Thank God for Guitar Center Setups

#81
MoeTown1986 said:
Not buying a bass because of a bad setup would be like not buying a car because the seat and mirrors weren't adjusted to YOU when you sat in it.
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I've seen it before, but I just don't buy that analogy.
Not that setups are that difficult, but they do require the correct sizes of allen keys and phillips screw drivers. The car seats and mirrors don't require tools or any specific knowledge.
 
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#85
Hey man, I feel ya...you weren't "in the market" for a new bass...just looking around.
Had you picked something up and fell in love with it (knowing whether it was killer or not)
you just may have had to go home and justify that purchase to the missus. Op didn't say he
was incapable of doing a setup, just that the initial impression is a bit off putting...and I
couldn't agree more. I went to a local mom and pop and was excited to see something
different than the usual Fender/Squier, Gibson/Epiphone, Dean, Ibanez same old brands
and spotted 2 R basses. A 4 and a 6 were hanging there waiting to be desecrated by my
grubby hands...I saw the a$$king price and from what I've heard are well regarded
instruments. I picked up the 6, tried to tap out a chord and found it to be a major struggle.
So I put it right back down...and picked up the 4...the relief in the neck must have left 1/4
" or more gap between string and fretboard. Not what I would expect to see in a $3000+
instrument. Of course they had thousands of guitars with perfect setups, but honestly
if you can't be bothered to do a halfway decent setup anticipating a buyer like me walking
in (I'm CURIOUS, not necessarily going to buy it but...if I fall in love I'm going for it! I'm
not looking to waste anyones time asking for a set up), I'm not interested in what you got
to sell me!
 
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#86
Lesgo said:
I found myself out in the burbs with some time to kill the other day, so I was able to pop into my local Guitar Center.

On the wall were two beautiful Precision Basses. An olympic white Highway One for $549, and a red 60th Anniversary MIA with a maple board for $649. I asked to try both, and I was quickly developing my plan for how I would justify this purchase to my wife when I got home with one of them later that evening.

GC employee handed me the 60th Anniversary. I plugged it in and played it. It had maybe the worst setup I've ever dealt with on a bass guitar. I handed it back. He handed me the Highway One. Setup was much better, but still terrible. I dinked around on it for a few minutes and handed it back.

I know for a fact if either bass had a semi-decent setup, I'd have one more P Bass that I don't need. Why don't they just setup their instruments? Oh well. I dodged a bullet!
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Ask them to do a quick setup on them. my store will.
 
#87
Lesgo said:
I found myself out in the burbs with some time to kill the other day, so I was able to pop into my local Guitar Center.

On the wall were two beautiful Precision Basses. An olympic white Highway One for $549, and a red 60th Anniversary MIA with a maple board for $649. I asked to try both, and I was quickly developing my plan for how I would justify this purchase to my wife when I got home with one of them later that evening.

GC employee handed me the 60th Anniversary. I plugged it in and played it. It had maybe the worst setup I've ever dealt with on a bass guitar. I handed it back. He handed me the Highway One. Setup was much better, but still terrible. I dinked around on it for a few minutes and handed it back.

I know for a fact if either bass had a semi-decent setup, I'd have one more P Bass that I don't need. Why don't they just setup their instruments? Oh well. I dodged a bullet!
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I don’t think it is GC as a whole that is part of the problem, as I’ve gone to more than my fair share of music stores that weren’t GC and found basses that had bad set ups, and on more than one occasion I was greeted with scorn and a snarky comment when I asked to have a bass on the wall set up so I can determine if it’s worth my money.

Plenty of music stores have lazy employees, GC or not. I’ve certainly had problems with employees at GC who didn’t know what they were talking about or spent more time trying to push a crap product on me that I clearly didn’t want, but GC is like any other big box retailer, and that’s the kind of service you’ll get.

My last trip to GC, I played 4 or 5 basses, all but one had a decent set up, and the one I walked out of the store with was set up so perfectly that it was effortless to play. The only downside was one of the sales guys trying to push a different brand on me, despite my telling him several times that I wasn’t interested. The other sales guy, who handled the sale, was knowledgeable and gave us a decent deal.
 
#90
mp40smg said:
from MY experience... you are not correct.
At the places I worked. One of us sales dweebs HAD to check an instrument out, look at it, tune it, and made sure it was acceptable BEFORE it got hung up, we would also tag them at this point with model info/ pricing.

Anything that was really off would be sent down to a tech. The tech would then either make it playable, OR send it back for replacement.

In our down time.. get a tuner and a polish cloth, start on the left and work to the end.

Because.. IT makes a huge difference. The customer buys with their eyes first. Shiney is better than dull. Unless it is supposed to look beat up.


