Lots of good points here. Guitar Center used to be a place of great service and they need to bring that back if they want to have any chance of staying in business. Staff used to be knowledgeable music enthusiasts, but now they are largely teenagers looking to do the bare minimum. They need to start with training staff to set up guitars on the floor. One of my local Guitar Centers has used guitars with rusted strings/pickups and new guitars with unplayable setups. I picked up a new tele that had the pickups so high that the strings touched the pickups when fretting a note. Would you trust a shop with instruments on the floor in that condition to work on your guitar?
Thanks for checking it out. It really is sad to see the decline in quality service over the years. Training is absolutely critical. They need to get people that have the sales experience and the willingness to learn. I have actually trained tons of salespeople in retail over the years. Some of them can learn and excel, but others will often give up and miss out on the opportunity. Yeah strong point too, the guitars NEED to be playable off the wall. No rusted strings and action so high you can park a truck under there lol
Depends what GC you go to mine in my area they are all musicians. But honestly people don’t want to be bothered if they don’t want to . People know what they want that old customer service is old fashioned.
I went to a GC looking fo an SG and you could tell the manager had a thing for 19 year old chicks with way too many tattoos. How little they knew made the visit quite uncomfortable.
all correct takes -- i work at guitar center. unfortunately, there's little to no chance they will increase their pay practices for employees, even for the high earners. in fact, they cut commission for salespeople almost 50% last year.
That's so frustrating man, I 100% understand your pain. I have worked for some really horrible retailers and its sickening that so many refuse to pay survivable wages. I just don't understand how can companies complain about staffing issues within the service industry and yet they keep throat slitting the salespeople. Which if you think about, the salespeople are the frontline guys putting in work to drive the sales volume which is THE most important thing for any business. Folks at the higher up level don't produce ANY sales results themselves but yet they get to work behind the scenes to cook up new pay plans to diminish the earnings of salespeople.
I went to Guitar Center and bought my kid who is just starting out a bass rig. While I was there, I saw a really nice Les Paul Custom that I wanted to take for a spin. It was all the way up on the top of the wall and I couldn't get someone to help me to get it off the wall. All the sales guys were tied up with low end purchases. It's possible I might have bought the guitar if I'd gotten it in my hands. That's the experience in a nutshell. As it is, there are several nice small shops within a reasonable drive where I can get the personal experience and who would be far more appreciative of my business. There's no reason to do business with Guitar Center.
I’ve become less and less of a Guitar Center fan as the years have gone by. I had some time to kill the other day so I popped into one. I was impressed to see they had a number of Gibson ES 335s (I’m a bit of an enthusiast; I own two myself, and I never see them at Guitar Center). I asked to play the most expensive one they had ($6000 signature model) and the thing wasn’t even set up; it may as well have been a $300 guitar. Now I get that they’re not gonna set up every guitar that makes it to the shelf but how can you expect someone to drop $6000 on a guitar when it plays horribly 🤷🏻♂️
And that's exactly it, these issues while many could consider them "small" issues they all add up to big issues that tank the business. They have to improve these standards if there's any hope to keep the stores alive.
For a long time the instrument stores in my town only carried the cheapest stuff, up to $1200. Yeah I know $1200 is a lot of money, but on the guitar price spectrum it's still low. So people were kind of fed up with that state of affairs, always complaining like "man, I gotta drive X amount of time to just see a PRS in person and I might not even like it." That kinda thing. A friend of mine had this crazy idea, hey let's open a boutique gear store. So he did. No Indonesian or Chinese stuff, just USA or Japan made, some German made Duesenbergs, USA/Canada made amps, and so on. It worked. People who wanted to spend extra on premium gear would come to him, and he's running a nice sustainable business. Same for the other stores, they can keep their focus on the affordable stuff and their customers are happy as well. You can't cater to everyone, and musicians are not all the same target.
Very well said! All good points. I'm glad to hear that it's going well for him! I have found quite a few small boutique dealers I really like for the high end stuff (aka top shelf gear lol)
It's all about service with me. I went in to get some strings for my 6 string basses and had some questions. Nobody approached me and when I did flag somebody down they did not know anything about basses. They were too busy chatting with their friends With Amazon Prime delivery, there really is not a reason to go back, especially if you are not a guitar player
Staff need to be customer service trained starting from the top down. Staff will get that from training then compensating them based on that training and continued training (hopefully using Manager Tools) during annual reviews. Home Depot is a prime example. Customer service was terrible while Lowes was great (they train their employees in being customer service oriented). Now Home Depot staff bend over backward to help you because of training. Customer service rules the roost when it comes to sales. There will always be the 'attitude' person. Put them on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Meet with them once a month to check on progress.
I have almost no reason to go to Guitar Center, and prefer the staff at my local Music-Go-Round. I play extra long scale 6 string basses and can't even get a proper set of strings there, let alone ones I'd prefer. The bass section is always sad, and I've never seen any amps I've wanted to try on display. Cables, stands, and accessories are overpriced, so they only get my business if I need something like that the same day. Guitar Center is the reason I started shopping at Sweetwater, where I prefer to go for new gear. I had ordered an amp GC said would be in within a couple weeks, but that quickly turned into a couple months, so I cancelled that order when I saw Sweetwater had several in stock. Haven't looked back since. As a former Guitar Center employee, I will not miss them if they fail. Can say the same of GameStop.
It is NOT to late for Guitar Center! I was a former employee of a GC in Northern NJ, and it was a GREAT job. After reading Guitar Center's newest CEO Gabe Dalporto's interview, he is right in what he said. In order to close a sale on a high end beautiful Custom Shop Tom murphy aged Gibson Les Paul, PRS latest Dragon, or a Custom shop 1954 relic Fender Strat. The customer must be allowed to Demo the instrument without obstacles. After that if the customer "LIKES" the instrument, it must be asked. Would he or she would like to finance the guitar interest free with a Guitar Center credit card, trade ins, or the customer's own personal funds. It can be that easy.
Honestly the lack of variety is what kills me about it. If you go in there wanting anything that even remotely stray away from a squier strat or epiphone les Paul they look at you like you're out of your mind for thinking they would have it. I went to see if one near me had a basic case for a V and he just chuckled and was like "oh ho no." Like a V is not that far out of the realm of having a case for. The one near me has been bad about not even having basic Ernie ball strings. Getting simple things same day is the biggest reason I still go at this point and can't even get that.
