GC actually may finally be going under?

[Achtane]

I feel bad for the employees. That is all.

This. Also the steals occasionally to be found on their used site.

[elevenstrings]

I feel bad for the employees. That is all.

Whenever I meet someone who works/worked for Guitar Center, I give them my best, badly-timed rendition of "Enter Sandman". Works like a charm!

[bigchiefbc]

I feel bad for the employees. That is all.

This. Also the steals occasionally to be found on their used site.

Hells yeah, I got my Bugera head used on the GC site at a fucking awesome price. That is mostly what I've used GC for in the last couple years. Although I have bought some cables and my straplocks on there as well.

[Jeff-7]

It's the only place near me where I can try new Gibsons

This. Gibsons purchase requirements for carrying their product are ridiculous.

[hbombgraphics]

Over the past few years our local GC has really improved, the people who work there are awesome, and in general are really helpful. It sucks that the company is in this type of trouble, and it sucks that it will impact a ton of other companies if they crash. Not sure Fender and Gibson can afford to let guitar center fail.

I do feel like the US instrument industry in total is in trouble, people are more apt to dig for deals or buy used gear now, and the quality of imports is getting better all the time.
Something has to give, or in a few years this same article will be written about fender and gibson.

[D.o.S.]

It's the only place near me where I can try new Gibsons

This. Gibsons purchase requirements for carrying their product are ridiculous.

+1000. It's a little silly, because GC owes a ton of money to Gibson, but you can't find a Gibson in a smaller shop because the smaller shop can't afford the initial investment/floor space for gear that's going to sit for a while.

[McSpunckle]

Something has to give, or in a few years this same article will be written about fender and gibson.

I think what will "give" is prices on American made instruments, and they already are, but not enough. You can get a fairly decent Gibson for like $700 new these days, and good quality imports don't cost much less.

That said, Godin has figured out how to make guitars in Canada, out of decent wood, with at least the quality of cheaper Gibsons (but with better finishes) for about $500. And I think both Fender and Gibson are going to end up figuring out how to do that. Although, Fender is quite happy putting the Fender name on imports (at least from Mexico), so they may not even bother.

Bain bought out GC in 2007. The economy hasn't exactly been great since then, so maybe as the economy recovers people will start buying guitars and such. Also, judging by all the companies they've bought up, they might just be as bad as HP at acquisitions.

On the other hand, maybe the Walmart model just doesn't work so well for guitars. Smaller music stores are still pretty easy to find. Maybe it's not so much that people aren't buying the guitars as they aren't buying them from GC.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

this is an overly broad generalization, so not true on every front, but i think most ppl go to GC to try shit out, then if they find something they like, they find a better price somewhere else

[spacelordmother]

Maybe it's not so much that people aren't buying the guitars as they aren't buying them from GC.

this is an overly broad generalization, so not true on every front, but i think most ppl go to GC to try shit out, then if they find something they like, they find a better price somewhere else

This. Also, I have had nothing but bad luck in finding instruments that have been completely neglected in every way. I have been in there to try things out several times, and would have dropped the cash if something had been nice, but when even the MIA Fenders are out of tune and poorly setup it's not hard to develop a "why bother" mentality about going in there.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

Maybe it's not so much that people aren't buying the guitars as they aren't buying them from GC.

this is an overly broad generalization, so not true on every front, but i think most ppl go to GC to try shit out, then if they find something they like, they find a better price somewhere else

This. Also, I have had nothing but bad luck in finding instruments that have been completely neglected in every way. I have been in there to try things out several times, and would have dropped the cash if something had been nice, but when even the MIA Fenders are out of tune and poorly setup it's not hard to develop a "why bother" mentality about going in there.

was talking about something similar with a friend the other day.

like if u go in there to buy a new guitar, do they just give u the one off the wall?
i dunno cuz ive never bought a guitar there
i'm not expecting everything to be BRAND SPANKIN NEW
but some of those guitars have to have dings, scratches, poor setups, etc etc.

and if i'm about to drop a grand + on a nice ass guitar there, i want to be the one to scratch it and ding it.
maybe they drop the price for u thooo

ive also seen some improvement in my local GC as well. friendly, more helpful ppl. not as pushy or douchey or cliche/lame. waayy more human.
i wonder if they changed up the employee training or something
cuz like 5 - 10 years ago, they used to be akin to 15-17 year old zumiez employees.
"what kind of brands do you like?"

