I once was standing in guitar canter looking at the xlr cable wall. A super hipster sales fellow approached me to ask if he could help me find anything. Sure I said, “I’m looking for a 7 pin XLR cable for my tube condenser microphone.” He said, “ there is no such thing as a 7 pin XLR cable.” I said, “yes their is”. He said “I’ve never seen a 7 pin XLR cable in the whole time I’ve been working here”. Before he could finish his sentence I reached up, grabbed two 7 pin XLR cables and handed one to him and walked off to the register with the other.
It's good to see that Hunter is making an effort to better himself with employment. He'll get better as he gains experience. You know, his grandmother adores him, alway has.
I hate when a clerk gives "there is no such thing" rather than "I have not heard of those" I have worked in several shops and never claimed that I knew it all.
I can only speak to my experience at my local Guitar Center, but the selection of guitars isn't the issue for me. The biggest issue I have at the store I visit is that (it seems) they put zero time into prepping any electric guitar for sale. Whether new or used, they just take it out of the case and throw it on the wall. All of their used guitars have rusty strings or are dirty/dusty, and the new ones are straight out of the box (high action, out of tune, etc.). Basically, every guitar I pick up feels terrible. Maybe it's too expensive to do this, but if they had someone take a few minutes to give a little TLC to every guitar before it hit the wall, I'd be much more inclined to buy from them. As it is, it just ruins the experience for me.
It's not the paying the person to do this that doesn't make financial sense to the manager it's paying the person to do it every five minutes that they aren't into
I've purchased many guitars from GC and couldn't agree more. They don't touch their guitars other than to unbox and therefore don't do these sometimes fine instruments justice as they are not set up, not tuned and often have rusty, crappy strings. My experience is that the GC guitar purchase is a crap shoot. If the guitar plays half way decent and sounds good, and I can predict what I think I'll need to do to it to get to play (I'd never have a GC tech touch a guitar I owned), I may buy it, becuase their one very strong redeeming factor is the 45 day, no questions asked, return policy. If I'm not happy, I return the guitar or amp and ask to order one in the box if I still think I want it.
You are correct when saying working pros use cheap or sensible instruments. I have pricey stuff but I gig regularly with mostly sub $1k fenders. Most other people I know do too.
I gigged a $500 strat for years, and now I gig a ML R9 most of the time. At a certain point I just stopped caring about keeping my nice stuff as case queens. They deserve to live too.
I just bought a Music Man for at home. I'll probably play a mid-tier ibanez or used charvel/fender when I play out. Already had a Music Man stolen before and learned that lesson the hard way.
I’m in my 60s . I’m used to being invisible in Guitar Center … sales people don’t approach me … when I approach them … they look surprised that I’m buying something .
I don't buy from GC unless I go in the store. Never buy online anymore because I don't getnwhat I ordered, or it's been played scratch and dent, not in the original box, things are missing etc. If they want to change how bout just being better at the basics to give customers the confidence they will get what they are paying for.
I ordered four guitars via Musician's Friends. Two actually shipped from Musician's Friend and were pristine and well packed. The other two shipped from GC and were obviously heavily played, and were damaged in shipping, because they were so poorly packed. Some bubble wrap around a guitar thrown loosely in a box.
I work at Guitar Center as a tech and I can tell you you the decision making process from the top down does not reflect a well cultivated understanding of the reality of the so called “firm” lmao
Appreciate you mentioning “wages” in your discussions, now and previously. People should be able to make a living making guitars. It’s a luxury for us to sit there and play them.
What does that have to do with them deserving a decent wage? We don't have any control over what they make- we simply pay for the guitar- it's up to the company what they pay their employees. And it's up to those employees to stand up for themselves, organize- do whatever you have to do- that's what coal niners, lumber jacks, steel workers, etc. did. They didn't ask the public to spend their money in such a way it made things right- because they knew they couldn't rely on that, the general public is barely making ends meet, they don't have the luxury of using their dollar to make a political statement. I remember being young and trying to get a guitar- if you had of been like "Now save another 200 bucks so you can help the American worker" I would've told you to shove it and went right on and bought that import. Which is what 99% of ppl are going to do- you can never count on patriotism to save you in a situation like this, nor should you. You learn to compete with that import- or you go out of business- that's how it works.
@@stoneysdead689 Simply not spending much on new gear is a political statement of a sort, as there are always a fair number of quality instruments available on the used market - every day another person realizes that there's a point of rapid diminishing returns with respect to money spent on gear as compared to effort invested in other areas, and that the expensive gear they bought new never made them that much better musicians or significantly happier, intrinsically.
@@bitrexgm Everyone has their own journey as a musician- some ppl are heavily inspired by gear- others aren't. That said- just because someone is really into gear doesn't mean they can't play well or that they're neglecting other aspects of playing. That's the attitude ppl had back in the 70s and early 80s when musicians would hide their rack systems and whatnot so no one would think they were relying too much on technology. Most ppl have accepted now that good music is good music- they don't really care how it was created. If someone enjoys buying gear and it inspires them- great, have at it. If it doesn't- great- no one is forcing, you.
In the times I have gone into a GC, the customers were pretty careful with the guitars but the employees took little to no care handling guitars. I saw one employee take an acoustic off the wall and in the process banged it into three other acoustics. Never looked to see if there was any damage, just walked out of the room.
I have 5 GCs within an hour from me and been in all of them and several others across the country when traveling for work. They have been friendly and accommodating. I’m glad they are around.
Same here. My store has great people who will give all the help they need. Yeah, there's a couple of no personality youngsters, but they'll learn. G.C. has their issues but I'm tired of the stores being slammed. The people are good. The management team is the problem and it seems they still didn't get it right.
@@mikecorey8370it’s owned by ppl that turned it into a debt vehicle and that’s about it. There is no passion at the top to improve it’s just a place to park money for them unfortunately
I have 2 GC's, 30 minutes away in my area. Neither ever have anything in stock that I'm looking for, the amateur sales people could care less, and the guitar selection on hand is used or cheap China guitars. The amp selection is Nil. I'm the type that needs to try gear out before purchasing it, rather than blindly ordering online. I'm fortunate enough that I can afford, within reason, whatever brand and model gear I want, and I actually drive the 8 hours to Sweetwater whenever I want a guitar or amp, where literally everything is in stock to try out and you're treated like a guest, by actual knowledgeable sales professionals.
I hadn't watched this video yet but I was in Guitar Center about 3 weeks ago. I noticed that they placed all the high priced guitars down low where customers could touch, smell, etc. instead of up high out of reach. I thought this was interesting and now I know why. Thanks for the great content.
I can tell you why Guitar Center is failing. I am 60 years old, short and bald. I can go into ANY Guitar Center and walk around for 1/2 hour without being approached by a salesperson. I can literally buy ANYTHING in the store but the salespeople ignore me. Their loss. EDIT- Some keyboard warriors are not getting the point so I will clarify. Sales is about RELATIONSHIPS . If you want to sell something to someone you must engage.A good and properly trained salesperson doesn't wait for a client, they approach.
@@TheSavagederek True, but there's a big difference between pushy salesperson, and being completely ignored. A few years ago I wanted a GS Mini. I wasn't sure about mahogany vs koa, so I needed to go to 2 separate GC stores to try them both. Walked out of both stores without a guitar. Ended up buying it online, for this specific reason, older person and was not taken seriously as a buyer.
What I don’t like about GC is when you order online because the guitar they actually have in the store locally is jacked up in some way and they send you a jacked up guitar from the wall of a different store. When I order online I want new in the box.
The only amp I have been repeatedly complimented in the tone of is my Carvin. Maybe its because they are familiar, but different... and good. If you want a Fender or a Marshall, they aren't it, but they do their thing well.
I was a huge Carvin fan in the 80’s . Bought a DC 135 (super strat), a 100w X-100B amp, and a Carvin mixer with huge PA speakers. I still have them all, they sound great, well built. Was a Vai and Holdsworth fan back then . Still am.
I bought my Carvin dc135 2 years ago at a pawn shop for $288 The guy kept calling it a "Caravan" guitar. I made sure not to correct him. Fanatic guitar!
I made the mistake in '80 of getting the DC150. A horrible sounding and yet very well constructed guitar. I still have it. It was the first guitar I bought. And I regretted it ever after. The solid maple body, with ebony fretboard, and brass nut, was very shrill sounding. Every guitar I bought or made after that was seeking to avoid ever getting another guitar that sounded at all like that one.
I went through multiple pickups. The guitar itself had zero richness. No woodiness whatsoever. Great sustain. But horrible sound. Everyone who played it hated it. It couldn't get acoustic feedback at all unless directly in front of the speaker, at very high volume. Unplugged it was almost silent. In the very late 90's, my wife at the time got me a Carvin Holdsworth Fat Boy. I told her just: no maple. She got the neck in mahogany, and the top in koa. That is a great sounding guitar. The diametric opposite of the DC150. Someone had sold me a DC 100, very cheap, around '83, and that sounded as bad as the DC150. I've bought guitars new, for less than $200, that sound so much better than the DC150. The DC150 had multiple different pickups at the bridge, as I tried to get better sound out of it. A Kahler trem took a little off the edge off it, but it still sounded horrible. It was the guitar that caused me to stop playing with a pick. Using my fingers was a desperate attempt to take a little shrillness off the top of it. Great construction. Before the trem it had amazing sustain. But there was no hope for the sound of it. I had considered hollowing it out and putting a steel plate on top. Steel would have a woodier sound than that maple.