When I was looking to buy a reasonably priced acoustic guitar a few years ago, I ordered a low-end Martin from GC. I went to pick it up, and not only was it not prepped to show to a customer, the strings were barely put on - they were hanging off. So I had to basically string it and tune it myself. Then the action was awful, so I just said I don't want it. I went into their acoustic room, and even the high-end guitars I tried were not set up well enough to even assess them. So I went down the street to an independent shop, and there were several cheap options that were set up to play really well. GC is the Walmart of guitars. Also, the employees always call you "dude" or "bro," which is really annoying.
Totally fair points. Retailers already struggling enough as is in the modern digital age. They need to elevate their service standards if they want to have any hopes to survive. All guitars should get at least SOME basic setup before hitting the sales floor. Who wants to pay for something unplayable? such a shame
Amen! Don't call me " bruh" And please learn basic salesmanship. For instance: Never say, " can I help you?" Every good sales book and seminar will tell you that. Instead, you approach the customer introduce yourself and let them know you are available if they need you. Dang! That is salesmanship 101 but NEVER have I witnessed it at GC.
they lock all the 1000+ guitars with locks i couldnt try them. I asked for help to try on a 214ce plus model and they couldnt find anyone to unlock it because only 1 person in the store has keys lol
Was at Guitar Center a few weeks ago and one their employees was playing guitar. A customer came up and asked if he worked there. The kid said yeah, I am but I am on my break. And just went right back to playing.
If I were GC, I would put the door person back up front to greet customers and minimize theft, then I would FULLY stock the acoustic guitar section with quality brands like Tayler, Martin, Gibson, Epiphone, Yamaha etc., Then I would go to the electric guitar wall of shame, I mean wall of fame, and start thinning out the heard replacing cheap poorly made guitars with more iconic brands like Fender, Gibson, Music Man, Schecter , just to name a few. I would also allow customers the ability to negotiate price like they were able to back in the day! Then I would educate my staff regarding how to post an effective used guitar add online, one that will get the item sold sooner rather than later. The ad would have to include CLEAR photos of all sides of the guitar and the description must have as many details as possible such as the guitar's make, model number, year produced, country of manufacturer, type of woods used and any applicable electronics/pre-amp types the guitar has. I would also have a consistent grading system like "poor" "good" "very good" "excellent" and "mint" and have set rules on how to rank the guitar properly and using a one inch arrow or something like that in the photos to point out any applicable flaws to insure the highest level of disclosure is achieved. Last of all, I would find out why the website GCdotcom and MFdotcom take so long to load and I would have that fixed. In my opinion these websites should load at least as fast as their competitor's websites! Please note, I am a guitar player which is why this review has a guitar player's bias!
Excellent points! Thanks for sharing. Selection has to improve, need better staffing. I'm with you on the used condition grading I have returned several used guitars over the years from GC due to totally inaccurate condition levels. They need to stop shooting photos with a potato as well lol
I must love in a weird town. My GC has polite and attentive people working there. We only have about 4 music stores in this town that are worth a darn and GC is one of the two good ones. Here is how i see the CEO's comments. The housing and car industries have moved to only building new construction homes and new vehicles that only the very wealthy can afford. They are still making profit, and a lot more. It doesnt make sense for them to build entey level things that dont have a high profit margin. I totally understand why he only wants top shelf guitars and amps, but it sucks at the same time.
Same the guitar center in my area, has good selection of all price ranges of guitars and a expensive room with high end guitars, and the staff are nice and know their stuff.
I love my local guitar center, I've gotten almost half of my guitars from there, and my favorite one is a mid-priced Charvel I got on sale for just under 1k. The guitar tech there is super cool, he sets up my guitars nice and was willing to teach me some of the easier setup/repair tricks early on so I could do it myself. I've had nothing but positive experiences with everything guitar center has "delivered" to me in terms of providing quality on the things I've paid for. That being said, good GOD do I dread going there to buy things. I don't have any local boutique shops near me, so guitar center is my go-to when I'm in need of a pack of strings or something along those lines. What should be a quick 5-minute stop turns into a 20+ minute ORDEAL because of how horribly understaffed and poorly laid out the store is. The store has two central islands with two registers on each one. You'd think this would help with traffic flow and giving people more options to check out, but it does the opposite. With no line queue, employees end up helping whoever's pushiest first and you end up with swarms of people on all sides of the island hoping to get chosen to check out. Then, if you're lucky enough to check out, the process of swiping your card takes at least 3-4 minutes due to slow, outdated systems taking forever to process your card. Then you have to give them your phone number, say no to the insurance package, you get the picture. All the while, the phone rings endlessly because all staff are stuck checking out customers and it doesn't stop ringing until someone picks it up. I feel horrible for the employees, they do their best, but it looks like Hell. Like I said, I love guitar center but I would shop literally anywhere else if it was close to me at this point. They need to hire at least double the staff and re-format the layout of their stores. Plus, everything that was also mentioned in the video. They've got a long way to go, to say the least...
Thank you for sharing your experience! I can totally agree with those points. There's absolutely no reason anyone should have a major checkout hassle when it comes to buying strings. This has happened to me so many times. For the employees that want to be there, that want to succeed they MUST be taken care of for all they have to put up with. Lets hope to see some more improvements in the future!
THe guitar center where I am has a checkout in the repair/music book area, in the PA/recording area, in the drum room, in the acoustic room, two in the guitar area, one in the lessons area, and two at the main counter.
I agree with the “shock and awe” statement, it made me buy more gear back in the day when it was a playground, on a whim even I would buy something even if I could not afford what I was there to look at. Now you walk in, almost nothing on display, if it is, it’s not hooked up, and kind of depressing now, sad.
Yep, you want the customer to feel that "wow" factor when they come in. While I am in favor of customers being able to try things at the same time they need to be respectful of in store gear and handle carefully. The tire kicking sunday crowd that comes in to goof around, make a mess, and go order online need to do their part as a consumer and order from a store level when possible. Especially when the salespeople actually provide quality service.
I wouldn't buy an expensive guitar from GC. They've all been beat on. As much as i hate buying on-line, Sweetwater will send a new guitar with the 55 point inspection. I realize the inspection is not a setup but it still has value.
Still played on from Sweetwater by the techs. The guitar center where I live tries to do a good job of not letting people just beat on the guitars, especially the expensive ones.
