Anybody a member of Guitar Center's "String Club"?
 

An associate at my local gc asked me if I was interested in joining the "string club". He told me that you pay 20$ for membership. You then receive 5$ per month for strings. Months can roll over for up to one year. I was intrigued by this offer but also wary so I respectfully declined. Is anybody familiar with this? Is it legitimate or is there some horrible catch?

Anybody???

I read up on this on their web site. $20 will get you $5 credit for strings each month for 12 months, but the money does not roll over or accumulate. You would need to buy strings each month to take the best advantage of the deal. If you frequent GC in person and buy your strings a pack at a time, this might be a good deal. I'm sure they do it this way to get you looking at other stuff every month too. The closest GC is 50 miles from me and to me it's not worth the hassle and shipping costs to order a single pack of strings, even if the strings are free. I'll either buy from my local mom and pop shop or order in bulk and possibly qualify for free shipping.

Heck, you can always do better at JustStrings.com or one of the other online dealers. And their selection can't be beat. No thanks on that one, GC.

Opps, I thought you said "Sting" club.

My math is pretty poor so please let me know how $60 (12 x $5) credit towards strings for a total cost of $20 is beatable? Anywhere else, you'll pay $60 for........$60 worth of strings. ;)

Because the prices online smoke GC's overpriced stings.

Now I don't have a dog in this discussion but "Let me 'splain it to you Lucy".

Just Strings - D'Addario EJ12 set - $3.92
Guitar Center - D'Addario EJ12 set - $4.99

JS $3.92 x 12 = $47.04 plus shipping.
GS $20 club = $20....no shipping

Your math simply doesn't add up. Try again. ;)

GC's strings are expensive - - -

Sorry. But they're not. Any on-line presence may seem cheaper as they generally work out of a location that is not a store front. You see, commercial property costs a lot more money than a basement or warehouse to operate from. I always support local vendors when one has what I want over on line vendors. Additionally, I just checked their price for shipping which is $6.95. So, for three sets of strings that adds $2.33 cents per set making the D'Addario EJ12 strings I quoted - a dollar more, per set, than CG.

I'm not a string member but I think I just convinced myself to run over to GC and get a card. Thanks Jersey for bringing this up.

The nearest GC to me is 20 miles away. So, about 2 gallons of gasoline there and back, or about $7 per month round-trip. That works out to $84 per year which is more than I spend on strings online with free shipping.

Wouldn't work for me.

I don't change strings that much either. That said, I am going to join so I can take advantage of the $5.00 per month (assuming there's no hidden minimum purchase). That way I will pick up and put a set of strings per month in my studio. For $20 it can't be beat. Additionally, Musician's Friend and Guitar Center are the same company.

Steve, here's my take on the math....

I realize this is an acoustic guitar forom, but I'm using electric guitar strings in my example ( how many acoustic players change strings every month? And of those, how many have time to go to GC every month?).

GC string club member: $20 to get in the club, you walk out with one set of strings. You make sure you go back every month, and end up with 12 packs.


Non-club member, Looking to beat GC's "deal".... walks into Best Buy, drops $16 on the counter, and walks out with a 10 pack of strings. http://m.bestbuy.com/m/e/product/det...=1218108416268

If he really wants the full dozen, he does end up spending a total of $23.60, buying two single packs along with the 10 pack.

But, our BB shopper doesn't need to worry about missing a monthly appt at GC. Miss one month, the GC club member has spent more on strings, along wirh gas, and time.

I like the way you think, Who. My wife got me a Strings Club card along with a few other gifts this Christmas, and I couldn't figure it out. I thought I could just go to the store, pick out a set of strings, and have them deducted from the card, with maybe some kind of percentage taken off, so I was taken back a bit when the clerk asked me for $5. (I'm too old to think in terms of an "associate," so excuse me for referring to him as a "clerk." An associate in my world makes big bucks. I'm not sure Guitar Center is that generous.) Anyway, it seems to me that UNLESS I buy strings frequently, or once a month (whichever comes first), her initial outlay of $20 is going to go to GC, and the longer I put off buying strings, the less I save on the cost. But here is the big question..........how long will a set of strings last in their original package? If 2-3 years is not a big deal, I could go for stocking up, since my local GC (like everything else in Bergen County) is within walking distance.

I'm a member.

Have been for 3 months so far - so far it's great and works as promised!

I'm in Manhattan and work close by the GC there though so I go in there all the time anyway.

-Mike

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

works for me
 

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.

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.

:p

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.