do music stores EVER change the strings on guitars?

[cantdrive55]

I was just at the local Sam Ass and played a half dozed Strats...they all felt and sounded terrible due to the horribly dead strings. I can't imagine that keeping the guitars strung with the same strings for years would help sales.

 

Also, while there I figured out that I hate small frets.

 

 

...and just for the dude who was whining about people signing their posts:

 

-cd55

[batotman]

Nah....that would eat into profits!

[Pepi]

If you tell them you are interested in buying they will restring them. Beside that, they just set and rust

[Gosu]

My god, word.


I just bought a strat that had dirt all over the fretboard, all but the high E string completely rusted, and a {censored}ed up nut.

Toothbrush and murphy's oil soap, and it's a beauty. + A new pack o' strings :-D.

[batotman]

9 years on the shelf....bastards

[Highway_61]

That's why, no matter how good the advice really is, I don't go out and try all the Strats in a store to find the right one for me. All the strings are dead and the action is horrible. Truly, the action on a guitar fresh out of the box is usually a great deal better than the guitars hanging on the racks. It's almost like some hack tech has set them up "the way they really should be setup" when he should have left well enough alone.

BTW, the Tacoma Guitars founder always shipped his guitars strung with Elixirs, not because he was impressed with their tone, but because he felt they provided the best way to counter the lack of maintenance his guitars were going to receive at music stores.

[cantdrive55]

^Alvarez strings their guitars with Elixers too, I'd assume for the same reason.

So what do you guys do when you buy a guitar at a store? (out of all my guitars, the only one I purchased from a store was the Alvarez. Go figure.)

[Europa760]

you gotta catch em when they put new ones on em.

but old grimy ones are on them for way too damn long.

what else do these busy salespeople have to do?

[pewing33ny]

i work in a large music store and the biggest problem with dead strings is that I'm really too busy.

Believe it or not there is a ton to do in addition to the actual selling of instruments and i try to give at least 1 guitars a day new strings, setup and just some general love but that pulls me off the sales floor for 1/2 hour and considering i don't get paid if i don't sell then there's not the best motivation to do it.

The only time i can really work on a guitar that i know is special but needs a setup is when I'm working alone because I don't have to worry about someone else getting all my sales.

I personally like setting up guitars and seeing them at their full potential but the company doesn't want to pay me a set hourly wage to come in and just do the little things around the store so there isn't alot of motivation for me to do it.

[magwitch]

so if i go in and say im interested in a few guitars but all the strings are crap they will change them for me?

[seaofstrings]

Haha, probably not. I bought a '51 a few weeks ago, strings were rusted. Not oil gunk, actual freakin rust.

Made it kinda hard to play and actually get great tone. Couldn't believe it.

[Armitage]

Originally posted by Gosu I just bought a strat that had dirt all over the fretboard, all but the high E string completely rusted, and a {censored}ed up nut. Toothbrush and murphy's oil soap, and it's a beauty. + A new pack o' strings :-D.

 

 

I can imagine why you'd do that. When I buy a guitar, it's either perfect as is, or they clean and set it up for me before I take it.

[Armitage]

Originally posted by magwitch so if i go in and say im interested in a few guitars but all the strings are crap they will change them for me?

 

 

Probably not, but they will when you buy one.

[al russo]

for the people working these sales positions, it does seem to be a bit of a dilemna. IF all salespeople would carry a polishing cloth and have a can of polish around, and clean the guitars a couple times a day this problem would be solved. The issue is whether everyone will work together to do this. When you have guitars that are clean and have clean strings the sales of these guitars will increase. When a customer comes in and sees a guitar w/rusty strings he/she will probably not buy anyway. So as far as being too busy to do anything, it takes all of one minute to wipe down a guitar....

[Bruce Bennett]

Originally posted by Highway_61 That's why, no matter how good the advice really is, I don't go out and try all the Strats in a store to find the right one for me. All the strings are dead and the action is horrible. Truly, the action on a guitar fresh out of the box is usually a great deal better than the guitars hanging on the racks. It's almost like some hack tech has set them up "the way they really should be setup" when he should have left well enough alone. BTW, the Tacoma Guitars founder always shipped his guitars strung with Elixirs, not because he was impressed with their tone, but because he felt they provided the best way to counter the lack of maintenance his guitars were going to receive at music stores.

 

 

man are you WAY OFF BASE.

 

First off, Terry Atkins (luthier/founder of Tacoma) and the man under whom I apprentised first,

Put Elxier strings on his guitars because Elixer offered them a SUPER SWEET deal on the strings! (Less than a buck a pack!)

their long lasting nature was "Unproven" at the time and was considered an afterthought.

also. I don't know about the music stores you frequent but the guitars that come in to my store play like COMPELETE CRAP right out of the box and They need setup work before they go out on the floor.

The ONLY exceptions to that rule is Godin Guitars & Schecter Guitars.

and as for Acoustics, We leave most of them alone until someone purchases them... Cuz' this is Bluegrass country and if the action ain't 3 feet off the neck.. they will tell you "this'un ain't no good , it's full of bees"

as for changeing strings.. We do it all darn day long and STILL can't keep up with how fast they wear out.

