BEWARE GUITAR CENTER INVENTORY?... How to SOLVE the Only REAL Problem with Guitar Center
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ค. 2024
- How to address the problem that "New" Guitars on the walls of Guitar Center have sometimes been played for many years, with scars and wear to prove it.
This video is in a series outlining the forgotten Advantages of Buying from Guitar Center, guitar identity, Guitar Center decline and RESURGENCE... a Guitar Center review outlining some benefits of buying from Guitar Center, and why it’s important in the wake of sam ash music stores closing and sam ash filing bankruptcy. Sam ash closing stores closing is sad, and sam ash going out of business is even worse, so we WE NEED TO PREVENT GUITAR CENTER CLOSING.
Luckily, there are great new developments like Guitar Center new ceo with Guitar Center corporate, Guitar Center Pedal Island, unlocking guitars, and more.
Why buy from Guitar Center?
...Try guitars before you buy, Guitar Center return policy, Guitar Center trade in (trade in at Guitar Center), and Guitar Center SERENDIPITY (guitar hunting at Guitar Center).
We've been talking about how to return guitars to guitar center, trade in guitar at guitar center, is guitar center trade in worth it, guitar center used gear, guitar center clearance sales, and more, all by way of real personal stories of guitar center community.
Personal stories will include my a scratch and dent Martin D28 that lived at my local guitar center for many years, as well as a Gibson J-45 that came into our guitar center, won my love, and nevertheless still lives on the wall at Guitar Center to this day.
At the end of the day, you do have to beware Guitar Center stock guitars, it is the problem with buying from guitar center. But if people weren't able to play the guitars, then it would kill everything better about a local store as compared to online. So what kind of world do you want to live in?
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Is this not the only REAL problem with Guitar Center?
30+ years ago I paid $2,250 for a guitar. (approximately $4,900 today) I had been playing guitar for several years. I walked into a Guitar Center in Atlanta picked up this well played guitar and at the first strum I was in love. I went to every guitar store in Atlanta and played their same model guitar, but kept going back to this slightly scratched guitar. I couldn't afford it but I bought it anyway. All of the bands I played with asked me what happened to my playing. I was so much better over night. It was that when you fall in love with a guitar it can change your life if you love playing in public. I am almost 79 years old and a still playing paying gigs all over the area because I fell in love with a guitar and sacrificed and bought it!
Awesome story!
The stories here amaze me as one of the things I found out about the US on several visits was the willing service aspects in any shop. From ice cream to camera shops in LA to New York it was 'hey we can do you a great deal, yep we'll sort that etc etc'. Here in NZ it's the opposite - you are likely to get 'Nah! it's buggered mate'. Mind you as a guitarist I don't care - if it plays well and sounds great I'll take it even if it has a repaired head break or someone has painted it sky blue with pink spots. Heck one of my great acoustic instruments turned up with a quarter of the x brace missing and a neck like a bannana - it was very cheap and, a not too expensive visit to the luthier later, it is a real gem. Understandable you want pristine if your instrument has to maintain its resale value but a lot of the 'player grade' guitars offer great value in my book. I am actually very wary of immaculate vintage instruments nowadays as that means they were very rarely used and I would wonder if they were poor examples - the 'Monday morning' guitar.
Visited my local Guitar Center in Rockville Maryland about a week ago. Low level employee was on a ladder messing with the guitars on the wall, when 5or 6 stratocasters Came Crashing Down onto the floor. I asked the manager what he was going to do with the guitars, and he told me they were going to sell them as scratch and dents. I went back went back a couple of days ago and there were no scratch and dent sales.... I'm betting they put them back on the wall
lol yeah maybe, but it's possible the scratch and dents got gobbled up before you got there
I only buy used guitars from GC. Over the years I've nabbed a J50, a D55, a Robert Cray Stratocaster, and a Martin nylon. Love them all. I've traded a few guitars with them over the years. On a few occasions they've actually commented that my used guitar was in better condition than most of their "new" guitars. The last time I tried buying a "new" guitar from GC (a telecaster), I paid for it online, and went to my local GC to pick it up. It was missing the switch cap, the output jack was loose and nearly falling out of the guitar, the neck had a *severe* concave bow, the finish had several dings and scratches, and the pickguard was scratched all to hell. All fixable, but I didn't even think about walking out of the shop with it. Had them refund on the spot. That was three years ago. Haven't even thought about buying "new" from GC since.
But the refund was painless, right?
@@BillySoundFarm Sure, but really that is table stakes at this point. Sweetwater has set the bar for customer service, and others are just catching up. The Sam Ash site looked (and functioned) like it was from the early 00's, and even their Sam Ash branded credit card was a royal pain. (Returns took 90 days to clear to your account. 90 days!) I honestly don't hate GC. Their biggest problem (besides what you have described) is they are letting all of their experienced people go, and replacing them with cheaper employees who don't know much/anything. So, I just stick to the gear I am specifically looking for. (Google alerts are our friends.) As long as you do the homework upfront, you can find some some absolute gems at great prices.
As big box shifters the store should have a demo model to play full stop, just like a car dealership, the only other solution i can think of is to restrict the playing of the instrument to only genuine customers who are willing to buy the instrument or pay a deposit to play it which can then be deducted upon purchase
Problem is that guitars aren't fungible. Cash is fungible. A blender is fungible. When you buy a blender, it doesn't matter which actual blender they give you, as long as it's the right make and model. Guitars aren't like that. Each guitar is its own special snowflake.