GC should have thought about this when they decided to put all there stores hours away from everyone and charge premium prices. Ill continue to purchase online from the more reasonably priced vendors.
As a bass player, I have an even harder time trying to find any quality instruments at GC. There's one about a mile from my house but I've bought most of my new gear from the Sam Ash that was about 15 miles away, as they had a better selection, good salespeople and they were all fairly well set up. I've owned many brands/ models over the years and I know what I want but I HAVE to play that bass before I buy it. There's barely any competition here in Central Jersey, many small brick & mortars are gone. All that said, I'm itching for a 5 string so I'll give GC another chance- before they close down too.
Yup, that makes sense. Sad times for these guitar stores unfortunately. I'd be checking out sam ash one last time before they're finally gone too. (Maybe 30 days from now)
went to my local guitar center in bloomington MN recently for first time in a long time, looked at a used Ibanez... action needed definite work, a little gouge out of the body by one of the pick-ups, very dusty like it had been sitting out in someone's room uncared for GC used Price??? $355 Price of a brand new one? $429 so I left
I would love a medium sized, "by appointment only" guitar store. I dont want to sound mean but at my GC the employees basically just talk to each other and I dont see em working. Fire all of em. Hire 2 folks who are knowledgeable and make a store that is by appointment only. Then have a regular hour, no appointment room that only sells accessories.
I can totally respect that. Nice way to filter out the tire kickers. We're not running a public playground here, we're running a business 😂 It's amazing what you can do with quality staff over quantity.
@@TopShelfGear I have seen Mama's drop off kids at a music store, so many times like they were dropping them off at an amusement park. Ugh! Unthoughtful mama!!!/daddy!!! We used to bet on how many knobs and toggle nipples would be missing after a Saturday. Folks are thoughtless. And here are some gripes from a guy who thanks God he doesn't own a guitar store. Folks!!! Hey...If you wear a long sleeve shirt with buttons on the cuff can you please be intelligent enough to roll up your right sleeve. Those cuff buttons wreck a finish. Folks either don't know or don't care. Don't use a pick on a cedar top no pickguard acoustic! Eeeek Don't eat a bucket of fried chicken and then pickup every pricey guitar in the shop. If you tune something to drop D tune it back to pitch afterward. Etc...etc...
People just aren’t playing guitar like they used to . With the popularity of hip hop and rap it’s taken over mainstream. Unlike years ago Rock music was still popular and you had more people who wanted to learn guitar . So this is not just an online thing
Disagree, guitar is well in all music. I listen to all kinds of music, guitar is in rap, dance, edm, pop, rock, jazz, etc. I mean stuff that has come out in the past 3-4 years too. Taylor Swift I think is leading a charge for it. Doja Cat has guitar in her stuff, Harry Styles, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lemar, Lizzo, etc.
@@deshawn4077 I agree but honestly if you compare the 80s to about 2010 music has really changed ! I remembered in the early 2000s there were a shit load of nu metal bands ! Now it’s kinda making some comeback but just not as mainstream as it was .
Just my opinion, I feel guitar center should try to get guitars in as many hands as possible. By that, I mean the beginning to intermediate player not everyone shopping there is a professional musician. Give the kids a product they can afford. I remember as a kid I did more wishing than buying but back then there was no Internet. I finally got my first real guitar when I was 19 but my parents had two acoustic guitars in the house so I played those,guess I was lucky looking back now... Now I'm 58 and am teaching my grandkids how to play SOOO ... It is what it is I suppose....
That's fair. I think having some entry level gear is important. Nothing wrong with that. I can also understand the perception that when you walk in, you see too much entry level it can be off putting for guys that do want to throw down on some higher end gear. Like I mentioned in the video if they could just improve the in store service and get a better selection it would be a great start.
@@TopShelfGear oh I absolutely agree with you, I'm from Tulsa and when I was younger the guys took the time to show us bonehead kids what was what and how stuff worked offered lessons all that kind of stuff, made us feel at home... If that makes sense. God that was sooooo long ago,but at 59 I'm still playing ... Lol
More mid level affordable gear and employees who seem like they enjoy music and guitar and i'd go back to guitar center. When i bought my first electric i was there for 3 hours playing every guitar on the shelf until i found the one i wanted, and the employees wanted to find that guitar for me and didn't care how long it took.
I definitely think there are a multiple of issues, and it was only a matter time before they all stacked up on top of each other. Firstly, the employees. They run on commission, and that almost never works. I am totally NOT saying everyone, but some in this next generation dont really want to work hard (and those of us who do are quite frustrated!). But, Guitar Center takes most of the blame, since they are not providing adequate salaries for those who truly care about the hobby/lifestyle. Second, like others have said, Rock and Roll really isnt the biggest selling thing anymore. I remember getting so frustrated because nothing on the radio is worth learning on guitar. Its all dram pads and I IV V progressions. Finally, covid hit. That brought a bunch of people into the hobby, but no one could look into stores. And, online ordering became way more popular. GC thought their target was beginners, which didnt end up working for them because many didnt continue playing after covid. I mean look at malls, they all are struggling too. Why buy overpriced stuff when you can get it cheaper online? Storefronts are really hurting. With that being said, GC really brought it upon themselves honestly with some of the shady practices they do and how they treat their employees.
All strong points! well said. Having done commission only retail myself for over a decade I completely understand that. With living costs being as high as they are, employees need some stability. Yes there are some lazy people out there but employees need to be taken care of.
I see no benefits to buying a guitar from GC rather than simply ordering one from Amazon. I recently visited my GC and not one, let me repeat! Not one! guitar had a proper nut height. It is an objective industry standard btw. Even the pricey stuff had nut heights over .045" Its like going to a car dealership but none of the cars are actually driveable and the saleman says, " well before the car is driveable you will need to have it serviced" That logic is absurd. GC knows this and does not allow ANY employees to fix a guitar so it is playable.
@@TopShelfGear it is a pet peeve. As a young guy( a zillion years ago) I was an authorized service tech for multiple guitar brands. (Luthier is not the correct term btw) I was a repair technician. My tasks also included setting up instruments and EVERY guitar, whether a 2k$ Mossman or a 100$ Hondo got a full set up. Those days are gone and frankly I see that as the only benefit to buying locally. I see new opportunities though. Perhaps guitar shops should focus on offering what internet sales can not offer. 1) practice rooms 2) guitar modification and set up 3) workshops and mini concerts 4) lessons And #5 Encouragement
I dunno, I'm a very seasoned player, I like what I like, I KNOW what I want, and walking into a GC to have some sales guy pushing me to "play authentic" and buy an overpriced Gibson when I'm there checking out delay pedals...I don't need the hassle.