I played a decent size festival wit ha $150 Harley Benton :) stayed in pretty much tune start to finish because I had set it up properly. A professional guitar is one that stays in tune and plays to your personal preference, and this one does. And I do have way more expensive guitars than that. I just didnt want to fly to the show with my fancy guitars, I wanted to fly with a guitar that doesnt hurt if it gets stolen or lost in transition.
My Uncle plays in a Dead cover band and played a $150 Peavey for years. He makes more money covering other people's songs with a sub $200 bass as a musician than he did when he was travelling the world in the US Naval Band at 17 years old with a $20,000 trombone
@@ScottsGuitar I dont even care about which guitar I use when recording if its for metal. If it has a humbucker, Im happy. I dont mind much which humbucker. I have different humbuckrs in most guitars and I can use them interchangeable.
@@BlazonStone oh yes for metal? You could play 6 strings attached to plywood and get the job done lol. I just use a cheap (still great) old Schecter for any metal recording. I did put fluence moderns in them but that’s about it. Gigs I play today a lot of them aren’t too high gain anymore, and I could still play a $200 squier into a boss katana it’ll still sound just as good as my Murphy lab once it’s gone through front of house. I still gig my ML locally but that’s just cuz I want to beat the crap out of it and give it some life, not for any practical reason lol. Once ur on stage it’s just a tool to get the job done, im focused on more important things at that point. Cheers 🤘
Another thing about roasted woods that is nice just from an environmental standpoint is not having to spray as much because bugs love getting into wood, especially green wood that is being kept in a big open space to dry out, but the bugs do not find the roasted stuff as appealing and they do not come out of the kilns if they go in there with the slabs of maple. Just something I learned from one of the fellas working in the lumber department at Menards last week.
Makes sense that high end guitars are selling online. If I am looking to purchase a Custom Shop Strat or Tele, I trust that I'll be getting a great instrument. If I am in the market for a Player, Epiphone, etc. I want to touch it, check intonation and pick the winner.
In my GC what i see is the same high end expensive guitars hanging on the wall week after week and the cheap guitars are different EVERY single time. And carvin was awesome in early 2000s. I played a carvin belair 212 at the time had amazing sound. Beast to gig around with though. Heeeavy.
Durable gear is important, the gear being light weight as possible and easy to carry is what I look for. I tell folks at gigs that we don't get paid to play music, we get paid to setup and break down our setup
I don't really worry about guitar weight, more of how bulky the case/bag is. Amps are the issue. An amp that has a great live sound that is easy to carry and maneuver is what I'm always looking for
Yea I totally get it. Strapping a les paul on and letting it hang for a while is taxing. I'm lucky so far that it doesn't really bother me. I think my mind goes somewhere else when I play guitar and I don't really focus on it lol
Carvin used to make great Pre-amps, we sometimes called it digital distortion. For years now Ive been playing through a "Smarvo" 100w combo (Smarvo is an offshoot of Randall) into a Carvin 4/12 cabinet and I cant imagine having a better tone , It has two dirty channels, but the clean channel is dry and flat and EQ wont help. The only thing that works is to run an external distortion to use on the clean channel
Love my bass Carvin "combo" amp, a BX600 head with a 1x15 (400 watt.) Back when I bought it straight from Carvin's EBay shop, it was such a steal. Still running, and using it today. "Neutral" yet also nice, the amp has so many EQ options. Can still add another speaker cab for the full 600 wattage. Dreading the day it fails, to be honest. Wish Carvin amps came back-excellent sound, not too expensive, made in US. Thanks so much for explaining their situation.
I don't know what's going on at GC right now, but my local store just last week fired all but two of the employees including all of the managers, they retained my friend who has been with them 23 years and another guy, but he says he is not sure that he is safe right now, they pulled people from other stores to temporarily maintain the store.
1:37:07 a little bit in, talking about $300 guitars and serious musicians...I'm not a master by any means but I can play advanced classical repertoire on a bottom of the line Yamaha as well as a top of the line Ramirez. It will be a different experience but with a setup and a little tweaking, the Yamaha is a good instrument for many gigs.
I have a guitar center and I had to travel 5 hours to visit music shops that carry higher end amps, cabs and guitars. I’m old school where I prefer feeling and hearing what I’m buying.
Phil, you should read the original article in Music Inc. The Guitar World headline quote takes the Guitar Center CEO out of context, and puts two paraphrased sentences next together that changes the gist of what he's saying and seems to be eliciting a lot of rage baiting content on social media. The link to the original is at the top of the GW article. I see the new philosophy in effect at my local GC in California where they've recently added a table where you can try out all their effect pedals and moved expensive guitars down so you can try out everything now. I wasn't even aware of some of the higher end Gibson and Fender models until they made this change, and now they're on my radar and I might buy one in the future since I had a chance to try them in a store.
Regarding the pedals starting up when you turn them on, I always start my set up with my amp volume on zero. Plus the first pedal in my guitar chain is my equalizer with the game down to zero just in case one of my connectors to the pedals is shorting out. And if you're playing directly into an interface that should also be started off at 0. How many petals do you have that you just can't click off the few that are on. I have been doing so since 1975. I hate the sound like the old man yelling at the moon, but I don't waste my thoughts on trifling things.
I had a Carvin 100W half-stack that I could not get a decent sound out of, and was in a band with a bass player with the Carvin 1kW bass stack that had constant overheating problems. You don't see Carvin amps anywhere anymore, and I think there's a good reason.
I think there's a wide spread between $300 guitars and the "$6,000 PRS and Gibson Murphy Labs" you talked about. I am a hack guitarist with plenty of money to spend, but the stuff that I consider "high end" is more like $1,000 to $2,000. If they want to stock the walls with American Fender, Gibson, PRS S2, etc, then that's awesome. Some of that stuff goes up to $3,000, but not insanely expensive. It is possible that a 17-23 year old burgeoning rock star could work for a summer and afford what I consider "high end". Does that make sense? If they're talking about going from Pacifica, Tagima, Squier, etc. to the American standard stuff, then let's goooooo! Great channel and great episode once again!
I think when they do not have a guitar, they should ask each customer what they waanted and why. I recently (last year or so) purchased 2 Gretsch G6422-TG ibkube becayse no stores locally had them. I wanted something to replace my Gretsh 6122 Country Classic (Gentleman) which was becoming too heavy. I needed one to leave at church and an identical one to practice / play at home. The 5422s were a good replcament for the CC as they were hollow body smaller similar to the big one and lightere. Later I purchased 2 Epiphone Hummingbird Pro models, one for church and one at home.
Philip!! Man, you absolutely NAILED the whole current guitar market state with your "connected flow" of comments! The whole spiel should be REQUIRED viewing/listening for ANYONE (Corporate CEOs included)!! Statements by the newly appointed G/C Chief are merely typical "public rhetoric" aimed at justifying their new appointment...nothing more. Got a NOS NAMM Show VOLA from their Reverb Shop: "Custom Shop" quality for
How many serious musicians exist? How can you make a living working in a store? How can you make a living repairing or making guitars? How can you make a living doing music lessons? Very few good positions exist. All the money is on the top tier. Will the bubble ever pop and the whole economy ever tank? Seems like it should, but people keep spending their money? High end guitars I just don’t understand? Retail stores are on borrowed time…Economics is the hardest subject to understand. Reverb, Ebay and even local personal internet ads for guitars are way too high. Guitar market is flooded with too many guitars at high prices yet people keep buying them? When it crashes it won’t recover? Supply and demand 😂
The Carvin shop was across the street from GC, and next door to the Mesa shop. Being next to the Mesa shop was even worse for Carvin, amp comparison wise. (I bought a Bolt kit from the Carvin shop and a Mark V from the Mesa shop. :) )
I don't really get what you're saying about online pricing information. Reverb has always had that information available and I look at it to price my items or to see about what I should offer. They've always been able to have up to date information if that's what they want. I'm not sure what you're seeing that is different now?
Agree. I'm not really sure what the point being made was. Economists talk about perfect markets where all buyer and seller are fully informed. We now approach that situation because of the internet. It was never case before.
20-25 years ago, Guitar Center had tons of pro level gear easily acessible. But the management of GC was so poor in subsequent years that they went effectively bankrupt, and lost most of their pro level distributorship rights. The only companies that actually stuck with GC were the companies so big that they had no choice, like Fender and Gibson. The smaller and boutique brands that used to sell through GC all abandoned them, for fear they weren't going to get paid if the company went belly up. I stopped shopping at GC a long time ago, because they don't carry anything I'm interested in buying, though I do still stop in occasionally to check for used pro level items that occasionally come in. My local GC used to have the entire Mesa/Boogie line, Warwick, Music Man, and so many more pro level brands, and then they all disappeared during the late 2000s-early 2010s, and I, like so many other serious musicians, stopped going there.
Even if I supported giant (inter)national chains, I would never seriously buy a guitar of any value from Guitar Center. At best I go there for a few incidentals and to see what a few guitars look like up close, but I saw a nashville tele deluxe hanging by its tuning peg from the wrong sized wall hanger, and that was about par fo the course about how well taken care of the guitars were. There was a j-45 in the “expensive” acoustic room that had a cracked top due to ridiculously bad humidity regulation. Full price.
The same thing Reverb has done has happened to vinyl on Discogs. If some rich person pays a crazy amount for a record one time, it permanently shifts the market price of that record for years to come.
