Whats your worst guitar store experience?

[iamadoorknob]

Last week I went to the worst music store ever. I was looking for a Les Paul style guitar, and I called them and the guy said "Yeah, we have Les Paul style guitars". So I went there and they had ONE Les Paul style guitar and it was behind a counter with all the other electrics (about 10 others). I went back there and a guy was like "You can't try out the electric guitars unless patrick helps you! Hes with someone else, you have to wait". So I waited there, and after 10 minutes he goes behind the counter and hands me the Les Paul. He is like "This one is my favorite!" It had a broken nut, half of it was chiped off and it looked like crap. I tryed it out, started strumming, it sounded awful. Then the guy was like "You better be careful not to scratch it with that pick!". At that point I just left.

That was the worst. The guy had no guitar experience whatsoever, that store was a joke.

Oh yeah, and the guy smelled bad too.

Whats your worst guitar store experience?

[mishmannah]

Hehe...nice thread...

My worst guitar experience was when I was trying out some obviously cheap Chinese imports (even though the owner tried to convince me that they were real Ovations...I see that females need to be represented more in the guitar world, or we will keep getting this sorta hassle... :mad: )

...I was playing an Ovation copy...and the rosette started to peel off as I played...


In fact, you really have to show off your playing in a guitar store as a gal before you get any respect....My local store gives me the respect I deserve now...... :D ;)

[Reign in Blood]

i won't be a name dropper but a store near where i live put like steel strings on an acoustic and called it a classical ,then doubled the price of what it should be-it sold. This is also the same store that when i replaced my burnt out amp by warranty they said they'd call me when one is available.took them over a month and there was like 5 sittin in the store,but its ok cuz they gave me a better amp them i brought in.ummm...this store is narrow and sort of crowded,and there maybe 2 staff members who know anything about guitar and music. its not as bad as i make it sound but i don't go there anymore when theres a MUCH better store near-by.

[Les_Is_More]

check out my above thred lol

[shredding]

my friend turned that Fender stack all the way up and the girl had to come over to stop me from playing.

[Strat Kid]

My friend turning the gain all the way up, switching to the overdrive channel, driving the volume up and playing the Ode To Joy theme.

I had to run over, grab the Telecaster and start playing Smooth..

[Sexymonkey]

Its not really a bad guitar store incident, but I was REALLY unlucky-ish. I bought my strat, I was all uber and stuff, and as soon as I walked outside it started raining!... Luckly it was in a box =)

[Etingi]

I went to this place called Dutch's Music that has the best slogan ever. "If it's in stock, we have it". No joke, that's really their slogan. Anyway, it's mostly used gear, almost like a pawn shop, except specializing in music gear. I was looking for a Vox Valvetronix amp at the time. I walked in and went up to the guy at the counter who was wearing a dirty flannel shirt, sweatpants, and looked like he hadn't showered in a week and asked if they had any Vox Valvetronix amps. The guy gives me a blank stare and then after about 5 seconds says, "Huh, valve-what?" I just said nevermind and left.

[fretflyer]

i went to a guitar store in tennessee, and the guy wouldnt even talk to me unless i was buying something, i wanted a pick to play the guitars with so i had to buy one in order for me to play, he wouldnt even give me a cheapo one to use :mad:

[Harris]

So I walk into GC, and ask about a Gretsch Pro Jet. They said they have them at another location, and reassured me that it was the exact guitar I wanted. So I dropped down $310 and had it ordered. They said they'd have it in 3 days. I called the 3rd day, no guitar. 4th day, no guitar. 5th day, no guitar. 6th day, no guitar. Finally, 7th day, it has arrived. So I go to pick it up, and they ordered the wrong one. It was the Jet Junior, not the Pro Jet. I dropped $310 on it, and they ordered the wrong one. I'm kinda upset, but theres still hope. Then they tell me they'll order the right one, but I have to pay the difference which was $80. So I told them I was going to take my business elsewhere, and to write me a check for $310. Then they told me they'd talk to the manager, and see what they could do. Then they told me, "Okay, pay $40 instead of $80 and we'll order it for you." So I went ahead and threw down $40 cash. They told me, the guitar would be there in 6 days. So I waited 7 days, and I called, and when I asked the status of the guitar, they told me they forgot to order it. I got ******, but I kept my cool and asked for a check to my name.

