After nearly four years of travel and work, the #GuitarStoreTour is finally finished. Check out where I went in your state: musiciswin.com/guitarstoretour
I remember first getting my pup. The first time I played in front of him I did a pick slide on the G & B strings, making it sound like a whimpering puppy. His ears perked up and a few seconds later he started barking at my amp. Loved it. Only worked once though.
I owned a guitar store in the late 2000s. We sold James Hetfield a Zemaitis Flying V that was then on the cover of Guitar World the next month.. Pretty rad!
I've seen Hetfield with that V, also the Les Paul style he has too. They just look and sound stunning!! Must have been an absolute trip selling a guitar to Hetfield!!!
This needs to be a series. Just you interviewing store employees and owners about life and such. Guitar players have the best stories....but dont tell the drummers...itll hurt their feelings
My old guitarist used to hit up the pawn shops for deals he could fix up and resell at his own shop. One day he saw something suspiciously impossible, but took it down, played it, and handed over $180 cash to the pawn shop owner. When he got it back to his shop and tore it down his suspicion was confirmed. It was in fact a 1955 Strat. The pawn shop guy thought it was a partscaster since there were certain idiosyncrasies with the first couple of years, like the Fender decal being in top of the headstock lacquer, a different bridge, tuning machines, I forget what else. Long story short, word got around, the pawn shop guy showed up demanding my friend give it back, and one of the owners of the store my buddy worked at just said, “Man, I was there when this guitar came in and we both thought it was fake. This kid knew what it was and bought it fair and square. You coulda done what he just did and confirm it was it wasn’t a fake, but you didn’t, so I suggest you cut your losses and move on.” Anyway, my buddy kept it for about 25 years then auctioned it along with his ‘58 Plymouth Fury to buy a house (well, the down payment).
“But we’re supposed to be the ones taking advantage of people who don’t know what they have!” It was probably stolen, or the person who sold it to them would have known.
@@TheStompboxer Honestly it was probably an inattentive pawn shop owner who just made an assumption based on the usual inventory. There’s a massive community of retirees in the area so we suspect it had belonged to someone who either hocked it out of desperation (this was pre-Reverb, and really pre-eBay ubiquity, so stuff like that was usually sold locally and with minimal promotion) or the owner died and family sold off stuff. In any situation, the serial number was clean, and even when my buddy sold it more than two decades later, it was still clean. I think it was just the fates.
100% true story from my local guitar store in the U.K where I teach. One day, we had a guy come in asking if our in store guitar tech could repair his Gibson 335. We said 'sure, no problem', so he said 'great, I'll go fetch it from the car'. He came back with a bin bag and proceeded to empty a black 335 onto the counter that had been smashed into at least 20 pieces! The conversation went as follows: US: Er, what happened to your guitar? HIM: I smashed it. US: Er, why? HIM: The devil came out of my toaster and told me to do it. Our tech glued his guitar back together. It took him 7 weeks.
I worked in a guitar shop in Marin County, CA in the 70's. One day this really scruffy "hippie" looking guy walks in and proceeds to ask to play several guitars, so I obliged him. He finishes playing the last one and walks up to me and says "I'll take all of them" and pulls out a wad of $100 bills and slaps a few grand on the counter. It was Jesse Collin Young. I learned the lesson, that day, to never judge a book by its cover!
@@questfortruth665 long story short I made an epic 80's road trip with my sister, my boyfriend, me and my mom all in a single cab pickup with an open trailer. We were moving my sister from AZ to San Rafael. We did a lot of cool things while waiting for the truck we drove to cool down so we could start it again. Memorable stops were Ali Akbar College of Music (brother in law went there to play saraode), driving by Skywalker Ranch and of course stopping in at Bananas At Large among other things. Still love San Rafael to this day and if I were rich I'd live there. My brother in law used to run into famous musicians there all the time.
I need to buy something from that last place. In the late 80s, I worked for Guitar Center as a fresh college grad while looking for a career. It was the equivalent of a cut throat used car dealership. Hell, we smoked cigarettes on the sales floor. After about a month, I found out how the guitar guys made so much money (we were all commission sales)…when they would take in a used guitar, they put all the value in the case. For example, I buy a used Ynwie Strat with case for $500. As I enter it into the system, I value the guitar for a penny and value the case for $499.99. When I sell the Strat for 1000.00, my profit becomes 999.99. The commission is double what it would be if I had 500 into the guitar. Of course, then you end up with a basement with $250,000.00 worth of cases that might sell for $250.00 in bulk. Two years into my time there, they introduced computers onto the sales floor…actually the same system as now. And that was that. A few heads rolled.
Yea guitar center still is a high pressure used car lot. I’ve been trying to get over my problem with that place for years I know not everyone that works there sucks but at least 75 percent are douche bags that can hardly play guitar. I’m trying to buy strings and the two ppl work are purposely ignoring me for close to 45 mins because I’m not buying anything expensive. This has happened a bunch a times I allways hope the next time will be better and I’m allways wrong.
Heres my super crazy story... There has been the same homeless guy living in the woods a few miles from my house for years, I always see him at the WalMart down the street... One day I bought him some food and sat down next to him, just trying to help him out. I got to know him, super nice guy....He tells me he has a Master's degree in electrical engineering. I asked him what sort of work he used to do- "Oh, I built guitar pedals, and I worked on electric guitars. I used to work for Eddie Van Halen and the Jay Giles Band" He says. Then he explains in incredible detail how he helped EVH by building pre-amps for his guitars, and tells me all about the work he did with Eddie on the first Van Halen album. At the end, I shook his hand and he says "My name's Tommy. Look at the first Van Halen album, in the credits, it says right there "special thanks to Tommy." and I checked, he was right, his name is right there. He had a ton of stories about how he met Van Halen in Pasadena, what they were like, he offered a bunch of opinions on Valerie Berinelli, I could not believe it. And in the end he got back on his bicycle and went back to his tent in the woods. I see the dude all the time... Unbelievable but true!!!
