Posted on 02/05/2015 1:26:44 PM PST by Itaintwhy
This is an obituary for Guitar Center, a chain of big box musical instrument stores that was captured and infected by private equity during a national trend of greed and reckless expansionism in the late-1990s and early-2000s. The company started as a Los Angeles organ store, became a successful purveyor of guitars after the Beatles arrived in the United States, evolved into a national competitor over a period of decades, and shall finish, with sad poetry, as the symbol of everything dysfunctional about American corporate finance, management, and retail in the modern age.
(Excerpt) Read more at ericgarland.co ...
My dad bought my Danelectro at Sears. Now guys like Knopfler play that model live. A contract guitar built for sears under the Silvertone brand. Got a classical Silvertone, made in Spain that is a solid top and sides and sounds like a low cost Ramirez or Carrillo, esp. with on board passive p/up and high end mic.
Better deals in the many Jax pawn shops with the transient military population.
If Cidervile ever goes out of business then I’ll panic :>}
Somewhat off topic: moved West in ‘81. First Christmas, I flew back East, to be with my folks, and siblings. Killing some time at the bar, at LAX, guy next to me was wearing a Guitar Center T-Shirt, black, with white lettering, I had never heard of the place. Nice guy, I struck up a conversation with him, told him how everyone in my family played, except for me.
Got on the plane a while later. When I got off at JFK, my brother was waiting for me, wearing the exact same T-Shirt.
Radio Shack around the corner from my place closed for good last week. Next thin you know Orange Julius will be out of business!
“Musician’s Friend is a rip-off outfit, regardless. Demonstrably so— absolute crap customer satisfaction.”
My experience has been just the opposite. Friendly reps, Internet price matching, free shipping, no hassle returns. No problem whatsoever.
This is the Modern Music Ping List. Our topic is music from the 20th and 21st century, from Ravel and Shostakovich through to the Synth Pioneers and beyond.
Topic suggestions are always welcome, and pings to music-related threads are appreciated.
FReepmail or reply to this post to be added to or removed from this list.
When I heard that Gibson was going to replace their ebony fretboards with richlite, I decided it was time to replace my old wine red Les Paul Deluxe that had been stolen years ago while I still could get an ebony one.
Musician's Friend had two gorgeous and virtually identical tiger-stripped wine red LPs for sale online, but one had a satanic "666" serial number, so I bought the other one. I have the receipt to prove it.
When it finally arrived, in perfect shape, btw, they had sent the one with the satanic serial number. I was not happy.
I have bought a few other guitars and things since then, but not from Musician's Friend. That sale cost them quite a few other sales. Sweetwater, Wildwood and Dave's Guitar got that business instead.
I disagree about electrics being easier to hide mistakes than an acoustic, though. Not if you're playing it clean. Everything gets amplified, mistakes and all. My little Taylor mini is remarkably loud for such a little guitar, but very forgiving with my screw ups. The LP? Not at all.
Death of commercial real estate bump for later...
I use American Musical Supply and Reverb.com in addition to EBay. You can find most anything between those three.
I just sold them my fretless bass. cash on the barrel head.
Sorry to hear they’ll be closing. I love GC.
We are fortunate to have a really good small shop locally. Consignment, I’ve sold my EA bass amp and Dean 10 Edge and bought my ‘roadworn’ P bass there.
Nothing can touch local luthiers. Worked at Alembic, lots of great builders these days.
I remember a few decades ago, going to the GC in San Francisco, the magic of seeing all kinds of stuff that would never be seen in a music store in this small town.
You probably would have been able to sell that LP at quite a profit to some idiot precisely because of that serial number :-)
I can't help but wish I was worthy of it. It's a freaking nice guitar! Way better guitar than I'll ever be a guitar player.
I never buy instruments from Guitar Denter, anyway - just commodity items like picks and strings. They carry no guitar brands I like except PRS, which are invariably way overpriced and...dented.
Make a big point of the serial number and see if you can get two grand more than you paid :-)
I had a LP, but being a bassist I didn’t need such a nice guitar and traded it for a musician stingray, (ended up with a custom shop Tele anyway).
Seriously, there are probably wealth idiots who would pay serious money for something with that serial number!
“Then where will lame white guys congregate to butcher classic rock solos? Did you even think about that?!?”
HEY!!! I resemble that remark! Hopefuly I am not too lame...
Sign at my local GC says:
“NO Smoke on the Water or Ironman allowed!”
But every person I've shown it to ignores how beautiful the instrument is and just talks about the 666 serial number, whether I first tell them about it or not.
In a way, the s/n is good for my perspective and keeps me from worshiping the guitar like I might have in my youth.
It broke my heart when my Deluxe was stolen 20 years ago, but I couldn't justify buying another one. And then when I finally do, it came with a satanic s/n. Gotta be a message in there somewhere and I've forgiven MF for the mistake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.