I'm not one to go out and do a message on anything negative but I just have to share my Guitar Center expierence today. I had some time and since I've been thinking about another guitar and also needed some recording gear I figured that I would head down and see what they had. I head into the acoustic room and see what's up on the wall. I was looking for a GC or GS Taylor but really just wanted to see what was there. The inventory was pretty small but I took down an 814 and 714. There was a layer of dust on these things that I had to wipe away first. The strings were a combination of brown/red color with so much crap on it didn't matter if they were in tune or not. They weren't. To say the strings were sticky would be an understatement. It was just terrible. I saw a limited edition model with Cocobolo that was beautiful to look at as it sat up on the wall. Same story with the strings. Horrendously out of tune and discusting strings. How rediculous is it to have $3000.00 guitars on the wall that are in such poor playing condition. Makes me sick. I checked some other stuff like Clapton's signature Martin. Same condition. I will say that guitar didn't seem worth the price they were asking for. It felt cheap. Can't really say how it played because of the condition. Anyway I left the acoustic room discusted and head over to the section that has the recording equipment. I was looking for a USB device to record with multiple mics. The place looked like a bomb went off and they had no inventory except for some used stuff. I just walked out and headed back home. I'm dumbfounded as to how they expect to sell anything over there. Unless you are looking for a shinny new strat, Les Paul or Ibanez you obviously don't matter to them. I'm glad that I get my acoustics at a private shop. I'd rather spend a little more money there then to risk getting something that has been neglected for who knows how long at GC. OK rant over.



MarkM

A few observations about your experience at Guitar Center:

1. I feel your pain. It's a little stomach-turning to enter their acoustic room and see how little regard they have for their guitars. One person with a duster could do wonders in about 5 minutes -- tops.

2. You can see why Taylor puts coated Elixer strings on their guitars. They know the instruments are likely to hang on the wall for an extended period of time, and Elixers provide the best opportunity to produce decent-sounding music after a thousand greasy fingers have fondled the strings. By the way, had you been interested in any specific guitars, GC would have put new strings on for you.

3. Your experience is a case where chatting with the manager might have helped. It would be good for him to know that you're ready to pull the trigger on a new guitar, and that you were completely turned off by the state of his acoustic room. He might have blown you off, been grateful for the info, or been so grateful that he'd give you an additional discount. In any event, yours is the kind of experience a manager should know about. I'm just sayin'...

I had a similar experience at Guitar Center when I was shopping for my Taylor GC3. Lots of dusty, out of tune guitars that looked very un-loved. Plus the acoustic room had a fan or something going and it was impossible to hear yourself play. The staff WAS nice enough, but not particularly knowledgeable or present. Then I went to my local guitar shop and it was the exact opposite: pristine, shining guitars all arranged beautifully in rows on the wall, guitars in tune, attentive and knowledgeable staff. I might have paid $100-200 more for my GC3 there than at Guitar Center, but I never regretted it. And I recently bought my Martin at the same store, and had the same wonderful experience.

I'm sure there are great Guitar Centers out there, but it's not a place I plan to spend my money at any time soon.

I second Dennis' comments. In fact, #3 is a great suggestion. When done in a tactful way, everybody could win. I would say that I had the opposite experience at the GC in Madison, WI a few weeks ago. While I was there, a guitar tech was stationed outside of the acoustic room checking guitars (acoustics) and changing strings. When I went into the room and tried them out, all the ones that I tried were neat, clean, and with fairly new or brand new strings. Most were in tune or close enough, but I always bring my own tuner and I think there is one available in the room, too. The highest priced guitars (as I recall) were a Taylor 814CE and a Martin 00028-EC (the Clapton).

A couple of weeks later, I was in Madison once again and dropped in to check out the 00028-EC. I had just picked up a used one and wanted to compare. Everything was clean, but the strings on the 00028-EC were in terrible shape. All the other guitars seemed to have much less play and newer strings on them. One thing about GC is that they have high traffic. When I have been there, it wouldn't be uncommon to see up to a dozen people in an hour walk into the acoustic room, pull a guitar down and twang away for a few minutes. It is possible that the EC was being played the most or that it was the next one on the tech's list to be changed or, maybe, a child with peanut butter and jelly hands had played around with it. It probably didn't help matters that it was in the lowest row and within easy reach rather than in the top row where you'd have to use a climbing harness to get to it.

So, Mark, if you go back to GC, you might want to do as Dennis has mentioned and bring it up to the manager in a nice way.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Hydroman52

Guitar center = the Wallmart of guitar stores...they serve a purpose I suppose, but I prefer to find a local store and support them so that they don't get pushed out in times like these ...remember they cannot carry a downturn so all at are risk and guitar center will only strengthen their hold..so when you can support local..

Sounds like a prospect for the TV series 'Undercover Boss'.

Mak- Unfortunately, GC is all that is going to be left soon. Taylor yanked all their acoustics from any shop that didn't want to sell their "T" line of electrics. Since many/most small guitar shops sell acoustic or eletric but often not both, every shop in Portland lost the Taylor line and it all went to GC. Taylor is a huge manufacturer and they need to move a lot of guitars and I suppose they need GC's distribution network and marketing resources.

That was extremely unfortunate because the level of expertise in the acoustic department at GC often leaves much to be desired. I had a recent "experience" with GC when their acoustic expert was explaining to a potential buyer that all Taylors are made in the USA. If you are going to peddle b.s. don't do it in earshot of other potential customers.

I told the arrogant GC staffer that while that used to true, Taylor had opened a new plant in Mexico and made some of their lower end models there along with most of their cases. The salesman told me I was wrong and that clearly I was misinformed. Really made a big point of him being the expert. So I suggested he call Taylor and ask them. I could be wrong of course. Gee, imagine his surprise! He was mad at Taylor for not educating him!!

The interesting thing is the Taylor strings should not have been in such bad shape because they use Elixirs on all their new models. I've never seem Elixirs that badly oxidized. It shouldn't happen. So why is GC changing strings? Doesn't make sense.

Someday I want a new Taylor and I hope I don't have to go through GC to buy it although they had a 4th of July sale this year where brand new 814's were selling for around $2,500. That's a tough price to beat in most of the shops I've seen.

Cheers!

Looks like you need to email a link to this thread to your local GC and cc the marketing dept. at their head office Mark.