My brother is a functioning addict and pretty open about it. He rents a house but it's near one of the local homeless camps and he walks down to the camp a lot- years back he went down there to cop and ended up making a few friends and dope connects there. I've been to his place a bunch of times when he's had company over and it's unbelievable the amount of intelligence, skill, insight, and sheer talent that drugs have robbed this society of! I'm embarrased and ashamed to admit that I used to think that none of those people could possibly be worth a damn. Then one day my bro blindsided us with the admission that he'd been addicted to heroin for nearly a decade, and then I met those homeless people. My brother is probably the most intelligent person I've ever met too.
That guy that didn’t hose that lady who had the 53 Fender deserves some recognition. Not a lot of folks would do what they did for her especially the guitar store I worked at in high school.
This is great. Makes me realize I'd love someone to do a series like this. It makes you realize how much of a community this really is, with real people all over. And I miss music stores too. So many shops are gone or are just big box retailers.
Customer: "I need a magnetic latched secret compartment to hide a Derringer in, in case I need to shoot someone." Scott from Roman Guitars: "Well Mr. Nugent, we'll see what we can do."
This is a true story, about 15 years ago, before vinyl became hipster crack I was in a charity shop in Wells Somerset UK and in their collection of old records, mantovani, military brass bands etc I found a mint original pressing of Rubber Soul and they'd priced it at £4. I checked the condition of the vinyl but decided I was gonna buy it even if it was scratched to hell....Luckily it wasn't scratched and I couldn't hand my money over quick enough. I remember giving the woman £5 and she was thrilled when I refused the change. I got the record home, turned on the stereo and pulled the record from the inner sleeve for the 2nd time that day, and something fell out of the outer sleeve and fluttered to the floor. Intrigued I look down and it's an old black and white postcard. I pick it up , turn it around and on the back there are four signatures , well I guess you'd call em autographs. I shit you not. Still got it. Paul; George John and Ringo
I was in Killer Vintage in St.Louis one day looking at an old strat and this homeless looking guy came up on his bike with a trash bag wrapped something in the front basket. He proceeded to come in and ask the owner if this guitar was worth anything. He was hired to clean out her garage in N. St.Louis and found this old 1956 Fender telecaster. It was in rough shape but was all there. A rat ate some of the bone nut. The owner told him to him to stick around for 20 minutes and he will be right back. Dave came back and handed him a serious amount of money. The look in his eyes was priceless. He walked out the door, looked both ways at least ten times and was gone. Nice to see people not trying to rip people off. Fair deal for both. Owner is a good guy.
@@andrewpappas9311 He's ok. They closed up shop after some stuff went down between him and Rob Chapman with Chapman Guitars. Some business shinanagens I guess. I've watched videos from both Joe and Rob and it's kinda hard to see what really went down. Riff City was a great shop though. It was about an hour and a half south from were I live
I was once at Guitar Center in Rockville MD and I saw Peter Frampton playing. I went over with a guitar off the rack and sat next to him and started talking about how much I love Talk Boxes and the 70s etc for about 20 mins. Turns out it wasn't Frampton at all. It didn't even look like him. It was just some old man. I hate that old man now.
I live in Shrewsbury, England and the only guitar shop in town is one of the friendliest places I've ever been. The people in there are really nice and they won't sell you anything you don't need
I LOVE this video. The best part of checking out shops in different cities are the cool stories the staff have & some of the guitars have. Props for having Eliot from Rumble Seat in the video. Bought the guitar in my avatar there.
A guy I served in Iraq with as a medic took a part time job at Guitar Center, he was okay, worked in accessories. So after the 90 day period his shift manager says "Now you can use your in house discount." He says "Oh cool" and grabs a ten pack of Martin strings, and then takes a $2300.00 Les Paul off the wall. Just whips out a wad of cash and pays and walks out.
5:02 After what happened to our beloved Dimebag, I don’t blame the guy for wanting this made. Sounds pretty cool, too. Sidenote, I wonder if it would affect the tone 🦻🏼
I also just want to know who that rockstar was. I don't blame him, it's a kinda cool idea, but I want to know if it's someone we would expect or someone random
I'll share a story of accidental camaraderie that happened when I worked at a guitar store a long time ago: I sold a hard shell guitar case to a woman as a gift for her husband. About 2 hours later, I got a phone call from her asking why the case smelled "like chocolate". I explained the process of making guitar cases to her and that what she's smelling is a byproduct of the glue that's used. She was pretty skeptical and asked if she could exchange it for another one, expressing how displeased she was with the smell because she drove so far to buy it (I later did the math - she drove about 3 hours round trip from her house to the store and back). I told her I would save another case for her so she could come back and swap it out. Another 2 hours passed and she came back into the store with the case I sold her. I brought the other case I stashed for her, put them both on the counter, opened both of them up, and took a good whiff from each one. And when I say I took a whiff, I'm talking full on nose dive straight into each case and sucked in as much case smell as I could. "Yup, that's fresh! Check it out. The other one smells like this, too." Looking slightly confused, she eventually sniffed each case quickly and rather sheepishly. She was still skeptical over why new cases smelled this way. We were starting to talk in circles when a co-worker of mine came around the corner and asked what was happening. "We're checking out these new cases and how good they smell!" I remarked. "Oh, absolutely!" he said, right before nose diving straight into the open case she bought and inhaling deeply. "Ahh yeah, that's fresh!" he said with the biggest smile. She started to ask him the same questions she asked me about why new cases smelled this way. Then a third co-worker came around the corner and without missing a beat goes, "Hey guys, what's happen--OOH HEY, NEW GUITAR CASE!!", then immediately does his nose dive in the case she bought. "*WWHHHHIIIIIFFFFFFF* Oh yeah, that's the stuff!" and walked away. It took everything in me to keep from bursting out laughing right there on the spot. The look on her face was priceless - one of shock and bewilderment. I turned to the guy that walked away, then turned back to her and simply told her, "Well...what else can I say? We love new case smell." She took the same case I sold her back out of the store. The moment she went out the front door, I immediately bolted to the closest stock room we had, slammed the door behind me and had a laughing fit for what felt like 10 minutes straight. When I asked the other two guys about that encounter, they had no idea what was happening. They simply saw open guitar cases and decided to smell them. We all had a good laugh after I told them the whole story!
