it's so much easier with sweetwater...

[scuzzy]

I've had pros and cons with just about every store, resale site, and shipping company. Just comes with the territory in my experience.

 

[flannel cat]

i ordered my super cozy wide shoulder strap from them and had it in a week. sales rep was a great, after about a week the head dude sent an email thanking me for choosing their company to buy from. thats pretty thoughtful,
sweetwater,s got some sweet souls working there and i know i will be using them for gear in my future..

 

[Alkali Ike]

Sweetwater is awesome. Sometimes I’m googling for something like “Windows 10 WASAPI audio recordings have dropouts” and Sweetwater pops up with a technical article explaining how to possibly fix it.

 

[spantini]

I'm about to switch from GC to Sweetwater. Our local GC is stocking fewer items and some they don't offer at all - Sweetwater does. And now with the supply chains interrupted some Mfrs have no stock and no parts to produce them, so I'm finding a piece at this store, another at that store, and some aren't at any store. But Sweetwater seems to show stock on most of them.

Does Sweetwater ship in plain, unmarked boxes?

 

[jonnyJazzBasd]

I am having an issue with MF right now. I ordered DR Fat Beams from them ten days ago because Sweetwater doesn't carry them. They used that UPS Mail Innovations poopie and when I called they couldn't give me any information or help. I usually wouldn't use MF as I have been a SW customer for like ten years but I will definitely never use them again. I guess I will just use High Beams or another DR model for my 5er

 

[kevindahl]

As a Canadian what is MF and AMS?

 

[HardNHeavy]

sweetwater has always been good to me and the wife for our gear..they call you, text you, email and talk to you as a fellow informed musician and not some uninformed sales hack......and who doesn't like little packs of candy...Never really shopped at GC or MF except maybe strings once or twice

 

[pingvuiini]

Sweetwater and B&H are my go to. I'm done with MF unless it's accessories.

+1 to both places. When I was an indoor sports photographer many moons ago I would always buy my gear from B&H. They are pricey and located in NYC, which is ground zero for some of the *worst* camera stores on the planet. But B&H an excellent source of photo, video and music equipment both high end pro and consumer. I always got a laugh reading the photography forums with so-called 'pros' complaining how they got ripped off trying to get a good price from a store that has been known to scam customers with grey market merchandise (and they always say 'I wish I had found this forum before I purchased'). It was at this time I learned that it's better to pay the little extra to get the best service than try to be cheap and get burned. I find this quality in Sweetwater.

 

[Killing Floor]

I try to shop local when I can. During some of the global pandemics I shop online more often. When I do, I have had great experiences with Sweetwater. I'd recommend them to anyone. I'd recommend the super friendly folks at several stores here too, but for online music gear they rock. I'll put up with the occasional text from their sales person. Plus the candy in the bag, I mean, c'mon. Candy and great service? Good combo.

 

[Terry Farmer]

Sweetwater for me. Wayne Wildman is my sales rep, also a bassist. Customer service is stellar and shipping is lightning fast. My wife loves the candy. Nice touch!

 

[pcake]

I'm about to switch from GC to Sweetwater. Our local GC is stocking fewer items and some they don't offer at all - Sweetwater does. And now with the supply chains interrupted some Mfrs have no stock and no parts to produce them, so I'm finding a piece at this store, another at that store, and some aren't at any store. But Sweetwater seems to show stock on most of them.

Does Sweetwater ship in plain, unmarked boxes?

most of the things i look for at sweetwater are out of stock, and that's been the case since 2019. and sweetwater doesn't carry sterling by music man of hofner, among other brands. still, they've been wonderfully hassle free for me - i appreciate that.

ask your rep - maybe he can get unmarked boxes sent your way. mine all say sweetwater on the packing tape.

I am having an issue with MF right now. I ordered DR Fat Beams from them ten days ago because Sweetwater doesn't carry them. They used that UPS Mail Innovations poopie and when I called they couldn't give me any information or help. I usually wouldn't use MF as I have been a SW customer for like ten years but I will definitely never use them again. I guess I will just use High Beams or another DR model for my 5er

this is the tracking url for ups mail innovations
Link Removed
and once they hand off to the post office, you can track via them.

i called UPS innovations, however, and their automated system had more current information than their online system does.

As a Canadian what is MF and AMS?

MF = musicians friend, AMS = american musical (used to be american musical supply, which is why the S), GC = guitar center.

 

[Matty Koff]

Sweetwater has never tried to sell me something when they call me after I place an order.. usually it's just a "hey I just wanted to let you know your order shipped!" or "How you liking that *insert item here*?", my rep remembers who I am when I call..pointed me to my Gator ProGo gig bags when I called asking about cases for one of my bass guitars.. and I love my ProGos..it was a good recommendation. The last call was "So how you liking that WD-800?" To which I replied "You're not getting it back that's for sure." "That's good, glad you're happy with that.. hope you have a good day man! "You too! Take care."

