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Some humble advice to Guitar Center
- Thread starter NoSlapForYou
- Start date
GC is my favorite place to try out a $6000 Les Paul with action so high that it should be at Hempfest.
The family that owned Gelb for years sold it to the guy who owns (or now used to own - just closed) Haight Ashbury Music. That happened probably 3 or 4 years ago. Since then they've become essentially another Guitar Center, focusing on mostly mainstream gear and not continuing to carry the smaller builders. They used to have Zon, Elrick, Sadowsky, Mike Lull, among others and a staff that knew something about bass. Haight Asbury Music has a reputation for charging full list price for products with minimal or no discounts. That was the last great store for bass in the Bay Area.
Gelb used to be a gear Mecca.
I swear Haight Ashbury was sold sometime after 93. I graduated high school in 92 and all thru middle school/high school it was where I used to play Warwick's before the BOs, garbo wood, and thicker necks happened.
Is that the former Heck Music Co that was located on main street in Ventura?
That was where I bought my first bass from back in 1980!
Side note.Is Henson's Music in Oxnard still in business?
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I only lived there for a few years. Hopefully some local old-timers can chime in.
The last flyer they sent to me (I think it was Christmas) had 0 basses or bass gear in it.
Plenty of other things, and if I remember correctly, the cover displayed a..... DJ turntable...
I sent their propaganda rag through the shredder after a quick laugh.
It's because they know you guys are whining about them here.
So it's NO BASSES FOR YOU!
There's only one good thing about guitar center: the fact that they will ship me a used 100+ lb cabinet for like $25 shipping.
2 recent experiences at a Philly area GC:
1. Guitar player in my band buys a Yamaha electric acoustic as a backup guitar. Played and sounded good in the store. That night at practice he plugs it in and in amplified band context it sounded awful. Next day he brings it back to the store and the GC guy tells him it might be the pickup -- take another one of the same model and try it at your next practice. If that one sounds bad too, bring it back and pick out a different guitar and they will ignore the price difference if it is within $50-ish of his original purchase.... he can keep coming back and swapping in that 45-day window.
2. The switch on my TS-10 finally gave out so I decided to get a TS mini for my steel guitar pedal board. GC website said they were in stock. Went to the store -- out of stock. GC guy offers me the model in the display case for 25% off.
But I also see the problems with instruments that are poorly set up, not tuned, lacking strings(!!), etc. I do not think I would buy a guitar or bass from GC because of that. I got both of my basses at the Philly Guitar Show.
1. Guitar player in my band buys a Yamaha electric acoustic as a backup guitar. Played and sounded good in the store. That night at practice he plugs it in and in amplified band context it sounded awful. Next day he brings it back to the store and the GC guy tells him it might be the pickup -- take another one of the same model and try it at your next practice. If that one sounds bad too, bring it back and pick out a different guitar and they will ignore the price difference if it is within $50-ish of his original purchase.... he can keep coming back and swapping in that 45-day window.
2. The switch on my TS-10 finally gave out so I decided to get a TS mini for my steel guitar pedal board. GC website said they were in stock. Went to the store -- out of stock. GC guy offers me the model in the display case for 25% off.
But I also see the problems with instruments that are poorly set up, not tuned, lacking strings(!!), etc. I do not think I would buy a guitar or bass from GC because of that. I got both of my basses at the Philly Guitar Show.
In support of GC they do employ a lot of young musicians who need employment. BUT..... There should be some competent staff there to train them in the finer points of selling and maintaining what they sell.
I just visited my local store (Reno,NV) twice in the last couple of weeks.
The first time was to get a replacement for my 20' Monster bass cable with right angle plug. After many years of good service the right angle plug fell apart. They informed me to call a number at Monster for warranty stuff. After checking the web it looks like Monster is out of business. So a replacement is a NO GO. Not GC's fault. But they should be more informed about products like this.
My second visit was to attempt to purchase a quality right angle 1/4" plug for my broken cable. That was a NO GO. They had a cheapy in stock but would have to order a Neutrik at $6 and change + tax. Me being the price check kind of guy looked on Amazon. $4.05 and free shipping with Prime. I chose to just go with Amazon.
I just visited my local store (Reno,NV) twice in the last couple of weeks.
The first time was to get a replacement for my 20' Monster bass cable with right angle plug. After many years of good service the right angle plug fell apart. They informed me to call a number at Monster for warranty stuff. After checking the web it looks like Monster is out of business. So a replacement is a NO GO. Not GC's fault. But they should be more informed about products like this.
My second visit was to attempt to purchase a quality right angle 1/4" plug for my broken cable. That was a NO GO. They had a cheapy in stock but would have to order a Neutrik at $6 and change + tax. Me being the price check kind of guy looked on Amazon. $4.05 and free shipping with Prime. I chose to just go with Amazon.
An unplayable bass is a bass that won't sell, except maybe to a total noob who doesn't know why it's so hard to play. Most mom-and-pop stores do setups on every instrument before it goes on the sales floor, which is why I prefer them to GC and avoid GC whenever possible.
I might go to GC for something the local mom-and-pop store doesn't have in stock, but only if I need it sooner than I can get it somewhere else ... or if it's on sale at some ridiculously low price, and I have some time to kill. But I try to keep spare strings, cables and such on hand so I'm not in a panic to get something at the last minute. Since I'm mainly a bedroom player with a small rig that I like, I don't need much in the way of consumables and don't do a lot of shopping for pedals or other accessories; working pros/semi-pros may have to go to GC more often than I do. YMMV.
I might go to GC for something the local mom-and-pop store doesn't have in stock, but only if I need it sooner than I can get it somewhere else ... or if it's on sale at some ridiculously low price, and I have some time to kill. But I try to keep spare strings, cables and such on hand so I'm not in a panic to get something at the last minute. Since I'm mainly a bedroom player with a small rig that I like, I don't need much in the way of consumables and don't do a lot of shopping for pedals or other accessories; working pros/semi-pros may have to go to GC more often than I do. YMMV.
No they don't, you're shopping at the music store equivalent to Walmart, this is standard operating for big box stores
Which is another reason I like Sam Ash. Everybody who works there (except maybe the security guard) is a musician. Some of them even play bass....
If true, that's the best news I've heard all day!
Dr. Dre more or less screwed them over.
Monster Suing Dr. Dre Over Beats Fiasco
I would welcome some horrendously high action right now if they'd just put the bass I bought in the mail.
Bought a used bass online from them and it's been sitting at their store for 4 days and I don't have as much as a tracking number so they haven't even printed a label.
And you'd think after spending thousands of dollars a year there for almost a decade they would try to keep me as a customer by offering some free faster shipping. Instead they keep telling me "it should go out today". Tried to cancel the order all together and they actually told me they can't. LOL.
Bought a used bass online from them and it's been sitting at their store for 4 days and I don't have as much as a tracking number so they haven't even printed a label.
And you'd think after spending thousands of dollars a year there for almost a decade they would try to keep me as a customer by offering some free faster shipping. Instead they keep telling me "it should go out today". Tried to cancel the order all together and they actually told me they can't. LOL.
It's funny this thread popped up again. I was in there yesterday saw a D'Angelico guitar on sale. I thought I'd give it a try until I saw that the entire area where the output jack belonged was missing. There was an enormous jagged hole in the wood, like someone had ripped the jack out with their bare hands.
