Guitar Shop Rules!

[Jimi75]

I was in a guitar shop last weekend and I asked my self how on earth it would have been possible to check my desired guitar if they hadn't isolated cabines.

Things will never change I guess, you will always find people who play their excercises loud, who solo all the time and so on.

On that day, I saw myself as a guitar shop owner putting up signs everywhere "No Enter Sandman" "No Teen Spirit", "No Solos longer than 30 seconds" "No Scales" " One after the other" "Please use the cabines"......

I guess it would be commercial suicude to put up all those rules :)

My wife says it is an art and you must have strong nerves to be able to stay for more than 15 minutes in such a shop and to be able to find an instrument that you gonna buy.....well, guess she is not so wrong with her view....heh?!?!

[Spudman]

I hear your angst bro. I had the same problem. I'd leave the store with my head ringing from all the clatter. I don't know how an employee or owner stands it day after day.

One way that I found to get around it is to go into the shop early in the day just after they open or in the early afternoon before school gets out. Much quieter at these times.

[Tone2TheBone]

Whats a cabines?

You pretty much have to actually buy a guitar from Guitar Center in order to really hear what it sounds like. At least you have 30 days to try it out in the privacy of your own home that way. Everytime I walk into the store they have music pumping through the overhead speakers and kids/adults playing Crazy Train all over the place. And loudly too. How can they even conduct business like that. I would go nuts working there. Wow I must be getting old.....

Same goes with Music Go Round. Only one shop in town is usually quiet and it's because the guitar guys don't let people wank on the inventory just for fun and the amphs are all inside a sound proof area anyway.

[warren0728]

that's why i like my local mom and pop shop....much less noise and such....

ww

[Danzego]

tone2thebone, I believe he's saying "cabines" as in what you and I might call cubicles. That's kind of cool, actually, a store having invidual cubicles to try out stuff. :)

Anyway, I used to WORK at Guitar Center and lemme tell ya- it's no picnic. Between the music booming over the house speakers, the wankers doing their wanking, the phones ringing off the hook, and the people screaming trying to be heard, I would leave there every day not wanting to hear ANYTHING. As in I pretty much stopped listening to music when I was working there because when I wasn't at the store, it was the only time I had the opportunity for peace and quiet.

You always knew what was in the guitar magazines tabs that month because it's what every amateur was doing broken *** renditions of.

Of course, you'll always get this moron hanging around- the guy who brings in his own guitar and effects, standing there blasting out his crappy riffs at super volume (for a store, anyway) just so he can see what it's like to play his gear through a Marshall halfstack. Sure enough, a few weeks ago when I was at Guitar Center buying my LP, there one was, playing a Gibson V and his PodXTLive board through a Marshall, emitting some of the worst tone and Metallica renditions I've ever heard for such gear. My wife couldn't even sit 15 feet away from this clown because his tone was so grating on the ears.

Luckily (at least this time), I'm half deaf and can dial out the rest when I've got my own thing going on another amp. ;)

[Justaguyin_nc]

Being a newbie and still enjoying all sounds... I guess I am lucky.. I only been to music shops a few times..
kinda understand how it would be working in them...
but than, I guess they should realize that when they take the job..
The SamAsh in Charlotte has isolated cabines/booth to listen to your sound as well as the acoustic room being glassed off on the side ..
but so far, it always puts a smile on my face listening to it all in the big room...
sometimes the scale player or riff player sounds more interesting to me than the pro.. or is it less intimidating?

I guess all music stores should have isolated cabines/booth to allow everyone the chance to hear their own calling...

but it sure would be expensive to come up with that... especialy for a large chain... Are all SamAsh set up this way?

[Danzego]

Being a newbie and still enjoying all sounds... I guess I am lucky.. I only been to music shops a few times..
kinda understand how it would be working in them...
but than, I guess they should realize that when they take the job..


Well, of course they realize it (though most get the job with the foremost thought in mind being "Cool!! I get to work around guitars/drums/keyboards etc all day long!!"), but that doesn't mean they have to like it. Just like the hiss of a crappy set of speakers or some ear bleeding crappy music makes you cringe, so does someone sitting there producing it, day in and day out (with the prerequisite repeat offenders, of course). It doesn't help KNOWING the person will never buy anything more than a set of strings or some picks.

You don't even have to have some sort of discerning ear to know how horrible their tone is most of the time. My only explanation is not visiting the music store much and when you were there, you got lucky. ;)

[Tone2TheBone]

Thanks for the quick lesson in cabine-ing Danzego!

[Plank_Spanker]

A few years ago, I was at Guitar Center closing a deal at the counter on a guitar that I ordered. There was a kid behind me noodling furiously, badly, and loudly on a badly out of tune guitar.

I couldn't take it................................................ ..

I very nicely asked to see the guitar for just a minute and he handed it to me. I tuned it up and handed it back to him without saying a word.

He went right back to noodling, and my nerves were soothed just a bit......

[Spudman]

A few years ago, I was at Guitar Center closing a deal at the counter on a guitar that I ordered. There was a kid behind me noodling furiously, badly, and loudly on a badly out of tune guitar.

I couldn't take it................................................ ..

I very nicely asked to see the guitar for just a minute and he handed it to me. I tuned it up and handed it back to him without saying a word.

He went right back to noodling, and my nerves were soothed just a bit......

I almost expected you to do what John Belushi did in the Animal House movie when he trashed that guy's guitar on the stairway. Tempting though.

[Plank_Spanker]

LOL!

Banned from GC in a blaze of glory.......:D