what's the most ignorant thing an employee in a music store has said to you?? a

[david]

in reply to the earlier thread about irritating customers, here's one about irritating staff. some people will come out with any old ***** to make a sale, or subject you to their own petty snobberies. I HASTEN TO ADD THAT I HAVE MET LOADS OF GREAT PEOPLE WHO WORK IN STORES AS MUCH FOR THE LOVE OF GUITARS AS THE PAYCHECK - so please don't get offended if you are one of them!

some classics:

"this is a rare 1956 big muff"

"epiphone are exactly the same guitars as gibson, and most are better"

"jimmy page played the exact same model on Led Zep 1" ( what , this £70 yamaha tele??)

"This (insert crappy solid state combo) sounds exactly like a Marshall"

" i think you will find £400 (for a beat up cheapo squire) is a really good price"

do they think we are stupid????

[rybread1969]

"Hi! Is there something i could help you with?"









;) Sorry, that was kind of mean. I couldn't resist though.

[indytruckboy]

"your credit card has been declined"

oww

[thurston]

It sounds and acts just like a tube amp.

[jrod9900]

"Marshall, no we stopped carrying Marshall. But, we do carry some Peaveys that sound just as good."

OMFG, are they serious?

JROD:confused:

[martiniandbliss]

Sam Ash had this sale once where they called it the "PRO deal sale". So this sale guy gets to close and I ask if the Vibrolux is covered by this "PRO deal" sale. He gets all bent out of shape and says "I don't do BRO deals...I'm not your BRO". Whats the hell? I told him he was an A-Hole instead and re itterated the PRO deal. Jackass!

[commuter]

Originally posted by martiniandbliss
Sam Ash had this sale once where they called it the "PRO deal sale". So this sale guy gets to close and I ask if the Vibrolux is covered by this "PRO deal" sale. He gets all bent out of shape and says "I don't do BRO deals...I'm not your BRO". Whats the hell? I told him he was an A-Hole instead and re itterated the PRO deal. Jackass!

that's hilarious. how embarassing (for him).

[cubby]

I was recently looking for a Boss TR-2 at a local music store that carries Boss pedals. They were out so I went to the counter to ask about getting one and instead of offering to order it the clerk said "You don't really want that, do you?!". Needless to say I didn't order it, I'll probably try to see if I can get one for X-Mas instead. Stupid people - I've worked enough retail to know that is bad customer service. If the customer comes in knowing EXACTLY want they want, take it as a blessing and see what you can do to get what they are asking for! Sheesh!

[JupiterKhi]

Originally posted by martiniandbliss
Sam Ash had this sale once where they called it the "PRO deal sale". So this sale guy gets to close and I ask if the Vibrolux is covered by this "PRO deal" sale. He gets all bent out of shape and says "I don't do BRO deals...I'm not your BRO". Whats the hell? I told him he was an A-Hole instead and re itterated the PRO deal. Jackass!

are you talking about the sam ash on beach blvd... if so... screw that place.. i hate it... sam ash sucks

[entrada]

Originally posted by JupiterKhi
are you talking about the sam ash on beach blvd... if so... screw that place.. i hate it... sam ash sucks
That's the same one I've been too. F that place. I once wanted to try out a Tech 21 amp and the guy wouldn't even let me play it out loud. That bastard made me plug headphones in to the back.

Once I went to Guitar Center in Fountain Valley looking to buy a channel footswitch for an amp and the idiot behind the counter tried to sell me a footswitch that went to some Digitech rack effects module.
TOTAL MORONS!!

[martiniandbliss]

Yeah! It was the one on beach! That place is sad....just like the Guitar Center on Euclid. Or the one on El Toro...that one is the worst. I think somebody should start a thread about the bad music store locations so we all know what we are in for.

[entrada]

Originally posted by martiniandbliss
Yeah! It was the one on beach! That place is sad....just like the Guitar Center on Euclid. Or the one on El Toro...that one is the worst. I think somebody should start a thread about the bad music store locations so we all know what we are in for.
It doesn't even just apply to the huge retail chains. Have you ever been to Jim's Music in Irvine? It's right down the street from me so I do buy strings there, but other than that you don't want to deal with those assholes. They're all a bunch of bitter 40-50 year old jerks that will try to sell you complete sh*t. One guy there tried to sell me a Digitech multi effector instead of the POD I was there to buy. He had me plug into it and started twistin' around the knobs himself while I played. He couldn't even figure out how to turn the horrible chorus effect off and finally he just said, "Well... just imagine it like that but without the chorus!"
Where do they find these people?!

[exit assasin]

Originally posted by entrada
Where do they find these people?!

Probably in a dole queue somewhere.........

[flipperbaby]

worst quotes.....

"yeah, that's a great peice of equipment!"

"may i recomend this fender twin reverb reissue, its so much better than the original in the used section, it's much clearer and lighter in weight"

what a dildo!

[mandoman]

Before Ebay, around '93 or so, I went in to Sam Ash with a vintage tubescreamer as a trade in. They said they could only give me "$25 or $30" trade in as it was "pretty beat up and people just don't buy used pedals". Glad I held on to that one.

Recently, I went to Guitar Center (right next door to the Sam Ash) and they had about a dozen or so vintage blackface deluxe reverbs selling for anywhere from $2,200-$3,000. None were original, and maybe one or two were what I would rate a "VG-". I asked about whether or not they had gone over these amps and servided them, they "weren't sure, but assured me that they all worked". I told the sales guy that the prices were way above the going rate for these things and he said "Maybe you should buy one somewhere else then". How rude and insulting. I would never buy any large gear purchase at either one of those stores.

[thefobia]

i was in a shop in england, with my friend, to buy him his first guitar. after eyeing up a few guitars, he settled on a yamaha pacifica 112, so he asks the guy behind the counter, if he could take it down and play it, because he was interested in buying it.

The guy gives us both this look, as if we had asked him if we could have anal sex with his dog. He eventually gets up from his chair and mutters something under his breath, and reluctantly hands us the yamaha. My freind plays a few chords on it and then hands it to me, just to make sure it plays ok. I literally played two chords on it, and the guy grabs it from me, and says "I think this is out of your price range".

My freind at the time was a qualified vetinary nurse and probably earning way more than the guy himself. I took out my wallet, and flashed the cash we were going to spend on the guitar, and inadvertantly dropped the picture of my guitars that i always keep with me. I have four gibsons and a fender strat.

I never brag about my guitars, and have worked very hard to be able to afford to buy them. I only keep the photo with me as a reminder of how putting up with a difficult job, earns me the guitars i love, so when im tired/pissed off at work, i just spend a few second looking at it, and im ok again.

The guy fish-mouths, and we go across the road, and buy a yamaha pacifica 112 and a nice little fender amp.
Incidently we got excellent service from a friendly salesman, who let us spend as much or as little time playing guitars as we wanted, and also threw in a few other items as in spare strings, plectrums, a strap, when he realised it was my friends first guitar!

[spaceiskind]

I'm in my local music store, conversation went like this...

Salesman: what kind of amp you looking for?
Me: I'm always looking for old Fender amps.
Salesman: Fender? Why?
Me: Are you serious?
Salesman: Well, have you played any of the new Crates?
Me: Uh, no.
Salesman: Well, you'd be hard pressed to find any Fender that'd sound as good as any of these new Crates.

(This is the point in conversation where I blow Dr. Pepper out of my nose from the explosive laugh.)

Me: I'm going somewhere else...

[cubby]

Originally posted by gururyan
Yeah, one of the things I learned in retail, is that usually the people that don't look like they have money....are the ones that spend the big bucks. Not all the time, but more often than not.

An example of that is a guy that used to buy music at the store I worked at. He looked like a bouncer for a homeless shelter but he spent at least $150 a week on new CD's.

[industrialmg]

I was 11 years old and walked into a guitar store with my mom. I knew how to play pretty good by then and had my **** together decently. There was a nice flame-top les paul i saw and i wanted to try it out.

I asked him politely if i could and he said "You have to be as tall as the guitar itself before you can play it" and chuckled.


And with that i looked him in the eye and shouted


"**** you"

and i walked out.

[tommyboy27]

Sam Ash Ontario Mills (california)

"My manager says that I can't trade the American Standard Strat for your Gibson LP Junior, but I can throw in a gig bag if you want to trade for the Mexican one"

I told him that both he and his manager can go **** off.

I traded my LPJunior through the Recycler (an LA area classifieds rag)instead for my 93 AM Std strat with a hardshell case. I like the early 90's AM Std guitars more than the new american series anyway, so I was very happy.

Here's another funny one

Me - " Do you carry the Alesis Quadroverb?"

Storeguy - "no, but we have these really great Zoom 707's that just came in. It'll sound better than what you're looking for"

[stratocaster83]

I can't stand salesmen that try to sell what they think is the best for you, even if it's the first time they met you!!!

also, everytime I walk in a shop, salesmen look at me with suspicious eys. I mean, I know I don't have a trendy look, I don't shave often and I have long hair, but JESUS CHRIST I'M NOT THIEF!!! imagine when I ask for expansive gear to try out: usually they let me do that with even more suspicious eyes, then they realise I play better than how I look (is this possible?!?).

retarded...

[david]

for me the most irritating is when they tell you that your own favourite gear is rubbish, and recommend something you wouldn't touch in a million years. i had a guy tell me that the gordon-smith sg i cherish and love was "badly made japanese beginners gear". it's handbuilt in england, and a totally high quality guitar. i actually laughed in his face, then felt guilty about my own bad manners.

i recently enquired about a hamer standard, describing the sound i was after as similar to my own sg. the bollocks behind the counter started by saying "well, you know what you are doing wrong there..." and started going on about a usa strat instead.

needless to say i left

[stratocaster83]

Originally posted by gururyan
Not too mention, MOST "musicians" are a bit shaggy looking. lol.

I think I look like a homeless! no problem with that, I couldn't care less about my look!!!

[mikematyus]

all the guys in my local music store ( Alto Music ) are all like metal heads. they always play the Jacksons when there is no one to help and wear Pantera shirts and stuff like that. If you don't act like you like their music, they're the nicest to you. It's a ****in pain!

[nobody]

Originally posted by gururyan
Yeah, I am an Alvarez/Yairi enthusiast and went to a shop that was an "Authorized Dealer" for them...yet when I asked to play with one of them they then tried to convince me that what I really wanted was a Taylor. Then, instead of handing me the Alvarez Masterworks or the Yairi...HE HANDED ME A $3,500 TAYLOR AND SAID, "TRY THAT INSTEAD...YOU WILL SEE A DIFFERENCE!" WTF?!? It better sound better for an additional $2,500! Do you want to sell me a guitar or not! I left, I never go back unless I need picks or strings.

And I bet it didn't sound any better. I hate Taylors and the people who push them. I'm an Alvarez fan myself.

[david]

also there's the humour bypass thing. i'm sure they get tired of the same old jokes, but i was in a store the other week and an older guy(say 50's) was looking at a fuzz face. pretty cool i thought. he jokingly asked the assistant "so will i be able to play like jimi hendrix if i use this pedal?" ok so not side splitting by any standards, but amusing nonetheless. the ignorant wee gob***** of a sales assistant said(completely straightfaced) "hardly. you're far to old to ever have a chance of being any good anyway". i just couldn't believe it - the older guy left looking embarrassed, the assistant smirking away. i'll never shop there again.

[kid B]

i was at a guitar center messing with the line 6 FM4 (purple) pedal...........its makes crazy sounds and such...........the "accesories" dude walks over to me and says "all the guys in radiohead use that pedal, how do you think they get all those weird sounds?"................i didnt know how the guy knew i was a huge radiohead fan..............but i just politley looked up at him and said "no they dont"........and started laughing.............then he walked away

[exit assasin]

Originally posted by david
also there's the humour bypass thing. i'm sure they get tired of the same old jokes, but i was in a store the other week and an older guy(say 50's) was looking at a fuzz face. pretty cool i thought. he jokingly asked the assistant "so will i be able to play like jimi hendrix if i use this pedal?" ok so not side splitting by any standards, but amusing nonetheless. the ignorant wee gob***** of a sales assistant said(completely straightfaced) "hardly. you're far to old to ever have a chance of being any good anyway". i just couldn't believe it - the older guy left looking embarrassed, the assistant smirking away. i'll never shop there again.

Sounds like one of the people who works in my local guitar shop, he takes the piss out of everyone who walks through the door, but he is a fat bastard who stinks really badly, when he walks you can hear him snorting like a pig. A couple of weeks ago my friend asked him about the new squier telecaster customs and the guy just stared at my friend like he had just asked for a monkey who could eat m&m's with a spoon whilst standing on its head, and replied 'yeah weve got one....... up my arse,' and then laughed and walked off, what a wanker..................

[MadMax913]

Over in a Mars Music, I asked for a new set of strings for my Fender Sub Sonic baritone guitar. The sales guy I went to school with looked at the bigger gauge strings, looked all over the string display, including the baritone strings, and said, "yeah, I don't think they make strings for that guitar yet". What a bunch of **** ammo. I'm really glad their closed. And there's always, "You don't want that, try this one out". Thanks for knowing what's best for your commission piss ant.

[david]

for all the ****ty service though there are some cool ones. i went into a store and ended up talking to the counter guy about rory gallagher, who apparently had shopped there himself. the guy went out the back and brought out one of the rory gallagher strats to show me. i don't know what happened, but as he handed it to me i dropped it on the cement floor. visions of £2000 repair bills flashed before my eyes. the guy behind the counter laughed and said "well they'll never notice a few nore chips on that one!!"

and this was a wee store run by some old enthusiast. if i even touch a guitar in many of the "major"stores here it's like i've committed some sort of heinous crime.go figure?!!

[kid B]

no no no..........i didnt say it rude...............we both laughed about it..........he was just trying to be nice/sell me the pedal..........i told him i liked radiohead, and they actually dont use this pedal........in a nice way...............im not a jerk.........i just thought it was funny thats all

[exit assasin]

Originally posted by david
the guy went out the back and brought out one of the rory gallagher strats to show me. i don't know what happened, but as he handed it to me i dropped it on the cement floor.

If I would have done that, I think I would have broken into a cold sweat, totally shat my pants a couple of times over and then burst into tears..........

[david]

i nearly did, and if the guy hadn't laughted straight away i'm sure i would have too. thank god it wasn't a prs or something!

[nocluejimbo]

Originally posted by david
i nearly did, and if the guy hadn't laughted straight away i'm sure i would have too. thank god it wasn't a prs or something!

better: a rory gallagher custom shop strat

[matb]

I remember I specifically wanted to try out a fender cyclone and a fender toronado. This was two or so years ago when I was between the two. I had made my mind up and knew exactly what I wanted. I go in and ask if I can play either one, sicne they didn't have either up front, or at least I didn't think so. Well, he tells me both guitars are terrible, and out of my price range and he hands me a PRS Santana (don't know the proper model) and says "Here, this sounds way better is a lot cheaper than that fender stuff". I play it, its alright, but I don't really like the feel of it. The guy walks away and I put it back on the rack thing, turns out it was actually like $50 more than the Toronado and about $100 more than the Cyclone. After lying to me, I notice the guy, and myself, failed to notice a toronado missing a knob sitting in a corner. I plug that in and it was what I wanted. Anyway, the guy was just an ass and wouldn't let me try what I wanted to try. (I might have gotten the Santana price wrong, it was two+ years ago and I didn't want it anyway).

Same place different time, I go to try out a guitar, and the guy sets up my amp for me, without asking, puts me on a Crate and scoops the mids, cranks the bass and treble, dimes the gain, but it puts it on volume 1. I just shrug and say "thanks". As soon as he walked away I set everything to my "normal" settings.

Yet again at the same place, I wanted to try out some bass amps. I can't remember exactly what went down but I was kind of pissed since he pretty much told me I didn't know what I was looking for and I couldn't play bass (granted I'm not much of a bassist, but I still know what I like).

On a positive note, everytime I go into Sam Ash (these were all from one guitar center), I love it. One time this really nice woman helped me out who was just overall very kind and friendly. Basically, she let me do and try what I wanted to do and try. Also, one time I asked if they had any EHX Small Stones, he looked around, he checked the back and was like "Sorry man, we don't have any". But I mean this guy checked like everywhere for me. He was friendly too, he was an older guy, and said that he worked at EHX in the 70s or something (or knew the guy who founded EHX, I can't remember). So we chatted for a couple minutes about effects, then I made my way out.

