Members ThunderDump Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 I go there about once a month (when not in college) and generally have a good experience. I bought my brand new Jimmie Vaughan Strat for much less than GC. Andy is the guy you want to deal with there. The owners can be a bit pricky but I have had some good conversations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members buddy7168 Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by theHutton I know I'm probably gonna get alot of {censored} for this but yesterday, I drove down from Canada (toronto area) to check out the "world famous" House of Guitars in Rochester new york. And let me tell you, this is the worste music store I have been to in my entire life. Basically the second I walked in the door the staff decided that because I was 18 years old I have absolutely no knowledge about anything related to music. I guess where it started to go downhill was when my buddy and I asked to see an SG custom that was on the top shelf. It was a "vintage 69" and we were reminded of how much it cost no less than 156 times before they handed it over for us to play.We took it the back to play it through the bogner ecstacy that they had set up at the back (which just happened to be connected to a cabinet with instrument cable) and upon closer examination of the guitar....the pic ups were after market, and had turned completely microphonic. The knobs were after market, the pick guard was after market, as were the sadles, the input jack was {censored}ed, and the kicker the entire finger board had been replaced. Basically this "sweet guitar" has been made pretty much worthless. I confronted the store owner about it. His high and mighty response was "what do you know about vintage gibsons."I was brutally pissed about the guitar and his response, but I figured I would shelf my anger because the real reason I had driven down was to purchase the Bogner XTC that they had. With cash in one hand and My Framus Cobra in the other I brought it in looking for a trade. I was met by the owners response of "we dont want that."(in reference to my Cobra)My jaw dropped. Me: why dont you want ItOwner: Because I dont even know what it is (WHAT!!??!?)Me: Just because you dont know what something is doesn't mean you should write it off as garbageOwner: What part of I dont want it dont you understand, would you take something you dont want?Me: I DONT OWN A GUITAR STOREThis dude is honestly probably one of the biggest idiots that i have dealt with in my life. If its not a hollowbody being played through a 5 watt tube amp he doesn't know anything about it.It just got worse from there. My buddy brought in his '52 vintage reissue american strat for a possible trade. The first thing they said was, it looks like a Mexican body. This was the last straw. It obviously wasn't they were just deliberately being assholes at this point. After that stupid accusation, another employee came back and offered me $700 for my Framus, because they can get them for $1400 dollars cost BULL{censored}! they claimed that they were a Framus dealer. If i owned a store that dealt Framus and I had 1000 guitars amps you'd think one of them would be a Framus. They are Definately not a Framus dealer. When hearing that i was gonna get a sweet $700 for my framus. I basically said "{censored} you and {censored} this place" and we left empty handed, after having the original intention of buying and trading a whole lot of {censored}.In Summary: HOG SUCKS MY {censored}ING BALLS.the only good part of the trip was meeting "CRAGGIN" from this board. He was a cool dude. I was there over the summer and that XTC didn't even work, so it's probably a good thing you didn't buy it. It was plugged in and it powered up, but no sound. I asked about it and a dude spent 10 minutes and got nothing. I said forget it. Then I went to try out some mesa's, but they take all the damn fuses out. I asked and they were just like yea we take those out. What the {censored}? After tripping over stuff for 30 minutes and having played zero amps, I just gave up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yngzaklynch Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 I was there years ago and yes the owner seemed like quite a dick. They're very full of themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members buddy7168 Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by SeraphSlaughter the key: find the bastard in the store that KNOWS his {censored}. There's always one of 'em. My favorite store is Daddy's Junky Music in Boston because it's a small new england chain but there's one guy there who i socialize with all the time. I respect him and he respects me, and tells me when I shouldnt even bother trading something (ie i'd get better deals on craigslist/ebay). We talk guitars/amps/whatever, and when he doesnt know about something i'll explain and he checks it out and we'll discuss it next time i'm in.my GC is sorta like that, but no one i know personally. They do know that despite the fact i'm 16 i'm a paying customer (bought a cab + peavey classic from them) and i know my {censored}. I go to GC to try out, and Daddy's to look for little used deals. there's usually one or two deals, and the rest is fairly priced... There's a daddy's in Rochester and it kinda sucks too. Back when I first started, years and years haha, I got a "new" Peavey Bandit there that didn't last long. Then later I got an EMG 81 that was broken and they didn't want to give me my money back, but they did get me a new one. IN SIX MONTHS! Maybe yours is better, but I'm not going to the Rochester one a third time. There are some good stores in WNY though. I've had great luck at Airport Music, Jackson Music and Music City in Buffalo. Not too sure about any other good ones in Rochester though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -=MYK=- Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Just be hopeful that they lose their asses to Guitar Center. I hate shops like that. I'm the damn customer. They should be busting ass to get my money out of my wallet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members saturdaysaviour Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Here's my HOG story: so i heard from someone on here that this store has some reissue colorsound gear recently and i wanted to check it out so i asked if they still had any wahs. the guy seemed confused as if he'd never heard of the brand and asked another guy who was standing there who hadn't ever heard of it either. one person there did know that they were old at least. so then he's like "hey check this out! this is a nice one." and he handed me a vox 847. i figured i'd play around with it since my friend was haggling about a bass amp. so this kid hooks up the the wah for me and just to break the silence i said "so is this true bypass?" and he said "uhh it's just like any other regular wah." i tinkered around with it for a bit before the first guy came back and he said "nice right?" and i said it was cool and then he said "what did he quote you on it? $80?" and i said that i didn't get a quote and he goes "i can let you have it for $99." and i was like "well i don't know. you're sure you don't have any colorsound?" and he shook his head so i asked about checking out a snarling dogs wah because i saw one in a case and he said "nah we don't have those. you're weird, man. you keep asking about all these brands that no one has ever even heard of. if this stuff is so great, how come it isn't around anymore? you want a good wah, you