Wouldn’t it be crazy if a random customer in the shop was like “hey guys I’m ready to check ou- OH HEY A NEW GUITAR CASE! *SNIFFFFF* oh yeah, that’s fresh out the lot” then he continues with his checkout.
I worked in a music store in Palm Desert Ca for years. The Betty Ford Center was not far from the store. When patients would get leave after transition they would come in the store and spend time. Some celebs had homes in the area or were playing gigs at Coachella fest or one of the casinos in the local area. I met quite a few celebrities. I have a story about Steven Tyler that is hilarious.
Josh at Mele Ukelele in Hawaii is a good friend of mine. Got quite excited seeing him in the vid. The guy is a really good dude with an Awesome family!
Forest is a funny dude. He and Cody are my two main dudes helping me out with my music needs while I am up here in the Army in Alaska... Cool as hell to see him...
The music store that twerk girl visited looked like a gun store. The ammo boxes didn’t look like guitar strings. But my strings are mostly .009’s and my ammo is 9mm. Bang up job on the video!
I was hanging out at Guitar Center in Crestwood, MO back in 2001, after only playing bass for a little under a year. I met Al Caldwell(Vanessa Williams' bassist) and he let me play his signature 9-string bass. Dude was cool as shit.
My story: I took my Original Jackson RR to a guitar shop in Missouri, while I was working there. I chipped the wood on the corner and left it there for the "repair guy". They called me a week later and said that the guy quit and the couldn't do anything with it. So I came back, opened the case, saw my guitar, and said ok, and left. I left to go back home to Alabama a few days later. A couple weeks go by, I decide to play some, and my wife asked me how much my RR was worth, so I decided to look it up. I flipped it over to get the serial # off of the neck plate, and to my suprise, my serialized plate was gone and a "Fender" plate was on there. I called them, they denied any wrong doing. I know it was there before, because I looked it up when I bought it. That was the only time it was ever out of my possession. Morale of the story: Never leave your rare/expensive guitar with someone you don't know, otherwise you'll have a worthless Fender/Jackson.
I absolutely love this video. I'm currently rocking my baby daughter asleep and watching this video. For some reason this video brings back some nostalgia listening to these stories great stories! Great Idea in doing this.
If you’re ever back in the Providence area, Empire Guitars is the place to stop. They sell new pedals and have lots of great used and vintage guitars. 60s Strats, etc. really comfortable vibe too. In Boston, the Music Emporium is an outstanding shop with lots of boutique amps and guitars.
I personally know both Rob and Tim from Dietz and Lidgett and they really are a couple the most easy-going top-notch guys anyone could ever want to deal with. I couldn’t say enough good things about either one of those dudes and I bought gear and guitars from both of them. I honestly kind of feel loyal to both of them to the point where when I buy something from of one of them I kind of feel like I’m cheating on the other one . lol
Sold a 1960 Gibson SG for 400 bucks - no way I could take advantage of someone like that :( …but I'm from SC where the last vid is about Rusty - my personal story is i fixed up a 70s SG pro 2 that was born a pro 1 and installed t-top mini gibson humbuckers and old pots from a tube radios for vol and tone..best sounding guitar i got ..and only paid 100 for it from ebay yrs ago as a shell that needed electronics, frets, and a broken truss rod, i learned how to fix her up using youtube vids :) and a summer project
@@TheStompboxer sounds like u didnt read my comment what i said was that since prs did this and if the store owner had a real problem with it *which sounds like he doesnt* he couldve just bought the guitar and he most likely did so, actually the long and short of it is you are just mad that someone didnt have a problem with a guy touching they guitar so you had to take that anger into the comments section
@@xNhaZul I didn’t say I was “mad” about anything. Any normal person would have to ask to even touch the thing, and it’s a given that most would. Celebrity culture is weird.
Can't believe Michigan wasn't on the list. Motor City Guitar is one of the coolest guitar stores in the state and it's locally owned. Definitely a must if you're in the area
A guy came in to my regular shop and asked something like, "How much is that Martin?" or whatever. The shop guy said something like, "Thirteen hundred dollars" and the customer said , "They're eleven hundred down the street." The shop guy said, "Then you should go down there and buy one." Customer said, "They're out of them," and shop guy said, "When we don't have them, they're eleven hundred here, too."
El Diablo in Minneapolis is my favorite shop in the state. Alan is such a nice guy. I’m actually heading down there tomorrow. Cool to see him in your video.
First how cool is RUSTY"s Guitars? naming a store after a rescue dog and the charity is amazing. If I ever get to South Carolina I'm buying something from that guy. I worked in a Music Store when I was teenager in the 70's. It was 6 miles from the Fender factory in Fullerton. A couple years after Leo sold to CBS they brought in security guards to intimidate the workers and I guess to keep employee theft down. This backfired in a big way and soon about once a month a Fender PARTS guitar would walk in the front door.Tele neck with strat body, pots all mixed up by year just all kinds of weird combinations. Mustang body with tele pickups, Electric 12 with only 6 strings and mustang pickups ,- just weird combinations but all pretty new. Disgruntled employees - about 90% Hispanic were stealing parts and putting them together to sell later.
I just bought an old danelectro and the electronics were all messed up so I took it to my local guit-mechanic. He opened it up and it was full of peas! Literally hundreds of little green peas started rolling out, all over his table. A bunch of wires looked like they were randomly cut with a pocket knife. He said that he'd run across a lot of pot but never peas 😂 Still don't know if it was a mouse nest or if someone put them in for moisture absorber, or something else completely.
