Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

[alex1fly]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

I miss Mars Music, which had rooms that you could take an amp into and crank it w/o bothering anybody.

You gotta crank it at least a little to feel it out. Problem is too many people crank with no intention of buying. Or the idiots that sit around and shred with a group of folks watching them. Oftentimes the employees do this too. GC is a joke, but their selection is unbeatable, so its a give and take - more about making money than customer satisfaction, except for people who see it as a recreational activity.

I was demoing Les Pauls on my amp in the Mesa room with the intention of buying one, and some dude came in and started playing much louder than me. I told him I was going to buy a guitar, he gave me a punk "yeah so am I" and left a few minutes later. Guess you just have to assert yourself in that place.

 

[Perry D]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

the guitar center nearest me has a special room for the acoustics but thats not the point. i hate guitar center. there are only a few people there that know what the hell they are talking about. everyone else is out to make a commission check. i have had some proof of this time and time again. the only time i go there is just so i can play some random things but to this day i have never given any of my hard earned dollars at that place and as far as im considered never will.

 

[Perry D]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

i might add that my local dealer here in town lets me go in his shop and play whatever i want whenever i want (when the store is open of course) and as loud as i need to. so ill shall start a revolution DEATH TO GUITAR CENTER!!!

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

Joe, we must go to guitarget some time together!

I actually edited my post before you quoted it. Most of the guys at the 2 GC's I go to are my friends, and we hang out and crank up amps.

There's one guy who has a particular dislike for me, probably because I can blow his a$$ into the weeds. He bugs me anytime I walk in, so I purposely belittle him....that was the guy I was talking about. One time, I was in the acoustic room and he said something that rubbed me the wrong way, so I whipped out a slide and played something he couldn't play in a million years.
Right handed finger picking, complex chords, and slide licks thrown in. The look on his face made my day. Not to be arrogant, but it WAS funny.

He's around the same age as me, has a chip on his shoulder, and I just love poking him in the eye! hahahaha

 

[J Moose]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

I miss Mars Music, which had rooms that you could take an amp into and crank it w/o bothering anybody.

You gotta crank it at least a little to feel it out. Problem is too many people crank with no intention of buying. Or the idiots that sit around and shred with a group of folks watching them. Oftentimes the employees do this too. GC is a joke, but their selection is unbeatable, so its a give and take - more about making money than customer satisfaction, except for people who see it as a recreational activity.

Well first of all, like I've said... the amp wasn't even close to cranked when Mr. Kranky pink guitar came over. It WAS at the point where it's starting to wake up and move a little air but IMO, that's not loud. Especially not if we could have a conversation without shouting over it.

I could almost deal with the idiots on both sides of the counter if the selection was great... but it's not. Not at any of the 7 or 8 stores in a 30 miles of home. They've always got the standard stuff, Fender everything & Marshall JVM's... all the Boss & MXR pedals... but EH or Carl Martin?! Usually get blank looks and "have you tried the Metal Zone?"

A few months ago I called around because there were a few specific Boogies I wanted to sample... found a store that had the Express 5:50 and a Stiletto... talked to the guy & said I'd be there in about an hour.

Get there, ask for "Beavis" and tell him I'm the guy who called... got my guitar in hand... "Can 'ya get me a cable?" and he says there's cables on the display racks... why do I need one?"

(thinking about why I have to dignify that)

Maybe it's 'cause I want to walk around and not sit a foot from the amp...

Get my cable... plug into the Express and it's totally F'd up. Sounds bad. Noisy. Squealing like a stuck pig all on it's own. There's a microphonic tube in there, maybe other problems... so I tell the guy & ask if there's another one I can plug into...

"Nah Bro. That's the only one. Actually... someone told me yesterday that something was wrong with it. We could get our guy to fix it up if you want to come back next week..."

Ummm... Thanks there, Beavis.

It's a good thing I didn't call ahead of time and specifically ask about THAT amp and make a trip down here for it.

The look on his face when I said that I wanted to run the Stiletto combo through a 4x12 was equally priceless...

 

[Kosh Naranek]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

I miss Mars Music, which had rooms that you could take an amp into and crank it w/o bothering anybody.

This is interesting because the GC in my area has rooms like this. They have a separate acoutic guitar room, where Mr I-gotta-sell-a-pink-guitar could have had his customer take the acoustic guitar for a spin. It's not just another area of the store, it behind a closed door. You can't hear all the wanking on the main floor in the acoustic room.

They have the large open sales floor which is generally packed with kids playing out of tune leads & off-time riffs on mid-range imported guitars through buzzy-toned amps with the gain maxed, and they have a vintage and high end guitar gear room, which I believe is soundproofed. They're happy to let someone who's serious about buying a vintage or high end instrument or amp go in there, shut the door behind them, and crank up.

 

[vladmarr]

Re: Ever get hassled for playing too loud??? Alchemist & GC content

i was at this place in my town (like GC, i won't post the name) and i was there to buy my christmas present to me...a mid price accoustic to beat arround with, anyways i narrow it down to 3 possibilities (a tak, a Yamaha-for some reason sounded good, and an Ibanez-which sounded better) anyways they put me in a "sound proof" glass room, the sales guy tried to convince me that a bass amp was like an accoustic amp...correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure it's not...any ways about half way through playing some stuff on guitar 2 when in come 2 teen "shred kings" and turn the amp up to 11 and one of them starts showing off his so called chops (before one of them tuned the shred stick) normally i can tune out most loud noises, but the fact that the out of tune guitar coupled with a distortion that was a somewhere between loud Hissing and a buzzaw, i took 2 of the guitars out of the room, found a corner near the pianos and did picked my accoustic in peace. don't get me wrong i love distortion, but not when it sounds like nails in a blender. that is one time i wish the sales guys would have stepped in, those guys didn't buy anything anyways.

i was at another shop trying out a Les Paul Custom i have my eye on, and the guys the sales guys there actually came over and asked me to show him what i was playing...that was kinda cool