Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Guitarist

Guitarist

Mesa-ologist
I come in and sit down on the only amplifier not occupied by some 12 year old metawl wannabe. I notice that the amp is a complete compromise...you either have the lowend or the topend, but never both at the same time, you know? Anyway, some salesmen who's seen me come in and play more than a few times comes up and starts talking to me about my Soloist. Within 30 seconds, I'm already critiquing the tone outloud, and I ask him to bring me an overdrive...an overdrive that would help balance the tone a little bit. He seemed willing to help, so I let him know that it had to be smooth, thick, and present with highs. He goes away (after far too much time with me) and comes back with a DOD Death Metal Distortion Pedal. When he comes back to me, I must've given him the look like, "Are you a **** ing idiot?", because he quickly went on to click on the clean channel and get to tweaking that pedal! Well, needless to say, I'm far too polite in real life, so I sit back for 3 minutes or so and let him pleasure himself in his tweaking abilities, while I die a little inside. I then tell him that it's not going to work, but thank you.

"Well, you wanted a good distortion pedal right?"
"No, I wanted an overdrive that would just coat the..."
"Well, this is pretty much the best thing that could get you that sound you want."
"Listen, just go and get me one of those Boss Super Overdrives you oblivious long-haired fu ck...and on your way back, swallow a few of these pills...yeah, don't mind the label."
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Guitarist said:
"Listen, just go and get me one of those Boss Super Overdrives you oblivious long-haired fu ck...and on your way back, swallow a few of these pills...yeah, don't mind the label."
Click to expand...

What does the length of his hair have to do with...well, anything? :eek13:
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Guitarist said:
I come in and sit down on the only amplifier not occupied by some 12 year old metawl wannabe. I notice that the amp is a complete compromise...you either have the lowend or the topend, but never both at the same time, you know? Anyway, some salesmen who's seen me come in and play more than a few times comes up and starts talking to me about my Soloist. Within 30 seconds, I'm already critiquing the tone outloud, and I ask him to bring me an overdrive...an overdrive that would help balance the tone a little bit. He seemed willing to help, so I let him know that it had to be smooth, thick, and present with highs. He goes away (after far too much time with me) and comes back with a DOD Death Metal Distortion Pedal. When he comes back to me, I must've given him the look like, "Are you a **** ing idiot?", because he quickly went on to click on the clean channel and get to tweaking that pedal! Well, needless to say, I'm far too polite in real life, so I sit back for 3 minutes or so and let him pleasure himself in his tweaking abilities, while I die a little inside. I then tell him that it's not going to work, but thank you.

"Well, you wanted a good distortion pedal right?"
"No, I wanted an overdrive that would just coat the..."
"Well, this is pretty much the best thing that could get you that sound you want."
"Listen, just go and get me one of those Boss Super Overdrives you oblivious long-haired fu ck...and on your way back, swallow a few of these pills...yeah, don't mind the label."
Click to expand...

I emphatize with you. I have been in your shoes,( at least in a similar situation) at music shop here in Mumbai (Bombay).
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

I was at a GC lately. I noticed that they had a vintage Marshall, so while I usually just walk through and leave, I wanted to play this one. The long haired kid was pretty helpful in this case. He didn't make any idiotic presumptions either.

I coudn't really evaluate the amp with all the people on modeling amps and rectum friers going: "chugga>chugga>chugga> rip> belch>sqeeeel>chugga>chugga> chugga>...."

GC is what it is. It's a lot like walmarts. They don't usually have much selection beyond the usual stuff. For example, the pickups they have on hand are usually just JB's, Hot Rails, and Super Distortions. Don't ask em to order anything else either.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

I hate it whenever I want to try a high end guitar like a jackson soloist, an then they plug me in to some cheap crate, scoop the mids, and then turn the volume all the way up.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

I'm a long-haired kid fvck... but i DO know good tone :D

Take that!
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

I think they mic Guitar Centers and send the feed straight to hell to provide a soundtrack. It is sheer musical anthrax IMO.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

The "local", or should we say nearest guitar store here (100 kilometres away) is the worst one ever.

I remember a couple of funny things that happened there:

1. I asked if i could try a MTD Basic 5, a very expensive bass. Even though i'm NOT a naive person, i knew that i'd never be allowed to try it, since i were just 14 at the time, and it's a very expensive instrument. But they took it down and gave it to me. "Thanks," i said. "Do you have an amp?"

"No, i don't have time to plug in an amp. Just play it unplugged".

2. At the same place, but a year later, i wanted to try a Laney tube amp (i believe it was a 30w Class A model) so i asked if i could. Well, the guy turned on the amp and gave me a friggin' jazzbox. I asked him if i could borrow a strat instead, to which the employee replied "can't you play a REAL guitar?". Oh well. I finally got a strat, and started playing, when i noticed that the employee had tweaked the amp with tons of gain and DAMN high volume. As soon as i struck the first chord, i noticed that it was DARN loud, but before i were able to turn it on the clean channel and turn down the volume, the guy were standing behind me and saying "that's what i knew. You wannabe metalhead. Turn down that amp or get out of here".

NOT a good seller IMO ;)
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

I will say this - I have a couple of friend's who have been managers at GC and have been amazing people. I get UNHEARD of deals, and they have made efforts for their department to stock everything from '69 Marshall Plexis to Bogners and Matchless. One odf them has since left, the other has moved to a different location in my city.

That being said, I have had many salesman outright LIE TO ME about products, as if I wouldn't know better or check on the internet. I have had salesman lie to me about items and their pricing.