Something must have changed with Boss over the years I have 5 Boss pedals and only one comes on with the power, but 4 are older ones, and one more recent. Maybe when they changed country of manufacture? I have had that happen with other brands as well.
I only buy online and I mostly buy from Sweetwater specifically because I want to pick the exact guitar I buy when it's a high-end item, and I don't want something that's been played a ton at Guitar Center. I will demo things at GC myself but then I'll go home and order it. I don't care if it's new in box, but I care that it's been beat up.
Re: new in box. I bought a MiM Strat at GC. It was on display and I spent about an hour with it and my Mustang Micro, just getting to know it. It was in perfect shape and even discounted. When I got to the register with it in hand, the guy said, “Let me see if we have one new in the box.” I turned him down - I already knew that I liked the feel, sound and look of this one. I know there’s not much variation in the MiM guitars, but there is some, and I didn’t want to spend another hour with another guitar!
Couldn't a syndicate of sellers/shops drive down prices on Reverb? An owner could list an item, have a friend make a a super low offer and accept it. Then swap the cash and guitar back in person, and have other sellers in other states hit the same items. This would keep guitar prices from becoming inflated, and Reverb getting more from sales. They could also do this to drive up prices, then list their stock at retail and it would seem like a discount compared to others' listings.
Car in did something really cool for me once . I had these small plastic monitor speakers I used for band room playback . I hooked them up to my Makie PA sent probably 150 watts through their 75 watt rating ( sounded great before they blew up ). Called Carvin sent them in and they replaced them both for the price of one ! Had A 8 channel mixer I used for drums only to mix into stereo out the PA . Wires adapters . I liked everything. Shame there going away . Buddy had 2 Carvin basses . Swore buy them .
When it comes to guitars, I like to knows how it feels, in my hand before buying it. If the guitar sounds, and feels amazing in my hand I don't have issues of paying retail, if I feel it's worth it. So I guess I'm not like most who buy guitar on internet before trying. And just because it the same brand doesn't mean I'm going to bond to it, the way I did with the one I tried at the store.
I realize I am a little jaded now that Phil has taught me how to setup a guitar, but I gotta say the guitars at GC’s in Oregon are literally never looked over and regularly maintained by the staff. They are unplayable. Even a $300 guitar should be given a 2 minute check and tune a couple times a week.
I've had a Carvin MTS half stack for eons. Great amp, with its own sound on the cheap. Also, I'm pretty sure the only guitar you can get the Carvin branding on these days is the Jason Becker signature.
Rare for me to break a string. When I do, it is usually the octave G tuning up a new set on a 12 string. For electric 6 I like the DR Blues or GHS Boomer David Gilmour in 10's.
I was in gc the other day, and some boomer was buying his grandson an epiphone les paul for $700...I hope that kid grows up to realize how blessed he is
I bet he knows now. I’d be very surprised to see a boomer spend that much on a guitar for someone who hasn’t already put a good amount of time learning to play it
I bet the "high end" is more like 6-1600. The lessons thing, they actually have extremely qualified teachers, it's like $100/four half hour lessons and students get 20% off. It definitely converts a lot of people, but the lack of inventory and floor models for bnib price is murdering their potential conversion rate. The new ceo is definitely mistaken about his target demographic, but it sounds like he's going the right direction to get people back in the stores and drop tuning all of the guitars
Regarding the GC part. I understand your point Phil, but what about hobby musicians that just want to get a good guitar to play? Not stuck anymore with 200 usd guitars? And want to TRY that guitar, have options to go and check which guitar he/she bonds with? One can buy pro guitars on line but that’s not proper way to select, to choose a good guitar. I believe that’s a part that we’re missing on the retailers. Down here, I can go to a store and only seeing Chinese low budget guitar.. and I mean cheaper than epiphone’s low budget.. even a Yamaha Revstar standard is hard to check live.. how can we choose and define if that guitar is actually a good buy without trying? By checking videos on RUclips? It’s not the same. We need a good place to go and try those.. I see the point of the GC CEO, although I concede that maybe we’re not a big part of the market…
My gc carries no high end guitars unless it's fender or Gibson. No core prs. No players edition Gretsch. No schecters over 5 bills. No esp. it's definitely a bummer.
Man that Gretsch is a beauty. I think the black is wonderful. I own a White Falcon and love it but I'm a sucker for a classy black guitar, it's always been my favourite colour for a guitar
The problem i have is GC looks like an indoor tag sale, the place is always messy and the floors are never clean. It used to look amazing when the first opened.
Guitar Center- So consider this- I may not buy the higher end guitar I try at Guitar Center- but, I'm playing it to compare types and configurations. How does a D-18 VS. a D28 vs. a Gibson Songwriter sound? Mahogany back and sides vs. Rosewood ? etc... If I can try the "demo guitars" then I can make a choice and order one- not necessarily buy the showroom demo. Make sense?
Have a Korean Gretsch and after getting the tuning to stay put it's darker sound sounds good through Katana 50. I have tubes but the boomy makes use of crispy highs
The CEO should come to Tokyo and visit the Fender Tokyo Flagship store and any of the major music stores, Shimamura, etc. they have hundreds of guitars from a few hundred to a few thousands of dollars all together.
Perhaps the GC intends to carry more "pro level" guitars and that's what they mean by catering to pros. As a part-time pro musician I see and use lots of guitars in the $700-$1400 price range. That seems to be the sweet spot for most brands when it comes to value for money. Examples like Jackson "Pro" series, PRS SE, nicer Epiphones, and Ibanez Prestige would be considered high-end compared to the budget guitars they currently focus on. On a side but related note, I would really like to see GC put more effort into the setup of guitars on the wall. I used to teach lessons at GC and so many guitars on the wall (even expensive ones) were set up horribly. I'm certain the extra sales from selling properly adjusted guitars would outweigh the cost of doing extra setup work.
Carvin guitars and amps were what I grew up playing, DC 125, 127, 200 koa, sx 60,100, x60, 100, 100 watt head with br 4-12 cab.. oh yes the neighbors and police loved me lol
My GC in Eastern mass has very few guitars under $300.It's mostly between four hundred and a thousand... Have no idea what this guy is looking at but I would love it if there was more sub three hundred dollar guitars in my local store.... Good luck with High-end sales at this point.When most players know they can get imports of the same quality for much less than domestic...
From my view on the Guitar Center thing, it seems to me more like their business plan was to focus more on entry-level players and kids. It doesn't feel like a place you go to if you have been a serious musician for a long time. I love inexpensive guitars, but I'd love it for GC to go back to how it used to be, when they had all kinds of guitars, amps, and gear in general. Instead of the Rock memorabilia, and lesson rooms that take all the space that used to be taken by gear. Maybe they should also take their used gear situation more serious. Take better photos and document the used gear better. Maybe also have a dedicated tech to properly setup all the guitars on the floor. I hate that when I buy a guitar there, they don't even take the time to properly clean it.
It was so sad when wildwood closed the physical store in Louisville. They don’t even allow you to come to their new location without an appointment last time I checked. Monkton (amazing local mom and pop) in Broomfield is the place to go play some cool vintage stuff around here these days or go down to Denver and hit up flipside (awesome people and selection).
If I ever buy another guitar online again it will not be from guitar center unless I can get it in the box my SE 2408 had so many fingerprints on it and a few blemishes they didn't bother trying to clean it up. I think when you selling something while packing it up you should ask what I want my guitar to arrive looking like this?
I needed a couple of tunes. So I went to GC. I was not greeted, but no big deal. I looked around for a salesperson. None would make eye contact. So I plugged in a guitar and played as obnoxiously as I could. Nada. I went to a counter and waited behind a family. I was looking the other way and when they were done the sales guy bolted. I was dumbfounded. They had the tunes locked up. I went behind the counter but couldn't get to the tunes. I finally left after about 50 minutes. With no tunes. The next day I went to a small local store and bought some tunes. In and out in less than 10 minutes.
I did their remote sales job for a good month and quit that sh*tbag of a “job”. The way they require you to act leads to no sales, computers were constantly crashing and bugging and the $5 headsets we were given could never be heard on the opposite end by potential customers we would call. After seeing the headsets I could tell GC gave no sh*ts about us as the employee and the road ahead would have much blame being put on us for having these trash headsets. ROI on any sale was absolutely minimal and laughable. Sell a $3k Les Paul and make literally almost nothing off of it. If they weren’t such thieves in their practices to customers and employees I think they’d be in a much different place.
GC staff have always been great to me, but when selling premium instruments back to them, staff would contact corporate on the phone to get price quotes. Corporate could not have been less interested. The staff apologized to me, they couldn't believe the attitude of the head office. The actual musician employees are great.
I agree with you on musicians not wanting other people to play the guitars they purchase. The last 4 guitars I purchased via Musicians Friend were shipped from Guitar Centers. In 3 cases, the guitars were demos with parts missing. In the 4th case, the guitar was shipped with a piece of bubble wrap over the guitar and an awful piece of rosewood for the fretboard. It looked like someone's return because they were looking for a better piece of rosewood. I have a big parts inventory so I was able to fix the first 3 guitars on my own, and I kept the 4th guitar because after I set it up it's very comfortable to play. It still has the awful, streaky fretboard, but I might do the shoe polish tint trick.
They sent me a new Schecter in a Fender box. Couldn't find anything wrong with it though. Not a scuff or scratch. Plays fine. Still it left a bad taste in my mouth if I buy another new guitar it will probably be from Sweetwater. MF & GC I'll still buy pedals and what not.
