• 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.

So,....If I Were to Ask a SERIOUS Question,.....

R Briere

R Briere

Jul 31, 2003
999
1,456
Massachusetts
#1
So,....If I Were to Ask a SERIOUS Question,.....Would I/Could I get a Serious Answer? :)

Small Print First: I'm watching the music industry- something I grew up with- Die a Rapid Death. I'm not a nasty guy. In fact, I'm a really nice guy. I'm a Rock & Roll Geezer Who's Spent his Entire Life Working in one form or another in the Music Business and it's Killing me to see it go Away at such a high speed.

Small Print: Part 2! "We're Gonna' Need a Bigger Boat!"

I Never Participate in B.S. or Drama.....I'd Rather Jump head-first into an Industrial Shredder than get into Arguments or Kill Anyone's Dreams. Soooooooooo.....Having Said that.....


I Read in thread after thread about Many of you buying your gear from the "Superstores". You take NO Shame in going to your local dealer, trying stuff out, learning how to use it, finding just the right piece for you....and then ordering it online from just a couple of Mega-Music Sources and getting the same make and model....but not the same instrument or amp.

My Question is Simple. Why do you/we do that? In my former Career I had to "train" the staffs at these stores and almost to the store, every month most of the guys I trained the month before were gone....replaced by NEW smiling faces. Reminds me of Russian Mail Order Bride Ads.


Question #2. While I will NEVER ruin anyone's Dream, there are a few Companies who get the Lion's Share of the Business in our World of Instrument Manufacturing and Retailing. While I would NEVER, under Penalty of Tar and Feathering, express my Feelings as to who these Companies are, it's safe to say that many are run by groups of guys who ran a Shoe Factory Last Year and a Washing Machine Company the Year Before.....and could care less if you live or die.

So, the Question.......and again, with NO Malice Intended OR Expected... but to help with a piece I'm working on......Why do you continue to Support These Companies While the Folks who Taught You and Gave you Gear to Use at 6 PM on Saturday night to save your Gig cuz your Bass amp Blew Up and you need a Loaner....get Thrown under the Bus?

No Arguments Encouraged......Just Heart-Felt Opinions..Why have WE, You and Me, Allowed this to Happen?..:)

....

Bass-ically Yours,
Rich Briere

PS: While this may strike you as odd......If you choose to answer I have one last question. What COLOR bass do you play ??? :) Thanks.......RB
 

Attachments

  • Russian Bride 2.jpg
    Russian Bride 2.jpg
    16.4 KB · Views: 238
#2
Its all about the Benjamin's.

If you give people a chance to save some money they will almost always eventually take it. No more complicated than that.

I would love to support my local shops only but I also love gear. My options are to either spend the same amount of money and get less gear locally or more bang for my buck by shopping online or going to a big retailer. I suppose I could also make the argument that some local retailers just will not stock the stuf that I am after (boutique pedals, certain models from certain manufacturers etc) but for the most part it comes down to money.
 
#3
I love Russian mail order brides. I have three. I loved the product so much, I bought the company! Wait... what was the question again?

Oh yeah. Well, not to be self-righteous, but the basses and guitars I have bought online (or gotten as presents) were only models that were not available in local stores. Most of what I've bought has been used gear from TB or CL sellers. I understand the attraction of getting a bargain, but to me I like being able to walk out of a store with what I wanted that day rather than waiting for the UPS truck. This isn't unique to music stores, though; all kinds of brick-and-mortars have been hit by "showrooming." As far as companies who make the basses, I think people buy the instrument they want and don't worry too much about running background checks on the management.
 
#4
Things change.

AT&T employs about 5% of the number of exchange operators as they did in 1970.

A long distance phone call also costs about 5% of what it did in 1970.


I'm very glad that as young as seven or eight years old I used to be able to ride my bicycle a couple miles into downtown smalltown USA, and I always went to the two competing music stores, which were literally right next door to each other. The smell of those stores is something I'll never forget. Fenders and Gibsons and Gretsches, oh my.

I bought the first record I ever bought with my own money: A 45 of Lady Madonna for $1.00. I still own the 1978 Precision that I bought new at the same store. It was the first "great" bass I ever owned. I paid $450 of my very own money, and that bass was a magic carpet for me. The owner of that long-closed store came to my house a month or so ago for the regular Thursday night Jazz Jam. He's eighty years old now, and was a sideman to Chet Atkins before he got married and opened his little store. We had a great time that night, and we sure did some reminiscing.

