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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:10 am
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My local music store has their teachers stay at night after closing to make sure most of the guitars are tuned.


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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 9:36 am
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CR...you seem to have what I would consider to be quite a favorable and most unusual situation with respect to store operations in that chain and I wish you continued success. :wink:

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:33 pm
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Here's my own experience with multiple shops. The biggest and oldest in the city, don't set up their instruments properly, and we often have defective pieces in the frontline. Sometimes, I have to set the tuning and thus do some other customers a favour, but I often find detuned guitars all the time. Two smaller (two shops only) chains, Musicians' Mall and GBA, do a much better job, but have a limited range of products at sky-high prices. The small shop, a mom-and-pop shop here (maybe?), does a good job of setting up guitars, and when I ordered my American Special Strat (more on that later, when I have better pics), the shop owner set it up exactly as I wanted it. Some things stay the same across countries, it seems.


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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:15 pm
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ZZDoc wrote:
I prefer a guitar out of an unopened carton which I can have a tech set up for me.


A brand new guitar out of the box should never need a tech to set up. It takes all of a minute or two to set up proper bridge/action height. A couple more if you're finicky like me and want to adjust neck relief... (I almost always add tension... I like flatter boards). Then I'll plug in and adjust the pickups where I want them. Throw it on the strobe tuner and check/adjust intonation to my liking. Setup done.


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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:09 pm
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^^ That's assuming that the 1st owner knows how to correctly set-up their guitar to their personal preferences.... Ummm No ...... Not everyone knows how to set up a guitar correctly and that goes for some very seasoned players, which is not so unusual.
String changing is rudimentary, but knowing how to adjust intonation correctly, wether it is simply fore and aft movement of the saddles or the more complicated neck relief adjustments as well as nut replacements ( :shock: ) is not what your typical player does and most couldn't care less as long as their guitar feels right.... :?

This is true in many fields, I would be very surprised if Anne Sophie Mutter could take apart her violins and rebuild or at the very least fine tune them to her playing preferences...
Same goes for ski racers, I used to be a ski tech in Vermont and a rather surprising number of excellent skiers had absolutely no clue as to how to tune their skis for varying conditions, however they were some of the fastest skiers on the mountain..... Cycling was also the same and automotive we won't even discuss on these terms.... :lol:

Wether a guitarist or pianist or ..... It really is about what makes this work that leads a lot of us into the long quest of replacing tuners to actually building our own instruments...
All of course with a few regrettable major screw-ups along the way.... :roll:

This is why I love to work on my own B6 S4, it makes working on a Strat or Tele so simple. :)

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 3:10 am
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well i would like to thank all who responded to the topic, but it kind of got lost,
as i was referring to say a 1st time buyer, or beginner guitarist.
grabbing a top named brand off the hanger, and being disappointed in the playability.
not really knowing it could be setup better, and passing on the guitar for another.
as everybody knows that someone that's been playing for many years will take this into account when buying anything. Something costing over $1000 should play nice off the rack,
more so than something that costs $200, wouldn't you think.?

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:07 am
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xenophobe wrote:
A brand new guitar out of the box should never need a tech to set up... Throw it on the strobe tuner...done.


yup. 8)

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:11 am
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Jimmikatt wrote:
Something costing over $1000 should play nice off the rack, more so than something that costs $200, wouldn't you think.?


Both should be playable off the rack regardless of overall quality. If overall quality @ $200.00 means a non-playable instrument...why bother.

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:57 am
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RCB-CA-USA wrote:
Jimmikatt wrote:
Something costing over $1000 should play nice off the rack, more so than something that costs $200, wouldn't you think.?


Both should be playable off the rack regardless of overall quality. If overall quality @ $200.00 means a non-playable instrument...why bother.

You have a better shot being playable out of the box than off the rack. At the GC's and Sam Ash's, most of the guitars hanging on the wall, those than can be reached, that is, are abused. You find 'em out of tune, strings broken, pickup switches missing, pickguards and finishes scratched, and the reps will sell 'em to the unsuspecting first time buyers, parents often then not, without a blink of the eye. That's the reason the high end stuff needs a ladder to be gotten to. You'll never, ever see the PRS's, or the Custom Shop Fenders and Gibsons, within reach of the headbangers. The Platinum Room at the GC on 14th Street in NY is admittable only by a salesperson. A botique operation like The Music Zoo does not have that kind of worry. It is located in an upscale town on Long Island and always attracted a customer base which respected quality gear.

