The Official "I Hate Guitar Center" Thread!

mca47

First off I just want to say I really enjoy going to music stores. I can literally spend hours in there. That being said, I really cannot stand Guitar Center. Here's why...

1) Guitar Center has become the "Wal Mart" of music stores. They move in, build a huge store filled with guitars, drum equipment, amps, speakers, etc. It sounds cool...but it really isn't. Like Walmart it drives out the little guys who have been serving their community for years. Sure, you can get the same guitar at GC for $75 bucks cheaper, but along with that I believe you are selling you soul. But I guess that's the American way anymore.

2) Guitar Center employees are one of two things, sometimes both. a) Completely clueless or b) Complete pricks. They either give you attitude and act all "holier than thou" because they think they know guitars better than anyone else or they are complete morons. So many times I've gone in there and asked a couple easy/simple questions and they had no idea what they were talking about...even though they thought they did. I bought some new acoustic strings yesterday. The guy that sold them was an idiot! He didn't know the difference between any of the strings, what they were made out of, etc. I wanted to smack him upside the head.

3) The people IN GC. Good god!!! Everytime I've been in a GC this is what I've seen. You have 13 year old kids asking to play the vintage Les Paul or Strat. It'll be about 15 years before any of them can afford to actually buy one. When they play them they play Green Day Good Charlotte or Linkin Park crap. After you fight thru the electric section you head over to the acoustic room. I happen to like the acoustic room except for the fact that everyone and their brother pulls up stools infront of the Martins and Taylors. It's like they have decided to camp out there. The only thing missing is the bonfire! That sweet Taylor or Martin guitar you are thinking about buying (not necessarily there) is being played for 2 hours on end by the guy who only knows how to plays Stairway to Heaven.
After hearing Stairway to Heaven for the 10th time you get frustrated and head over to the drum room. All four drumsets they have set up and being pounded on as loud at possible.
4) The post GC headache. Between the punk kids playing bad guitar, the stinky hippies in the acoustic room playing guitars worth more than their car, and the horrible, horrible drum room...you need to pop some pills. I think when they check you out they should give you some ibuprofin!

All in all, I'd rather go to joe-shmoe local guitar shop for my next purchase!

Damn Guitar Center!

HailHailVitalogy

i have to say

i went to a Guitar Store here in Queens, NY...that I've never been to, and it was the best GC ive seen.

yes half the guitars were out of tune but they carried some things that I wasn't expecting...

Hiwatt, Matchless, Orange, and Traynor were shocking to see in that store.

the people didnt bug you, just asked you once if you needed help...I asked if they had the '62 strat reissue and they checked said no but we have the '57, I said ok...they gave me a cable, the guitar and left me alone

now thats a different GC, most suck big balls

Thumbing My Way

We don't have a GC up here but our equivalent I think would be Long & McQuade, and I totally agree with you.

I always feel uncomfortable asking questions and even sometimes going in the store depending on who's working. I've been in there 3 times this week because I'm looking at amps, and some of the same guy's have been working and I get this look from them like "o great..you're back" and it really pisses me off.

Some of them are super helpful and really freindly but I don't like a handfull of them.

I went in yesterday and the guy was re-stringing my B-string and the idiot put on an "e", but I didn't notice until I got home and couldn't tune it, and it eventually snapped.

I know exactly what your saying though, I feel like they're lying to me all the time too, that's why I ask so many damn questions on here Cause everyone's honest.

I wish they were all freindly and helpfull, although now I pick and choose who I ask for help but the other guys still give me dirty looks

keeponrockin

I live Steve's better than L&M.

Pacomc79

hey, I'm a former GC employee and you think you were annoyed. Imagine 10 hours a day 6 days a week .... actually besides the crappy pay (because I was more interested in helping than selling and I was a rookie) it was one of the coolest jobs ever. There are a lot of knobs that work there, but there are a lot of great musicians and gearheads too, it depends on the store. 761 in Atlanta is one of the best ever and it still annoys me sometimes.