Several others in the room had boyhood memories of time spent in his store, and their own stories to tell about it.

Good times, but the ice man no longer cometh either. C'est la vie.
 
#7
The last new bass I bought was my Thunderbird in 1977 from a music store in West Orange that moved out to Rockaway.

I bought a set of strings there a month or so ago.

I don't buy much new gear. My BF Pro is doing fine.

Many stores have gone belly up. I have no doubt that Ritchies will also.

Probably not anytime soon.

A Brick and Mortar retailer has to offer things the online sellers can't.
 
#9
Color? Ok I'll play along: If I ever had a "more probable" tendency, it was white(ish) or some variation of blue or aqua. I have a 1965 Precision that is Lucerne Aqua Firemist that may be a personal favorite partially because of the color.

I like good old tobacco sunburst just fine too though. It's a tool. Color is kinda secondary.
 
#10
R Briere said:
So,....If I Were to Ask a SERIOUS Question,.....Would I/Could I get a Serious Answer? :)

Small Print First: I'm watching the music industry- something I grew up with- Die a Rapid Death. I'm not a nasty guy. In fact, I'm a really nice guy. I'm a Rock & Roll Geezer Who's Spent his Entire Life Working in one form or another in the Music Business and it's Killing me to see it go Away at such a high speed.

Small Print: Part 2! "We're Gonna' Need a Bigger Boat!"

I Never Participate in B.S. or Drama.....I'd Rather Jump head-first into an Industrial Shredder than get into Arguments or Kill Anyone's Dreams. Soooooooooo.....Having Said that.....


I Read in thread after thread about Many of you buying your gear from the "Superstores". You take NO Shame in going to your local dealer, trying stuff out, learning how to use it, finding just the right piece for you....and then ordering it online from just a couple of Mega-Music Sources and getting the same make and model....but not the same instrument or amp.

My Question is Simple. Why do you/we do that? In my former Career I had to "train" the staffs at these stores and almost to the store, every month most of the guys I trained the month before were gone....replaced by NEW smiling faces. Reminds me of Russian Mail Order Bride Ads.


Question #2. While I will NEVER ruin anyone's Dream, there are a few Companies who get the Lion's Share of the Business in our World of Instrument Manufacturing and Retailing. While I would NEVER, under Penalty of Tar and Feathering, express my Feelings as to who these Companies are, it's safe to say that many are run by groups of guys who ran a Shoe Factory Last Year and a Washing Machine Company the Year Before.....and could care less if you live or die.

So, the Question.......and again, with NO Malice Intended OR Expected... but to help with a piece I'm working on......Why do you continue to Support These Companies While the Folks who Taught You and Gave you Gear to Use at 6 PM on Saturday night to save your Gig cuz your Bass amp Blew Up and you need a Loaner....get Thrown under the Bus?

No Arguments Encouraged......Just Heart-Felt Opinions..Why have WE, You and Me, Allowed this to Happen?..:)

....

Bass-ically Yours,
Rich Briere

PS: While this may strike you as odd......If you choose to answer I have one last question. What COLOR bass do you play ??? :) Thanks.......RB
Click to expand...


This is… um two different questions yes?

Well, for me I don't do this ^ if I can get something in my town I do, the only time I go to GC is to trade because outside of a few shops in big cities [for me this is Seattle and Portland] no one wants anything… so there.

as to the vid. I think it is wrong to blame the audience, the mass media devalued music to a fashion accessory a long time ago [THE EAGLES BEING PART OF THIS!!@@$&^$(*&@^*$%#@], perfecting it in the late 90's. This led to no one giving a **** about major labels getting their money for a CD that costs $18 when it's a known that that artists were not making the bulk of that…

IMOP^

also… it's wood colored like what trees are made of and stuff but it's a flying V and I made it:bassist: :p:spit:
 
#11
If I try a bass out in a store, I buy from the store. I may not want to buy the showroom one due to scratches or stuff, but I will order one from them and have it shipped to that store. However, by now I know the basses that 99% of stores both small and large carry. I have no need to try out or have any interest in what they carry. I have my Ibanez and a good Squier. There goes 80% of what they carry. So I order online now. And I shop for the best deal.
And I don't really have much store or company loyalty anymore. And they have done that to themselves with poor service and poor stock. I want to compare more than 1 brand of flats. I had a wild notion the other day to change my SR405 from B-G to E-C. GC had not one single high C string in the store and had no interest in looking for one either. I looked to buy a bass awhile back from a smaller local store. They were $50 higher than the going rate. I told them to throw in a cheap gig bag to help me carry it home ($35 junker) and I'd buy anyway. They told me they weren't in business to give stuff away. So I bought somewhere else.
 