Sucks that there aren't any really good music stores near me. One marks Boss pedals up to nearly twice the MF price, and the only guitar center near me has a staff of asses (the one I relayed several stories from). The other small shop in my area has a small selection and one of the guys is a total ass.

[nocluejimbo]

Originally posted by gururyan
Has anybody ever broken a string while trying out a nice guitar? I haven't, but I can imagine some crazy stories it that happened!

yeah, like the string snapping in two, at one end, making a huge mark into that "10 top" and at the other, scratching the real mother of pearl headstock inlay....

that would suck...

[i_finlayson37]

Originally posted by gururyan
Wow! I just realized something...I have NEVER seen a woman employee at a guitar store other than say a spouse of the owner. hmmmmm.

I've seen a woman once, she was actually quite nice, it was when I bought my Westfield and she went off and tuned it for me before I left the shop.

[beerski]

i was in L&M playing a gibson acoustic guitar, and one of the guys that worked there walked past the amp-room door, then did a double take and stuck his head in to say "would you mind taking your jacket off, thats a $5000 guitar." i can see how he wouldnt want me to scratch it up, but i was aware and being very careful of that already... me and my friend just laughed, and fantasized about being rich and going in there to buy 2 or 3 just so you could see which angle looked the coolest when you smashed them :D good times...

[i_finlayson37]

I've only been asked to take my jacket off once, that was last week and I was playing a Rickenbacker 330. I liked how I couldn't play the guitar with a jacket on but the guy who worked there could push around almost £2000 of Amps.

[jrod9900]

"Yes, the reissue JCM 800 head is just as good if not better than the originals"

:rolleyes:

JROD

[fiveways]

Anything ever said to me by a employee of long and mcquade.

They open their mouths and **** comes out.

[spurious]

Guy: how come you want some new pickups?

Me: the stock ones are just too rough for me. i need something with a little less gain.

Guy: oh. well check out these invaders!

Me: those are some hardcore pickups.

Guy: yeah!

Me: i kind of want to get a little bit softer than that.

Guy: sooo... play softer. :confused:

At which point I grabbed a free cataloge of boss effects and left.

[guitar2326]

Once I asked the guy behind the counter if they had a Marshall JMP-1 I could try out. He was helpful and told me that they didnt keep those in stock and offered to order one for me. But for the $600 new price, I would much rather buy off ebay for half that, I just wanted to try one out first. So I decline. We end up talking a little about rack gear. He's a bass player and has rack gear. I also mention I was considering a mesa single recto.... I thought the guy was cool until he then tries to steer me away from rack gear. He then takes me over to a Crate head and says its just as good. I was like...... yeah....... that was the end of our talk.

This was just that one guy though. The rest of my experiences at that GC were actually pretty good. When I was first looking for a mesa single recto, I asked for help and got a guy who was very helpful, suggested I pick a guitar similar to the one I own to try it out, he let me crank it real loud since it was in the afternoon of a weekday, and later when I asked about a horizontal 2x12 recto cab, he stated they didnt have any, but would order one for me if I wanted one. If I had the money to buy it right then, i woulda.

Another time, I was looking at the pickups in the case and a guy asked if i needed help. I was looking for a Seymour Duncun SH-6, he tells me that they're good pickups, and after mentioning I was going off to college soon, he offered it at a discounted price. Later on when I was browsing, he ends up showing me a guitar that has a SH-6 already installed so I could try it out..... again, if i had the money, I woulda bought the pup right then.

[Formica]

Me: Actually, i've been on the lookout for an analog delay

Employee: Ha, forget that! Have a look at this Behringer multi-effects unit. It's the best delay ever made.

Me: *shoots employee dead*

[b0dah]

Originally posted by FiveWays
Anything ever said to me by a employee of long and mcquade.

They open their mouths and **** comes out.

+1 dude. i don't ever let anyone "show" me anything there. i go in knowing what i want to see, and what i want to play, and wouldn't think for one second of listening to their bull****.

[mork]

Originally posted by i_finlayson37
I've seen a woman once, she was actually quite nice, it was when I bought my Westfield and she went off and tuned it for me before I left the shop.


Me too. A little shop in the Village(on Bleeker) in New York. I was looking for vintage effects, they didn't have any, and she gave me directions to about 6 other shops I would NEVER have found. Unfortunately, the one with all the cool stuff was closed.

[mork]

He: looking for anything?
Me: Electro Harmonix.
He: Huh?

[ikkyu2]

Originally posted by mork
Me too. A little shop in the Village(on Bleeker) in New York.

Matt Umanov guitars. As far as I knew it's the only decent guitar shop on this island - you say she pointed you to another one you liked?

(I've been to one on 33rd street a couple of times and looked through the window, it looks cool but it's always closed.)

[mynameisjonas]

there was a mars not to far from here that had really nice employees but then it went out of business and they all went to work for the guitar center which had a bunch of a-holes working there- which then made a mix of nice guys and a-holes. later a sam ash opened up in place of the closed mars and all the nice guys went and worked at sam ash. it was cool.
i remember one time i was at guitar center on a weekday afternoon with a friend, and my friend starts playing the intro to that smashing pumpkins song, "today" and some employing goes, "hey man, you can come in here and waste our time, but don't come in here and play blink 182 songs while your doing it." we then left...

[ben murphy]

what is the deal? why do guitar shops always seem to hire complete jackasses and/or people who know NOTHING about what they sell? every single time i have gone into a guitar center the employees know NOTHING about whatever i may be looking at or asking about and if the do know something it's incorrect information. i have argued with managers at guitar centers about the value of used stuff so many times and always managed to get stuff at huge cuts because i knew what i was talking about.

in all my years of being a guitar fanatic i have only been to one shop wherre the employee's were nice, helpful, and knowledgeable. that's austin vintage guitar, here in austin texas. the owner steve is one hell of a nice guy.

[METaLLiKka7447]

a long time ago i was at this really small guitar shop buying my first guitar (100 dollar squier)(i had a little experiece with them because my sisters guitar is the one that got me started on guitar) and the people were nice and stuff but then this ass of an employee who wasnt checking me out picked it up off the counter while i was checking out and played some ass of a song with wierd SRV style expressions on his face and then put a big grin on his fave like he was hendrix or something, i, even though i was inexperienced, just grinned at him funnily and thought he was an ass and sucked, for some reason that just really pissed me off because he didnt even ask me or ****, and i was too young to say anything, anyway my favorite music store (music go round) has this one guy who doesnt really talk which is good cause he wont give me ass pile advice (even though he looks like a nice guy), and the rest are just really nice, once i saw a ****ted up big muff for 120 bucks there but that is my only complaint, i want some ass to some stupid comment and me point his ass out wrong because i am only 14 and i think that would really insult them, and another time some other guitar store offered to buy my sisters guitar for 10 bucks cause they said that thats all she would get, i laughed and forced her to walk out with me, on the way to music go round she didnt believe me that she could get at least 50 bucks for it, and we ended up getting 75 for it, i just cant imagine how many people have been ripped off and how much money they have wasted on useless ****

[stratocaster83]

Originally posted by jrod9900
"Yes, the reissue JCM 800 head is just as good if not better than the originals"

have you tried one? I think it's quite true. maybe it's not better, but sure it's very very very good, plus it has a loop (and if you like soft delays, this is quite important).

[3nnui]

Originally posted by METaLLiKka7447
anyway my favorite music store (music go round) has this one guy who doesnt really talk which is good cause he wont give me ass pile advice (even though he looks like a nice guy), and the rest are just really nice

Are you talking about the Greenfield store? I love that place.

[thesteve]

i've heard alot of GC horror stories, but never experienced one. Here in San Diego, the Grossmont GC has excellent customer service, and alot of the employees look like old musicians (can't say that they actually are or not). I don't buy alot of stuff there, but when I do go there, one or two of them will ask me if I need help, and after I say no, they go away. A few months ago (when I was amp shopping), I plugged into a Fender HR Deluxe and the guy came over and I told him I had bid on one of them on eBay and I wanted to check it out before the auction closed. He was all "that's cool, that's a really good amp for the price" and went back to work. I don't think I've ever really been hassled there or anything.

[Cm-tov]

"no you dont want a roland space echo, their sound quality is rubbish-if you want my advice dont go for anything vintage"

this man was a c**t-nuff said

[Motorhead]

"of course ... Gibson PU covers fit Seymour Duncan PUs"

"PU covers will muddy your sound" - not knowing the most PU covers are made of plastic now.

"I don't have a box for that guitar but I have these cheap gig bags"

"these are good ones"

[i_finlayson37]

Originally posted by Motorhead
"I don't have a box for that guitar but I have these cheap gig bags"

Out of the three guitars I've bought I got a box with one of them and a free Gig Bag with the other two. Including when I bought my strat. The Guitar itself was £379. Then the manager goes "I'll make sure we give you a good deal on a Gig Bag too." So I went to the counter, asked how much it all was and they sold it to me for £359.

So in essence they payed me £20 to take the Gig Bag off their hands :rolleyes:

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by i_finlayson37
Out of the three guitars I've bought I got a box with one of them and a free Gig Bag with the other two. Including when I bought my strat. The Guitar itself was £379. Then the manager goes "I'll make sure we give you a good deal on a Gig Bag too." So I went to the counter, asked how much it all was and they sold it to me for £359.

So in essence they payed me £20 to take the Gig Bag off their hands :rolleyes:

That's funny.

What they don't understand is that you might already have 1, 2 or 3 gig bags already. I have 3 gig bags and 4 hard cases and no more room.

I also get a kick in seeing the sales persons initial reaction when I sneak up on them and ask for a 'POT' :)

[guidedbyechos]

When I got my first guitar the guy who owned his private shop said "This epiphone junior is a great value at 400 for a used guitar" I bought it knowing nothing about guitars but got it for 300. If I would have had the internet and known more about guitar I would have told him to suc my left one. :mad: plus it had rod problems what a jerk!!!

[i_finlayson37]

Originally posted by Motorhead
What they don't understand is that you might already have 1, 2 or 3 gig bags already. I have 3 gig bags and 4 hard cases and no more room.

If only I could trade my 2 Gig Bags up for a Hard Case... Oh Well :(

[Opinn]

There are almost only morons who work in the music shops in my city. This was said to a friend of mine:

My friend: Hi, I wanted to try out your whammy 4 pedal?
Store Clerk: Jeeees, everytime tom morello puts out a new record, all these little kids come in here and want to try out the whammy.

My friend would have probably bought the whammy, but did not because of this. First all, my friend is not a little kid, he's 18 years old, and is about 1,90 cm height. And he's a great guitarist. And second of all, this was asked at a time where tom morello had not released anything new, pre audioslave.
Stupid idiots.

[preservation]

how about we send this thread to GC and other horrible corporate ****holes like it ?

like, 'hey, how about some real insight on why your customers are only 13 yr. old kids waiting to get raped of their summer lawnmowing job $?'

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by gururyan
I meant that to mean, a gig bag is worthless. If a guitar isn't worth being in a hardcase, it's not worth having. Gig bags do nothing...in fact i think they actually endanger a guitar by way of giving a false feeling of protection.

Everything is relative ....

I have an EvH Wolfgang Gig bag that's is very well made. It also cost $100USD (it's now a collectors item).

Anyways, when I'm hauling my 10 pound Maple Strat in and out of the car it does the job and some (plus pockets!).

[kinhad]

gig bags are great if you don't want to haul around a huge case or if you're just walking to a friend's to jam. i would get a case to store the guitar in and to bring to concerts, and a gig bag for jams.

[JDogg]

Originally posted by kinhad
gig bags are great if you don't want to haul around a huge case or if you're just walking to a friend's to jam. i would get a case to store the guitar in and to bring to concerts, and a gig bag for jams.

Well you'd think so but you still need a relatively good quality bag to be safe. I was carrying my old guitar in a ****ty gig bag after a rehearsal session. The shoulder strap just snapped and my guitar just dropped straight down onto hard concrete. This was roughly a week after i'd bought this guitar. A large chunk of the finish came off and the wood was dented. I was quite pissed.

How i managed to sell it for £145 with this damage when i bought it for 180 i'll never know.:D :p

[thesteve]

wow...tha'ts a pretty bad bag.

i have a Fender Gig bag (I actually think mine might be a bass one, it's longer than both of my friend's bags) and i've dropped it and bumped it and everything with no damage to the guitar.

[ultrablue99]

Originally posted by ikkyu2
Matt Umanov guitars. As far as I knew it's the only decent guitar shop on this island - you say she pointed you to another one you liked?

(I've been to one on 33rd street a couple of times and looked through the window, it looks cool but it's always closed.)

maybe i'm the only one, but i love the new guitar center they opened up in union square-- i've also always been a fan of the sam ash in midtown. i've only purchased effects from big stores though, i bought my guitar through a samick dealer in long island.

someone mentioned women employees before: a woman sold me my line 6 dl4 at guitar center-- she seemed to know her stuff.

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by ultrablue99
-- i've also always been a fan of the sam ash in midtown.

I've never had any beefs with that one either.

[matb]

Where in midtown is the sam ash?
I never really looked for it or anything,

[stratocaster83]

Originally posted by Motorhead
Everything is relative ....

I use a gibson gig bag everytime I'm going around with my les paul. I simply can't use that damn eghties coffin they call "hard case". I use it only when I have gig far from home or with car full of gear!

[ElderberryRyan]

Milonga is the major chain here in France, but jeez, these guys impressed me. I went to get an acoustic (Free cos my dad wants me to play more acoustic songs), and I had my mind set on the Fender stratacoustic, And my dad was gonna get my bro a squier pack. Anyway, I walk in and 2 seconds later the guitar guy comes up and asks if he can help me. So I said I wanted to try it, and he goes no problem. They have a stage in the middle of the store, so he plugs it in an amp, and plays. This guy was amazing! Anyway he lets me try it, I like it, said I'll take it. Then for the strat he said what color do you want it in, and I go well, Black. He looked at the display up front, but they only had the red ones, so he went to the back and came out with a black one. So he says he's sorry for the wait and offers me free picks and strings. The total price was about 700 euro, but my dad asks if he could get a special price. The guy says no problem and knocks it down to 600 and gives me a discount card. These stores really are good!

But as for horror stories,

Theres a store here called melody makers, and its a bitch breeding zone. The woman literally is a witch. I walked in and she was busy so I went and was noodling on an acoustic. So she walks up and is like, can I help you? and I asked if I could try soem electrics in the Room. she said are you interested in buying or just looking. I said just looking and she answered no. Fine enuff, but when i went to put back the acoustic, she says, no, its ok, I'll clean it.

WHAT THE HELL!!! You dont tell that to someone!

[thesteve]

any store that lets you buy a stratacoustic is giving you bad something...but if it floats your boat...maybe you got a good one.

[Adel]

Originally posted by guidedbyechos
When I got my first guitar the guy who owned his private shop said "This epiphone junior is a great value at 400 for a used guitar" I bought it knowing nothing about guitars but got it for 300. If I would have had the internet and known more about guitar I would have told him to suc my left one. :mad: plus it had rod problems what a jerk!!!



poor kid, man u got ripped oof ,sh1t i feal so sorry for u ... u need a hug badly

[pariah]

"No, I'm sorry but you are SO wrong. Jaguars are LONGscale, Jazzmasters are SHORTscale. Hell, I own one."

The phuckphace really got pissed. I own a JM myself. If it were shortscale, I wouldn't.

[guitardude5489]

some ass at guitar center couldnt figure out why the digitech whammy he set up wasnt working...hmm maybe cause he didnt even have a god damn power supply in it!! god what an idiot...

[sumthinlikethat]

Originally posted by gururyan
Has anybody ever broken a string while trying out a nice guitar? I haven't, but I can imagine some crazy stories it that happened!

done that. on a js1000 no less. sent it so far out of tune that i just set it back on the shelf and walked away like nothing happened... til i asked one of the guys to demo it for me hahaha.


there was another comment about females at guitar stores. they've always been plentiful at guitar center by me. couple of em have been cute too. there's this one chick that works by the doors stamping receipts and we recently found out that she's got a child, and she couldnt be more than 25. milf and half guys. (not to be immature or anything)

[mork]

Originally posted by ikkyu2
Matt Umanov guitars. As far as I knew it's the only decent guitar shop on this island - you say she pointed you to another one you liked?