Then they pull the guitar down.. Hey! It's in tune! As opposed to hitting a chords and it being massively out of tune and asking for a tuner.

Or even worse, if the A is a step off + or - and the player just tunes it to that A (especially in a loud store) ..
All of a sudden it plays like crap because you are tuning it a step too high, or it's buzzing all over as it's a step too low.

I have seen many times where it was not noticed and some kid put a guitar into some "alternate" tuning. the guitar was put back up. Then given to another customer who spends more time tying to tune than play. Gets frustrated and leaves.Especially on a busy/ LOUD saturday.

And.. from experience... you NEVER wanted to be the "Oh, let ME tune that for you" sales dweeb.. Right up there with "Wow! who is that ugly person, who let them in?"..customer " Oh ya, that's my girlfriend"..
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If it was me, that's how I would do it too. In my dream MI store, there is a floor for basses as big as guitars, and they'd have ever color in back. The instruments would be in tune, setup to basic standards, and cleaned. It would also go right out of business.
In my perfect shopping experience, everything would be reachable, everything would work, and I'd never have to talk to a salesperson until I needed one. That is just as likely as my idea about the perfect store.

To a degree I guess, I don't personally identify with his experience. I go to MI stores all the time, but have never been suddenly compelled to buy a bass. I'm not a impulse buyer. I'll have to agonize over it for at least a week before committing. The setup isn't a deal breaker for me.
 
#92
Lesgo said:
I found myself out in the burbs with some time to kill the other day, so I was able to pop into my local Guitar Center.

On the wall were two beautiful Precision Basses. An olympic white Highway One for $549, and a red 60th Anniversary MIA with a maple board for $649. I asked to try both, and I was quickly developing my plan for how I would justify this purchase to my wife when I got home with one of them later that evening.

GC employee handed me the 60th Anniversary. I plugged it in and played it. It had maybe the worst setup I've ever dealt with on a bass guitar. I handed it back. He handed me the Highway One. Setup was much better, but still terrible. I dinked around on it for a few minutes and handed it back.

I know for a fact if either bass had a semi-decent setup, I'd have one more P Bass that I don't need. Why don't they just setup their instruments? Oh well. I dodged a bullet!
Click to expand...

I bought an MIA P bass from a GC in Buffalo NY in 2015. It played ok off the wall, then they set it up before giving it to me. I haven't touched it since; they did an amazing job. And no, I don't work there.
 
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#94
WardEarth said:
The end point being that these stores would probably sell more instruments if they went through and did some simple setups. Ya it would be man hours, but I think it would be worth it.
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In theory, I agree.

But some of these goobers man, I dunno. That kind of training takes time and doesn't stick to everyone. I can see basses going from bow and arrow to buzz city, from bad to worse, and that won't help sales a bit.

Plus, I don't want these gems to increase in sales! That's my secret stash. Every time I save a few hundred bucks off the next lowest price, or make that rare find I've been hoping for, I'm glad they don't set up their basses!
 
#96
Lesgo said:
I found myself out in the burbs with some time to kill the other day, so I was able to pop into my local Guitar Center.

On the wall were two beautiful Precision Basses. An olympic white Highway One for $549, and a red 60th Anniversary MIA with a maple board for $649. I asked to try both, and I was quickly developing my plan for how I would justify this purchase to my wife when I got home with one of them later that evening.

GC employee handed me the 60th Anniversary. I plugged it in and played it. It had maybe the worst setup I've ever dealt with on a bass guitar. I handed it back. He handed me the Highway One. Setup was much better, but still terrible. I dinked around on it for a few minutes and handed it back.

I know for a fact if either bass had a semi-decent setup, I'd have one more P Bass that I don't need. Why don't they just setup their instruments? Oh well. I dodged a bullet!
Click to expand...

ACTUALLY, you dropped the ball.

I would have handed that MIA back to the sales guy and said "Wow - this thing needs work... I'll give you $500 for it" - and then taken it to a good tech for a setup.
 
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#99
I was killing time there a couple of weeks ago. Picked up a top of the line Fender Jazz bass. Think it was close to 2 grand. The strings were about an inch and a half off the frets and the saddles were set so high, you could have zip lined to the nut.

If I was looking to buy, it would piss me off and at that price point, I would expect them to set it for free
 
#100
As usual, I think everyone is missing the point. OP is being (slightly sarcastically, imo, but that's cool in my book) thankful that he didn't spend money on an unneeded new bass.

But I, too, have experienced poor setups on instruments at GC. I've been a Fender guy my whole life, but on my last visit to my local GC I noticed some nice Epiphones that I thought I'd try; 2 EB-0, 1 T-Bird. Both of the EBs were truly unplayable, and the T-Bird was almost unplayable. I mentioned this to a salesperson, and I'm curious to see if there's any change in my next visit.
 
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