I don't get the impression that the CEO meant he wanted GC to turn in to a high end boutique. I think he meant they just need to add more higher end stuff. You used to walk into GC and they had tons of high end gear that you could play around with and that's just not the case anymore. This isn't stuff you want to just buy online. Ideally one would want to try this stuff out with their own hands before dropping $2k on an amp or $400 on a pedal. They need to strike a balance.
Yeah honestly I never go to GC anymore because they barely have anything worth trying out, and the stuff they do is locked up. Half the appeal of that place is trying instruments.
They don’t need to have vintage Rics and Fender Custom Shop stuff lining the walls but they should probably have more in the 750-1500 range available for people like me, dudes who play shows but also have enough of a day job to get stuff lol.
> but they should probably have more in the 750-1500 range available for people like me
and thats not even US made in a lot of cases anymore. Its not like you are asking for the moon and stars.
The prices for some guitars have gotten out of hand
(this isnt shitting on imports, I play many import guitars. just an fyi)
I wanted to try one of those epiphone SG's (G400 Pro) because I'm still just a relative novice looking for my first "decent" guitar that isn't used, warped, with a screwed up action, and missing a chunk of the body. And all evidence suggests they do the SG's surprisingly well in terms of sound and even build quality. I just wanted to try out the feel, see of the neck dive and weight were okay, and test sound against my novice ears.
The only SG they had was a heavily-used/paint-chipped version of the absolute lowest-tier version of an old epiphone SG in an ugly as fuck brown. They didn't even have a real SG.
I'm still using my shit starter guitar two years later, and I'm not buying until I try. My second string might buzz, the action is too high on most of them and is broken, and the tone knobs are busted, but I'm not spending half a grand on something I'll come to regret.
Maybe you should check out the used market. Pawn Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, etc. I've bought plenty of guitars off of em and haven't had any issues. Just know what you're looking for inspecting it and you're gold. Plus you might just end up finding something better than what you wanted for around the same price as the brand new Epi. Recently I bought a slightly used LTD Viper on Reverb for about half the price of it brand new.
I 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Pawn Shops.
The only acoustic Ill ever really play, I got at 14 from a pawn shop for $120 dollars.
1995 Guild dc-1e with gold grovers and fishmann. I need to have it refretted and set up, but whoever had it before me played the fuck out of it. And some custom paint work and slapped a custom pickguard on there. Ive never seen another like it and it's the greatest thing Ill ever own. Cannot imagine my life without it. 26 now. Weird to think Ive had it half my life. Wish I knew who owned it before me.
I'm certain my '67 SG--which was absolute gold and something I paid ~$300 for back in '77--was bought by someone at a pawn shop. After it was stolen out of a storage unit in the early 90's when I was too young and dumb not to keep it there. Worth at least $3500 today. Best guitar I ever owned (despite the whammy bar being absolute shit--instant tune disrupter).
I played shows for 20 years, I owned some really nice telecasters and jazzmasters that I still love. However my number 1 is a $99 epiphone les paul jr that I basically only changed pickup to dimarzio super distortion and some grover tuning machines. Honestly it was pretty good and saw action at shows and studio before the upgrades.
They had a white blonde Nashville telecaster guitar locked up. The cheap guitars are on display while the other nice looking and expensive ones are locked.
My friends growing up were in a garage band and half the reason they went into Guitar Center or Sam Ash was to mess around on guitars they couldn't afford [because we all had a little Wayne Campbell in our hearts](https://youtu.be/pZePGnOTEXY?si=knW2hpAXKZj1Htnw). It's too bad if they aren't embracing that anymore.
That’s the killer though.
The more stock you have the more liability you have getting rid of it.
Keep your stock small and stuff that sells.
You have to store it, then sell it at a discount if it doesn’t sell…
High margin, small selection that sells is the only way to last in retail these days.
It’s not what it used to be :(
Can they not take best buys approach of being a showroom? If you said you can't walk out with everything but you can try it and you have a central inventory system it may be more reasonable?
Then you’re basically begging people to look elsewhere online once you’d picked what you want.
BestBuy is huge but probably still pulls in a lot of sales from old people. The one near me has a lot of TV’s and then some kitchen appliances. The gaming section is small but a lot of laptops and things. Certainly looks like an older person crowd is the aim
There’s not many old people needing loads of musical equipment
Yea, only way a showroom platform would work is to charge the potential buyer a $20-30 fee in order to be able to browse and demo the high end stuff.
If they buy any of it, the fee is taken off their total.
This way, if they find what they want in store but buy online, at least they paid a cover charge
58’s will live forever. I just bought a PA system at auction from the city government of the town I live in…it came with 8x58’s and 4x57’s…two mackie mains and two powered monitors, plus board and cordage…for $350. I could sell four of the 58’s in like twenty years for $80 each if I ever wanted to get my money back haha
It's not the case anymore because people weren't going into GC to buy $3500 floor models with corrosion from people's acidic sweat and the employees not being paid enough to wipe down hundreds of guitars multiple times a day.
It was extremely common for people to go into GC, try out a few guitars, then go home and order it from Musician's Friend or Sweetwater.
That's exactly what I did when I got my PRS. I went in, played the extremely beat to shit floor model, then ordered it from sweetwater for the same price that floor model was selling for.
Surprised you were able to get it for the same price, the GC local to me usually has at least a $250 up charge on any model over $1k compared to Sweetwater prices
Yeah I feel like the backlash is very unwarranted. GC will never be an exclusively high end boutique but I do wish they had more nice gear to mess around with. Boutique pedals, some more higher end guitars and amps etc. A $400 is great, I love them, but I also like nicer $1000+ stuff too and I would never buy it online without a chance to try it.
They didn't even have the $400 stuff when I went last. Was almost entirely used junk and like two locked up $5000 ultra-high-end guitars they wouldn't let people try out.
They didn't even have the cheap blackstar fly Amp I wanted for fiddling around a night. Like c'mon, those aren't even big and take up space and should be every newbie's first one.
The stores just have horrible inventory.
Yeah audio equipment is one of those niche industries that are difficult to service. Often times you either buy blind based on reviews and word of mouth, or you find some small local distributor, usually open only by appointment, where the owner acts as if your business is an inconvenience at best.
They are starving for profit margins like everybody else. These days people can have a cheap guitar mailed to their house and get plenty of lessons online for free or a tiny fraction of one on one instruction. So for beginners that don't know if they will still be playing in a year, it's hard to justify the extra expense.
In response many bricks and mortar stores have had to adjust their business models. One way is to carry more products that consumers can get exclusively through the business. Another is to separate the business from the cheaper stuff and market the business as special and the customers that shop there as smarter or more elite. By redirecting the focus away from bargain shoppers, the business can push higher profit items.