(I've been to one on 33rd street a couple of times and looked through the window, it looks cool but it's always closed.)

I'm trying to remember the streets they were on. One was in Brooklyn, decided not to go to that one....

One was on about a block south of E. Houston on Ludlow. I think it was just called Ludlow guitars or something

One was about a block south of that on Rivington. (this one was closed)

One was on essex.

I tried to find another one, and I looked everywhere for it. it was supposedly on E 1st and 2nd avenue, never found it.

Instead I found:
- a damn good pizza place called Enzo's instead.
-The NYC chapter of Hells Angels
-some guy playing his acoustic on the steps of his building. I grabbed his guitar and played a few chops for him.

Anyways, they were all kinda run down guitar shops, mostly used and beat up stuff...my kind of place.

[Motorhead]

This is not guitar related but it's hilarious.

I was maybe 18 and in K-Mart. I see this set of benchpress weights on the floor. It looked like there was at least 100 pounds on it. I get all juiced up and proceed to raise the bar over my head in one brisk movement ... well the weights were empty and I went flying into the shelves behind me knocking almost everithing off of the other side of the shelve. I ran away and hid in the womens section of the store :D

[notsorandom]

when i was looking to buy my first amp and not even sure if i was going to stick to playing guitar...

"combo amps are a bad choice, an amp head with a 4x12 stack is the way to go.. have you heard of mesa?"

......

[clnh5]

Me:"Do you guys carry Seymour Duncan pickups"?
The Music Store Salesman: "What are pickups?

[guidedbyechos]

you may have to be a randall fan to get this.

Me: "Can I play through the rg75?"
Store guy: " Sure. Which amp would you like to play through?"
Me: " The rg75"

I have to hand it to him he was busy and appolgized afterward. So there are some guitar shop people that know whats going on. Well at least music go round.

[string slinger]

this one isnt about bad cutomer service or anything, this is about the entire shop altogether...

there was this music shop in the uk where i live, all of the employees were great, they had an accoustic section with a sofa and everything.... the problem was the owner was laundering money in through the shop as vintage guitars... he got busted and all the cool employees lost there jobs..... now the shops a skate shop :(

[flaw4perfection]

I was asking about an EH pedal in a small mom and pop store ( first mistake) and they replied with:

"Why get those?"
" I'd rank Electro Harmonix as the K-mart brand of pedals, flaky and cheap"

here's the best part:

"you want one of these new DOD's or Boss' they're coming out with" (full price)
"it's the sound everyone wants these days"

Damn despisable old man.

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by flaw4perfection
"Why get those?"
" I'd rank Electro Harmonix as the K-mart brand of pedals, flaky cheap"


.... K-Mart? hmmmm ... well maybe Target :D

[stratocast79]

This is about the gig bag thing.

A friend of mine got a Standard Strat a long time ago and was really proud of it, I picked it up in its gig bag and accidentally dropped it on the concrete VERY hard. I felt really bad and quickly checked to see if it was damaged. Luckily nothing.

Still I prefer my 80's Washburn hardcase to disguise my Strat:D

[Jiro]

Picture this me plugged in trying out a line6 spider 212 playing Opeth's Black Water Park. Sales attendant walks over..........

Sales Atd' - That mesa sounds pretty good ah.

Me - Ah.......I'm using the Line6........

Sales Atd' - Oh...........well I think the rectifier setting sounds much better than the Mesa.

Me - And why is that?(Almost laughing)

Sales Atd' - because it doesn't have as much bottom end,.......I don't know why anybody would want that much bottom end in an amp. Especially for what you play,.............what type of music do you play anyway?

Me - Uh.....................Metal.........

Sales Atd' - Oh......................well why don't you try one of the Mesa?

Me - Not enough cash I'm afraid.

Sales atd' - well why don't you try one of the Line6 amps...pretty ballsy amps........alot of bottom end for a small amp............

Me - Uh...........I'm using the Line6....????????????

I swear this actually happened,........Me & my bass player who was there at the time laughed our asses......I think I bought the amp just because of the laugh we got out of it! lol Absolutely ridiculous 5 minutes of my life............lol

[hairy_jr]

i cant remember that many ignorant things said to me. I havent been to a music shop for a while though. But shops dont tend to tell the whole truth. My friend tried out this v-ampire at kc rock shop. It was cool as, the guy said i spend most of my spare time playing this cool amp. Now i did some research on the net and found that about 1 in 6 of the amps had brokern in a month. He was showing me the amp for the first time. And a differant guy came up and said i wouldnt buy that they tend to break down alot. Digital amps arent that reliable. Also rajen music stopped selling the behringer amps because it was costing them too musch to keep repairing them for all the peiople that bought them.

[water gun fight]

after searching the forum, coming across this post and reading the whole thing, i have to bump it with my own stories:

i was in the accessories dept of GC [totowa, nj] and i ask the guy for a pic. he gives me one with this look on his face and says "wow, i dont understand why people dont bring pics to a music store." and i just look at him, im like wtf.. and i go "man i dont know about you but do you bring your own food to burger king?" and i just walked away laughing..

then i was trying out a digitech whammy at GC, the guys setting it up for me, and once i start playing im really liking it, but i notice that at heel [down] position the pitch is still up about 2-3 steps. and im telling the guy this and hes trying to fix it [which seems like hes admitting theres something wrong], and when he cant fix it he tells me thats how its supposed to be. so i pull out the manual and re-calibrate it right in his face and he just walked away.

the only nice guys ive found are the ones in the pro audio dept. this one big jolly guy came up to me as i was looking at the condensers and we start up a conversation about my recording rig, he starts telling me what he has, and he walks away without telling me to buy this or that. other than that, i havent found one cool person at guitarcenter

[matb]

Cool, another jersey-er.

I kind of like the effects guy at Totawa (the main one, dark hair, dark eyes, looks kind of...stoned most of the time) because he doesn't say anything. He just lets you sit down with the guitar and the desired effect. He does get a little...pissed it seems when you ask for something behind the counter.

[water gun fight]

are you talking about the older one? like around his late 30s with the black hair? hes alright, i always see him there. hah, he was the one "helping" me with the whammy.
it was one of the newer young guys that complained about the pics..
for the most part they leave me alone, but they always kind of shrug their shoulders when i ask for a pic or cables.

in between this post and the last one i called musiciansfriend to get my tracking number because i ordered over the phone [i pricematched guitarcenters FM4 for $200], and i find out that the guy who i made the order with on the phone put the wrong ****ing shipping down and i wont get my **** till friday or saturday, when he said id have it wednesday. luckily they credited the shipping cost back before i got too mad, but i just hate when **** like that happens..

[zepolant]

Nothing! That's the problem, I go in know what I want to buy have the cash and want, and I can't a single freaking person to help me. Jackasses

[Chobbs]

Me: Hey, can I order a russian Big Muff?
Dude: Yeah man... *rings up order* alright, anything else?
Me: Nah, I'm good
Dude: You sure you don't want to get an AC adapter...EHX stuff is notorious for eating up batteries...
Me: Believe me, if there was a hole to plug an AC adapter in on my Big Muff I would.
Dude: Huh?
Me: Uh, russian Big Muffs don't have an AC adapter...
Dude: OH...well we'll call you when it comes in.

I wish I made that up...

[matb]

Originally posted by water gun fight
are you talking about the older one? like around his late 30s with the black hair? hes alright, i always see him there. hah, he was the one "helping" me with the whammy.
it was one of the newer young guys that complained about the pics..


Yeah, I was talking about the older guy.

The one guy, kind of chubby, works the floor (I talked to him when looking for basses) with sort of long black hair, usually tied back, is a total ass. I usually avoid him.

Another young guy was pretty cool, except, he was a bit of an idiot. I picked up that sweet Ibanez Artist (1980 or so) and asked for a cable, so he gives to me, plugs it in, and sets the EQ "for me", I just say "thanks" and he walks away and I turn the mids back on.

[nocluejimbo]

ah, the perks of small, locally owned and operated stores (mom and pop if you will) that have a knowledegable staff (except for the teachers who run the register between lessons) and have prices at or lower than online retailers. and they do repairs and service for free if you buy from them.

[matb]

Originally posted by nocluejimbo
ah, the perks of small, locally owned and operated stores (mom and pop if you will) that have a knowledegable staff (except for the teachers who run the register between lessons) and have prices at or lower than online retailers. and they do repairs and service for free if you buy from them.

I must find one of these places...

[nocluejimbo]

Originally posted by matb
I must find one of these places...

theres one 5 minutes from my house. and its the only good store in the hole freaking city. thats a city of almost 2 million people. and one good store in the hole city. but, we are completley devoid of gc's! the closest one is almost three hours away! i truely feel sorry for the pain and suffering caused to the customers of gc.

[Wraith2288]

my favorite had to be when I went to buy a fuzz at GC.... they didn't have any, and I asked the guy what'd be a good idea for some very light distortion, as I mostly play classic rock and blues.
He looks at me, and says "oh, well, most kids your age like metal... I'd say you should get the boss mega-distortion. It can do light distortion, but it can also give you that extra oomph."

Or when I bought my gax-70 for 130$ used. And saw it for 140$ new a week later. And then realized that its a Doublecut Gibson copy, and as such its exactly the opposite of what I need. I should have gotten a squire or something.
But that is more of a complaint about me being stupid, not about the store employee.

Sometimes I wonder about some of those employees, though. The only guitar player I know who's like that is my good friend. When asked about his gear, he says "um... a red hollowbody epiphone and a line 6 amp." I guess I should respect him for focusing entirely on the music aspect, and he's most definately better than me (he's been playing twice as long) but damn... he barely even changes the settings on his amp.

[GGGA]

Ok, this was like a little bit after X-Mas. I had some spare money and wanted to buy an envelope filter(dod) and i asked the guy to order me one and he was like ok I will need all the info and he was like wait. We have all these other filters/wahs that make the same sounds and maybe better. We have a boss Dynamic wah that produces every wah sound you could want, we also have the danelectro auto wah it is just like the DOD one and is some what better. I got a little angry and i just wanted to be like you know nothing about effects do you? Cuz first off the dynamic wah isnt good and the only good thing on it is the humanizer and why are you trying to sell me a *****y danelectro mini pedal dont you know those things suck? I just want my DOD FX-25B if i wanted soemthing diffrent i would have asked for it instead. Need less to say i ended up not getting the DOD and bought the Dynamic Wah and returned it the next day.:)

[shaolinwhat]

if you say the guy was such an idiot for even suggesting that pedal to you, why did you buy it?

[GGGA]

i felt bad for the guy and i wanted to try the humanizer and he pushed that thing on me really hard.

[Ryan_77uk]

It pisses me off when shop assistants big up Line 6 stuff... I can tolerate the amps but a guy who gripped me when I was in Sound Control, Leeds UK was showing me the Vairax (SP?) and I was just looking at him blankly.

But, it's one of the best shops for just walking in and picking guitars off the wall. I go regularly and end up talking with the assistants and they know I can't afford a guitar right now (show me a UK student who can) but they don't mind me playing... clever people, they know when I get my next loan I'll blow it there... mmm Les Paul Studio, mmm Fender USA Tele.

[magikker]

Location Mars

Guy: You Can't play on that amp you are going to hurt it...
Me: and how am I damaging it...
Guy: *Turns off the Amp* This is a guitar amp if you play a bass through it you will break it.
Me: This is a Fender '59 Bassman reissue... What do you think people played bass through in 1959....
Guy: Well, then why is it over here in the guitar section.
Me: That is a good question, It might have to do with alot of things, such as that it is a popular guitar amp, and the most popular Harmonica amp to date. You don't have any, and I mean any, bass amps in stock, and that is why this amp as well as a that Ampeg stv is sitting over here too...
Guy: You will still break it
Me: repeat after me, Bass man...
Me: *puts my bass in the case and heads for the door*
Other smarter guy: So did you like hte amp, it some pretty good classic classic rock sounds...
Me: Yah I love the thing, it is fun being as I play guitar, harp and bass. To bad that guy just kicked me off it
Other smarter guy: Really... don't listen to him he's a tool.


That happend to me when I brought in my 62 reissue to try out an ampeg STV classic and some SWR stuff they said was in stock.. I got there and I could find the amps.. they couldn't find the amps... So I noticed the Bassman and started messing with it... The volume was on 2... it wasn't even distorting, when he walked over and shut it off....

I swear people can be stupid sometimes.

[treefingers]

Originally posted by nocluejimbo
ah, the perks of small, locally owned and operated stores (mom and pop if you will) that have a knowledegable staff (except for the teachers who run the register between lessons) and have prices at or lower than online retailers. and they do repairs and service for free if you buy from them.

Over where I live it's the opposite the mom and pop shops are way overpriced to stay in business and the staff usually knows less than GC staffers or are those older guitar players who think they know everything.

[BadHorsie]

i wish I had gotten a job at the music stores here...I am gonna hit them all again soon.

I would be the best employee they had...even if I hate one kind of music I will still try my hardest to give you the sound you want (notice I said want...not need. VERY important difference).

I mean if you say you want a bassy guitar sound with lots of shrill high-end...then I'll find the right wood/pickup combo for you and then match it to the amp that you like the sound of the most.

then if that is too much money...more matching (it isn't a hard job if you know what your doing).

hell I learned more from this site than most of the people at the local shops know combined...except for John Bellone (He is the owner of said shop and is a damn smart guy).

wish he carried mesa's.

[stratocast79]

There is a store in Lexington with the best inventory anywhere near but the guys are total assh*les. I was in there checking out their Telecasters and the guy wouldn't even help me. I was the ONLY person in the store and he acted like I was disturbing him. Anyway, I was looking at the 50's reissues and the '72 Custom, I said "this is a good looking guitar" he said "i've gotten to the point where I will only play Americans anymore." I said "well, that's a little closed-minded dont you think? There are obviously nice Mexicans out there." he turned up his nose. F*ck that guy, I own a vintage American Strat that I got from there! I will definately buy a Mexican if I like it. But not from there.

[grego_pa]

most annoying thing ever

"you're left handed? aha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha! you're a minority sir! Why should fender give you the same choice?"

I left the store and never went there again

I also emailed PRS regarding left handed guitars and there reply was something very similar

F**kers

[geetarmonkey]

I've had mixed experiences with Guitar Center. Most of the time, no matter what gear you play on, they are always coming in to check on you. At the GC in Dallas, they have a couple separate rooms, one filled with real nice Fender amps, and the other is chock full of Mesa gear, with Gibson's hung all around. Any time that I go into either room, they are always coming in and checking on me. I'm like "go away, let me play in peace!" I try my hardest not to talk to any of the guys about gear. I once asked if they carried the Godlyke power supply, and he's like "I don't know what that is, but if you buy a Boss tuner you can daisy chain from that." Needless to say, I walked away from that deal.

But there are good guys that work there too. This one guy who's in a big local band around here also works at the Guitar Center, and I came in and told him that I was looking for a 4x12 cab to go with my JCM 800, and he actually wheeled in a new cab and a used cab as well as a Marshall head, all into this private room so that I could play the cabs side by side. He was very nice and knowledgeable. Once I got the amp set up (I was playing pretty low volume) he's like, "why don't you crank it man, you need to hear how it sounds at a higher volume than that." That was pretty cool. Now if I ever buy anything from GC, I'll buy it from him.

[phantomlord2oo]

i was in some mom and pop guitar store and i saw an epiphone les paul and i really liked it and the store owner gave me this whole story on how some college kid bought it and he kept it in his closet and never used it and he gave it to the store and the store had to sell it "cheap" (over $500) and it came with a case. little did i know that it was a brand new guitar, the story was bogus, and it was supposed to come with a case. the guy did give me a case but it was obviously used and battered and i dunno why, but it was amazingly sticky and has been sticky for like 6 months. but the guitar is fine and he didn't overcharge me on the guitar. i paid the same price another store was selling it for. i just really got ripped off on the case. the guy did give me some good tips on turning my rig into a stereo rig and that's really kick ass. but i'm never going there again.

