Is it just me.........

[dellison]

I went back to Guitar Center today around 1:30 pm to exchange the cord I bought the other day and it was a pleasant experience. No super stars, no crowd, no noise. BTW, Duke, that used Champion 600 is on police hold for 30 days and isn't available for sale yet even though they were trying to sell it to us on Saturday. Oh yeah, they will take less than the listed price tag.

If anyone is interested, the Champion 600 can be upgraded to sound great but they are being discontinued. They'll cost twice as much used in a year or so.

Police hold, that's just perfect... Hey, if they had it out did you get a chance to play through it again? I know you can upgrade it to sound even better but I'm wondering how it sounds just stock out of the box.

[dubtrub]

No, I didn't try it today.

[Haole Jim]

Warning, resurrected thread!

Around metro Chicago, as likely with most places with big-box stores, there will be hundreds of customers per day in any one.

And yup, all too often, there is some mope who thinks the world (it's always a "he") NEEDS to hear him screech something out with somebody else's wattage. Episodes like that are tolerated, not always charitably, and almost always referenced against the Statistics class from the master's program: Whenever you have a large sample population (as in this case, people in a GC), you will have a small population of totally uninvolved introvert types, a large bunch of average Joes and a couple Josephines, and a few real butt-plugs out to prove that status.

That old bell curve of statistical sampling, in action, in the real world.

[dellison]

You know, sometimes someone pretty good is there too. I was in the local GC the other day and this "kid" (late teens early twenties) and his dad were in there. The kid was playing multiple SONGS and his technique was pretty darn impressive. He wasn't blasting it really loud or anything like that and I am not sure if he was shopping for a guitar or amp. I ended up talking with the dad for a bit and he was telling me about how he was talking music in college and was planning on going to the Music Institute in LA. It was impressive to listen to him play and he was doing stuff that I could only dream about doing.

Duane...

[jnslobaugh]

dubtrub"]..or do others experience this.

I know exactly what your talking about... Although I truley havent been to a Guitar Center to hang out or make a large purchase in some time, there are always those that need the attention.
Well years ago I realized that they were nothing more than NOODLE HEADS. Were they good? Usually. Were they Great? Sometimes... But just because you're good or great does'nt necessarily mean you've been given the green light to be an butt.

[Veenture]

Every time I go into our local Guitar Center, there is always some clown that picks up a guitar, plugs it into an amp wails away. Most of the time it's some hot shot that knows one or two cool riffs and loves to crank up the volume and blast out his 'talent'.

I've never experienced this type of guitar exhibitionism over here in my over-populated country and I don't think I ever will in the future either. In Europe such behaviour is simply "not done". A serious customer may try it out but not in the shop if he's planning on hitting the decibels. This policy filters out the show-offs of course. Having said that, most of the larger music venues in this part of the world will have soundproof booths or a room where anyone can go ape if they so wish…but then that won't happen quickly either…no 'audience' ...

[dubtrub]

When I was a young lad I would go into Parlier's Music on Baker Street and drool over the new Fender and Gibson guitars and amps. The salesman (one or sometimes two) wore white shirts and ties. They were mature responsible musicians and instructors at the the store. You didn't touch a guitar until they felt you were a serious buyer. They would plug it into an amp and demonstrate how it sounded but they didn't want any marks or scratches on their products. I miss the old day's.

[Sarah93003]

I had a funny one a couple of months ago. Our lead player was looking for a new amp for her White Falcon and had been all over southern California trying various ones out. She would take her Falcon from store to store looking for "that" sound. She called me to check out this Mesa Boogie she was playing through. When I got to GC I could hear her before I even got out of my car. I thought, "uh-oh" Michelle's jammin'. Sure enough when I went inside she was plugged into a Mesa and tearing it up at a pretty loud volume. I was actually surprised they would let her do that. She asked if I had my Mosrite with me and I happened to have it in the car as I had just picked it up from my tech. The sales guy wanted to see it so I brought it in. He plugged it into a Fender Blues Deluxe and joined Michelle at some mega-decibel level. It was kinda cool to listen to someone else play my guitar. I liked it so much I bought the Fender amp!

I still would prefer if folks didn't crank it up so high you can't talk.

[Veenture]

...He plugged it into a Fender Blues Deluxe...//... It was kinda cool to listen to someone else play my guitar. I liked it so much I bought the Fender amp!

I still would prefer if folks didn't crank it up so high you can't talk.

Depends on the situation at a given moment...see what cranking in the shop has done this time: you bought yourself one gorgeous Fender amp! ...congrats and enjoy!

[Olav]

Whether this behaviour is 'not-done' in our part of the world or not I can't be certain about, I have experienced on several occassions and in different stores that these "performances' are usually killed off quickly. Maybe that's what Veenture was saying too. On the other hand, when a 'known picker' enters the store (won't drop names) some of the salesguys go over quickly to crank the amp up themselves. "Go on, ya can't feel the amp like this... And can you play your hitsingle while you're at it?" I've witnessed this in Holland and in Sweden. Maybe the clerks on these occassions felt it would be good for business... About being selfconcious; I'm no wizz but I can get around on a guitar and I never play in store, only in the booths Veenture mentioned - these are usually too small to really crank up if you don't wanna end up with hearingloss issues though.