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  #16  
Old 01-13-2014, 08:43 PM
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fazool fazool is offline
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I am a member.

The sales guy told me the $5 rolls over every month. This piqued my interest, figuring they used it to get you in the store. (It ended up being yet another "sales guy screwup" at my local GC).

I didn't trust him so I checked online and learned it does NOT roll over every month. But, I thought it would be a good investment if I buy a set of strings once a month, meaning I would average a new set of strings every 4 months per guitar.

Forgot to go in and get my GC strings the first month and lost my $5.

Forgot to go in and get my GC strings the second month and lost my $5.

Went in last month and got a set of Elixir nanowebs for like $7 or so.

It seems like a good deal if you can remember to use each month's credit.
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  #17  
Old 01-13-2014, 09:23 PM
Mobilemike Mobilemike is online now
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I set a recurring monthly alarm on my phone's calender that reminds me a few days before my month is up so I make sure not to lose the $5.

-Mike
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  #18  
Old 01-13-2014, 10:24 PM
posternutbag posternutbag is offline
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I am not a member; the only GC in town is across town; however, I just looked online at Just Strings, and a 10 pack of D'addario pb lights is $43.95. A single pack of the same strings is $4.76 at GC. So, assuming it works as advertised, you could get 1 pack a month for your $20 and come out significantly ahead.

I change strings frequently, certainly more frequently than once a month.
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  #19  
Old 01-13-2014, 11:08 PM
Tuffythepug Tuffythepug is offline
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I was a member of the Guitar Center string club last year. It did not work out for me. I had to drive 30 miles to take advantage of the monthly allowance; there was no rollover. I won't do that again.
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  #20  
Old 01-13-2014, 11:22 PM
skitoolong skitoolong is offline
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It's a heck of a deal. After my $20 I walk out of there (5 minutes away) each month for a year with a fresh pack of Martin SP's for 0.07 cents.

How is this even debatable?
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  #21  
Old 01-13-2014, 11:47 PM
JimmyFinger JimmyFinger is offline
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I too am a member. GC is right down the street from me and, until recently, I primarily used uncoated martin SPs at $5 a set. It works for me because I change strings on my primary guitar every 6-7 weeks and I have two others that I change strings on less frequently. I have a spare set in each case as well. If I get overstocked, I won't buy another club membership until I need to start buying strings again. I bought elixirs the other day and simply deducted $5 from the set. If I used coated strings exclusively, it probably wouldn't pencil out because of relatively (hopefully) infrequent string changes. We'll see but yeah, you basically buy a membership card for $20 dollars and get a $5 credit toward string purchases each month. Use it monthly or lose it.
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  #22  
Old 01-14-2014, 08:02 AM
Judson Judson is offline
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Proximity to a GC would seem to be key to the value of the deal. I'm 20 miles away from the nearest GC.

Plus, if it doesn't actually "roll over" month to month, I feel certain that GC is counting on a fair percentage of members occasionally missing their monthly string appointment and losing that month's benefit.
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  #23  
Old 01-14-2014, 09:40 AM
guitom guitom is offline
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They're not counting on you not showing up. They're just trying to get you in the store. It doesn't roll over each month, but it's a good deal.

I don't like joining clubs of any kind so I passed until they gave me a free membership in December. I go to GC at least once a month anyway, so now I can get a free (or nearly free) pack of strings each month.
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  #24  
Old 01-14-2014, 09:44 AM
Mobilemike Mobilemike is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitom View Post
They're not counting on you not showing up. They're just trying to get you in the store.
Yup... And they're counting some people at least leaving the store once in awhile with some strings attached to a new guitar... As I did last month.

-Mike
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  #25  
Old 01-14-2014, 10:41 AM
djh1765 djh1765 is offline
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Shoot Guitar Center is to high on strings anyway. That doesn't sound like much of a deal on strings to me.