Last guy with the donations, hats off! What great work! Loving the content and all of the stories from these stores. Thanks for putting this vidio together.
In about 2002 I went to buy a red Epi 335 from Tom at Mr. Music. He looked at the credit card, and it had a woman's name on it- mine must have been swapped the night before while running a bar tab. I wanted to crawl out of Mr. Music since I looked like a thief, it sucked super big time, and clearly I'm still traumatized haha. Great store though!
There aren't too many excuses for not taking a handful of minutes out of your day to look up when your guitar was made. If he was a player at all he surely would have done so at some point. The guitar is with someone who will appreciate it now and he got exactly what the guitar was worth to him, which was $400 and an Xbox. Sounds like a win for everyone.
@@moparsons when the price they ask is 10% or less the value and they clearly don't know the real value it absolutely is a rip off. Some people have lower morals such as yourself.
![Twenty One Pilots - The Line (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XCz7WUotXs8/mqdefault.jpg)
After nearly four years of travel and work, the #GuitarStoreTour is finally finished. Check out where I went in your state: musiciswin.com/guitarstoretour
hey man I am having trouble practicing I am looping scales and songs any tips
Hiii!!
Dude you didn't label it by state? Im not watching 49 videos to find Oklahoma
Mr Music in Boston is a great store. Those guys are all champs.
Ah, well, you see, I don't live in a state
So I suppose I can't agree with that state-ment
:)
Mad respect to the Rusty guitar center donating everything they make to charity, really wholesome
Yeah, I loved that
I agree. Is shop there just because of that. Respect!
Makes me want to buy one from them just for that purpose.
That man oozes of awesomeness.
I remember first getting my pup. The first time I played in front of him I did a pick slide on the G & B strings, making it sound like a whimpering puppy. His ears perked up and a few seconds later he started barking at my amp. Loved it. Only worked once though.
I owned a guitar store in the late 2000s. We sold James Hetfield a Zemaitis Flying V that was then on the cover of Guitar World the next month.. Pretty rad!
That's sick!!
I saw that issue, that's awesome
He actually went to the store to buy guitars? Cool
I've seen Hetfield with that V, also the Les Paul style he has too. They just look and sound stunning!! Must have been an absolute trip selling a guitar to Hetfield!!!
Thats sick 🤘🏿
The guy that came in to get his "TELE" repaired, probably the funniest story.
Back to the future: yeah we got a TV in fact we have 2... Stop teasing no one has 2 TVs
@@alexschlessman5355 The tele was made in the 50s you doofus
he has to be british or just tweakin real bad.
Fax
If it’s just the cord that’s been pulled off it’s probably still an easy repair
This needs to be a series. Just you interviewing store employees and owners about life and such. Guitar players have the best stories....but dont tell the drummers...itll hurt their feelings
It doesn’t hurt our feelings, it just makes us want better storys
"This needs to be a series." ...YES!
I'm a drummer, we have no feelings
@@the_Kiwi666 i second this
Oh yeah, absolutely
The last guy is an amazing human being!
My old guitarist used to hit up the pawn shops for deals he could fix up and resell at his own shop. One day he saw something suspiciously impossible, but took it down, played it, and handed over $180 cash to the pawn shop owner. When he got it back to his shop and tore it down his suspicion was confirmed. It was in fact a 1955 Strat. The pawn shop guy thought it was a partscaster since there were certain idiosyncrasies with the first couple of years, like the Fender decal being in top of the headstock lacquer, a different bridge, tuning machines, I forget what else. Long story short, word got around, the pawn shop guy showed up demanding my friend give it back, and one of the owners of the store my buddy worked at just said, “Man, I was there when this guitar came in and we both thought it was fake. This kid knew what it was and bought it fair and square. You coulda done what he just did and confirm it was it wasn’t a fake, but you didn’t, so I suggest you cut your losses and move on.” Anyway, my buddy kept it for about 25 years then auctioned it along with his ‘58 Plymouth Fury to buy a house (well, the down payment).
That's awesome, good find on his part
“But we’re supposed to be the ones taking advantage of people who don’t know what they have!”
It was probably stolen, or the person who sold it to them would have known.
@@TheStompboxer yeah a lot of things in pawn shops are stolen, they usually take stuff no questions asked
@@TheStompboxer Honestly it was probably an inattentive pawn shop owner who just made an assumption based on the usual inventory. There’s a massive community of retirees in the area so we suspect it had belonged to someone who either hocked it out of desperation (this was pre-Reverb, and really pre-eBay ubiquity, so stuff like that was usually sold locally and with minimal promotion) or the owner died and family sold off stuff. In any situation, the serial number was clean, and even when my buddy sold it more than two decades later, it was still clean. I think it was just the fates.
If the pawn shop sold it for $180, they prob paid $80 for it.
100% true story from my local guitar store in the U.K where I teach. One day, we had a guy come in asking if our in store guitar tech could repair his Gibson 335. We said 'sure, no problem', so he said 'great, I'll go fetch it from the car'. He came back with a bin bag and proceeded to empty a black 335 onto the counter that had been smashed into at least 20 pieces! The conversation went as follows:
US: Er, what happened to your guitar?
HIM: I smashed it.
US: Er, why?
HIM: The devil came out of my toaster and told me to do it.
Our tech glued his guitar back together. It took him 7 weeks.
he could have been joking? right?
@@megaknight6958 sounds more like schizophrenia honestly and sadly
Bullshit. No luthier would repair something in 20 pieces
Those guys brokering that Telecaster for that old lady made me tear up a bit. That was so nice of them to do that for her.