Sometimes it depends on the market, when I was at 762 in Marietta, wow, we got great Taylors because the church people love em but other than that, mostly crap. Can't beat the discount though. One thing they won't destroy are high end guitar shops. GC might have a room with a shit load of Stilettos and a Diezel maybe an Orange Rocker and if you're lucky some 50's and 60's fenders. You aren't going to find much fulltone, zvex, way huge, BJF etc at guitar center, and you probably aren't purchasing an $8,000 Ramirez or a $10,000 Martin or Gibson with playing wear from being on the floor. For what they are, essentially musicians friend you can touch, it really dosen't get much better. Good luck trying a bogner or matchless in most pro shops without a credit check.

I ended up buying my Strat from a local shop around the corner anyway, they had what I wanted, and it's the only place in town with Two Rock, Savage, Dr. Z, Roccaforte among others.

The bitch with pro shops are the prices, and the freaking hours, some of us have real jobs damnit.

12PM to 6PM don't cut it.

exhausted

L&M, at least here, is the best store in the city as far as quality of gear and general attitude of the sales folks.

i'm lucky in that i only deal with one or two people though and that's about it.

my biggest thing about guitar shops in guitar is just being too intimidated to test anything out properly. i don't play very well and thus get very self-concious whenever i need to try something.

no one's given me a hard time for it but i'm sure they're laughing on the inside.

then there is the shop here in victoria (i'm on vacation) and the guy, after asking price range and me telling him i played a morgan and a larrivee and that i'm travelling and just have a habit of looking for left-handed instruments, shows me the $300 yamaha he can get in left-handed. ummm thanks. good listening skills. i like expensive guitars and i don't live here.

Pacomc79

exhausted wrote:

L&M, at least here, is the best store in the city as far as quality of gear and general attitude of the sales folks.

i'm lucky in that i only deal with one or two people though and that's about it.

my biggest thing about guitar shops in guitar is just being too intimidated to test anything out properly. i don't play very well and thus get very self-concious whenever i need to try something.

no one's given me a hard time for it but i'm sure they're laughing on the inside.

then there is the shop here in victoria (i'm on vacation) and the guy, after asking price range and me telling him i played a morgan and a larrivee and that i'm travelling and just have a habit of looking for left-handed instruments, shows me the $300 yamaha he can get in left-handed. ummm thanks. good listening skills. i like expensive guitars and i don't live here.

That guy is an idiot, and trust me you are your own worst critique, you are better than you think. I loved when people who knew what they were doing came in to the shop, even better when they appreciate the why this cost 4 grand. One of my best sales was to a guy who didn't play. I spent way too long with him, but he left the store with a Hamer, and an ampeg super jet T, an amp I was going to take home myself that day. Oh well, in the end I didn't make enough that month to get commission but I think I made a few people happy.

never, never, never, sell a honda to a guy asking about a ferrari.

HailHailVitalogy

Pacomc79 wrote:

hey, I'm a former GC employee and you think you were annoyed. Imagine 10 hours a day 6 days a week .... actually besides the crappy pay (because I was more interested in helping than selling and I was a rookie) it was one of the coolest jobs ever. There are a lot of knobs that work there, but there are a lot of great musicians and gearheads too, it depends on the store. 761 in Atlanta is one of the best ever and it still annoys me sometimes.


Sometimes it depends on the market, when I was at 762 in Marietta, wow, we got great Taylors because the church people love em but other than that, mostly crap. Can't beat the discount though. One thing they won't destroy are high end guitar shops. GC might have a room with a shit load of Stilettos and a Diezel maybe an Orange Rocker and if you're lucky some 50's and 60's fenders. You aren't going to find much fulltone, zvex, way huge, BJF etc at guitar center, and you probably aren't purchasing an $8,000 Ramirez or a $10,000 Martin or Gibson with playing wear from being on the floor. For what they are, essentially musicians friend you can touch, it really dosen't get much better. Good luck trying a bogner or matchless in most pro shops without a credit check.

I ended up buying my Strat from a local shop around the corner anyway, they had what I wanted, and it's the only place in town with Two Rock, Savage, Dr. Z, Roccaforte among others.

The bitch with pro shops are the prices, and the freaking hours, some of us have real jobs damnit.

