After my third and absolute worst visit to my local GC, I thought that I would share my pain and see if anyone has had a worse time. It seems that almost every visit to GC I get stuck with the same moron sales person regardless of department. I get the greatest suggestions from this guy. Like last time I was looking for a new trem arm b/c the one shipped with my Blacktop strat was actually too short. This genius suggested an easy fix would be to buy the new Mustang because it was "awesome". Really, I came for a cheap fix and you suggest a Mustang?
So this visit I end up going while their network is down and everything has to be done by hand. Ok, no problem. The manager asks me what I need and he refers me to a young salesperson. I was planning to completely swap out my pickguard in the Blacktop with new pickups, controls, switch and wiring. Suddenly I get the bait and switch and get stuck with the sales midget of doom. I swallow my anger and explain what I'm doing and tell him I don't know all the parts I need b/c this is the first one I've done. No problem. He hands me knobs from a LES PAUL and a five way switch and tells me that's all I need. I just finished explaining I want parts for a STRAT and he gives me Gibson control knobs. He then tells me that a mint pickguard on a blue strat would be awful and that no one in their right mind would install something like that. Even though they have three hanging on the wall not 15 feet away. So instead of buying what I need, I walk out and drive 35 minutes out of my way to go to another GC to get the help I think I deserved in the first place.

"Boy, this one is light!" "That's because Epiphones suck." I don't care if you like Epiphones or not, that is about the most boneheaded comment I've ever heard coming out of a salesman's mouth. Courtesy of Hames Music, Gaffney, SC.

Okay, this happened at a Daddy's Junk Music in Albany, NY

I got a quote from them on trading in a very nice VOX valvetronics amp. When I got to the store (with quote in hand) they wanted to give me less money for the amp. I was told it wasn't in "like new" condition because I didn't have the original box and manual. In turn they wanted to sell me a fender super vibro xd amp that was a floor model. When I asked for one in the box, I was told that the floor model was the only one they had in stock. When I asked where the box and manual were, I was told "I don't know". Of course, at that point I argued that since they didn't have the box or the manual for the Fender amp,that they weren't selling me a new amp and that their floor model had probably been played by dozens of more people than the VOX I wanted to trade in. They argued that the Fender amp was indeed new. I argued that they had no manual, no box, and it was a floor model and had definitely been played, making it used. I told them, "stick your amp, I'll never purchase another piece of gear here again". Went to GC and got a better deal on a Fender Super Champ XD. I'm sure the vibro champ was a nice amp. It was the idea of the whole deal and they way they were trying to do business. Just put a bad taste in my mouth.

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"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

I've only had one BAD experience, and it netted me $100 off a New Blackstar amp, shipped to my door.
I've prevented a few "bad experiences" by offering to let the store manager settle the issue.

If I don't do my job well, I'm fired, simple.......I hold others to this idea by not hesitating to seek out supervision.
An e-mail or phone call to "corporate" can work wonders sometimes (see 1st sentence of this reply).

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You won't hurt its feelings boy, play it like you stole it!
ASPCA We Are Their Voice !
Speaking up for those that can't speak for theirself.....
Proud member of the ASPCA "Guardian Angel" program.

About 8 years ago before I began to learn about the insides of an amp my '66 Deluxe Reverb started making a noise in the middle of a gig with some guys down in Alabama,the bass player was a nice guy and said "I know what the problem is,it's the filter capacitors if I had the right stuff I could fix it for you."
When I got back to my hometown and went into a music store owned by a snooty woman where I had bought lots of gear from for years,I asked her who was working on the amps at the time,she pointed to a boy no older that 21 years old and said he would fix it and asked "what's wrong with it?"...and I told her that I was told it was the filter caps,to which she went into a tirade saying,"capacitor is just a word that people throw around when they don't know what they're talking about!",blah blah,etc.
I walked out determined she would no longer get any of my business and the boy wasn't going to touch my vintage DR.
I called an old retired friend of mine who is an amp tech,told him what the sound was and he fixed it......it was the filter caps!
I've never gone back into her store and drive 30-45 miles to Nashville...I wouldn't buy a pick from her.

I work at a local music store... (nothing like the big retailers like GC, Hames, etc.) and my worst experience was probably my first day on the job.

This big redneck walks in the store, immediately gets right up in my face and says "Where's your man-e-ger 'cause you don't look like you know what the hell you doin'!"

I replied, "Why thank you sir! its my first day..."
The guy didn't know a guitar from his arse...


Thats funny. That store is only like half an hour from my house. I haven't been in a while... When I first started playing my dad took me there to look at pedals ( I really wanted a distortion pedal).
There was this guy behind the counter who looked like he was straight up death metal... But he was probably the friendly and most helpful sales clerk in the world.