For me it started as an obsession as a 13 year old I got my first Strat pack for $200 playing for hours and hours after school, now I’m 30 and I still love playing and I’ve become a collector/player so I do collect the Gibson/fender Custom shops. They should do something similar to what the Gibson Garage is doing and have a good selection of both. Just my opinion tho
1:44:58 I gig and teach for a living and I use my S2 for teaching and it is beat up since I bought in 2020. Same for my Jazz axe, and I got deal I could not refuse or I would not own it. I have gone through so many import guitars and maxed them out to the point that the repairs and refrets are not worth the cost of the instrument. I'm not sure if I would but a high end PRS or Gibson for work right now.
If I were GC, I would put the door person back up front to greet customers and minimize theft, then I would FULLY stock the acoustic guitar section with quality brands like Tayler, Martin, Gibson, Epiphone, Yamaha etc., Then I would go to the electric guitar wall of shame, I mean wall of fame, and start thinning out the heard replacing cheap poorly made guitars with more iconic brands like Fender, Gibson, Music Man, Schecter , just to name a few. I would also allow customers the ability to negotiate price like they were able to back in the day! Then I would educate my staff regarding how to post an effective used guitar add online, one that will get the item sold sooner rather than later. The ad would have to include CLEAR photos of all sides of the guitar and the description must have as many details as possible such as the guitar's make, model number, year produced, country of manufacturer, type of woods used and any applicable electronics/pre-amp types the guitar has. I would also have a consistent grading system like "poor" "good" "very good" "excellent" and "mint" and have set rules on how to rank the guitar properly and using a one inch arrow or something like that in the photos to point out any applicable flaws to insure the highest level of disclosure is achieved. Last of all, I would find out why the website GCdotcom and MFdotcom take so long to load and I would have that fixed. In my opinion these websites should load at least as fast as their competitor's websites! Please note, I am a guitar player which is why this review has a guitar player's bias!
Whatever “system” they use to rate used gear is a total joke. They need to add a couple more categories “dragged out of dumpster “ and “handyman special “.
Given the very lenient return policies for high-end gear (i.e. in-home tryout), there is almost no need for a guitar shop to provide high-end instruments with the exception of acoustics. These are much more personal buying decisions and could fall under the GC CEO's vision. From guitar to guitar, there is much more variation in feel and sound on an acoustic instrument than an electric guitar.
My local Guitar Center is literally 5 minutes away. Have never had any type of problems, staff is super helpful, their product warranty is the best in the business I know this from personal experience. Their setup tech is a total pro and has let me ask all the questions I want. I guess I’m the exception not the rule.
my local guitar centers have some high end gear and lots of stuff around $300. They have very fef Mexican fender brands, almskt no Ibanez, and no ltd. That $500 to $1200 range has very little.
Phil on that comment about the pricing machine. I have noticed that I'll be on Amazon looking at Chinese bigsbys and I'll notice that they will adjust the price up in less than a half hour I'm the only one looking and they think there is a rush on them. So I didn't buy wait till the next day go look again and then buy in the third day after they feel desperate. Lol I like to do that until something comes down. They don't show you the great idea stuff at half off until they think they are going to get stuck with. These are my guesses I could be just seeing things. But I didn't think so. I'm like you my father owned a TV store and did sales his whole life and I loved listening to him talk about it no one's else did in the family you think he might have liked me a 😢little more. Lol I was a contractor and I sold Electrolux for a month. I laugh but I sold 5 units in one day didn't think the boss liked me much until I got back that day. He fixed me a coffee himself... Sugar cream?
No offense to Mrs. Gear, Epiphone, Sweetwater, or anyone, but since seeing your Firebird video, there is only one color those should come in. Also: I have G&L ASAT Classic I got on Stupid Deal for $350 and it is at least as good as my USA Charvel and my '89 Strat Plus. Can't wait for that video.
GC in Arlington Heights (Chicago) they locked up all the guitars. I spend about $4000 a year on guitars. If they think I’m going back to that GC, they’re sadly mistaken. New CEO take note. Unlock them or many of us will shop elsewhere.
I agree with the new GC strategy 100%. Some of the best players I know don't play for a living...the bar band cover band days of a couple decades ago is over. I feel guitar players & collectors are a lot like gun owners. Because you have an interest in guns doesn't mean you're working in law enforcement or even shoot regularly and there are millions of them out there. tThey appreciate the engineering, and collectibility of them. I know guys with fantastic collections who can barely strum three chords but they love music and the history of their instruments. GC used to be a great place to just look at vintage guitars that you could never dream of owning but that went away. IMO GC could also own the high end vintage market by updating their online marketing. In most cases one fuzzy pic with a sentence to describe the guitar is rediculous.. These listings need to be a half dozen high res pics with at least a paragraph description. Anyhow rambling here, but I feel GC lost their way at least a decade ago & this seems a step in the right direction to me.
I dunno, the people I know who make the most money doing music as a job are almost exclusively in bar cover bands in places like Florida and Southern California. Jimmy Buffett, Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead cover bands do particularly well. The others who make a decent living are completely anonymous (mostly female) audio engineers who work 80+ hours a week
Ive never ordered a used guitar off them and had it show up in the condition the employee described over the phone. I've returned every guitar ive ordered used and I'm not a super picky dude.
I have ordered 4 used guitars that were supposed to have hard shell cases. They shipped without, and when I called, they shipped the cases later. I ordered a used amp head and they shipped it without the cord and foot switch, which they shiipped later. No wonder they lose money. Yes they over rated the condition on every one.
The Firebird from Gibson USA was discontinued and Gibson stated it will never come back. They announced a modern Firebird was in development, but it will have a set neck like the cheaper "fake" Thunderbird. The USA Firebird was getting listed about a grand under custom ship last year.
About the Guitar Center CEO thing, could it be that in the next years we'll see what's already happening in car market? At least here in Europe in the last years the producers have been focusing exclusively on the expensive cars for a number of reasons and obviously most of people can't longer afford to buy them. Thus these people are trying to rely on second hand markets, which is leading to higher prices for old cars... maybe the guitars companies will try to scale down when they'll realise that the market is so oversaturated (thanks to covid era overproduction, too), cutting their low-end segment and focusing only on custom shops series?
Yep, it seems like that's the model they have in mind. Unload inventory, close stores, and narrow the focus to "botique" gear, they don't need to stock racks full of cables, T-shirts, straps, and sundries that people just buy online anyway.
I was on a job related trip to Denver and played hooky one afternoon and went to Wildwood. The store is so small I drove by it twice. There was virtually NO inventory. I did have a great conversation with the owner and the guys, and they were as nice as could be and even flipped me a free tee-shirt, but those guitars Greg Koch demos were nowhere to be seen. So disappointing
Love the Gretch 6118. Classy! I have 4 Gretsch’s-one 6120 built in the Brooklyn factory in 1995 and signed br Fred Gretsch III. The other 3 are electromatics, and all play and sound amazing.
GC has a custom shop Fender that I go visit in the glassed in "divorce room." It wouldn't even be a temptation if I hadn't laid hands on it. I like having a place to try guitars out, and GC fills that notch.
I have been using Boss pedals for almost 35 years, and I have never once noticed that they turn on when power is applied to them. Not once. In fact, I'm going to go test this now, because this is the first time in nearly 35 years that I have ever even heard anyone mention this. That ought to tell you how much of a non-issue this really is.
Value of used guitars is a bit nebulous and really does depend on the buyer like Phil said. I don't want a heavy guitar or a fat neck so the price of a heavy guitar or one with a fat neck doesn't matter they basically have no value to me.
31:50 I used to work in online pricing for a living and I doubt Reverb would have the commercial incentives to price something higher. Reverb will profit from volume of transactions, so they want everything to sell for what buyers are willing to pay, reasonably quickly.
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I once was standing in guitar canter looking at the xlr cable wall. A super hipster sales fellow approached me to ask if he could help me find anything. Sure I said, “I’m looking for a 7 pin XLR cable for my tube condenser microphone.” He said, “ there is no such thing as a 7 pin XLR cable.” I said, “yes their is”. He said “I’ve never seen a 7 pin XLR cable in the whole time I’ve been working here”. Before he could finish his sentence I reached up, grabbed two 7 pin XLR cables and handed one to him and walked off to the register with the other.
It's sounds typical, but I would have still thanked Hunter for his efforts and for finding a job.
You like man meat in and around your mouth.
It's good to see that Hunter is making an effort to better himself with employment. He'll get better as he gains experience. You know, his grandmother adores him, alway has.
I've never heard of a 7 pin xlr cable either, that's a pretty niche example dude
I hate when a clerk gives "there is no such thing" rather than "I have not heard of those" I have worked in several shops and never claimed that I knew it all.
I can only speak to my experience at my local Guitar Center, but the selection of guitars isn't the issue for me. The biggest issue I have at the store I visit is that (it seems) they put zero time into prepping any electric guitar for sale. Whether new or used, they just take it out of the case and throw it on the wall. All of their used guitars have rusty strings or are dirty/dusty, and the new ones are straight out of the box (high action, out of tune, etc.). Basically, every guitar I pick up feels terrible. Maybe it's too expensive to do this, but if they had someone take a few minutes to give a little TLC to every guitar before it hit the wall, I'd be much more inclined to buy from them. As it is, it just ruins the experience for me.
Agreed, good point.