Don't know why they advertise as being the cheapest anyway.. They sure are not.
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  #26  
Old 01-14-2014, 11:07 AM
jfwund jfwund is offline
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I did it last year; I won't do it again. Like others, the sales guy assured me that the money would roll over month to month. Seemed like a good deal, so I did it. I waited for a few months so I would have enough on the card to pick up a pack of D'Addario EXPs without having to pay, went in, and lo and behold, I only had $5 on the card. The guy tried to feed me some B.S. about my account having just been activated, but I went and double checked online and saw that it was never intended to roll the $5 over month-to-month.

Had the program been represented to me honestly up front, I would have had no problem with it. You only need to buy strings 5 times for it to swing a profit in your favor. The problem I had was the blatant dishonesty. You're willing to flat-out lie to a customer in order to score a $20 sale? Good for you. Now that my string club membership has expired, I won't be spending any more money in that store. There are plenty of places to get strings/accessories, etc. online. Real smart, GC sales guy.
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  #27  
Old 01-14-2014, 01:48 PM
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Wildgift Wildgift is offline
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It was represented to me fairly and is a great deal if you live near a GC, as I do. Every month, I can get a new set of strings to try at a 5.00 discount. The others have done the math better than can I, but in essence you get 60 bucks of strings for 20 bucks. You just need to make it happen!
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  #28  
Old 01-14-2014, 02:40 PM
rz1 rz1 is offline
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As mentioned above, it only makes sense if you live close to a GC and if you remember to go at least once a month. And if you give them your email address, they'll send out an email at the beginning of the month to remind you. My local GC is 5 minutes away, and I probably go about 2-3 times a month. For me, it was a no-brainer. I signed up for a card last year, and then at Thanksgiving, they had a deal where if you were one of the first 25 people to buy something, you got a card for free. So, for the next several months, I have two String Club cards. You're allowed to have a maximum of two (or so I was told). The only issue is that you have to ring up each purchase separately. And you can't combine the two to get $10 off one set.

When I signed up, there was no mention of "rollover", so there was no dishonesty on their part. When I first got the card, there was a clearance sale on Martin SP strings - each set was $2. So I got 3 sets for $1. Since then, I've gotten a couple sets of Martin coated strings, some D'Addario's and some Elixers. GC's price may be higher than online, but I doubt they're more than $5 more per set. And maybe you can buy in bulk and save, but I like trying out different strings, and I use at least 3 different gauges for my collection of acoustics and electrics.

I don't change my strings all that often, so I figure after both memberships expire, I'll probably be good for another year or so. But if they offer it for free again around the holidays, I'll probably get another card.
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  #29  
Old 12-22-2015, 11:41 PM
madhatter madhatter is offline
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I joined for 3 years. I have about a dozen guitars and I live 20 minutes from GC.

The only question I have is can you use the String Card for online orders with in-store pickup?

I'll call tomorrow, because they don't stock Augustine Blues at my store, and that's what I am out of right now.
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  #30  
Old 12-23-2015, 12:56 AM
HAMFIST HAMFIST is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by guitom View Post
They're not counting on you not showing up. They're just trying to get you in the store. It doesn't roll over each month, but it's a good deal.

I don't like joining clubs of any kind so I passed until they gave me a free membership in December. I go to GC at least once a month anyway, so now I can get a free (or nearly free) pack of strings each month.
I believe this thinking is spot on. It is kind of like your health club membership ... they oversell the property because they know that most of us won't be able to find time make it in because we are too busy binge watching some cable shows.



I did sign up one year, in part because I figured the guy behind the counter would get a little piece of that action and I was reading how GC had eliminated commissions for salespeople. So it was kind of a solidarity thing. But the strings I like are pretty expensive and are a lot cheaper someplace like Juststrings.com. Or in other cases, like DR Sunbeams, they may not even carry the strings I really want. So I wound up using the $5 (which of course does not usually cover the full price of a set) to try various oddball strings they had in stock without really finding the Holy Grail.

But of course I am not in there every month. The membership was a silly impulse buy driven by irrational emotion. So I hope the guy did get a bit of cash off each sale because that would be the only good to come of the transaction.

Last edited by HAMFIST; 12-23-2015 at 12:59 AM. Reason: bad punctuation ... rats!
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