1:34 South Dakota
1:47 North Dakota
1:57 Virginia
2:08 Maine
2:18 Louisiana
2:39 West Virginia
2:59 Alabama
3:13 Texas
3:33 Arizona
3:54 Arkansas
4:20 Georgia
4:34 Wisconsin
5:00 Nevada
5:26 Minnesota
6:11 Colorado
6:45 Oklahoma
7:12 Delaware
7:45 Iowa
8:16 Florida
9:12 New Mexico
9:40 New Hampshire
10:19 New York
10:44 Tennessee
11:05 Rhode Island
11:42 Hawaii
12:05 Alaska
12:32 Illinois
12:54 Nebraska
13:34 Vermont
14:17 Wyoming
14:37 Indiana
15:05 Massachusetts
15:55 Kentucky
16:57 Pennsylvania
18:02 Maryland
19:01 South Carolina
Conneticut??????
North Carolina?
Washington?
new jersey?
Mississippi?
I worked in a guitar shop in Marin County, CA in the 70's. One day this really scruffy "hippie" looking guy walks in and proceeds to ask to play several guitars, so I obliged him. He finishes playing the last one and walks up to me and says "I'll take all of them" and pulls out a wad of $100 bills and slaps a few grand on the counter. It was Jesse Collin Young. I learned the lesson, that day, to never judge a book by its cover!
Bananas AT Large by chance?
@@pamelaarmstrong3612 As a matter of fact YES!
@@questfortruth665 awesome! Loved that store.
@@pamelaarmstrong3612 Yeah, it was cool, for sure. Can't believe you remember it!
@@questfortruth665 long story short I made an epic 80's road trip with my sister, my boyfriend, me and my mom all in a single cab pickup with an open trailer. We were moving my sister from AZ to San Rafael. We did a lot of cool things while waiting for the truck we drove to cool down so we could start it again. Memorable stops were Ali Akbar College of Music (brother in law went there to play saraode), driving by Skywalker Ranch and of course stopping in at Bananas At Large among other things. Still love San Rafael to this day and if I were rich I'd live there. My brother in law used to run into famous musicians there all the time.
I need to buy something from that last place.
In the late 80s, I worked for Guitar Center as a fresh college grad while looking for a career. It was the equivalent of a cut throat used car dealership. Hell, we smoked cigarettes on the sales floor. After about a month, I found out how the guitar guys made so much money (we were all commission sales)…when they would take in a used guitar, they put all the value in the case.
For example, I buy a used Ynwie Strat with case for $500. As I enter it into the system, I value the guitar for a penny and value the case for $499.99. When I sell the Strat for 1000.00, my profit becomes 999.99. The commission is double what it would be if I had 500 into the guitar. Of course, then you end up with a basement with $250,000.00 worth of cases that might sell for $250.00 in bulk.
Two years into my time there, they introduced computers onto the sales floor…actually the same system as now. And that was that. A few heads rolled.
wow that was a genius idea
Yea guitar center still is a high pressure used car lot. I’ve been trying to get over my problem with that place for years I know not everyone that works there sucks but at least 75 percent are douche bags that can hardly play guitar. I’m trying to buy strings and the two ppl work are purposely ignoring me for close to 45 mins because I’m not buying anything expensive. This has happened a bunch a times I allways hope the next time will be better and I’m allways wrong.
Heres my super crazy story... There has been the same homeless guy living in the woods a few miles from my house for years, I always see him at the WalMart down the street... One day I bought him some food and sat down next to him, just trying to help him out. I got to know him, super nice guy....He tells me he has a Master's degree in electrical engineering. I asked him what sort of work he used to do- "Oh, I built guitar pedals, and I worked on electric guitars. I used to work for Eddie Van Halen and the Jay Giles Band" He says. Then he explains in incredible detail how he helped EVH by building pre-amps for his guitars, and tells me all about the work he did with Eddie on the first Van Halen album. At the end, I shook his hand and he says "My name's Tommy. Look at the first Van Halen album, in the credits, it says right there "special thanks to Tommy." and I checked, he was right, his name is right there. He had a ton of stories about how he met Van Halen in Pasadena, what they were like, he offered a bunch of opinions on Valerie Berinelli, I could not believe it. And in the end he got back on his bicycle and went back to his tent in the woods. I see the dude all the time... Unbelievable but true!!!
What did he say about Valerie?
My brother is a functioning addict and pretty open about it. He rents a house but it's near one of the local homeless camps and he walks down to the camp a lot- years back he went down there to cop and ended up making a few friends and dope connects there. I've been to his place a bunch of times when he's had company over and it's unbelievable the amount of intelligence, skill, insight, and sheer talent that drugs have robbed this society of! I'm embarrased and ashamed to admit that I used to think that none of those people could possibly be worth a damn. Then one day my bro blindsided us with the admission that he'd been addicted to heroin for nearly a decade, and then I met those homeless people. My brother is probably the most intelligent person I've ever met too.
The story about the lady having hospital bills is just touching.
That guy that didn’t hose that lady who had the 53 Fender deserves some recognition. Not a lot of folks would do what they did for her especially the guitar store I worked at in high school.
You saved the best for last! That is so cool to be able to help other people and animals like he does. Rock on Dude!!
This is great. Makes me realize I'd love someone to do a series like this. It makes you realize how much of a community this really is, with real people all over. And I miss music stores too. So many shops are gone or are just big box retailers.
Customer: "I need a magnetic latched secret compartment to hide a Derringer in, in case I need to shoot someone."
Scott from Roman Guitars: "Well Mr. Nugent, we'll see what we can do."
Bet.
only in murica
Nope...uncle Ted carries several real guns on his person at all times...he wouldn't play with a Derringer! 😆
Or,
"I'm sorry, Mr. Dimebag. We can't do that."
This is America.
