+1. A week ago I purchased a PRS guitar. The store had the pricey USA line and the more affordable Chinese-made SE line. I tried both and I went with an SE. It's so well made that I didn't see the point in spending the extra $$.
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What Happened with Big Box Music Stores?
- Thread starter Greg Pruitt
- Start date
+1. A week ago I purchased a PRS guitar. The store had the pricey USA line and the more affordable Chinese-made SE line. I tried both and I went with an SE. It's so well made that I didn't see the point in spending the extra $$.
Stores and their staff don’t up-sell things effectively, other than extended warranties. Even for the extended warranties, I don’t think 5% of sales people can give a good reason for my buying one. They are required to push them.
Why not sell expensive trendy leather guitar straps and have them used as the demo straps for all guitars. Ask who is their favorite player, and then recommend a song book containing their popular songs, along with other instructional material. Having conversations about music helps everyone to know each other better.
After a guitar sale, a guitar case or gig bag sales should be a slam dunk but it doesn’t seem to be emphasized enough from store staff. Can every guitar salesperson discuss amplifiers they need to buy? Trade in your current gear for a better one, etc. Sell electric guitar tuner or effects box. People need accessories. If people buy a large quantity of stuff at one time, they can get a discount. Why not emphasize that?
If you buy a guitar, you should get it set up. The store should emphasize it and have example instruments (like after fret polishing which is visually impressive) and blown up micro-photographs that show the benefits (before and after). During setup, guitar is fully inspected and tuned up.
Make a deal with big manufacturers to sell popular low-end models with higher end pickups and bridges, rather than their stock ones. I like the short-scale 5-string bass TMB35 but don’t want to go through the cost & hassle of upgrading pickups and bridge. There is room for upgraded versions where you pay more but get a very good value.
When nobody is in the store, tune guitars or organize items on the shelf. Don’t just stand around.
Why not sell expensive trendy leather guitar straps and have them used as the demo straps for all guitars. Ask who is their favorite player, and then recommend a song book containing their popular songs, along with other instructional material. Having conversations about music helps everyone to know each other better.
After a guitar sale, a guitar case or gig bag sales should be a slam dunk but it doesn’t seem to be emphasized enough from store staff. Can every guitar salesperson discuss amplifiers they need to buy? Trade in your current gear for a better one, etc. Sell electric guitar tuner or effects box. People need accessories. If people buy a large quantity of stuff at one time, they can get a discount. Why not emphasize that?
If you buy a guitar, you should get it set up. The store should emphasize it and have example instruments (like after fret polishing which is visually impressive) and blown up micro-photographs that show the benefits (before and after). During setup, guitar is fully inspected and tuned up.
Make a deal with big manufacturers to sell popular low-end models with higher end pickups and bridges, rather than their stock ones. I like the short-scale 5-string bass TMB35 but don’t want to go through the cost & hassle of upgrading pickups and bridge. There is room for upgraded versions where you pay more but get a very good value.
When nobody is in the store, tune guitars or organize items on the shelf. Don’t just stand around.
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- Mar 19, 2013
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- If only I were that good....
I’ve stayed at that Doubletree across the road literally 10 times for work…..always considered walking over to compare it my local stores, glad I can ignore it now.
It could be because they get dinged up on the floor.
I saw a well-known YouTube star and somewhat of an accomplished guitarist do a vid in a well known music store down South.
The guy was wearing a denim jacket with all the metal stuff in the front. The kind if stuff that puts light scratches or worse on guitars.
He was grabbing the best instruments off the wall including vintage guitars and played them with the jacket on.
This is why we can't have nice things.
I saw a well-known YouTube star and somewhat of an accomplished guitarist do a vid in a well known music store down South.
The guy was wearing a denim jacket with all the metal stuff in the front. The kind if stuff that puts light scratches or worse on guitars.
He was grabbing the best instruments off the wall including vintage guitars and played them with the jacket on.
This is why we can't have nice things.
You are kind of on point, to a degree. My God son is an amazing keyboard player. He reminded me that a quality instrument does indeed change things for the player. He sat in front a Steinway, played it and realized that an exceptionally well-made instrument indeed makes a difference in how the player connects with the instrument. There are (or were) several music stores in New York, one or two blocks from Time Square. Years ago, I worked in NY as a consultant, and ran across these stores. There were instruments with names I had never heard of. Custom made instruments I am guessing. But, playing some of these bass guitars was an out of body experience. Amazing tone, feel, action, sustain, wood so beautiful as to be works of art. In other words, the price tags were on another planet. But, the right instrument, that works with the player's touch can make a gigantic difference. Reality is, I cannot afford such instruments. But it was a treat to have had the opportunity to tryout that kind of workmanship. But, with todays CNC machining, great instruments can be made at reasonable costs. Like my Sire V7. It is so darn good.
Maybe it's just because factory production tech has become so precise that cheaper basses are just as good as expensive basses were back in the day.
The line between high end and mid range has blurred to point of nothing... unless of coarse you just want something that LOOKS excessively glamorous.
The line between high end and mid range has blurred to point of nothing... unless of coarse you just want something that LOOKS excessively glamorous.
