I forgot to post this yesterday... Have any of you gone into Guitar Center recently? You look at a certain guitar, pick it up off the rack, check it over, etc... But yet, the whole guitar is so poorly setup, you can't even play it? AND IT'S A BRAND NEW GUITAR!!

I was in Guitar Center yesterday getting a set of Ernie Ball 10-46 for my Strat. For some reason (we all know how it is...) I went over to the guitars and found a cool looking, old school style, Epiphone Riviera w/ Bigsby tremolo. Kind of like a triple pickup ES-335 but with P90's and a trem. Anyway, I couldn't believe it... Was it Epiphone's quality control problem, or Guitar Center's problem? Did Guitar Center just take the Epiphone Riviera out of the box, and put it right up on the rack without checking it over/setting it up???

Bridge volume pot -- totally loose. Try to turn the volume knob, and the whole pot turns.
Neck volume pot -- A little loose, but not as bad as the bridge pot.
Neck tone pot -- totally loose. Try to turn the tone knob, and the whole pot turns.
Bridge tone pot -- okay.
Input jack -- totally loose and almost on the verge of falling through! I tightened it up with my fingers the best I could.

I looked at this Epiphone Riviera and never even plugged it in. I stood there thinking to myself... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!! I put it back on the rack and walked away, shaking my head.

Yesss!
Well known problem!

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Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

^ +1..

The brick-and-mortar GC is merely a showroom where kids are permitted to destroy the floor models on weekends. GC expects you to buy the brand new stuff from their website. Which is a better idea anyway, because everything is automatically 15% off, no taxes (in mosts states), and free shipping, and it comes in mint condition, never touched by human hands since it was in Fender's factory. If there's a problem, you have 45 days to return it, hassle free.

When someone actually buys a damaged, used guitar (which is what all guitars on the wall at GC are) as "new" and pays full sticker price plus tax, GC says "Yes!!! Mark another one down!!!" opens a new bottle of bubbly, and views it as a windfall.

I'd point out every flaw and make them mark it down as a "factory mess up"

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Hey, we went into GC for the same reason, except I wasn't buying strings for a Strat.

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1995 Fender Mustang

guitar center is the only music store I have problems with , ever tried to exchange a lifetime guaranted guitar cable ? , there was 3 other issues , contacted the corporate office , all they did was have the store manager call me , they couldn't go out of buisness fast enough for me !

GC is also a drop off place for mothers with teen kids who want to go shopping at another store. They grab any guitar, plug it in, and crank it up. Most times they can't even play and the people working there won't do anything about it. Pisses me off big time!

I can't really knock Guitar Center as I've done -a lot- of business with them over the years. Part of the problem is (like someone else said) until recently they just didn't do any setups on guitars when they came in the door. They are after all, a high volume dealer and when they get a shipment of 20 or 30 instruments in (not to mention anything the the live sound department, the drum department, etc), are you really going to expect those young dinks that work there to properly set up THAT many guitars? Yes, something like a Strat or Tele is setup at the factory -BUT- you have to remember that even brand new, those guitars have been in and out of various warehouses, repeatedly exposed to various temperature changes, and often they've been shipped and reshipped with all the horrors which that alone entails. Think about it...I live here in Northern Ohio and those guitars are made out in California. Yea...right now we're having a heat wave here on the North Coast...made it up into the 50's today (actually warmer than Corona CA today according to the NOAA!). That said, last week we were down to -4- degree (f). How many temperature changes is that guitar going to go thru during shipping? And especially if it's shipped UPS, how much is that instrument going to be knocked sideways and back again during shipping? I've seen UPS driver bend running boards for pickup trucks at a 90 degree angle! In other words, by the time that guitar hit's the showroom floor, any setup that was done at the factory has pretty much been completely wonked right out of existence. And that doesn't even count the weekend wankers who bang on the darned things, let alone the used instruments that come in the door!

Now that said, I have noticed that since GC is offering setup and repair services, they have been -a little- better and I have seen their tech grab one off the floor and restring it and fix the setup...at least with the newer high end instruments.

Personally though, none of this ever bothered me anyways. I've been playing long enough that I can tell the difference between a bad setup and a "bad guitar"...it's not really hard to tell the difference. What's more is that even in the case of a new instrument, I usually adjust the setup anyways because I know what -I- like. A setup is pretty much like anything else guitar related...everyone has different tastes and for me it's not something that can really be defined by any "factory spec". Even a loose control knob or something just doesn't bother me because it only takes 5 seconds with a nut driver for me to fix it...just not the kind of stuff I'm going to fuss over. Yea, if a tuning key has a quarter turn of slippage, -that- I'll make an issue over. If I plug it into an amp and there's no sound, THAT I will fuss over. Strings that hang off one side of the neck because the bridge was mis-drilled (had that happen once with a Hondo LP copy)...won't even touch it. And stuff like that has little to do with Guitar Center (or any other retailer in general) in any case. But a poor setup or loose control nuts? As they say, "don't sweat the petty stuff, DO pet the sweaty stuff"

Just my own $.02,
Jim

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

As long as they aren't MY guitar, it isn't MY problem.

On a related note, GC can claim they have their own line of one-off relics with the sales pitch, "No two guitars are reliced alike". They can jack the price up instead of down and surely, they'll sell to the ilk who like brand new, abused guitars.

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You dig?

Wow, is that ever true! Worse than GC is Sam Ash... I won't even go in that store anymore! Sam Ash is always loaded with pimply-faced kids thrashing away on some helpless guitar, with the amp's distortion channel/gain setting dimed on "10". I want to walk over to them, smack them upside the head and say, "Stop it!! You're just making noise! Maxed out distortion is not a crutch for talent!"
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OMG... I just sounded like my dad back in the day! Help me, I'm getting old...

I miss MARS... at least that store had an in-house luthier with an actual workshop and professional setup was offered on guitar purchases. I buy everything BUT guitars at Guitar Center. I try out guitars there and then either order a new one online or buy from Eddies Guitars in St. Louis, MO where the salesperson takes the guitar down, polishes it, hands it to you and watches you while you test it out, then polishes it again before carefully hanging it back up.

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Tiger J

my gear:

Jackson USA Phil Collen PC-1
Warmoth Custom-Build Stratocaster (The Andersong)
Fender American Special Stratocaster
Squier J. Mascis Jazzmaster
Fender Mustang GT40
Eleven HeadRush w/ two Alto TS212 FRFRs

Some GCs are managed better than others.

I almost never go into my local GC unless there's a specific thing I want to check out and I'm in there and out as quickly as possible. I don't even enjoy browsing in that place.

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

Me too.

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