[Alecto]

My favourite @$$hole employee story is when I was trading in my Tele in one a dual-humbucker guitar. I went to Scarboro Music Centre (because they stocked Hamers).

Me: "Yes, I'd like to put this 1977 American Telecaster up on consignment (putting guitar and case up on counter). It's refinished (aside: a gorgeous sunburst), with a stock pearloid pickguard, Schaller tuners, Fender six-barrel bridge, and Seymour Duncan pickups (Hot Rail/Quarter Pounder). I still have the original bridge cover. How much is a fair price for it?"

Sales Clerk: "Man, you'll be lucky to get $400 for that guitar. I'll take it off your hands for $350."

Me: "Excuse me? This is a Fender Telecaster."

Sales Clerk: "Yeah, nobody wants those old Fenders. Like I said, I'll give you $350 for it. You won't find a better deal anywhere else."

Me: "Nice try, f**ker." (close up case and walk out)

Postscript: I later put that guitar on consignment and got $1100 for it, which I put towards a Les Paul Studio.

My other favourite story involves a repair guy (actually quite a well-known local player) who told me that my tuning problems on my Les Paul had nothing to do with the plastic nut, which he said was "better than bone". I later replaced the plastic nut with a bone nut, and (surprise! surprise!) the tuning problems cleared up.

[kerb]

hmm a local shop managed to sell me an AVT150 when i didnt know all that much, but it wasnt bad service at all really.

dawsons in central manchester has been hit or miss. the old guys are useless but one guy said he'd give me a discount on a tele thinline because he has one and he thinks theyre cool as.

and finally

SOUNDS GREAT MUSIC

it's THE best guitar shop ive ever been to. It stocks PRS, Suhr, Fender, Gibson and a few other really high end boutique builders. They have Budda, Mesa, Vox, Marshall, Fender, Soldano, Cornford, Tech 21 and Bad Cat. Effects? EHX, BOSS, ZVEX!, Jacques handmade!, voodoo labs, carl martin, visual sound.

BEST SELECTION EVER!
really well priced and fantastic service

I love it www.soundsgreatmusic.com (http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com)

[Immodium]

The Music shop closest to me has got reeealy good service..
I mean these guys now what they're doing. All of them has been musicians for like 30 yers :). I love that place, when i bought my 84' Fender Strat. They just threw in a gigbag, as many picks as i wanted and a couple of sets of strings in the price...:D

I haven't really had any really bad experiences
Except for me and my friends being thrown out of this one music shop, even tho it shoudn't close for a couple of hours, Because the dude working there "was tired and wanted to go home", and we were just kids hanging around doing nothing any way

[LuckyDay]

I worked at a GC for about 6 months, and I can tell you that I believe every one of these stories. Here's some of my perspectives:

Commission sales - at GC we worked on straight commission, so each customer was a potential sale that would go to you or the other guy working, so you basically would check on the customer to "mark your territory".

I was terrible at the "T.O." - Turn Over. Basically you are trained to try to get someone who wants a non-profitable item to buy a profitable one instead. Good from the store's perspective, but horrible from a customer perspective. I couldn't find it in myself to get someone to buy a Crate instead of a Marshall. Even though the Crate was cheaper, GC would make $40-50 more than on the more expensive Marshall. The salesmen that are successful at writing a lot of profit are the ones promoted. These are not necessarily the ones who know the most about guitar gear. We definitely had some idiots at the one I worked at, as well as some great musicians too, so get to know the employees, find one that you get along with or at least can tolerate and find out his schedule. You will both be happy. Line6 gear was pretty profitable at the time I worked there so that is part of why they push it hard.

Speaking of turnover, have you noticed at the big chains there are very few people that stay there? Some of this is due to promotions and switching stores, but for the most part it is because of quitting and getting fired (for instance, about half my department at one point was riding the bus or a bike to work because of DUI suspended licenses). One guy in my department quit, and another salesman ran all his receipts through the computer, returned them in the system, and re-sold them as himself, so he racked up some huge sales numbers. He was promoted the next month to department manager, then fired the next month when they figured out what happened.

So... if you get someone that knows what you are talking about you should consider yourself lucky. The big warehouse music stores are always looking for new salesmen, and music experience is not always as important as sales experience. If you think about it, that's not really much different than a Best Buy or Circuit City, but the big difference is you don't go to Best Buy and expect the salesman to find you a 1979 Frigidaire with reversed doors and modded for an icemaker. Musicians definitely tend to know their products much better than the average customer.

Used gear - A LOT of profit comes from used gear, we would give people hardly anything on used stuff coming in, and then we would price it higher than we thought we would get, because instead of making $30 on a new guitar you could easily make $200-300. So remember there is more negotiating room on used gear, but every dollar that comes off the price is a big deal to the salesman.

Don't forget that the average music warehouse store customer is not necessarily well-informed either. Guys reading this forum are definitely more experienced than most of the moms/kids that come through wanting to buy a starter guitar and the businessman that has a $3000 hole burning in his pocket and wants a PRS because they look cool. So after a day of dealing with these people, an employee may make certain assumptions that look asinine. Give him a break but let him know you know better.

We had a saleswoman in the guitar department when I worked there, she was definitely better informed and a better musician than most of the guys working there.

Trying out the gear - GC made it clear to me that someone should be able to come in and try any piece of gear. Salesmen have to deal with hearing whatever is on the radio totally butchered at insane volumes for much of the day, so try to be understanding and reasonable when you are trying out the amps, ask to go in the amp room or something so you can crank it. Go in on a weekday morning or afternoon before school gets out and you may find you have the place to yourself. Don't come in on Memorial Day and expect to get a quiet place to play. When I go in there now to check prices, I can't imagine how I ever handled the noise level. I do remember listening to talk radio instead of music in the car going home...

A classic GC moment a couple weeks ago. I have been looking at the Goldtone amps, and I wanted to try out the Epiphone 10w class A amp just to see the difference $500 makes. I took it in the amp room, which has a bunch of heads and big Fender stuff, as well as several $2000 Fenders, Gibsons, and Gretschs hanging on the wall. I plugged it in, got no sound, so I started fooling with the knobs on the guitar to make sure it was working. My friend started yelling "It's smoking!" and after a moment of incredulous hesitation, I got up and looked behind the amp and smoke was pouring out like I was on stage. We quickly unplugged it and took it out of the room, but in that short amount of time there was a haze about a foot high throughout the room, and it smelled awful! We notified an employee, who probably thought we blew it up, and brought it over to the guitar desk, stinking up the whole department in the process. We looked in the back of the amp when the smoke cleared and found the transformer was melting. A salesman mentioned that they should get the wiring checked in there, the same thing happened to an amp in there last week! I'm thinking, yeah, good thing I wasn't playing that JCM800 or something more expensive than this $199 deal... anyhow we got out of there in a hurry.

[water gun fight]

hahah thats hillarious

[tommyboy27]

great post lucky

should give people here some damn good insight to the life of a GC warrior

[Rock A My Soul]

Originally posted by LuckyDay
Commission sales - at GC we worked on straight commission, so each customer was a potential sale that would go to you or the other guy working, so you basically would check on the customer to "mark your territory".


Yeah, that's one thing I really don't like about GC because they're sharks. Once I was looking to get some high-quality cables, so I went into the accessories department. I was immediately asked by the girl behind the counter if I needed help but there was a pedal or something that caught my eye so I said no and went over to play it. Over the loudspeaker, someone called out "[name], it's your turn on cigarette break!" and she picked up the phone and she picked up the phone and said "I can't, there's a customer in here" and she argued with them for a minute and then finally went outside, and a guy that has helped me in the past and is a very nice guy got behind the counter. After a few minutes, I went up to him and asked about the difference between Planet Waves and Monster (GC employees always push Monster cables on me), and he told me a little bit about them, skewed towards Monster of course. I examined the big wall of cables, carefully considering, during which time the girl returned behind the counter. I chose Planet Waves and went to go buy it. The girl said "I'll take you right over here" and the guy said "no, I'll take you over here" and she said "but he was mine!" and he said "I helped him pick his cables while you were out smoking!" This made me feel very uncomfortable, so I went with the guy because after all, he did help me.

[AstronomyDomine]

Hey geetarmonkey are you talkng about the guy in the dallas GC who was in Soul Rift?

[geetarmonkey]

Originally posted by AstronomyDomine
Hey geetarmonkey are you talkng about the guy in the dallas GC who was in Soul Rift?

I actually haven't heard of Soul Rift. The guy I'm talking about is named Tony and he's in the Josh Goode Band (www.joshgoodeband.com). I know there's two in Dallas, and the one I go to is off of 635.

[Rock A My Soul]

Hey Lucky, how much was your employee commission? Would it be enough to make it profitable to buy pedals and then sell them on eBay? I imagine that would make working on commission a lot easier.

[Alecto]

Originally posted by Rock A My Soul
Hey Lucky, how much was your employee commission? Would it be enough to make it profitable to buy pedals and then sell them on eBay? I imagine that would make working on commission a lot easier.

I doubt it, but it would certainly be sufficient cause to get your ass fired. :rolleyes:

[deafbox-]

Hahaha, I read this whole post, it was great. Here's some funny stories..

Samash on 48th street in Manhattan:

-I went to try out the '62 Strat RI. I heard GREAT things about the guitar. So I was like, "Dude, I can't seem to find it." So the guy picks it out for me and he plugs it into a Fender Cyber thing and I was like, what the heck. So I was like, "Don't you have any valve amps?" and he was like, "Uh, that's like the nicest amp in this place". I took the patch cable out and found a nice Marshall to play through. Idiot, he could barely speak English too :-/ Some guy who came over for the summer and needed a job.
-I was in the "vintage/high end" room and I was playing a '69 Strat NOS, and my mom calls me on my cell, and she asked if I found anything and I'm like, yeah a '69 strat, and the dude in there is like, Kid that's a reissue. I gave him a dirty look and I told my mom, Nevermind, I didn't find nothing but a jerk and I left.

Alto Music in Dutchess County:

little comment here, I HATE THESE GUYS WITH A PASSION. I won't even buy picks and strings from them.

-I ask to play a LP Studio in that funky BRIGHT yelow. The guy looks at me like I've got five heads. I ended up walking out.
-Me and my dad go in there. My dad plays blues harps and knows nothing about guitar amps and wants a tube amp with some spring reverb. Asks the guy to show him some and the guys like you play harps right? And my dads like yeah. The guy said to a guy eating a sandwich, go show him some amps. of course the dude was like, IM EATING. So he's like, they're back there. We leave and never shop there again.

We now go to a local place called Let's Jam. BEST PLACE. I asked to play a halfstack cause i was interested in buying one. They hook me to a VHT. I was like, EH, never heard of em. He's like, Watch this. He totally CRANKS it and lets me soar on it for like 30 mins even though he knows its WAY out of my pricerange. I was like nice, too bad its probably like 2.5k lol They're awesome, they give us discounts too, it's great.

[LuckyDay]

Hey Lucky, how much was your employee commission? Would it be enough to make it profitable to buy pedals and then sell them on eBay? I imagine that would make working on commission a lot easier.

I don't remember if what I signed while working there prevents me from sharing that or not, so I'll use a hypothetical situation ;)

At "GD Noize music", an employee would make 15% of the profit, until they got to a certain $$ amount, then it was 16% and so on up to I think 18% for very high dollar purchases. That is of the PROFIT (GP), not the gross. GP is (hypothetically) considered as cost + 10% (for store overhead). A new employee's daily sales goal might be $300 GP, of which he would take home $45. That's a lot of strings and pedals for a guy in accessories, and a lot of Crates, Squiers, and Fender Frontmans in guitars. And that's just to meet your daily goal, which will put you even (with your draw against commission) at the end of the month. So, even if you don't make your monthly goal, you still get the minimum paycheck, but don't expect to do that for too long without getting canned (you are costing the store money).

Holidays are a madhouse in these places because the traffic is higher, so a salesman can just 'clerk' and ring up huge sales numbers for the day, he doesn't really have to haggle because there are so many people in there. Even someone like me that barely ever got a commission check could ring up $1000 of GP on those days.

Back on topic - The employee discount was great (cost+10%), but don't get caught buying gear and selling it for a profit. Also, you couldn't sell your personal gear at the store, a guy I knew bought a used mic from the salesman, but they had to go across the street so he didn't get fired.

Of course, that's if you had any money to spend on gear... I was barely making ends meet at that point. When I finally got another (salary) job and gave my 2 weeks notice - I shocked the manager, he was used to calling after an employee didn't show up for a couple days to find out they quit - I got my normal check, plus my unused vacation time, plus a commission check for a change, so I doubled my money by quitting!

Also, it was about 6 years ago, so eBay was not nearly as pervasive as it is today.

[verve]

Originally posted by mikematyus
all the guys in my local music store ( Alto Music ) are all like metal heads. they always play the Jacksons when there is no one to help and wear Pantera shirts and stuff like that. If you don't act like you like their music, they're the nicest to you. It's a ****in pain!

yes dude.. every time i go in there its always some dude slamming out metallica riffs and showing off for his friends, heh

[guidedbyechos]

no metal heads here just a bunch of punkers

[Rock A My Soul]

Originally posted by LuckyDay
I don't remember if what I signed while working there prevents me from sharing that or not, so I'll use a hypothetical situation ;)

This is all really interesting, I like hearing it from the perspective of someone who's been behind the counter. You should start a whole thread (or just keep on going on this one) about your experiences working at GC.

Is it standard practice at music stores to work on commission, even at mom and pop stores? I'd much rather work at one of those than a GC anyway, and the fact that GCers work on commission makes me really not want to work there, because I'm no good at convincing people to buy anything they don't want.

[mahoney]

In houston there is a little shop called "Rockin' Robin's Guitars" and I've never EVER had any employee there spout off an ignorant comment or suggest I get [insert bad product] over [insert good product]. In fact, they don't even carry bad ****. You will find nary a SS peavey or crate int the whole shop. Nothing but vintage or semi-new mesa, marshalls, fenders, badcats, bogners, etc and any other high quality boutique amp you could think of. They have walls and walls of vintage american fenders, gibsons, ricks, and all other sorts or nice rarities. The drum room carries mostly vintage ludwig sets and slingerland/pearl stuff. The guys there will talk with you all day about gear and playing, or anything under the sun all day without ever asking you to buy anything or even check anything out. They treat you like a human being with the 'crazy' assumption that you know something about gear, tone, and what you like to play and hear. Its more like going backstage to a guitar tech party than going in an actual store. It's is the one music shop I've been to where I feel completely pressure-free. I always end up buying something there anyway just because the people are SO cool. And you know what, RnR's has been in business for a good 30 years with not so much as a building renovation. Why? Because they treat their customers with respect, they don't try to rip you off, and they know that that kind of service sells better than Guitar Center's "rip-off-the-14-year-old" policy and day of the week.

[Alecto]

Originally posted by mahoney
In houston there is a little shop called "Rockin' Robin's Guitars" and I've never EVER had any employee there spout off an ignorant comment or suggest I get [insert bad product] over [insert good product] . . . It's is the one music shop I've been to where I feel completely pressure-free. I always end up buying something there anyway just because the people are SO cool. And you know what, RnR's has been in business for a good 30 years with not so much as a building renovation. Why? Because they treat their customers with respect, they don't try to rip you off, and they know that that kind of service sells better than Guitar Center's "rip-off-the-14-year-old" policy and day of the week.

Yeah, there are a couple of stores like that, and I always try to buy as much from them as humanly possible. Rufus' Guitar Shop in Vancouver is like that, so is Capsule Music and Twelvth Fret in Toronto. Great places to go, and hang out, and they know that eventually you'll buy something so they're not hounding your ass. That said, I've had very few problems with Long & McQuade or Steve's. I always know at least one person behind the counter so I always deal with them.

[deafbox-]

I HATE ALTO MUSIC. :D

[HippieRocker]

I love it when they tell you how to get "your" sound. But some of these people must really think im stupid just cuz im 13. Especially those jerks at guitar center. They know i got money and stuff so they all like attack like perannas when you walk in the door. Atleast they're not snotty but still. There is this one place in Clifton Park, NY I love called Parkway though, if they were closer to my house I'd probly give them all of my business and say to hell with all these other guys.