This is a true story, about 15 years ago, before vinyl became hipster crack I was in a charity shop in Wells Somerset UK and in their collection of old records, mantovani, military brass bands etc I found a mint original pressing of Rubber Soul and they'd priced it at £4. I checked the condition of the vinyl but decided I was gonna buy it even if it was scratched to hell....Luckily it wasn't scratched and I couldn't hand my money over quick enough. I remember giving the woman £5 and she was thrilled when I refused the change. I got the record home, turned on the stereo and pulled the record from the inner sleeve for the 2nd time that day, and something fell out of the outer sleeve and fluttered to the floor. Intrigued I look down and it's an old black and white postcard. I pick it up , turn it around and on the back there are four signatures , well I guess you'd call em autographs. I shit you not. Still got it. Paul; George John and Ringo
You’ve got to be kidding. All four signatures sell for what ? $25,000.00 or so …
Prove it!
@@BrothersCinco You’ll give me 10% if I turn you on to a buyer ?
This story was awesome, until the super awkward order you listed the Fab 4. I've never heard it any other way than "John, Paul, George, and Ringo"
@@mczawlytko1404 Maybe it was the order of the signatures on the piece of paper?
I am always excited to go to a music store because I tend to meet interesting people with stories and a passion for music just as big as mine!
Can you post a vid with you playing? You comment a lot and i'm really curious how do you play.
@@StamateTudorGuitar I sadly can't lol. I have potato quality for anything. I would like to one day
The gentleman you interviewed at the end is what it is all about. Giving to others. He was your best interview. Much respect to him and his business!
Man we need this content as a series.
these stories, its a rollercoaster man...
Wow! What great stories! God bless that gentleman that gave his proceeds to charities!
I was in Killer Vintage in St.Louis one day looking at an old strat and this homeless looking guy came up on his bike with a trash bag wrapped something in the front basket. He proceeded to come in and ask the owner if this guitar was worth anything. He was hired to clean out her garage in N. St.Louis and found this old 1956 Fender telecaster. It was in rough shape but was all there. A rat ate some of the bone nut. The owner told him to him to stick around for 20 minutes and he will be right back. Dave came back and handed him a serious amount of money. The look in his eyes was priceless. He walked out the door, looked both ways at least ten times and was gone. Nice to see people not trying to rip people off. Fair deal for both. Owner is a good guy.
I live in Northern Minnesota. We miss you Joe. Riff City was always an awesome shop to visit. Hope hes doing well. Awesome video Tyler.
What happened, is he doing okay?
@@andrewpappas9311 He's ok. They closed up shop after some stuff went down between him and Rob Chapman with Chapman Guitars. Some business shinanagens I guess. I've watched videos from both Joe and Rob and it's kinda hard to see what really went down. Riff City was a great shop though. It was about an hour and a half south from were I live
This is pure gold! No one has done this kind of video compilation. Respect 👏👏
Thanks to all the folks who shared their stories! Thank you Tyler for the effort!
I was once at Guitar Center in Rockville MD and I saw Peter Frampton playing. I went over with a guitar off the rack and sat next to him and started talking about how much I love Talk Boxes and the 70s etc for about 20 mins. Turns out it wasn't Frampton at all. It didn't even look like him. It was just some old man. I hate that old man now.
You probably made his day though, bro might have needed that
MoCo shoutout.
"Youre not peter frampton! Youre just a wannabe that looks like him! Wannabe, be gone! Be gone!"
He hates you too, the weirdo who sat down next to him and started discussing talk boxes for no reason.
So great to see Buckdancers Choice in Portland Maine and "The Voice of the Choice"" Tim Emery, a phenomenal guitarist if there ever was one!!
That last story.... man, what a great dude/idea/mission....just the best.
As a former guitar shop employee, this is BEST content on your channel so far! So relatable and entertaining. Well done.
Bro hector is my guitar teacher and it’s crazy to know he met my fav RUclipsr
'The Sliding Nuns' would've been a great 90s band name. Called it! Great stuff Tyler!
Great episode Tyler. We could listen to crazy stories for HOURS.
This was the most enjoyable video I've watched in a long time! Love the format and the real people across the country!
Atlanta Vintage Guitars!!! Woot!
Cool to see Rusty's Cool Guitars featured! I live in Charleston and have been in there.... great store
I live in Shrewsbury, England and the only guitar shop in town is one of the friendliest places I've ever been.
The people in there are really nice and they won't sell you anything you don't need
I LOVE this video. The best part of checking out shops in different cities are the cool stories the staff have & some of the guitars have. Props for having Eliot from Rumble Seat in the video. Bought the guitar in my avatar there.
Oklahoma, Delaware, Illinois and Massachusetts stores had my favorite stories.
A guy I served in Iraq with as a medic took a part time job at Guitar Center, he was okay, worked in accessories. So after the 90 day period his shift manager says "Now you can use your in house discount." He says "Oh cool" and grabs a ten pack of Martin strings, and then takes a $2300.00 Les Paul off the wall. Just whips out a wad of cash and pays and walks out.
lol
This guy is all about the benefits lol
5:02 After what happened to our beloved Dimebag, I don’t blame the guy for wanting this made. Sounds pretty cool, too. Sidenote, I wonder if it would affect the tone 🦻🏼
I definitely would like to see a guitar with a cubby to hide stuff. Or hold picks, straps, it could be useful...
I also just want to know who that rockstar was. I don't blame him, it's a kinda cool idea, but I want to know if it's someone we would expect or someone random
@@tylercady3985 the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent
Is a Derringer a tonewood variant? :)
I just picture an accidental firing through the side of the guitar. Do not drop that guitar, that guitar has a hair trigger 😂
Every story is worthwhile listening to. Amazing stuff !
I'll share a story of accidental camaraderie that happened when I worked at a guitar store a long time ago:
I sold a hard shell guitar case to a woman as a gift for her husband. About 2 hours later, I got a phone call from her asking why the case smelled "like chocolate". I explained the process of making guitar cases to her and that what she's smelling is a byproduct of the glue that's used. She was pretty skeptical and asked if she could exchange it for another one, expressing how displeased she was with the smell because she drove so far to buy it (I later did the math - she drove about 3 hours round trip from her house to the store and back). I told her I would save another case for her so she could come back and swap it out.