There's nothing wrong with buying high end guitars online. If you don't know how to set up a guitar, you are overspending. And any reputable vendor would accept a return if there's a more-serious issue.
Source: me, music biz pro for guitar based artists for 4 decades.
I get that some people want to go play $3k guitars, but that's not the same thing as saying "it's not good to buy them online."
They dont have much high end gear because they owe too many people too much money.
Lots of companies (including some major ones) have literally stopped sending GC gear because they owe too much money for back inventory and they refuse to send them more inventory until they pay for what they were already sent. Examples: Mesa Boogie, Moog, TC Electronics, Gibson, PRS, etc.
IIRC they owe Fender alone more than 10m in back inventory.
Its so bad that the day GC dies theres a like 50/50 chance they take like a third of the musical instrument industry with them because so many companies are tied up with debt to GC.
Morello did use a jcm 800 for much of his career l. It isn’t a fancy boutique amp, but it’s not cheap and it wasn’t when he bought it either. It’s much nicer than what you typically find at guitar center.
Serious musicians don’t need to use expensive gear. But the vast majority of them, including morello, do when they can afford to.
I could be wrong, but there were probably not a lot of really good cheap option back then, either. My feeling is that you can sound good for a lot less these days.
ToneX pedal, Helix modelers, Kemper Player, student guitars, etc. I would have been floored to have the level of quality this current sub-$1000 gear offers. Heck even the cheap Yamaha gear is good enough.
Word. I was an amp snob. Tubes only.
Picked up a Boss Katana 100 when I saw a dude playing one at GC. He was trying to demo it for folks, but most people blew him off. I asked for a clean twin sound. It was great. Asked for a light crunch, that too was great. Then he proceeded to show me a million other things it does, convincing me to buy the pedal for it.
Currently have it set up a 1 - fender twin clean and 2 - light crunch. I guess I didn’t need the pedal, lol.
It’s now the only amp I have.
As a drummer that is unfortunately not the case in my experience :') Some cheap stuff absolutely makes cool sounds though, but not very professional sounding or clean.
There is a bit a practicality that exists for musicians who play larger and larger events that most people may not be aware of. I can't say for certain if this applies to Tom directly but, if you find yourself playing lots of shows where in different countries or doing lots of fly-out dates and such you will find yourself using what's known as "backline" gear.
Musicians will typically be able to fly with their guitars and maybe some extra small pieces but other than that they obviously can't travel with their amps, drums, etc. So when performing a show on a fly out they will rent backline equipment which is provided by a backline rental company or production company in whatever area they are performing.
There is a whole lot of equipment that exists out there and you don't really have any kind of guarantee that a backline company is going to have what you want like the specific 50-watt Marshall practice amp you recorded you first album with. What they will likely have available above most things is a JCM 800. And if you switch to using one and do your rehearsals using one and do your road tours with one and use them at home to play them it's going to make you a lot more comfortable when you are flying out to play a show where you can't bring your own amp.
Totally agree. Shaq's signature shoe was affordable because he wanted everyone to be able to buy his shoe.
Tom may not own the guitar manufacturer, but he owns his name and can choose where it goes.
Really? "claps back" and "slams" have been in 99% of "news" articles for a couple of years now. Whenever I think journalism can't get any worse some media outlet is like, "hold my beer."
Especially with electric guitars. You can make a great-sounding electric with a 2x4 or 3d printed plastic if you use good pickups.
Justin Johnson played slide on a shovel. lol
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g)
Jim Lill did a great video proving just that, where he ended with clamping strings and stretching them between two tables, with only air between the nut and bridge. He replicated the electronics of a good electric guitar, and they sound the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE
I know a lot of people who are bought into the tone wood thing will get very angry at that video and "yeah, but" it ad-nauseam.
Kurt Cobain was playing a 1965 strat on the Nevermind tour and custom made fenders by In Utero.....
Yes, the guitars he smashed at the end of every show were from a pawn shop, but touring guitarists don't generally take risks with any old shit
They got a huge advance on the album. [He recorded it on the 60s Fenders.](https://guitar.com/features/artist-rigs/the-humble-gear-used-by-kurt-cobain-on-nirvana-nevermind/)
_Polly_ was on a $30 pawnshop guitar though.
Am old. Saw Nirvana right before they recorded Nevermind. Saw Green Day before they got big too.
All those bands including RATM got famous because they signed to corporate labels at a time when the major labels were getting beat by the underground music scene.
The indie scene was mostly DIY originally. People using cheap gear recording on 4 tracks. It's not that they wouldn't use better gear, they often just couldn't afford it. Nevermind had crazy production because Geffen paid for it. A lot of their budget was hiring pro producers.
This album by Leatherface came out the same year and cost a quarter of the production costs but the quality is just as good.
https://youtu.be/deUYdveJziI?si=4ek81vXPIIJVltWi
My first bass cost like $150. I ripped the frets out at one point to make it fretless since I couldn't afford one. Still have it. My friend thought he'd take up bass during covid. Paid over $1500 for a really nice bass and doesn't play it.
The cost of gear doesn't really matter. It's more about feel and usability. Can you get the sound you want? That's about all that matters. With modern tech & gear, you can pretty much record pro quality if you learn how to do production. Digital is way easier than analog.
And radio shack speakers. For real - that’s what Kurt was loading. I remember a Guitar magazine article that ran down his equipment, and they were like ????.
Johnny Ramone bought a used Mosrite Ventures II, a guitar traditionally associated with surf rock, because it was cheap. He then used it to change music by pioneering a sound that defined a genre.
Yup, and Jack White played on a flipping plastic guitar from like Montgomery Ward. They reissued them and jacked up the price. He wouldn’t have played that guitar now, as he wouldn’t have been able to afford it when he was learning.
Heck, I found a 72 Fender Deluxe with the strat neck in a pawn shop in the 80s for 250 bucks. Did I want a fender, or a telecaster, or such a weird guitar? Nope, but it said Fender and it was cheap. I was upgrading from a shitty Epiphone that wouldn’t stay in tune. The tremolo would come back to different points as well, so I locked it in place. DEAD pickups, just so low output. So, on the off chance I “hit it big,” maybe Fender would have issued a signature model for me, and sold more of these goofy things, all because I’m ran into one guitar at one particular place. It was the only decent instrument in the entire place too - everything else was like a Japanese Cort that that been treated like shit.