Here are a few quick things I can remember off the top of my head.

Me: Whadaya guys got fer humbuckers?
The guy: Wha'd ya say?
Me: Humbuckers?
The guy: Jeez, whatch yer mouth kid
Me: *walking away shaking head* idiot

One time me and my dad were in Mars Music and I had him try out a Line6 modeling amp I think it was, (trying to help him obtain all the sounds he used to have back in the day) and while he's playing this Les Paul through it not too loud smoke starts rising from the back of it. We imedietly call over a sales guy and he looked scared sh*t. Little did we know behind that little wall of amps there were sum teenagers a few years older than myself fooling around with some of the special FX and lighting stuff that had turned on a fog machine. I was laughing like hell at the look on the guys face. Truely a Kodack moment.

Aslo I hate being treated like I'm just some punk kid out to get my hands all over everything even though i probably am. I was shopping for vintage FX pedals at a guitar show and I picked up what i think was an old like $400 delay pedal to see if it was something i would have been interested in.

Me: *Pick up delay, check price, examine*
Jerk at stand: HEY KID PUT THAT DOWN, THATS 400 bucks!
Me: *turning around trying to keep my cool* By any chance do got two a these?:D

[elmoismyhero]

why dont you guys work there yourselves?

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by HippieRocker
Me: *Pick up delay, check price, examine*

Jerk at stand: HEY KID PUT THAT DOWN, THATS 400 bucks!

Me: *turning around trying to keep my cool* By any chance do got two a these?:D

Did you buy 2 .... or at least 1?

[Motorhead]

As you get older you miss the interaction with anal retentive sales person. Sometimes their pushiness/silliness is a good thing.

When I 1st tried the MODE 4 I walked in and said to Tim I'm trying the MODE 4 and walk to the back. I turn around and he's holding my favourite 'Guitar Shop' guitar a PRS Single cut.

I tried it and walked out. "ain't nothing but a chicken wing!"

[teleman]

Was at GC in Plymouth Meeting, PA looking to play something with a SD Hot Rails pu, hopefully a tele. The burnout kept pronouncing it "Haw Trails" and said they didn't have any, but pointed me to a BC Rich with duncan designed pickups and said they would sound the same.

[RandyRhoads]

I'm 14, but the guys at Guitar Center are generally helpful, if somewhat clueless at times. They never hound me, and the one time I bought anything important was this summer, when I bought a DS-1, a Crybaby, and a MicroKorg. The 'Korg I already wanted, so the guy fetched me one from the back (nice of him) and I just wanted the cheapest Dist. and wah, so I got those.

My most clueless encounter was in the drum department, where I asked if the had a dholak by chance, and the guy at the counter informs me that he doesn't know, as he is not a drummer. :confused:

[mahoney]

Originally posted by elmoismyhero
why dont you guys work there yourselves?

I think that's the whole point of this thread. The reason guys in guitar shops act that way (aside from the ignorance about the products they're selling) is because it's just like any other high-pressure sales job. These guys are forced to do anything they can to try and rack up a sale, even if it means outright lying to you. I don't think you can blame them completely for the situation, but it sure does get annoying.

[tomchagolla]

"you'll NEVER get good distortion unless you buy a rack mounted unit"

[jrod9900]

Originally posted by mahoney
In houston there is a little shop called "Rockin' Robin's Guitars" and I've never EVER had any employee there spout off an ignorant comment or suggest I get [insert bad product] over [insert good product]. In fact, they don't even carry bad ****. You will find nary a SS peavey or crate int the whole shop. Nothing but vintage or semi-new mesa, marshalls, fenders, badcats, bogners, etc and any other high quality boutique amp you could think of. They have walls and walls of vintage american fenders, gibsons, ricks, and all other sorts or nice rarities. The drum room carries mostly vintage ludwig sets and slingerland/pearl stuff. The guys there will talk with you all day about gear and playing, or anything under the sun all day without ever asking you to buy anything or even check anything out. They treat you like a human being with the 'crazy' assumption that you know something about gear, tone, and what you like to play and hear. Its more like going backstage to a guitar tech party than going in an actual store. It's is the one music shop I've been to where I feel completely pressure-free. I always end up buying something there anyway just because the people are SO cool. And you know what, RnR's has been in business for a good 30 years with not so much as a building renovation. Why? Because they treat their customers with respect, they don't try to rip you off, and they know that that kind of service sells better than Guitar Center's "rip-off-the-14-year-old" policy and day of the week.

I've been to Rockin' RObin. THat place was cool. I went when I visited my aunt in Houston. I took a whole day going around the city to guitar shops. I found like an old school HiWatt stack for dirt cheap. I wish I would have bought it. It souned incredible.

JROD

[jrod9900]

This place in Cape Girardeau, MO. called Shivelbine's let me take the amp home for a week to try out, cause he said "I know it's totally different playing on your own. Take it home, play it with your band, see what you think."

From now on, those guys get my business. I got a helluva deal. I got the Vox Valvetronix 2x12 combo, and the VT12 (expensive) pedalboard for $1000 including tax. In Musician's Friend, the amp alone was going for $1200. I saved like $400 on the amp and pedalboard!

JROD

[corvette]

Originally posted by gururyan
I meant that to mean, a gig bag is worthless. If a guitar isn't worth being in a hardcase, it's not worth having. Gig bags do nothing...in fact i think they actually endanger a guitar by way of giving a false feeling of protection.

Not so......I gave up cases about 7 years ago and have been using bags ever since. I have way too many guitars to carry for cases, and the only problems I've had is the tobacco smell that gig bags hold. I gig on a weekly basis as well.....
The key is to get the right quality of bag.....mine has a protective inner lining that's like body armour, plus I can carry 2 guitars in one bag. The cheapy bags are not much use for sure.....

corvette

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by corvette
Not so......I gave up cases about 7 years ago and have been using bags ever since. I have way too many guitars to carry for cases, and the only problems I've had is the tobacco smell that gig bags hold. I gig on a weekly basis as well.....
The key is to get the right quality of bag.....mine has a protective inner lining that's like body armour, plus I can carry 2 guitars in one bag. The cheapy bags are not much use for sure.....

corvette

keep reading.

[n/a]

Yeah so its been a while since anyone has updated this thing, but I figure that I will add my story to it as well. It is actually my friends story. We were at a local music shop in NC and he was trying out a BOSS multi-effects pedal. And he started to tune up the guitar he was trying it out with, and the manager came up and took it out of his hand and asked if he was done playing it. Then the manager tried to tune it, but she couldn't do **** with it, so she put it back. Needless to say, my friend didn't buy the pedal or anything else from them since.

[mr0x]

A while ago, at an Ann Arbor Music store, can't remember the name of the store, tried to sell me Cort guitars. He said Cort guitars were better than Gibson Les Pauls and I shouldn't pay $3,000 for a Les Paul when I could have an equally good sound out of the store's $500 Cort guitar.

I should have run like hell when he said that but I was a naive kid looking to buy a guitar. Anyway, he didn't sell me any Cort but I did buy a Crate solid-state with digitel effects 15W practice amp for $160 from his store.

Just though I'd share my story.

Anyway, Crates suck and Cort guitars go around $200 on ebay.

[three11rules]

The worst thing that i ever heard out of a salesman's mouth really pissed me off, and it was fairly recently at a place called Rudy's music, right down the block from the midtown Sam Ash. I asked to try out a Holy Grail, and i fell in love with it. I dont have nay money at thetime, so when the guy came back i told him I wouldnt buy it that day, but i'd be back. I was with a friend, and he wanted to try the small stone this is pretty much what happened:
Friend:Hey, can i try out the Small Stone?
Guy:You gonna buy it?
F:well, i'd wanna try it..
G:Listen, there's lots of people over here, come back when you wanna buy somethin...It's just a phase pedal, it's the same thing as a phase-90...

What really pissed us off, besides the fact that he was a complete ***hole
was that we didnt say anything back, we just walked out.

And as far as service and stuff...i think the 14th street GC is crap, i REALLY like the one on northern boulevard, they have an awesome selection and great service, i think the Sam Ash is alright too. But I will never ever shop at rudy's...even if they do have a great slection of pedals...BTW does anyone in NYC know a place with a decent selection of pedals??

[deafbox-]

Rudy's is the best for botique pedals though.. but I haven't been to 33rd. Supposedly that's the place to go.

[Motorhead]

Originally posted by deafbox-
Rudy's is the best for botique pedals though.. but I haven't been to 33rd. Supposedly that's the place to go.

You mean 30th Street?

http://www.30thstreetguitars.com/

[Matthew17]

geez...I'd hate to think of the **** advice females must get in guitar stores! But as for girls working in music stores...one gave me masses of discount on anything I bought from her...:o

I have to admit though, guitar stores around here are pretty good, except for the one, which is stocked full of every Del-Boy sarcastic prick in the world, but we stay away from that one :D It'd be a nice experiment to get a really good young scruffy looking guitarist and a clean, neat, crap older guitarist to walk into a store (at different times) and ask for the same thing...then watch the different attitudes!

Might try that out one day!

[inthesound]

In northern michigan, there isn't one really notable guitar store. This one, that I will refer to as store A, sells peavey guitars and fortunately, a few fenders, and peavey amps. They do have a few nice trade-ins that filter through. But they don't even sell pedals. The only exception was when I saw the Boss Handclapper, and proceeded to laugh until I cried. The only cool things that were ever there was this old small Ampeg guitar amp, and a Guild SG type.
Then there's store B. They sell everything for at least double the price. They often employee stoners, who couldn't possibly know less about their product. I told this guy I was looking to buy some new machineheads for my bass, and he looked at me like I was a giant moose or something, and then I said, I'm looking for tuning pegs for my bass. He sort of stalled out mentally or something, and proceeded to bring me a small Korg pocket tuner. Jesus H Christ on a pogo stick.
Store C is the best of the three however. They typically do not **** you over if you come in often enough. My only beef is they've been doing restocking, and have replaced all big marshall amps with peavey ones. However, they are finally starting to get some good fenders and some nice epis and gibsons. One day though, I was off to pass a little time, and thought "what better than to try out some amps" So a friend and I sat down by the Roland Jass/Chorus, and we plugged in. This old guy, who I've only heard play some blues (poorly, might I add) sits down with us and tries to sell it like a ****ing car. We hadn't been playing it more that 5 minutes and he was trying to get us out of the store with it for a discounted price. He didn't drop the price more than 20 bucks, and I certainly wasn't going to a buy a new amp that day. But come on. They only stock Zoom and Boss pedals. And the only the boss pedals I would never want.
One day I was talking with this more intelligent guy and asked him if he could order the new MXR Double-Shot Distortion. He did so and said it'd be in in a week. So I bought the pedal after I had tried it out on a few amps, and within a week the LED went all ****ed up on me. So I brought it back, and they said they'd fix it for free. They said to check back in two weeks. So I went on checking in every week after the initial two weeks and they didn't have it it. I had bigger things coming up, and needed some money to buy christmas presents for people so I said **** it and got my money back. This was like 4 months after I had taken the pedal back. So about a month (now 5 months after returning for repairs )later I get this message on my answering machine and these guys are telling me my pedal's in. I go in and they were like "Well, they had to replace everything on the insides" and I said to 'em "then why the **** didn't they just give me a new one and send it back to dunlop?" I knew it wasn't their fault, but this meathead guy brought out the newly fixed pedal and just gave it to me. Luckily for them, I'm an honest guy, and I was like "I've already gotten my money back" He just looked at me and clearly realized how he almost ****ed up and gave away a $150 dollar pedal.
Anyways, nothing good happens in northern michigan guitar stores. But, when I went down to Alabama for spring break, I went back to my old city, and stayed with some relatives. I had never been in a real guitar store, and when I saw a guitar center I pulled over immediately. I saw racks and racks and racks of good guitars. I sat down with a gibson sg standard that I could barely reach, and brought it down and started playing acoustically. I had obviously fallen into some sort of happiness trance, because I was futzing around soloing and this employee walked by and was like "enjoying that SG" I couldn't even talk, I just made a happy expression and went back at it. Oh man, I can't wait till I get my SG......

.chris

[Marshallman]

At GC

"Oh man, I love my J-Station, it sounds exactly like so many tube amps, much better than any Marshall."

"Just hook this amp into your car and you'll be pimpin'"

[*Noodles*]

" Hey, are you interested in buying anything? "

" What sort of cash have you got " (what the ****?!)

" You think you're hot on a guitar don't you, try this - it'll make you sound better " (referring to a MG100HDFX)

[chingachco]

one of my favourite experiences was when i was looking to buy my first amp. i went into long & mcquade, and the guitar tech wasn't in, so the drum tech decided to help me out. i think you see where this is headed. i'm 12 years old with a little epiphone, looking for something cheap (i ended up buying a peavy bandit off a friend, which i hate now, but was perfect for me at the time)
drum-man hooks me up to a jcm800 half stack, dimes everything, and then flips the switches. i'm standing right in front of it, facing it. nothing even gets played, just the feedback and hiss in the tiny room, i was almost in tears. dude's running all over trying to remember how to shut off the amp. i just unplugged myself and left traumatized.

i find the secret is all in the salesperson. going back to the same guy helps a lot. overall i hate long & mcquade, but back when i lived at home, there was a guy in one who was the same age as me, and knew that i knew my sh*t. he'd get the other guys to leave me alone, order me stuff, etc.

overall i think a lot of the problem is the general pissing contests we all as gearheads tend to get in. the incident that offended me the most was when a local shop guy gave me a lecture on truss rods when i went to buy some heavy strings for my accoustic. this was when i was BUILDING guitars. but then, how should he know that some scruffy 18 year old knows more about guitars than him? he was just trying to help me out, in case i was going to go string up my squier and make a pretzel out of the neck. or another example on the other end is "not just another music shop" here in vancouver. they have great gear, and overall are good guys. but they know they're one of the better shops in vancouver, and they know that they know their sh*t. as a result, they can come across as big gaping a$$holes, smirking and scoffing when you ask for certain things, setting you up with the cheapest amp they have automatically, etc.

one of the better places i've been to are pawn shops down in the seedy part of town, because they don't care what the hell you do in their shop. play as loud as you want. now when it comes time to buy, then they're sharks.

[TS-NINER]

At Guitar Center in Arvada, Colorado I asked a guy if they ever carried Electro-Harmonix products and he goes, "is that a company?" Not only is it ridiculous that he works at Guitar Center and doesn't know about EHX, but what else could I have been referring to besides a company?

[sabbath181]

I go to a Guitar Center thats awesome and all the regular guys there are cool. I walked in one day and went to pick up a schecter Devil tribal model guitar and some ass hole that doesnt normally work there comes up to me and goes are you planning on purchasing this today and i was liek " i dont think so i might some day though so i wanna try it out" and the ****er goes "we dont let kids play the guitars unless they plan on buying them" i was so pissed. He turned around and i grabbed a $4000 PRS instead and puit it into a mrshall stack and cranked it up just to piss off the ****er. that was the only time i saw him there though.

[drl_06]

Originally posted by sabbath181
I walked in one day and went to pick up a schecter Devil tribal odel guitar and some ass hole that doesnt normally work there comes up to me and goes are you planning on purchasing this today and i was liek " i dont think so i might some day though so i wanna try it out" and the ****er goes "we dont let kids play the guitars unless they plan on buying them" i was so pissed.

Something really similar happened to me and a friend of mine. My friend wanted to try out a $1,000+ Les Paul he'd had his eye on for awhile, and was actually going to buy it.

But nooooo, the store manger thought he was bluffing about having the money, and wouldn't let him try it (and he was being a real asshole about) So my friend took out the money, counted it in front of the guy, and we left. What a good feeling that was. :D

[Lietz]

One guy at Guitar Center dident know how to turn my amp on. Once I did it for him, it still woudlent turn on but he dident seem to care. He just walked away. Last time I go there.

[KnifeGhost]

I'm lucky enough that I know enough of the people (and was briefly in a band with one) at the local L&M that I don't have any trouble there....