Definitely fair points. Experienced sales guys will be able to read that and not try to push any unnecessary products on you. It all comes down to having the right staff in place with proper training.
I'll be honest, they've never been that great. We all just had shiny ball syndrome, and saw all the flashy pizzazz, and overlooked the fact they are the Dollar General of instrument sales. I once had an argument with a sales associate who claimed new guitars don't need setups. None of them. "All of them come setup, even the budget guitars." Is literally what he said to me. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT LET THEM WORK ON YOUR STUFF. Even basic things. Nope. Nope. Nope. I can't imagine why they're failing
Yeah I hear you on that for sure. That's non sense about no need for a setup I've picked up American fenders in stores before with sharp fret ends. Most cases a person is going to want it setup for their individual needs too. Yeah I'd never let them work on my guitars lol
@@TopShelfGear😂😂😂 I fixed my own ibanez s370. Replaced the floyd rose nut (lost the original locking pads) and swapped out the stock PUPs with dimarzio. That guitar was under $300 new 23 years ago and I wouldn't trust a GC "tech" despite it being a cheap guitar!
$700 - $1500 is not midrange. These days, a good midrange would be $500-$900. The day anything above $1000 is considered midrange is the day when the economy is doomed.
Tomas, I hear where you're coming from. I think of Fender as a good benchmark for pricing. Good example of a low, medium, high version of a guitar. Squire strat MIM Strat American strat I'd say the MIM is a good example of "mid range" gear but in the present times, MIM fenders are going for $700-1,200. That's middle of the road. Great guitars, but again still mid level. Look at Epiphone, I mean sure they have made some improvements but I can't view any Chinese made guitar at any level beyond mid range at best. Epiphone has les pauls going for $1,299 lol Maybe we could call that "upper mid range" but still mid regardless. Defining these "ranges" of gear is of course very subjective, so not intending to spark a huge debate.
I’m not trying to knock the employees at guitar center BUT there is a red flag when buying new products there. I bought a Mexico fender strat during guitar athon. Got it on sale , exactly what I was looking for a humbucker fender strat. I took it home straight from the wall and can’t complain there. It’s the perfect guitar for me but didn’t come with a box but the guys in store gave me a free hard case that was lying around from a dude that sold some gear the day before. Got the guitar n fell in love with it it’s actually great I didn’t have to wait for it. I took it home that day. A few weeks later I go back in store to buy a few pedals brand new. This is where I say beware: I noticed the employee try to snag the warranty card from my pedal box and try to up sale me guitar center insurance on the product. I was like what’s that can you put it in the box and he said my bad n put it in the box. When I got home I opened everything n it was the warranty card for the pedal from the manufacturer. Now I’m glad I asked for it to be put in the box cuz it probably wouldn’t have been in there if I wasn’t paying attention. This is my story just beware of the up sale on insurance from guitar center n make sure you get your warranty cards. That’s my only issue but the guitar and gear I bought is superb n I am enjoying them to the fullest and prefer in store experience to get out the house n hang out. Other than the up sale of insurance gear I’d give customer service a 7 out of 10. The score would be higher if they didn’t try to up sale me on things with warranty. I’d give the quality of product an 8.5 out of 10 for my in store purchase tho. I was a happy camper when I plugged in my new guitar n didn’t have to wait for in to be delivered. All in all I’d still shop in store for whatever I need n if they don’t got it in stock, I’d order it from the register to help out my local store.
Wow glad the MIM strat worked out! I have a MIM HH strat I got used from GC as well and it was mint condition zero issues. That warranty card situation sound super shady! I definitely am against the sales associates being highly pressured into pushing the pro coverage warranty, its just such a shameless money grab. Tons of room for improvement, I hope to see the day for GC to get things right.
Close the damn franchise. Every time I’ve gone in I’ve always gotten the shhtiest attitudes from workers. Not to mention most of them don’t even know shht like FUHHH! You don’t know anything and you can’t be professional why are you even working here!?!
I totally feel you on that. I think its fair to say with the reputation for GC having unfriendly/unhelpful salespeople its going to be a miracle to see them turn that around 180 degrees. Very unfortunate sadly!
Yeah I can't say I have had the best experiences there myself but without a doubt every retailer does have some guys that have been there for years that actually care about the job and want to provide good service. GC just needs to improve their consistency if they hope to keep the doors open.
@@TopShelfGear overall, GC is a high school job. It’s not meant to be a career like fast food. So I can see where most of their employees frustrations come from
Lots of good points here. Guitar Center used to be a place of great service and they need to bring that back if they want to have any chance of staying in business. Staff used to be knowledgeable music enthusiasts, but now they are largely teenagers looking to do the bare minimum. They need to start with training staff to set up guitars on the floor. One of my local Guitar Centers has used guitars with rusted strings/pickups and new guitars with unplayable setups. I picked up a new tele that had the pickups so high that the strings touched the pickups when fretting a note. Would you trust a shop with instruments on the floor in that condition to work on your guitar?
Thanks for checking it out. It really is sad to see the decline in quality service over the years. Training is absolutely critical. They need to get people that have the sales experience and the willingness to learn. I have actually trained tons of salespeople in retail over the years. Some of them can learn and excel, but others will often give up and miss out on the opportunity. Yeah strong point too, the guitars NEED to be playable off the wall. No rusted strings and action so high you can park a truck under there lol
Depends what GC you go to mine in my area they are all musicians. But honestly people don’t want to be bothered if they don’t want to . People know what they want that old customer service is old fashioned.
Guitar Center: You have questions? We have blank stares...
"You've never played guitar? You don't own any guitars? You'd be a perfect salesman for the guitar section! Welcome aboard!"
I went to a GC looking fo an SG and you could tell the manager had a thing for 19 year old chicks with way too many tattoos. How little they knew made the visit quite uncomfortable.
Ahhhhhh man 🤦♂️
all correct takes -- i work at guitar center. unfortunately, there's little to no chance they will increase their pay practices for employees, even for the high earners. in fact, they cut commission for salespeople almost 50% last year.
