United States

Did you happen to see the new commercial for Guitar Center and their president's day sale?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2S4cNmo8Is

I have always HATED "guitard center" and "sam's ass", since the first time I got ripped off on mediocre goods that are overpriced as a general rule.
(Over here they are right across the street from each other.)

So I see this commercial on our local cable, right?

Fricking Guitar Center, keeping up with their shitty name...

If you watch the clip, they are offering a crap Fender Acoustic or an Ibanez Electric, either for 99$. The problem is that they use 2 actors, a male and a female and when you watch the commercial, it's plain NEITHER OF THEM ARE MUSICIANS OR EVEN GUITARISTS.

Yeah they are making performance faces.. (Gimme a gun)
but neither of them are actually playing ANYTHING.

Not even an identifiable chord, but they have that puss on.
You know the one you get after you knock off a really choice piece. (heh)

I've known for a long time that Guitar Center is chock full of thievery, but how the f**k do you get off advertising to sell guitars but you don't even use a musician that can play a single chord or even a note on the neck.

It's feels like they are showing us "Milly Vanilly" lip-synching all over again, but they want your money.

And I can only guess at the guitar horrors that await an unsuspecting person looking to buy a decent guitar from those cheats.

I thought the guy was bad enough, but the blonde on the Ibanez makes me want to kick holes in the walls.

So much for "truth in advertising". (ecch)

What's your experience like with "Guitar Center" or "Sam Ash"?

(I was trying to sell a Marshall 4104 combo and they wrote me trying to get me to bring it in. Long story short, I had to threaten to call the cops to get them to quit trying to contact me.

Even better, they tried to convince me that it was junk and worth very little. Later on I traded it for a Marshall 2210 head.

To date, I will never buy or sell anything to either entity.

They are over priced and unscrupulous, to make matters worse, the are rumored to be the worst in the area with a few different stores to be robbed in and I completely believe that.)

I won't even buy strings there anymore. F 'em.

There is no 'Guitar Center' in my local per sae.

But I believe the old adage 'let the buyer beware' is fit no matter whom you might be dealing with.
Retail giants, are about profits, not quality.
That discernment is left to us.

Other than a couple of 'mom & pop] stores around here who have little to offer re inventory and price, or the converse - high end stores - they are it around here.
Let the buyer beware regarding prices, but I haven't found them to be a rip-off at all. And their 30-day 'no questions' return policy is hard to beat, too.

The one I occasionally go to in Atlanta is pretty good. I can play any all the guitars and basses I want. The sales guys are usually musicians and can answer questions.

When I bought my P-Bass there they suggested I go through mail order but have it shipped to them - that saved a couple bucks but it also saved me from having to send it back if it turned out to be a lemon.

The one I go to used to be Mars Music which may or may not be significant.

Also go to Ken Stanton Music - they've been pretty good to me. I have forgiven the sales guy who asked me if I really was up to the job of lugging around the 100 watt marshal head I was looking at. sigh...

Talbot

I've never had any bad experiences at either Sam ash or GC here. Most of the guys I deal with are all guitarists. Nothing pushy and I don't spend a lot of money at the stores so they leave me alone or we just talk music.

I have forgiven the sales guy who asked me if I really was up to the job of lugging around the 100 watt marshal head I was looking at. sigh...

Talbot

Omg I think I would have started a fist fight if some half ass said that to me.

I actually groaned when I read that..

Reminds me of this guy in PA, I had to go to get parts for a '82 YZ 490 J (the buzz bomb) and after I found some in his giant pile of sh*t junkyard, he goes to me "ok now you got your parts but when you get the bike back together, who you going to get to ride it"?

That hit me 3 seconds later and I turned to him calmly and said "well it ain't going to be your fat ass, old man". And he turned beet red and threw me out of his shop.

People got some balls talking sh*t to total strangers..lemme tell ya..

GCs are very hit-or-miss, just depends where they are and who they've hired.
Ordering online for delivery to a store saves you on shipping charges and sales tax, for me, when I have it delivered to the Nashua, NH store - that was a $100 savings on my Taylor guitar right there.
But I went to the Framingham, Mass store to check out the used acoustics there and they had a few that had such a bad set up they were unplayable - strings fretting out when played up the neck, etc. You could see the concave bend in the neck by eyeing down the edge - terrible.

I get pissed when I shop for specific stuff like I need some PA stuff right now and then I find it on Guitar Center, but they want 3-400$ more than it's actually worth used.

"If they were on fire, I wouldn't even piss on them to put 'em out".

If I EVER actually buy anything from them again, I would be EXTREMELY careful and I would go out of my way to find it elsewhere, first.

In NJ, you want to avoid "Guitar Center" and "Sam Ash" as a RULE.

I am sure there are some good stores in those two chains, but not around here.

How much 'used gear' is worth is very area dependent.

Around here eveyrone wants top dollar when they put it up on craigslist. GC will typically pay 30-50% of new selling price and sell @ 60-75%. Because of their online 'catalog' it makes it easy for them to get rid of most stuff this way, and they need the extra markup to cover the shipping charges when it goes store-to-store.
Good business plan? I doubt it. Lots of rumors about Bain Capitol running them into the ground.

I have only 1 question for all would be supporters of GC.

"If you were to make a commercial, wouldn't you want to use a real musician before you used an actor or actress than can't play a lick of anything on any instrument, especially one shown in the commercial"?

That like looking me in the eye and telling me that you think I'm stupid.
(better duck cause you know what's coming next) lol

If I am spending real money in a store, I expect honesty.

If I don't think you are honest, I'll go elsewhere where I think they are honest. That way I feel like I get the best bang for the buck and I am inclined to return, because "one hand washes the other". (quid pro quo)

Cheaters never win and winners never cheat.

Scott

I'm rather too quick to take offense usually but the offending sales clerk was a guy I know pretty well so it was a friendly sort of thing. In that same visit he helped me carry a Marshal 4x12 out to my car.

I think what you are seeing with GC is just part of the overall decline of our culture. Everything is starting to seem sort of cheesy, sort of vulgar, sort of second rate. A lot of folks just don't seem to give a sh*t anymore.

Even worse are the ones who do - and yet are not up to the job of producing first class product or first class conduct.

That puts it all on the few of us that still do want to do it right.

But on the other hand, at Ken Stanton in North Atlanta I was at the door at noon on a Sunday, like a supplicant grovelling for admittance at some monastery; impatient, indifferent to opening times, begging for entrance. I'd seen and fallen in love with my Firebird the day before and after a sleepless night talking myself into it I simply could not wait until they opened.

The salesman sighed and grinned, the manager laughed and they let me in!

Talbot

Seems little to nothing on TV is real anymore.
This is why I no longer have it in my home.
Came to an easy decision that sewage is best pumped AWAY from my consciousness . . . not into it.

George

Comcast must have called me nine times after I canceled my cable service. "What do you mean you don't have a TV? Everybody has a TV."

As I told a friend who asked when I was going to get one: "When I decide I need one."

Could be a while!

Talbot