I like the folks over at Sweetwater.

ProCo was doing the whole "throw a handful of candy in the box" long before Guitar Center was even in short pants. I always dug it.I've bought a small handful of things from GC and I can only think of getting a couple phone calls from my sales guy, mostly when major upgrades of Pro Tools have come out. Other than that it's just the occasional email. I'm sure each sales person is different, but it's not been enough to irritate me.

I bought an mbox from them in 2006, and they proceeded to call me for two years, despite the fact that I never bought anything else from them and I blatantly told them to stop calling me. No thanks. I probably won't ever buy anything from them again.

Now I'm never buying there. EVER.

Don't get me wrong, the people there are great and usually just as much of a gear geek as I am. They've got a great website with lots of useful info. I actually know a few of the sales associates there personally, from before they started working there, and I know a few former employees that have some stories about the place. The cold calls you get are just something you either love or hate, and I know those guys don't really want to call people and ask them about the $150 purchase they made 18 months ago.I haven't bought a brand new piece of audio gear since that mbox though, which I've since sold, so which retailer I choose isn't something I think about.

Also, I'll note that Sweetwater's package arrived SUPER FAST. it was like two or three days. Anything from musiciansfriend almost always takes about a week and a half. This was even with a free shipping(no minimum order) promotion. The fact that musiciansfriend has so much stuff for like ten bucks less makes me more likely to still order from them. I'd rather order from sweetwater and get it right away, but I'm ordering two items that are thirty dollars each, but forty each from sweetwater. That's a big swing. It would be less to buy from musiciansfriend and order two day shipping.

Sweetwater kind of rules...as much as a huge catalog retailer can.I was weirded out by the emails and phone calls at first, until I realized that I can actually wheel and deal with my sales rep.The first time I dealt with the dude directly was when I had ordered some Hosa db25-xlr snakes that were listed as "in stock" but they were apparently out of...I bitched to him that I needed the snakes for an important session (which I did) and he overnighted me the Digidesign snakes (which are twice as expensive) for the same price.I called him again when I needed to buy a lefty Iron Cobra for my piece of shit delinquent drummer. They apparently don't carry the lefty version...and their price on the standard is $379, I told homeboy that I found a lefty somewhere else for $350 and he called Tama and had one dropped shipped straight to me for $340.Most recently I found a Beyer M160 listed for $549 + shipping at Pro audio star in brooklyn...I called that place and they said they were out of stock till late october. Sweetwater list the m160 at $699, I called my guy there and told him what was up and he sold me one for $550 shipping inculded, and i got it in 3 days.oh, and he also cut me a break and covered my return shipping when I ordered a heil PR30 and thought it sucked dick..."ribbon like" my ass.

I bought a sound card from these guys like three years ago and I still get the big catalog four times a year. Excellent bathroom reading material.

You know what's awesome when you're anxious about hearing back about a job? Getting an early morning call from Sweetwater telling you your order has been processed. Not even shipped, processed, FOR A 3.5mm POWER SUPPLY CONVERTER! A 4 fucking dollar sale!! Such great customer service.