Skronk wrote:Damn, Milford. These last few posts have been a good consolation. The guy that was always good to me and my friends was a guy named Sandy. He left a couple of years ago.

Is Barry the guy with the handlebar mustache? I can only imagine the damage Ed Roman caused.

Sandy was a nice guy too... as were a few others. It's been a while.

Sandy is a bass player and played in a horrible band called "Pound". Still a sweet guy that probably left because working in a place like that steals your soul.

Barry is the moustached, sleevless, leather-apron wearing, mini-Glock packing guy in the repair department.

I actually get along with Barry ok... I think he's a nevous psychopath.. but I think he means well... Just be careful when dealing with him... he can be manic.

j_harvey wrote:

scott wrote:I don't have so much trouble with Guitar Center. First of all, you can work them down on the prices a lot of the time, so it's not as overpriced as people seem to think.

I used to know a guy who worked at the one on Clark. He showed us a trick that they use to make you think that they are cutting you a deal (I'm sure they can't do this on all sales...you'd have to be buying more than one thing). I was there with our drummer who was buying drum heads and sticks. Lets say the total for everything came to $100. If we said "hey those drum heads are $30, but I'm used to paying $25." The sales guy could say..."oh okay, I can give them to you for $25", but then the $5 that we "saved" would be moved over and hidden in the price of another item like the sticks, with the total always remaining the same. I'm not sure if I'm explaining it well...but basically the bottom line was always the same, and you could change the price of individual items and the cash register would shuffle the prices of other items to make you think you were getting a deal on one particular item. Kinda like when you buy a car and they give you a great deal on the price, but then screw you on the trade in.

This sounds totally crazy now that I think about it...but he actually turned the cash register montior towards us and showed it happening in real time. Then again this was a long time ago...I could have selective memory...

I know that this happens, the "discount" is always buried somewhere else, or they re-arrange items or tax so that you don't realize that the price hasn't changed at all.

But I got away with an actual discount the last time I was in a Guitar Center. I was there with a bandmate trying to line up a number of items for a recording session, we had everything figured out in advance. And I know that I knew way more than the salesperson because he kept having to consult his computer or manager in order to answer basic questions. We were buying a large amount of cable and a couple of mics, a pre, mic stands and knew exactly how much we had to spend. We had done all the research in advance and knew how much we were in for. But I think we had asked the sales person one too many questions and he had twisted the numbers around once too often because all of a sudden he was quoting us a price much lower than we were expecting. I double-checked all the gear and, yes, it was all there. He got a little flustered and I quickly said, "that's fine, that's fine. We'll take it." I was whispering to my bandmate, Sheila, "Give him the money. Give him the money before he realizes that he's made a mistake." She thrusted the money into his hands and I grabbed the gear and started walking. We froze at the door when we had to show our receipt to the door guy but he just checked that the items were listed and didn't take note of the actual price. We RAN to the car and drove everything home.

That being said, we didn't come close to screwing the guy out of money. But it did feel like we had to trick them just to get a break and we were laying down a chunk of change.


In a perfect world I'd shop at Daddy's Junky Music every time. They are connected to all the other New England Daddy's via computer and so you can find used gear at other locations. They're very friendly and helpful and keep things like manuals on file in case you need such things.


http://www.daddys.com/

Today, at the GC on 14th street:

Me: I need some single strings, any brand you have will be OK but I prefer D'addario or Ernie Ball.

GC Guy: The only singles we have are Ernie Ball.

Me: OK, that's cool. Here's what I need. There's four different gauges, and they are all wound.

GC Guy: Not all strings come wound.

Me: I know, but these do.

GC Guy: Are you sure?

Me: Yeah, I'm sure.

GC Guy: OK, what are they?

Me: 46 wound, 42 wound, 24 wound, 22 wound. I need two of each, except the 24's, those I need six of.

GC Guy, rifling through the string boxes: That's going to be one strange sounding guitar. I don't think they make wound 22's.

Me: I am sure they do.

GC Guy: How do you know?

Me: 'cos I use them all the time.

GC Guy: Do the packages say wound on them?

Me: Yes. D'addario NW022's. That's what I use.

GC Guy: We only have Ernie Ball.

I understand the way things work there makes for a shitty work environment that breeds used car salesmen. Every sale has to be tied to an employee and at the end of the month, they assess how much money each employee made the store. I guess there's some pretty serious ramifications or rewards depending on how well or badly each employee has done in comparison to their coworkers.

I can't imagine that this sort of setup breeds any form of friendliness between coworkers and simply turns everyone into cynical pitch salesmen. Every time I've unfortunately been to one of these places, I couldn't help but notice how unnatural the employees act and I suppose this is the reason why.

A bunch of shitty horrible guitar playing. Its like a god damn circus of apes with instruments.

One from about 6 years ago:

I'm in the Raleigh Guitar Center looking at their horrendously overpriced collection of 'vintage' (IE beat to shit used) guitars. The clerk points out a particularly sad looking wine red Les Paul Custom that has a tag stuffed between the strings and the fretboard that says "SPECIAL PRICE, $1,875 1979 LP Custom". The glue lines poking up through the varnish in the crud covered, beat up top indicates that this was one of the old 'SECOND' stamped models, as Gibson used to brand their fuck ups that they sold at a reduced price. I take a closer look at the back of the neck near the headstock and see the telltale crack where the thing has been reglued. "Dude", the salesman says, "You'd love that guitar, it's the heaviest guitar we've got in the store, you wanna play it?"