It's not the paying the person to do this that doesn't make financial sense to the manager it's paying the person to do it every five minutes that they aren't into
Totally agree. I can't even properly evaluate if a guitar is any good or not
I've purchased many guitars from GC and couldn't agree more. They don't touch their guitars other than to unbox and therefore don't do these sometimes fine instruments justice as they are not set up, not tuned and often have rusty, crappy strings. My experience is that the GC guitar purchase is a crap shoot. If the guitar plays half way decent and sounds good, and I can predict what I think I'll need to do to it to get to play (I'd never have a GC tech touch a guitar I owned), I may buy it, becuase their one very strong redeeming factor is the 45 day, no questions asked, return policy. If I'm not happy, I return the guitar or amp and ask to order one in the box if I still think I want it.
Must be just your location. Its hard to sell guitars that arent playable or sound good when played
You are correct when saying working pros use cheap or sensible instruments. I have pricey stuff but I gig regularly with mostly sub $1k fenders. Most other people I know do too.
I gigged a $500 strat for years, and now I gig a ML R9 most of the time. At a certain point I just stopped caring about keeping my nice stuff as case queens. They deserve to live too.
But you don't usually gig with sub $300 guitars, correct? And you also own $1000+ guitars.
@@ChrisEck13
No, this is a simulation
@@ChrisEck13 I’m not even here
I just bought a Music Man for at home. I'll probably play a mid-tier ibanez or used charvel/fender when I play out. Already had a Music Man stolen before and learned that lesson the hard way.
I’m in my 60s . I’m used to being invisible in Guitar Center … sales people don’t approach me … when I approach them … they look surprised that I’m buying something .
I don't buy from GC unless I go in the store. Never buy online anymore because I don't getnwhat I ordered, or it's been played scratch and dent, not in the original box, things are missing etc. If they want to change how bout just being better at the basics to give customers the confidence they will get what they are paying for.
I ordered four guitars via Musician's Friends. Two actually shipped from Musician's Friend and were pristine and well packed. The other two shipped from GC and were obviously heavily played, and were damaged in shipping, because they were so poorly packed. Some bubble wrap around a guitar thrown loosely in a box.
I work at Guitar Center as a tech and I can tell you you the decision making process from the top down does not reflect a well cultivated understanding of the reality of the so called “firm” lmao
Appreciate you mentioning “wages” in your discussions, now and previously. People should be able to make a living making guitars. It’s a luxury for us to sit there and play them.
What does that have to do with them deserving a decent wage? We don't have any control over what they make- we simply pay for the guitar- it's up to the company what they pay their employees. And it's up to those employees to stand up for themselves, organize- do whatever you have to do- that's what coal niners, lumber jacks, steel workers, etc. did. They didn't ask the public to spend their money in such a way it made things right- because they knew they couldn't rely on that, the general public is barely making ends meet, they don't have the luxury of using their dollar to make a political statement. I remember being young and trying to get a guitar- if you had of been like "Now save another 200 bucks so you can help the American worker" I would've told you to shove it and went right on and bought that import. Which is what 99% of ppl are going to do- you can never count on patriotism to save you in a situation like this, nor should you. You learn to compete with that import- or you go out of business- that's how it works.
@@stoneysdead689 Simply not spending much on new gear is a political statement of a sort, as there are always a fair number of quality instruments available on the used market - every day another person realizes that there's a point of rapid diminishing returns with respect to money spent on gear as compared to effort invested in other areas, and that the expensive gear they bought new never made them that much better musicians or significantly happier, intrinsically.
@@bitrexgm Everyone has their own journey as a musician- some ppl are heavily inspired by gear- others aren't. That said- just because someone is really into gear doesn't mean they can't play well or that they're neglecting other aspects of playing. That's the attitude ppl had back in the 70s and early 80s when musicians would hide their rack systems and whatnot so no one would think they were relying too much on technology. Most ppl have accepted now that good music is good music- they don't really care how it was created. If someone enjoys buying gear and it inspires them- great, have at it. If it doesn't- great- no one is forcing, you.
Why? Not all jobs and professions allow one to “make a living”. That’s not how macroeconomics works.
The things Guitar Center customers do to those guitars is criminal. 😆🤣
If GC doesn’t show any care for their instruments why would a customer?
In the times I have gone into a GC, the customers were pretty careful with the guitars but the employees took little to no care handling guitars. I saw one employee take an acoustic off the wall and in the process banged it into three other acoustics. Never looked to see if there was any damage, just walked out of the room.
I have 5 GCs within an hour from me and been in all of them and several others across the country when traveling for work. They have been friendly and accommodating. I’m glad they are around.
Same here. My store has great people who will give all the help they need. Yeah, there's a couple of no personality youngsters, but they'll learn. G.C. has their issues but I'm tired of the stores being slammed. The people are good. The management team is the problem and it seems they still didn't get it right.
@@mikecorey8370it’s owned by ppl that turned it into a debt vehicle and that’s about it. There is no passion at the top to improve it’s just a place to park money for them unfortunately
Me too!
I have 2 GC's, 30 minutes away in my area. Neither ever have anything in stock that I'm looking for, the amateur sales people could care less, and the guitar selection on hand is used or cheap China guitars. The amp selection is Nil. I'm the type that needs to try gear out before purchasing it, rather than blindly ordering online. I'm fortunate enough that I can afford, within reason, whatever brand and model gear I want, and I actually drive the 8 hours to Sweetwater whenever I want a guitar or amp, where literally everything is in stock to try out and you're treated like a guest, by actual knowledgeable sales professionals.
I hadn't watched this video yet but I was in Guitar Center about 3 weeks ago. I noticed that they placed all the high priced guitars down low where customers could touch, smell, etc. instead of up high out of reach. I thought this was interesting and now I know why. Thanks for the great content.
I can tell you why Guitar Center is failing. I am 60 years old, short and bald. I can go into ANY Guitar Center and walk around for 1/2 hour without being approached by a salesperson. I can literally buy ANYTHING in the store but the salespeople ignore me. Their loss. EDIT- Some keyboard warriors are not getting the point so I will clarify. Sales is about RELATIONSHIPS . If you want to sell something to someone you must engage.A good and properly trained salesperson doesn't wait for a client, they approach.
Exactly this
Some people don't like pushy salesmen .
Most people under 40 don't like sales staff approaching. It's just the way it is.
If that’s what you think the reason is.
@@TheSavagederek True, but there's a big difference between pushy salesperson, and being completely ignored. A few years ago I wanted a GS Mini. I wasn't sure about mahogany vs koa, so I needed to go to 2 separate GC stores to try them both. Walked out of both stores without a guitar. Ended up buying it online, for this specific reason, older person and was not taken seriously as a buyer.
What I don’t like about GC is when you order online because the guitar they actually have in the store locally is jacked up in some way and they send you a jacked up guitar from the wall of a different store. When I order online I want new in the box.
The only amp I have been repeatedly complimented in the tone of is my Carvin. Maybe its because they are familiar, but different... and good. If you want a Fender or a Marshall, they aren't it, but they do their thing well.
I was a huge Carvin fan in the 80’s . Bought a DC 135 (super strat), a 100w X-100B amp, and a Carvin mixer with huge PA speakers. I still have them all, they sound great, well built. Was a Vai and Holdsworth fan back then . Still am.
I bought my Carvin dc135 2 years ago at a pawn shop for $288
The guy kept calling it a "Caravan" guitar. I made sure not to correct him. Fanatic guitar!
Man, you got a great deal !
I made the mistake in '80 of getting the DC150. A horrible sounding and yet very well constructed guitar. I still have it. It was the first guitar I bought. And I regretted it ever after. The solid maple body, with ebony fretboard, and brass nut, was very shrill sounding. Every guitar I bought or made after that was seeking to avoid ever getting another guitar that sounded at all like that one.
@@lonpollard902Maybe drop in some better pick ups. Possible that you got some bad ones. Happens even with even the best of brands.
I went through multiple pickups. The guitar itself had zero richness. No woodiness whatsoever. Great sustain. But horrible sound. Everyone who played it hated it. It couldn't get acoustic feedback at all unless directly in front of the speaker, at very high volume. Unplugged it was almost silent.
In the very late 90's, my wife at the time got me a Carvin Holdsworth Fat Boy. I told her just: no maple. She got the neck in mahogany, and the top in koa. That is a great sounding guitar. The diametric opposite of the DC150. Someone had sold me a DC 100, very cheap, around '83, and that sounded as bad as the DC150. I've bought guitars new, for less than $200, that sound so much better than the DC150. The DC150 had multiple different pickups at the bridge, as I tried to get better sound out of it. A Kahler trem took a little off the edge off it, but it still sounded horrible. It was the guitar that caused me to stop playing with a pick. Using my fingers was a desperate attempt to take a little shrillness off the top of it. Great construction. Before the trem it had amazing sustain. But there was no hope for the sound of it. I had considered hollowing it out and putting a steel plate on top. Steel would have a woodier sound than that maple.
I played a decent size festival wit ha $150 Harley Benton :) stayed in pretty much tune start to finish because I had set it up properly.
A professional guitar is one that stays in tune and plays to your personal preference, and this one does.
And I do have way more expensive guitars than that. I just didnt want to fly to the show with my fancy guitars, I wanted to fly with a guitar that doesnt hurt if it gets stolen or lost in transition.
My Uncle plays in a Dead cover band and played a $150 Peavey for years. He makes more money covering other people's songs with a sub $200 bass as a musician than he did when he was travelling the world in the US Naval Band at 17 years old with a $20,000 trombone
In a live mix you won’t hear any difference anyways. A lot of ppl (not talking about anyone here) don’t know that tho.