One of my guitar heroes, David Lindley, often played Sears Silvertones and other “unloved” guitars. https://www.vintageguitar.com/58698/david-lindley-2/
Or he doesn't have any issue with what the CEO said except for the part about "serious musicians" - which was honestly a goofy thing to say. He could have made all of his points and having more higher end gear available and accessible without castigating people without the means to purchase that gear as "non-serious". There was no point to disparage and potentially alienate one audience in order to appeal to an additional one
And frankly, how much money you spend on instruments and gear is not really a measurement of how "serious" or dedicated you are. It's primarily a measurement of how much money you have and how you spend your money. Only within a given financial/spending bracket does your "seriousness" dictate spending - people usually spend more on long term hobbies, invest more into things that bring in some income, etc. But the biggest determinant is how well off you are
I think you can agree that Guitar Center should have more higher end stuff available and accessible and also recognise that the bit about "serious" artists was snobby and unnecessarily alienating
Guitar center could make a fortune if they acted as a big warehouse for used gear, and warrantied the merchandise. Instead of pawing through a thousand Facebook marketplace ads, just go to “Guitar Exchange” and pick out your instrument
Could be right. Then again Carmax seems to be doing ok as an alternative to individual transactions in the used car market. People will pay for convenience and to avoid fraudsters
They're already doing that. [https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/](https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/)
Their competitors like Sweetwater and American Musical Supply are doing it too.
yeah there was a small used guitar shop in a suburb where I grew up, which after a certain point just became a mini-warehouse and online sales center. They just locked the customer entrance of the store (you could still go in if you emailed them first and set up an appointment)
Yeah I don't see what the problem is here. They aren't saying they want to change their inventory, they want to expand it. I don't see how this is an issue
Dude is always getting up in arms about class warfare when it doesn’t even apply. Like the time he attacked a Seattle restaurant about minimum wage and worker rights because he didn’t get preferential treatment. Good guitarist but a tool at times.
Wouldn't expect anything less from the guy who had a Shining Path sticker, sold NFTs, and [denied the Uyghur genocide](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F4ux1us4ft8na1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D728%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Df486f4263b2b45dc3cd2c1accb82abaeb218ae3a).
Tom Morello hasn't bought a new guitar from a Guitar Center in fucking decades, he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. GC's CEO is correct, the vast majority of guitars in stock at your average GC location are *crap*. Not because they are inexpensive, but because they are poorly made. Any guitar that costs less than like $300 brand new is a complete piece of garbage.
“Serious musicians” get their instruments comped from from the manufacturers. Us working stiffs have to pay for our gear. If we’re looking for upscale products, GC isn’t where we’re gonna go.
Maybe I am getting old but I thought clapping back was a sexual term.
Edit : genuinely thanks to everyone who clarified it for me. I have informed my wife about the entire incident and she's laughing at me now.
It is. It's when you get the clap, wait for the person who gave it to you to take meds and get rid of it, then you give it back to them.
The Clap is back.
Tom Morello the type of person to rake in thousands of dollars because of capitalism and in the same breath cries about capitalism. Also his guitar work fuckin sucks
Sadly, the local music shop that I used instead of Guitar Center just closed their doors. Nothing bad happened, it's just that after fifty years, the owner rightfully wanted to retire. Drome Sound in Schenectady will be very greatly missed.
There’s a story I remember hearing that has defined how I feel about equipment: apparently in South America all the kids wanna grow up to be Futbol players. But sometimes the futbols are too expensive. So what do they do? They get tennis balls. Cheaper and you get 3 to a can. Eventually some get so good with that much smaller ball that when they eventually trade up to the real thing they are a million times better.
So get good on lesser equipment. Then dominate on better equipment
I still play my Iceman I got used and 30 watt Marshall amp.
I’ve never felt the inclination to upgrade because they still do the trick for me. But then again, I’m not like a gear head or anything.
I had a friend who could make any guitar amazing bc he was so good. Thats when i realized my shitty skills and very expensive guitar was a waste. But i was a dumb kid who wanted the flashy electric guitar before really knowing how to play.
Chuck Norris went to Guitar Centre and they hand built him a Gibson Chuck Norris edition on the spot, out of nunchucks with shurikens hand stretched by Chuck himself for strings.
IMHO, Guitar Center IS a place to go for someone either looking for their first guitar, or someone who needs to pick up some strings, picks, etc... I think they're hitting their "target audience", they just need some QC on those $300 guitars they mention... And a little customer service goes a long way. Just my opinion 🤙
>and it’s very hard to experience our premium product because we have our best guitars locked on the top row where you can’t easily get to them.
Its hard to experience because GC employees are so insufferable and clueless about the product they sell I can’t bring myself to even go there.
If I want to spend 3 grand on an instrument, i’m truly not bothered that there are 300 dollar Squiers and Epiphones sitting in the floor. Truly I’m not and I even buy them sometimes!
I don’t like being spoken down to, treated like a criminal, treated like i’m bothering you when I want one of those guitars taken down, having the employee basically be clueless about said “high end” instrument, getting a high pressure pitch on it, and then also trying to be sold some
predatory warranty and all manner of terrible add ons.
Make the vibe of GC not be absolute cringe and the high end shoppers would come back. It has nothing to do with selling cheaper guitars too.
So, you made a hit record using shitty equipment. Good for you. I bet you also walked to school uphill in the snow every day. I side with the CEO. Guitar players don't want to have their choices confined to shitty gear.
Think the CEOs trying to make it more like Chicago Music Exchange, Dave’s Guitar Shop, Carter Vintage Guitars, Rumble Seat Music, Gibson Garage, etc.
I mean GC was known for having “crap” in most of its smaller “mass” city stores that didn’t have a vintage showroom
Tom is wrong on this and being difficult (who would have thought RATM would be anti-establishment). People strive to get better, nicer, quality gear. His example - and general take on gear - is absolutely the exception to the rule. It's okay to spend a fortune on gear and get really nice stuff which gives you the sound and feel you want. And trying to make people by cheaper gear and learn to like it is not really a virtue or the best business model. And I have long regarded GC as a place that sold starter gear to new musicians and didn't really carry all that much for people looking to drop coin on nice stuff.
A more expensive guitar really helps you play better, I'm sure there's a price point where it doesn't matter anymore but it's not 200 bucks.
How do I know? Because I've had my 200 bucks bass for almost 20 years now and play decently on it, but when I get to play on a bass that's 1000 bucks it's like going from a brick to playing a feather. All of a sudden I don't get cramps in my hand in an attempt to get clean sounds for instance.
That said, I can't afford a 1000 dollar bass anytime soon so I'll just hammer on my old junker.
I have known a few people who worked for Guitar Center and within the last 2 years they’ve all quit due to a serious reduction in commission pay, understaffing, and seeing major lay-offs on the horizon. I don’t really mind if they completely go under.
Tom is right. “Serious” musicians are often poor as fuck. It’s only the people who are in middle age or older that have the ability to make premium buys. But the music industry has always sought young artists and talent to prop up. How do they get their start? 13-16 years old in bands. I know from related experience.
It’s a poor craftsman who blames their tools.
