Why Guitar Center is my favorite place to buy music gear

Recording, Mixing and Producing
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#1

On my way to Charleston South Carolina for a video game developer networking meet up, I decided to take a detour by the friendly local Guitar Center. Being about 45 min early, and directly en-route, what did I have to loose by quickly perusing the selection of used high end amps. Right?

Lo and behold, there sat a neglected BadCat Black Cat that had just been lowered from $1400 to $1100. And next to it, a PRS Archon for $950, and a purple Marshall 2266 for $750. All stellar amps, and not a bad price right? First order a business is find a cab. I asked the nearest sales guy what cabs they had with greenbacks. When he asked me why the color of the back of the cab made difference, I remembered whom I was speaking with, and asked no further questions.

…until checkout time came. That poor abused black cat, had a broken impedance selector knob. So I just took a guess, and figured that it wasn’t going to hurt it to have impedance mismatched if I just kept the master fairly low. Well, come to find out the master volume knob was broken. It spun around in circles and didn’t do anything. I thought…well maybe it has a push-pull master volume like my Budda Superdrive and my Matchless Phoenix. I pulled it (which is usually how you engage the master volume). Nope. Didn’t work. Maybe the master volume was just a little stiff. So I pulled it harder, and the knob came off. Like…all the way off. So I said what the hell, and just cranked the amp all the wide open (much to the dismay of everyone else in the store). Within minutes, “Hey, you gotta turn that down”…to which I replied “Hey, this master volume is broken.”

Then came the best part. Smoke started coming out the back of the amp. I cut the power immediately. Giving everything wrong with that amp, I still offered them $700 for it, knowing that the worst possible damage to that entire amp could not possibly exceed $250. As the smell of burning electrical wire still lingered in the air, that dumbshit manager still had the nerve to tell me they couldn’t go below $900.

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So my word of advice, if you EVER buy used gear from Guitar Center, make sure you have a means of returning it if it doesn’t work. And before you pass on their performance guarantee, keep one thing in mind. Two years ago, I salvaged about $10,000 in monitors, converters, interfaces, keyboards and amps from the studio fire. Wanna guess who I sold it to?

So…my GC is my favorite place to shop for used music gear? Because there is nothing more entertaining than asking what kind of hardware is available, and they tell me I can check with Lowes. Or to tell them I’m gonna need a driver with that, then to be asked where I need to go. Just amazing.

Happy gear hunting.

4 Likes
#2

This should carry one of those caveats. “Sponsored message”, or something.

If it’s aimed at catching passing traffic for the site, you’re way off track.
Having mentioned the Guitar Centre in the title, you should mention Guitar centre (Not GC) as many times in the text as you reasonably can. But hey ho. I
I can’t buy at Guitar Centre, they don’t exist over here.

#3

Nope just a rant.

#4

Bless you.

#5

That’s “center”. It may be spelled differently over there, but since it’s the name of the shop it wouldn’t change in different cultures. :+1: Good rant Johnny, they’re typically overpriced where I live, but every once in a while you can get a good deal.

#6

Just because Americans misspell half the words in the ENGLISH language is not a reason for me to start. They spelled it that way at the start because US maligns their MOTHER tongue.

1 Like
#7

Yeah, but it’s the name of the company. Do you feel the need to correct band names like Ratt, Phish, or Def Leppard? Most of the stuff we changed makes more sense anyway. The whole English language is stupid no matter who is speaking it. According to the spellchecker on this site, you’re misspelling them because it corrects colour to color. Seems like a waste of time to change it. I’m shocked we didn’t change the way “tax” was spelled since you guys loved those.

1 Like
#8

I START by spelling the word correctly (colour). The site’s stupid spellchecker TRIES to get me to change it to the US spelling. I refuse.
Why should I change my language to suit the USA’s bastardised (with an S) version.
I accept the fact that it’s a company name. So I accept that in this case, I got it wrong.
But I do not accept your suggestion that it’s ME wasting time. That’s the province of the 200 year old country 3,000 miles from me.

#9

That was not my suggestion. I said the U.S. bothering to mess with it in the first place was a waste of time, I realize (realise) that was unclear in the original post. Glad you’re so proud of your country though. You really don’t need to be so hostile towards our changes though. I’m sorry it’s such a sore subject.

#10

Was “are changes” deliberate or have you decided Americans spell that ARE?
Didn’t intend to be hostile.
Just don’t like folks messing with stuff that works.

#11

You’ve been butting heads with an inordinate amount of passionate European people recently.

#12

No. That was me typing on mobile.

I know, maybe he’s British. I can see why the rest of Europe and the Americas hate them. (Just kidding, before I start a wildfire).

#13

I think you’re a little irked, and your response was slightly disproportionate to what was said. I say we start talking about the GC again, and take this language garbage to another thread.

4 Likes
#14

A got my SG from GC. It’s the only Gibson I’ve ever owned without massive fret problems, wish I knew how to play it better.

#15

It didn’t catch fire, so they can’t go below $900. Next time bring rubbing alcohol and pour it on there when nobody is looking.

#16

Hey, why not? Tolex is cheap to replace. Right?