@@ScottsGuitar I dont even care about which guitar I use when recording if its for metal. If it has a humbucker, Im happy. I dont mind much which humbucker. I have different humbuckrs in most guitars and I can use them interchangeable.
@@BlazonStone oh yes for metal? You could play 6 strings attached to plywood and get the job done lol. I just use a cheap (still great) old Schecter for any metal recording. I did put fluence moderns in them but that’s about it. Gigs I play today a lot of them aren’t too high gain anymore, and I could still play a $200 squier into a boss katana it’ll still sound just as good as my Murphy lab once it’s gone through front of house. I still gig my ML locally but that’s just cuz I want to beat the crap out of it and give it some life, not for any practical reason lol. Once ur on stage it’s just a tool to get the job done, im focused on more important things at that point. Cheers 🤘
Looking forward to Sharpen My Paddleboard on the second channel 😂
@52:13 I would also recommend the Yamaha Revstar series as well. Amazing guitars and underrated
Carvin and peavey never left me stranded
I would consider Kissel a professional guitar maker if for no other reasons than price and quality.
Another thing about roasted woods that is nice just from an environmental standpoint is not having to spray as much because bugs love getting into wood, especially green wood that is being kept in a big open space to dry out, but the bugs do not find the roasted stuff as appealing and they do not come out of the kilns if they go in there with the slabs of maple. Just something I learned from one of the fellas working in the lumber department at Menards last week.
Makes sense that high end guitars are selling online. If I am looking to purchase a Custom Shop Strat or Tele, I trust that I'll be getting a great instrument. If I am in the market for a Player, Epiphone, etc. I want to touch it, check intonation and pick the winner.
In my GC what i see is the same high end expensive guitars hanging on the wall week after week and the cheap guitars are different EVERY single time. And carvin was awesome in early 2000s. I played a carvin belair 212 at the time had amazing sound. Beast to gig around with though. Heeeavy.
Durable gear is important, the gear being light weight as possible and easy to carry is what I look for. I tell folks at gigs that we don't get paid to play music, we get paid to setup and break down our setup
What products do you find light snd durable? Squier for example?
I don't really worry about guitar weight, more of how bulky the case/bag is. Amps are the issue. An amp that has a great live sound that is easy to carry and maneuver is what I'm always looking for
@@justusread5722 I am a bedroom player that plays standing up and prefer lighter guitars.
Yea I totally get it. Strapping a les paul on and letting it hang for a while is taxing. I'm lucky so far that it doesn't really bother me. I think my mind goes somewhere else when I play guitar and I don't really focus on it lol
@@justusread5722 That is “very cool” !
Carvin used to make great Pre-amps, we sometimes called it digital distortion. For years now Ive been playing through a "Smarvo" 100w combo (Smarvo is an offshoot of Randall) into a Carvin 4/12 cabinet and I cant imagine having a better tone , It has two dirty channels, but the clean channel is dry and flat and EQ wont help. The only thing that works is to run an external distortion to use on the clean channel
Love my bass Carvin "combo" amp, a BX600 head with a 1x15 (400 watt.) Back when I bought it straight from Carvin's EBay shop, it was such a steal. Still running, and using it today. "Neutral" yet also nice, the amp has so many EQ options. Can still add another speaker cab for the full 600 wattage. Dreading the day it fails, to be honest. Wish Carvin amps came back-excellent sound, not too expensive, made in US.
Thanks so much for explaining their situation.
We are going to have to see the pictures of the new recruit in the army.
I don't know what's going on at GC right now, but my local store just last week fired all but two of the employees including all of the managers, they retained my friend who has been with them 23 years and another guy, but he says he is not sure that he is safe right now, they pulled people from other stores to temporarily maintain the store.
I played a used one at that box store a few weeks ago and it came ALIVE in My hands! Unplugged!
I want one more than ever.
1:37:07 a little bit in, talking about $300 guitars and serious musicians...I'm not a master by any means but I can play advanced classical repertoire on a bottom of the line Yamaha as well as a top of the line Ramirez. It will be a different experience but with a setup and a little tweaking, the Yamaha is a good instrument for many gigs.
I have a guitar center and I had to travel 5 hours to visit music shops that carry higher end amps, cabs and guitars. I’m old school where I prefer feeling and hearing what I’m buying.
Not really old school. It's about not being too lazy to do the research and to make the effort to really choose the exact thing you want.
Phil, you should read the original article in Music Inc. The Guitar World headline quote takes the Guitar Center CEO out of context, and puts two paraphrased sentences next together that changes the gist of what he's saying and seems to be eliciting a lot of rage baiting content on social media. The link to the original is at the top of the GW article. I see the new philosophy in effect at my local GC in California where they've recently added a table where you can try out all their effect pedals and moved expensive guitars down so you can try out everything now. I wasn't even aware of some of the higher end Gibson and Fender models until they made this change, and now they're on my radar and I might buy one in the future since I had a chance to try them in a store.
I love the Guitar of the Week segment!
Keep up the good work!
Regarding the pedals starting up when you turn them on, I always start my set up with my amp volume on zero. Plus the first pedal in my guitar chain is my equalizer with the game down to zero just in case one of my connectors to the pedals is shorting out. And if you're playing directly into an interface that should also be started off at 0. How many petals do you have that you just can't click off the few that are on. I have been doing so since 1975. I hate the sound like the old man yelling at the moon, but I don't waste my thoughts on trifling things.
I had a Carvin 100W half-stack that I could not get a decent sound out of, and was in a band with a bass player with the Carvin 1kW bass stack that had constant overheating problems. You don't see Carvin amps anywhere anymore, and I think there's a good reason.
I think there's a wide spread between $300 guitars and the "$6,000 PRS and Gibson Murphy Labs" you talked about. I am a hack guitarist with plenty of money to spend, but the stuff that I consider "high end" is more like $1,000 to $2,000. If they want to stock the walls with American Fender, Gibson, PRS S2, etc, then that's awesome. Some of that stuff goes up to $3,000, but not insanely expensive. It is possible that a 17-23 year old burgeoning rock star could work for a summer and afford what I consider "high end". Does that make sense? If they're talking about going from Pacifica, Tagima, Squier, etc. to the American standard stuff, then let's goooooo! Great channel and great episode once again!
I think when they do not have a guitar, they should ask each customer what they waanted and why. I recently (last year or so) purchased 2 Gretsch G6422-TG ibkube becayse no stores locally had them. I wanted something to replace my Gretsh 6122 Country Classic (Gentleman) which was becoming too heavy. I needed one to leave at church and an identical one to practice / play at home. The 5422s were a good replcament for the CC as they were hollow body smaller similar to the big one and lightere. Later I purchased 2 Epiphone Hummingbird Pro models, one for church and one at home.
Philip!! Man, you absolutely NAILED the whole current guitar market state with your "connected flow" of comments! The whole spiel should be REQUIRED viewing/listening for ANYONE (Corporate CEOs included)!! Statements by the newly appointed G/C Chief are merely typical "public rhetoric" aimed at justifying their new appointment...nothing more. Got a NOS NAMM Show VOLA from their Reverb Shop: "Custom Shop" quality for
GC should hire you as a consultant so they don’t F it up. Not sure you’d want that. Definitely learn from you all of the time. Thanks Phil!
How many serious musicians exist? How can you make a living working in a store? How can you make a living repairing or making guitars? How can you make a living doing music lessons? Very few good positions exist. All the money is on the top tier. Will the bubble ever pop and the whole economy ever tank? Seems like it should, but people keep spending their money? High end guitars I just don’t understand? Retail stores are on borrowed time…Economics is the hardest subject to understand. Reverb, Ebay and even local personal internet ads for guitars are way too high. Guitar market is flooded with too many guitars at high prices yet people keep buying them? When it crashes it won’t recover? Supply and demand 😂
The Carvin shop was across the street from GC, and next door to the Mesa shop. Being next to the Mesa shop was even worse for Carvin, amp comparison wise. (I bought a Bolt kit from the Carvin shop and a Mark V from the Mesa shop. :) )
I don't really get what you're saying about online pricing information. Reverb has always had that information available and I look at it to price my items or to see about what I should offer. They've always been able to have up to date information if that's what they want. I'm not sure what you're seeing that is different now?
Agree. I'm not really sure what the point being made was. Economists talk about perfect markets where all buyer and seller are fully informed. We now approach that situation because of the internet. It was never case before.
20-25 years ago, Guitar Center had tons of pro level gear easily acessible. But the management of GC was so poor in subsequent years that they went effectively bankrupt, and lost most of their pro level distributorship rights. The only companies that actually stuck with GC were the companies so big that they had no choice, like Fender and Gibson. The smaller and boutique brands that used to sell through GC all abandoned them, for fear they weren't going to get paid if the company went belly up. I stopped shopping at GC a long time ago, because they don't carry anything I'm interested in buying, though I do still stop in occasionally to check for used pro level items that occasionally come in. My local GC used to have the entire Mesa/Boogie line, Warwick, Music Man, and so many more pro level brands, and then they all disappeared during the late 2000s-early 2010s, and I, like so many other serious musicians, stopped going there.
Even if I supported giant (inter)national chains, I would never seriously buy a guitar of any value from Guitar Center. At best I go there for a few incidentals and to see what a few guitars look like up close, but I saw a nashville tele deluxe hanging by its tuning peg from the wrong sized wall hanger, and that was about par fo the course about how well taken care of the guitars were. There was a j-45 in the “expensive” acoustic room that had a cracked top due to ridiculously bad humidity regulation. Full price.
