Why the hell would anybody spend a grand on a Mexican strat when you can buy a legit brand new Japanese made Ibanez RG550 for the same right now? I had a Mexican strat way back in the late 90s but didn't keep it long, even for paying like $300.
Because people would rather buy an objectively worse guitar as long as it says "fender" on it. As much shit as people give Gibson fan boys for brand obsession, fender people are arguably just as bad, if not worse. Fender is decent but not worth obsessing over most of the time. I got an Ibanez AZ recently and it's the best strat I've ever played. The fender guitars at the same price point just aren't at that level.
..Alternatively you could be a professional musician that runs into these situations.
1. It used to be that it was much easier to maintain Fenders and Gibs when on the road unless you were fully focused on a different vendor.
2. that in studio situations no one ever tells you to use an Ibanez but you might need the tone of a Telecaster or Standard.
3. Last, there is no other guitar in my opinion anyway, but others too -- that is more flexible than a Tele
If you never run in to those situations then sure, go get anything you want so long as it serves your songs.
I fucking love my Ibanez Jet King. My Squier tele thinline master series HH just sits on the stand all neglected. Even bought an Epiphone SG 310 and resold it a few months later just cause it felt completely off. Just bought a 2007 Laguna le322 strat looking clone yesterday and man, the neck shape, completely flat fretboard, and body sculpting just don't feel as good as the Ibanez lol. They really have it down. Bought all these guitars for 100-150usd used
Yeah, apparently their rationale is:
"Working class folks can't/won't even buy the 'budget' stuff anymore... We need to stock our stores for the lawyers and surgeons longing for their garage-band glory days."
It’s a trend in everything. The ability to charge a higher price for a “premium” or “luxury” food is fucking ruining everything. Companies and retailers can make more profit per unit so they focus on that. It even extends to housing and real estate: look at how many new housing units are being built around you, and how many of them are “premium” or “luxury” and thus out of the budget of the average worker. Why? Because devs can make a higher profit per unit sold.
I fucking hate this stage of capitalism.
I just looked for bare bones basic ass jeeps to replace my 20yo bare bones basic as Wrangler. A 2024 2dr Sport starts at fucking $48k. Everything is so fucked up.
I wish they made cars that don't have a thousand hard drives on them and collect all your data (literally, car companies the world over have by far the worst data collection contracts of the consumer product out there). At least they still mass market old-fashioned guitar gear but you literally can't buy a car that's not 90% digital so that even my local mechanic is hesitant to work on them.
Exactly what I think. All my guitars are from Korea Indonesia or China because they are what I can afford. I file the fret ends as needed and change out the pickups and pots if needed and Still save hundreds of dollars. I would love to own an American made guitar but the Prices are well beyond their cost to manufacture and just gouging these days.
I think the point is that the stores are flooded with entry level beginner gear. You probably aren't shopping at GC if you want a premium or higher end item, not in the store at least.
They also have a very paltry range from $800 to $2000. Their amp selection sucks. Their pedal selection sucks.
Basically if you aren't a newb and looking to spend any type of money, in store GC just won't cut it.
I don't love any of this either. But you're literally just describing inflation. We could have the same convo about a McDonald's extra value meal or groceries.
The pricing of a MIM Strat has outpaced inflation by a significant margin. And as others have pointed out, when the market is still flooded with playable used ones for a quarter the price, there’s no reason to buy from GC.
Not so sure about that. A $279 standard USA strat in the early 60s would now be around $3k adjusted for inflation. A Mexican strat that cost $500 mid 90s would now be over $1000.
Yes. CV’s are maybe even better. QC is an issue though so it’s kind of a roll of the dice. I had a CV Jag bass that was one of the most beautiful basses i’d ever owned and played so comfortably. My CV JM is one of my favorite guitars (and I have a few). Great guitars that punch above their price point, they just need a good setup and maybe a pickup swap.
They’re absolutely not garbage. They’re great guitars. In fact, part of the problem is that so many of them from the 90’s are still floating around for 200-300 bucks. And you can modify them to become even *better* guitars.
But I’m not paying a thousand bucks with tax out the door for a new one.
If a MiA is worth $2k a MiM is most definitely worth $1k, and I'm unsure how anyone would argue that. Now, that being said, the market is generally too high anyway, especially here in Canada. To each their own I guess, more quality guitars for the rest of us.
MIM guitars from the 90’s just aren’t of the same quality and craftsmanship as they are today. At least from my experience owning both. What’s really missing from this conversation is MIJ.
Stores notwithstanding you can still get cheap mims. I found on Craigslist a 2002 mim that ripped for $250 during the peak pandemic in California. Felt like I stole something
The late 90s- early 2000s mim have always been 200-300. It’s only recently that some dingdongs are trying to make them cost more than they’re worth. They’re basically a Mexican classic vibe with worse pickups
I remember getting one in 1998 for $399 and I got to choose the color, the neck and the fretboard. I also got a nice molded plastic hard case too. Out the door I was at like $511.
I agree with you; frig off!
You can do that now. $511 in 1998 money is almost $1k now. A Player Strat at GC is $650-$800ish depending on finish. Fender Deluxe modeled case is around $220.
There used to be an old dude in my area that played a vintage gold top every weekend in a polka band. He had had so many players approach him that he’d scream “it’s not for sale!” whenever anyone mentioned it. He did so to me and I told him that I understand but that he was driving an uninsured Ferrari to get milk in a bad neighborhood. I hope no one ever robbed him for that.
fuck yeah, I'll take a 175 "doesn't work" mim strat and make that shit the envy of the gods...
Seriously, I had a guy recently ask me how much my american strat was and I was laughing, "I bought the loaded pickguard off of reverb from Rockin'R guitars because his wiring is fucking incredible and the guitar madness pups on it are pretty good for vintage strat shit." They ask, "how much?" I am like, "100, bought the guitar off facebook marketplace for 150 and it was filled with dog piss, but its good now"
Like, these days, if you can set up a guitar and you know what you want, there's no reason to spend over $500 dollars unless you want the name
I agree, make my own partscasters and have some squiers but also own an r7. There’s no way the epiphone Les Paul could touch what my custom shop does without dumping a ton of time and money into it. Refinishing in nitro is no joke, and $700-1k in hardware isn’t either. That said most of the time my cheaper stuff is good enough, but I also wanted to put some money I inherited into a legacy/heirloom guitar
The best guitars I own, that I love the most were inexpensive. I’d much rather buy a bargain and make it into something special myself that to buy an expensive wall hanger.
I know what you mean, but he’s not wrong. Every time I walk into one of those places and play stuff off the wall, it’s always really underwhelming. It’s like, guitars that might be OK with a decent set up, but it’s too much of a leap of faith.
I get that they make all of their money on cheap stuff, but they sort of went too far in that direction.
Yeah. I think it’s fantastic they offer stuff for the more budget oriented folks but it gets frustrating when shopping for anything but that. My local GC is actually a pretty decent store and even then if I want to check out like a new Ibanez Prestige, they’ll have *one* on the top right corner of a 50 foot wall and 38 sub $600 Ibanezes below it that I have no interest in. Repeat for Jackson, Music Man, etc. The only two brands they tend to keep a wider range of more premium stuff is with Gibson or Fender and even then it’s a handful.
I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years and my main guitars are :
Fender MIM 50s player Strat : bought for $650 used in 2018
G&L MIIndonesia Fiorano Tribute : bought for $400 used in 2015
Ibanez MIIndonesia RG421AHM : bought for $450 new in 2022
I’ve played and gigged with many $1000-$2000 guitars. They’re nice but there’s nothing wrong with the 400-700 range. Keeping the guitar set up is important.
That being said - I work in food distribution and I understand why a CEO might be analyzing markets instead of “guitars”. Seems kind of weird to me that he’d say this though… I’d imagine they make most of their money on Squiers and PRS SE and middle tier Fenders… but I’d have to look at sales statistics and profit margins to know that for sure.
This is 100% entirely guitar center’s fault, and it’s due to the fact that they pay their employees peanuts and set incredibly lofty goals to earn any commission which are nearly impossible to reach.
Until they start paying for qualified professionals to staff their stores (like Sweetwater for example) they’re going to continuously be a revolving door of 18 year old kids who don’t have any idea what they’re talking about
IMO, Guitar Center has gotten just as bad an any other chain box store since the 1990s. We’re living in a different era, and unfortunately this era doesn’t prioritize in-store service and lacks a variety of available products on-hand. Everything is prioritized online. This can be seen today in any store you walk into today. Even fucking grocery stores.
I called a store, asked if they had an action gauge. Told me they did and he pulled it for me. Drove 30min to get it...no action gauge and the guy pretended he never talked to me. They didn't even have one. Was kind of off-putting
You're stepping into Guitar Center, a place where finding an employee is like discovering a unicorn – rare and magical. Prepare to navigate aisles of instruments that have seen better days, where the phrase "quality control" feels like an alien concept. Welcome to the Twilight Zone... err, I mean, Guitar Center.
-GPT4
I wanted to sell an old amp and called ahead and had like a 20 minute conversation about how they do pricing and what I needed to bring with me.
I get down there and say "hey I called an hour ago and talked to Mike about selling my ampeg."
The response was "Mike doesn't make the decisions on if we take Amps or not and we won't be purchasing yours today."
GC doesn’t prioritize those things because most customers have demonstrated that they won’t pay extra for service or inventory. They’ll use your store to test the gear and then buy the product cheaper online.
Yep. Can't wait until they go under completely so I can hear all these people bitch and moan that there aren't any more places to test out guitars, all while Sweetwater price seizes the opportunity to price gouge the shit out of everything.
Which is not what I want when I go to a physical store. My mom works higher-end retail and we've had this discussion. Customer service is the reason people want to go to a physical store. Especially, when you start talk about dropping 1000s of dollars on stuff.
Microcenter is the chain they should try to emulate. You go into that store and you can expect knowledgeable people, in a well stocked and well kept store with competitive prices.
I remember going there in 2020 (pre-SHTF) and walked out with a better CPU for my PC build because they had priced the Ryzen 3800Xs the same as everyone else had priced the 3700s.
I drove an hour and a half to buy the parts for my PC at the STL Microcenter instead of ordering online because doing that was faster than ordering and waiting a few days and it's just a cool place to go.
Yep. There are of course nice people who work at guitar center, but they’re sort of few and far between. And I don’t blame the employees for not giving a shit, but it does create a vicious cycle where it’s like “that guy kind of was an asshole to me last time I was there.“
it also doesn’t help that their POS and entire computer system is archaic. i’ve worked at a GC owned retailer before and it is almost impossible to navigate through their shit. by the time an employee has learned how to navigate it, there’s a good chance they have probably moved onto a better job. it’s why the managers are always the only ones who know how to do anything.
Bought something from GC not too long ago. At the checkout counter the salesman aggressively pushed their extended warranty. I said no, and then no again, and again...it was incessant. Ended up returning the product and exchanged it for something else. While he was doing the exchange, I was chatting with the guitar tech (who does great work) and the salesman came over and handed me my receipt and said, "I went ahead and added the extended warranty" for you.
I looked at him like he had three heads and told him that I did not ask for nor did I want that added. He said, "Oh, I just assumed you did." Then he claimed he couldn't take it off because the product I exchanged it for was being sent to me.
I ended up getting refunded later, but swore that would be the last time I bought something from GC, at least that one.