Well... Except for the really cute red-haired girl that works there..... I came in to try the heavily discounted Danelectro hippy flange, and walked out with a Small Stone.... Which is for the best.... I was in again a few weeks later and walked out with Big Muff...... Again, which is for the best.... But that could become an expensive habit.....

[boovya]

well im sure you know my situation with my local music stores so i think ill pass on saying it again. you all should know by now. grrrrrrrr

[Seegs]

I'm going to resurrect this thread cause I had a couple horrible experiences today

1. Me: "Hi! I'd like to try out this amp"

Clerk: "How much money can you put down today?"

2. What makes you think you want this amp?

3. This is a long story, ask to try out an amp, this cool middle aged dude says "we dont have any set up, but if you help me wheel this display stack in to the amp room you can try it out" I let him know that I have a marshall cab so he doesn't need to wheel in the particular cab... asks me what guitar I want and what pick I want (wow) and goes off and gets it for me...I'm blown away by the service so far...some random dude comes in with the guitar and proceeds to set up my amp, tries to play it and realises nothing is coming out. Fiddles around for ten minutes before proclaiming that the amp is "stuffed, we'll have to send it away to get fixed". I walk out of the amp room and am greeted by the previous cool guy, who asks how it went. I say that the amp is stuffed and he goes "let me take a look". Ten seconds and one new speaker cable later, I'm playing the amp.

The local mesa dealer around here definately has my business when I get the money, I was testing out a dual rectifier and one kid recognised the songs I was playing, came over and chatted about bands, turns out he'd heard of my band and really liked us, so he said he'd help work out a deal on a rectifier whenever I get the money. When I said that I couldn't afford all of it for a while, he said that he would set up finance with only 25% down, which is way cool.

Then there's the local store that refused to give me any money off a floor model delay pedal, even when I said I could get a brand new one at another store for $140 cheaper

[kerb]

Originally posted by thefobia
i was in a shop in england, with my friend, to buy him his first guitar. after eyeing up a few guitars, he settled on a yamaha pacifica 112, so he asks the guy behind the counter, if he could take it down and play it, because he was interested in buying it.

The guy gives us both this look, as if we had asked him if we could have anal sex with his dog. He eventually gets up from his chair and mutters something under his breath, and reluctantly hands us the yamaha. My freind plays a few chords on it and then hands it to me, just to make sure it plays ok. I literally played two chords on it, and the guy grabs it from me, and says "I think this is out of your price range".

My freind at the time was a qualified vetinary nurse and probably earning way more than the guy himself. I took out my wallet, and flashed the cash we were going to spend on the guitar, and inadvertantly dropped the picture of my guitars that i always keep with me. I have four gibsons and a fender strat.

I never brag about my guitars, and have worked very hard to be able to afford to buy them. I only keep the photo with me as a reminder of how putting up with a difficult job, earns me the guitars i love, so when im tired/pissed off at work, i just spend a few second looking at it, and im ok again.

The guy fish-mouths, and we go across the road, and buy a yamaha pacifica 112 and a nice little fender amp.
Incidently we got excellent service from a friendly salesman, who let us spend as much or as little time playing guitars as we wanted, and also threw in a few other items as in spare strings, plectrums, a strap, when he realised it was my friends first guitar!

MusicGround?

[Dead horse]

i'm working in a big record studio in europe, And a day i 'gone in local shop to buy for myself a microphone, a classical sm 57, just for record easyly my amps during the rehearsal with my band at this time. nothing special in fact.
but the dealer in the shop start to explain to me many things about microphone, studio etc and the funny thing is when he start to tell me how on particuliar record , the guitar 've been record . he just don't know than it was me who record this gtr on this particuliar sessions. you can imagine all the hillarious things this guy say to me...

[fburn666]

"Yea these EMG-HZs are battery operated" I justlooked at him :confused:

[JJ321]

Yah......I was talking to an employee of a local shop about amps one night. I said that I liked how the Dual Rectifier that I played a couple of weeks before had seperate EQ's for the different channels, and he told me that a "good" player wouldn't need to have seperate EQ's on each channel. I only go there if I need strings or picks now, and only deal with the owner when I go.

[Scorpius]

This was when i just had my pd7 and my noise suppresor, and i wanted to try out an eq.

"Wow, you want to get ANOTHER pedal! You would do much better just getting a multi-fx. All the pro´s use them!"

"You sure? I´ve seen most using stompboxes."

"No man! They use those digitech ones!"

At that point I just decided to ignore him.

[zadiqof]

"your not one of those people that comes in here and makes me find things for you and plug things in, then doesnt buy it are you? "

the amplifiers were not plugged in, and there was no extension chord that he needed to plug it in. I proceeded to play it, promise that i was going to buy it later with my fingers crossed, go home and buy a matchless reverb head online with all my money.. Its the guys ****ing job to help out a customer... jesus "your not one of those people that makes me do my job are yOU??"

[boovya]

Originally posted by gururyan
"Do you have any A/B/Y pedals other than those Morley?", I ask the Guitar Center employee.
"What?", replies the employee.
"Do you have any other A/B/Y pedals?!"
"You'll want to go ask the guys in Keyboards."
"Keyboards? It's for guitar, I have two amps."
"Oh! I have lots of them." (points to wall of effect pedals behind counter)
"It's a router, not an effect...like those Morley A/B boxes down there." (I point to them under the glass countertop)
"Yeah! Let me pull them out!"
"No, I don't want those. I am asking if you have any other A/B/Y boxes."
"Sure! Here is a new chorus by MXR."
(I smile) "Nevermind, it's ok."
"How about the MagicStomp? It has lots of neat sounds!"
(I politely decline with a smile and the wave of my hand palm down and walk away)

Last week at Guitar Center. :rolleyes:
I then drove straight back to "my" local top notch gear store.


WOW!!! damn dude. i feel bad for you. i never had it that bad. but i had some really bad experiences where i kinda lost my temper with a lot of them. it just baffles me how they get jobs!!! and to think i wanted to try my hand at working at a guitar store.
i actually did apply to guitar center for guitar accessories...and they wanted to put me at the door i was like ehh no way. hmm turn down someone who knows guitar accessories or have a retard working there that doesnt know his aby from an mxr chorus!! how pathetic.

[Triton]

It seems like that at a lot of places, not just guitar stores.

[guidedbyechos]

ME: I wanna try out a ps-5.

Him: Whats that?

I point to it on the pedal board display.

Him: Oh that thing makes so cool spacey noises.

Me: I wanted to try it for it pitch shifting capabilities and it harmonization.

Him: Oh let me go get you a pick.

Me 1

Guitar Center Guy PWNED

Seriously I think you're not suposed to work there unless you've never touched a guitar in your life. I couldn't even get a job at the door

[solidanalog]

I asked:

"Do you have any pedal boards".....

employee....."what"?

"Pedal boards"......."what's that?"

"a board that houses all of your effects pedals".........."Oh we just have a few"......................"there's the tuna melt, dan echo.."

"No it's a case that holds all your pedals and usually has a power supply"............I don't know what you mean, I play violin....let me get the owner....


Nevermind.

[satchaholic]

how bout the classic "you dont want that"

how the hell do you know what i do or dont want???

bah

[FreCKo]

This was before christmas, and I had tried out an Ibanez AS83 I think, didn't plug it in, hadn't used a pick, just played a little.

Clerk: So what did you think about the guitar?

Me: It was nice.

Clerk: Buy it.

Me: Uh... It's two weeks before christmas, I can't afford it before Christmas.

Clerk: Okey, but I think it will be sold untill then.

Me: (sarcastic voice) well I guess I could ask you to order a new one, right?

Clerk: Yeah, but that takes so much time. You should really buy it now.

At this point I was thinking about raping him with a chainsaw. What a complete ****!

[Matthew17]

Originally posted by FreCKo

At this point I was thinking about raping him with a chainsaw.


Excellent.

[WillakaLliw]

Originally posted by Scorpius
This was when i just had my pd7 and my noise suppresor, and i wanted to try out an eq.

"Wow, you want to get ANOTHER pedal! You would do much better just getting a multi-fx. All the pro´s use them!"

"You sure? I´ve seen most using stompboxes."

"No man! They use those digitech ones!"

At that point I just decided to ignore him.
HAHAHAHAHA!:D Any retard employee who ever says "all the pros use them" about anything (except perhaps tube amps or george L's cables) should be fired. That's the kind of crap that makes poor newbies waste tons of money. It's not just dumb, it's totally unethical. Not to mention hilarious:D !

[WillakaLliw]

Originally posted by JJ321
Yah......I was talking to an employee of a local shop about amps one night. I said that I liked how the Dual Rectifier that I played a couple of weeks before had seperate EQ's for the different channels, and he told me that a "good" player wouldn't need to have seperate EQ's on each channel. I only go there if I need strings or picks now, and only deal with the owner when I go.
What a jerk. Lemme guess, he was 16 years old, wearing a (insert dumb metal band name here) t-shirt, and a horrible guitar player right? At my local guitar store, everybody's really weird, and some of the employees (especially the retarded teenagers) don't know anything, but at least they are respectful, and if they don't know something, they'll actually go get someone who does, not insult you and say "that doesn't exist" or "no, this Boss pedal is way better than that".

[jacksonjs30]

i was trem picking and the guy said i pick to fast

[Lietz]

I brought my amp in to get re-tubed once and this ass goes to turn my guitar on and could'nt figure it out. I watched him for a good 2 min untill I hit the on button and flipped off the bypass switch. But to my suprise, it still didn't turn on. At this point the guy just walked away saying "Oh, uh....I don't know". Turns out it blew a fuse but this bitch didn't even care what happened to my amp. Myself on the other hand flipped out. Needless to say I've never returned to that particular shop.

[1970nick]

1st time:

Me: Got any 10 gauge Ernie Ball's mate?

Store guy: Nah. Got 11's though. They'll make you a better player.

Thanks man!


2nd time (Different guy)

Me: Got any 10 gauge Ernie Ball's mate?

Store guy: No.

Me: What have you got?

Store guy: What guitar's it for?

Me: Epiphone Sheraton? You know the semi-hollowbody?

Muppet: Ah yes, we've got some really nice acoustic strings.

etc etc etc...

[iotar]

When trying to find one of those Daisyrock butterfly-shaped guitars:

"Hey Daisyrock, don't they make girl's guitars?"

"Umm yes."

"What do you want a Daisyrock for?"

"To buy."

"But don't Daisyrock make girl's guitars?"

(repeat ad nauseam)

So I went over to Macari's and went home with the Baby Sitar that I'd been looking for for two hundred years instead. And that little macho cu nt at Turnkey went home wondering why his life was so meaningless. :rolleyes:

[scarr]

Originally posted by WillakaLliw
"that doesn't exist"
I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned earlier (especially with the gearlust rampant here). I've gone into GC a number of times (it's literally two blocks from my apartment and nothing better is remotely close by) asking if they have new gear in stock and been told that there's no such product. I think when I went to try a PODxt out for the first time they told me that...and they had some in stock.

I no longer expect any support in (any) stores. I use the internet (and the wisdom of users like we have here) to find out everything I can and just venture into a store to get the thing and get out ASAP. Any additional exposure to the lies/ignorance makes me sad. :(

[Nite_Maresz_25]

me: im looking into a distortion pedal

store guy(not the awesome guy that works there, the guy with the mullet that isnt much of a pedal guy):the metal zone is the best, you'll love it.

me:its kinda expensive compared to this ds-1 and it doesnt sound as good as the ds-1

him:its worth the extra money.


stfu retard!!

[supermansam88]

Me: "Do you have the Fender '72 Thinline Reissue?"

Him: "No."

Me: "When will you have one in?"

Him: "Why would you want that anyway? Fenders suck."

I left.

I know that some people don't like Fenders, but there's no denying that they make some quality stuff.

[21stCenturyBoy]

how about:

"can I help you with something, MA'AM?"

Gender confusion at a store where half the staff has hair past their ass? Gimme a break.

[Shiro]

I haven't had any too bad experiences...luckily.

There are two stores I go to, one "Simon's" is more of a general music store. The other "Audiocon" has more guitar stuff, but ONLY yamaha\planetwaves.

The "guitar" person in Simon's everytime I went always has this "I have better things to do.." sorta attitude, plus the first time I went there he claimed that the ESP F-50 (used) was "good for the price" when it was like.. 100US over the price :eek:
Luckily it was red or I might've bought it.
He's always playing games on his cellphone and takes ages to get a cable and plug a guitar into an amplifier.

One time I was there trying out the only 7 string i'd ever seen in person (a purplish pink ugly no name one, but it had the best action I've felt on a guitar on it..). And that same guy was looking at guitar tuners and complaining about how they "got them mixed up" until my dad pointed out that they were for "6 in a line" guitar headstocks.. :rolleyes:

The other store, Audiocon is pretty cool, you could just walk in there and start playing, and there's always some bassist in there making me feel ashamed to attempt to play guitar. Their "guitar" people are two guys who are also in this local band that came first in the national pop\rock awards. So they're pretty cool, they even played some unfinished recordings off their unfinished CD for us. The worst was that they suggested I get a metal zone..

[pantsoptional]

"Err...90 bucks." -
the owner of the small/medium guitar shop's appraisal of my 20 yr. old Gibson SG Standard. my friend and I just looked at each other dead silent for about 15 seconds, and then busted out laughing as I packed up the guitar. we still laugh about it some times.

FWIW, i've had good experiences with gig bags, and although I don't trust them with my nicer guitars, I have guitars that don't warrant (yet another bulky) hardshell case, but are definitely worth having, if only for kicking around town from place to place. just my perspective, anyway.

oh and i've seen plenty of gals working at shops before, though at least one has sold me the wrong power supply (i suspected, but she insisted!)

anyway this is a funny thread ...

[satchaholic]

Originally posted by 21stCenturyBoy
how about:

"can I help you with something, MA'AM?"

Gender confusion at a store where half the staff has hair past their ass? Gimme a break.

hahaha they called you a chick??? eph that... ida hit her ;)

[imalonrdotiareb]

"dude...that guitar SMOKES!"



me: Hey man, can i try out this pedal?

him: sure, what do you play

me: a PRS Custom 22 into a 66 Bassman and a 71 Hiwatt

him: sweet dude this amp will sound just like that



*he grabs a squire and plugs me into a tiny fender practice amp, and turns the amp to 1*


*i tinker a little bit*


him: so what do you think about it man?

me: honestly its hard to tell without having my own gear

him: no man this amp sounds the same...sometimes after we close i'll stay here all night, crank up this amp...and just play

[RUSHFANnLV]

A direct quote about the Boss SD-1 I was trying to sell from a guy that no longer works at the guitar store I frequent "Put that thing at the end of your chain. It's a classic".

Really, the SD-1 is not that bad of an overdrive but at the end of the chain??

I really liked that guy though. He and I would rap about pedals for an hour or so without me buying anything.

[burningman211]

hahah, i got one.

today i picked up a strat and was noodling around on it at a guitar store while i was killing some time. then the guitar clerk came up and asked me what i was in for. i told him i have a les paul but i was trying various strats and he was like "hey, why dont you try this godin?" so i paused and was like...ummm, i think i'm looking for all single coils. so i play the strat a little longer and he puts a tele in front of me and says "try that." like i'm some punk kid who's picking up a guitar for the first time and dont know a strat from a tele, much less a dual humbucker godin from a strat. i love teles, but i specifically said i was trying strats.

i seriously think because i look young for being 20 and dont go in and shred and play yngwie covers that people look down on me in guitar stores.

then he gave me a snide goodbye as i walked out.

[mortalitas]

I was in the Grossmont GC here in San Diego and I went in to ask about a Hiwatt Theremin:

Me: Hey, I was wondering if you guys carry the Hiwatt theremin?
GC: Um....a therman?
Me: No...a there-i-min....
GC: Is that...like...a.....synth or something?
Me: Not really. It makes weird sounds when you move your hands closer to it and around it and stuff....
GC: Hmmm...yea, we don't carry those. But I could order one if you want. What's the company that makes it?
Me: Ok, that's cool. Hiwatt.
GC: Hiwatt?
Me: Yea....Hiwatt.
GC: Hmmm...I've never heard of 'em. Let me type it in here and check it out...*types away on his computer*. Oh. OK, Hiwatt. It looks like they're a small company....based out of LA or something....I doubt they do a whole lot of business - you know, cuz I've never heard of them. It might take a while to order one from them.....
Me: Um............*stares blankly*
GC: But I could put in an order for you if you want.
Me: Naw, that's alright. Thanks.