Yeah, I've always had a great experience with my local GC, and they were very apologetic, especially the manager, but that was really bad.

[Ranger]

I havn't ever had a 'bad time' at a guitar store. There was one time where I really uncomfortable though.

First time I was in a cheap cheap small shop. I was looking at the small selection of guitars they had and two guys came in and started being loud and just old fashioned obnoxious. It's not my nature to be quiet and respectful, but I'm ALWAYS that way in guitar stores. They're sacred places to me... anyway. They're being loud and crap and I hear one of them really BUTCHERING the intro to master of puppets. Oh my. (if there's one thing I can rock best, it's Master of Puppets.) Cryin' out loud, if you're gonna turn it up at least know how to play it. Or have some IDEA of how to. I'm not normally an ***-but these guys were being jackasses, so. I sat down next to the guy and did it twice as fast, loud, and I did it right. Probably the best I've ever played it. Then they both scowled at me and I smiled and said "Don't crank it 'till you can play it." More scowling from their end of the room ensued and I left a happy guy.

[KingAngus]

I dont go into guitar stores much, but my Mom once made me go pick a tuner after about 1 month of playing and I had no idea what the difference was. And then the employee pressured me into buying a pretty expensive one.

...ok my blows, lol :toohappy:

[Bowie]

I dont go into guitar stores much, but my Mom once made me go pick a tuner after about 1 month of playing and I had no idea what the difference was. And then the employee pressured me into buying a pretty expensive one.

...ok my blows, lol :toohappy:


Dayuummmm

[StringFlinger]

I've always had pretty good guitar shop experiences. This one time I was in the shop and was trying out a pedal, and these two kids (probably about 4 or 5) came up and just stood there staring at me. So for a few seconds I did some fast solos and stuff, but they still stood there just staring at me. It was funny at first but then it kind of bothered me, and I couldn't concentrate on testing the pedal out.

[Ranger]

^That would creep me out. Get security to keep the candy-corn headed kids away from the customers. It's just not safe.

[StringFlinger]

It wasn't really creepy. They weren't staring in a creepy way. Just sort of a curious blank expression.

[requiem]

and i went into a guitar store with my bud and i played hey joe PERFECTLY all the way through it sounded amazing. Then the staff and my bud were takkin the **** outta me coz i playin it the way it should rather than the way i like it , *** :\ then i punched my friend haha :D

[Tingly]

I went into a small store in the Bronx on an extended lunch break, during the week. There was some nice stuff there, including a few $1,000+ acoustics. One thing led to another. After spending an hour I couldn't spare, I piled a $350 acoustic guitar, a case, a tuner, some picks and a couple of extra sets of strings on the counter.

The owner rang it all up. $400 plus, or so. I slap down my plastic, which is as good as gold, and has a limit like 50 times higher than the purchase.

The guy looks at me and says, "We don't accept credit cards."

I said, "You got a $1,200 hand made steel string guitar for sale over there and if I wanna buy it, I gotta go get you twelve hundred dollars in cash?!!!" He didn't say anything. He didn't even move. No change of expression, nothing.

I said, "I'll come back some other time," but, of course, I never did. I left everything on the counter, and walked out. I wondered how many sales he lost like that.

But to leave that sweet little steel string on the counter made me feel like I had been stabbed in the heart.

[metalmachine]

My worst is being ran out of the stack room at Sam Ash in Charlotte NC, where I was trying out a new amp because some snot-nosed little punk had a rich dad who was going to buy him a $3000.00 les paul when the kid couldn't play, and yes I had actually heard the kid play. It was awful.

[rotteneggz]

one time i went to trade up music (local music store in portland) and they had a billion acoustics nad only like 5 electrics and they all sucked!