That's so frustrating man, I 100% understand your pain. I have worked for some really horrible retailers and its sickening that so many refuse to pay survivable wages. I just don't understand how can companies complain about staffing issues within the service industry and yet they keep throat slitting the salespeople. Which if you think about, the salespeople are the frontline guys putting in work to drive the sales volume which is THE most important thing for any business. Folks at the higher up level don't produce ANY sales results themselves but yet they get to work behind the scenes to cook up new pay plans to diminish the earnings of salespeople.
I went to Guitar Center and bought my kid who is just starting out a bass rig. While I was there, I saw a really nice Les Paul Custom that I wanted to take for a spin. It was all the way up on the top of the wall and I couldn't get someone to help me to get it off the wall. All the sales guys were tied up with low end purchases. It's possible I might have bought the guitar if I'd gotten it in my hands. That's the experience in a nutshell. As it is, there are several nice small shops within a reasonable drive where I can get the personal experience and who would be far more appreciative of my business. There's no reason to do business with Guitar Center.
That's totally understandable. Talk about low hanging fruit 😂 lol Great that you have that local option for smaller shops!
I’ve become less and less of a Guitar Center fan as the years have gone by.
I had some time to kill the other day so I popped into one. I was impressed to see they had a number of Gibson ES 335s (I’m a bit of an enthusiast; I own two myself, and I never see them at Guitar Center).
I asked to play the most expensive one they had ($6000 signature model) and the thing wasn’t even set up; it may as well have been a $300 guitar.
Now I get that they’re not gonna set up every guitar that makes it to the shelf but how can you expect someone to drop $6000 on a guitar when it plays horribly 🤷🏻♂️
And that's exactly it, these issues while many could consider them "small" issues they all add up to big issues that tank the business. They have to improve these standards if there's any hope to keep the stores alive.
For a long time the instrument stores in my town only carried the cheapest stuff, up to $1200. Yeah I know $1200 is a lot of money, but on the guitar price spectrum it's still low. So people were kind of fed up with that state of affairs, always complaining like "man, I gotta drive X amount of time to just see a PRS in person and I might not even like it." That kinda thing. A friend of mine had this crazy idea, hey let's open a boutique gear store. So he did. No Indonesian or Chinese stuff, just USA or Japan made, some German made Duesenbergs, USA/Canada made amps, and so on. It worked. People who wanted to spend extra on premium gear would come to him, and he's running a nice sustainable business. Same for the other stores, they can keep their focus on the affordable stuff and their customers are happy as well. You can't cater to everyone, and musicians are not all the same target.
Very well said! All good points. I'm glad to hear that it's going well for him! I have found quite a few small boutique dealers I really like for the high end stuff (aka top shelf gear lol)
It's all about service with me. I went in to get some strings for my 6 string basses and had some questions. Nobody approached me and when I did flag somebody down they did not know anything about basses. They were too busy chatting with their friends
With Amazon Prime delivery, there really is not a reason to go back, especially if you are not a guitar player
Bad service, bad selection, overall bad experience 🙁
Staff need to be customer service trained starting from the top down. Staff will get that from training then compensating them based on that training and continued training (hopefully using Manager Tools) during annual reviews. Home Depot is a prime example. Customer service was terrible while Lowes was great (they train their employees in being customer service oriented). Now Home Depot staff bend over backward to help you because of training. Customer service rules the roost when it comes to sales. There will always be the 'attitude' person. Put them on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Meet with them once a month to check on progress.
Agreed! Training is critical. Bad service= no success in sales.
GC does feel cold and distant to me. I'm lucky to live a 5 minute drive from a good neighborhood guitar shop.
Fair points, definitely nice to have a quality local shop nearby!
I have almost no reason to go to Guitar Center, and prefer the staff at my local Music-Go-Round. I play extra long scale 6 string basses and can't even get a proper set of strings there, let alone ones I'd prefer. The bass section is always sad, and I've never seen any amps I've wanted to try on display. Cables, stands, and accessories are overpriced, so they only get my business if I need something like that the same day.
Guitar Center is the reason I started shopping at Sweetwater, where I prefer to go for new gear. I had ordered an amp GC said would be in within a couple weeks, but that quickly turned into a couple months, so I cancelled that order when I saw Sweetwater had several in stock. Haven't looked back since.
As a former Guitar Center employee, I will not miss them if they fail. Can say the same of GameStop.
Totally fair points! Thanks for sharing your experience.
It is NOT to late for Guitar Center! I was a former employee of a GC in Northern NJ, and it was a GREAT job. After reading Guitar Center's newest CEO Gabe Dalporto's interview, he is right in what he said. In order to close a sale on a high end beautiful Custom Shop Tom murphy aged Gibson Les Paul, PRS latest Dragon, or a Custom shop 1954 relic Fender Strat. The customer must be allowed to Demo the instrument without obstacles. After that if the customer "LIKES" the instrument, it must be asked. Would he or she would like to finance the guitar interest free with a Guitar Center credit card, trade ins, or the customer's own personal funds. It can be that easy.
Let's hope GC can make a comeback! Yup definitely agree people need to have the chance to put hands on the top shelf gear lol
Guitar center doesn't care about me so why should I care about it?
Dang this one right here lol 😆
Honestly the lack of variety is what kills me about it. If you go in there wanting anything that even remotely stray away from a squier strat or epiphone les Paul they look at you like you're out of your mind for thinking they would have it. I went to see if one near me had a basic case for a V and he just chuckled and was like "oh ho no." Like a V is not that far out of the realm of having a case for. The one near me has been bad about not even having basic Ernie ball strings. Getting simple things same day is the biggest reason I still go at this point and can't even get that.
When I was looking to buy a reasonably priced acoustic guitar a few years ago, I ordered a low-end Martin from GC. I went to pick it up, and not only was it not prepped to show to a customer, the strings were barely put on - they were hanging off. So I had to basically string it and tune it myself. Then the action was awful, so I just said I don't want it. I went into their acoustic room, and even the high-end guitars I tried were not set up well enough to even assess them. So I went down the street to an independent shop, and there were several cheap options that were set up to play really well. GC is the Walmart of guitars. Also, the employees always call you "dude" or "bro," which is really annoying.
Totally fair points. Retailers already struggling enough as is in the modern digital age. They need to elevate their service standards if they want to have any hopes to survive. All guitars should get at least SOME basic setup before hitting the sales floor. Who wants to pay for something unplayable? such a shame
Amen! Don't call me " bruh"
And please learn basic salesmanship.