No. I realise that the guy needs cash because GC is probably only paying him minimun wage, and any other cash that he get's is through commision, but no, just fucking NO.

I called GC last year whe I was looking to buy an SVT head. I asked the guy if it was made in the US or Vietnam, and he replied "it's US made!" So I drive 23 miles on my lunch break to buy the head. I walk into the store and bee-line it to the bass amp section and spy 2 SVT heads. I peer over the back and see "made in Vietnam" on both heads. Then GC dude creaps up behind me as I mutter "fucking clueless idiots", he asks if I'm interested in the head. I reply, "I called about an hour ago inquiring if these SVT heads were American made, and you said they were, yet on the back panel these both say "Vietnam", so no, I'm not interested". He then replies, "Well they're all the same!", I reply "no, these are junk, good bye." I haven't gone back since.

jermwelfare wrote:I called GC last year whe I was looking to buy an SVT head. I asked the guy if it was made in the US or Vietnam, and he replied "it's US made!" So I drive 23 miles on my lunch break to buy the head....

Lemme tell you about this Music store chain in New England called Daddy's Junky Music. Years ago, (perhaps back in the 70's when they only had one or two stores in Hew Hampsire) Daddy's used to offer good deals to musicians who wanted to swap gear out on even trades.

When they opened their store in Portland in 1985, they had a fantastic selection of used gear at good prices. You could get a Travis Bean guitar for about $500, and I remember seeing a fancy Pedulla bass there for about $650. For $400, I got an Acoustic 4x12 cab and a mint condition Acoustic/Mosrite Black Widow guitar.

A few years later, I have a JMP Marshall 2x12 combo that I hate the sound of. Needless to say, when I plug the thing into a sealed back cab it sounds great. What I need to do is to either get an additional cab, (Too much dead weight to lug the combo and an extra cab around) or trade for the head version of the amp and a cheapo sealed cab.

On my day off from work, (working two jobs, w/o a car) I go out to Daddy's to see what they might have for gear. Lo and behold they have the used head verson of my amp, as well as a really thrashed but otherwise functional sealed 2x12 of unknown, but obviously old manufacture.

I tell the sales man, and then the store manager my dilemma, and that I would like to trade my amp square for the head and the beat to shit cab. Sales person says this is no problem. I run it by the store manager a few times to see in there's a problem with an even trade for the gear. He says that there doesn't appear to be a problem. I stress to him that I live across town, and that I'm currently w/o a vehicle, so I really need to know if there is any problem with an even trade. He repeats no, so I head home psyched by the fact that I will have a decent sounding rig by nightfall.

I get home, grab the amp, and lug the thing several blocks to the bus stop, catch the bus, make the transfer to the other bus, and get dropped off at At the music store, all the time stoked by the fact that I'm finally dumping this amp.

I get in and the store manager then offers me an average Blue book price ( then around $170, wholesale) for my amp, to put forth as a downpayment on the head/ cab that he insisted he had no problems doing an even trade on a few hours earlier. The amp I'm trying to trade is in about the same condition as the head that I'm trying to trade it for. Still no go, I'd have to spend another $300 more to get the rig. --Deal's off, and I sulk out.

The valuable lesson that I learned out of this, is that there are some really decent sales people at music stores who will go above and beyond to hook you up with gear. The ones that like this are worth their weight in gold, cherish them. The majority of them are generally decent guys who have to make a buck, and it's understandable that they have business parameters that they have to work within. Then there are the other lying bastards who will will make what seems to be a decent deal only to renege at the last moment. --Enduring the latter brings strength and wisdom.

burun wrote:Today, at the GC on 14th street:

Me: I need some single strings, any brand you have will be OK but I prefer D'addario or Ernie Ball.

GC Guy: The only singles we have are Ernie Ball.

Me: OK, that's cool. Here's what I need. There's four different gauges, and they are all wound.

GC Guy: Not all strings come wound.

Me: I know, but these do.

GC Guy: Are you sure?

Me: Yeah, I'm sure.

GC Guy: OK, what are they?

Me: 46 wound, 42 wound, 24 wound, 22 wound. I need two of each, except the 24's, those I need six of.

GC Guy, rifling through the string boxes: That's going to be one strange sounding guitar. I don't think they make wound 22's.

Me: I am sure they do.

GC Guy: How do you know?

Me: 'cos I use them all the time.

GC Guy: Do the packages say wound on them?

Me: Yes. D'addario NW022's. That's what I use.

GC Guy: We only have Ernie Ball.

I LOL'd at that story.

D'Piucchstre wrote:Lemme tell you about this Music store chain in New England called Daddy's Junky Music. Years ago, (perhaps back in the 70's when they only had one or two stores in Hew Hampsire) Daddy's used to offer good deals to musicians who wanted to swap gear out on even trades.

A couple of years ago I was chatting to a guy in Daddy's in Nashua, NH about drum recording. Here's the exchange:

Me: My drum recordings are still pretty amatuerish. I probably need lots more experience and better gear before I'll get better sounding drum tracks.

Rep: I've been recording drums for 20 years, and I can give you the secret to making drums sound amazing.

Me: Uh...really? How?

Rep: Compress everything. Compress the hell out of the drums. You won't believe how they will sound.