[csloce23]

I went into a music store and I bought a First Act Electric and an Esteban. :(

[Vladdypwnz]

I have a feeling there's a necromancer around (raising the dead threads)

It's funny to see this thread because this morning I went to my local music store and they didn't let me play anything. I can't play, but whatever. It's sort of like trying to buy a perfume without getting to smell it first.

That's about my saddest music store experience.

[spoonbadger]

"It's funny to see this thread because this morning I went to my local music store and they didn't let me play anything. I can't play, but whatever."

that aint at all cool,who wants to even consider buying a guitar they havent heard!.but personally i dont let anyone who isnt a somewhat seasoned guitarist near my axe (just my personal experience :))

the worst 3 ive ever had were
trying to find a "thin" body guitar for sale,and an assistant guy saying "we dont sell steel guitars for less than 600 euros" over and over,till someone explained to him what i meant!
or asking for a hendrix tab book,getting led around to the back where 2 work experience guys searched a shelf and found that hey had no jimi hendrix stuff.truly embarresing
and thirdly,going into a guitar shop and asking if they stock a certain type of guitar,and being told to check back in a few days when it was in stock-when i went back i was told it wouldnt be in stock for 3 months.very annoying.

[ScottRiley]

Asking to try MIA strat out and being told 'Sorry mate, can't try them unless you're buying'- I was like....how the hell do I know if I'm buying if I can't try it out....'He just went, you can try one of these out'....handed be some £80 used Squire - I just looked at him, laughed and asked if he worked on comission, he said no, I said 'good, 'cause I'm guessing you'd get **** all' handed him his Squire and told him he'd just lost a customer willing to drop a grand and a half on equipment in the next few weeks.

Or being asked to leave because I nearly stopped someone making a sale by correcting this guy. They had a new Gibson SG that I'd tried and that played pretty well, think the price tag was somehing in the £750 range. Anywaya, the dude selling the gutiar was talking to the guy purchasing it and he said 'It's a guitar for life mate, trust me, in 10 years or so it'll be worth about 7 grand'

I just looked it him (I was at the counter, only buying strings and picks), sniggered, the guy buying the gutiar turned his head and I just went 'yeah, 'cause you see 1996 SG's going for £7,000 all the time :rolleye:' - the guy looked and went, yeah, well maybe I exagerrated, and I said somehthing like, 'you think that's exaggerated, how much 'you selling that Standard for?' pointing to his guitar, 'it's gotta be worth a little less than that what with the chip on the headstock' (referring to a realyl small ding that was only noticable in the right light [I'd checked the gutiar out before, that's how I knew]) the guy just looked at me and went 'Right mate, you've got your strings, is that all you're here for or do you want to actualyl buy a guitar?'. I just said I'd be back in a couple of days with my CV :p

[nitro juiced]

have any of you been to a guitar store where they dont let you touch or play the guitar?

I have.:mad: idiots...

[Kulla]

Iv had only good guitar shop experances. Probly the worst was Trying to try out an RG that was compleatly out of tune. But i find that all over the place, it still dumbfounds me that they wouldn't tune the guitar before they put it on display.

The worse though is going in with no money and finding a great deal on somthing used or reduced in price only to come back witht he money and its gone =(

[John The Wolf]

Iv had only good guitar shop experances. Probly the worst was Trying to try out an RG that was compleatly out of tune. But i find that all over the place, it still dumbfounds me that they wouldn't tune the guitar before they put it on display.
ever occured to you that guitars get out of tune when they get played
who knows, maybe the guy playing it right before you was doing 2 steps bends on it and tried to re-tune it but messed up

as for my part, I'm always pretty calm and I try not to bother anyone when i'm in shops but I once went into a shop with friends who were pretty high (I wasn't). One of them decided to pick up a MIA strat and starts wailing away on it cause he doesn't play, he does this for 10 seconds and I pray him to put it back on the stand and he almost drop s it as he does so...I wanted to disappear in the ground as the salesman was looking at us
lesson learned, never bring a stoned friend in a guitar shop.

