A complete zoo, versus a peaceful harbor...

[Watt]

Originally Posted by Red_Label

I could not disagree more with you. I'll just leave it at my opinion that you're wrong. And based on many years here and other forums... I'm not the only one who thinks that. Sorry your experience is different.

I have to say that that is one of the oddest comments I've encountered here. Your sorry that others have had better experiences at GC than you reported? Really?

[Red_Label]

Originally Posted by nkatsonis

I have to say that that is one of the oddest comments I've encountered here. Your sorry that others have had better experiences at GC than you reported? Really?

Not sorry one bit in reality. That was my sarcastic response to his "I'm sorry" comment.

[Red_Label]

Originally Posted by dhodgeh

I've seen various degrees of protecting high end guitars in GC.

Most of the stores I've been had the good stuff high up where you had to ask for assistance in order to play one.

One in Orlando had a Platinum Room where there good stuff (acoustics and electrics) was kept and required an escort to get into. But then, that was back in the day when when they monitored the comings and goings of customers (or at least this store did).

D

The one south of the Strip still does that.

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by Red_Label

This is the tale of two guitar shops:

The wife and I were staying in Arvada, Colorado over the weekend and we stopped into the local Guitar Center. I've been in plenty of GCs over the years, but this place was NUTS. There were people everywhere, banging guitars against each other as they pulled them down to wank away. There were $6K Martins on the bottom tier of wall-hangers where kids could grab them, and $600 Yamahas up on the third level out of reach. There were guitars with strings so blackened by corrosion that I had to look to make sure that they weren't manufactured that way (I could tell because by the bridge they took on their normal silver or bronze color). I didn't even bother picking a guitar up to try it out, because I'm not sure where I would have had room to play it in that madhouse. The wife had sat down in a chair to patiently wait for me to do my usual tour of a guitar shop, so she was taken by surprise when I told her "let's get out of here" after less than 5 minutes. I felt the world instantly get back to more normal levels of sanity the moment I walked out the front door.


So we drove a short distance away to the Olde Town Pickin Parlor in downtown Arvada. COMPLETE different atmosphere. A nice small shop with excellent instruments. Some STUNNING Collings mandolins/guitars on the wall. Beautiful Martins and other brands as well. They even had an Avalon A32c hanging there that looked exactly like the L32c that I'm expecting delivery of tomorrow from the brown truck (ironic, because I've never even seen an Avalon in person in my 35 years of playing... and now I will have seen two of them 500 miles apart within a few days). There was an old Labrador Retriever laying on the floor, and an older gentleman and couple quietly chatting. The owner seemed very nice and helpful. Basically... the contrast between the two guitar shops was heaven and hell.


That's it... nothing important to say other than a plug for the Olde Town Pickin Parlor in Arvada, CO and a slam at GC for not taking care of their inventory at all. I get it... GC is the Walmart of the music store world. I don't expect perfection. But the black strings and expensive guitars where the cheap ones should have been hanging showed a complete lack of care. I've been to other Guitar Centers and found varying degrees of polish (some more, some less), but nothing like that place. To be fair, it was one of the smaller ones I've been to. But still... it was pretty clear that no one really cared about the place.

Well, I can only hope you picked what you wanted at the mom and pop and then bought it at Guitar Center!

GC is a mixed bag, and you have to set your expectations. I haven't shopped at Guitar Center in 20 years because I prefer the smaller stores and for the most part they price match intelligently.

[Red_Label]

Originally Posted by taylorgtr

I'm used to the typical Guitar Center challenges - but I've recently come across a new one....the last time I went to a GC acoustic room, I ran into someone doing a Facebook Live shoot....and in one of the FB guitar groups I browse, there's a frequent poster who posts performances all the time...and clearly in a GC.

If people want to do that, more power to them, but if I want to play a guitar, I don't want to have to wait until the end of someone else's social media performance.

Wow... that's wacky. My buddy runs one of two local guitar shops. He's always having to chase kids out of the high end acoustic room who come in with their leather jackets, chains, etc on and pick up $2K+ acoustics and proceed to have jsm sessions. He knows who they are and knows their parents, and knows that they neither have the money nor the interest in actually BUYING the instruments they're banging away on in there. Just no respect at all. I didn't plan on buying any of the nice instruments in the Olde Town Pickin Parlor this weekend (since I've purchased five in the last several weeks), so I just had a look around and chose not to leave my finger sweat/oils on instruments that I had no intention of buying. It's not that I never take a test drive in shops, but I do so only if there's actually a chance I might buy something.

[Woolbury]

Love the Old Town Pickin Parlor! My 95 Martin M36 came from there, and Uncle Kit(owner) jammed in our yard years back at one of our parties. I agree, no comparison with GC, 2 different worlds. I was in Seattle 2 weeks back and went to a place called Dusty Strings. Wow! Anyone been there? What a great shop! I'll stop in a GC for some accessory time to time, but for guitars, theres too many great shops like Old Town Pickin Parlor or Dusty Strings to visit. A couple others in Denver area are Denver Folklore Center and Victor Guitar, both killer shops.

[Paddy1951]

Hey kids, lets not fight about GC. It's a big boy and can take care of itself.

Seriously, it is not surprising that some members have less than great experieces at a given GC, others have good experiences at their GC.

GC suffers from the mentality that big is better. It gets bigger all the time. It cannot control the environment of a given store at a given time. GC is very much a business based on low price or perceived low price. This is a very American thing.

The one nearest me is a very frustrating place. They show many things, but they don't HAVE those things. GC had a big Guitar-a-thon a few days ago. Now, you might think they would order in some things that are going to be featured in that kind of promotion? Nope. Oh we can get it in 3 days.

Not to pick in GC, solely.

Here is the reality of all retail selling. Wait for it.... YOU CANNOT EXPECT TO GET IT ALL.
No store will always give you the best 1% over net price, excellent customer service, very knowledgeable store staff members, 12/7 hours, total complete inventories, return it if you had a bad day policies, let your 8 year old play that D45 attitudes, your it's all about you kiss on the cheek.

YOU must decide what is most important to you and realize that something else won't be there.

[AgentKooper]

I live near Arvada, and I agree the the Pickin Parlor is a great little shop. I’ve also spent plenty of time at that Guitar Center. Sounds like you hit it on a bad day. It’s generally a fairly pleasant place to check out guitars unless it’s super crowded. But even then, I’ve never experienced the chaos you described, and I’ve been going there for years.