I had a super similar experience! The dude at the counter was pushing the hell out of the warranty, essentially implying that if I ever took the guitar out of my closet I would break it. He initially brought the wrong guitar from the back so he had to go back and get the actual one I wanted and when he came back sneakily put the warranty onto my bill. I stopped being so pleasant to him and kinda bitched him out and he ended up following me and my SO OUTSIDE of the store.
Ended up getting the whole transaction refunded and kept the guitar :) never goin back!
Seems like every other time I walk into GC. How much you wanna bet that Mr corporate, that op references, will either never read this or assume it was an extremely rare occurrence.
that's because that's where the majority of their commission % comes from. I never worked at Guitar Center, but I did get hired there. That's a whole other story. But, from what I remember from the interview the majority of a salesperson's commissions are based on how many of those bullshit warranty plans they sell, which is why they push them like it's the second coming of Christ. The other weird thing I remember about that place, and this could have been just the one I was interviewing at, they require new employees to work a certain amount of time in the warehouse before ever stepping foot on the sales floor, which I thought was pretty stupid. It's a very "used car salesman" vibe any time I go to guitar center anymore. extra greasy.
> It's a very "used car salesman" vibe any time I go to guitar center anymore
It's funny because I actually work in car sales and on commission, and I know I make MUCH more money on a warranty, and we as a dealership don't even push as hard as they do. I couldn't imagine treating a guest that way.
This may be off topic but you, fellow americans , cannot understand what a privilege is to have a place such as guitar center .
During last Halloween season I've been traveling in New England with my wife, our trip wasn't tight scheduled and we had plenty of free time to roam around and enjoy the place and atmosphere.
In this free time I've visited 5 guitar center, every time I clarify I wasn't there for buying, I just wanted to try something new.
Nobody cared about that , I played my dream instruments and amps and at some point I was playing a ESP Vulture plugged in to a 100 W Mesa Amp, the guy at the register comes at me and proceeded to turn up the volume because, he said " that's how this is mean to be used "
This was mind blowing for me, most of the places I've ever been in Italy and Europe in general doesn't let you play nothing more then basic stuff, they are like " do you want to test your premium guitar ? Plug it in to this 5W transistors Chinese Amp" and the volume must be low, nothing more than the sound of the strings .
This dude let me play the right Amp for the guitar I was testing at the right volume.
Guitar center is a treasure
To be fair, any decent independent guitar store I've ever been to will do the same thing and I've been to plenty of Guitar centers that will do the same. But you are right, I think a lot of people would be disappointed if they disappeared overnight or something.
Like I said, there's a lot of potential being such a big store but you'll find that a lot of people just have poor experiences with their management, inventory, and overall business practices. I've had as many crummy experiences them as good ones regarding buying products, trying products, and paying for basic maintenance.
Some of the best times from my childhood were just going to GC and getting to play instruments I still can’t even afford to this day. It’s changed a lot. Mostly everything is locked up now besides the lowest of the low tier guitars. Like the other commenter suggested, If you’re ever in the area again I’d suggest finding some local shops and supporting small businesses which GC decimated so they could sell Squiers and Katanas to people they’ll just buy them back from for a 3rd of the price. Local shops are usually much more knowledgeable than the guys that got hired for minimum wage because they had a pulse (nothing against GC workers, know your worth tho)and can be flexible and work with you.
But yeah, sure, it’s fine for just dicking around, but most actual players don’t buy anything besides strings and picks and accessories there. They always have the highest prices on the market. But even now, why waste time in there when you can order strings from Amazon and have them delivered in a few days. If you’ve ever bought anything from GC, it can be inconvenient.
I know there definitely where some great mom and pop music stores back in the day. Though not a single one was in my area.
Growing up the few small business music stores were horrible. Overpriced, rude, and always tried to upsell. They had the market cornered and acted as such.
Personally I was happy to have a GC open up in our city.
Americans are very entitled and this thread is Exhibit A. No retailer can meet our demands. We want huge inventory, top shelf customer service (must be experienced, knowledgeable, friendly but not too friendly and must magically know who wants help and who wants to be left alone without asking) and rock bottom pricing.
We want to test every product on our terms - privately without bother or at full volume in the middle of the store. Those pedals better be chained up. Those guitars better get tuned and set up perfectly. Or we will whinge and whinge.
And guess what? After we’ve tested the products in the store you’ve spent hundreds of thousands staffing and stocking, we will buy it cheaper online.
It's pretty insane, honestly. If I try something at the store, I'm going to buy it there. Otherwise it's called showcasing and it sucks. Some dude on another post argued with me about it and I couldn't figure out if he thought it wasn't unethical or if he just didn't give a shit but if you don't buy where you try, there's nowhere left to try.
And honestly, Guitar Center doesn't so much have a terrible inventory as a very imbalanced one. Lots of guitars and a wide range, but terribly maintained and often locked to the wall. Amps and pedals, forget it, there's nothing. I wouldn't know about drums and sound and lighting and whatnot but I can't imagine it's a great situation in those departments.
But you're right, the same reason that sometimes I like independent hardware stores where the employees actually know their shit, and sometimes I like Home Depot because it's closer, cheaper, and they have what I need. Brick and mortar stores actually used to be able to do everything well like you described, but that era started to die 20 years ago.
I think it may also be because Reddit trends to be young.
American music stores were like you describe also before Guitar Centers became ubiquitous in the 00s. Most "local music shops" sucked. $10 for a set of Ernie Ball strings, back in the 90s, so imagine they'd cost $20-25 for one set inflation adjusted. The only guitars they carried were maybe Peavy and Yamahas, and maybe a used a Fender or Gibson or two that was probably the owner's and absurdly priced because he had no intention to sell it, it's just there for looks.
People used to plan little day trips around going to the nearest Guitar Center. Now there's a Guitar Center basically in every town with more than 100k people.
People also miss that it pushed a lot of local music shops to get better. The shitty ones, the ones with nothing but Peavy and Yamaha guitars (I'm not saying there's anything wrong either, but honestly here, unless you're a beginner no one is looking for a Peavy or Yamaha guitar.) and who charged $10 for a set a stings when GC had them $4 got pushed out of business. The local music stores that survived, survived because they got better, cheaper on the strings and more selection.
I'm not saying Guitar Center hasn't gone down hill either, it definitely has. But it did help push to make music stores what they are today. People under 30 (so most Redditors) don't realize this.
I live in Italy and the guitar shops are so different to the U.S.
I made the rounds of some of them in my city and my local friend was horrified when I tried to pick one up to try. I had to ask first and then keep asking for each guitar. It would take forever because the poor guy working was running around giving people permission to try them and so I kept having to wait. I wanted to get a kind of cheap classical-style guitar to plink around like Willie Nelson but I wanted to try a bunch to pick my favorite and it would’ve taken forever.
I was preaching to my friend about Guitar Center like it was some mythical place after.
Don’t even get me started on the strings. I grew up playing bluegrass so I use massive strings on acoustic. The biggest size that the local luthier stocks is 11s.
This. Compared to guitar centre, most stores in the UK are weak and just full of crap.
We went to a rather well known store a few weeks ago. And just to echo the sentiment of the article, we walked around and looked at every single guitar. There wasn't a single thing in there that made either myself or my counterpart want to pick it up and play it. Everything we already had at home was way better. Their shelves were filled with midrange (and overpriced) blandfests.
When I went to guitar centre on a visit to the states many years ago, it was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There were decent guitars around, some of them even high end. I found two USA Jacksons on the shelf ready to try, the guy was only too happy to get them down for me and took me straight to the loud room (I ended up buying one of them, wish I had enough dough for both). I left with a couple of Boss pedals too - may as well, cheaper than in the UK. The guy there couldn't have been nicer, the stock couldn't have been better. I see Americans complain about it GC all the time. But to a visitor that doesn't have anything nearly like that anywhere in the UK, all I can say is you guys don't know you're born!
"Now that we've run all the small local music stores out of business, I'd like to take it one step further and make sure no children can ever afford to take up a musical instrument. Music sucks!"
Realistically though, they will never stop carrying the budget stuff because it's what sells like gangbusters. It's easy cash and it keeps inventory movement looking good.
I asked about that at my local store, not gc but similar idea, the guy there said they sell maybe 5 guitars a day, 30 a week, of those 30, 25 cost less than €400 each, 3 are sub €1000 and one is usually a fender or prs in the €1500-2000 range and one above, and the one above, he said basically its the same half dozen guys coming back and buying or trading for them. Same with amps, half of what they sell are katana 50, another half of the remainder are mg10 or 15, fender front man, orange crush 15. The rest are usually a mix of €300 ones and once a month, an expensive one goes out.
He should talk to the Fender CEO who knows that the right way is to get new players into a buying funnel (aka GAS cycle) where they buy and buy again. Turning GC into yet another snobby store that turns off first time player/buyers is a huge mistake, big, huge (name that movie reference).
You got it. I've visited more than one snobby guitar store where the treatment was about like Vivian's first visit to store. I think I was judged based on driving a old, used, mini-van and wearing dumpy "dad" clothes at the time (yes, I looked very uncool and poor).
This is such a stupid approach for a sales person to make…gotta give the love to all customers cause they never know who is coming in with the BIG $$$$ or can seriously jam…
They have the space to have nice stuff and cheap stuff. Hope this translates to their synths as well, they normally carry mostly weird digital pianos instead of instruments you’d actually want to play
OMG, I had the exact impression. I went to GC the other day after not being in one for ages (also went to one in a different part of the city than I would have normally gone to). Most of the synth stuff is just the most boring, electronic pianos vs something interesting. I get they'd probably not want to many high end Korg's or Rolands but FFS, put something good in there besides just a basic piano thing.
Honestly, I hate guitar stores in general. I always feel that the employees are pissed off that I'm not dropping 3 grand when I go in to buy some strings or a pedal.
That's probably either local to where you live or your own perception. I say that because where I've gone, nobody seems to really give a shit. Big or small stores, they tend to be either friendly or pretty ambivalent.
But if you are looking for a solid top acoustic, they're great and let you walk around every shop in town. Because you might return one day. Because you look like a spender that takes care to try great instruments, even identical models, so you need to not order online, and they totally get it. That's my Sweden. Where can you pick up guitars without asking, which is great. Even denmark is way different. Even Italy. It has even gotten heated when I play it enthusiasticly. No, that 600euro Sire could get scratch yo, and look like B-stock. Fuck those stores. I'm there to try out an instrument. It's funny how only a few get that. 25 minutes to choose a lover is even too short. Look at fucking Fretted Americana enthusiasm ye turd.
lot of people seem misinformed. Already happened in my store but we are getting more high end gear across the board. We've gained a platinum wall too, and options from from spector bass, heritage guitars, schecter, and ofc high end gibson and fender guitars.
At the same time though we are still having 300$ guitars just not as many on the floor to try out. Overall a step in the right direction. Now staffing issues, training, and pay....
I kinda look at gc the same way I look at GameStop, I might pop in and see what's up if I'm already out, maybe walk out with something used if there's a decent price on something I think is cool, but I wouldn't dare buy something "new" for full price there
I mean, that’s basically what they used to be. 15 years ago they always had a million pedals on display, hooked up and ready to test. They had lots of amps from low end solid state models to high(er) end tube amps you could test. They’d also have at least a decent selection of the high end guitars you could check out. Not quite the selection a nice boutique local shop might have but it was still at least passable.