Recently, one salesman, whom I had known locally (he playsin a cover band at a bar I goto), not only lied to me about products, but when I politely told him he should check in the computer rather than being abrasive - he went into an offensive (re: thing you don't say in publicly run corp.) diatribe at me.

Needless to say, his manager took care of it.

I think the problem is, GC hires full time only - so you get more disgruntled wannabe players (re: used car salesman), than real folks who love music and don't mind making money working with music instrument companies.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Guitarist said:
I come in and sit down on the only amplifier not occupied by some 12 year old metawl wannabe. I notice that the amp is a complete compromise...you either have the lowend or the topend, but never both at the same time, you know? Anyway, some salesmen who's seen me come in and play more than a few times comes up and starts talking to me about my Soloist.
Click to expand...

So...the difference between being a metal wannabe versus actually metal is apparently the age of the person and the presence of a Soloist?

I'd think once you get past the Barney-bump you and the kids might have alot in common.

Don't **** on the GC help. You know they're not qualified to do much of anything. Why'd you think that asking them to bring you a pedal would be anything but an act of utter over-complexity to them?

When you deal with Chimps you have to expect some dung-flinging.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Last time I was in GC, I was testing out the TS-9 overdrive on a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectum Fryer at bedroom levels (bedroom level is exaggerated, since it is impossible to do that). Anyway there was this black guy with a jerry-curl and strat into Marshall tube combo trying to get the intro right Los Lonely Boys "Heaven" but screwing it up everytime. I was waiting for one of the GC guys to come buy and pull his cable out of the amp
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Shouldn't a thread dedicated to bitching and moaning about the GC grunts be in the Sound Room?

n00bs.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

Not a GC story - but I want to share. (The nearest GC is about 150 miles away)

We have a big music store in Reno called Maytan - been around for about 50 years. They have a sattelite store where is live, 30 miles away in Carson City. I went in there looking for a case for my new 335. The guy in there was really helpful - went into the back room looking - he was sure he had one - but came back saying, "Sorry we must have sold it." No problem - we had a really good talk about different amps - he's a pretty big fan of Crates - I told my history with them - blah blah - but we educated each other.

So I decide the next day to visit the BIG store in Reno. Went up to the guitar doode that worked there and told him I wanted a case for my 335. He said, "I don't know what you're talking about, man." I told him it has a semi-hollowbody electric. He said, "We got SGs and Les Pauls - that's it." Not even willing to look for me. I shook my head and told him I was going to a different store - no response.

Idiots work everywhere - GC doesn't have the monopoly.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

B2D said:
n00bs.
Click to expand...
lowl d1sgruntl3d GC n00bs.

One GC worker was trying to push a used JCM 900 head on me saying it gets more gain than a Dual Rec. I hate the guys who work there and follow you around and say something about everything you glance at. this guy was one of them. I literally looked at a Mesa Mark IV "oh those rectifiers are great." there wasn't even a rectifier nearby the Mark IV.

Sometimes I wish I could work at GC just so I could break most of the stereotypes, but damn i hear that's a crappy place to work.

PS: Guitarist, that 4-line convo you posted at the bottom of your thread... was that fictitious or did that actually happen? Props if that actually happened and you owned him like you did.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

When life hands you a death metal distortion pedal, you just gotta make up some death metal.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

GC is a place you go ONLY when you know exactly what you want. Get in, get it, and get out. It is NOT a place to go for advice about gear. If you've been playing for more than 5 years, chances are, as many posts above illustrate, you know far more about the gear than they do.

Sometimes they will flat-out lie to you, as Olin points out (it has happened to me too), but I think more often it's just sheer lack of experience and/or knowledge about their product lines.

That said, you will occasionally run into guys there who do know what they're talking about and will steer you right. But unless you already know enough to steer yourself right, you won't know which category your guy falls into until it's too late.
 
Re: Guitar Center ROOLZ!

i used to work at a gc for a few years. THEY HIRE MORONS WHO KNOW NOTHING!!!!
and then they over work them and demand more sales and more extended warrentys and more blood and sweat. that isnt to say that there arent a few good guys but in general assume that they know less than your baby sister but they know the "cool" words to throw out so it sounds like they might have a clue. dont be fooled, they dont know crap.

gc can be a good place to shop, its not quite like wallmart. wallmart sells crap, you cant really buy anything of high quality but everything is inexpensive. the stuff at gc is the same as at the mom and pop shops or the internet and if you know what you want (dont ask questions, they dont know the right answers, they may have an answer but it probably is wrong or atleast incomplete) and know what list price of an item is, you can get a good deal.

my "buying strategy" is 60% of list price, including tax.
if they say they cant do it, find someone else that will because 90% of the time they can do it, they just dont want to.

i can do that for a few reasons, none of which include the fact that i used to work there. almost all, if not all the people i know/worked with at that store are gone so its all new faces.
i know what i want so i dont need to waste the gc monkeys time, which means i feel no obligation to pay him for his time. he is clerking a deal not selling me something. they all work on commission even most managers, so if i find a guy who is worth talking to and has insight ill actually pay more, rewarding him for being a good salesmen. a good salesmen listens to what you think you want, figures out what you really want and lets you play both and decide for yourself.

some stuff especially pro audio there isnt as much mark up so for audio, look around on the net, see what the best price is and make them match it. including tax and whatever else. if the salesmen brings up shipping, tell him its free even if its not cause most times it will be.
 
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