12PM to 6PM don't cut it.

see there isnt a pro shop anywhere me...the cloesest one has most of what GC has but also has some cool pedals like Fulltone and Roger Mayer...

but the GC that was in Queens kicked some ass with those amps they had....yet the Hiwatt and Orange amps were used

exhausted

i don't know how people can work music shops without going nuts. i can only handle one channel of audio at a time so even going into a place for 5 minutes during a busy time freaks me out. the "big" store here honestly is pretty good. the other big one is staffed by tools and has prices about 15% higher.

this place in victoria was basically a little acoustic bluegrass type shop but had martins and larry's etc. nothing left handed at all so i never touched anything but i guess dressed in jeans, unshaven, with a sleeping baby strapped to my chest he assumed some stuff or just plain couldn't listen.

i shouldn't even be looking at guitars but ever since i found my rickenbacker in passing whilst away from home, i'm compelled to go into every shop i find.

NoLongerOverwhelmed

I go to Guitar Center about twice a year. Usually when I get some free time during the week. The one near me has a couple of very good salesmen. The rest are gerbils. I'm an amature, but it's still a soul-sucking experience if one of those two salesmen aren't there. Unfortunately for me, they're pretty much the only game in town right now. The Mom and Pop shops around here are generally evil or apathetic, or both.

PatrickBateman

There is a girl I always see in the GC Drum Dept. I go to. We get along great now that I have dealt with her a few times and I can bargain with her now. I know they wont give anything away, but I will pay what I think is fair or they can keep it.

I actually feel bad for them....you know they opnly make like $10/hr and have to put up with all these kids coming in and bashing the shit out of Starclassics and Masters etc....

I mostly deal with massmusic now.

fender33

email me for your next purchase im a luthier (guitar maker)

All Those Yesterdays

This is a day in a life of me entering a guitar center.

11:45: Park truck in parking lot
11:46: Open door get greeted by guitar center greeter. "Hi", "Hello"
11:46 & 17 seconds: Start track over to bass guitar section to look for American P-bass
11:46 & 38 seconds: Here horrible played metal riff played by 13 different people.
11:46 & 48 seconds: Look up the wall of the limit amount of bass's in store.
11:47: No American P-bass's available.
11:47 & 6 seconds: Ask self what else I need to look at
11:47 & 9 seconds: Headache sets in from horrible played metal riffs
11:47 & 38 seconds: Say goodbye to guitar center greeter.
11:48 & 17 seconds: Start truck head over to local music store 10 minutes away.

Fortunately here in Toledo we have a locally owned music store that is still competative if you know who to talk to, and does have a great selection on everything for everyone.

State_of_love_trust

I just have to say fuck guitar center. I have only ever gone there twice to pick up some tab books. I am lucky to live outside of Harrisburg PA in a small town which has four local guitar shops within a 1 mile radius. The sales persons at the local shops have actually talked me out of buying expensive equipment and buying some more reasonably priced stuff that is just as good.

keeponrockin

Thats one thing about some stores here, I was looking at a $600 Strat plus a case, and the guy said "Try this godin, it blows that out of the water". I tried it and I came out spending $100 less than I was going to.

FNYNKEZ

Have to say I'm a big fan of the GC in Falls Church, Va.

The folks were always helpful, and even threw in some goodies when I bought enough (free strings!)

Plus on several occasions they complimented me when I was in there jamming out PJ or Therapy? tunes while trying out new stuff

Soujiro_Seta

Im not a big fan of GC however i did end up buying my tele from them about 6 months ago. I went a GC in commack, NY and I asked the guy if he had a white MIM tele he checks and they dont he then starts to question why i want a white one and then keeps trying to sell me other guitars that are way out of my price range and he was a huge dick about it cause when i asked him to check another GC he just ignored me and walked away. I ended up calling the other GC myself and they did have one so I went there and picked it up there the salesperson there was alright although when i told him that im just a beginner he started to get an attitude im not really sure why. Since then ive been to the guitar center near union square park and the employees there have been pretty cool. So i guess its just some people.
Sorry i did so much unnecessary bitching but i just needed to vent lol ^_^

BlindMelonade

Being that the only small "mom and pop" type guitar stores around here that I know of don't even carry big name equipment like the standard Fenders and Gibsons, I enjoy going to guitar center and keeping to myself...It's not hard to just ignore stupid people.

darthvedder81

I used to work in at the GC here in Edina, MN (like 6 years ago—wow, doesn't seem that long ago). I agree that some of the employees are total morons, but I knew more than a few guys who were really knowledgeable about guitars, pro audio, everything. I was probably more in the "clueless" category but I always tried to admit to a customer when I didn't know something and tried to help them find someone who did. That's my main beef with retail, is when people pretend to be smart and then treat you like the idiot.