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Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)

Someone finally opened a new music/guitar shop in my home town, and I was very excited. The only previous options were the two pawn shops or a guy who owned a small shop with either (1) very old, middle-of-the-road equipment that he was sentimentally attached to and didn't want to sell or (2) Johnson guitars; he smoked about three packs a day, too, so all the equipment smelled funky and felt grimy from the tar...the experiences everyone in town had with that idiot could fill up an entire thread.

Anyway, this new shop was an authorized Eastwood dealer (interesting...) as well as had three of the Hohner "inspired by Prince" Tele-style guitars (two of the lower-end model and one of the higher priced version).

As I was looking around, with the Armadillo Child in tow*, I noticed one of the Hohner "The Artist" guitars hanging on the wall. I had heard much about them, and being a fan of Mr. Nelson's guitar playing, I was curious.

As I reached out to take the guitar off the wall (it was hanging eye-level, mind you--not way up in the air), a pimple-popping kid of no more than 16 years old touched my hand and said, "Uh-uh-uh! We don't play that one..." He said this in a tone like a nanny training a toddler not to touch Mommy's crystal.

I didn't realize how mad it made me until later, when the Armadillo Child said "Daddy, you looked like that guy from the cowboy movies who wears the pancho..." (she was referring to Clint Eastwood's squinty frown; I look nothing like Clint, but she was referring to my expression).

I calmly asked, "Then how in the world do we expect to sell the bloody thing?" (I try not to cuss in general, and certainly not in the presence of the Armadillo Child, so the non-American expression "bloody" has become my go-to word where other people would say a curse word).
"It's only for our serious customers."
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"Um...I don't know..."
"Get me a cable, boy, I want to play this guitar. Where's your most expensive amp? Also, get me a second cable for my daughter." I handed her a cheaper mini-guitar and said, "Let's have a guitar lesson, sweetie!!"

I plugged into an (supposedly) boutique tube amp (didn't sound bad) that they were asking too much for, and plugged the Armadillo Child into a newer Kustom tuck-n-roll job ('33 Coupe model, I believe...that amp sounded better than the one I was playing through) and instructed her how to walk up from an A chord to a barred D chord higher on the neck. This took quite a while, and the owner finally came out and looked in on what we were doing. He asked if he could help me, and I told him about his arrogant, condescending staff member. I also told him that, as a grown man, I didn't appreciate being talked to like a toddler, and I would not be buying anything in his shop as long as that young man was an employee.

The next time I stopped by, the kid no longer worked there.

*The Armadillo Child has, since birth, been taught not to touch any musical instrument that is not hers, unless expressly told that it is ok. I can take her in a guitar shop with $50,000 instruments and I would be more worried about me damaging something than her.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Thats pretty great
If you don't mind me ranting, one of my biggest peeves is when kids get their parents to drop them off at the store for an hour, pick up the most expensive guitars we have (including a $3000 Taylor T3) and just wails on the guitar (and not in the good way- like the "all I know is just three chords and I'm going to play the crap out of them" kinda way) And then after they are done beating the guitars, they don't even have enough money to purchase the picks, strap, strings, etc, that they really came to the store to buy.

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Kid: "Hey Smokey! Where did you get your name?"
Smokey the Bear: "Well..."
(former user jimbo612)

I hope you know that the owner probably told the kid to do that. If you've never worked behind a counter, PLEASE try to appreciate how hard it is to deal with the everyday public. I worked at a convenience store that sold lottery tickets and once had somebody change their mind after I took their money. I told them all lottery ticket sales are final and they started getting rude. I told them very simply that I don't care how mad they get. The fact is that I am not obliged to serve them and can have them removed from the store by force if necessary. I didn't get fired because what I told the man is true, and also because its hard to find a replacement when nobody likes working with the public.

SmokeyBear, where in relation to Hames do you live? Because if you work at another toy store, I need to know where it is. I came down from NC to get to Hames, and it was 30 minutes for me as well. Trevor left Hames a few years ago, he was always a class-act. He's got his own place in Boiling Springs, SC now called Blvd Music. I believe Brandon, the tech, went with him.

I used to live in and work at a music store in the 1970s. After that experience I got to where I did not like even going to them. Partly due to the ambiance that came from being in them. From the people who came in to "try" impress everyone how great they could play, to the know-it-all customers who had their opinions on guitars, mods or models, to sales people who had the same attitudes at times.

Not to say all music stores are the same. I have a friend who owns one in the city where I grew up. He is so tired of it all after 35 years of playing and owning a store, he has the same feelings I have. BUT he still manages to treat people with kindness and respect when they come in his door. There is one music store close by in a small town I frequent to buy items from time to time. The folks there are really friendly, laid back, musician types. But after being there for 45 minutes the ambiance is somewhat the same as clientele come and go.