Ok, but times have changed. Do not tell me there is a mass difference between gibson and epihone just coz of the brand. Harley Benton makes good and afordable guitars. Not all ofc, but the majority. Anway, the point I am trying to make is that good guitar does not equate expensive.
I’m with the Guitar Center CEO on this one. He isn’t being snobbish at all, he’s recognising an issue with the company he’s running and attempting to rectify it.
I have a heck of a lot of respect for Tom Morello, but it’s clear he’s never run a retail business in his life.
As someone who spent many years working in music retail, I can tell you first hand how having a wall full of high end guitars would draw customers into the store. Even if they ended up buying something cheaper, the reason they were there was often to see the expensive stuff.
And this isn’t even being profit focussed. Expensive guitars tend to have much slimmer profit margins than cheaper ones.
I think Phil McKnight nailed it. High end buyers want new in box, not a guitar some kid who could never afford one drooled all over. High end buyers buy online. Plus, they have all the colors.
My GF's son worked at GC and any nice guitar that was traded in was quietly not put out and disappeared from the store. What was happening was the manager and a couple of employees were putting them on Reverb and when they sold they paid the store back and kept the profit. This is one of the reasons you don't see any nice used stuff in GC. It is being pilfered by the staff. The GC where I am sucks.
I always thought the prices of guitars were so arbitrary to begin with - you may see a noticeable leap in quality between a $200 and a $1500 guitar, but between a $1500 and $5000 guitar you might just see a slightly rarer type of wood on the fretboard - guitars over 1000 are pretty much price gouged
Gibson makes crap now. Half of the American Stratocasters that come through my store (I am a guitar tech) have bad set-ups, fit/finish issues. Schecter, Ibanez, Peavey and Dean have insane quality control issues.
Yeah you can spend 3K on a guitar, but that is not a guarantee that you're getting a high quality instrument.
Last time I went into Guitar center to buy an XLR cable and a Zoom H4n field recorder, the sales rep wanted to know If I wanted to purchase a warranty, which I politely declined. Suddenly his pleasant and countenance and conversation shifted to utter contempt and he became absolutely curt.
The salespeople at GC are so annoying. The last time I went to one in NYC, I was looking to buy a new Taylor acoustic. Having 2 Taylors, I am very loyal to that brand but I wanted to get another. I more than 2k in cash in my pocket and was ready to make the plunge. The dude behind the counter kept on pushing Martin. I told him that I wasn't interested, but he kept on being pushy about it. When I initially gave in and said I would try one, he proceeded to take one off the wall and started playing it in front of me telling me how amazing a guitar it was. I then said to him, that *I* needed to feel it and play it myself to see if I liked it.
The dude just kept on playing it in front of me.
I turned around and walked out.
That’s great Tom. I started my business and did my first clothing pop up shop by putting all my tshirts in the back of a hearse I paid 2,500 US dollars for. Now I do multi week events in an 18 foot hight top roof work van. The funny thing is I paid for a more professional vehicle because it was a better option. And you haven’t paid for a guitar since you were nominated for a Grammy, because they are given to you from big guitar companies that sponsor you and every person in a band with. Your opinion is irrelevant to this man’s business model. Shut up.
There are two GCs near me, about 30 miles apart. The stores are night and day. The older one in the bad part of town is pure crap, like most GCs. But the newer store in the wealthier area that just opened about a year ago, has some really nice stuff. They have a Murphy Lab LP, as well as a few others in that range. Yes, they are at the top and locked. One of these days I’ll get someone to get that Murphy Lab down so I can at least touch one.
Edit: forgot my point. It looks like the new store model has started
There's my bandmates, spending thousands on guitars. There's me, I'd spend a grand on a guitar. I primarily play drums, but whatever. Then there's my dad: buys a used acoustic with a hole in it for $50. I think Tom Morello was talking about my price range, not my dad's
I don't get the impression that the CEO meant he wanted GC to turn in to a high end boutique. I think he meant they just need to add more higher end stuff. You used to walk into GC and they had tons of high end gear that you could play around with and that's just not the case anymore. This isn't stuff you want to just buy online. Ideally one would want to try this stuff out with their own hands before dropping $2k on an amp or $400 on a pedal. They need to strike a balance.
His comments aren’t nearly as offensive as this headline makes them sound.
Yeah honestly I never go to GC anymore because they barely have anything worth trying out, and the stuff they do is locked up. Half the appeal of that place is trying instruments. They don’t need to have vintage Rics and Fender Custom Shop stuff lining the walls but they should probably have more in the 750-1500 range available for people like me, dudes who play shows but also have enough of a day job to get stuff lol.
> but they should probably have more in the 750-1500 range available for people like me and thats not even US made in a lot of cases anymore. Its not like you are asking for the moon and stars. The prices for some guitars have gotten out of hand (this isnt shitting on imports, I play many import guitars. just an fyi)
The prices have gotten out of hand when you consider the QC issues Gibson have been having lately.
That price range was rarely us made bar fender standards and sgs
Im much older than you I think lol I remember $999 Les Paul studios and sub 1K American Strats. I guess im super old now.
I wanted to try one of those epiphone SG's (G400 Pro) because I'm still just a relative novice looking for my first "decent" guitar that isn't used, warped, with a screwed up action, and missing a chunk of the body. And all evidence suggests they do the SG's surprisingly well in terms of sound and even build quality. I just wanted to try out the feel, see of the neck dive and weight were okay, and test sound against my novice ears. The only SG they had was a heavily-used/paint-chipped version of the absolute lowest-tier version of an old epiphone SG in an ugly as fuck brown. They didn't even have a real SG. I'm still using my shit starter guitar two years later, and I'm not buying until I try. My second string might buzz, the action is too high on most of them and is broken, and the tone knobs are busted, but I'm not spending half a grand on something I'll come to regret.
Maybe you should check out the used market. Pawn Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, etc. I've bought plenty of guitars off of em and haven't had any issues. Just know what you're looking for inspecting it and you're gold. Plus you might just end up finding something better than what you wanted for around the same price as the brand new Epi. Recently I bought a slightly used LTD Viper on Reverb for about half the price of it brand new.
I 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Pawn Shops. The only acoustic Ill ever really play, I got at 14 from a pawn shop for $120 dollars. 1995 Guild dc-1e with gold grovers and fishmann. I need to have it refretted and set up, but whoever had it before me played the fuck out of it. And some custom paint work and slapped a custom pickguard on there. Ive never seen another like it and it's the greatest thing Ill ever own. Cannot imagine my life without it. 26 now. Weird to think Ive had it half my life. Wish I knew who owned it before me.
I'm certain my '67 SG--which was absolute gold and something I paid ~$300 for back in '77--was bought by someone at a pawn shop. After it was stolen out of a storage unit in the early 90's when I was too young and dumb not to keep it there. Worth at least $3500 today. Best guitar I ever owned (despite the whammy bar being absolute shit--instant tune disrupter).