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:58 am
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Fundamentally, Guitar Center's are just a small increment above Wal Mart's.
Sad to say but that is the reality... The emphasis is always ... Let me rephrase ...The Priority is moving product out the door, This only requires a sales force who's knowledge base is minimal on musical matters.

The 1st time buyer in a GC is usually not about becoming a great musician, it's about buying a product that will let you belong to a select :roll: club...
Unless this buyer walks in with a knowledgeable friend than this is going to be like walking in and out of a Best Buy, Not about choosing a musical instrument for that particular instrument's qualities...

That being said, there is no way GC is going to spend on labor ensuring that each and every guitar on display has fresh strings, is tuned and up to playing standards...The latter is difficult due to someone wanting this HSS to play Malmsteen and someone wanting the same HSS to play Clapton are going to want completely different setups. But they wouldn't be 1st time buyers since the required nuances for each style require different approaches.... And that takes time to learn...

We've had this discussion before in other threads and it always return to the fact that most of us here will walk in to a GC but gravitate towards the unmolested inventory or walk out...
For me however this usually means I buy my instruments at a boutique or M & P shop.

1st time buyers do not have years of playing and a few times of having bought an instrument that is inadequate... Those are lessons learned along the way

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:00 am
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I have never had much issue at the store i go to here in Toronto. Other the string height on my strat which was fine but i like as low as possible without fret buzz Ive had no issues.


Dave.

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:54 am
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53magnatone wrote:
For me however this usually means I buy my instruments at a boutique or M & P shop.1st time buyers do not have years of playing and a few times of having bought an instrument that is inadequate... Those are lessons learned along the way

Ditto. I have more than once, taken a parent aside and offered some unsolicited advice about getting into an entry level guitar. The good fortune today's customer has it that they don't have to purchase the 2013 equivalent of a '58 Stratocaster [i.e. an American Standard] in order to be able to play one. Wish we had that option back in the day.

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:55 am
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ZZDoc wrote:
53magnatone wrote:
For me however this usually means I buy my instruments at a boutique or M & P shop.1st time buyers do not have years of playing and a few times of having bought an instrument that is inadequate... Those are lessons learned along the way

Ditto. I have more than once, taken a parent aside and offered some unsolicited advice about getting into an entry level guitar. The good fortune today's customer has is that they are not obliged to purchase the 2013 equivalent of a '58 Stratocaster [i.e. an American Standard] in order to be able to play one. Wish we had had that option back in the day.

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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:54 pm
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CRGuitarMan wrote:
Our local GC, which opened in time for Christmas in 2007, has just two of the original employees working there - I gave them both iTunes gift cards this year. One of the two is the manager of the guitar department and the other has drifted into the guitar tech position and has been handling that job for about a year and a half now.

Ian, the tech, does a very nice job of setting up guitars and when you go into the guitar area you will frequently see signs on empty hangers saying "This Guitar is Currently Being Set Up in the Tech Department." Ian usually has four or five guitars hanging by his bench, sometimes off the wall, sometimes trade-ins, sometimes new out of the box.

Any guitar that I have bought there in the last year and a half, be it new or used, has gone through Ian's hands before I hauled it out the door. Even if it comes off the Used Rack, Ian will usually remove the old strings, clean and polish the guitar and then put on new strings of my choice and give me a pretty darned good set up - all at No Charge!

Of course, I am a very, very good customer... 8)


You are loaded, aren't you? I mean with money; not accusing you of being drunk.


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Post subject: Re: your opinion on default store guitar setups.
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:24 pm
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^^ Popcorn ready for the reply.......

However just because someone prefers to spend $2,000 or more on an instrument doesn't necessarily indicate a room filled with Gold Bullions.
It does indicate that a person would prefer to search and wait for the right instrument even though it is more expensive.
Buying cheap throw-away guitars will not improve your playing skills since pyrotechnic wrestling is not good for the fingers or the motivation to pick up that guitar to improve...

This is why to me this thread is sort of comical, we are attempting to quantify a Big Box store in the same category as a Bespoke store.... Cannot be done and it is at One's peril that one shops at a Big Box..... Unless ..... :!:
Personal instrument knowledge is acquired and the only method to use in order to find what you want.
rather a pedestrian way of describing it but we could debate this subject for a hundred pages and still arrive back to page One.

Because it is about Consumerism ..Not about choosing the right musical instrument which requires patience. time and effort.... All in very short supply ( if at all existent ) where Sales is the driving factor...

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