The GC I worked at always had more of a "mom & pop" feel to it but that might be because it's older. I certainly prefered it to Mars Music or some of the other un-Godly huge stores. The nice thing about "big" stores is that they have some buying clout and they are typically well stocked with a wide variety of specfic products...

SOLATfan

There is this really cool guy at the GC in Fairfax VA. He works in the strings/accesories dept. he knows alot about alot and he doesnt act like a prick when i ask him a stupid freaking question. But i will say that he is a rare breed at GC. And as for the younger kids playing the expensive shit? lol i know just what your talking about. i walked into the amp room with a epiphone special (only lefty in stock) and there were 4 kids butchering smells like teen spirit on a gibson les paul standard. this one kid tried to do the solo but it was pure ear rape. so i played it for him and they were all like "damn your good!!" it made me feel good but then i realized those dudes didnt know what good even was lol. i also taught them how to tap lol dont kill me!!

keeponrockin

Here, about 50% of the guys are cool, and 50% arent.

Betterman77

Long and Mquade, fuckers work there I tell ya, me and my band went there to pick up some serious equipment, We had saved up for like 3 years and bought a Marshall JCM 2000 half stack, Ovation acoustic, Effects board, cables, mics, we spent like 5 grand easy if not more, and we went back like a week later to buy some more stuff and tried to get a deal, the same sales guy we tried cutting a deal with figuring we would get a deal now since we sold our livers to get this stuff, says he doesn't even know or remember us WHICH WAS BULLSHIT, so we asked him how could he forget us it was only a week we bought all that stuff, and he says sorry don't remember no deals, so we told him to eat shit and fuck off, and went to Mothers Music instead, I'll never go back to Long and Mquade again.

keeponrockin

Betterman77 wrote:

Long and Mquade, fuckers work there I tell ya, me and my band went there to pick up some serious equipment, We had saved up for like 3 years and bought a Marshall JCM 2000 half stack, Ovation acoustic, Effects board, cables, mics, we spent like 5 grand easy if not more, and we went back like a week later to buy some more stuff and tried to get a deal, the same sales guy we tried cutting a deal with figuring we would get a deal now since we sold our livers to get this stuff, says he doesn't even know or remember us WHICH WAS BULLSHIT, so we asked him how could he forget us it was only a week we bought all that stuff, and he says sorry don't remember no deals, so we told him to eat shit and fuck off, and went to Mothers Music instead, I'll never go back to Long and Mquade again.

What city? In Ottawa the guys are nice, gave me a deal.

moster78

Soujiro_Seta wrote:

Im not a big fan of GC however i did end up buying my tele from them about 6 months ago. I went a GC in commack, NY and I asked the guy if he had a white MIM tele he checks and they dont he then starts to question why i want a white one and then keeps trying to sell me other guitars that are way out of my price range and he was a huge dick about it cause when i asked him to check another GC he just ignored me and walked away.

Sometimes they don't just listen. Thats the GC thats closest to me. I had no problem there when I bought my Strat. The salesman was great, good experience purchasing I would say. But since I've been back, one guy in particular has just been a pushy pain in the ass. I was playing a 61 Reissue SG and he was saying that they were having no interest for a year on the GC credit card. I said I knew, but that I got roped into the no interest thing on a big purchase I made at Best Buy for a TV. Then he says he would've trust buying a Gibson from Best Buy. I was like, WTF? Are you even listening to what I'm saying?

Betterman77

keeponrockin wrote:

What city? In Ottawa the guys are nice, gave me a deal.

It was the Long and Mquade in Winnipeg, MB