Guitar center is going under!

#61
TheMaynorD said:
The only benefit to a guitar center or any brick and mortar music store now that sweetwater, musician's friend, etc. are available is to actually get your hands on an instrument or piece of equipment and play it before you buy it or for emergency issues like strings the day before a show. And for the bedroom warriors to go and shred the same 5 rock songs on the most expensive guitar then leave without buying anything. Don't get me wrong, I have definitely played on basses I have no intention of buying, but I usually try and pick up some strings or something and not just sit there for 2 hours on that 1967 P bass only to noodle.
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Absolutely!
Sometimes things you order online are hard to get replaced. A friend of mine bought a Marshall amp online. 3 times they sent a bad amp! One had scratches on it and made a popping noise. Brick and mortar this won't happen, as you can look it over and play it first before you leave the store.
And mom n' pop stores are no better. I had a local luthier set up a bass for me. It's been 4 weeks he's had it!! Their selection is poor and prices are high. I have no sympathy for them.
 
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#62
Sunset Shalom said:


I guess they are in major debt and likely won't survive the next year, though apparently they plan to leave a Hollywood and 1 other of their best stores open. All the other stores will be selling off their stock.

Can't say I am too sad to see them go, maybe now we will see more local music stores again. It also should be a good chance to snag some great sales depending on how they try and liquidate.
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Going bankrupt is not closing business.
 
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#64
They have been in bad shape for years. I read a report suggesting that they had survived as long as they have because they are so big. The larger the debt, the more time the banks generally give you. They almost become too big to fail. The banks will crush a little guy but give the bigger guy's time to recover. It may eventually happen, maybe that time is now.
 
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#66
I worked for GC from '98 to '03. Back then it was all about customer service. From the door guy/girl greeting you to being acknowledged by a salesman.

Now when I walk into my local GC there have been times when no one says 2 words or acknowledges me at all.

It's totally a different company then it was BITD.
 
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#67
GBBSbassist said:
Well...I went to Guitar Center yesterday to pick up some bass strings before practice. I stood there for 10 full minutes without anyone at the register ringing me out. I asked three different employees if there was someone who could ring me up and they all said "There's no one at the register? I'll go find him..." I had to bug the guy at the 'Lessons' counter to come ring me up at the register, AND, he seemed annoyed at me because of it...

Go shag yourself Country Club Hills Guitar Center. You suck, your business model sucks, your employees suck.

There are NO mom and pop shops near me though because of the poopie show that is GC.
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I have also had issues with Country Club Hills GC. They had a use Cirrus 6 that they marked at 5 out of 5 condition so I drove all the way out there and the strings were a mile off the fretboard, one of the pickups is really loose, the preamp had been swapped, an extra hole was drilled in it, half the knobs crackled when you turned them and two of them weren't functional at all. I asked them what the deal was and the guy straight up said "yea, we usually just rate everything 5 stars" and then went back to what he was doing in the computer.
 
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#69
Sunset Shalom said:


I guess they are in major debt and likely won't survive the next year, though apparently they plan to leave a Hollywood and 1 other of their best stores open. All the other stores will be selling off their stock.

Can't say I am too sad to see them go, maybe now we will see more local music stores again. It also should be a good chance to snag some great sales depending on how they try and liquidate.
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#72
I doubt they are all shutting down. Guitar center is like a cockroach lol There’s always supposedly shutting down but I’ve yet to see a single location close in my area. I thought they were years back even got some great deals at the Raleigh Capitol Blvd store (including $5,600 new warwick for $2800) because they were getting rid of a lot of their high end gear. But since then they’ve been building more locations in NC. There’s a Guitar center studios about two miles from my house they just opened maybe a year or two ago. It’s a MUCH smaller store compared to the Raleigh, NC location and the one in Illinois where I bought my first Warwick. Which are both massive. Now that Guitar center doesn’t carry anything beyond maybe one or two American series fenders I really don’t have much reason to go to their stores. I’ll occasionally stop by to buy some strings if I want some for a show and forgot to order some. Even less often ill stop by to pick up a used item that was either sold to them here or shipped from another store.

But yeah I think they will continue with the small stores in areas like mine. They really don’t have any local competition as far as guitars and electronic gear here and we do have Fort Bragg here and there’s a lot of people who buy beginner gear. Our local mom and pop shop (Edwards Music) really makes their money renting instruments to junior high and high school students and doing repairs and mods like pickups swaps and stuff. Some of the basses they have hanging on the wall are ten years old now. I imagine the bulk of music gear these days is purchased online. I’m big on buying from Sweetwater, eBay, and reverb.
 
#76
TheMaynorD said:
The only benefit to a guitar center or any brick and mortar music store now that sweetwater, musician's friend, etc. are available is to actually get your hands on an instrument or piece of equipment and play it before you buy it or for emergency issues like strings the day before a show. And for the bedroom warriors to go and shred the same 5 rock songs on the most expensive guitar then leave without buying anything. Don't get me wrong, I have definitely played on basses I have no intention of buying, but I usually try and pick up some strings or something and not just sit there for 2 hours on that 1967 P bass only to noodle.
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No noodling

No noodling

Of course this sign was placed over by the BASSES and away from the guitars! Perhaps they were...
You called it. Of course, this sign was placed right next to the basses, not the guitars!
 
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