At my local Guitar Center they will check and see if they have a new one in the box.
That's what people don't get the guitar you pickup in store isn't the same as the brand spanking new one in box. It's and instrument not a car or a phone or a video game cosole where they accuracy on all the parts have such tight tolerances that they're practically the same thing no matter how many different new in box items you get. It's an instrument that is completely different from the next one.
You know if people would buy a carbon fiber mcpherson sable i dont think tops would be cracking as much, in my entire time of being a guitar player i have never seen an acoustic be outside in the canadian cold for 1 hour in -20c and then come inside the house with 21 C and never have a crack, and as for humidity... Well the only things affected are the strings if its too humid they gonna rust, if its too dry the guitar literally doesnt care, and the sound is really nice and even, i recommend taking a look at one, it doesnt matter where it has been it could sit near a volcano for 7 days and it would still be fine i have one and it sounds absolutely spectacular, i fell so in love with the sound i just had to have it, i wasnt aware at the time of the benefits over literally 96% of all the other acoustics and that is impervious to temperatures and humidity, and a construction so strong, not even chuck norris could punch a hole through it, its true there is a video on youtube of a guy standing on the guitar and then grabbing it, it plays just fine, they even put fireworks inside the guitar, not a single crack. To see a carbon fiber acoustic on the shop is like having an elephan step on your porsche, it just aint gonna happen, and theres nothing guitar center could do to make it a bad guitar this is the tanks of the acoustic world
I want to want a carbon fiber guitar, I like the idea, and I think some of them sound good, but I can't get my hat around the fact that the ones that sound almost as good as a real guitar are stupid expensive, so it defeats the purpose... I don't want to have a $3,000 or $4,000 guitar that I put into harm's way... I also don't want to spend that much for a plastic guitar in general lol... The ones that are affordable don't sound like real guitars, not really
@@BillySoundFarm Yes that is unfortunate, but having seen all the vintage acoustics and all the gibson snobs and with prices going even higher for a piece of history from 1950s and 1960s sometimes even costing as much as a house, it turns out $4,000 really is the least of our problems, i would pay another $4,000 for another Mcpherson sable in a heartbeat if mine got stolen, you know why? Because i truly do believe that someone out there, has paid for an original acoustic gibson guitar made somewhere in the 60s or 70s worth even more and then years later made the mistake of accidentally leaving it in a room where the temperature was not optimal, to me that is a museum piece, not workgear and as we all know we buy these to play them and use and enjoy them, not to look at them through a vitrine display, and even then today there are acoustic guitars that soar way beyond the $4,000 range, that have non of the benefits that in my opinion solidifies the structural integrity of the guitar
Unfortunate that the lower end carbon fibers dont really sound all that good, but i gotta tell you the mcpherson is incredibly good and it has also been pleked so the action will always be optimal no matter if its in the frozen tundras or an oven, and i know how it may seem like a really expensive investment but in 10 years time i think it would have been a worthwhile investment if i dont have to be worrying every single day about a 5 or 8 point difference in humidity or if the sun is hitting my room a certain way and heating it up too much and bringing fans or buying an AC system on top of the humidifiers around the house naaaa i'll leave that to the professionals, thankfully solidbody guitars are as stable as a metal pole too
I take a picture of the tag, search it online and buy it new.
Seems risky, how do you know the "new" one will be the same as the one you played and loved?
@@BillySoundFarm just as risky as getting it from the store. I don't know how beat up it's really gotten inside the store. Once the honeymoon phase is over you really see the defects.
1:35 LOL the guy who fixed it made it better than new haha
lol probably
You are right about guitars hanging on the wall. YMMV. I got a PRS SE McCarty 594 black gold single on sale off the wall and it was beautiful, not a scratch or dent on it. It had been hanging there for maybe 4 or 5 months. Think the 594s may not be as popular because of their thicker necks. I support my local GCs AMAP.
The GC in Tucson had a Jackson Dinky on sale like $100 off, maybe $200, as-is. The neck would've been great for opening wine bottles, or maybe for a hot wheels track. As a guitar? Well I ‘didn't feel the magic’ I guess.
GC sucks
So you didn't make the hot wheels track?!? 🔥
Is gc building Jackson guitars now?
I used to go into guitar center Tucson once a week when I lived there. I loved that place. They always had a great selection of vintage guitars. I'm not sure what you are talking about thinking that a bad neck from 1 manufacturer means a distributor sucks. But hey, I guess there is a reason they invented adult coloring books huh?
The problem with guitar center is plenty. However, the real problem is with their real high-end vintage guitars. When ignorant owners walk in with super expensive high-end vintage gems, they rarely get offered to the public. They’re always calling their celebrity musician contacts (I won’t mention any names) “Joe Bonamassa” before the really good stuff can ever hit the floor or their website.
I guess for that particular niche, high-end vintage guitars, it wouldn't be the best place to go shopping. I don't see how it'll be a reason not to shop there otherwise. Also, Sweetwater and Amazon and even most mom and pop shops would also not be a place you would find great rare vintage guitars.
@@BillySoundFarm Unfortunately that’s where the family members of the final owners of these guitars go because they don’t know any better. The store that had the guitar you’re looking for is the place to shop. If guitar center is going to be in the vintage game, offer these guitars to all your customers. That’s all I’m saying.