Another 2 hours passed and she came back into the store with the case I sold her. I brought the other case I stashed for her, put them both on the counter, opened both of them up, and took a good whiff from each one. And when I say I took a whiff, I'm talking full on nose dive straight into each case and sucked in as much case smell as I could. "Yup, that's fresh! Check it out. The other one smells like this, too." Looking slightly confused, she eventually sniffed each case quickly and rather sheepishly.
She was still skeptical over why new cases smelled this way. We were starting to talk in circles when a co-worker of mine came around the corner and asked what was happening. "We're checking out these new cases and how good they smell!" I remarked. "Oh, absolutely!" he said, right before nose diving straight into the open case she bought and inhaling deeply. "Ahh yeah, that's fresh!" he said with the biggest smile. She started to ask him the same questions she asked me about why new cases smelled this way.
Then a third co-worker came around the corner and without missing a beat goes, "Hey guys, what's happen--OOH HEY, NEW GUITAR CASE!!", then immediately does his nose dive in the case she bought. "*WWHHHHIIIIIFFFFFFF* Oh yeah, that's the stuff!" and walked away. It took everything in me to keep from bursting out laughing right there on the spot. The look on her face was priceless - one of shock and bewilderment. I turned to the guy that walked away, then turned back to her and simply told her, "Well...what else can I say? We love new case smell."
She took the same case I sold her back out of the store.
The moment she went out the front door, I immediately bolted to the closest stock room we had, slammed the door behind me and had a laughing fit for what felt like 10 minutes straight. When I asked the other two guys about that encounter, they had no idea what was happening. They simply saw open guitar cases and decided to smell them. We all had a good laugh after I told them the whole story!
Wouldn’t it be crazy if a random customer in the shop was like “hey guys I’m ready to check ou- OH HEY A NEW GUITAR CASE! *SNIFFFFF* oh yeah, that’s fresh out the lot” then he continues with his checkout.
I worked in a music store in Palm Desert Ca for years.
The Betty Ford Center was not far from the store.
When patients would get leave after transition they would come in the store and spend time.
Some celebs had homes in the area or were playing gigs at Coachella fest or one of the casinos in the local area.
I met quite a few celebrities.
I have a story about Steven Tyler that is hilarious.
Then tell the story....
Josh at Mele Ukelele in Hawaii is a good friend of mine. Got quite excited seeing him in the vid. The guy is a really good dude with an Awesome family!
Really nice piece! Should be made into a documentary!
Forest is a funny dude. He and Cody are my two main dudes helping me out with my music needs while I am up here in the Army in Alaska... Cool as hell to see him...
This might just be your best upload. Great stories! Wish you had more like this...
As a man from Colorado. Yeah that happens up north.
The music store that twerk girl visited looked like a gun store. The ammo boxes didn’t look like guitar strings. But my strings are mostly .009’s and my ammo is 9mm. Bang up job on the video!
I was hanging out at Guitar Center in Crestwood, MO back in 2001, after only playing bass for a little under a year. I met Al Caldwell(Vanessa Williams' bassist) and he let me play his signature 9-string bass. Dude was cool as shit.
Bummer! You should've come to Mike's Music in Fond Du Lac, WI!
My story: I took my Original Jackson RR to a guitar shop in Missouri, while I was working there. I chipped the wood on the corner and left it there for the "repair guy". They called me a week later and said that the guy quit and the couldn't do anything with it. So I came back, opened the case, saw my guitar, and said ok, and left. I left to go back home to Alabama a few days later. A couple weeks go by, I decide to play some, and my wife asked me how much my RR was worth, so I decided to look it up. I flipped it over to get the serial # off of the neck plate, and to my suprise, my serialized plate was gone and a "Fender" plate was on there. I called them, they denied any wrong doing. I know it was there before, because I looked it up when I bought it. That was the only time it was ever out of my possession. Morale of the story: Never leave your rare/expensive guitar with someone you don't know, otherwise you'll have a worthless Fender/Jackson.
Geez they didn't help at all. Did you give them a bad review for the lack of help?
@@notyetskeletal4809 I did. But this was around 10 years ago. I can't remember the name of the shop anymore
Yep, keep your motorcycle close and your guitar closer
God bless that last guy . The truck world needs more like him
Mick Mars and Earl Slick trading licks across the store....now that would be worth 100 times the price of admission.
Gimme time stamp
I absolutely love this video. I'm currently rocking my baby daughter asleep and watching this video. For some reason this video brings back some nostalgia listening to these stories great stories! Great Idea in doing this.
I like how you saved the best story for last, Rusty lives on.
The last one was the best. Bless.
A great guitarist and a great story teller. Very entertaining! love it
Great stories!! What’s cool is a good number of those we’re about helping people who really need it.
If you’re ever back in the Providence area, Empire Guitars is the place to stop. They sell new pedals and have lots of great used and vintage guitars. 60s Strats, etc. really comfortable vibe too. In Boston, the Music Emporium is an outstanding shop with lots of boutique amps and guitars.
Empire guitar 🎸 great people fantastic guitars 👍😎✌️
Great taste from Josh prestige pawn shop 2:51, shure shot from intervals
I personally know both Rob and Tim from Dietz and Lidgett and they really are a couple the most easy-going top-notch guys anyone could ever want to deal with. I couldn’t say enough good things about either one of those dudes and I bought gear and guitars from both of them. I honestly kind of feel loyal to both of them to the point where when I buy something from of one of them I kind of feel like I’m cheating on the other one . lol
Sold a 1960 Gibson SG for 400 bucks - no way I could take advantage of someone like that :( …but I'm from SC where the last vid is about Rusty - my personal story is i fixed up a 70s SG pro 2 that was born a pro 1 and installed t-top mini gibson humbuckers and old pots from a tube radios for vol and tone..best sounding guitar i got ..and only paid 100 for it from ebay yrs ago as a shell that needed electronics, frets, and a broken truss rod, i learned how to fix her up using youtube vids :) and a summer project
Great episode! As many had said this should be a series. I really liked the PRS bit he is such a guitar geek that is definitely something he would do!
