the strings back to have enough, which was very cool of him. All of the instruments I tried seemed to setup quite well, as if they got that they would actually sell better if they were. They had a good range of stuff, from cheap-midrange Ibanez to higher end EBMM's and Fenders. The only thing I could complain of was that they had about three six-strings total, which for some people would be a bummer. It's about an hour away (none closer) but it's only place I know of with a good selection of basses so for me it's worth the drive. Strings and cables and stuff I get locally, since the stores around here seem to have a good price on them.
I live in Canada but visit the Niagara Falls and Buffalo NY GCs when I am south of the border.
They are both terrible for bass players. Same old stuff always...limited Musicman, Fender, Gibson and Ibanez basses...., Acoustic, GK and Markbass amps..... and Boss effects.
Not much different than Long & McQuade in Canada actually.
Funny thing.... In my dozens of visits to GC over the years, I have only bought clearance strings and a couple of t-shirts. Never a bass or an amp.
They are both terrible for bass players. Same old stuff always...limited Musicman, Fender, Gibson and Ibanez basses...., Acoustic, GK and Markbass amps..... and Boss effects.
Not much different than Long & McQuade in Canada actually.
Funny thing.... In my dozens of visits to GC over the years, I have only bought clearance strings and a couple of t-shirts. Never a bass or an amp.
I appreciate my local GC which is just 3 miles away. Five others are within 50 miles. My wife is afraid I may like it too much. Friendly staff, many with a great level of knowledge. Many are musicians. Definitely guitars out number basses. I take my lessons in the Studios section of the store. Nice set up. Their subscription system works for me. I am an IT guy working for a fashion retail company. The loss prevention guy at the door does not bother me one bit. To the extent they can reduce loss they can offer us lower pricing. Finally I appreciate GC for having a store in the community that is producing local revenue through sales tax and is also a source of jobs.
didn't read the rest of the thread so apologies if this has been asked.
i called a gc inquiring about a used bass on their website. the price is a bit high so i thought i'd call to see if they'd negotiate on the price. the salesman that helped said that they would not budge on the price unless corporate gave them the ok.
don't stores have the option to negotiate anymore? or was this salesperson blowing smoke up my tuchas? i thanked him for his time and hung up a bit flustered.
i haven't been in a gc in a while. so is everything they sell now at fixed prices? color me confused...
i called a gc inquiring about a used bass on their website. the price is a bit high so i thought i'd call to see if they'd negotiate on the price. the salesman that helped said that they would not budge on the price unless corporate gave them the ok.
don't stores have the option to negotiate anymore? or was this salesperson blowing smoke up my tuchas? i thanked him for his time and hung up a bit flustered.
i haven't been in a gc in a while. so is everything they sell now at fixed prices? color me confused...
Guitar Centers seem to vary based on how well-managed a given store is.
1. Several managers don't seem to care about the condition of their "new" instruments hanging on the wall. Broken strings, missing knobs, horrendous setup, sitting there for 18+ months, and no discount. Smarter managers would realize they could move more inventory if they spent a bit more time taking care of it.
2. Some managers seem to care more about their bottom line than admitting that there is a problem. The customer isn't always right, even if they've been good customers in the past.
True story: I had to return an amp (GK Goldline 500) I'd purchased off the GC used website that I planned to donate to a local music school. I was disappointed because it arrived and clearly had a completely busted pre-amp.
I took it to the local store, and the manager wanted to hear the "busted pre-amp". So we lugged it over to the corner and hooked it up. I showed him how if you turned the pre-amp gain above 1 (out of 10), anything you played distorted badly (an un-usable, transistor-clipped distortion, not the signature GK "grind"). He said, "Well, it seems fine as long as you keep the gain low" and played a few muffled notes. I showed him how even at a low gain setting, the sound was muffled like a wet blanket. He exclaimed that he thought it sounded fine. I told him that it sounds nothing like it should, and you could hear part of that by plugging directly into the effects return (bypassing the preamp), which I then demonstrated, and immediately you could hear a huge difference in tone.
He then admitted that it sounded "different", but that was to be expected, because you weren't supposed to plug into the effects return. He then said "This amp is probably just a darker sounding amp, that's all." Finally, he exlaimed, "Well, what do you expect for only $225?"
I told him I expected a product that worked properly. He refunded my money, but the amp was back on sale for the same price the next day.
1. Several managers don't seem to care about the condition of their "new" instruments hanging on the wall. Broken strings, missing knobs, horrendous setup, sitting there for 18+ months, and no discount. Smarter managers would realize they could move more inventory if they spent a bit more time taking care of it.
2. Some managers seem to care more about their bottom line than admitting that there is a problem. The customer isn't always right, even if they've been good customers in the past.
True story: I had to return an amp (GK Goldline 500) I'd purchased off the GC used website that I planned to donate to a local music school. I was disappointed because it arrived and clearly had a completely busted pre-amp.
I took it to the local store, and the manager wanted to hear the "busted pre-amp". So we lugged it over to the corner and hooked it up. I showed him how if you turned the pre-amp gain above 1 (out of 10), anything you played distorted badly (an un-usable, transistor-clipped distortion, not the signature GK "grind"). He said, "Well, it seems fine as long as you keep the gain low" and played a few muffled notes. I showed him how even at a low gain setting, the sound was muffled like a wet blanket. He exclaimed that he thought it sounded fine. I told him that it sounds nothing like it should, and you could hear part of that by plugging directly into the effects return (bypassing the preamp), which I then demonstrated, and immediately you could hear a huge difference in tone.
He then admitted that it sounded "different", but that was to be expected, because you weren't supposed to plug into the effects return. He then said "This amp is probably just a darker sounding amp, that's all." Finally, he exlaimed, "Well, what do you expect for only $225?"
I told him I expected a product that worked properly. He refunded my money, but the amp was back on sale for the same price the next day.