I can understand the guy having never heard of a theremin but Hiwatt!?!?!? Come on! The whole conversation just seemed ridiculous to me. But then again, I read up on guitar gear and all that so maybe I'm just too familiar with it....

[mortalitas]

I was in the Grossmont GC here in San Diego and I went in to ask about a Hiwatt Theremin:

Me: Hey, I was wondering if you guys carry the Hiwatt theremin?
GC: Um....a therman?
Me: No...a ther-e-min....
GC: Is that...like...a.....synth or something?
Me: Not really. It makes weird sounds when you move your hands closer to it and around it and stuff....
GC: Hmmm...yea, we don't carry those. But I could order one if you want. What's the company that makes it?
Me: Ok, that's cool. Hiwatt.
GC: Hiwatt?
Me: Yea....Hiwatt.
GC: Hmmm...I've never heard of 'em. Let me type it in here and check it out...*types away on his computer*. Oh. OK, Hiwatt. It looks like they're a small company....based out of LA or something....I doubt they do a whole lot of business - you know, cuz I've never heard of them. It might take a while to order one from them.....
Me: Um............*stares blankly*
GC: But I could put in an order for you if you want.
Me: Naw, that's alright. Thanks.

I can understand the guy having never heard of a theremin but Hiwatt!?!?!? Come on! The whole conversation just seemed ridiculous to me. But then again, I read up on guitar gear and all that so maybe I'm just too familiar with it....

[distortion666]

here are a few:
salesman:hi, can i do anything for you ?
me: yeah, i would like to try out this epiphone elitist sg please
salesman:no,we dont let people try guitars exept if youre shure to buy it
me:well ive never ttried one so i can i be shure i want to buy it ?
salesman:you know kid, it's just a feeling you get
me:ok...im getting the feeling to go try it out somwhere else ok ?

or
a fender strat with a rosewood neck sounds just like a les paul custom, it's not at all in the pickups

(asking if they have a wylde overdrive) you know a boss metalzone can sound just like it


or trying to find a good wah wah
yeah we dont have the dimebag darrell wah but we have something equal: check out the whammy a fully programble wah LOL

(asking 'bout emg pickups) there is no such thing has active pickups

or the most hilarious: a les paul is just like an acoustic but with pickups, it's no good for metal why dont you tri these fender showmans ther evil dude

[guidedbyechos]

Originally posted by distortion666
here are a few:
salesman:hi, can i do anything for you ?
me: yeah, i would like to try out this epiphone elitist sg please
salesman:no,we dont let people try guitars exept if youre shure to buy it
me:well ive never ttried one so i can i be shure i want to buy it ?
salesman:you know kid, it's just a feeling you get
me:ok...im getting the feeling to go try it out somwhere else ok ?

or
a fender strat with a rosewood neck sounds just like a les paul custom, it's not at all in the pickups

(asking if they have a wylde overdrive) you know a boss metalzone can sound just like it


or trying to find a good wah wah
yeah we dont have the dimebag darrell wah but we have something equal: check out the whammy a fully programble wah LOL

(asking 'bout emg pickups) there is no such thing has active pickups

or the most hilarious: a les paul is just like an acoustic but with pickups, it's no good for metal why dont you tri these fender showmans ther evil dude

most fenders for metal is like paddling a conoe in a swimming pool you'll make a lot of noise but won't get too far.:D

[BenLee]

Salesman: "I got these two mesa boogie stacks, but I only play Les Pauls through em?"

Me: "Why?"

Salesman: "Because it's the only thing that sounds right"

Me: "Umm ok"

Salesman: "So are you going to buy this guitar?"

The guitar was a Gibson Explorer

Me: "I don't know"

Salesman: "This is our only vintage explorer in the store. If you aren't going to buy it, I will"

Me: "You just said all you play are Les Pauls"

[BeenersRevenge]

I was at Sam ASS a long time ago and was asking questions about this les paul, now at the time I was only like 17/18 ( I am now 23) and my dad wanted to buy me a new guitar for high school grad (very cool). SO I am asking this, that, whatever you would normally ask and this Douche Bag goes "Look, are you gonna buy this? I don't think you can afford this bro. " My Dad was there, and walks up and was in total shock and just said "Actually, I was gonna buy it and YES I have enough money" The guy was totally freaking out and almost chased after us cause they work on comission.

Anyways, screw those guys. I went halfs on and ESP Custom with my dad for grad instead. It might of taken a year (ugh), but I have the sweetest looking ESP VIPER custom I have ever seen.

[Kalaab]

I had seen a combo organ at a mom-n-pop shop where I live, and I asked one of the shop attendants if I could play it. He set it up with an amp and I started tinkering around with it. Not 3 minutes after I started playing, that fat bastard walks up and says "Time's up, buy it or stop playing." I politely explained to him that I was going to buy it until he said that and I walked out.

I wish I would have bought the organ, but I don't know if I could have respected myself for buying from a piece of dog **** like that.

[walkidiotwalk]

The closest guitar center to me is a 40 minute drive and I dont mind the distance,

They have a huge selection and have everything out ready to be played, they stand behind the counters talkin and dont look at anybody suspicious, once in a while they ask if they can help.

Does that qualify as a good store?

but the ted brown in my town sucks.

[BenLee]

what I hate about guitar center is that everything is marked up ridiculously and the second you pick up a guitar, they will be like "dude, I can get you 100 bucks off that guitar". I've talked them down 300 dollars from the list price and I still felt like I was getting ripped off.

What is a shame is that the majority of kids playing guitar these days actually believe that the Boss MT-2 really is the best distortion pedal ever.

[Nite_Maresz_25]

Originally posted by BenLee

What is a shame is that the majority of kids playing guitar these days actually believe that the Boss MT-2 really is the best distortion pedal ever. I actually know someone who thinks that.

[sabbath181]

"you're not allowed to touch any of the guitars" I swear to god someone from guitar center said that to me before i was liek are you ****in kidding whats thepoint of comin here if i cant otuch anythign...

[jc_guitarman]

Let's see...

Back in '93 me and a buddy were in a guitar store in Colorado Springs. My friend and I were discussing Pantera and how awesome Diamond (Dimebag) Darrell's playing was. The '80's hair-band looking pretty-boy poser working there overheard our conversation and interjected, "Diamond Darrell is a mediocre guitar player at best."
Mediocre?!?!!!

Not too long after that, we were in another guitar store looking around. I plugged in a warlock and started ripping on some Slayer or something like that. The guy working there walked up to me with a junky old tele and said, "If you like that one, you'll love this!"
I was completely dumbfounded!
So, just to piss this idiot off, I took the tele and started playing slayer riffs on it. The guy stopped me and said, "Whoa... you can't play that kind of music on this kind of guitar!"
Hehehe... serves 'im right!

[Lietz]

I had a guy at Guitar Center tell the bassist in my band that he should not be a lefty. He was asking why there went any left handed basses out and the guy was like "Well, in the first place, you shouldn't be a lefty." Needless to say we didn't buy anything.

[DJ LBP]

When I was twelve, I went into a Willis Music in the mall. I asked to play one of the twelve string acoustics, like a really cheap one, but they still were charging like 600 dollars for it.

The guy looks at me, and says, "Do you want to play it because you want to buy one, or are you just bored or something?"

I was like, "Well, uh...I mean, I don't have money on me or anything, but"

Then the fat jerk interrupted me, like "It don't work that way, man, we gotta sell guitars, we can't just let people play them"

I hate that store, and now I only go in to laugh really loud at the high prices.

[ck3]

"The EH Microsynth is only good for 'Stevie Wonder' sounds."

[rhcp311]

I haven't had any eperiences that were too bad but one store I went to wouldn't let me play with a pick. The guitar was a cheap epiphone that still had the plastic over the pickguard and when I started trying it out, they yelled at me that I couldn't use a pick or I'd scratch the guitar. I should've left when I noticed the $600 Tom Delonge guitar there :rolleyes: .

[T_guns]

At the local music store I used to go to every month or two:

(As soon as I enter the building)
Music Store: "Hey, the last time you were in here, you knocked off a PRS."

Me: "WHATTTTTT!!!!!!" (Visions of multi-thousand dollar price tags running through my head).

Music Store: "Yeah, last time your were here, the PRS you were looking at fell off the walll a couple hours after you left."

Me: "..........." (At this point my fear receeded into a vast empty void trying to comprehend this logic)

Music Store: "All I'm saying is you need to be careful and ask to get the guitars down. Luckily is wasn't damaged."

Me: ............(Walks out of store in shock at what I had just witnessed)

Haven't been back since. The prices were crap anyway!

[Paradoxon]

Originally posted by ck3
"The EH Microsynth is only good for 'Stevie Wonder' sounds."

LOL!

[Talent?!]

Him:You need to put a battery in that guitar to get it to work, because it's got EMGs.

Me: (reading the letters EMGHZ on the pups) It's passive, you don't need a battery

Him: EMG don't make passive pickups smartarse.

Me: Yes, they do.

I then left, but on the way asked another employee, who agreed with me. Never seen the first guy again :)

[BeenersRevenge]

T GUNS!! That was VERY FUNNY!!!!

I can't believe someone would say that?!?! I can see if you dropped and booked and then they saw it on a video tape or something, but a COUPLE HOURS LATER?!?!?

that's the best ever

[BeenersRevenge]

T GUNS!! That was VERY FUNNY!!!!

I can't believe someone would say that?!?! I can see if you dropped and booked and then they saw it on a video tape or something, but a COUPLE HOURS LATER?!?!?

that's the best ever

[Tecx]

Ok... This will be hard... This is not about 1 experiance, this is about 10 years of them:

his name: Bill
ocupation: (now ex) Manager, guitar tech
problem: Everything, and everyone

Well Bill... WOW! Where to begin... He is a fat cranky bastard with atrotious halitosis, and nasty greasy hockey hair mullet.

I and everyone else in this city have put up with his crap for the last 10 years. We call him Bill The Butcher - as whenever he "fixes" anyones guitar its a sad sad story. His idea of a good route job is a chisle and a hand held dremel. He has snaped countless truss rods, dinged 100's of bodies, comited wiring atrocities of the likes you have never heard.

and...

HE IS AN A*SHOLE LIKE NO OTHER!

I have spent well over 10,000 in that fu*king store, and he treats me like a piece of sh*t. Utter sh*t... He is rude to everyone, knows nothing about guitar, or anything else... and is just a plain and simple bad person...

i.e.

Once he told me that because I didn't play real american made basses I was not a profesoonal player.

That because I dislike active electronics I will never be as good as I ythink I am, and how he thinks he is...

One day, Elijah (my guitar player) and myself went in to buy a new Godin for him. Lijah had just bought a sexy 50'th anaversary Casino from them a year before. And when he stated to play the Godin, bill sidely yelled thisat me with MUCH sarcasim:

"Hey Alex, tell your unkept friend there that if he wants a deal on that $2,000 guitar, its not going to happen. That guitar is for real guitar players."

at that point Lijah got up (he is 6'4") walked up to Bill and said, "What the fu*k did you just say???"... I was shocked, as Elijah is a really nice guy... I just said "You fu*king asshole, Eliajh spent over 2g here 12 months ago.." to what he replied "So what, not like he ever will again" Then he walked up showed him $2,300, got right in his face and said "I hope you get hit bu a truck asshole" and walked out...

I found out a couple years ago what bills problem is:

He was drafted to the NHL, and then got kicked out for some reason withing the first month... Been anrgy ever since, so much his wife left him, and his kids hate him.

Alex

ps. there are MANY more stories, I could write a book.
pps. it was the only music store suring this period...

[boovya]

Originally posted by Tecx
ps. there are MANY more stories, I could write a book.
pps. it was the only music store suring this period...

HAHAHA do tell more.

that was great. i have another guy that i go to when i only have to.

he is just the same hes a bitter older man that just hates everyone.

i go in there and first things he says are yeah i got the most accessories in the whole central PA

and

"all the pros come to me for accessories cuz they know i have the most"

and

im making a killing on ebay selling all of my pickups if you want one better get em now cuz theyll be gone soon

hes always telling me stories...

my biggest concern is this...WHY THE HELL DOES ALL EMPLOYEES THINK THEY KNOW EVERYTHING JUST BECAUSE THEY WORK AT A GUITAR STORE?!?! besides my daughter and my job, this is my life!! this is all i study. i study up on all the pedals i can. and i study up on electronics and guitars and amps. so im fairly knowledgable in these fields...just like the other day...

i went to guitar center. i asked them to verify if the line 6 guitar port would work well with acid pro and sound forge. he said uhhh I HIGHLY DOUBT IT WILL. its more of a practice tool.

i said NO i know people who used it as a recording interface. hes says uhh... oh ok.

then i asked him if they had any xlr - 1/4 cables with a transformer built in. he said NO!! they dont make those you just have to buy a transformer then i said NO youre wrong they do make those.

[homegrownchode]

"That's the best piece of maple I've ever seen" - Guy in a consignment shop.

[drl_06]

I went to the newest Guitar Center around here, and as I was looking at all the pedals they had to offer one of the employees came up to me, and asked me "So, you liked effects eh?"

I was worried his next statement was going to be something along the lines of "the more effects you use the worse your playing gets." But lo and behold, it was quite the opposite. He said "I love effects too, I collect 'em sometimes just for the hell of it. I try and learn all I can about 'em" Delighted by this comment, I asked him what he thought the new Behringer clone pedals were going to be like.

He had no clue what I was talking about. Hell, it even seemed like he had never heard of Behringer, or NAMM for that matter.

*sigh* Oh well.

[boovya]

Originally posted by drl_06
I went to the newest Guitar Center around here, and as I was looking at all the pedals they had to offer one of the employees came up to me, and asked me "So, you liked effects eh?"

I was worried his next statement was going to be something along the lines of "the more effects you use the worse your playing gets." But lo and behold, it was quite the opposite. He said "I love effects too, I collect 'em sometimes just for the hell of it. I try and learn all I can about 'em" Delighted by this comment, I asked him what he thought the new Behringer clone pedals were going to be like.

He had no clue what I was talking about. Hell, it even seemed like he had never heard of Behringer, or NAMM for that matter.

*sigh* Oh well.

see thats the problem...im seriously the majority of people only know about the pedals they see at stores...theres a crapload of manufactures out there...not just boss and mxr.

but thats all you see in stores. so thats all people really care to know about.

[Tecx]

Ok... here is a short one...

Once I confronted him on the fact ythat he knows nothing about anything to do with guitars (he is actualy a refrigeration spe******t by trade, how he became a ****ing guitar tech is anyones guess). And he said to me. "Mabey if you actualy played your bass insted of reading about it, you would be good. Infact you would be better than sting!" I ****ing couldn't help it, I laughed so loud that I had to leave.

I mean STING?.. WTF??? Out of all the bass players in the world, he said sting... I could play his lines when I was 14...

what a guy...

Alex

Originally posted by boovya
HAHAHA do tell more.

[FarewellFixGTR]

This happened to my bassist when him and I went to the Guitar Center in Burbank, IL near where we practice.

Anthony was in the market for a new 5 string. We had been in a few days earlier and he had been playing on this nice Ibanez SR3005 Prestige. It sounded massive with some REAL Bartolini pickups in it, in fact it was a close decision between that SR and a Warwich Corvette 5-string bolt-on.

Anyway, we walk in, with Anthony totally ready to spend some cash after he figures out wich bass he wanted...he planned on playing both side by side for a few hours.

We look around for our buddy Jonah, as he's the only knowledgable "won't screw you over 6 ways till sunday" kinda guy. We cant seem to locate him. Up walks a guy who looks like he should be driving a rusty, white, windowless van, trying to offer little kids a new bike. He came complete with the 2 teardrop tattoos on his right hand........murdurer? Anyway here's what ensued:

Anthony: "Do you still have that Ibanez SR3005 in stock?"

Cerrpy Guy: "Let me check" walks 3 feet to the basses...."We have this bass.." Shows Anthony an SR505

Anthony: "No, that's not it, the one I'm looking for is a prestige with Bartolini soap bar pickups."