The same thing Reverb has done has happened to vinyl on Discogs. If some rich person pays a crazy amount for a record one time, it permanently shifts the market price of that record for years to come.
Truth ! Lemmings overboard !!
Something must have changed with Boss over the years
I have 5 Boss pedals and only one comes on with the power, but 4 are older ones, and one more recent. Maybe when they changed country of manufacture?
I have had that happen with other brands as well.
I only buy online and I mostly buy from Sweetwater specifically because I want to pick the exact guitar I buy when it's a high-end item, and I don't want something that's been played a ton at Guitar Center. I will demo things at GC myself but then I'll go home and order it. I don't care if it's new in box, but I care that it's been beat up.
Re: new in box. I bought a MiM Strat at GC. It was on display and I spent about an hour with it and my Mustang Micro, just getting to know it. It was in perfect shape and even discounted. When I got to the register with it in hand, the guy said, “Let me see if we have one new in the box.” I turned him down - I already knew that I liked the feel, sound and look of this one. I know there’s not much variation in the MiM guitars, but there is some, and I didn’t want to spend another hour with another guitar!
Thanks Phil ! I learned few new things today
Couldn't a syndicate of sellers/shops drive down prices on Reverb? An owner could list an item, have a friend make a a super low offer and accept it. Then swap the cash and guitar back in person, and have other sellers in other states hit the same items. This would keep guitar prices from becoming inflated, and Reverb getting more from sales.
They could also do this to drive up prices, then list their stock at retail and it would seem like a discount compared to others' listings.
Car in did something really cool for me once . I had these small plastic monitor speakers I used for band room playback . I hooked them up to my Makie PA sent probably 150 watts through their 75 watt rating ( sounded great before they blew up ). Called Carvin sent them in and they replaced them both for the price of one ! Had A 8 channel mixer I used for drums only to mix into stereo out the PA . Wires adapters . I liked everything. Shame there going away . Buddy had 2 Carvin basses . Swore buy them .
When it comes to guitars, I like to knows how it feels, in my hand before buying it. If the guitar sounds, and feels amazing in my hand I don't have issues of paying retail, if I feel it's worth it. So I guess I'm not like most who buy guitar on internet before trying. And just because it the same brand doesn't mean I'm going to bond to it, the way I did with the one I tried at the store.
For a PRS guitar that is like an SG - I would go with the S2 McCarty 594 thinline. Thin like an SG, double humbuckers. Really like mine.
Or a Mira if you can find one used.
I agree. I also love my McCarty thinline. Many SG vibes plus coil tapping.
I realize I am a little jaded now that Phil has taught me how to setup a guitar, but I gotta say the guitars at GC’s in Oregon are literally never looked over and regularly maintained by the staff. They are unplayable.
Even a $300 guitar should be given a 2 minute check and tune a couple times a week.
I've had a Carvin MTS half stack for eons. Great amp, with its own sound on the cheap. Also, I'm pretty sure the only guitar you can get the Carvin branding on these days is the Jason Becker signature.
Rare for me to break a string.
When I do, it is usually the octave G tuning up a new set on a 12 string.
For electric 6 I like the DR Blues or GHS Boomer David Gilmour in 10's.
I was in gc the other day, and some boomer was buying his grandson an epiphone les paul for $700...I hope that kid grows up to realize how blessed he is
It'll be on reverb for $550 pretty soon
Wow, that's cool, what a fantastic present - I bet the kid was super excited!
I bet he knows now. I’d be very surprised to see a boomer spend that much on a guitar for someone who hasn’t already put a good amount of time learning to play it
700 dollars is not a lot of money to gift a grandchild, peanuts…
My dad bought me an Epiphone Les Paul for $650 and it was my only electric guitar for 17 years. Was worth the purchase 🙂
I bet the "high end" is more like 6-1600. The lessons thing, they actually have extremely qualified teachers, it's like $100/four half hour lessons and students get 20% off. It definitely converts a lot of people, but the lack of inventory and floor models for bnib price is murdering their potential conversion rate. The new ceo is definitely mistaken about his target demographic, but it sounds like he's going the right direction to get people back in the stores and drop tuning all of the guitars
Regarding the GC part. I understand your point Phil, but what about hobby musicians that just want to get a good guitar to play? Not stuck anymore with 200 usd guitars? And want to TRY that guitar, have options to go and check which guitar he/she bonds with? One can buy pro guitars on line but that’s not proper way to select, to choose a good guitar. I believe that’s a part that we’re missing on the retailers. Down here, I can go to a store and only seeing Chinese low budget guitar.. and I mean cheaper than epiphone’s low budget.. even a Yamaha Revstar standard is hard to check live.. how can we choose and define if that guitar is actually a good buy without trying? By checking videos on RUclips? It’s not the same. We need a good place to go and try those.. I see the point of the GC CEO, although I concede that maybe we’re not a big part of the market…
My gc carries no high end guitars unless it's fender or Gibson. No core prs. No players edition Gretsch. No schecters over 5 bills. No esp. it's definitely a bummer.
Man that Gretsch is a beauty. I think the black is wonderful. I own a White Falcon and love it but I'm a sucker for a classy black guitar, it's always been my favourite colour for a guitar
The problem i have is GC looks like an indoor tag sale, the place is always messy and the floors are never clean. It used to look amazing when the first opened.
🌕 tanks I like 5-10 min. commercials. After ever 60 /70 sentences. Because I can’t stand over my iPad so I listen to all them..Thx !!
Guitar Center- So consider this- I may not buy the higher end guitar I try at Guitar Center- but, I'm playing it to compare types and configurations. How does a D-18 VS. a D28 vs. a Gibson Songwriter sound? Mahogany back and sides vs. Rosewood ? etc... If I can try the "demo guitars" then I can make a choice and order one- not necessarily buy the showroom demo. Make sense?
You're exactly right Philip. Collectors will not be paying 5K and above for guitars at Guitar Center.
Have a Korean Gretsch and after getting the tuning to stay put it's darker sound sounds good through Katana 50. I have tubes but the boomy makes use of crispy highs
The CEO should come to Tokyo and visit the Fender Tokyo Flagship store and any of the major music stores, Shimamura, etc. they have hundreds of guitars from a few hundred to a few thousands of dollars all together.
Ghs are great strings I've played guitar over 15 years and I have never broken a string love Ernie ball strings but hard to get in my town
Perhaps the GC intends to carry more "pro level" guitars and that's what they mean by catering to pros. As a part-time pro musician I see and use lots of guitars in the $700-$1400 price range. That seems to be the sweet spot for most brands when it comes to value for money. Examples like Jackson "Pro" series, PRS SE, nicer Epiphones, and Ibanez Prestige would be considered high-end compared to the budget guitars they currently focus on.
On a side but related note, I would really like to see GC put more effort into the setup of guitars on the wall. I used to teach lessons at GC and so many guitars on the wall (even expensive ones) were set up horribly. I'm certain the extra sales from selling properly adjusted guitars would outweigh the cost of doing extra setup work.
Carvin guitars and amps were what I grew up playing, DC 125, 127, 200 koa, sx 60,100, x60, 100, 100 watt head with br 4-12 cab.. oh yes the neighbors and police loved me lol
My GC in Eastern mass has very few guitars under $300.It's mostly between four hundred and a thousand... Have no idea what this guy is looking at but I would love it if there was more sub three hundred dollar guitars in my local store.... Good luck with High-end sales at this point.When most players know they can get imports of the same quality for much less than domestic...
That oven baked maple neck joke was the schiz lol
From my view on the Guitar Center thing, it seems to me more like their business plan was to focus more on entry-level players and kids. It doesn't feel like a place you go to if you have been a serious musician for a long time. I love inexpensive guitars, but I'd love it for GC to go back to how it used to be, when they had all kinds of guitars, amps, and gear in general. Instead of the Rock memorabilia, and lesson rooms that take all the space that used to be taken by gear. Maybe they should also take their used gear situation more serious. Take better photos and document the used gear better. Maybe also have a dedicated tech to properly setup all the guitars on the floor. I hate that when I buy a guitar there, they don't even take the time to properly clean it.
It was so sad when wildwood closed the physical store in Louisville. They don’t even allow you to come to their new location without an appointment last time I checked. Monkton (amazing local mom and pop) in Broomfield is the place to go play some cool vintage stuff around here these days or go down to Denver and hit up flipside (awesome people and selection).
If I ever buy another guitar online again it will not be from guitar center unless I can get it in the box my SE 2408 had so many fingerprints on it and a few blemishes they didn't bother trying to clean it up. I think when you selling something while packing it up you should ask what I want my guitar to arrive looking like this?
I needed a couple of tunes. So I went to GC. I was not greeted, but no big deal. I looked around for a salesperson. None would make eye contact. So I plugged in a guitar and played as obnoxiously as I could. Nada. I went to a counter and waited behind a family. I was looking the other way and when they were done the sales guy bolted. I was dumbfounded. They had the tunes locked up. I went behind the counter but couldn't get to the tunes. I finally left after about 50 minutes. With no tunes. The next day I went to a small local store and bought some tunes. In and out in less than 10 minutes.