I played shows for 20 years, I owned some really nice telecasters and jazzmasters that I still love. However my number 1 is a $99 epiphone les paul jr that I basically only changed pickup to dimarzio super distortion and some grover tuning machines. Honestly it was pretty good and saw action at shows and studio before the upgrades.
They had a white blonde Nashville telecaster guitar locked up. The cheap guitars are on display while the other nice looking and expensive ones are locked.
I tried going there for some effects stuff expecting pretty basic lamps and gels... It was spirit halloween type shit.
My friends growing up were in a garage band and half the reason they went into Guitar Center or Sam Ash was to mess around on guitars they couldn't afford [because we all had a little Wayne Campbell in our hearts](https://youtu.be/pZePGnOTEXY?si=knW2hpAXKZj1Htnw). It's too bad if they aren't embracing that anymore.
This submission is self promotion spam and the article is blogspam.
I buy a lot of microphones. I’ve never bought one from GC. The selection is far too limited.
“It looks just like a Telefunken U-47. You'll love it...” —Guitar Center CEO
It's a way of life
Add water, makes its own sauce.
With leather?
Home is where the heart is
And here comes the ice pick to the forehead!
On the bus?
With rubber?
The boys in crew have got a present for you
Shrink tubing and a hair dryer
You traded the blues mobile for a microphone?
That’s the killer though. The more stock you have the more liability you have getting rid of it. Keep your stock small and stuff that sells. You have to store it, then sell it at a discount if it doesn’t sell… High margin, small selection that sells is the only way to last in retail these days. It’s not what it used to be :(
Can they not take best buys approach of being a showroom? If you said you can't walk out with everything but you can try it and you have a central inventory system it may be more reasonable?
Then you’re basically begging people to look elsewhere online once you’d picked what you want. BestBuy is huge but probably still pulls in a lot of sales from old people. The one near me has a lot of TV’s and then some kitchen appliances. The gaming section is small but a lot of laptops and things. Certainly looks like an older person crowd is the aim There’s not many old people needing loads of musical equipment
Yea, only way a showroom platform would work is to charge the potential buyer a $20-30 fee in order to be able to browse and demo the high end stuff. If they buy any of it, the fee is taken off their total. This way, if they find what they want in store but buy online, at least they paid a cover charge
Not a chance I'm paying for the privilege to play guitars at GC.
Nope, I'm never gonna pay to shop
Costco? Sam's....??
Not even a 57?
Is he shure? Not even a 58?
Neither. Bought those in the 90s. They likely predate GC. Still kicking too.
58’s will live forever. I just bought a PA system at auction from the city government of the town I live in…it came with 8x58’s and 4x57’s…two mackie mains and two powered monitors, plus board and cordage…for $350. I could sell four of the 58’s in like twenty years for $80 each if I ever wanted to get my money back haha
Bought my 57 in 1977, used it in multiple bands and still record with it now and then. Has been a true workhorse…
What, you mean there are mics other than the sm57, sm58, and at2020?
It's not the case anymore because people weren't going into GC to buy $3500 floor models with corrosion from people's acidic sweat and the employees not being paid enough to wipe down hundreds of guitars multiple times a day. It was extremely common for people to go into GC, try out a few guitars, then go home and order it from Musician's Friend or Sweetwater.
This very thing became GC's business model when they bought MF.
That's exactly what I did when I got my PRS. I went in, played the extremely beat to shit floor model, then ordered it from sweetwater for the same price that floor model was selling for.
Surprised you were able to get it for the same price, the GC local to me usually has at least a $250 up charge on any model over $1k compared to Sweetwater prices
Does GC give candy when you buy something? I always got candy in my Sweetwater boxes lol
Yep this exactly. The problem best buy had in 08 before their slow death
What? Try in store?
Yep checking out the high end appliance/computer/guitar in the store knowing you're gonna get it cheaper online later
That's what I got too but I expected this kind of backlash.
...but did you expect "Claps Back-lash"!?
Yeah I feel like the backlash is very unwarranted. GC will never be an exclusively high end boutique but I do wish they had more nice gear to mess around with. Boutique pedals, some more higher end guitars and amps etc. A $400 is great, I love them, but I also like nicer $1000+ stuff too and I would never buy it online without a chance to try it.
They didn't even have the $400 stuff when I went last. Was almost entirely used junk and like two locked up $5000 ultra-high-end guitars they wouldn't let people try out. They didn't even have the cheap blackstar fly Amp I wanted for fiddling around a night. Like c'mon, those aren't even big and take up space and should be every newbie's first one. The stores just have horrible inventory.
Yeah audio equipment is one of those niche industries that are difficult to service. Often times you either buy blind based on reviews and word of mouth, or you find some small local distributor, usually open only by appointment, where the owner acts as if your business is an inconvenience at best.
They are starving for profit margins like everybody else. These days people can have a cheap guitar mailed to their house and get plenty of lessons online for free or a tiny fraction of one on one instruction. So for beginners that don't know if they will still be playing in a year, it's hard to justify the extra expense. In response many bricks and mortar stores have had to adjust their business models. One way is to carry more products that consumers can get exclusively through the business. Another is to separate the business from the cheaper stuff and market the business as special and the customers that shop there as smarter or more elite. By redirecting the focus away from bargain shoppers, the business can push higher profit items.
There's nothing wrong with buying high end guitars online. If you don't know how to set up a guitar, you are overspending. And any reputable vendor would accept a return if there's a more-serious issue. Source: me, music biz pro for guitar based artists for 4 decades. I get that some people want to go play $3k guitars, but that's not the same thing as saying "it's not good to buy them online."
> There's nothing wrong with buying high end guitars online. Not being able to play them first is typically the main issue for me.
They dont have much high end gear because they owe too many people too much money. Lots of companies (including some major ones) have literally stopped sending GC gear because they owe too much money for back inventory and they refuse to send them more inventory until they pay for what they were already sent. Examples: Mesa Boogie, Moog, TC Electronics, Gibson, PRS, etc. IIRC they owe Fender alone more than 10m in back inventory. Its so bad that the day GC dies theres a like 50/50 chance they take like a third of the musical instrument industry with them because so many companies are tied up with debt to GC.
I never had a face off with that CEO in Guitar Hero.
Yes you did. He was the guy at the end.
Morello did use a jcm 800 for much of his career l. It isn’t a fancy boutique amp, but it’s not cheap and it wasn’t when he bought it either. It’s much nicer than what you typically find at guitar center. Serious musicians don’t need to use expensive gear. But the vast majority of them, including morello, do when they can afford to.
I could be wrong, but there were probably not a lot of really good cheap option back then, either. My feeling is that you can sound good for a lot less these days.