I would shop with them more if my credit score allowed for financing with them, but that's on me for some mistakes when i was young and fresh into adulthood, so I hit them up for items I can afford without payment plans. Usually get my items within 2 days. Once I ordered something from them I decided I didn't like, told them I was going to order something else and send it back, they paid for the return shipping, and then told me not to worry about the slight difference in cost for the other item after shipping.

I guess I'm mostly responding to the accusation of "droid sales calls".. where in my experience, they're simply checking up on you, offering information about your purchases and/or making sure you're happy with what you got. Never once have they tried to sell me something I wasn't inquiring about. Makes it somewhat personalized and I kind of love that about them.

 

[keyboardguy]

Been a Sweetwater customer about 20-25 years. They're the only one that still doesn't collect sales tax for Florida. That's a 7% discount.....

 

[John B jr]

But what do you do with all of the stickers? My old MacBook is full and they don't stick real well to the textured plastic of the Gator rack cases. I started on the bin that holds the accessories and tools for playdates. Man, I miss the gigs; even some boring studio mix-down time would be nice. Don't we all need a playdate? At least, I'm getting together with my dr*mmer on Fridays. So, anyway, yeah, stickers?

 

[TolerancEJ]

I has a positive buying experience from Sweetwater. I just didn't like the follow up phone calls. My wife is the one who usually answers and that gets me in trouble because I usually tell her if I plan to buy something. Eventually, I told my sales rep that I couldn't buy until the CAD and USD were equal again. No more phone calls.

 

[Ryno1330]

Sweetwater is to much like Amazon. They dont do it right the first time, yet make up for it with outstanding customer service. It makes it easy to go back cause you know they fix any issues. It would just be nice if they did it right the first time.

I like to locate what I need on Reverb and then work with the smaller shops directly. I find that buying from the smaller places provides better service and they do it right the first time. Plus its better to not have 1 giant serving all like Amazon.

+1 to Alto Music in New York, Wildwood in Colorado, Daves in Wisconsin, and Music City in Detroit. There are some really great places who provide tax free and free shipping.

You obviously haven't been around the block on the guitar websites with the Dave's horror stories.

 

[QweziRider]

...my go to guy is Dave Brow...

Mine as well. He's been an incredible person to work with. I emailed him a question last Thursday (a question that has yet, two weeks later, to be answered by the manufacturer), next thing I know a minute later the thing is ordered for me and delivered on Saturday (when I fully expected it not until this week).

I also had a show a few years back an hour from Ft. Wayne and needed a couple wireless antennas asap. Dave took time out of his day (his idea, not mine) to give me a tour of the place. He's just plain old good people and has treated me extremely well with questions and orders.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

we buy gear from several big box stores regularly - GC, MF, sam ash, AMS and sweetwater, but today when our new focusrite scarlett 2i2 arrived without a hiccup or any slow shipping, it was such a joy. i ordered it saturday, it just arrived at our front door.

of my last two orders from MF, one someone forgot to ship; eight days after they said it had shipped, i called and it hadn't. it did get here, though. the current order they sent via UPS mail innovations - that's where UPS picks it up, takes it to your area and transfers it to the post office. my box sat in kansas city at a UPS facility for about a week, and only just transferred to our local post office, and since USPS often has dismal tracking, who knows when it'll arrive? true, MF did sent our box, but they choose to use UPS mail innovations, which sucked even when it had another name.

and then there's often an over-45 minute wait to get customer service at MF, and i've discovered that often what they tell you is wrong - because each rep you ask the same question will give you a different answer. and then there was the recurring payment issue where their system wouldn't take my payment - no one could fix it. i finally did by removing any old payment methods.

don't get me wrong - if you're not in a rush, MF/GC often has stuff in stock that no one else has, you can get discounts you can't get from sweetwater and that are more reliable than the sam ash discounts, and MF/GC carries brands sweetwater doesn't have. and then there's the MF 8% rewards program.

but while they don't offer discounts, i can always get quick help without a wait from sweetwater by phone or email, if you ask 3 people the same question, you'll get the same answer from all of them and we've never had an issue of any sort with shipping (they use fedex, which has been very good for us), payment, tracking, changing account info or anything else (ignoring our first ever order there when our rep quit, leaving everything a mess - but that was years ago and never repeated). our rep does things like have the warehouse weigh several sealed boxes of the same cheap bass and send the lightest.

i know some people have had issues, but i have issues from the other stores fairly frequently - some rather amusing, but for years, sweetwater's been flawless. part of that is our rep, ben, but part seems to be sweetwater.

Sweetwater is expanding, GC/MF is trying to keep the lights on

 

[pcake]

Sweetwater is expanding, GC/MF is trying to keep the lights on

are they expanding? they're huge.

GC/MF are the victims of vulture capitalism - GC is the only retailer that was drained of cash to the extent they were and survived. the late toys "Я" us and payless shoes are examples.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

are they expanding? they're huge.

GC/MF are the victims of vulture capitalism - GC is the only retailer that was drained of cash to the extent they were and survived. the late toys "Я" us and payless shoes are examples.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQIARAC&usg=AOvVaw3pXYhob6u-sbedOM4jTxLr