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I'm 15 minutes away from Cherry Hill.
There's a Sam Ash in the same strip mall and the 8th Street music warehouse store is 10 minutes away.
What mid to high level basses are you seeing at GC in Nashville? I must have overlooked them. I only see cheap stuff.
I think this a big part of it. Even if a B&M store sells a high end brand, how many are they gonna stock? You're not likely to see every model let alone each model in every color or other options. If i"m laying out >2,000 for a bass, I'm getting the exact one I want, not what happens to be in the local store. The local shops just can't compete with factory direct sales or the major online retailers when it comes to inventory.
- Jun 30, 2010
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Lol I had to read that again. Confused my brain for a second. I hate it when predictive text messes with my post.
KF, Brian closed his brick and mortar store in Murfreesboro, but if you check his website, his stock is viewable by appointment here in Metro Nashville. Or you can catch him at various shows round the country
I remember back in the day at Ed Roman's place out in Vegas, they carried "upper high end" basses. Kept them well "up top" so when the teenagers came in, they had to ask to try them out. a Salesman would pretty much hover right over them the whole time (and I don't blame them). I and my Wife traveled out to Vegas for a weekend and we wandered into his place. They left me alone (at that time I was like 45) and I ended up buying a midnight blue Ric. Roman offered to sell me a Chris Squire bass and he told me that, "If I bought it, he would have Chris sign it for me". At $2,000 I declined. What a difference 20 years makes!! Ahh, as the German guy once said - "So its das leben!"
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That's a shame. Good to know it's not worth the trip.
Is there anywhere in the are to see good bass gear now besides CME, Rock and Roll Vintage and the northside GC (if you're lucky)?
I like going to Players, but that's more for interesting used mid-range gear and repair work.
Luckily we do have some great luthiers: Lakland, Carlo, Lowdown and Serek to name a few. If you're serious about those, you can go straight to the source to check them out.
I bought my Silverado Special at that GC at the end of my buddy's time working there (90's-early 00s) Seemed like they had pretty good stuff then. Shortly thereafter (mid 00s) was when I worked at the Villa Park store and we always had good stuff. Something really seems to have changed in the last 10 years or so.
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Bass club Chicago is a wonderful store and resource. They are open for in store hours only a couple days a week because most of their sales are online I’m sure. But they have basically every great popular brand. Ken smith, sadowsky, lull, fodera, Nash dingwall, Spector, fender custom shop, lakland, etc. same with the best amp companies.
It’s probably one of the best bass stores in the world in terms of a curated selection of many of the best brands on the market. I happily bought my Genzler mini rig of doom there, and my next bass will come from them, but that will be a long time coming. I have about $20k worth of synthesizers higher up on my wish list at the moment.
Good to know they're still in business. I thought they were closed. Looks like the website is saying showroom is closed though, so maybe not a walk-in-and-try situation anymore?
The issue plaguing the big box stores is their business models. The are heavily over-leveraged. Their debt load is substantial and the market has gone soft. It takes a lot of money to keep inventory.
They use the classic floor plan system to keep inventory on the wall. The banks will allow a certain amount for inventory and then the store has to pay interest on the inventory until it sells. With high end items, this can be substantial. They can't afford to keep the high end stuff on the floor.
It is really no different than other types of retail. I do software development and I had a large chain of retail stores I developed a package to manage high end dinnerware inventory. It was too costly to stock all the stores with product, so they kept a display set of the high end products in the store that were only for display. (We're talking place settings that ran in the $2000 range). When a customer wanted a set, it would be ordered from the central distribution center. The day to day stuff was in stock.
This is like they have 15 Squiers, 5 MIMs, and 1 MIA in stock. Only, you can't buy the MIA, it is only for demo. You have to order it.
The unique feature of the software was that if it was in stock, it would be shipped. It it wasn't in stock, it would go through the pieces inventory to see if it could assemble a set and ship that. It also worked with replacing a piece, like a cup. If the cup was in stock as a piece, it would ship. If not, it would see if there was a set that had the piece in it, it would ship the cup, and move the remaining pieces of the set into piece inventory.
They use the classic floor plan system to keep inventory on the wall. The banks will allow a certain amount for inventory and then the store has to pay interest on the inventory until it sells. With high end items, this can be substantial. They can't afford to keep the high end stuff on the floor.
It is really no different than other types of retail. I do software development and I had a large chain of retail stores I developed a package to manage high end dinnerware inventory. It was too costly to stock all the stores with product, so they kept a display set of the high end products in the store that were only for display. (We're talking place settings that ran in the $2000 range). When a customer wanted a set, it would be ordered from the central distribution center. The day to day stuff was in stock.
This is like they have 15 Squiers, 5 MIMs, and 1 MIA in stock. Only, you can't buy the MIA, it is only for demo. You have to order it.
The unique feature of the software was that if it was in stock, it would be shipped. It it wasn't in stock, it would go through the pieces inventory to see if it could assemble a set and ship that. It also worked with replacing a piece, like a cup. If the cup was in stock as a piece, it would ship. If not, it would see if there was a set that had the piece in it, it would ship the cup, and move the remaining pieces of the set into piece inventory.
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