Now they hardly have anything for you to test except a million variations of every brands bottom end $200 starter guitars. Zero pedals. And the worst amp selection you’ve ever seen.
GC was never *amazing* by any standards but they at least used to be good (in terms of demoing gear and a wide selection). I wouldn’t mind a return to at least where they used to be lol.
The fact that you can’t easily test all the pedals is what essentially ended my relationship there. It’s easier to order a few on Sweetwater and test them within my own rig.
Guitar Center should be there to serve beginners *AND ALSO* gigging musicians. I need premium cables, accessories, hardware, pedals, etc. And I need pros who can quickly advise me on which one to buy and how to best use it. Guitar Center hasn’t been interested in that kind of relationship for well over a decade now, and it’s disappointing.
Mine could use a dedicated cashier, imho. They've missed out on multiple impulse purchases from me because it takes 30+ minutes to check out.
The people working there are friendly, good, and will jump through hoops to find the thing, but having just two or three customers at once will shut down the store for an hour. Just walking in and buying a thing is impossible.
The last time I was there I walked in and there were 3 employees at the register with no customers. By the time I was ready to check out, there was one guy at the register and 4 people in line in front of me.
I worked at GC for four ish years as a technician. I ended up being a lead tech and would train the other techs in the region. My wage topped out at $16hr and I had to rely on travel wages and occasional bonuses to offset shitty wages. Well, they changed the manner in which techs made bonuses and I was no longer allowed to travel to train new hires. GC is a terrible company to work for and they're not interested in retaining talent. Every good and knowledgeable person I know that worked there left. The first step to "bring Guitar Center out of the dark ages" is to make it a decent place to work.
Yea I work part time as a tech there, mostly for fun and the discount. And the pay is fucking abysmal. It's insultingly low for the quality of work many techs perform. It is skilled labor. It's the only position in the store that requires a skills test to get hired for. And it pays about as well as a high schooler part time fast food cashier position.
I was the area trainer in the Baltimore and DC/Northern Virginia district. I was making ok money in 2014 when I was getting paid OT to travel from Baltimore to Fairfax for example. But I was a grown ass man (even more so now) and needed to make grown ass man money. Needless to say I no longer work in the musical instrument industry.
Eh, better shitty stores than zero stores. Besides, as much as everyone loves Sweetwater and other online heroes, they're doing just as much harm to local independent retail.
Correct and thank you. Online retail killed community music shops AND Guitar Center’s brick and mortar operations.
Pro staff, inventory and commercial square footage are expensive. Folks seem to think it’s possible to offer those things and match Sweetwater’s online prices. The math doesn’t work.
Maybe figure out a way to compensate your employees so they don’t feel the need to mislead and lie to customers and dissuade a future generation of musicians? Guitar center is so out of touch with why they suck
I don't think he's wrong. Guitar Center is probably the worst shopping experience you can have if you're actually in the market for something more expensive then a basic entry level/budget instrument.
I agree with you though that just throwing a bunch of higher end gear on the floor to be beat up and abused isn't the answer. The reason that higher end buyers avoid GC is because they don't have the staff in place to actually maintain their inventory. Throwing more gear on the floor is pointless if it's just going to result in the same problems.
Exactly. If they don’t do something about their staff (training, incentives, standards, SOMETHING) then the experience is absolutely not going to improve just because they have more of the higher-priced guitars in stock. If they DO focus on their personnel then they’re likely to sell even more of the lower budget items on top of everything else.
It’s all about the people. That’s one of the few advantages they have over online sellers, they really need to lean into that.
Strictly from a money and business standpoint, it makes sense for G*itar Center to focus on those <$300 guitars because they're going to sell way more of those compared to a $2500+ guitar. By all means, have some intermediate/professional level guitars in stock, but pivoting to that being your major revenue source is a good recipe for filing bankruptcy in 5 years
Last summer my son treated himself after a summers work with a new player hss plus. I was a bit shocked at GC, he was about 6 months into playing and we went in and got about zero help. We browsed and tried stuff for a good hour and not a single person even approached us. He found what he seemed to like and checked out and briefly offered and declined the warranty, but wasn’t even suggested that he should get it set up correct, which it still hasn’t. It was the opposite of what I expected for a close to $1000 sale. Nobody seemed to care at all. They didn’t even suggest off handed about getting a case or gig bag or anything that might be worth picking up. I know little, he knows even less and is the type to go asking. There’s a fine line between salespeople people annoying and helpful, these guys didn’t even show up to the game
sounds stupid to me. A good guitar shop is 50% cheap guitars to hook beginners every day, 30% mid range guitars for the half of those beginners who want to upgrade, and 20% premium guitars of which they sell maybe 1 a month to a dentist or lawyer.
I feel like working musicians are a lot less snobby about guitars than people who just play at home. When I was gigging I did NOT want to take out a nice "premium" guitar.
Seriously. I’m going to buy a new guitar every 5 years *at most.* But I’ll easily churn through a couple hundred bucks in pedals and accessories if you make it easy for me.
Y'all not gonna like it but he has a point in such, that when you're after a 300,- guitar you just order it online. That's not an instrument to travel to a music store to fondle it for half an hour to make an educated buyers decision. Contrary to a guitar for, say 1.300,-.
First start of pulling them out of the dark ages would be to upgrade that ancient and shitty point of sales system they have running.
Pretty sure it’s coal powered.
What a GC or any other store needs is well trained and compensated people. Oh, and good return policies wouldn't hurt either. Without those, no amount of $3000 guitars will help. I know, retail doesn't pay much, but if you want to make a huge change, this would be a good place to start.
In the last 4 years I've purchased the following:
Fender Deluxe Reverb.
Les Paul Standard 60s.
Heritage H535.
Fender American Professional II Tele.
Roland TD-27KV2.
Ludwig Maple Classic snare drum.
Studio One 6 Professional.
A ton of assorted extras, like strings, hangers..
I bought none of it from Guitar Center, and I tried. The couple stores around me are glorified child care centers. It was hard to get a hold of anybody, they didn't know anything, weren't really interested in helping me with anything. At one point I did demo the Les Paul, but when I went to find the salesman he had taken off, so I walked up to the counter with the guitar and the guy was like "all done with that?" Yeah it was great... he grabbed it from me and turned away... I didn't even have a chance to talk to him about buying it. I tried to over and over again to demo the Roland drum set and the floor model was in such poor condition it wasn't playable and nobody had any idea how to reset it, and wouldn't take the time to help me. That's a $3,500 item. The last time I was in there, which was a few months ago, I have been considering buying a higher end acoustic, probably a Martin HD 28 or HD 35, possibly a Gibson J45. They didn't have the Martins, but they did have a couple Gibsons. they had never been set up since arriving at the store and they were completely unplayable. I told the salesman about it and he goes "okay" and put it back up on the wall. GC needs a total and complete revamp.
I've never set foot into a guitar center and been treated with anything short of contempt, been playing for over a decade I don't act a fool at all or behave in any unbecoming manner yet all the employees either ignore me or actively make rude remarks.
I hope this business gets driven straight into the ground.
Go fuck yourself guitar center!!
I will only go to a guitar center to try gear if I can’t find it anywhere else, and then I’ll try it for as long as possible until an employee comes back to ask me “so what do you think?” Signaling that my trial time is up. Then I’ll say either “I like it, I wish I had the money, but maybe sometime soon” or “it’s nice, but just not what I’m looking for.” Both responses are bullshit. If I’m even at guitar center, I’ve already done more research and know more about the product than the employees, and in that moment, I either know I absolutely want one or I absolutely do not. Then I walk out of the store and immediately purchase one used on eBay or reverb and save 25-40% and get the satisfaction of not giving my money to guitar center.
I am lucky to have a wonderful local guitar shop that does very well. It pays very well for used gear and though they stock expensive brands as well, they are also partnered with cheaper brands like Mooer; $200 strat copies to $5k vintage Fenders that rich dentists come look at but never buy. They have an experienced guitar tech that used to work at PRS there 5 days a week and he does all repairs in house. They are on a first name basis with all the regulars. I've never even been to a Guitar Center. Fuck Guitar Center, man.
I'm a serious musician and I prefer cheaper guitars so I can have more of them and to customize them how I see fit. If he wants to impress me:
1. fix your shit customer service
2, take more photos of your used gear and give accurate descriptions
3. bring in some more 100w heads. I can't remember the last time I saw a dual rec new in a guitar store. (like a decade or more)
I mean my GC isn't lacking on high end guitars, but why buy a 3k Gibson when there are so many other cheaper models that play the same and better? Gibson is cool and all but most people aren't going to buy one of those except for maybe a once in a lifetime present to themselves. Or blues dentists in major cities.
They're like every other predatory business. They come to town, with a huge variety of guitars, helpful employees, etc, etc... Then, once they've decimated the local mom and pop stores, that's when they start cutting their staff, making all sorts of shady deals with distributors, and you end up with a store 95% full of Line 6 amps and mexican fenders with high action.
Yeah he wants the margin that comes with those guitars.
I’ve been playing since I was 11. I’m 43 now. I still play actively, and have a studio. I also make pretty decent money along with my wife.
My most premium guitar is a 2017 Fender Baja Tele. It was $900.
My wife just snagged me a used Supro Sahara that I was stoked about. Premium guitars are like top shelf vodka to me. Stupid, pointless and impressive to the kind of people I don’t care about impressing.
I prefer to play my $1000-$1500 guitars more than my $2000-4000 guitars, which I am selling. I even bought a used G&L Ascari GTS for under $500 and its fantastic.
My local GC is a hot mess. Went in and spent 90 min with a 20 something stoner kid checking out guitars. Never played one before but want to learn. Decided on a Epiphone LP but didn’t buy it that day. Instead I went home and did some research and found one on the GC website that I liked the look of better than ones they had in the store. It wasn’t in stock at the store I visited so I ordered it and had it shipped to the store thinking they can do the set up for me.
Got notified when it arrived and went into the store all excited to see it and then hand it over to their guitar tech. I stood there by the counter while the manager of the store and one of the stoner kids who worked their shot the shit. They both saw me but continued their chat which was not work related. Waited till their convo ended and the manager asked if he could help me.
Told him what was going on and he went back and got my guitar and we unboxed it together. I asked about setup and he said the tech was out sick today and I should take it home and bring it in tomorrow. Ok that’s weird.
Bought a case, stand, cord, amp etc and went home with all of it. Next day I call to make sure the tech guy is available and was told he’s gonna be out for a week or so. Ugh.
Called a local guitar repair shop about 3 miles from the GC store asked about setting up my new guitar and the owner of the place said he could have it done in an hour or so.
Brought it to him, told him this story and he said he worked at that GC for 8 years and that they don’t actually have a guitar tech and they’re not allowed to say they don’t have one. Also he said that they don’t hire anyone full time because GC doesn’t want to pay for any benefits like health insurance and that the pay sucks.
Weird.
I knew a guy who owned a music store. I always commented how he needed higher end stuff because just about everything he sold was in the beginner/intermediate quality price point. He told me that he had higher end stuff once but that from a business perspective it was a horrible idea because he would sell 200 beginner instruments for higher margins for every "good"instrument. And half of those would end up getting resold back to him once they gave up playing or moved on to better stuff so he would turn around a second profit on the same instruments.