#14
I'm sure there's a point in there somewhere, but it's not easy to find.

Times are changing. As Lee Iacocca said, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way!" . It doesn't do any good to cry about how it used to be. It's not like that any more and never will be again. Instead of crying about things that are worse than they used to be, celebrate the things that are so much better - amps are lighter and cheaper, you can buy quality instruments cheaper, almost everybody can afford a decent recorder and make their own music, etc., etc., etc.
 
#15
The world changes. I'm sure there was a lot of hub-bub about all those new "mass produced" instruments back in the day. And the interwebs - holy cow! Knowledge is power. I don't care to see small music (any industry) stores disappear, but if they don't learn to offer something the big boxes can't - they will. As for the "washing machine" managers, when it comes to business a widget is a widget. Better to have someone in charge capable of handling a large business rather than someone less worthy. Really, when was the last time you spoke to the "big dog" at Fender or Gibson, etc. There are of course flaws in large and small businesses but the march of progress will not be stopped. The world has gotten smaller. A change is gonna come.

I play a black bass with a white pickguard.
 
#16
I dont buy any new gear other then strings and cables. I bought a pack of strings at the local small shop a few days ago. D'Adarrio nickles, $25 for the set. Today I drove to G.C and bought 2 packs for just about the same price. I dont mind paying a little more to help a small mom and pop shop but 50% more is ridiculous.
 
#17
As far as Guitar Center and Musician's Friend goes, since they are owned by the same parent company, I tend to think of GC as a showroom. I think it is inevitable for the business model to go this way on lots of what we buy. It's nice to be able to pick out the special bass or amp that just speaks to you, but the majority of customers probably don't really know what's good or bad and make their decision based on color rather than musical reasons.

I have to imagine Guitar Center knows this. They try to display all the choices, and are happy to sell retail, but if some one buys from Musician's Friend, I can't see the guys at Bain Capital caring one way or another.
 
#19
russpurdy said:
Its all about the Benjamin's.

If you give people a chance to save some money they will almost always eventually take it. No more complicated than that.
Click to expand...

+1, quite simple. There's NO other reasonable explanation why someone could give up the immediate satisfaction of taking the item home right then, on the spot, and instead order online. Unless the price difference is too big.

Two years ago I needed a small portable combo for pub gigging, and went to my local shop to try some out. In my small, rural village, there's only 1 store, with rather limited options, but they had a Roland Cube 120XL that was more or less what I needed. They even offered me to let me take it home to try out for a few days. I went back home, researched prices online, and went back to the store with a print-out of what it costs online; I got the price gap reduced to about 40 bucks (from 600 Swiss Francs to 550, with online price around 510). So I bit the bullet and went for it, from my local shop. Those 40 bucks MIGHT have paid for personal advice, the possibility to try it out, and whatever fringe benefits I get from being a shop customers. But more importantly, I know I'm helping keep the shop alive...for whatever reason I might need it for in the future.
 
#20
blue4 said:
If I try a bass out in a store, I buy from the store. I may not want to buy the showroom one due to scratches or stuff, but I will order one from them and have it shipped to that store. However, by now I know the basses that 99% of stores both small and large carry. I have no need to try out or have any interest in what they carry. I have my Ibanez and a good Squier. There goes 80% of what they carry. So I order online now. And I shop for the best deal.
And I don't really have much store or company loyalty anymore. And they have done that to themselves with poor service and poor stock. I want to compare more than 1 brand of flats. I had a wild notion the other day to change my SR405 from B-G to E-C. GC had not one single high C string in the store and had no interest in looking for one either. I looked to buy a bass awhile back from a smaller local store. They were $50 higher than the going rate. I told them to throw in a cheap gig bag to help me carry it home ($35 junker) and I'd buy anyway. They told me they weren't in business to give stuff away. So I bought somewhere else.
Click to expand...

I was looking at Mesa gear at GC. The Tone Jones hit and I was going to guy an amp but would have to clear something out.

I asked what they would give me as a trade in for what ever extra amp I had.

They guy tell me We don't do free estimates for your gear.

That sale walked out the door.

Actually That might have been the last time I bought anything from GC. Except that I didn't buy it. Que Vida
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back