Creepy Guy: "This is a Prestige, see the inlays? It even has Bartolinis"

Anthony: "No, dude, listen. It says "Prestige" on the truss rod cover, has the Monorail Bridge system, and has REAL Bartolinis, not these MK-1 pieces of crap."

Creepy Guy (just not getting it): This sounds exactly the same, man, trust me, this is what you want. Here, I'll show you."

Anthony (getting very angry): "No, its fine, tell you what, I'll just keep playing my Music Man Stingray for now, and you can have that bass, there's no way I'm moving DOWN in quiality. Where's Jonah?"

Guy points to the acoustic room, we wander over, Anthony asks Jonah about the bass. Jonah proceeds to walk over and pick up the Prstige, 4 basses down from the one the creepy ass guy picked up......



Moron....


Oh and Anthony went with the Corvette eventually, ha.

[boovya]

Originally posted by Tecx
Ok... here is a short one...

Once I confronted him on the fact ythat he knows nothing about anything to do with guitars (he is actualy a refrigeration spe******t by trade, how he became a ****ing guitar tech is anyones guess). And he said to me. "Mabey if you actualy played your bass insted of reading about it, you would be good. Infact you would be better than sting!" I ****ing couldn't help it, I laughed so loud that I had to leave.

I mean STING?.. WTF??? Out of all the bass players in the world, he said sting... I could play his lines when I was 14...

what a guy...

Alex

DAMN he really is a bitter bastard!!! what an ass. how did he ever make any money?

yeah sting isnt that great. he just makes poppy songs. damn
hahahaha i just pictured this guy just mad at the world kicking dogs and punching babies and pushing grandmas into traffic. just because he got kicked out of the nhl. haha loser

[times-new-omen]

at car dealerships, one only can become a car salesman if they have a firm handshake.

at music stores, one only can become an employee if they can patronize the customer with a ****ty sense of humor.

that's the bottom line.

[Tecx]

A1 man... A1!!!

Originally posted by times-new-omen
at car dealerships, one only can become a car salesman if they have a firm handshake.

at music stores, one only can become an employee if they can patronize the customer with a ****ty sense of humor.

that's the bottom line.

[Tecx]

He sucks up to lawers, Doctors, and Firemen - gets all buddy buddy. Wows them with a few ****ty clapton and or page riffs, then sells them a 10,000 custom shop Les Paul Goldtop... Time and time again...

Does anyone else see this?.. That the fu*king hobiest's get treated better by music stores than US the working musicans??? Its makes me sick!!! I mean sure, they come in every 5 years and drop some serious coin on a Les Paul and a Amp. But we are in there weekly buying strings, cables, spare parts, effects... We pay the ****ing rent!

Alex

Originally posted by boovya
DAMN he really is a bitter bastard!!! what an ass. how did he ever make any money?

[david]

i ordered 20 sets of d'addario 12's from the soho soundhouse in england, when the order arrived i got 10 sets of 12's, 7 sets of 10's and a set of 9's. i phoned to complain, the guy who had dealt with me when i initially placed the order said "yeah, we were out of 12's so i just sent you whatever i had lying around. they all sound the same anyway"

what a prick! lesson learned - avoid www.sohosoundhouse.co.uk.

[boovya]

Originally posted by Tecx
Does anyone else see this?.. That the fu*king hobiest's get treated better by music stores than US the working musicans??? Its makes me sick!!! I mean sure, they come in every 5 years and drop some serious coin on a Les Paul and a Amp. But we are in there weekly buying strings, cables, spare parts, effects... We pay the ****ing rent!

Alex

interesting...well yeah thast just common sense...they want the money. i had that problem alot actually they only care about you if you have cash to spend.

like with my old shop. im telling ya man i went in there like twice a week to buy something or just check stuff out. spent thousands in there...what does he do stabs me in my back. if you heard about my endorsement scandal/ordeal youll know what im talking about.

greedy bastards all of em

[boovya]

Originally posted by david
i ordered 20 sets of d'addario 12's from the soho soundhouse in england, when the order arrived i got 10 sets of 12's, 7 sets of 10's and a set of 9's. i phoned to complain, the guy who had dealt with me when i initially placed the order said "yeah, we were out of 12's so i just sent you whatever i had lying around. they all sound the same anyway"

what a prick! lesson learned - avoid www.sohosoundhouse.co.uk.

WOW THATS INSANE! 12 are the same as 9's? whats he smoking?

see thats what im talking about...they think they know everything. so they try to bs their way through it all.

[times-new-omen]

when paying for equipment with two C-notes.. the goon behind the register pulled out one of those stupid magic markers and wrote on the bills to see if they were counterfeit. it was a regular ****ing scene from a james bond movie and i've never felt so patronized in my whole life.

"har har har. you don't know how many try to pull this stunt," he said.

even the tellers at my bank don't check for counterfeit bills (in plain sight) and they certainly don't make a spectacle about the process. this just goes to show how money-grubbing music stores can be.

[Triton]

Originally posted by times-new-omen
when paying for equipment with two C-notes.. the goon behind the register pulled out one of those stupid magic markers and wrote on the bills to see if they were counterfeit. it was a regular ****ing scene from a james bond movie and i've never felt so patronized in my whole life.

"har har har. you don't know how many try to pull this stunt," he said.

even the tellers at my bank don't check for counterfeit bills (in plain sight) and they certainly don't make a spectacle about the process. this just goes to show how money-grubbing music stores can be.

That's happened to me several times. Not just at music stores either. Apparently some places have to check to see if it's counterfeit if it's a twenty or higher, depending on the corporate policy

But you're right, they could be a bit more inconspicuous about it.

[tocata]

ME: "Do you have any Treble Boosters here?
Guy:" A What?" "I have never heard of those"

[Matthew17]

Originally posted by tocata
ME: "Do you have any Treble Boosters here?
Guy:" A What?" "I have never heard of those"

That is a tragedy on so many levels :(

When I was trying out an Orange AD5 looking to buy, although the salesman was cool (he kept yelling at me to crank it up!) He was being really pushy about it.. I went in there 2 or 3 times to try it out, and everytime he kept making comments about me just trying it out and not paying for it. How can they expect someone to just throw down £450 for a 5 Watt valve amp after just 15 minutes on it? The day I went in to buy it he said "so you finally gonna buy it or just ass around on it" so I just got out my wallet, £450 cash and said "nope, got cash" with a smug look on my face.

****

[thisfall]

Originally posted by jc_guitarman
The guy working there walked up to me with a junky old tele...

:confused: :confused:

[tocata]

Originally posted by Matthew17
That is a tragedy on so many levels :(

I know

I understand that they have not heard of the Parapedal, but a treble booster

[drummondrs]

Right, today I was told that speakers in a cab don't matter. Oh Dear! Also I heard someone ask the assistant if they stocked metal straplocks *looked round in astoundment*

[jc_guitarman]

Originally posted by thisfall
:confused: :confused:
Whoa! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all tele's are junky...
This one in particular was like 40 miles of bad road...and not exactly suited for the style of music I was playing.

[mrfreddio55]

Originally posted by nocluejimbo
theres one 5 minutes from my house. and its the only good store in the hole freaking city. thats a city of almost 2 million people. and one good store in the hole city. but, we are completley devoid of gc's! the closest one is almost three hours away! i truely feel sorry for the pain and suffering caused to the customers of gc.

really late reply, but what place is this? Guitar Source isnt really doing it for me.. :p

[FearTheRiffer]

I always love how when I'm at GC, any amp I am playing is a "great" amp, no matter what it is. And every guitar is "sweet", even if it sucks. ...hilarious...

Although I have been helped by some great sales people at GC...just not too many.

For any of you fellow Minnesotans, check out Solid Body Guitars (www.solidbodyguitar.com) and Twin Town (www.twintown.com). These are too great shops. Solid Body has only two employees, who both know everything and anything about tone, they're great.
Stay away from Willies American Guitars, unless you like elitist salespeople who think they have the coolest boutique gear ever and don't want you touching anything.

[ck3]

During a routine phonecall to a local music store, the employee attending the line attempted to explain their bogus trade appraisal process to me. The logic behind it seemed very convoluted and there were many random equations involving fractions and exceptions that would work in favor of the store. Though he could have just reached for the blue book that I know they keep under the counter, he refused to give me a straight answer about the items I had in mind and insisted that I come to the store in person ... I realize that the evaluation of an item's condition is subjective, but really. :rolleyes:

When the fellow informed me that trade values were proportionately adjusted with the cost of merchandise when prices are lowered through bargaining and trade and cash values were the same, I pretty much ended the conversation. Suffice to say, I never bothered making the trek down to this particular store ... even though I had a high-ticket item that should have scored me a decent trade value. It was rather evident that I would have taken it in the ass royally ... and they still wanted $99 for a Zoom Ultrafuzz that doesn't even include the box or papers and has some visible wear ... and then tried to explain that it may have been purchased back when they were new ... though I did not notice it until earlier this year. :rolleyes:

Now I have at least a couple more reasons to conduct all of my gear transactions online ... maybe I can offer some patronage to mom'n'pop stores when the owners realize the value of rectal-cranial inversion reversal surgery. :mad:

[Talent?!]

"There's no such thing as jazz picks."

Me: " Why do these have 'jazz III' on the back then?"

"To look pretty"

wtf?!

[Matthew17]

Has anyone here ever gotten into an argument with a Store owner?

I did, over a used guitar he had there (an epiphone G400 Vintage).. I pointed out that the decent Rotomatics had been swapped out for lesser quality "Gibson" plastic cheap crap - YOU COULD SEE THE HOLES!!!! And all he was saying was "no no no, they've been changed for BETTER tuners" and I kept telling him that the Chrome Rotomatic is clearly the better tuner...

at the end of it, he just said " I've been working in here for years, I should know"


This is the store that doesnt allow you to turn ANY amp past 1/3rd of "1" on Blues Junior...because they don't have a separate room for amps... and the same store that argued over the existance of a cheap practice amp, they kept telling me it doesn't exist...even though I OWNED IT.

[superman5150]

To be fair, how many times have you gone into these stores to hear the same people playing the same grunge music over and over, as if that made any difference on their purchase? Some guy coming in every weekend to play "Today" or "Come as you are" isn't really worth the time to help them.

[Scorpius]

Yeah, they´re like those guys that post the same thing 3 times, and not really make a point at all.

[bluesy_marquee]

Originally posted by david
for all the ****ty service though there are some cool ones. i went into a store and ended up talking to the counter guy about rory gallagher, who apparently had shopped there himself. the guy went out the back and brought out one of the rory gallagher strats to show me. i don't know what happened, but as he handed it to me i dropped it on the cement floor. visions of ?2000 repair bills flashed before my eyes. the guy behind the counter laughed and said "well they'll never notice a few nore chips on that one!!"

and this was a wee store run by some old enthusiast. if i even touch a guitar in many of the "major"stores here it's like i've committed some sort of heinous crime.go figure?!!


if real, this is such a good story about rory's fans and rory's spirit. cheers.

[Brakkum]

Originally posted by Talent?!
"There's no such thing as jazz picks."

Me: " Why do these have 'jazz III' on the back then?"

"To look pretty"

wtf?!

Thats the stupidest crap i have EVER EVER heard
Pity

[Aenima9990]

Originally posted by Scorpius
Yeah, they´re like those guys that post the same thing 3 times, and not really make a point at all.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA:p

I rarely "Laugh Out Loud" but that was good..

[ihaveanibanez]

"hey do you guys have any les pauls"

"sorry dude gibson doesnt make them anymore"

[tocata]

Originally posted by ihaveanibanez
"hey do you guys have any les pauls"

"sorry dude gibson doesnt make them anymore"

no way, you have got to be joking!

[A2aThoT]

I got so many ignornant answers that I just buy on internet... Everything I buy on real shops are picks, cables, strings and straps... You know, the kind of thing they can't say any $h1i to you

Originally posted by supermansam88
Me: "Do you have the Fender '72 Thinline Reissue?"

Him: "No."

Me: "When will you have one in?"

Him: "Why would you want that anyway? Fenders suck."

I left.

I know that some people don't like Fenders, but there's no denying that they make some quality stuff.

How could that @$$hole say that Fender sucks? I don't like Fender, but it's one of the greatest music brand ever!!! Man, how ignorance we have in this poor world...

[Matthew17]

This isn't a music store story... but still...


When I was like 12/13, I bought a game from a computer game shop, when I gave the guy the money, it was about £3 short, and then guy said "Nice try lil bastard"

So I wrote a letter to the head office of the company, and got a **** load of free stuff


And the guy got fired a few months later.

[adrien]

Originally posted by ihaveanibanez
"hey do you guys have any les pauls"

"sorry dude gibson doesnt make them anymore"
best one ever

[Granty Boy]

"We'll give you £10 trade in for your Marshall - if we decide to sell you a new amp"

I was also in the Levi store and was told that they didn't sell trouser in my leg length because they only catered for normal people.

The stupid cow looked a wee bit embarrased when I asked if I was abnormal.

[vOoDoOcHiLd6837]

this just happened recently to me

me: "hey do you have the Boss-LS-2?"

him: "yup"

Me: "do you know if this can loop effects and use multiple stompboxes and mute right after?"

him: "I don't know" (you thought that was bad wait till what he says next

him: "why don't i hand you over the instruction manual so you can read it"

me:..speechless at first and says okay to be nice...leaves after 10 seconds

my family owns retail..and if you don't know something you at least tries to either get someone who knows or read the damn manual yourself and try to figure it out..not hand it over.. :mad:

[FakePlastic]

Originally posted by vOoDoOcHiLd6837
this just happened recently to me

me: "hey do you have the Boss-LS-2?"

him: "yup"

Me: "do you know if this can loop effects and use multiple stompboxes and mute right after?"

him: "I don't know" (you thought that was bad wait till what he says next

him: "why don't i hand you over the instruction manual so you can read it"

me:..speechless at first and says okay to be nice...leaves after 10 seconds

my family owns retail..and if you don't know something you at least tries to either get someone who knows or read the damn manual yourself and try to figure it out..not hand it over.. :mad:

What's wrong with that? If you read the manual you're going to get whatever info you need. Did you want the guy to read it aloud for you? :p
I've had salespeople refuse to let me see manuals before. You were lucky.

[times-new-omen]

Originally posted by Tecx
I found out a couple years ago what bills problem is:

He was drafted to the NHL, and then got kicked out for some reason withing the first month... Been anrgy ever since, so much his wife left him, and his kids hate him.
+1

THAT'S HILARIOUS!

[Raller84]

Originally posted by vOoDoOcHiLd6837
this just happened recently to me

me: "hey do you have the Boss-LS-2?"

him: "yup"

Me: "do you know if this can loop effects and use multiple stompboxes and mute right after?"

him: "I don't know" (you thought that was bad wait till what he says next

him: "why don't i hand you over the instruction manual so you can read it"

me:..speechless at first and says okay to be nice...leaves after 10 seconds

my family owns retail..and if you don't know something you at least tries to either get someone who knows or read the damn manual yourself and try to figure it out..not hand it over.. :mad:

I think that was the best thing to do if he didn't know the answer... I guess anything else would have bothered me ;)

Rasmus

[Matthew17]

Originally posted by vOoDoOcHiLd6837

my family owns retail..and if you don't know something you at least tries to either get someone who knows or read the damn manual yourself and try to figure it out..not hand it over.. :mad:


+ 1,000


He REALLY should have directed you to someone else who WOULD know.

[doingtheunstuck]

Originally posted by Matthew17
+ 1,000


He REALLY should have directed you to someone else who WOULD know.

that relies on the idea that there was someone else there who would know... most shops around here may have one person who is vaguely knowledgable about stomps and the rest know nothing... when that one person isn't in, what are they going to do?

IMO, giving the manual is a good idea. i'd be much more likely to purchase from someone who did that than someone who went around to every single other employee asking.. "hey, do you know about this?" and forcing me to wait until they'd asked everyone.

it'd be nice to have retail people who knew their products, but the fact is... it doesn't happen all the time or, in my experience, most of the time.. and most employers obviously don't care because, well, they never fix the problem, you know? to me, giving the manual over to read ROCKS and would make me want to shop there more.