Some humble advice to Guitar Center

[jthisdell]

30+ years ago I worked at a small music store. The best days were when new instruments came in and I would spend half a day setting them up.

 

[ChrisBowsman]

I tried to get a local shop to let me restring a few guitars, adjust action on all of them... basic stuff. Said I'd do it for a couple packs of guitar strings.

They declined.

 

[Ken Lloyd]

Similar story. Searching for a higher end US Lakland 5 string bass I saw one listed at a GC store far away.
Called the store and personally spoke with a guy who had the bass in his hand who confirmed it was in
excellent shape. Everything in place. Nice instrument. Well set up.

Had it shipped to local store. Previous owner (or somebody) had swapped out two of the original Hipshot tuners for crap tuners. How could the store guys not notice something like this??

Local store manager gave me a full refund including a refund on the shipping.

 

[Ggaa]

IME the Ibanez and Warwicks had good setups, Fenders not so much. LTD etc varied.

 

[BobKos]

I used to go to my local GCs alot to bass shop. Time limits those trips these days, but I have been carousing the website. I have called a few times recently to stores with basses I am interested in. I have to say the people I talked to were polite, professional, and more than helpful with my 800 questions and quirks. Bought an L-2000 this weekend at a pretty good price from a GREAT sales rep in NC. We'll see what I get and as stated previously I have WEEKS to decide if it is or isn't a good fit for me. Who could ask for more than that?

 

[Leonid Nidis]

If I were you I wouldnt try to improove their service,if they get their act together how would you buy mislabled 1500$ guitars for 250$.

 

[el jeffe bass]

Work it to your advantage. Last year I bought an inexpensive Ibanez artcore archtop guitar It had a horrible case of lot rot. It had a few surface scuffs, high action, the floating bridge had migrated and the strings were shot. I offered them a ridiculously low price for it. After a bit of hemming and hawing they accepted my first offer. I took it home and did all of the normal cleaning and setup that I would normally do with any new instrument. It cleaned up nicely. I basically bought a new guitar with a warranty for a used guitar price.

 

[micguy]

You don't purchase a bass from GC, you rescue it.

 

[lfmn16]

I get what you guys are saying about cutting costs on labor. And I also understand that most of their inventory will eventually sell regardless of condition. But I still think some of their stock would move faster if it was playable. I've definitely seen basses/guitars sit there for a year or so, and I suspect it's because no one made the simple necessary changes to make them appealing to customers.

We're talking about one full-time guy doing setups. I'm not sure how much someone like that would make, but it seems to me that his weekly pay would be offset by 4-5 extra guitar sales a week. In other words, fewer than one a day. The smaller stores seem to manage to maintain their instruments despite having a much smaller staff and lower profit margin.

They should train the sales staff to do some kind of minimal setup. They spend most of their time standing around doing nothing anyway. They could figure out how to implement it if they cared.

 

[bobba66]

They should bring me cheese, wine and a nice selection of deli meats while I am pounding out N.I.B. on a used Ibanez I can't afford anyway.....

 

[Ken Lloyd]

They should train the sales staff to do some kind of minimal setup. They spend most of their time standing around doing nothing anyway. They could figure out how to implement it if they cared.

Yes that could help. I think the only qualification to work there is to wear a black tee shirt.

 

[ModuMan]

Sorry, I have to disagree. A setup, yes. But to imply that the buyer just deal with it because they "Might" replace hardware sometime down the road is NO excuse for missing knobs/jacks falling into cavities etc. on a NEW instrument? I can't get on board with this thinking. If used, well.. buyer beware.

YMMV (and clearly does)

T$

On the contrary, I completely agree! There is no excuse for it and I certainly don't condone it. But if they've been hanging on the wall then they are indeed used instruments.

 

[bearhart74]

Snip...choke slam....Snip

Is choke slam a thing now? I kind of like it and would like to use the technique..

 

[Chrisk-K]

I don't mind GC's current practice. I cannot properly evaluate a bass or a guitar unless I set it up myself anyway. GC is like Wal-Mart; it's goal is to offer low prices. Setting up hundreds of guitars and basses would significantly drive up the prices.

 

[Stewie]

The one in Nashua N.H. is staffed by friendly people. They have never said anything dumb or been unable to answer a question. Only problem I've had was getting rid of the eight cubic feet of popcorn in the box protecting my $99, mint, SVT 15E cab

 

[kjp360]

We are a little bit better off here in the Great White North. I have been in a number of GC's down south and it is truly abysmal. Vs. GC our Long and McQuade is at least a bit better at dealing with poorly set up instruments, especially higher end ones. Cheaper models tend to not get the treatment unless they sit around for a long while. This is also true at my one remaining local mom and pop store FWIW. That said, I am old enough to remember walking into my local mom and pops (back when there were many) and there was usually a workbench right on the sales floor...usually with a recent arrival getting a set up on it. It was also usually a free throw in to get a set up and string choice with a new instrument purchase as long as you didn't try to beat them up too bad by demanding free patch cords, free cases and such.

 

[FenderP]

As someone who likes high action, I don't mind basses that have it. Low action bothers me - makes it hard for me to try basses if I am in the market.I also use thick flats which won't be on any bass pretty much out there, so what would be a more "normal" setup for most folks is nails/chalkboard for me. That said, I get where everyone is coming from. Things like missing knobs and such are not good. I don't shop much at GC. When I was in the Hollywood store in the vintage room I can tell you those basses did not suffer from that problem ... and they shouldn't given what some were going for.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

So many GC stories. Here's one more:

I was at GC a few months ago. It was a slow day. Overheard the guitar department manager trying to get an employee to go around and tune the guitars that were hanging on the wall. Turns out the employee didn't know the note names of the strings, so he had to write them down on a piece of paper for her. That kind of blew my mind.

 

[RocknRay]

Also, GC has a choke-hold on Fender distribution. We have a local shop in FW that was strong-armed as to number and price point of Fender instruments he could stock/sell. Obviously trying to curtail competition with GC. The owner (who has top-level Fender service credentials) finally told the Fender rep to pull every Fender product out of his store. Can't blame him.

 

[Wilmingtonian]

The Wilmington, DE GC, on the other hand, is very well-managed. For many years, it was the same dude managing the place, and he might still be there. The instruments are always in decent shape, the amps all work, etc. And Delaware has no sales tax, which is a nice bonus.

I'm glad to see some props for the Wilmo GC. I go there on occasion. Haven't made a major purchase, but the folks are nice and they have a reasonable selection of interesting basses. I can't say the inventory is always well setup, but I'm not complaining.