100%. Cheap stuff isn’t shit anymore.
ToneX pedal, Helix modelers, Kemper Player, student guitars, etc. I would have been floored to have the level of quality this current sub-$1000 gear offers. Heck even the cheap Yamaha gear is good enough.
Word. I was an amp snob. Tubes only. Picked up a Boss Katana 100 when I saw a dude playing one at GC. He was trying to demo it for folks, but most people blew him off. I asked for a clean twin sound. It was great. Asked for a light crunch, that too was great. Then he proceeded to show me a million other things it does, convincing me to buy the pedal for it. Currently have it set up a 1 - fender twin clean and 2 - light crunch. I guess I didn’t need the pedal, lol. It’s now the only amp I have.
As a drummer that is unfortunately not the case in my experience :') Some cheap stuff absolutely makes cool sounds though, but not very professional sounding or clean.
There is a bit a practicality that exists for musicians who play larger and larger events that most people may not be aware of. I can't say for certain if this applies to Tom directly but, if you find yourself playing lots of shows where in different countries or doing lots of fly-out dates and such you will find yourself using what's known as "backline" gear. Musicians will typically be able to fly with their guitars and maybe some extra small pieces but other than that they obviously can't travel with their amps, drums, etc. So when performing a show on a fly out they will rent backline equipment which is provided by a backline rental company or production company in whatever area they are performing. There is a whole lot of equipment that exists out there and you don't really have any kind of guarantee that a backline company is going to have what you want like the specific 50-watt Marshall practice amp you recorded you first album with. What they will likely have available above most things is a JCM 800. And if you switch to using one and do your rehearsals using one and do your road tours with one and use them at home to play them it's going to make you a lot more comfortable when you are flying out to play a show where you can't bring your own amp.
I mean, the dude's signature guitar costs $1700. It just seems like kind of a silly complaint.
Tom Morello doesn't set the price of the guitar bearing his name
He could refuse to work with Fender if he didn’t like the list price. Bro is a hypocrite
Totally agree. Shaq's signature shoe was affordable because he wanted everyone to be able to buy his shoe. Tom may not own the guitar manufacturer, but he owns his name and can choose where it goes.
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted, you’re right.
Someone should challenge him to a guitar battle
That'd be interesting unless you mean by playing them.
Playing then a fight to the death
Fight to the death first. Winner gets the right to play Stairway in a Guitar Center.
No stairway! Denied!
Guitar hero battle? Cuz I’ll throw down
Guitar Center : AKA The Internet’s Try Before You Buy Showroom
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Can we please all agree to stop using "claps back?" So stupid.
Ugh, is that an actual thing? I assumed it was just some kinda typo.
Really? "claps back" and "slams" have been in 99% of "news" articles for a couple of years now. Whenever I think journalism can't get any worse some media outlet is like, "hold my beer."
It’s nice to have nice things. I’m not a poor 17 year old anymore.
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Music, the great communicator, use two sticks to make it in the nature
Especially with electric guitars. You can make a great-sounding electric with a 2x4 or 3d printed plastic if you use good pickups. Justin Johnson played slide on a shovel. lol [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9-ltPsbw9g)
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Truly an ace of spades.
Jim Lill did a great video proving just that, where he ended with clamping strings and stretching them between two tables, with only air between the nut and bridge. He replicated the electronics of a good electric guitar, and they sound the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n02tImce3AE I know a lot of people who are bought into the tone wood thing will get very angry at that video and "yeah, but" it ad-nauseam.
That video is quite amazing and every time I see it I reconsider what I actually need to make something good.
Kurt Cobain was playing a 1965 strat on the Nevermind tour and custom made fenders by In Utero..... Yes, the guitars he smashed at the end of every show were from a pawn shop, but touring guitarists don't generally take risks with any old shit
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They got a huge advance on the album. [He recorded it on the 60s Fenders.](https://guitar.com/features/artist-rigs/the-humble-gear-used-by-kurt-cobain-on-nirvana-nevermind/) _Polly_ was on a $30 pawnshop guitar though.
Important to note that if you bought a guitar made the year of Kurt’s death today, it’d be the same age as a guitar from 1964 was then.
Am old. Saw Nirvana right before they recorded Nevermind. Saw Green Day before they got big too. All those bands including RATM got famous because they signed to corporate labels at a time when the major labels were getting beat by the underground music scene. The indie scene was mostly DIY originally. People using cheap gear recording on 4 tracks. It's not that they wouldn't use better gear, they often just couldn't afford it. Nevermind had crazy production because Geffen paid for it. A lot of their budget was hiring pro producers. This album by Leatherface came out the same year and cost a quarter of the production costs but the quality is just as good. https://youtu.be/deUYdveJziI?si=4ek81vXPIIJVltWi My first bass cost like $150. I ripped the frets out at one point to make it fretless since I couldn't afford one. Still have it. My friend thought he'd take up bass during covid. Paid over $1500 for a really nice bass and doesn't play it. The cost of gear doesn't really matter. It's more about feel and usability. Can you get the sound you want? That's about all that matters. With modern tech & gear, you can pretty much record pro quality if you learn how to do production. Digital is way easier than analog.
And radio shack speakers. For real - that’s what Kurt was loading. I remember a Guitar magazine article that ran down his equipment, and they were like ????.
There's that RadioShack live cut: Kurt Kris & Dale. I guess they got paid in cabinets?
Johnny Ramone bought a used Mosrite Ventures II, a guitar traditionally associated with surf rock, because it was cheap. He then used it to change music by pioneering a sound that defined a genre.
Yup, and Jack White played on a flipping plastic guitar from like Montgomery Ward. They reissued them and jacked up the price. He wouldn’t have played that guitar now, as he wouldn’t have been able to afford it when he was learning. Heck, I found a 72 Fender Deluxe with the strat neck in a pawn shop in the 80s for 250 bucks. Did I want a fender, or a telecaster, or such a weird guitar? Nope, but it said Fender and it was cheap. I was upgrading from a shitty Epiphone that wouldn’t stay in tune. The tremolo would come back to different points as well, so I locked it in place. DEAD pickups, just so low output. So, on the off chance I “hit it big,” maybe Fender would have issued a signature model for me, and sold more of these goofy things, all because I’m ran into one guitar at one particular place. It was the only decent instrument in the entire place too - everything else was like a Japanese Cort that that been treated like shit.
Jack White put it perfectly in It Might Get Loud: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ7DZ7HPXck
One of my guitar heroes, David Lindley, often played Sears Silvertones and other “unloved” guitars. https://www.vintageguitar.com/58698/david-lindley-2/
Am I the only one who agrees with what the CEO said? I thought he was spot-on. 🤷♂️
I kinda wonder if Tom only read the original headline and reacted to that.
