GC my first time!!........YIKES

[marekk]

it was my first time inside a GC. i ducted into the flattop rooms to avoid the Friday night rip on the electrics. anyway, the flatop rooms were shortly held captive by a small group of teens sitting in a circle doing their best to re-create a 60's folk love-in jam. i had to step thru their circle to get to several guitars i was interested in trying!! they were clueless i guess, none the less at the expense of others seriously interested and gasing for an new acoustic like myself. the saleman was helpful but was mostly dealing with a crazy busy night. it was useless to test a guitar anymore so i retreated in defeat and joined the elec jams....and went home and bought an new acoustic from my local shop.

 

mark

[ddlingling]

Originally posted by marekk the flatop rooms were shortly held captive by a small group of teens sitting in a circle doing their best to re-create a 60's folk love-in jam.

 

rofl.

 

thankfully my local GC has a separate small room adjacent to the flattops where they keep their taylors and martins. i usually go in there and close the door. keep the nice guitars for myself...leave the fenders ovations and taks for the punks.

[JasmineTea]

I went with a friend, no one was in the acoustic room, but every so often a different person would walk through, look around for a minute or two, and leave. Later, my friend said he noticed the sales people were going in and out from where I was. We figured it must've been the first time they actualy heard someone play an acoustc guitar.

[guit30]

I went on memorial day, they were short staffed, it was pandamonium. Smoebody thought I worked there so I started answering questions, Some of their nice gear was really beat up. I should have bought the Taylor 110 for sale for 446 ,no case, but it was an old model.

They had a martin D-42 , pretty, but didn't sound too good, strings or setup for sure, beauty

Jim

[desaljs]

The only way to deal with GC, and keep your sanity, is to go at an off time. Realizing that a lot of people work, this can be a challenge.

 

I go on a week day, usually right whent he store opens, like say 10:00 or 11:00 AM. Most players are still sleeping and the electric geeks are not in the store. Then you can sneak off into the acoustic room and maybe get a 1/2 hour to an hour to really play what you want.

 

I always bring a pick I like to use, and a chromatic tuner. That way I do not have to spend a lot of time fussing with tuning and can get a good idea of what a guitar sounds and plays like.

 

This works for me. No weekends or "holiday blowout sales".

[UGB]

the closest one is over 100 miles away from here. Never been to one.

[35fingerpicker]

"...they were short staffed,..."

 

At all of the GCs I've been to, there was plenty of staff, but the staff was very short on knowledge of guitars or the sales process.

[kwakatak]

I hardly go to my local GC because it's clear across town in the eastern suburbs. Every time I've been there I was not impressed with the service, selection or condition of their inventory. The "high end" acoustic booth featured a few potentials but mostly it was full of Martin HPL models and Taylor 200-400 series instruments. There were a few Gibsons but what jumped out at me was that one had corroded and broken strings just hanging.

 

On one occassion I got to spend some uninterrupted time with a Taylor 314 until a couple of 14 year-old boys in skateboarder attire came in and grabbed a banjo and a Martin D-16 and began twanging on them a little too hard. The service staff was obviously off somewhere else neglecting their duties and by looking at the broken and tarnished strings all around I could see that this was the norm.

 

I cut my losses and went up to the counter to buy strings and got the "Wal-Mart" treatment where they asked me my ZIP code, phone number etc. so that they could put me on their SPAM list! Needless to say I didn't tell them what they didn't need to know and I haven't been back since. Now I buy all my stuff online - and not from MF, Music123.com or the like.

 

[kazoou]

I treat my old underwear better than GC treats their $2000 guitars. Inevitably, unless the guitar was just put out, the strings are usually corroded. The necks are not set up correctly. which usually occurs from the poor humidification system they have, which typically consists of a small room humidifier spouting lime filled steam onto one or two of the better guitars. If you are looking to buy one there, try and have the salesman get one out of the back, in the box, or even better two or three.