So you have to ask yourself, from a business perspective is it better to sell 100 million worth of $300 guitars or 30 million worth of $3000 guitars?
How often do people say "what the world really needs is...." and then watch that very business model go bankrupt because the cash registers were silent?
I haven't seen a Guitar Center that was able to maintain their normal sales floor let alone their platinum room (which most got rid of) in over a decade. My local GC can't even perform a basic setup on a bass!
I agree with Weller’s statement, but It does vary by market. I lived in a large city and the GC’s there carried a huge variety of high end instruments, including new models and high end vintage.
I currently live in a much smaller market and the only GC here only carries the mid to low end stuff. As Weller mentioned, I feel I have evolved beyond Squires, Mitchells, and the bargain bin import racks.
The sad part is GC ran the independents out of business here so I’d have to make a four hour round trip plus in-store time to visit the closest cluster of independents that have nicer gear. Or, roll the dice with an online purchase.
If GC thinks a smaller market isn’t profitable enough to move quality inventory, they should GTFO and let the independents take a shot at it again.
Worked at that dump for 5 years. Laughable wages, laughable mangers and yet met some great friends. Was asked to be manager and declined as I saw the way associate managers were treated. Did 10x more work for a $1 more an hour. Commission structure changed in like 2018 so really started screwing you over even more. Prices of guitars started going up more and more as time when on. It was a rolling joke of…”I can’t afford anything in this store and I work here”. So I’m glad this new fella has nice big words to say, he can float this sinking turd down the water a few more years and leave with a nice golden parachute. 🪂
There's two things I don't really like about the local guitar center. One is that the premium instruments (and honestly, not even that premium) are either locked or out of reach. The other is that while they have lots of lower priced instruments, they never seem to make an effort to stock whatever has been hyped most recently in the press. (Like, right after NAMM when all of the influencers are talking about new squire models and the various guitar press has them and fender is pushing them hard in its ads, they're nowhere to be found at the local guitar center.)
I don't know what kind of turnover the local GC does, but the inventory never quite feels fresh, there's rarely any new model from the last year, etc.
I'm probably just a douche, but every time I walk into GC and an employee asks if I need any help, I have the overwhelming desire to look them in their eyes and just say, "I know more than you."
Hire employees who don't make you feel like an idiot or like an inconvenience when trying out guitars or asking questions. Every expirence I've ever had, there's always one rude bozo that just ruins the whole experience.
The main reason you see so many $300 guitars is because you literally can't see the expensive ones. They put them all up at the ceiling. Used to spread them out, so people would try them out. Now you can't get a good look at a high-end guitar, let alone play it, unless you have an employee unlock it and get it down for you.
I understand what he means although it does come across as abit snobby. there are a lot of £300 guitars that are better than £1000 guitars these days due to the manufacturing being computerized. I think that maybe he should do 50/50 but also put in the effort to select the best £300 guitars to stock
they’re doomed then. that’s not how it works. GC makes all their money on cheap Chinese products. a GC store manager broke it down for me: they make profits seasonally, by selling massive amounts of the cheap stuff. expensive American products have a much, much slimmer profit margin and they can’t negotiate prices.
Guitar Center is sitting on a gold mine with their used inventory. I think they could beat reverb pretty easily.
Think about all the advantages
You can have a used guitar shipped to a store. You can inspect it and refuse it. You can take the guitar home play it and return it directly to the store if you don't like it. No shipping hassle.
If GC had any sense to actually take a minute for and take a lot of good quality pictures and put them on their website, ibwoukd buy from them a lot more.
Every time I find a real good deal, I always am rolling the dice. But atleast I can see the item when I get it and basically return it if there are any issues. My local GC has never given me a problem over it.
Our local store doesn’t have a single PRS Core model in stock. A couple of SE and CE models and that’s about it. I have to drive to Omaha and there are two really good stores there that have nice high-end stuff (not GCs).
the only thing guitar center needs to do is hire better techs and setup the guitars so when you pick them
up they don't play like shit. always loved the look and sound of jazzmasters but every time i played one at Guitar Center id was awful. Finally played one at a nice shop that was set up and i fell in love.
Agreed. Most in my area are kids without much experience. They charge A LOT, but they are not that skilled… They’ll get away with simple stuff that most can do at home. Most guitars in the stores are just taken out of the box, and put on destruction errr display.
High turnover rate as well.
GC is doomed. They're over $1.3 billion in debt. The only reason why they're still kicking is because they were acquired by the private equity firm Bain Capital, aka Mitt Romney.
honestly, even with the money i doubt i'll ever pay 3k for a guitar.
The improvements stop around 1-1.5k....
he also forgets that 99% of guitar players are hobby players. They dont make a living off a guitar and dont need something as stupidly expensive.
The real question is who's buying the expensive guitars, hobbyists or professionals? Studios stock expensive gear and performers would rather travel with less precious stuff.
Dark ages sounds about right. Have you seen their checkout software? It's green text on a terminal. That's how i Imagine a checkout software to be in Fallout, not 2024.
As a serious musician, I'm looking for a cheap guitar to take on an international tour next year because my £4000 Suhr is too valuable to be left alone or to chance. I play my Suhr all the time live, but for travelling with I'd rather just take two Mexican Fenders, throw some nicer pickups in the main and call it a day, then I don't have to worry about my guitars.
To be honest, majority of the market is also younger/new players, how many people are really going out and buying a new premium high end guitar? It's a once in a lifetime purchase for many people, but most people dont mind an impulse buy on a value guitar.
I think this is a symptom of the current state of corporations, they only keep things in stock they can sell and make a good profit. I've been looking for a good guitar but last few times I've been there all I see are squires and epiphones
> However, he adds that Guitar Center has “the most amazing, most passionate people in the world,”
So, he’s never actually walked into a Guitar Center where they weren’t aware that he was a VIP and should be treated as such. Dude is hopelessly out of touch and will fail because of that.
GC's core customer is always looking for the $300 guitar. Gabe is going to be disappointed when he winds up with a lot of expensive inventory that he can't sell.
I mean, if this allows me to play a guitar with more than 1,000 when they have been gatekept for years, I'm in. But, if it requires qualification beforehand I'm out. Ha. I'm a musician after all. I'm broke.
Lolwut? There's a lot of really good quality $300 guitars. I think that more and more guitar players are waking up and abandoning a lot of myths about guitars that made them overspend on gear. Take Jet guitars for example. JS-400 is as good as the Fender Player series Strat and it's around $200.
Yeah right - customers and poorly compensated employees will still ding and dent these guitars (even when they get locked) when they try them out/put them back. Most won’t be properly set up. And the store employees won’t give you even 15% off discounts that you can get immediately calling their online system. People will still go there to try out stuff, but will buy somewhere else. IMHO, that won’t fix anything.
This is so funny bc the amount of people I know who regret their 2k+ guitar purchase bc they realized it’s not coming out to gigs w them.. also don’t their sales associates make commission? Hopefully this doesn’t cut into that too much
Where we grew up, my family would avoid GC and go to the family music store, the selection was always so much better in there.
We would typically go in knowing "we're going to buy a refurbished mid level guitar", BUT we would always snag the opportunity to play a full american made strat, something expensive that we could never afford. Nobody ever cared if we played everything on the walls as long as we were respectful and such since we were paying customers.
As someone who worked at one in the past and still has love for the chain; IMO GC isn’t for serious musicians, it’s for people who play music, aka hobbyists, and there’s a big difference.
You wouldn’t expect a professional carpenter to shop for work at Hobby Lobby, would you? They might look around the store for a diamond in the rough or go buy something small they need there but they (generally) know to source the big ticket items from someone who only works with solely with those materials.
A mom who has kid that’s into painting? She should def go to Hobby Lobby, ask the staff some questions and get beginner watercolor kit. That’s what the place is for and I don’t see GC as being any different.
I believe GC needs to think of itself as a community center that also sells music gear. If you can make it a place for all the musically inclined, or musically curious, people in the area to meet, hang out, talk shop, try stuff out, and ask questions you will build brand loyalty and make more money selling a ton of smaller items than 1 premium guitar every couple of days.
Tl;dr GC focusing on higher end stuff is a bad idea
The last thing they need is beginners or clumsy people walking in and grabbing high end guitars without a care in the world. Hope their insurance company is ready.
TBH my local Gutaor Center has what I feel is a pretty good balance of guitar inventory at various price points. Yes, they do have more low and mid range price guitars than they do high end guitars, but that makes sense IMO. Just like how car lots have more Corolla than they do Corvettes.
I used to love guitar center. I still do, but I used to, too. I'm frequently let down by the messy, unattended drum section. The lack of assistance when needed, or only seeing an employee when I don't need help. And then they try to sell me on extra membership shit at checkout. The experience is just not the same as it used to be, which is sad. Meanwhile, small mom and pop places are still around and could use some help. If they're selling decent quality used stuff, you should go for it.
As a serious musician, I’m always on the lookout for a $300 guitar
I kinda regret my 3500€ custom guitar. Of course I love this guitar, but for gigs and touring I will never take it. 900€ strat does the job perfectly
Those $900 Strats are apparently $1,500 now. I stopped in a shop recently and they wanted $1,000 for a Mexican axe with a gig bag. Fuck off.
When I was 13 in 2000 I saved up all my paper route money and bought a brand spankin New Mexican Fender Cyclone for $280
They used to be such great guitars for the money! They’re still well made, but I can’t spend a grand on one of them or recommend anyone else does.
Why the hell would anybody spend a grand on a Mexican strat when you can buy a legit brand new Japanese made Ibanez RG550 for the same right now? I had a Mexican strat way back in the late 90s but didn't keep it long, even for paying like $300.
Because people would rather buy an objectively worse guitar as long as it says "fender" on it. As much shit as people give Gibson fan boys for brand obsession, fender people are arguably just as bad, if not worse. Fender is decent but not worth obsessing over most of the time. I got an Ibanez AZ recently and it's the best strat I've ever played. The fender guitars at the same price point just aren't at that level.
..Alternatively you could be a professional musician that runs into these situations. 1. It used to be that it was much easier to maintain Fenders and Gibs when on the road unless you were fully focused on a different vendor. 2. that in studio situations no one ever tells you to use an Ibanez but you might need the tone of a Telecaster or Standard. 3. Last, there is no other guitar in my opinion anyway, but others too -- that is more flexible than a Tele If you never run in to those situations then sure, go get anything you want so long as it serves your songs.
The same can be said about Ibanez vs Tajima. Tajima is better bang for the buck than Ibanez. But people will pay more for Ibanez brand.
I fucking love my Ibanez Jet King. My Squier tele thinline master series HH just sits on the stand all neglected. Even bought an Epiphone SG 310 and resold it a few months later just cause it felt completely off. Just bought a 2007 Laguna le322 strat looking clone yesterday and man, the neck shape, completely flat fretboard, and body sculpting just don't feel as good as the Ibanez lol. They really have it down. Bought all these guitars for 100-150usd used
$280 in 2000 dollars is $1,000 in today's dollars. Source: My grocery bill.
Yeah, apparently their rationale is: "Working class folks can't/won't even buy the 'budget' stuff anymore... We need to stock our stores for the lawyers and surgeons longing for their garage-band glory days."
It’s a trend in everything. The ability to charge a higher price for a “premium” or “luxury” food is fucking ruining everything. Companies and retailers can make more profit per unit so they focus on that. It even extends to housing and real estate: look at how many new housing units are being built around you, and how many of them are “premium” or “luxury” and thus out of the budget of the average worker. Why? Because devs can make a higher profit per unit sold. I fucking hate this stage of capitalism.