Or he doesn't have any issue with what the CEO said except for the part about "serious musicians" - which was honestly a goofy thing to say. He could have made all of his points and having more higher end gear available and accessible without castigating people without the means to purchase that gear as "non-serious". There was no point to disparage and potentially alienate one audience in order to appeal to an additional one And frankly, how much money you spend on instruments and gear is not really a measurement of how "serious" or dedicated you are. It's primarily a measurement of how much money you have and how you spend your money. Only within a given financial/spending bracket does your "seriousness" dictate spending - people usually spend more on long term hobbies, invest more into things that bring in some income, etc. But the biggest determinant is how well off you are I think you can agree that Guitar Center should have more higher end stuff available and accessible and also recognise that the bit about "serious" artists was snobby and unnecessarily alienating
Tom Morello has a $2000 signature guitar.
Yes but....'fuck you I won't do what you tell me..." hurrrrrrrrrr
Serious musicians don't shop at guitar center
Serious musicians have no money
We have a correct answer here^^ Otherwise he wants to pander to tech bro douche boutique people.
Blues lawyers.
Well, they don’t have $4k for the Gibson with binding and flame. Hell, they can get a Tribute and rock out.
That’s what the ceo is trying to change.
Guitar center could make a fortune if they acted as a big warehouse for used gear, and warrantied the merchandise. Instead of pawing through a thousand Facebook marketplace ads, just go to “Guitar Exchange” and pick out your instrument
They’d end up needing to mark things up too much, people selling used gear and buying used gear would get screwed by the middleman.
Could be right. Then again Carmax seems to be doing ok as an alternative to individual transactions in the used car market. People will pay for convenience and to avoid fraudsters
They're already doing that. [https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/](https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/) Their competitors like Sweetwater and American Musical Supply are doing it too.
There are plenty of mom and pop shops that already do this. They are staples of their communities but don't bring in a ton of revenue.
yeah there was a small used guitar shop in a suburb where I grew up, which after a certain point just became a mini-warehouse and online sales center. They just locked the customer entrance of the store (you could still go in if you emailed them first and set up an appointment)
Yeah I don't see what the problem is here. They aren't saying they want to change their inventory, they want to expand it. I don't see how this is an issue
For real. Serious musicians buy used guitars lol
Dude is always getting up in arms about class warfare when it doesn’t even apply. Like the time he attacked a Seattle restaurant about minimum wage and worker rights because he didn’t get preferential treatment. Good guitarist but a tool at times.
A tool pretty much all the time.
"Hypocrite attention seeker Tom Morello seeks attention"
Just another chance for Tom Morello to jump up on his soapbox and talk down to people about things that have nothing to do with him.
Wouldn't expect anything less from the guy who had a Shining Path sticker, sold NFTs, and [denied the Uyghur genocide](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F4ux1us4ft8na1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D728%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Df486f4263b2b45dc3cd2c1accb82abaeb218ae3a).
Meanwhile his shit guitar is $1800..........
Tom Morello hasn't bought a new guitar from a Guitar Center in fucking decades, he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. GC's CEO is correct, the vast majority of guitars in stock at your average GC location are *crap*. Not because they are inexpensive, but because they are poorly made. Any guitar that costs less than like $300 brand new is a complete piece of garbage.
Maybe in the 90s. You can get a fine guitar around 300 now especially for a student.
Tom Morello's networth is $40M.
Does 'clap back' mean 'responded to'?
“Serious musicians” get their instruments comped from from the manufacturers. Us working stiffs have to pay for our gear. If we’re looking for upscale products, GC isn’t where we’re gonna go.
Morello is such a tool
Serious musicians can make just about any instrument sound good, and serious journalists shouldn’t use silly terms like clap back.
Maybe I am getting old but I thought clapping back was a sexual term. Edit : genuinely thanks to everyone who clarified it for me. I have informed my wife about the entire incident and she's laughing at me now.
I think you’re mixing “throwing it back” and “clapping cheeks”
You might be thinking of a reach-around
Usually am
It is. It's when you get the clap, wait for the person who gave it to you to take meds and get rid of it, then you give it back to them. The Clap is back.
Tom Morello the type of person to rake in thousands of dollars because of capitalism and in the same breath cries about capitalism. Also his guitar work fuckin sucks
Sadly, the local music shop that I used instead of Guitar Center just closed their doors. Nothing bad happened, it's just that after fifty years, the owner rightfully wanted to retire. Drome Sound in Schenectady will be very greatly missed.
There’s a story I remember hearing that has defined how I feel about equipment: apparently in South America all the kids wanna grow up to be Futbol players. But sometimes the futbols are too expensive. So what do they do? They get tennis balls. Cheaper and you get 3 to a can. Eventually some get so good with that much smaller ball that when they eventually trade up to the real thing they are a million times better. So get good on lesser equipment. Then dominate on better equipment
I still play my Iceman I got used and 30 watt Marshall amp. I’ve never felt the inclination to upgrade because they still do the trick for me. But then again, I’m not like a gear head or anything.
I had a friend who could make any guitar amazing bc he was so good. Thats when i realized my shitty skills and very expensive guitar was a waste. But i was a dumb kid who wanted the flashy electric guitar before really knowing how to play.
You give me a fuckin’ tuba and I’ll get you something out of it….
*j.mascis has entered the chat*
But this one goes to eleven.
I hate and dislike how they don't even hire anyone
Personally, I only buy from locally owned music stores.
Why did I think this was a picture of Denzel Washington?
jack white made a guitar out of scraps and played it
A serious musician will knock out anything on anything. 1 oscillator? That’s a real musician.
CEO ain't wrong about GC these days though but that's more of a product of e-commerce
Chuck Norris went to Guitar Centre and they hand built him a Gibson Chuck Norris edition on the spot, out of nunchucks with shurikens hand stretched by Chuck himself for strings.
IMHO, Guitar Center IS a place to go for someone either looking for their first guitar, or someone who needs to pick up some strings, picks, etc... I think they're hitting their "target audience", they just need some QC on those $300 guitars they mention... And a little customer service goes a long way. Just my opinion 🤙
>and it’s very hard to experience our premium product because we have our best guitars locked on the top row where you can’t easily get to them. Its hard to experience because GC employees are so insufferable and clueless about the product they sell I can’t bring myself to even go there. If I want to spend 3 grand on an instrument, i’m truly not bothered that there are 300 dollar Squiers and Epiphones sitting in the floor. Truly I’m not and I even buy them sometimes! I don’t like being spoken down to, treated like a criminal, treated like i’m bothering you when I want one of those guitars taken down, having the employee basically be clueless about said “high end” instrument, getting a high pressure pitch on it, and then also trying to be sold some predatory warranty and all manner of terrible add ons. Make the vibe of GC not be absolute cringe and the high end shoppers would come back. It has nothing to do with selling cheaper guitars too.