For instance:
Never say, " can I help you?" Every good sales book and seminar will tell you that.
Instead, you approach the customer introduce yourself and let them know you are available if they need you.
Dang! That is salesmanship 101 but NEVER have I witnessed it at GC.
they lock all the 1000+ guitars with locks i couldnt try them. I asked for help to try on a 214ce plus model and they couldnt find anyone to unlock it because only 1 person in the store has keys lol
Wooooow yep that's a problem. That just creates customer irritation and people will just leave and order online
Their customer service is trash
Was at Guitar Center a few weeks ago and one their employees was playing guitar. A customer came up and asked if he worked there. The kid said yeah, I am but I am on my break. And just went right back to playing.
@@BassGuitar4life this is a huge issue with retail, no leadership, no training, no quality staff, no motivation to make a sale. SMH 😤
If I were GC, I would put the door person back up front to greet customers and minimize theft, then I would FULLY stock the acoustic guitar section with quality brands like Tayler, Martin, Gibson, Epiphone, Yamaha etc., Then I would go to the electric guitar wall of shame, I mean wall of fame, and start thinning out the heard replacing cheap poorly made guitars with more iconic brands like Fender, Gibson, Music Man, Schecter , just to name a few. I would also allow customers the ability to negotiate price like they were able to back in the day! Then I would educate my staff regarding how to post an effective used guitar add online, one that will get the item sold sooner rather than later. The ad would have to include CLEAR photos of all sides of the guitar and the description must have as many details as possible such as the guitar's make, model number, year produced, country of manufacturer, type of woods used and any applicable electronics/pre-amp types the guitar has. I would also have a consistent grading system like "poor" "good" "very good" "excellent" and "mint" and have set rules on how to rank the guitar properly and using a one inch arrow or something like that in the photos to point out any applicable flaws to insure the highest level of disclosure is achieved. Last of all, I would find out why the website GCdotcom and MFdotcom take so long to load and I would have that fixed. In my opinion these websites should load at least as fast as their competitor's websites! Please note, I am a guitar player which is why this review has a guitar player's bias!
Excellent points! Thanks for sharing. Selection has to improve, need better staffing. I'm with you on the used condition grading I have returned several used guitars over the years from GC due to totally inaccurate condition levels. They need to stop shooting photos with a potato as well lol
Exactly! Let's face it, no guitar store is perfect but GCs solutions are not rocket science. Greatly appreciate your quick reply!
Absolutely! thanks again for checking out the video and sharing your feedback!
I must love in a weird town. My GC has polite and attentive people working there. We only have about 4 music stores in this town that are worth a darn and GC is one of the two good ones.
Here is how i see the CEO's comments. The housing and car industries have moved to only building new construction homes and new vehicles that only the very wealthy can afford. They are still making profit, and a lot more. It doesnt make sense for them to build entey level things that dont have a high profit margin.
I totally understand why he only wants top shelf guitars and amps, but it sucks at the same time.
Same the guitar center in my area, has good selection of all price ranges of guitars and a expensive room with high end guitars, and the staff are nice and know their stuff.
I love my local guitar center, I've gotten almost half of my guitars from there, and my favorite one is a mid-priced Charvel I got on sale for just under 1k. The guitar tech there is super cool, he sets up my guitars nice and was willing to teach me some of the easier setup/repair tricks early on so I could do it myself. I've had nothing but positive experiences with everything guitar center has "delivered" to me in terms of providing quality on the things I've paid for.
That being said, good GOD do I dread going there to buy things. I don't have any local boutique shops near me, so guitar center is my go-to when I'm in need of a pack of strings or something along those lines. What should be a quick 5-minute stop turns into a 20+ minute ORDEAL because of how horribly understaffed and poorly laid out the store is. The store has two central islands with two registers on each one. You'd think this would help with traffic flow and giving people more options to check out, but it does the opposite. With no line queue, employees end up helping whoever's pushiest first and you end up with swarms of people on all sides of the island hoping to get chosen to check out. Then, if you're lucky enough to check out, the process of swiping your card takes at least 3-4 minutes due to slow, outdated systems taking forever to process your card. Then you have to give them your phone number, say no to the insurance package, you get the picture. All the while, the phone rings endlessly because all staff are stuck checking out customers and it doesn't stop ringing until someone picks it up. I feel horrible for the employees, they do their best, but it looks like Hell.
Like I said, I love guitar center but I would shop literally anywhere else if it was close to me at this point. They need to hire at least double the staff and re-format the layout of their stores. Plus, everything that was also mentioned in the video.
They've got a long way to go, to say the least...
Thank you for sharing your experience! I can totally agree with those points. There's absolutely no reason anyone should have a major checkout hassle when it comes to buying strings. This has happened to me so many times. For the employees that want to be there, that want to succeed they MUST be taken care of for all they have to put up with. Lets hope to see some more improvements in the future!
THe guitar center where I am has a checkout in the repair/music book area, in the PA/recording area, in the drum room, in the acoustic room, two in the guitar area, one in the lessons area, and two at the main counter.
I agree with the “shock and awe” statement, it made me buy more gear back in the day when it was a playground, on a whim even I would buy something even if I could not afford what I was there to look at. Now you walk in, almost nothing on display, if it is, it’s not hooked up, and kind of depressing now, sad.
Yep, you want the customer to feel that "wow" factor when they come in. While I am in favor of customers being able to try things at the same time they need to be respectful of in store gear and handle carefully. The tire kicking sunday crowd that comes in to goof around, make a mess, and go order online need to do their part as a consumer and order from a store level when possible. Especially when the salespeople actually provide quality service.
I wouldn't buy an expensive guitar from GC. They've all been beat on. As much as i hate buying on-line, Sweetwater will send a new guitar with the 55 point inspection. I realize the inspection is not a setup but it still has value.
Valid point! I can totally understand that. Basic setups really should be standard in all guitar stores before they even go on the wall.
Still played on from Sweetwater by the techs. The guitar center where I live tries to do a good job of not letting people just beat on the guitars, especially the expensive ones.