When I go to big city and visit the MC and others, I am happy to leave. I hear so many horror stories of the bad set ups or sloppy rewiring jobs that it makes me glad that years ago I just started doing my own work at home and buying my guitars directly from people. Many of these stories told on this thread i can completely relate too.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

My horror story was with Guitar Center in Whitehall, PA. I traded in two amps and I'm not going to name them for I can't bare to mention....either way....I traded in two amps for a B-52 AT-212. I was in the market for something to reduce my overhead as I was tired of bi-amping to get the tone I wanted.

I tried the AT-212 and my LP and Strat sounded great swapped one after the other without having to change anything. I like what I heard so I bought the amp. The first problem was the amp....After gigging for probably 4 months or so, if that, the AT-212 crapped out on me. I called GC and took the amp to them to have it shipped to Jersey where their warrently repair work was done. After quite a while I finally got the amp back.

The amp had a few dings in it as it was being played out, but there was a nasty tear in the fabric on the bottom of the speaker cab, the Jewel on the light cover was broken (fell the *bleep* out when I touched it) and the amp head itself wasn't even screwed in tight. I called GC immediately when I got home and spoke with a manager. He said that it sounds like the amp just needed to be tightened in the cab....NO SH*T!...I told him that I'm not touching the thing and I'm bringing it back as I got it. I was more pissed that I didn't take the time to check it really well when I picked it up. I just put it in the car and left....can you blame me?? I was excited to get it back! The manager also told me over the phone that he was dubious to the other damage and that wouldn't have happened. I continued to express my displeasure and was told to bring it back he would personally take care of it. Well, after about ANOTHER week I got a call that my amp was ready. This time the amp was tight in the cab, the tears were all glued down and looked nice and the jewel light cover was fixed good as new.

I should have NEVER had to go through this in the first place. The amp since then has been sketchy at best....always seemed like it was going to start giving me problems....kind of hard to explain what I mean I guess, but recently it finally went on me again. Since then I bought a superchamp xd from GC - no problems with the new amp, just the fact that they said they'd order the footswitch when I bought it and after calling back almost two weeks after my purchase I learned that they never ordered it and had no idea what I was talking about. Yup.....not going to go back to GC anymore.

I live in a small town in the Southwestern corner of Virginia. Yeah, I'm a hillbilly (but I don't play bluegrass!). Anyway, my options have always been pretty limited for music stores. The closest one is about half an hour away, in Norton, Va, called Juste Music. And yes I'm dropping the name. I hope somebody that works there sees this. They're a Fender dealership now and have been for the past few years but at one time, Samick was the brand they hung their hats on. Funnily enough, back in those days, the salesman/co-owner of the store used to rant to all the customers about how far the mighty Fender and Gibson products had fallen in quality and how Samick was actually making better guitars than Fender or Gibson either one. He was annoying and full of crap and everybody knew it, but I always dealt with him because the it was easier than driving two hours to the next closest store. Besides, I didn't think he was a bad guy, just a little annoying with all his sales pitches.

I had purchased alot of gear from the guy. Guitars, amps, ALOT of strings and picks and such. One day I went in and was just looking around and saw an Ampeg guitar behind the counter hanging on the wall. It was shaped sort of like a Les Paul Junior doublecutaway. I knew about Ampeg amps but had never seen an Ampeg guitar. It was priced at $700 and change. A girl that worked there saw me looking at it and came over and asked if I wanted to play it. I said "sure" and she got it down for me and I plugged into an amp and started playing. After a couple of minutes of picking around on the guitar, not loudly I might add, the guy, the Samick champion, came out of the back and walked over to me and stood over me for several seconds without saying a word. Then he reaches down and turns my amp off and simultaneously asks "Are you thinking about buying that guitar?" And I replied "No I was just checking it out. Can't afford it right now". And he said "Well let me hang it back up then" while at the same time reaching for the guitar and taking it from my hands. I was totally shocked and caught off guard. I couldn't believe this guy would do that. How does he expect to sale any guitars if he won't let people play them? I didn't go back to that store for a couple years after that. How would you feel if a salesman came and physically took a guitar out of your hands while you were playing it? Later on, I felt like telling him how I felt but at the time, I was so caught off guard that I didn't know what to say and just left.

I eventually got to where I would buy strings and stuff from him again and later on, after he became a Fender dealer, I bought a couple guitars and a couple amps, but I never forgot the way he acted that day and never really forgave him. To give you some idea of how he treats customers, he has any guitar that costs $500 or more behind a counter and you have to ask to play it. He kind of sizes you up before he'll actually let you do so. He was much nicer to me later on after I started doing business with him again but when I discovered another, far better guitar shop in Pikeville, which is about an hour from where I live, I started going there instead of Juste Music. It's an extra half hour each way for me, but I'd rather go there than to give Juste Music any more business.

The correct answer would have been, "Not any more."

WTF is the lounge for?

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.