need a crybaby. that's the number one wah in the world. we sell thousands of those. we've got boss wahs too. boss and digitech are the future." And then we were trading in some gear for a Mesa Bass Buster head and they were offering us $300 trade in on a mint Ampeg 4x12 bass cab and Hartke combo. Basically we jsut stood around for like an hour and the guy came back every 10 minutes and kept offering us $100 more so it turned out to not be so bad of a deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daver102 Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by lefchr The guy with the long blonde hair and pointy boots is a complete dick. Andy's one of the best ones to deal with there. But, it takes a while to form a relationship. I don't know that he'll be there much longer, as his band is sueing the owner of the HOG. His band, the Chesterfield Kings, was on Armaund's record label, and there's money involved.... Anyway, I lived two blocks from the HOG when I was growing up. In the mid-eighties, I bought my first Les Paul, my first tube head, and my first Kramer there. They were flakes back then, but you put up with it because they were the best deal in town, and they had (have) a TON of guitars. But every transaction was an ordeal. Getting service was a pain. They'd set you up with a guitar and an amp on the mainstage and basically forget about you. It was laughable. I still go there everytime I'm back in Rochester to look around, but I wouldn't even think of buying from them anymore. The internet's inventory is a whole lot bigger than the HOG's. I love going in there in the summer when all the windows are open, it's hot and humid as hell, and all those guitars are piled on top of each other. Can't help but think that that can't be good for the axes! And I played that same XTC this past summer when I was there, and I couldn't get it to work either!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members anathema Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 HOG is the second worst music store I've ever been to, end of story. Second only to this other store along the Erie Canal about a half-hour away that has three or four Samick electrics and a few Crate amps, along with a bunch of cheap Samick acoustics for sale at any point in time. I played a show at the Penny Arcade in Rochester some time ago, snapped a high E while tuning up and had to go to the HOG to get a new high E. They didn't have any individual .10 high E's do I had to buy a whole new pack. Turns out the only pack of .10-.46 they had was the Ernie Ball 7-string regular slinkies, and I was in a hurry, so the bastards charged me $8. If you're in Rochester the best place to do business is The Music Store in Webster. I frequent the store (I live a few towns south in Fairport) and I've purchased a few guitars from them and their selection (it's limited but it's great), their prices and their service are all amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daver102 Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by anathema HOG is the second worst music store I've ever been to, end of story. Second only to this other store along the Erie Canal about a half-hour away that has three or four Samick electrics and a few Crate amps, along with a bunch of cheap Samick acoustics for sale at any point in time.I played a show at the Penny Arcade in Rochester some time ago, snapped a high E while tuning up and had to go to the HOG to get a new high E. They didn't have any individual .10 high E's do I had to buy a whole new pack. Turns out the only pack of .10-.46 they had was the Ernie Ball 7-string regular slinkies, and I was in a hurry, so the bastards charged me $8.If you're in Rochester the best place to do business is The Music Store in Webster. I frequent the store (I live a few towns south in Fairport) and I've purchased a few guitars from them and their selection (it's limited but it's great), their prices and their service are all amazing. Is that in Downtown Webster? A little ways down from Heavy Metal Records? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members atrox Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by daver102 Is that in Downtown Webster? A little ways down from Heavy Metal Records? Yeah. Great shop. Great service. But I personally don't get the good deals from there that I get from the HOG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billslp Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 The mark up on these boutique items is substancial, The cost on that framus head is probably right at $1400. If he can buy one at $1400, how much do you think he wants to pay for your used one. I have been playing for 28 years and have bearly heard of framus. How many people do you think are looking for a $2400 guitar head? A mesa is in much greater demand. The only reason you would sell Items to a music store is if you needed quick money and didn't care if you got raped. Figuring that the music store is paying a little more than 1/2 retail, for it to be worth the stores while, the best you could expect is a little over a 1/3 of what you paid. I have found that people are willing to spend insain sums of money on EBAY for the privelige to say the've WON! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daver102 Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by atrox Yeah. Great shop. Great service. But I personally don't get the good deals from there that I get from the HOG. Ok, yeah, I've been there! I kinda like Stutzmann's too out in Greece. My parents bought my first guitar (a Takamine F-340) from him. I LOVE going to Heavy Metal Records in the old church in Webster. I always end up going on the day's that it's closed! All the cd's that I buy from them smell like burritos... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daver102 Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by -=MYK=- Just be hopeful that they lose their asses to Guitar Center. I hate shops like that. I'm the damn customer. They should be busting ass to get my money out of my wallet. Not likely from Rochester's GC. Last time I was there, every "new" Mesa in the store was missing a knob or slider. Rochester is kinda hurting in the guitar store field. St. Louis kicks ass. Fazio's, Mozingo's, Eddie's.....all cool stores! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dave Owens Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Originally posted by billslp The mark up on these boutique items is substancial, The cost on that framus head is probably right at $1400. If he can buy one at $1400, how much do you think he wants to pay for your used one. I have been playing for 28 years and have bearly heard of framus. one of the first guitars I played was a Framus...been playing 30+ years..the've been around forever.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members poisonherwell Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 They are being SUED !!!Check this link I found : http://home.rochester.rr.com/rrours/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blues_rocker Posted January 23, 2006 Members Share Posted January 23, 2006 Well I dont live in NY and have no reason for going up state but if i did i wouldnt buy from HOG. Just looking at the pics on their site makes me cringe. It looks like they take really {censored}ty care of their guitars. Did just get back from visiting family in NYC and LI a couple of weeks ago though and Mannys was freakin awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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