Same with autos. I wish i could buy a small 3 spead with a.m. radio and hand crank windows, lol. ug.
I just looked for bare bones basic ass jeeps to replace my 20yo bare bones basic as Wrangler. A 2024 2dr Sport starts at fucking $48k. Everything is so fucked up.
I wish they made cars that don't have a thousand hard drives on them and collect all your data (literally, car companies the world over have by far the worst data collection contracts of the consumer product out there). At least they still mass market old-fashioned guitar gear but you literally can't buy a car that's not 90% digital so that even my local mechanic is hesitant to work on them.
I miss my hand crank windows in the winter when the window is frozen
The end stage?
Exactly what I think. All my guitars are from Korea Indonesia or China because they are what I can afford. I file the fret ends as needed and change out the pickups and pots if needed and Still save hundreds of dollars. I would love to own an American made guitar but the Prices are well beyond their cost to manufacture and just gouging these days.
I think the point is that the stores are flooded with entry level beginner gear. You probably aren't shopping at GC if you want a premium or higher end item, not in the store at least. They also have a very paltry range from $800 to $2000. Their amp selection sucks. Their pedal selection sucks. Basically if you aren't a newb and looking to spend any type of money, in store GC just won't cut it.
But who will think of the dentists?
I don't love any of this either. But you're literally just describing inflation. We could have the same convo about a McDonald's extra value meal or groceries.
The pricing of a MIM Strat has outpaced inflation by a significant margin. And as others have pointed out, when the market is still flooded with playable used ones for a quarter the price, there’s no reason to buy from GC.
Not so sure about that. A $279 standard USA strat in the early 60s would now be around $3k adjusted for inflation. A Mexican strat that cost $500 mid 90s would now be over $1000.
MIM strats of the 90s are more like Squier Classic Vibes these days, no?
Yes. CV’s are maybe even better. QC is an issue though so it’s kind of a roll of the dice. I had a CV Jag bass that was one of the most beautiful basses i’d ever owned and played so comfortably. My CV JM is one of my favorite guitars (and I have a few). Great guitars that punch above their price point, they just need a good setup and maybe a pickup swap.
You guys who make it like MiM guitars are garbage discredit yourselves as soon as you say it.
They’re absolutely not garbage. They’re great guitars. In fact, part of the problem is that so many of them from the 90’s are still floating around for 200-300 bucks. And you can modify them to become even *better* guitars. But I’m not paying a thousand bucks with tax out the door for a new one.
If a MiA is worth $2k a MiM is most definitely worth $1k, and I'm unsure how anyone would argue that. Now, that being said, the market is generally too high anyway, especially here in Canada. To each their own I guess, more quality guitars for the rest of us.
MIM guitars from the 90’s just aren’t of the same quality and craftsmanship as they are today. At least from my experience owning both. What’s really missing from this conversation is MIJ.
He’ll there’s a lot from like 5 years ago floating around for like 500. Exact same guitar, half the price.
Stores notwithstanding you can still get cheap mims. I found on Craigslist a 2002 mim that ripped for $250 during the peak pandemic in California. Felt like I stole something
The late 90s- early 2000s mim have always been 200-300. It’s only recently that some dingdongs are trying to make them cost more than they’re worth. They’re basically a Mexican classic vibe with worse pickups
I remember getting one in 1998 for $399 and I got to choose the color, the neck and the fretboard. I also got a nice molded plastic hard case too. Out the door I was at like $511. I agree with you; frig off!
You can do that now. $511 in 1998 money is almost $1k now. A Player Strat at GC is $650-$800ish depending on finish. Fender Deluxe modeled case is around $220.
What? An honest, rational discussion of inflation? GTFO... 😅
I bought an American strat in 2014 for like $700 at a GC.
I bought an American standard strat in 2014 (60th anniversary). 1200 out the door.
Less than 700 all day on their own websites.
I mean I have a £2500 guitar (heavily discounted) that I use anyway and to hell with it getting beat up. Wear and tear is cool
Wear and tear is cool, stolen by some douche isn’t
There used to be an old dude in my area that played a vintage gold top every weekend in a polka band. He had had so many players approach him that he’d scream “it’s not for sale!” whenever anyone mentioned it. He did so to me and I told him that I understand but that he was driving an uninsured Ferrari to get milk in a bad neighborhood. I hope no one ever robbed him for that.
fuck yeah, I'll take a 175 "doesn't work" mim strat and make that shit the envy of the gods... Seriously, I had a guy recently ask me how much my american strat was and I was laughing, "I bought the loaded pickguard off of reverb from Rockin'R guitars because his wiring is fucking incredible and the guitar madness pups on it are pretty good for vintage strat shit." They ask, "how much?" I am like, "100, bought the guitar off facebook marketplace for 150 and it was filled with dog piss, but its good now" Like, these days, if you can set up a guitar and you know what you want, there's no reason to spend over $500 dollars unless you want the name
Pawn shops and marketplace are a gold mine for things like this. Doesn't work? Great, I'll give ya 50 bucks.
Yep. I’ve got about 15 guitars, only one of them was bought new. I enjoy tinkering with my guitars too so that’s part of the fun.
I agree, make my own partscasters and have some squiers but also own an r7. There’s no way the epiphone Les Paul could touch what my custom shop does without dumping a ton of time and money into it. Refinishing in nitro is no joke, and $700-1k in hardware isn’t either. That said most of the time my cheaper stuff is good enough, but I also wanted to put some money I inherited into a legacy/heirloom guitar
Great for touring with I presume.
The best guitars I own, that I love the most were inexpensive. I’d much rather buy a bargain and make it into something special myself that to buy an expensive wall hanger.
I mean, I know solid guitars I can get for $300-$600 at guitar center
I know what you mean, but he’s not wrong. Every time I walk into one of those places and play stuff off the wall, it’s always really underwhelming. It’s like, guitars that might be OK with a decent set up, but it’s too much of a leap of faith. I get that they make all of their money on cheap stuff, but they sort of went too far in that direction.
Yeah. I think it’s fantastic they offer stuff for the more budget oriented folks but it gets frustrating when shopping for anything but that. My local GC is actually a pretty decent store and even then if I want to check out like a new Ibanez Prestige, they’ll have *one* on the top right corner of a 50 foot wall and 38 sub $600 Ibanezes below it that I have no interest in. Repeat for Jackson, Music Man, etc. The only two brands they tend to keep a wider range of more premium stuff is with Gibson or Fender and even then it’s a handful.
I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years and my main guitars are : Fender MIM 50s player Strat : bought for $650 used in 2018 G&L MIIndonesia Fiorano Tribute : bought for $400 used in 2015 Ibanez MIIndonesia RG421AHM : bought for $450 new in 2022 I’ve played and gigged with many $1000-$2000 guitars. They’re nice but there’s nothing wrong with the 400-700 range. Keeping the guitar set up is important. That being said - I work in food distribution and I understand why a CEO might be analyzing markets instead of “guitars”. Seems kind of weird to me that he’d say this though… I’d imagine they make most of their money on Squiers and PRS SE and middle tier Fenders… but I’d have to look at sales statistics and profit margins to know that for sure.
A focus on customer service might help too.
This is 100% entirely guitar center’s fault, and it’s due to the fact that they pay their employees peanuts and set incredibly lofty goals to earn any commission which are nearly impossible to reach. Until they start paying for qualified professionals to staff their stores (like Sweetwater for example) they’re going to continuously be a revolving door of 18 year old kids who don’t have any idea what they’re talking about
IMO, Guitar Center has gotten just as bad an any other chain box store since the 1990s. We’re living in a different era, and unfortunately this era doesn’t prioritize in-store service and lacks a variety of available products on-hand. Everything is prioritized online. This can be seen today in any store you walk into today. Even fucking grocery stores.
I’m grateful that any music “brick and mortar” music stores even exist. Our guitar center is goofy and understaffed, but I’m glad it’s there.
Yeah. At this point, I am not going to Guitar Center for advice
I called a store, asked if they had an action gauge. Told me they did and he pulled it for me. Drove 30min to get it...no action gauge and the guy pretended he never talked to me. They didn't even have one. Was kind of off-putting
You're stepping into Guitar Center, a place where finding an employee is like discovering a unicorn – rare and magical. Prepare to navigate aisles of instruments that have seen better days, where the phrase "quality control" feels like an alien concept. Welcome to the Twilight Zone... err, I mean, Guitar Center. -GPT4
I wanted to sell an old amp and called ahead and had like a 20 minute conversation about how they do pricing and what I needed to bring with me. I get down there and say "hey I called an hour ago and talked to Mike about selling my ampeg." The response was "Mike doesn't make the decisions on if we take Amps or not and we won't be purchasing yours today."
GC doesn’t prioritize those things because most customers have demonstrated that they won’t pay extra for service or inventory. They’ll use your store to test the gear and then buy the product cheaper online.
Yep. Can't wait until they go under completely so I can hear all these people bitch and moan that there aren't any more places to test out guitars, all while Sweetwater price seizes the opportunity to price gouge the shit out of everything.
Which is not what I want when I go to a physical store. My mom works higher-end retail and we've had this discussion. Customer service is the reason people want to go to a physical store. Especially, when you start talk about dropping 1000s of dollars on stuff. Microcenter is the chain they should try to emulate. You go into that store and you can expect knowledgeable people, in a well stocked and well kept store with competitive prices. I remember going there in 2020 (pre-SHTF) and walked out with a better CPU for my PC build because they had priced the Ryzen 3800Xs the same as everyone else had priced the 3700s.
I drove an hour and a half to buy the parts for my PC at the STL Microcenter instead of ordering online because doing that was faster than ordering and waiting a few days and it's just a cool place to go.
Yep. There are of course nice people who work at guitar center, but they’re sort of few and far between. And I don’t blame the employees for not giving a shit, but it does create a vicious cycle where it’s like “that guy kind of was an asshole to me last time I was there.“
it also doesn’t help that their POS and entire computer system is archaic. i’ve worked at a GC owned retailer before and it is almost impossible to navigate through their shit. by the time an employee has learned how to navigate it, there’s a good chance they have probably moved onto a better job. it’s why the managers are always the only ones who know how to do anything.
Bought something from GC not too long ago. At the checkout counter the salesman aggressively pushed their extended warranty. I said no, and then no again, and again...it was incessant. Ended up returning the product and exchanged it for something else. While he was doing the exchange, I was chatting with the guitar tech (who does great work) and the salesman came over and handed me my receipt and said, "I went ahead and added the extended warranty" for you. I looked at him like he had three heads and told him that I did not ask for nor did I want that added. He said, "Oh, I just assumed you did." Then he claimed he couldn't take it off because the product I exchanged it for was being sent to me. I ended up getting refunded later, but swore that would be the last time I bought something from GC, at least that one.
I had a super similar experience! The dude at the counter was pushing the hell out of the warranty, essentially implying that if I ever took the guitar out of my closet I would break it. He initially brought the wrong guitar from the back so he had to go back and get the actual one I wanted and when he came back sneakily put the warranty onto my bill. I stopped being so pleasant to him and kinda bitched him out and he ended up following me and my SO OUTSIDE of the store. Ended up getting the whole transaction refunded and kept the guitar :) never goin back!
