How hard is it for a guitar shop to keep its guitars tuned?

[Electric Blues]

Sweet Jesus!

Guitars not being in tune are an issue? I fine tune any guitar I pick up in a store regardless, since I want to see how the tuners work anyway.

 

I couldn't believe it when I read reviews that stated a guitar was a POS because the bridge was too high or too low right out of the box. I didn't believe anyone could whine that frickin much. I guess I stand corrected.

[csm]

On a good day, when my deafness isn't acting up or the ambient volume/noise isn't too extreme, I can tune a guitar fairly effectively -- provided, of course, it's fitted with reasonably fresh, clean strings and the intonation isn't totally skrude.

[trill]

Sweet Jesus! Guitars not being in tune are an issue? I fine tune any guitar I pick up in a store regardless, since I want to see how the tuners work anyway. I couldn't believe it when I read reviews that stated a guitar was a POS because the bridge was too high or too low right out of the box. I didn't believe anyone could whine that frickin much. I guess I stand corrected.

 

Dude, did you even read my post? You're saying you've got no problem tuning up a FR-equipped guitar, with a locking nut, without an electronic tuner, in a crowded guitar store with a 13-year-old bashing out Type O Negative songs at 125db next to you? I guess you're the sort of customer Guitar Center is looking for.

 

I don't expect every guitar in every guitar store to be perfectly intonated, with a fresh set of strings and a free roll of toilet paper. The two shops in my town have an average of 30 guitars each on the wall. Of those 30, maybe 5 of them have bridge/nut/tuner setups that make tuning on the fly pretty difficult. I don't think it's too much for me to ask that they be kept generally in tune, especially when the guys at the store spend 98% of the day dicking around and listening to Alter Bridge.

[Der Induktionator]

It doesn't surprise me so much when guitars in a shop aren't in tune, but some stores when you ask a salesperson if they have a tuner they look at you like you asked for some alien artifact, and then go hunting around the store for someone who might know what a tuner is, and then go hunting around for whoever it is that had it last.

[Frets99]

I always have one of these in my pocket.

 

 

Doesn't matter how much noise is going on around me, I can tune a guitar.

 

I agree that it's a pain to have to tune 6 way out of tune guitars in a row before playing them.

[trill]

I always have one of these in my pocket. Doesn't matter how much noise is going on around me, I can tune a guitar. I agree that it's a pain to have to tune 6 way out of tune guitars in a row before playing them.

 

What a wonderful little invention! I've never even seen one before. And pretty cheap, too.

 

I'll pick one up if I ever order from MF/Sam Ash again.

[cephus]

Dude, did you even read my post? You're saying you've got no problem tuning up a FR-equipped guitar, with a locking nut, without an electronic tuner, in a crowded guitar store with a 13-year-old bashing out Type O Negative songs at 125db next to you? I guess you're the sort of customer Guitar Center is looking for.

 

I don't genrally go into a store and start pulling guitars down to noodle around on just for the sport of it. So, I wouldn't necessarily be playing a guitar during the 13 year old peak hours.

 

I consider a floyd guitar sort of an exotic item that I really wouldn't find myself trying out every time I see one. I have a floyd guitar and it is a pain in the ass to tune when I'm at home. I don't really want another one. I bought it when I was 18 or something. I have played long enough since to know that I enjoy guitars that I can tune without a 19 piece craftsman toolset. Those are the guitars I play in music stores.

 

So, how about we say, they should keep the floyded guitars in tune for the flyd rose guys and leave all the rest of them to people who don't have tin ears.

[Shagrat]

I was shopping for a Gibson Les Paul a few weeks ago and I must have tried around 12 guitars at one store in particular. Of those 12, 3 were so covered in dust that my shirt looked like a well-used lint trap when I was finished. Not cool... As you can imagine, they weren't even close to being in-tune. These weren't {censored}ty guitars either; some of them were Standards and Classics.

[Electric Blues]

 

I don't expect every guitar in every guitar store to be perfectly intonated, with a fresh set of strings and a free roll of toilet paper. The two shops in my town have an average of 30 guitars each on the wall. Of those 30, maybe 5 of them have bridge/nut/tuner setups that make tuning on the fly pretty difficult. I don't think it's too much for me to ask that they be kept generally in tune, especially when the guys at the store spend 98% of the day dicking around and listening to Alter Bridge.

 

 

Sorry, I just don't share opinion about the tuning thing. Usually, if I don't like a way a business is setup or how it treats its customers, I just haul my ass and cash somewhere else.

[Runn3r]

...from my observations...the ones with the floyd roses stay in tune best over a long period of idle time...

[blueshawk1]

 

I don't expect Guitar Center to make sure all 600 Mexican Fenders on its walls ring at a perfect A440, but the so-called Mom&Pop stores should be able to keep their guitars in tune, with non-gunky strings on them, right?

 

 

Actually, I think it'd be just as much of a battle, almost every time someone came in, they'd have to retune the guitar as soon as they left because there are so many "knob twisters" - I know, "knob" isn't the correct word for a tuning key, but that's what we call them at the local shop where I visit with the owners every week. You see them coming in and the first thing they are doing is twisting the keys. I've been inthere, checking out a guitar, the tuning was dead on, that watched someone else come in, give it one strum and start twisting the keys, and when they left, it was all f-ed up.

