I hate Guitar Center!

How about you? I remember when going to the music store was a fun trip, but now these guys have run all the small independents out of buisness and it's the worst of all worlds!! I needed some Ernie Ball Slinky 11's so I go to this store on Sunday they have a deal on strings by the box, 12 sets for $34.95...they don't have a box of 11's so I tell the guy "I don't need The Box just the 12 sets. " They have 9 sets, I said sell me what you have at the box price and I'll take them. 8) You would of thought I asked him to do some Chinese Arithmatic or **** a fruit salad...They could not breakdown the per pk price!!! Two sales people and three Managers later I make them understand that Each pk is about $3.00 each!!! You can't buy polish and a cloth , you now must invest in a "Cleaning and Polishing System!!!" Have you seen these guys on Ebay? The prices they want for used gear! I will now buy strings , picks etc...like I buy the rest of my gear...On Line! :wink: I tried to get my wife to buy me strings this last Christmas, but she refuses to go in the store!! Okay, I feel better now ! Time for my Wellbutron and an "Adult Beverage". TG

Ha! You were expecting them to be able to do MATH??? :lol:

For some reason, GC's prices on strings aren't that good, but on other items they can often blow away catalog/online prices.

Why won't your wife go to GC? Because you buy too much stuff there or because of the wannabee shredders testing amps/guitars or because of the bonehead clerks?

BTW, how was that "adult beverage" ??

That was a cold Hieniken and it was good! As far as Mrs. TG's loathing of GC... She sez she feels like I do when I'm in the Neiman Marcus Ladies department. I feel her pain! :wink: TG BTW, GC's string price beats them all by about $10 per case! I guess I'll send my mother in law next Christmas!

Have you tried Musician's Friend (musiciansfriend.com)? They are a mail order catalog / online supplier that was bought by Guitar Center.

You can shop both sides for the best deal and the other one will match it if you tell them where you got the price from.

Marcus

Yes I have used MF before with good results...being that you are also in Dallas , watch out for the LBJ GC / Idiotville! 8) TG

tokaiguy said:

being that you are also in Dallas , watch out for the LBJ GC / Idiotville!

Click to expand...

Go to the one downtown (on I 75 and Southwestern) - ask for Jacob. He's a good kid and knows what he's doing.

i bought my 1965 fender deluxe at the guitar center on 75. This was about a year and a half ago and I paid I think $850 for it... not bad. It is the non-reverb model and it had been there for a while and I think they were just ready to let it go.

I got it home and it started popping fuses... I took it back and they sent me to Craig Wallace (the man in dallas for fender amps) and he re-capped it, did some repairs to correct a couple of drifting resistors, biased her up, and billed GC!

Now I got a sweet dead-quiet 100% working deluxe that's been my main amp ever since. 8)

I sure wish Wallace was up here in NYC... but I did get hooked up with Andy Fuchs up here, he makes great amps and he's helped me out with my stuff, hell of a guy!

Craig Wallace works on all of my amps. In fact, he has my Magnatone M14 suitcase amp right now - needs a cap job and new power cord.

He's not the fastest guy in town but I think he's the best....

totally the best. No question.

There is nothing, and I repeat NOTHING like having a REAL player with good taste working on your amps. He knows what they're supposed to sound like so he can make it happen. The technical know-how of old tube amps isn't that hard... but you have to know what your goal is before you can do it! Craig is the man!

I've talked with Brad about Craig before...I knew him not as a repairman but as a Hot Player locally back in the 80's! Also I recall him as one of the Tokai endorsee's in Dallas. 8) Brad, sorry to hear about the Epi. Whats the current condition? TG

got the epi back today! James Millinchuk up here in NJ is a miracle worker. Sounds and plays exactly as I remembered it... he touched up the color and drop-filled the lacquer and you really have to look for the cracks to see them. I'm totally happy.

Congrats on the happy ending!

Thanks! I have another anti-guitar center story.

I have a late '67 Twin Reverb (silverface, drip edge, AB763 circuit) with an anvil ATA case. At the local GC there is a brown super that someone has painted black, terrible shape... the back panels are home-made out of masonite (seriously!!!) and it has over a dozen cigarrette burns on the top. In short: The thing is beat to hell.

I live up here where twins are NEVER necessary and are way impractical (you can't take one on the subway) and this super sounded great even though it looked like a dog, so I figured "even trade..." went in today to see what I could work out.

The guy who was my salesman or whatever told me that the even trade would probably be a go, so I went home, got my amp, lugged it and its anvil case into the store and the guy looks at it and goes "yeah we can probably do this, but all trades need approval by the manager."

They didn't want to do an even swap. Fair enough. Business is business... but THEN they had the balls to offer me $300 for my beloved twin! Identical amps without the ATA case are going for $1100-1200 on Ebay. They said that they "had three just like it" that they were trying to sell at $700 and they couldn't move 'em...

I asked to see them, because an AB763 Twin at $700 is a steal... I would've bought all three and re-sold them for profit!

They showed them to me, and they were all LATE 70'S MASTER VOLUME twins... the ones that are like 300 watts or something...

I took my twin and went home. Dorks... :roll:

I get slinkys sets for $1.50 US at Henries in Appleton Wi.