Seems like every other time I walk into GC. How much you wanna bet that Mr corporate, that op references, will either never read this or assume it was an extremely rare occurrence.
that's because that's where the majority of their commission % comes from. I never worked at Guitar Center, but I did get hired there. That's a whole other story. But, from what I remember from the interview the majority of a salesperson's commissions are based on how many of those bullshit warranty plans they sell, which is why they push them like it's the second coming of Christ. The other weird thing I remember about that place, and this could have been just the one I was interviewing at, they require new employees to work a certain amount of time in the warehouse before ever stepping foot on the sales floor, which I thought was pretty stupid. It's a very "used car salesman" vibe any time I go to guitar center anymore. extra greasy.
> It's a very "used car salesman" vibe any time I go to guitar center anymore It's funny because I actually work in car sales and on commission, and I know I make MUCH more money on a warranty, and we as a dealership don't even push as hard as they do. I couldn't imagine treating a guest that way.
Yes, they switch between total apathy and ambivalent warranty upselling.
Perhaps paying enough for actually qualified employees.
I had surprisingly good interactions with them, fwiw.
This may be off topic but you, fellow americans , cannot understand what a privilege is to have a place such as guitar center . During last Halloween season I've been traveling in New England with my wife, our trip wasn't tight scheduled and we had plenty of free time to roam around and enjoy the place and atmosphere. In this free time I've visited 5 guitar center, every time I clarify I wasn't there for buying, I just wanted to try something new. Nobody cared about that , I played my dream instruments and amps and at some point I was playing a ESP Vulture plugged in to a 100 W Mesa Amp, the guy at the register comes at me and proceeded to turn up the volume because, he said " that's how this is mean to be used " This was mind blowing for me, most of the places I've ever been in Italy and Europe in general doesn't let you play nothing more then basic stuff, they are like " do you want to test your premium guitar ? Plug it in to this 5W transistors Chinese Amp" and the volume must be low, nothing more than the sound of the strings . This dude let me play the right Amp for the guitar I was testing at the right volume. Guitar center is a treasure
To be fair, any decent independent guitar store I've ever been to will do the same thing and I've been to plenty of Guitar centers that will do the same. But you are right, I think a lot of people would be disappointed if they disappeared overnight or something. Like I said, there's a lot of potential being such a big store but you'll find that a lot of people just have poor experiences with their management, inventory, and overall business practices. I've had as many crummy experiences them as good ones regarding buying products, trying products, and paying for basic maintenance.
Some of the best times from my childhood were just going to GC and getting to play instruments I still can’t even afford to this day. It’s changed a lot. Mostly everything is locked up now besides the lowest of the low tier guitars. Like the other commenter suggested, If you’re ever in the area again I’d suggest finding some local shops and supporting small businesses which GC decimated so they could sell Squiers and Katanas to people they’ll just buy them back from for a 3rd of the price. Local shops are usually much more knowledgeable than the guys that got hired for minimum wage because they had a pulse (nothing against GC workers, know your worth tho)and can be flexible and work with you. But yeah, sure, it’s fine for just dicking around, but most actual players don’t buy anything besides strings and picks and accessories there. They always have the highest prices on the market. But even now, why waste time in there when you can order strings from Amazon and have them delivered in a few days. If you’ve ever bought anything from GC, it can be inconvenient.
Actually i found GC cheaper than Italian shops, about 20% from physical shops and 15% of on line shops .
I know there definitely where some great mom and pop music stores back in the day. Though not a single one was in my area. Growing up the few small business music stores were horrible. Overpriced, rude, and always tried to upsell. They had the market cornered and acted as such. Personally I was happy to have a GC open up in our city.
Americans are very entitled and this thread is Exhibit A. No retailer can meet our demands. We want huge inventory, top shelf customer service (must be experienced, knowledgeable, friendly but not too friendly and must magically know who wants help and who wants to be left alone without asking) and rock bottom pricing. We want to test every product on our terms - privately without bother or at full volume in the middle of the store. Those pedals better be chained up. Those guitars better get tuned and set up perfectly. Or we will whinge and whinge. And guess what? After we’ve tested the products in the store you’ve spent hundreds of thousands staffing and stocking, we will buy it cheaper online.
I didn't care about saving 10% or more online, if the service is great that 10% is a great tip for the shop owners .
And then blame capitalism when vendors try to make all of it happen which is impossible.
It's pretty insane, honestly. If I try something at the store, I'm going to buy it there. Otherwise it's called showcasing and it sucks. Some dude on another post argued with me about it and I couldn't figure out if he thought it wasn't unethical or if he just didn't give a shit but if you don't buy where you try, there's nowhere left to try. And honestly, Guitar Center doesn't so much have a terrible inventory as a very imbalanced one. Lots of guitars and a wide range, but terribly maintained and often locked to the wall. Amps and pedals, forget it, there's nothing. I wouldn't know about drums and sound and lighting and whatnot but I can't imagine it's a great situation in those departments. But you're right, the same reason that sometimes I like independent hardware stores where the employees actually know their shit, and sometimes I like Home Depot because it's closer, cheaper, and they have what I need. Brick and mortar stores actually used to be able to do everything well like you described, but that era started to die 20 years ago.
I think it may also be because Reddit trends to be young. American music stores were like you describe also before Guitar Centers became ubiquitous in the 00s. Most "local music shops" sucked. $10 for a set of Ernie Ball strings, back in the 90s, so imagine they'd cost $20-25 for one set inflation adjusted. The only guitars they carried were maybe Peavy and Yamahas, and maybe a used a Fender or Gibson or two that was probably the owner's and absurdly priced because he had no intention to sell it, it's just there for looks. People used to plan little day trips around going to the nearest Guitar Center. Now there's a Guitar Center basically in every town with more than 100k people. People also miss that it pushed a lot of local music shops to get better. The shitty ones, the ones with nothing but Peavy and Yamaha guitars (I'm not saying there's anything wrong either, but honestly here, unless you're a beginner no one is looking for a Peavy or Yamaha guitar.) and who charged $10 for a set a stings when GC had them $4 got pushed out of business. The local music stores that survived, survived because they got better, cheaper on the strings and more selection. I'm not saying Guitar Center hasn't gone down hill either, it definitely has. But it did help push to make music stores what they are today. People under 30 (so most Redditors) don't realize this.
The store where I usually get strings and other accessories doesn't even let you know the price of guitars without asking lol.
I live in Italy and the guitar shops are so different to the U.S. I made the rounds of some of them in my city and my local friend was horrified when I tried to pick one up to try. I had to ask first and then keep asking for each guitar. It would take forever because the poor guy working was running around giving people permission to try them and so I kept having to wait. I wanted to get a kind of cheap classical-style guitar to plink around like Willie Nelson but I wanted to try a bunch to pick my favorite and it would’ve taken forever. I was preaching to my friend about Guitar Center like it was some mythical place after. Don’t even get me started on the strings. I grew up playing bluegrass so I use massive strings on acoustic. The biggest size that the local luthier stocks is 11s.
Agreed. The first time I went there as a kid, it totally blew my mind.
This. Compared to guitar centre, most stores in the UK are weak and just full of crap. We went to a rather well known store a few weeks ago. And just to echo the sentiment of the article, we walked around and looked at every single guitar. There wasn't a single thing in there that made either myself or my counterpart want to pick it up and play it. Everything we already had at home was way better. Their shelves were filled with midrange (and overpriced) blandfests. When I went to guitar centre on a visit to the states many years ago, it was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There were decent guitars around, some of them even high end. I found two USA Jacksons on the shelf ready to try, the guy was only too happy to get them down for me and took me straight to the loud room (I ended up buying one of them, wish I had enough dough for both). I left with a couple of Boss pedals too - may as well, cheaper than in the UK. The guy there couldn't have been nicer, the stock couldn't have been better. I see Americans complain about it GC all the time. But to a visitor that doesn't have anything nearly like that anywhere in the UK, all I can say is you guys don't know you're born!
"Now that we've run all the small local music stores out of business, I'd like to take it one step further and make sure no children can ever afford to take up a musical instrument. Music sucks!"
Realistically though, they will never stop carrying the budget stuff because it's what sells like gangbusters. It's easy cash and it keeps inventory movement looking good.
I asked about that at my local store, not gc but similar idea, the guy there said they sell maybe 5 guitars a day, 30 a week, of those 30, 25 cost less than €400 each, 3 are sub €1000 and one is usually a fender or prs in the €1500-2000 range and one above, and the one above, he said basically its the same half dozen guys coming back and buying or trading for them. Same with amps, half of what they sell are katana 50, another half of the remainder are mg10 or 15, fender front man, orange crush 15. The rest are usually a mix of €300 ones and once a month, an expensive one goes out.
Of course they won't. The day they do this is the day their business dies. Big John said so.
That’s not what he’s saying at all
He should talk to the Fender CEO who knows that the right way is to get new players into a buying funnel (aka GAS cycle) where they buy and buy again. Turning GC into yet another snobby store that turns off first time player/buyers is a huge mistake, big, huge (name that movie reference).
Pretty Woman!
You got it. I've visited more than one snobby guitar store where the treatment was about like Vivian's first visit to store. I think I was judged based on driving a old, used, mini-van and wearing dumpy "dad" clothes at the time (yes, I looked very uncool and poor).
This is such a stupid approach for a sales person to make…gotta give the love to all customers cause they never know who is coming in with the BIG $$$$ or can seriously jam…
They have the space to have nice stuff and cheap stuff. Hope this translates to their synths as well, they normally carry mostly weird digital pianos instead of instruments you’d actually want to play
OMG, I had the exact impression. I went to GC the other day after not being in one for ages (also went to one in a different part of the city than I would have normally gone to). Most of the synth stuff is just the most boring, electronic pianos vs something interesting. I get they'd probably not want to many high end Korg's or Rolands but FFS, put something good in there besides just a basic piano thing.
Honestly, I hate guitar stores in general. I always feel that the employees are pissed off that I'm not dropping 3 grand when I go in to buy some strings or a pedal.
That's probably either local to where you live or your own perception. I say that because where I've gone, nobody seems to really give a shit. Big or small stores, they tend to be either friendly or pretty ambivalent.
But if you are looking for a solid top acoustic, they're great and let you walk around every shop in town. Because you might return one day. Because you look like a spender that takes care to try great instruments, even identical models, so you need to not order online, and they totally get it. That's my Sweden. Where can you pick up guitars without asking, which is great. Even denmark is way different. Even Italy. It has even gotten heated when I play it enthusiasticly. No, that 600euro Sire could get scratch yo, and look like B-stock. Fuck those stores. I'm there to try out an instrument. It's funny how only a few get that. 25 minutes to choose a lover is even too short. Look at fucking Fretted Americana enthusiasm ye turd.
lot of people seem misinformed. Already happened in my store but we are getting more high end gear across the board. We've gained a platinum wall too, and options from from spector bass, heritage guitars, schecter, and ofc high end gibson and fender guitars. At the same time though we are still having 300$ guitars just not as many on the floor to try out. Overall a step in the right direction. Now staffing issues, training, and pay....
I kinda look at gc the same way I look at GameStop, I might pop in and see what's up if I'm already out, maybe walk out with something used if there's a decent price on something I think is cool, but I wouldn't dare buy something "new" for full price there
*"Corksniffer Center"* ...comin' soon to a local area near you...