When you've got over 300 guitars on the walls. you can't keep fresh strings on everything.. it's just not possilble. folks wear'em out too fast. + some guitars get played way more than others.

but when they sell , we put fresh strings on them before they go out the door. and we let the customer pick the strings as well.

 

pewing33ny

I hear ya man,

But I also work in a stora that DOES NOT pay commission on sales.

I work for a straight hourly wage, but by the time I get through talking with customers, writeing tickets pulling stock chasing cases and bags fixing guitars answering telephones and taking out the garbage. I may get a few minutes to vacuum the floors and chnage strings on a guitars or two AFTER we close.

 

The store opens at 10:30 am and closes at 6:00 Pm

 

I clock in at 8:00 am and leave at 7:30 Pm or later.

[Ancient Mariner]

I recently went to a guitar shop right on the sea front. They had a Godin there that played beautifully - apart from having strings covered in so much rust I was afraid I'd get cut.

[k4df4l]

fwiw, if the guitar has really beat strings or other small setup issues I will evaluate the instrument discounting any of those problems. It still makes playing the guitar worthwhile, even with beat strings, because of all the elements that are not effected. If I can work issues for nego on price, even better.

[jerry_picker]

Originally posted by batotman 9 years on the shelf....bastards http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/batotman/IMG_0895.jpg [/img]

 

 

Did you keep that one?

[gibson185]

Originally posted by batotman 9 years on the shelf....bastards

That is one sweet looking Strat.

[Space coyote]

Originally posted by cantdrive55 I was just at the local Sam Ass and played a half dozed Strats...they all felt and sounded terrible due to the horribly dead strings. I can't imagine that keeping the guitars strung with the same strings for years would help sales. -cd55

 

 

nobody in music stores knows how to change strings

[Bruce Bennett]

Originally posted by Space coyote nobody in music stores knows how to change strings

laugh it up fuzzball:mad:



We usually say that about the customers!

[Highway_61]

Originally posted by Bruce Bennett man are you WAY OFF BASE. First off, Terry Atkins (luthier/founder of Tacoma) and the man under whom I apprentised first, Put Elxier strings on his guitars because Elixer offered them a SUPER SWEET deal on the strings! (Less than a buck a pack!) their long lasting nature was "Unproven" at the time and was considered an afterthought. also.

Well, I'll respond to your all-caps WAY OFF BASE (which is insulting), by quoting your mentor, himself. These are his own words, from a post at rec.music.makers. guitar. acoustic:

Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
From: tacoma...@aol.com (TacomaGtr) - Find messages by this author
Date: 1999/01/13
Subject: Re: Elixirs revisited; the 30 day mark
Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse

We here at Tacoma are confident enough in the Elixers to send our 1999 guitars
out in the world dressed with a brand new set of Elixer .012-.053" strings. We
feel the advantage of having our guitars sound great even after months on the
wall in stores will help. Customers will hear the true sound of the guitar
instead of the sound of dead strings.
I can also say we were impressed with the Gore companies commitment to thier
product. Before we signed a deal with them, i brought up the discussion on this
newsgroup regarding string breakage. they told us they experienced a bad batch
of G strings but corrected it. as quickly as they could. He also told me about
thier policy of sending a new set to anyone who has a problem with thier
product, and that impressed me. I am glad to hear it when a company stand
sfirmly behind what it makes. I hope you all go down and try a Tacoma with the
elixers if you haven't heard a Tacoma, or the Elixers. Now you don't have to
shell out $15.00 to try the Elixers out.

TA
Terry Atkins

Artist Relations/ Product Development
www.TacomaGuitars.com >>>

If your boy at Tacoma was interested in lying, in disseminating bull{censored} and propaganda, so be it, but don't turn around and be disparaging toward me when I paraphrase what he--not in an advertisement (per se) but in a public forum-- said.
Please let him know that you have effectively blown his cover.

[flyguitar]

Never

[batotman]

Originally posted by jerry_picker Did you keep that one?

I wish. If i was to keep one that would've been it. It was a freaking amazing player. Just felt perfect and the wood grain showed through much more than you can see in the pics. It was just awesome.

I had bought an exact one like that for $105 on ebay and it turned out to just look ugly, pickups sounded like ass, and the color was pretty solid rather than transparent.

The guy that won the first auction I sold it on for $235 couldn't come up with the cash and was from the UK. I told him if he'd pay the relist fees I'd relist it.

I relisted and sold it for $275. In the meantime I remembered a local shop had one (the one in the photo) for $289 and told the UK fella that if he scraped together the cash I'd hook him up. He was ecstatic and two weeks later got the money and paid me $65 finder fee to buy it and ship it to him. I agreed and bought the guitar. I was kicking myself when I got it home and absolutely didn't want to let it go. It was the complete opposite of the first one. Simply amazing. Only problems were rusted screws and {censored} strings and that was easily fixed. Ah well.....next time I won't run my big mouth making kind offers without playing it first....

[xupernaut]

Besides old corroded strings another thing i like is trying guitars with is nasty ass dried out fretboards this store i stop at from time to time half the guitars are like that.