[Big Pimpin' T]

I spent a lot of time cleaning up the guitars when I started working for my new boss (small M&P shop, dealing mostly in sound/light rental). They've all been intonated, truss-rod adjusted, polished, and get a tuning in the late afternoon, and a dusting once a week.

 

However, as I have put a lot of work into keeping them clean, I'm a bit anal when it comes to demoing. You have to take off or cover anything you may be wearing that can scratch the guitar, and I keep a bottle of Purell handy for those sticky fingers.

[ashasha]

I spent a lot of time cleaning up the guitars when I started working for my new boss (small M&P shop, dealing mostly in sound/light rental). They've all been intonated, truss-rod adjusted, polished, and get a tuning in the late afternoon, and a dusting once a week. However, as I have put a lot of work into keeping them clean, I'm a bit anal when it comes to demoing. You have to take off or cover anything you may be wearing that can scratch the guitar, and I keep a bottle of Purell handy for those sticky fingers.

No doubt man. I can't imagine doing all that and then just sitting by idley as dick knobbers of all shapes and sizes come in there putting boogers and {censored} all over those guitars.

 

I'm not super anal about my guitars and letting people play them because of my no douchebag in my house policy, but my old man stopped by tonight, played my tele for a bit and then I put it up. He promptly chewed my ass (and I'm a grown man, I'm 40...for all the Ok State football fans ) because I didn't wipe it down. {censored}, he went and washed his hands before he played it and only jammed for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately not everyone at the store is so polite.

 

I like things neat, clean and working properly and even as OCD as I can be at times, I understand that in most cases its pretty unreasonable to expect a store to keep up on their guitar tuning.

[dimmypage]

I worked in a music store for a while...... AND the LAW states that guitars can NOT stay in tune for more than 1 player:thu:

[Noise...]

I don't think it really has much to do with the shop itself, but more the jackass players who can't tell when a guitar is in tune and try to "tune by ear" to look like a hot shot.

 

I've been in my local mom & pop when they aren't busy, and a guy who works there will walk around and make sure guitars are in tune and playing well. They also keep their guitars setup nicely. However, jackass A comes in thinking he's just the {censored}, and decides to attempt an alternate tuning by ear on a guitar that's already relatively close to being perfectly in tune. Meanwhile, jackass B sits over in the corner trying to tune a guitar that's already in tune to what he considers "standard tuning."

 

Now, repeat these with all letters of the alphabet on different guitars over a week, and you have some seriously {censored}ed up guitars, which the guys who work at the shop get to try and fix.

[MichaelSaulnier]

My first stop after taking a GC guitar off the wall is a Line6 amp... they all have built in tuners, and it only takes a minute or so to tune...

 

However, since I prefer 10s to 9s, I know I'm never gonna get the real feel of the guitar until I take it home and restring it...

 

Gotta love the 30 day loan... errr... return policy.

 

M

[sxyryan]

If I ever happened to work at a place like Guitar Center, I would get fired within a week.

 

Because I am lazy? Rude to customers? Stealing stuff? Nope.

 

Im obsessive and would ignore all tasks until all guitars were tuned and set up to my liking.

 

Not just the top of the line stuff, Everything from the mini strats to the low end epi's to the shred guits.

 

And I imagine by the time I was done, and satisfied, some loser would have screwed some of them up. Thus my job would never end.

 

Oh well.

[zenbu]

not only do they not keep their guitars tuned in this city but they DE-tune them as soon as a customer is through trying them...I mean `til the strings are floppy. I had two sitting next to me one time on stands that I wanted to A/B, so I picked one up and played it for a few minutes... while the shop staff was standing over me like a vulture...put it down to play the other one, as soon as it hit the stand that the staff guy picked it up to detune it to put back on the wall...I had to HEY!! him and ask... can you just wait a few minutes while I play them ferchrissakes? Unfreakinbelievable...I`m no guitar expert but that constant tuning to pitch and detuning, who knows how many times a day, can`t be good for a neck. Don`t know if it`s all over Japan or just this freakin one horse town but it pisses me off. Not sure if their logic is to keep the stress off the necks but it doesn`t work...any guitars that have been in shops for a while have necks that are all over the place.

Another thing that pissed me off this week...when I was testing that red Fernandes I bought, I told one shop guy the tone pots were not working and asked him to remove the 4 screws on the cavity cover so we could check the wiring ...and he didn`t want to !!! I could feel my blood pressure going up as I asked him what his {censored}ing problem was, told him I wouldn`t even touch anything, that I`d just look while he did it...which he eventually agreed to do but I was this close to losing it. I heard him muttering something to his co-worker under his breath about his job...something something...so I just told him if he doesn`t like his job just change it ... to which he said he couldn`t `cause he has a wife to support. I had to get another guy help me because I was afraid I was going to smack him and thats it...he`s on my {censored} list. Next time I go into that place he`d better not even look at me funny.

[ilovemystrat]

they keep all guitars not tuned in japan cuz of the %@^&!^ weather