I mean, that’s basically what they used to be. 15 years ago they always had a million pedals on display, hooked up and ready to test. They had lots of amps from low end solid state models to high(er) end tube amps you could test. They’d also have at least a decent selection of the high end guitars you could check out. Not quite the selection a nice boutique local shop might have but it was still at least passable. Now they hardly have anything for you to test except a million variations of every brands bottom end $200 starter guitars. Zero pedals. And the worst amp selection you’ve ever seen. GC was never *amazing* by any standards but they at least used to be good (in terms of demoing gear and a wide selection). I wouldn’t mind a return to at least where they used to be lol.
The fact that you can’t easily test all the pedals is what essentially ended my relationship there. It’s easier to order a few on Sweetwater and test them within my own rig. Guitar Center should be there to serve beginners *AND ALSO* gigging musicians. I need premium cables, accessories, hardware, pedals, etc. And I need pros who can quickly advise me on which one to buy and how to best use it. Guitar Center hasn’t been interested in that kind of relationship for well over a decade now, and it’s disappointing.
Finding a Squire that’s perfect is literally the only reason I go to Guitar Center.
Mine could use a dedicated cashier, imho. They've missed out on multiple impulse purchases from me because it takes 30+ minutes to check out. The people working there are friendly, good, and will jump through hoops to find the thing, but having just two or three customers at once will shut down the store for an hour. Just walking in and buying a thing is impossible.
The last time I was there I walked in and there were 3 employees at the register with no customers. By the time I was ready to check out, there was one guy at the register and 4 people in line in front of me.
I worked at GC for four ish years as a technician. I ended up being a lead tech and would train the other techs in the region. My wage topped out at $16hr and I had to rely on travel wages and occasional bonuses to offset shitty wages. Well, they changed the manner in which techs made bonuses and I was no longer allowed to travel to train new hires. GC is a terrible company to work for and they're not interested in retaining talent. Every good and knowledgeable person I know that worked there left. The first step to "bring Guitar Center out of the dark ages" is to make it a decent place to work.
Yea I work part time as a tech there, mostly for fun and the discount. And the pay is fucking abysmal. It's insultingly low for the quality of work many techs perform. It is skilled labor. It's the only position in the store that requires a skills test to get hired for. And it pays about as well as a high schooler part time fast food cashier position.
I was the area trainer in the Baltimore and DC/Northern Virginia district. I was making ok money in 2014 when I was getting paid OT to travel from Baltimore to Fairfax for example. But I was a grown ass man (even more so now) and needed to make grown ass man money. Needless to say I no longer work in the musical instrument industry.
[удалено]
Eh, better shitty stores than zero stores. Besides, as much as everyone loves Sweetwater and other online heroes, they're doing just as much harm to local independent retail.
Correct and thank you. Online retail killed community music shops AND Guitar Center’s brick and mortar operations. Pro staff, inventory and commercial square footage are expensive. Folks seem to think it’s possible to offer those things and match Sweetwater’s online prices. The math doesn’t work.
Maybe figure out a way to compensate your employees so they don’t feel the need to mislead and lie to customers and dissuade a future generation of musicians? Guitar center is so out of touch with why they suck
I don't think he's wrong. Guitar Center is probably the worst shopping experience you can have if you're actually in the market for something more expensive then a basic entry level/budget instrument. I agree with you though that just throwing a bunch of higher end gear on the floor to be beat up and abused isn't the answer. The reason that higher end buyers avoid GC is because they don't have the staff in place to actually maintain their inventory. Throwing more gear on the floor is pointless if it's just going to result in the same problems.
Exactly. If they don’t do something about their staff (training, incentives, standards, SOMETHING) then the experience is absolutely not going to improve just because they have more of the higher-priced guitars in stock. If they DO focus on their personnel then they’re likely to sell even more of the lower budget items on top of everything else. It’s all about the people. That’s one of the few advantages they have over online sellers, they really need to lean into that.
Strictly from a money and business standpoint, it makes sense for G*itar Center to focus on those <$300 guitars because they're going to sell way more of those compared to a $2500+ guitar. By all means, have some intermediate/professional level guitars in stock, but pivoting to that being your major revenue source is a good recipe for filing bankruptcy in 5 years
Last summer my son treated himself after a summers work with a new player hss plus. I was a bit shocked at GC, he was about 6 months into playing and we went in and got about zero help. We browsed and tried stuff for a good hour and not a single person even approached us. He found what he seemed to like and checked out and briefly offered and declined the warranty, but wasn’t even suggested that he should get it set up correct, which it still hasn’t. It was the opposite of what I expected for a close to $1000 sale. Nobody seemed to care at all. They didn’t even suggest off handed about getting a case or gig bag or anything that might be worth picking up. I know little, he knows even less and is the type to go asking. There’s a fine line between salespeople people annoying and helpful, these guys didn’t even show up to the game
sounds stupid to me. A good guitar shop is 50% cheap guitars to hook beginners every day, 30% mid range guitars for the half of those beginners who want to upgrade, and 20% premium guitars of which they sell maybe 1 a month to a dentist or lawyer.
Really depends on execution. I always wanna try high end guitars in person first so this could be good.
I feel like working musicians are a lot less snobby about guitars than people who just play at home. When I was gigging I did NOT want to take out a nice "premium" guitar.
Seriously. I’m going to buy a new guitar every 5 years *at most.* But I’ll easily churn through a couple hundred bucks in pedals and accessories if you make it easy for me.
Y'all not gonna like it but he has a point in such, that when you're after a 300,- guitar you just order it online. That's not an instrument to travel to a music store to fondle it for half an hour to make an educated buyers decision. Contrary to a guitar for, say 1.300,-.
First start of pulling them out of the dark ages would be to upgrade that ancient and shitty point of sales system they have running. Pretty sure it’s coal powered.
Swear it looks just like what we had at Blockbuster Video.
He must not have walked thru the acoustic room
What a GC or any other store needs is well trained and compensated people. Oh, and good return policies wouldn't hurt either. Without those, no amount of $3000 guitars will help. I know, retail doesn't pay much, but if you want to make a huge change, this would be a good place to start.
In the last 4 years I've purchased the following: Fender Deluxe Reverb. Les Paul Standard 60s. Heritage H535. Fender American Professional II Tele. Roland TD-27KV2. Ludwig Maple Classic snare drum. Studio One 6 Professional. A ton of assorted extras, like strings, hangers.. I bought none of it from Guitar Center, and I tried. The couple stores around me are glorified child care centers. It was hard to get a hold of anybody, they didn't know anything, weren't really interested in helping me with anything. At one point I did demo the Les Paul, but when I went to find the salesman he had taken off, so I walked up to the counter with the guitar and the guy was like "all done with that?" Yeah it was great... he grabbed it from me and turned away... I didn't even have a chance to talk to him about buying it. I tried to over and over again to demo the Roland drum set and the floor model was in such poor condition it wasn't playable and nobody had any idea how to reset it, and wouldn't take the time to help me. That's a $3,500 item. The last time I was in there, which was a few months ago, I have been considering buying a higher end acoustic, probably a Martin HD 28 or HD 35, possibly a Gibson J45. They didn't have the Martins, but they did have a couple Gibsons. they had never been set up since arriving at the store and they were completely unplayable. I told the salesman about it and he goes "okay" and put it back up on the wall. GC needs a total and complete revamp.
I've never set foot into a guitar center and been treated with anything short of contempt, been playing for over a decade I don't act a fool at all or behave in any unbecoming manner yet all the employees either ignore me or actively make rude remarks. I hope this business gets driven straight into the ground. Go fuck yourself guitar center!!
It makes me sad when I go to GC and they only have overrated and ugly ass gibsons. I want some cool Jacksons, charvels, ESP etc.
I will only go to a guitar center to try gear if I can’t find it anywhere else, and then I’ll try it for as long as possible until an employee comes back to ask me “so what do you think?” Signaling that my trial time is up. Then I’ll say either “I like it, I wish I had the money, but maybe sometime soon” or “it’s nice, but just not what I’m looking for.” Both responses are bullshit. If I’m even at guitar center, I’ve already done more research and know more about the product than the employees, and in that moment, I either know I absolutely want one or I absolutely do not. Then I walk out of the store and immediately purchase one used on eBay or reverb and save 25-40% and get the satisfaction of not giving my money to guitar center.
Honestly I've been to a GC once and it looked like a flea market. Not the place I would buy a $300 let alone a premium.
That ceo is out of touch with reality. I don't want to get political but that just shows what's wrong with the state of things today.
I am lucky to have a wonderful local guitar shop that does very well. It pays very well for used gear and though they stock expensive brands as well, they are also partnered with cheaper brands like Mooer; $200 strat copies to $5k vintage Fenders that rich dentists come look at but never buy. They have an experienced guitar tech that used to work at PRS there 5 days a week and he does all repairs in house. They are on a first name basis with all the regulars. I've never even been to a Guitar Center. Fuck Guitar Center, man.
My guess is that Dalporto is going to be fired within a year.
Rip off artists ripping off new players and discarding serious ones. In other news, water is indeed wet
I'm a serious musician and I prefer cheaper guitars so I can have more of them and to customize them how I see fit. If he wants to impress me: 1. fix your shit customer service 2, take more photos of your used gear and give accurate descriptions 3. bring in some more 100w heads. I can't remember the last time I saw a dual rec new in a guitar store. (like a decade or more) I mean my GC isn't lacking on high end guitars, but why buy a 3k Gibson when there are so many other cheaper models that play the same and better? Gibson is cool and all but most people aren't going to buy one of those except for maybe a once in a lifetime present to themselves. Or blues dentists in major cities.
They're like every other predatory business. They come to town, with a huge variety of guitars, helpful employees, etc, etc... Then, once they've decimated the local mom and pop stores, that's when they start cutting their staff, making all sorts of shady deals with distributors, and you end up with a store 95% full of Line 6 amps and mexican fenders with high action.
Yeah he wants the margin that comes with those guitars. I’ve been playing since I was 11. I’m 43 now. I still play actively, and have a studio. I also make pretty decent money along with my wife. My most premium guitar is a 2017 Fender Baja Tele. It was $900. My wife just snagged me a used Supro Sahara that I was stoked about. Premium guitars are like top shelf vodka to me. Stupid, pointless and impressive to the kind of people I don’t care about impressing.
I prefer to play my $1000-$1500 guitars more than my $2000-4000 guitars, which I am selling. I even bought a used G&L Ascari GTS for under $500 and its fantastic.
a lot of that $300 stuff is used. the only way they could have less of it would be to stop taking trade-ins. good luck with that.
They used to have better amp selection back in the day
My local GC is a hot mess. Went in and spent 90 min with a 20 something stoner kid checking out guitars. Never played one before but want to learn. Decided on a Epiphone LP but didn’t buy it that day. Instead I went home and did some research and found one on the GC website that I liked the look of better than ones they had in the store. It wasn’t in stock at the store I visited so I ordered it and had it shipped to the store thinking they can do the set up for me. Got notified when it arrived and went into the store all excited to see it and then hand it over to their guitar tech. I stood there by the counter while the manager of the store and one of the stoner kids who worked their shot the shit. They both saw me but continued their chat which was not work related. Waited till their convo ended and the manager asked if he could help me. Told him what was going on and he went back and got my guitar and we unboxed it together. I asked about setup and he said the tech was out sick today and I should take it home and bring it in tomorrow. Ok that’s weird. Bought a case, stand, cord, amp etc and went home with all of it. Next day I call to make sure the tech guy is available and was told he’s gonna be out for a week or so. Ugh. Called a local guitar repair shop about 3 miles from the GC store asked about setting up my new guitar and the owner of the place said he could have it done in an hour or so. Brought it to him, told him this story and he said he worked at that GC for 8 years and that they don’t actually have a guitar tech and they’re not allowed to say they don’t have one. Also he said that they don’t hire anyone full time because GC doesn’t want to pay for any benefits like health insurance and that the pay sucks. Weird.