GC should have thought about this when they decided to put all there stores hours away from everyone and charge premium prices. Ill continue to purchase online from the more reasonably priced vendors.
strong point as well! I can understand that
As a bass player, I have an even harder time trying to find any quality instruments at GC. There's one about a mile from my house but I've bought most of my new gear from the Sam Ash that was about 15 miles away, as they had a better selection, good salespeople and they were all fairly well set up. I've owned many brands/ models over the years and I know what I want but I HAVE to play that bass before I buy it. There's barely any competition here in Central Jersey, many small brick & mortars are gone. All that said, I'm itching for a 5 string so I'll give GC another chance- before they close down too.
Yup, that makes sense. Sad times for these guitar stores unfortunately. I'd be checking out sam ash one last time before they're finally gone too. (Maybe 30 days from now)
went to my local guitar center in bloomington MN recently for first time in a long time, looked at a used Ibanez...
action needed definite work, a little gouge out of the body by one of the pick-ups, very dusty like it had been sitting out in someone's room uncared for
GC used Price??? $355
Price of a brand new one?
$429
so I left
Right! again totally absurd pricing. I'm sure the guy that sold it to them was severely low balled like $125 probably
@@TopShelfGear just to be sure I re-looked up the price of the used Ibanez, it was $349.99....just to be fair....still not good
I would love a medium sized, "by appointment only" guitar store.
I dont want to sound mean but at my GC the employees basically just talk to each other and I dont see em working.
Fire all of em. Hire 2 folks who are knowledgeable and make a store that is by appointment only.
Then have a regular hour, no appointment room that only sells accessories.
I can totally respect that. Nice way to filter out the tire kickers. We're not running a public playground here, we're running a business 😂
It's amazing what you can do with quality staff over quantity.
@@TopShelfGear I have seen Mama's drop off kids at a music store, so many times like they were dropping them off at an amusement park. Ugh! Unthoughtful mama!!!/daddy!!!
We used to bet on how many knobs and toggle nipples would be missing after a Saturday.
Folks are thoughtless.
And here are some gripes from a guy who thanks God he doesn't own a guitar store.
Folks!!! Hey...If you wear a long sleeve shirt with buttons on the cuff can you please be intelligent enough to roll up your right sleeve. Those cuff buttons wreck a finish. Folks either don't know or don't care.
Don't use a pick on a cedar top no pickguard acoustic! Eeeek
Don't eat a bucket of fried chicken and then pickup every pricey guitar in the shop.
If you tune something to drop D tune it back to pitch afterward.
Etc...etc...
People just aren’t playing guitar like they used to . With the popularity of hip hop and rap it’s taken over mainstream. Unlike years ago Rock music was still popular and you had more people who wanted to learn guitar . So this is not just an online thing
Totally valid point as well!
Disagree, guitar is well in all music. I listen to all kinds of music, guitar is in rap, dance, edm, pop, rock, jazz, etc. I mean stuff that has come out in the past 3-4 years too. Taylor Swift I think is leading a charge for it. Doja Cat has guitar in her stuff, Harry Styles, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lemar, Lizzo, etc.
@@deshawn4077 I agree but honestly if you compare the 80s to about 2010 music has really changed ! I remembered in the early 2000s there were a shit load of nu metal bands ! Now it’s kinda making some comeback but just not as mainstream as it was .
Just my opinion, I feel guitar center should try to get guitars in as many hands as possible. By that, I mean the beginning to intermediate player not everyone shopping there is a professional musician. Give the kids a product they can afford. I remember as a kid I did more wishing than buying but back then there was no Internet. I finally got my first real guitar when I was 19 but my parents had two acoustic guitars in the house so I played those,guess I was lucky looking back now... Now I'm 58 and am teaching my grandkids how to play SOOO ... It is what it is I suppose....
That's fair. I think having some entry level gear is important. Nothing wrong with that. I can also understand the perception that when you walk in, you see too much entry level it can be off putting for guys that do want to throw down on some higher end gear. Like I mentioned in the video if they could just improve the in store service and get a better selection it would be a great start.
@@TopShelfGear oh I absolutely agree with you, I'm from Tulsa and when I was younger the guys took the time to show us bonehead kids what was what and how stuff worked offered lessons all that kind of stuff, made us feel at home... If that makes sense. God that was sooooo long ago,but at 59 I'm still playing ... Lol
More mid level affordable gear and employees who seem like they enjoy music and guitar and i'd go back to guitar center. When i bought my first electric i was there for 3 hours playing every guitar on the shelf until i found the one i wanted, and the employees wanted to find that guitar for me and didn't care how long it took.
Yup! All valid points 👉
I definitely think there are a multiple of issues, and it was only a matter time before they all stacked up on top of each other.
Firstly, the employees. They run on commission, and that almost never works. I am totally NOT saying everyone, but some in this next generation dont really want to work hard (and those of us who do are quite frustrated!). But, Guitar Center takes most of the blame, since they are not providing adequate salaries for those who truly care about the hobby/lifestyle.
Second, like others have said, Rock and Roll really isnt the biggest selling thing anymore. I remember getting so frustrated because nothing on the radio is worth learning on guitar. Its all dram pads and I IV V progressions.
Finally, covid hit. That brought a bunch of people into the hobby, but no one could look into stores. And, online ordering became way more popular. GC thought their target was beginners, which didnt end up working for them because many didnt continue playing after covid. I mean look at malls, they all are struggling too. Why buy overpriced stuff when you can get it cheaper online? Storefronts are really hurting.
With that being said, GC really brought it upon themselves honestly with some of the shady practices they do and how they treat their employees.
All strong points! well said. Having done commission only retail myself for over a decade I completely understand that. With living costs being as high as they are, employees need some stability. Yes there are some lazy people out there but employees need to be taken care of.
Executives owning STOCK in the company destroyed everything.
sad times we live in man :(
I see no benefits to buying a guitar from GC rather than simply ordering one from Amazon.
I recently visited my GC and not one, let me repeat! Not one! guitar had a proper nut height. It is an objective industry standard btw.
Even the pricey stuff had nut heights over .045"
Its like going to a car dealership but none of the cars are actually driveable and the saleman says, " well before the car is driveable you will need to have it serviced"
That logic is absurd.
GC knows this and does not allow ANY employees to fix a guitar so it is playable.
Best analogy I have ever heard about the un drivable car! Hahaha so well said
@@TopShelfGear it is a pet peeve.
As a young guy( a zillion years ago) I was an authorized service tech for multiple guitar brands. (Luthier is not the correct term btw) I was a repair technician.