“Such a guitar geek?” More like a self-entitled douche with no respect for boundaries, if that story was accurate.
@@TheStompboxer bro could buy the guitar as many times he wanted too, if the store owner had a real problem prs could of just bought it
@@xNhaZul “I’m rich so I do whatever I want.” Is that the long and short of it?
@@TheStompboxer sounds like u didnt read my comment what i said was that since prs did this and if the store owner had a real problem with it *which sounds like he doesnt* he couldve just bought the guitar and he most likely did so, actually the long and short of it is you are just mad that someone didnt have a problem with a guy touching they guitar so you had to take that anger into the comments section
@@xNhaZul I didn’t say I was “mad” about anything. Any normal person would have to ask to even touch the thing, and it’s a given that most would. Celebrity culture is weird.
I really enjoyed watching this video. I like listening to stories like these.
More of this. This is good content. Real people, funny stories.
Can't believe Michigan wasn't on the list. Motor City Guitar is one of the coolest guitar stores in the state and it's locally owned. Definitely a must if you're in the area
Some incredible stories - saving the best and most moving till last - but it's sad how many are about theft, even tho they're individually hilarious.
I live about 20 miles from island music...very cool to see that you had visited. I've dropped a few c-notes there and have absolutely no regrets 😁
Would be cool if you could continue this into different stores from different countries and their stories. Like a Europe tour for example.
5:28 that stories brutal. Talking bout crushing a spirit.
A guy came in to my regular shop and asked something like, "How much is that Martin?" or whatever. The shop guy said something like, "Thirteen hundred dollars" and the customer said , "They're eleven hundred down the street." The shop guy said, "Then you should go down there and buy one." Customer said, "They're out of them," and shop guy said, "When we don't have them, they're eleven hundred here, too."
I’m from South Carolina and we’re blessed to have nice people like John from rustys guitar store 👍
10:45 too quick to name drop! I call BS on this one!
El Diablo in Minneapolis is my favorite shop in the state. Alan is such a nice guy. I’m actually heading down there tomorrow. Cool to see him in your video.
First how cool is RUSTY"s Guitars? naming a store after a rescue dog and the charity is amazing. If I ever get to South Carolina I'm buying something from that guy. I worked in a Music Store when I was teenager in the 70's. It was 6 miles from the Fender factory in Fullerton. A couple years after Leo sold to CBS they brought in security guards to intimidate the workers and I guess to keep employee theft down. This backfired in a big way and soon about once a month a Fender PARTS guitar would walk in the front door.Tele neck with strat body, pots all mixed up by year just all kinds of weird combinations. Mustang body with tele pickups, Electric 12 with only 6 strings and mustang pickups ,- just weird combinations but all pretty new. Disgruntled employees - about 90% Hispanic were stealing parts and putting them together to sell later.
The last shop deserves more 👍 👍 👍
I just bought an old danelectro and the electronics were all messed up so I took it to my local guit-mechanic. He opened it up and it was full of peas! Literally hundreds of little green peas started rolling out, all over his table. A bunch of wires looked like they were randomly cut with a pocket knife. He said that he'd run across a lot of pot but never peas 😂 Still don't know if it was a mouse nest or if someone put them in for moisture absorber, or something else completely.
2:40 damn Aaron Marshalls stuff is so recognisable, his style just hits different. - Sure Shot - Intervals
I feel like Tim Pratt, the guy from Omaha, and the 53 tele is really underselling it. That’s a crazy story.
That last story is so awesome. God bless that guy.
That “tele” story has me crying 😂
the last one, filled me with tears!
Loved this series, but you did a crap job for Arkansas. A freakin’ pawn shop??? Still grinds my gears.
There’s better stores for sure!
At least your state was listed……
Still? After all these years?
@@TheStompboxer Still.
@@matt_white_music Amen.
Last guy with the donations, hats off! What great work! Loving the content and all of the stories from these stores. Thanks for putting this vidio together.
In about 2002 I went to buy a red Epi 335 from Tom at Mr. Music. He looked at the credit card, and it had a woman's name on it- mine must have been swapped the night before while running a bar tab. I wanted to crawl out of Mr. Music since I looked like a thief, it sucked super big time, and clearly I'm still traumatized haha. Great store though!
moving, specially the last one, with the dog, as we have a private shelter, i can identify. nice work with some hilarious events
5:28, they should hire that guy just to go around the store playing stuff, since everything he touches gets sold. Sales will go up 20%!
This was so awesome, Tyler, thank you for sharing with us.
In my mind Ben Stiller is playing the guy who kept trying out equipment which got bought by someone else and taken out of his hands.
I’m sure glad I watched this. I’ve been planning a trumpet heist for months. Back to the drawing board.
40 years ago I walked into our local music store and sincerely asked for a gabo.
13:33… wow, that’s a great one. Really cool how that all came together.
2:40 never ceases to amaze me how pawn shop owners love bragging about people they ripped off.
There aren't too many excuses for not taking a handful of minutes out of your day to look up when your guitar was made. If he was a player at all he surely would have done so at some point. The guitar is with someone who will appreciate it now and he got exactly what the guitar was worth to him, which was $400 and an Xbox. Sounds like a win for everyone.
Giving someone the exact price they asked for does not equal ripping them off....
@@moparsons when the price they ask is 10% or less the value and they clearly don't know the real value it absolutely is a rip off. Some people have lower morals such as yourself.
Watched quite a few video's from this channel, have to say this was my favorite, so far. thanks.
Everyone who had lame stories has now changed their stories to the time when "Music is Win" came in and did a video.
I didn’t even realize this was Guitar is Noun.
I remember these clips back when you initially posted them, still fun to watch.