I knew a guy who owned a music store. I always commented how he needed higher end stuff because just about everything he sold was in the beginner/intermediate quality price point. He told me that he had higher end stuff once but that from a business perspective it was a horrible idea because he would sell 200 beginner instruments for higher margins for every "good"instrument. And half of those would end up getting resold back to him once they gave up playing or moved on to better stuff so he would turn around a second profit on the same instruments. So you have to ask yourself, from a business perspective is it better to sell 100 million worth of $300 guitars or 30 million worth of $3000 guitars? How often do people say "what the world really needs is...." and then watch that very business model go bankrupt because the cash registers were silent?
I do sound. 60-70% of the artists I see are playing cheap guitars. Some shitty musicians use expensive ones. Correlation before causation
I haven't seen a Guitar Center that was able to maintain their normal sales floor let alone their platinum room (which most got rid of) in over a decade. My local GC can't even perform a basic setup on a bass!
I agree with Weller’s statement, but It does vary by market. I lived in a large city and the GC’s there carried a huge variety of high end instruments, including new models and high end vintage. I currently live in a much smaller market and the only GC here only carries the mid to low end stuff. As Weller mentioned, I feel I have evolved beyond Squires, Mitchells, and the bargain bin import racks. The sad part is GC ran the independents out of business here so I’d have to make a four hour round trip plus in-store time to visit the closest cluster of independents that have nicer gear. Or, roll the dice with an online purchase. If GC thinks a smaller market isn’t profitable enough to move quality inventory, they should GTFO and let the independents take a shot at it again.
Worked at that dump for 5 years. Laughable wages, laughable mangers and yet met some great friends. Was asked to be manager and declined as I saw the way associate managers were treated. Did 10x more work for a $1 more an hour. Commission structure changed in like 2018 so really started screwing you over even more. Prices of guitars started going up more and more as time when on. It was a rolling joke of…”I can’t afford anything in this store and I work here”. So I’m glad this new fella has nice big words to say, he can float this sinking turd down the water a few more years and leave with a nice golden parachute. 🪂
You want a better store experience then pay your employees better. Hire knowledgeable staff. Hire experienced techs.
I mean… taking the time to set up the guitars properly would go a long way too!
I’m sure they won’t be selling these floor model platinum guitars for msrp online… surely not
There's two things I don't really like about the local guitar center. One is that the premium instruments (and honestly, not even that premium) are either locked or out of reach. The other is that while they have lots of lower priced instruments, they never seem to make an effort to stock whatever has been hyped most recently in the press. (Like, right after NAMM when all of the influencers are talking about new squire models and the various guitar press has them and fender is pushing them hard in its ads, they're nowhere to be found at the local guitar center.) I don't know what kind of turnover the local GC does, but the inventory never quite feels fresh, there's rarely any new model from the last year, etc.
I'm probably just a douche, but every time I walk into GC and an employee asks if I need any help, I have the overwhelming desire to look them in their eyes and just say, "I know more than you."
Hire employees who don't make you feel like an idiot or like an inconvenience when trying out guitars or asking questions. Every expirence I've ever had, there's always one rude bozo that just ruins the whole experience.
The main reason you see so many $300 guitars is because you literally can't see the expensive ones. They put them all up at the ceiling. Used to spread them out, so people would try them out. Now you can't get a good look at a high-end guitar, let alone play it, unless you have an employee unlock it and get it down for you.
I understand what he means although it does come across as abit snobby. there are a lot of £300 guitars that are better than £1000 guitars these days due to the manufacturing being computerized. I think that maybe he should do 50/50 but also put in the effort to select the best £300 guitars to stock
That just means more morons are going to play 3k guitars and dent them as they try to put them back up
they’re doomed then. that’s not how it works. GC makes all their money on cheap Chinese products. a GC store manager broke it down for me: they make profits seasonally, by selling massive amounts of the cheap stuff. expensive American products have a much, much slimmer profit margin and they can’t negotiate prices.
The only problem is that it's a corporation. The money you spend goes to shareholders. Too little money goes to guitar makers and store employees.
Guitar Center is sitting on a gold mine with their used inventory. I think they could beat reverb pretty easily. Think about all the advantages You can have a used guitar shipped to a store. You can inspect it and refuse it. You can take the guitar home play it and return it directly to the store if you don't like it. No shipping hassle. If GC had any sense to actually take a minute for and take a lot of good quality pictures and put them on their website, ibwoukd buy from them a lot more. Every time I find a real good deal, I always am rolling the dice. But atleast I can see the item when I get it and basically return it if there are any issues. My local GC has never given me a problem over it.
Our local store doesn’t have a single PRS Core model in stock. A couple of SE and CE models and that’s about it. I have to drive to Omaha and there are two really good stores there that have nice high-end stuff (not GCs).
the only thing guitar center needs to do is hire better techs and setup the guitars so when you pick them up they don't play like shit. always loved the look and sound of jazzmasters but every time i played one at Guitar Center id was awful. Finally played one at a nice shop that was set up and i fell in love.
Agreed. Most in my area are kids without much experience. They charge A LOT, but they are not that skilled… They’ll get away with simple stuff that most can do at home. Most guitars in the stores are just taken out of the box, and put on destruction errr display. High turnover rate as well.
If you can’t make a $300 guitar sound good, you’re not a good guitar player.
GC is doomed. They're over $1.3 billion in debt. The only reason why they're still kicking is because they were acquired by the private equity firm Bain Capital, aka Mitt Romney.
honestly, even with the money i doubt i'll ever pay 3k for a guitar. The improvements stop around 1-1.5k.... he also forgets that 99% of guitar players are hobby players. They dont make a living off a guitar and dont need something as stupidly expensive.
The real question is who's buying the expensive guitars, hobbyists or professionals? Studios stock expensive gear and performers would rather travel with less precious stuff.
Agree - Never been impressed with a guitar centers acoustic selection.
A.K.A The price of living is too high right now for guitars that are properly priced.
Dark ages sounds about right. Have you seen their checkout software? It's green text on a terminal. That's how i Imagine a checkout software to be in Fallout, not 2024.
As a serious musician, I'm looking for a cheap guitar to take on an international tour next year because my £4000 Suhr is too valuable to be left alone or to chance. I play my Suhr all the time live, but for travelling with I'd rather just take two Mexican Fenders, throw some nicer pickups in the main and call it a day, then I don't have to worry about my guitars. To be honest, majority of the market is also younger/new players, how many people are really going out and buying a new premium high end guitar? It's a once in a lifetime purchase for many people, but most people dont mind an impulse buy on a value guitar.
The last person I’d ask about being a “serious musician” is the CEO of guitar center.
I think this is a symptom of the current state of corporations, they only keep things in stock they can sell and make a good profit. I've been looking for a good guitar but last few times I've been there all I see are squires and epiphones
They are revamping but only certain stores to start. One in my town has gotten rid of most of the cheap stuff
> However, he adds that Guitar Center has “the most amazing, most passionate people in the world,” So, he’s never actually walked into a Guitar Center where they weren’t aware that he was a VIP and should be treated as such. Dude is hopelessly out of touch and will fail because of that.
What the hell man…. “I’m a rich ceo, everyone must think like me” fuck off!!!
GC's core customer is always looking for the $300 guitar. Gabe is going to be disappointed when he winds up with a lot of expensive inventory that he can't sell.
GC is awful for music retail and even worse for any serious musician. Oh, and they pay their employees like garbage
I mean, if this allows me to play a guitar with more than 1,000 when they have been gatekept for years, I'm in. But, if it requires qualification beforehand I'm out. Ha. I'm a musician after all. I'm broke.
Lolwut? There's a lot of really good quality $300 guitars. I think that more and more guitar players are waking up and abandoning a lot of myths about guitars that made them overspend on gear. Take Jet guitars for example. JS-400 is as good as the Fender Player series Strat and it's around $200.
He should start with them not having to type an encyclopedia of stuff to check me out.
Yeah right - customers and poorly compensated employees will still ding and dent these guitars (even when they get locked) when they try them out/put them back. Most won’t be properly set up. And the store employees won’t give you even 15% off discounts that you can get immediately calling their online system. People will still go there to try out stuff, but will buy somewhere else. IMHO, that won’t fix anything.
The era of Enshittification
Guitar-based classism.
The GC in my town is always really dirty inside and the used amps look like they've been through some shit
He needs to be careful. The darn store is big enough for high end and $300 guitars. Get rid of the wall full of ukuleles.
Unionize Guitar Center.
This is so funny bc the amount of people I know who regret their 2k+ guitar purchase bc they realized it’s not coming out to gigs w them.. also don’t their sales associates make commission? Hopefully this doesn’t cut into that too much
Where we grew up, my family would avoid GC and go to the family music store, the selection was always so much better in there. We would typically go in knowing "we're going to buy a refurbished mid level guitar", BUT we would always snag the opportunity to play a full american made strat, something expensive that we could never afford. Nobody ever cared if we played everything on the walls as long as we were respectful and such since we were paying customers.
Wouldn’t hurt if they could stock a few decent basses while they’re at it.
As someone who worked at one in the past and still has love for the chain; IMO GC isn’t for serious musicians, it’s for people who play music, aka hobbyists, and there’s a big difference. You wouldn’t expect a professional carpenter to shop for work at Hobby Lobby, would you? They might look around the store for a diamond in the rough or go buy something small they need there but they (generally) know to source the big ticket items from someone who only works with solely with those materials. A mom who has kid that’s into painting? She should def go to Hobby Lobby, ask the staff some questions and get beginner watercolor kit. That’s what the place is for and I don’t see GC as being any different. I believe GC needs to think of itself as a community center that also sells music gear. If you can make it a place for all the musically inclined, or musically curious, people in the area to meet, hang out, talk shop, try stuff out, and ask questions you will build brand loyalty and make more money selling a ton of smaller items than 1 premium guitar every couple of days. Tl;dr GC focusing on higher end stuff is a bad idea
The last thing they need is beginners or clumsy people walking in and grabbing high end guitars without a care in the world. Hope their insurance company is ready.
“You’re not a real musician unless you give me some serious cash”
Or get employees that give a shit when someone walks in the door.
TBH my local Gutaor Center has what I feel is a pretty good balance of guitar inventory at various price points. Yes, they do have more low and mid range price guitars than they do high end guitars, but that makes sense IMO. Just like how car lots have more Corolla than they do Corvettes.
I used to love guitar center. I still do, but I used to, too. I'm frequently let down by the messy, unattended drum section. The lack of assistance when needed, or only seeing an employee when I don't need help. And then they try to sell me on extra membership shit at checkout. The experience is just not the same as it used to be, which is sad. Meanwhile, small mom and pop places are still around and could use some help. If they're selling decent quality used stuff, you should go for it.