My tasks also included setting up instruments and EVERY guitar, whether a 2k$ Mossman or a 100$ Hondo got a full set up.
Those days are gone and frankly I see that as the only benefit to buying locally.
I see new opportunities though. Perhaps guitar shops should focus on offering what internet sales can not offer.
1) practice rooms
2) guitar modification and set up
3) workshops and mini concerts
4) lessons
And #5 Encouragement
I heard that GC is closing a few stores. Has anyone heard anything?
I'm sure they must have especially stores performing below average. The overhead is just so costly.
I dunno, I'm a very seasoned player, I like what I like, I KNOW what I want, and walking into a GC to have some sales guy pushing me to "play authentic" and buy an overpriced Gibson when I'm there checking out delay pedals...I don't need the hassle.
Definitely fair points. Experienced sales guys will be able to read that and not try to push any unnecessary products on you. It all comes down to having the right staff in place with proper training.
I'll be honest, they've never been that great. We all just had shiny ball syndrome, and saw all the flashy pizzazz, and overlooked the fact they are the Dollar General of instrument sales. I once had an argument with a sales associate who claimed new guitars don't need setups. None of them. "All of them come setup, even the budget guitars." Is literally what he said to me. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT LET THEM WORK ON YOUR STUFF. Even basic things. Nope. Nope. Nope. I can't imagine why they're failing
Yeah I hear you on that for sure. That's non sense about no need for a setup I've picked up American fenders in stores before with sharp fret ends. Most cases a person is going to want it setup for their individual needs too. Yeah I'd never let them work on my guitars lol
Guitar center doesn’t even have a Luther to properly set up an acoustic guitar !?
man shoot, I wouldn't let any GC tech touch any of my guitars. No freaking way lol
@@TopShelfGear😂😂😂 I fixed my own ibanez s370. Replaced the floyd rose nut (lost the original locking pads) and swapped out the stock PUPs with dimarzio. That guitar was under $300 new 23 years ago and I wouldn't trust a GC "tech" despite it being a cheap guitar!
Do you guys know that Sam ash is owned by guitar center? You know that right?
You should have more subscribers. I'm gonna check out your other videos.
Appreciate the support 🙏 🙂
@@TopShelfGear I literally just finished watching this one.
Guitar Center is gonna be like the Dicks sporting goods kinda store it’s the only one left . GC not going anywhere
That's a good analogy! I could see it sticking around for a while. Still hope they can get back on course and turn things around but we'll see...
@@TopShelfGear yes me too man !
Real musicians do not rely on guitar center lol
Real musicians get that free brand endorsement 😂
GC is good for overpriced picks and strings. That's about it.
:( sad times
$700 - $1500 is not midrange. These days, a good midrange would be $500-$900. The day anything above $1000 is considered midrange is the day when the economy is doomed.
Tomas, I hear where you're coming from. I think of Fender as a good benchmark for pricing. Good example of a low, medium, high version of a guitar.
Squire strat
MIM Strat
American strat
I'd say the MIM is a good example of "mid range" gear but in the present times, MIM fenders are going for $700-1,200. That's middle of the road. Great guitars, but again still mid level. Look at Epiphone, I mean sure they have made some improvements but I can't view any Chinese made guitar at any level beyond mid range at best. Epiphone has les pauls going for $1,299 lol Maybe we could call that "upper mid range" but still mid regardless. Defining these "ranges" of gear is of course very subjective, so not intending to spark a huge debate.
Did Sam Ash go too high end ?
Man I went in there yesterday (just posted video) was an absolute disaster. Pitiful 5% off when closing for good is a joke.
I’m not trying to knock the employees at guitar center BUT there is a red flag when buying new products there. I bought a Mexico fender strat during guitar athon. Got it on sale , exactly what I was looking for a humbucker fender strat. I took it home straight from the wall and can’t complain there. It’s the perfect guitar for me but didn’t come with a box but the guys in store gave me a free hard case that was lying around from a dude that sold some gear the day before. Got the guitar n fell in love with it it’s actually great I didn’t have to wait for it. I took it home that day. A few weeks later I go back in store to buy a few pedals brand new. This is where I say beware: I noticed the employee try to snag the warranty card from my pedal box and try to up sale me guitar center insurance on the product. I was like what’s that can you put it in the box and he said my bad n put it in the box. When I got home I opened everything n it was the warranty card for the pedal from the manufacturer. Now I’m glad I asked for it to be put in the box cuz it probably wouldn’t have been in there if I wasn’t paying attention. This is my story just beware of the up sale on insurance from guitar center n make sure you get your warranty cards. That’s my only issue but the guitar and gear I bought is superb n I am enjoying them to the fullest and prefer in store experience to get out the house n hang out. Other than the up sale of insurance gear I’d give customer service a 7 out of 10. The score would be higher if they didn’t try to up sale me on things with warranty. I’d give the quality of product an 8.5 out of 10 for my in store purchase tho. I was a happy camper when I plugged in my new guitar n didn’t have to wait for in to be delivered. All in all I’d still shop in store for whatever I need n if they don’t got it in stock, I’d order it from the register to help out my local store.
Wow glad the MIM strat worked out! I have a MIM HH strat I got used from GC as well and it was mint condition zero issues. That warranty card situation sound super shady! I definitely am against the sales associates being highly pressured into pushing the pro coverage warranty, its just such a shameless money grab. Tons of room for improvement, I hope to see the day for GC to get things right.
Never seen that before, bad. My warranty cards have been there when I bought pedals from guitar center
Close the damn franchise. Every time I’ve gone in I’ve always gotten the shhtiest attitudes from workers. Not to mention most of them don’t even know shht like FUHHH! You don’t know anything and you can’t be professional why are you even working here!?!
I totally feel you on that. I think its fair to say with the reputation for GC having unfriendly/unhelpful salespeople its going to be a miracle to see them turn that around 180 degrees. Very unfortunate sadly!
I think some stores are good and some are not.
@@TopShelfGearI am glad the guitar center I go to do not have those problems
Yeah I can't say I have had the best experiences there myself but without a doubt every retailer does have some guys that have been there for years that actually care about the job and want to provide good service. GC just needs to improve their consistency if they hope to keep the doors open.
@@TopShelfGear overall, GC is a high school job. It’s not meant to be a career like fast food. So I can see where most of their employees frustrations come from