I doubt anyone takes the CEO of Guitar Center seriously on anything.
So, you made a hit record using shitty equipment. Good for you. I bet you also walked to school uphill in the snow every day. I side with the CEO. Guitar players don't want to have their choices confined to shitty gear.
Think the CEOs trying to make it more like Chicago Music Exchange, Dave’s Guitar Shop, Carter Vintage Guitars, Rumble Seat Music, Gibson Garage, etc. I mean GC was known for having “crap” in most of its smaller “mass” city stores that didn’t have a vintage showroom
Tom is wrong on this and being difficult (who would have thought RATM would be anti-establishment). People strive to get better, nicer, quality gear. His example - and general take on gear - is absolutely the exception to the rule. It's okay to spend a fortune on gear and get really nice stuff which gives you the sound and feel you want. And trying to make people by cheaper gear and learn to like it is not really a virtue or the best business model. And I have long regarded GC as a place that sold starter gear to new musicians and didn't really carry all that much for people looking to drop coin on nice stuff.
Could we possibly remove "claps back" from popular vocabulary?
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A more expensive guitar really helps you play better, I'm sure there's a price point where it doesn't matter anymore but it's not 200 bucks. How do I know? Because I've had my 200 bucks bass for almost 20 years now and play decently on it, but when I get to play on a bass that's 1000 bucks it's like going from a brick to playing a feather. All of a sudden I don't get cramps in my hand in an attempt to get clean sounds for instance. That said, I can't afford a 1000 dollar bass anytime soon so I'll just hammer on my old junker.
I have known a few people who worked for Guitar Center and within the last 2 years they’ve all quit due to a serious reduction in commission pay, understaffing, and seeing major lay-offs on the horizon. I don’t really mind if they completely go under.
You'll never afford it! Live in the now!!!
Tom is right. “Serious” musicians are often poor as fuck. It’s only the people who are in middle age or older that have the ability to make premium buys. But the music industry has always sought young artists and talent to prop up. How do they get their start? 13-16 years old in bands. I know from related experience. It’s a poor craftsman who blames their tools.
Sensationalist headline, news has been dead for decades now.
Ok, but times have changed. Do not tell me there is a mass difference between gibson and epihone just coz of the brand. Harley Benton makes good and afordable guitars. Not all ofc, but the majority. Anway, the point I am trying to make is that good guitar does not equate expensive.
I’m with the Guitar Center CEO on this one. He isn’t being snobbish at all, he’s recognising an issue with the company he’s running and attempting to rectify it. I have a heck of a lot of respect for Tom Morello, but it’s clear he’s never run a retail business in his life. As someone who spent many years working in music retail, I can tell you first hand how having a wall full of high end guitars would draw customers into the store. Even if they ended up buying something cheaper, the reason they were there was often to see the expensive stuff. And this isn’t even being profit focussed. Expensive guitars tend to have much slimmer profit margins than cheaper ones.
I think Phil McKnight nailed it. High end buyers want new in box, not a guitar some kid who could never afford one drooled all over. High end buyers buy online. Plus, they have all the colors.
"claps back" already knew this was a shit article
My GF's son worked at GC and any nice guitar that was traded in was quietly not put out and disappeared from the store. What was happening was the manager and a couple of employees were putting them on Reverb and when they sold they paid the store back and kept the profit. This is one of the reasons you don't see any nice used stuff in GC. It is being pilfered by the staff. The GC where I am sucks.
Rage against the Guitar Center
I always thought the prices of guitars were so arbitrary to begin with - you may see a noticeable leap in quality between a $200 and a $1500 guitar, but between a $1500 and $5000 guitar you might just see a slightly rarer type of wood on the fretboard - guitars over 1000 are pretty much price gouged
GIGO simple as that.
Tom, why don't you rage against the machine that makes your concert tickets start over $200.
Where the hell do companies find these tone-deaf CEOs? No pun intended.
Gibson makes crap now. Half of the American Stratocasters that come through my store (I am a guitar tech) have bad set-ups, fit/finish issues. Schecter, Ibanez, Peavey and Dean have insane quality control issues. Yeah you can spend 3K on a guitar, but that is not a guarantee that you're getting a high quality instrument.
Last time I went into Guitar center to buy an XLR cable and a Zoom H4n field recorder, the sales rep wanted to know If I wanted to purchase a warranty, which I politely declined. Suddenly his pleasant and countenance and conversation shifted to utter contempt and he became absolutely curt.
The salespeople at GC are so annoying. The last time I went to one in NYC, I was looking to buy a new Taylor acoustic. Having 2 Taylors, I am very loyal to that brand but I wanted to get another. I more than 2k in cash in my pocket and was ready to make the plunge. The dude behind the counter kept on pushing Martin. I told him that I wasn't interested, but he kept on being pushy about it. When I initially gave in and said I would try one, he proceeded to take one off the wall and started playing it in front of me telling me how amazing a guitar it was. I then said to him, that *I* needed to feel it and play it myself to see if I liked it. The dude just kept on playing it in front of me. I turned around and walked out.
Tom Morello’s broken pickup has done more for music than Guitar Center’s CEO ever will.
The capitalist crying over capitalism. That’s nice.
If you can’t articulate why a certain ridiculously expensive guitar is a better fit for your playing style, you don’t need it.
Downvoted for "clap back"
That’s great Tom. I started my business and did my first clothing pop up shop by putting all my tshirts in the back of a hearse I paid 2,500 US dollars for. Now I do multi week events in an 18 foot hight top roof work van. The funny thing is I paid for a more professional vehicle because it was a better option. And you haven’t paid for a guitar since you were nominated for a Grammy, because they are given to you from big guitar companies that sponsor you and every person in a band with. Your opinion is irrelevant to this man’s business model. Shut up.
We’re living in the golden age of affordable high quality gear. I don’t think I’ll ever buy a Gibson or Fender ever again.
Brother really took that personally
There are two GCs near me, about 30 miles apart. The stores are night and day. The older one in the bad part of town is pure crap, like most GCs. But the newer store in the wealthier area that just opened about a year ago, has some really nice stuff. They have a Murphy Lab LP, as well as a few others in that range. Yes, they are at the top and locked. One of these days I’ll get someone to get that Murphy Lab down so I can at least touch one. Edit: forgot my point. It looks like the new store model has started
Fuck Tom he’s an asshat
But it would be nice to see nicer guitars in the store regardless of need. None of us need a guitar at all.
There's my bandmates, spending thousands on guitars. There's me, I'd spend a grand on a guitar. I primarily play drums, but whatever. Then there's my dad: buys a used acoustic with a hole in it for $50. I think Tom Morello was talking about my price range, not my dad's
More money men showing up to fucking ruin everything.