[Gunner Recall]

The GC near me tries to sell you the one off the wall...at least it seems that way.
I always seem to be interested in the "last one" in stock.

#1 reason they never get my money for new guitar purchases.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

The GC near me tries to sell you the one off the wall...at least it seems that way.
I always seem to be interested in the "last one" in stock.

#1 reason they never get my money for new guitar purchases.

yea, my guess is that they have some stock in the back w/ new guitars in boxes.
but probably very few, like 1 or maybe 2
but every guitar? does not compute

[bigchiefbc]

Maybe it's not so much that people aren't buying the guitars as they aren't buying them from GC.

this is an overly broad generalization, so not true on every front, but i think most ppl go to GC to try shit out, then if they find something they like, they find a better price somewhere else

This. Also, I have had nothing but bad luck in finding instruments that have been completely neglected in every way. I have been in there to try things out several times, and would have dropped the cash if something had been nice, but when even the MIA Fenders are out of tune and poorly setup it's not hard to develop a "why bother" mentality about going in there.

was talking about something similar with a friend the other day.

like if u go in there to buy a new guitar, do they just give u the one off the wall?
i dunno cuz ive never bought a guitar there
i'm not expecting everything to be BRAND SPANKIN NEW
but some of those guitars have to have dings, scratches, poor setups, etc etc.

and if i'm about to drop a grand + on a nice ass guitar there, i want to be the one to scratch it and ding it.
maybe they drop the price for u thooo

ive also seen some improvement in my local GC as well. friendly, more helpful ppl. not as pushy or douchey or cliche/lame. waayy more human.
i wonder if they changed up the employee training or something
cuz like 5 - 10 years ago, they used to be akin to 15-17 year old zumiez employees.
"what kind of brands do you like?"

Yes, they do try to push the floor models on you. The only time I've ever bought a guitar in person at a GC was a Squier VM Jag bass last winter. They tried to give me the floor model, and I told them that they're either giving me a new-in-box one, or they're dropping the price down to 200 since it was a floor model (it was priced 300 new). They claimed they didn't have another one, that the floor model was the "last one". I told them, "that's your problem, this isn't a new bass anymore". They wouldn't come down on the price, but I got them to throw in a hardshell case with it. I brought it home and set it up, and it plays fine. No dings that i could find.

[benjuro]

I've run into the piss poor setup problem too many times there.
New gibson bass I'd like to check out--cool they have one--wow, I'd never buy this, never mind cough up the $$$ on the price tag.
A couple have been okay, but most of the employees I've dealt with there have been total fucktards. I can't get past the "Dude, what kind of guitar do you play?" and "wow, those are heavy strings, what kind of guitar are they going on?" Twice I've been shortchanged in the same store and had to point out to the salesman that he hadn't given me enough change...bills, not coins.
I walked in with my epiphone scroll years ago to try to find a case, and some employee INSISTS on grabbing it by the upper horn and taking it up to the counter to record that I brought it in with me, and I had to yell at the kid to not scrape his belt buckle across the back of my 30+ year old guitar while he wielded it like it was a fucking toy.
Years ago I used to enjoy going out there, and three or four of us would make it a saturday afternoon bone cruise destination once every month or two. They've built a newer one 15 minutes from my house, and the one we used to travel to is 5 minutes from where I now work. I've been there once in the past 4 years--to swap out a dead monster cable. I would much rather get stuff from the smaller store in town, even when it's more $ and I have to wait for them to order it.

[Psyre]

I have not purchased a guitar from them, but my band mate did buy a Tele HH from them this summer. I went with him because I knew I was better at getting a deal than he would have been, since he is the quietest person I know. The only reason we got one from GC is because they have special edition, exclusice paint options and he wanted the seafoam tele they had. They insisted they only had the wall, and the annoying sales man who wouldn't let us just spend some time with it and try it, insisted he couldn't lower the price. I finally had to ask him to leave us alone (very awkward and difficult for me to do) there were no visible dings, but it wasn't new, so I told him we were only interested in it if we could get $50 off and some strings to replace the shitty 8's that were on it. Luckily the manager in the Little Rock store use to be the manager at my local GC in Michigan, so I pulled out his name on the salesman and he agreed. For a 50 year old, he sure didn't have much tact.

The last purchase I made, I went in to buy some headphones, drumsticks, and a vocal effect. The guy gave me an empty box (only had the cabled and psa in it) I didn't notice because there was a lot of stuff in the bag. I had to drive back (hour and a half drive) just to pick up the damn pedal the next day.