[bashlin]

talking to musicians friend customer service..i put them on speaker phone on my last call because my wife didn't beleive me when i said i think they are all stoned..she quickly figured it out..i really beleive the MF stands for something else..not all of them are bad..but if you ever correct one, you see what i mean..

[Kulla]

ever occured to you that guitars get out of tune when they get played
who knows, maybe the guy playing it right before you was doing 2 steps bends on it and tried to re-tune it but messed up


An out of tune guitar I have no problem with, I have relitive enough pitch that I can tune it by ear (tuned relitivly close to standard tuning) no matter how out of tune it is. Its locked out of tune RG`s, Dinkeys, Mavrick`s, ect, anything with a floating bridge. I'v walk into so many places that just put guitars on shelves and don't even check them at all. Just lock the nut and stick it up with every string ranging from 4 steps down to 2 steps up. I rate that along the lines of stricking an acoustic on the wall that buzzes right acress the 7th fret to the point where you can't even make out the note it is suposed to, or the nut being slighting pushed to the left putting the intanation off by a half step by the 3rd fret.

[j9fd3s]

i went to GC, one time, in the 90's. i found a guitar i liked, i think its my black strat, and i had it in my hand, ready to buy.

but there were no salespeople.

guy walks in, picks up $800 guitar, and theres nobody to take my money.

so the receptionist guy walks over, and helps, he was really friendly, takes my money

as i'm leaving, this huge fat guy walks over (turned out to be the boss) and starts yelling at the guy who helped me, cause he wasnt as his spot.

i havent bought anything from GC since....

[John The Wolf]

An out of tune guitar I have no problem with, I have relitive enough pitch that I can tune it by ear (tuned relitivly close to standard tuning) no matter how out of tune it is. Its locked out of tune RG`s, Dinkeys, Mavrick`s, ect, anything with a floating bridge. I'v walk into so many places that just put guitars on shelves and don't even check them at all. Just lock the nut and stick it up with every string ranging from 4 steps down to 2 steps up. I rate that along the lines of stricking an acoustic on the wall that buzzes right acress the 7th fret to the point where you can't even make out the note it is suposed to, or the nut being slighting pushed to the left putting the intanation off by a half step by the 3rd fret.

ya I understand how that might bother you:D

[Acoustic]

One time I was just playing a guitar in the store and snapped off a string. I got all nervous and didnt know what how angry they were gona get. But they just made me pay off the string, no big deal. Lost a few cents. Othere then that, I never had anything really bad happen. :)

[kurt]

I have two local guitar shops, one blows and refuses to do anything except rip off kids just starting out with horrible stagg and first act guitars that are horribly set up, so i dont do anything except steal picks from them... even though they refuse to stock anything approaching a heavy guage...(*****) then theres another sligtly smaller shop that i love to death they have knowledgable people, there friendly, nice stuff blah blah blah... so naturally im good friends with all the guys working there and ocasionally ill get a free t-shirt or somthing from them

so one day i happend to be in there wearing a shirt with there logo on it, and this guy kept asking me questions thinking i worked there, so i explained i didnt work there but helped him out any way... he turned out to be a total **** and was incredibly rude to me so i told him that i was done helping him if he was gonna act that way... sooo he starts cussing up a storm and calls the manager to try and get me fired haha so the manager and i just sit there laughing at him and ron kicks him out of the shop

[KcMsterpce]

so one day i happend to be in there wearing a shirt with there logo on it, and this guy kept asking me questions thinking i worked there, so i explained i didnt work there but helped him out any way... he turned out to be a total **** and was incredibly rude to me so i told him that i was done helping him if he was gonna act that way... sooo he starts cussing up a storm and calls the manager to try and get me fired haha so the manager and i just sit there laughing at him and ron kicks him out of the shop

That's not a bad story. That's a FUNNY story!

I've been known to help customers at a guitar shop I always went to, and they seemed to always be appreciative of my comments/suggestions. I think if someone was a jerk to me I'd completely destroy them with my Reducto Shrink GUN!!! Muahahahahaha!