I did their remote sales job for a good month and quit that sh*tbag of a “job”. The way they require you to act leads to no sales, computers were constantly crashing and bugging and the $5 headsets we were given could never be heard on the opposite end by potential customers we would call. After seeing the headsets I could tell GC gave no sh*ts about us as the employee and the road ahead would have much blame being put on us for having these trash headsets. ROI on any sale was absolutely minimal and laughable. Sell a $3k Les Paul and make literally almost nothing off of it. If they weren’t such thieves in their practices to customers and employees I think they’d be in a much different place.
GC staff have always been great to me, but when selling premium instruments back to them, staff would contact corporate on the phone to get price quotes. Corporate could not have been less interested. The staff apologized to me, they couldn't believe the attitude of the head office. The actual musician employees are great.
I agree with you on musicians not wanting other people to play the guitars they purchase. The last 4 guitars I purchased via Musicians Friend were shipped from Guitar Centers. In 3 cases, the guitars were demos with parts missing. In the 4th case, the guitar was shipped with a piece of bubble wrap over the guitar and an awful piece of rosewood for the fretboard. It looked like someone's return because they were looking for a better piece of rosewood. I have a big parts inventory so I was able to fix the first 3 guitars on my own, and I kept the 4th guitar because after I set it up it's very comfortable to play. It still has the awful, streaky fretboard, but I might do the shoe polish tint trick.
They sent me a new Schecter in a Fender box. Couldn't find anything wrong with it though. Not a scuff or scratch. Plays fine. Still it left a bad taste in my mouth if I buy another new guitar it will probably be from Sweetwater. MF & GC I'll still buy pedals and what not.
CEO of GC should read these comments ! ! ! ! 🎸🎸🎸 Appears they have their head(s) in the sand.
For me it started as an obsession as a 13 year old I got my first Strat pack for $200 playing for hours and hours after school, now I’m 30 and I still love playing and I’ve become a collector/player so I do collect the Gibson/fender Custom shops. They should do something similar to what the Gibson Garage is doing and have a good selection of both. Just my opinion tho
1:44:58 I gig and teach for a living and I use my S2 for teaching and it is beat up since I bought in 2020. Same for my Jazz axe, and I got deal I could not refuse or I would not own it. I have gone through so many import guitars and maxed them out to the point that the repairs and refrets are not worth the cost of the instrument. I'm not sure if I would but a high end PRS or Gibson for work right now.
If I were GC, I would put the door person back up front to greet customers and minimize theft, then I would FULLY stock the acoustic guitar section with quality brands like Tayler, Martin, Gibson, Epiphone, Yamaha etc., Then I would go to the electric guitar wall of shame, I mean wall of fame, and start thinning out the heard replacing cheap poorly made guitars with more iconic brands like Fender, Gibson, Music Man, Schecter , just to name a few. I would also allow customers the ability to negotiate price like they were able to back in the day! Then I would educate my staff regarding how to post an effective used guitar add online, one that will get the item sold sooner rather than later. The ad would have to include CLEAR photos of all sides of the guitar and the description must have as many details as possible such as the guitar's make, model number, year produced, country of manufacturer, type of woods used and any applicable electronics/pre-amp types the guitar has. I would also have a consistent grading system like "poor" "good" "very good" "excellent" and "mint" and have set rules on how to rank the guitar properly and using a one inch arrow or something like that in the photos to point out any applicable flaws to insure the highest level of disclosure is achieved. Last of all, I would find out why the website GCdotcom and MFdotcom take so long to load and I would have that fixed. In my opinion these websites should load at least as fast as their competitor's websites! Please note, I am a guitar player which is why this review has a guitar player's bias!
Whatever “system” they use to rate used gear is a total joke. They need to add a couple more categories “dragged out of dumpster “ and “handyman special “.
Given the very lenient return policies for high-end gear (i.e. in-home tryout), there is almost no need for a guitar shop to provide high-end instruments with the exception of acoustics. These are much more personal buying decisions and could fall under the GC CEO's vision. From guitar to guitar, there is much more variation in feel and sound on an acoustic instrument than an electric guitar.
My local Guitar Center is literally 5 minutes away. Have never had any type of problems, staff is super helpful, their product warranty is the best in the business I know this from personal experience. Their setup tech is a total pro and has let me ask all the questions I want. I guess I’m the exception not the rule.
my local guitar centers have some high end gear and lots of stuff around $300. They have very fef Mexican fender brands, almskt no Ibanez, and no ltd. That $500 to $1200 range has very little.
1:40:42 In my experience pros buy player grade vintage gear for sessions and reliable cheap gear (like Peavey) for gigs
Phil on that comment about the pricing machine. I have noticed that I'll be on Amazon looking at Chinese bigsbys and I'll notice that they will adjust the price up in less than a half hour I'm the only one looking and they think there is a rush on them. So I didn't buy wait till the next day go look again and then buy in the third day after they feel desperate. Lol I like to do that until something comes down. They don't show you the great idea stuff at half off until they think they are going to get stuck with. These are my guesses I could be just seeing things. But I didn't think so. I'm like you my father owned a TV store and did sales his whole life and I loved listening to him talk about it no one's else did in the family you think he might have liked me a 😢little more. Lol I was a contractor and I sold Electrolux for a month. I laugh but I sold 5 units in one day didn't think the boss liked me much until I got back that day. He fixed me a coffee himself... Sugar cream?
No offense to Mrs. Gear, Epiphone, Sweetwater, or anyone, but since seeing your Firebird video, there is only one color those should come in.
Also: I have G&L ASAT Classic I got on Stupid Deal for $350 and it is at least as good as my USA Charvel and my '89 Strat Plus.
Can't wait for that video.
GC in Arlington Heights (Chicago) they locked up all the guitars. I spend about $4000 a year on guitars. If they think I’m going back to that GC, they’re sadly mistaken. New CEO take note. Unlock them or many of us will shop elsewhere.
I agree with the new GC strategy 100%. Some of the best players I know don't play for a living...the bar band cover band days of a couple decades ago is over. I feel guitar players & collectors are a lot like gun owners. Because you have an interest in guns doesn't mean you're working in law enforcement or even shoot regularly and there are millions of them out there. tThey appreciate the engineering, and collectibility of them. I know guys with fantastic collections who can barely strum three chords but they love music and the history of their instruments. GC used to be a great place to just look at vintage guitars that you could never dream of owning but that went away. IMO GC could also own the high end vintage market by updating their online marketing. In most cases one fuzzy pic with a sentence to describe the guitar is rediculous.. These listings need to be a half dozen high res pics with at least a paragraph description. Anyhow rambling here, but I feel GC lost their way at least a decade ago & this seems a step in the right direction to me.
I dunno, the people I know who make the most money doing music as a job are almost exclusively in bar cover bands in places like Florida and Southern California. Jimmy Buffett, Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead cover bands do particularly well. The others who make a decent living are completely anonymous (mostly female) audio engineers who work 80+ hours a week
Ive never ordered a used guitar off them and had it show up in the condition the employee described over the phone. I've returned every guitar ive ordered used and I'm not a super picky dude.
I have ordered 4 used guitars that were supposed to have hard shell cases. They shipped without, and when I called, they shipped the cases later. I ordered a used amp head and they shipped it without the cord and foot switch, which they shiipped later. No wonder they lose money. Yes they over rated the condition on every one.
The Firebird from Gibson USA was discontinued and Gibson stated it will never come back. They announced a modern Firebird was in development, but it will have a set neck like the cheaper "fake" Thunderbird. The USA Firebird was getting listed about a grand under custom ship last year.
About the Guitar Center CEO thing, could it be that in the next years we'll see what's already happening in car market? At least here in Europe in the last years the producers have been focusing exclusively on the expensive cars for a number of reasons and obviously most of people can't longer afford to buy them. Thus these people are trying to rely on second hand markets, which is leading to higher prices for old cars... maybe the guitars companies will try to scale down when they'll realise that the market is so oversaturated (thanks to covid era overproduction, too), cutting their low-end segment and focusing only on custom shops series?
Yep, it seems like that's the model they have in mind. Unload inventory, close stores, and narrow the focus to "botique" gear, they don't need to stock racks full of cables, T-shirts, straps, and sundries that people just buy online anyway.
I was on a job related trip to Denver and played hooky one afternoon and went to Wildwood. The store is so small I drove by it twice. There was virtually NO inventory. I did have a great conversation with the owner and the guys, and they were as nice as could be and even flipped me a free tee-shirt, but those guitars Greg Koch demos were nowhere to be seen. So disappointing
Love the Gretch 6118. Classy! I have 4 Gretsch’s-one 6120 built in the Brooklyn factory in 1995 and signed br Fred Gretsch III. The other 3 are electromatics, and all play and sound amazing.
Looking forward to the sharpen my axe👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
GC has a custom shop Fender that I go visit in the glassed in "divorce room." It wouldn't even be a temptation if I hadn't laid hands on it. I like having a place to try guitars out, and GC fills that notch.
I have been using Boss pedals for almost 35 years, and I have never once noticed that they turn on when power is applied to them. Not once. In fact, I'm going to go test this now, because this is the first time in nearly 35 years that I have ever even heard anyone mention this. That ought to tell you how much of a non-issue this really is.
Value of used guitars is a bit nebulous and really does depend on the buyer like Phil said. I don't want a heavy guitar or a fat neck so the price of a heavy guitar or one with a fat neck doesn't matter they basically have no value to me.
31:50 I used to work in online pricing for a living and I doubt Reverb would have the commercial incentives to price something higher. Reverb will profit from volume of transactions, so they want everything to sell for what buyers are willing to pay, reasonably quickly.