why are the guitars at GC so inconsistent?

[CarmenJuandeago]

i pick up the olympic white american special strat for 799

and its a piece of crap

 

i put it back, pick up the cherry red one right next to it and it kills

[lp_junkie]

QC from the companies, they know that soccer moms and teen age newbs don't know enough to tell a good guitar from crap so they send whatever.

GC is the McDonalds of guitar shops.

Walk into GC all you hear is 14 year olds banging away at some horrid riff on cheesy guitars through a nasty Line6 crap amp, using too much effect and out of tune. I can't stand to go in there after 3:30 pm, I go during school hours so I don't have to hear that crap.

[Sheraton]

Setup Setup Setup. That's a good example of what a good setup can do for any guitar. Most GC's don't have a tech on staff, and if they do it's for revenue generating activities like work for $$ on customer's guitars. You gotta learn to see past a poor setup and look for the gems.

[Grantus]

Everyone and their momma has played half those guitars. It's a bit of a surprise you don't catch something from some of those GC guitars.

[Orange Jackson]

Because it takes a good bit of time, and attention, to set a guitar up properly.

 

 

Then, after they are set up, it takes a good bit of time, and attention, to keep them that way.

[jhorne]

Setup, or lack thereof...

[Carbohydrates]

Probably needs new strings. How was the bass response? If it sounded thuddy and dull unplugged, it's likely it needs new strings (like 95% of guitars at GC)

[Tex Bob]

Everyone and their momma has played half those guitars. It's a bit of a surprise you don't catch something from some of those GC guitars.

LOL! Gonna put on finger condoms before I go in there next time now...

[kirs]

Guitar Denter. Anything that's been in store more than two weekends is equivalent to a "Scratch & Dent" special.

[wagdog]

So, did you buy the cherry red one?

[johns7022]

A recent development for me, but I went to GC the other day, didn't even pull down a guitar....

It's getting to the point where my own studio beats the crap out of what the music stores have to offer....

That's probably a good thing, I just play more, fiddle with gear less...

You gotta learn to set up your own guitars.

[jr_vw2]

Not to mention all the kids that think they are hard asses because they play crappy metal in drop A. Then you get the next guy tunning back up standard. It's like bending your neck back and forth

[steve_man]

most guitar shops these days do not bother doing much of a setup on new gear. Mainly because people's preference vary so widely, they just wait until someone buys it and does the setup to their liking.

[Carbohydrates]

 

most guitar shops these days do not bother doing much of a setup on new gear. Mainly because people's preference vary so widely, they just wait until someone buys it and does the setup to their liking.

 

Mainly because it takes effort, actually. The preference thing is a poor excuse to have guitars with year-old strings and action a half inch off the board.

 

This is mostly aimed at GC, obviously. With mom and pops, YMMV.

[ashasha]

I can understand it with the stuff that's on the floor for every one to touch, but I checked out a PRS 513 the other day. It was behind the counter and about 5 stories out of reach. Strings were completely shot and it was like someone had gotten too excited and exploded on the neck it was so filthy. It also had a really nice ding in it that I know they didn't know about.

Saddest part is that I've gotten so used to playing {censored} in that condition at these places that I could still tell that it was a fantastic guitar, but if it was clean and had good strings they might have actually had a sale on their hands.

[cbh5150]

I will give props to my "local" GC in Joliet, IL - for a GC, most of their guitars are set up decently. Until the china-shop bulls get to them, of course.

 

It's one of the smaller stores, so they may not get as much foot traffic as some of the others, but the LP Satin Ebony I got off the rack last weekend was set up to the point that I haven't tweaked it yet.

[steve_man]

Mainly because it takes effort, actually. The preference thing is a poor excuse to have guitars with year-old strings and action a half inch off the board. This is mostly aimed at GC, obviously. With mom and pops, YMMV.

 

 

Oh, I agree on the string thing. They should at least keep good strings on them and make sure they are in good playing shape...our local shop usually just pulls them out of the box, and then puts them on the wall...so it's not just GC.

[Belva]

Go to da box and pull out guitar. Hang on wall. Repeat.

[fu2jobu]

I don't know why they are so inconsistent. Last time I stopped in I tried 2 guitars. One had no sound at all and the other I had to coax to get the pickup switch/pots to work. I started going back to my local store after that.