[Prez]

My worst guitar store experience is every time I walk in one and see 1,276,598 right-handed guitars and 2 left-handed ones, both of which I already own.

[PanzerOfDoom]

I dunno, the dude at the door with all the eye makeup still kinda freaks me out.

[Priesty]

I just don't like it when I go into a shop, the one in town that stocks Cole Clark guitars, which is Matons main competition...

The bloke starts telling me how bad Maton are and cole clark are so much better blah blah blah...I told him I had just bought a Maton Lyrebird...$5000 worth, and that he had no idea about anything and that he had just insulted me by basically saying I was stupid because I'd bought a Maton and that just because they don't stock a brand they shouldn't bag it out...

****heads. That could be the reason why the shop just up the road has received about $20K from me in the last 3 years...

I went into the crappy shop again the other day and they had nothing over $900, Not a single even middle of the range guitar, they were all beginners guitars...$900 Australian will barely buy a MIM Strat (just to give you overseas guys an idea of how bad it is)...

[iamadoorknob]

I went to this place called Dutch's Music that has the best slogan ever. "If it's in stock, we have it". No joke, that's really their slogan. Anyway, it's mostly used gear, almost like a pawn shop, except specializing in music gear. I was looking for a Vox Valvetronix amp at the time. I walked in and went up to the guy at the counter who was wearing a dirty flannel shirt, sweatpants, and looked like he hadn't showered in a week and asked if they had any Vox Valvetronix amps. The guy gives me a blank stare and then after about 5 seconds says, "Huh, valve-what?" I just said nevermind and left.

Haha. I want to call that place. "Hi this is Dutch's Music where if it's in stock, we have it!"

[Bballdude]

this is the 2nd time this thread has been raised from the dead lolz



Mine has to be when I dropped an expensive guitar I was using



or when this 5 year old kid took a les paul and started playing reallly badly....or just plain havin horrible guitarists think they can shred..when they can't

[Sir Fire Hydran]

I just don't like it when I go into a shop, the one in town that stocks Cole Clark guitars, which is Matons main competition...

The bloke starts telling me how bad Maton are and cole clark are so much better blah blah blah...I told him I had just bought a Maton Lyrebird...$5000 worth, and that he had no idea about anything and that he had just insulted me by basically saying I was stupid because I'd bought a Maton and that just because they don't stock a brand they shouldn't bag it out...

****heads. That could be the reason why the shop just up the road has received about $20K from me in the last 3 years...

I went into the crappy shop again the other day and they had nothing over $900, Not a single even middle of the range guitar, they were all beginners guitars...$900 Australian will barely buy a MIM Strat (just to give you overseas guys an idea of how bad it is)...

$900 will get you a good quality Epiphone, if you're really lucky. Like me. Man I love that guitar. But most of the Epiphone LP standards I see go for about $1200. Which is sickening really.

[MSPaintClock]

and i went into a guitar store with my bud and i played hey joe PERFECTLY all the way through it sounded amazing. Then the staff and my bud were takkin the **** outta me coz i playin it the way it should rather than the way i like it , *** :\ then i punched my friend haha :D

ya der i i playd stairway to heafn perfectly between my legs usin my thighz and vryone hatd me fr it a[g[galsh ha haha gsljl ha. Learn how to type.

[Semi-Hollowbody]

Went to Guitar Center to look at Epi LEs pAul Standards...
salesguy was pushing this one that was really dirty, dusty, but not scratched, I liked the way it played and the feel so I said ok...he cleans it, changes strings, as hes ringin it up he says "woops, says this has already been sold and returned "
I say..."ah, so its used...what kinda deal can I get" he says he will throw in a skb case (which doesnt fit epiphones) but thats all he can do...$499...same as the new ones with that particular finish...NOPE...so he takes me right to another one off way to the side...brand new...I play it and actually like it better then the first and as we are taking it up I notice a crack in the headstock..sales-doofus acts amazed...I leave and never return to that GC...he calls me later to tell me they have a bunch of new ones but I had already found one at another GC, sales guy knocked it down to $399 and threw in a case...he didnt believe me...