I agree with your take on GC but people will lament losing this store and I would be very sad to see it disappear from our mall. I have bought a few good things from them but I spend equally with the locally owned long time music store in my town also
@luismartinez-hc9kc2 күн бұрын
Ive always buy my guitars and gear at Sam ash, guitar center. I will never buy my guitar or gear on line. I need a hands on to make a purchase.
@luismartinez-hc9kc2 күн бұрын
Guitar center has bad management.
@luismartinez-hc9kc2 күн бұрын
The problem is cost. Guitar & gear is too damn expensive
@luismartinez-hc9kc2 күн бұрын
Sam thing that happened to block busters. Netflix
@luismartinez-hc9kc2 күн бұрын
I’ll tell you what happened. Amazon
@NelsonMontana12345 күн бұрын
You get what you pay for. With Harley Benton, you get a product that seems good at first but is made cheaply. And if you have a problem, you have to contact Germany to get it resolved. Good luck.
@louisa69435 күн бұрын
Guitar center sucks!!!!! Is a poor investment and anyone putting money in this company is a huge gamble
@kennygsmooth836 күн бұрын
I agree with everything you said. They're on borrowed time at this point...they'll be joining Sam Ash. If you refuse to evolve with technology and be customer centric you won't last.
@EyesOpen3697 күн бұрын
My buddy just bought a fake guitar made in china on their website in the used. Chibson 😂 He tried to call customer service and they hung up at every turn. But they have 45 days return policy. 1200$ for a POS fake guitar. They obviously don't hire people who know what they are doing... 😂
@Cut2Finish12 күн бұрын
I bought a new D18 a few months ago and the bridge was defective. It is covered under the Martin warranty but I bought the pro coverage so I was going to let GC repair it. Turns out that it would void any future repairs in that area under the lifetime martin warranty. So I asked if they could trade it out for another D18. They didn't want to do that but they essentially totalled it under their warranty to pay me back so that I could buy another D18. When I went back to get the other "new" D18, it was covered in hand prints/smudges and the strings were corroded. I honestly thought they were trying to sell me a used guitar. It still sounded perfect, so I decided to get it anyway since the original one will most likely be gone for a couple of months. Oh and the manager wanted the original one back. Nope. That one is either mine or the insurance company's. A totalled car does go back to the dealer to be repaired and sold again.
@allanosvemos7715 күн бұрын
Watching this video with my black californian elite to my side, awesome
@guitartec15 күн бұрын
I have access to 3 GCs, each one run very differently. Coming form decades of musical instrument retail, I had begged the GC management closest to me (which they FINALLY made the following change a few years ago) to understand that guitar accessories cannot be behind a counter where you have to ask a busy salesperson to get it for you- accessories must be on kiosks b/c older people (the people with most of the money) can't even see that far behind the counter. I'm still trying to get them to understand why it's bad for business to keep guitars up high so customers can't even see them. Also, keeping better instrument up high denotes "out of reach" for not only budding musicians, but for parents, thus helping to murder future clientele. It is better to keep them at eye-level behind glass which gives them more perceived value. Never mind having to ask a sales person who then needs to go find and climb "the ladder of shame" just to get it down and put it away. How demoralizing and anti-sales is that? I gave these suggestions without suggesting they were doing something wrong, just to offer professional help to pass onto upper management at corporate.
@13soulz16 күн бұрын
Great reviews! I picked up the slash Epiphone without the amp and this guitar is fun! Well built sounds great too and even has an onboard tuner on the pickup 🫠 the sustain is forever! I’ve been playing since I was 16 I’m 62 now 🥶 so I’ve had a few guitars 🎸 Anyways just wanted to put that out there, it’s a great guitar for the price 🤙🏾
@13soulz16 күн бұрын
If you give a bad review they take away the comment section from you and you can never review again.. I’m grounded for life 😂
@lokiva854016 күн бұрын
Seeing the Kaman name reminds me of a different form of corporate consolidation. Kaman Aerospace in Bloomfield, CT primarily does vibration analysis of helicopter blades, going back to before corporate raiders tore apart United Technologies with Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, Otis, and Carrier, and mixed in former Raytheon. Kaman owned Microtime (NTSC video time base correctors), a home medical electronics company, and several brands of drums and percussion on top of the guitars line. That positioned them to do serious acoustic analysis by audio vibration and stroboscopic high speed photography, using military and aerospace tools, from sister companies on site.
@RobotShlomo18 күн бұрын
The biggest drawback I've found about Harley Benton is that the Reverb store doesn't offer everything in the line up. I've been trying to get a hold of a DC Junior, but they only seem to be offered on the Thomann website. The other drawback is that that every DC Junior I've seen detailed in KZread videos seems to have the intonation be just slightly off. Maybe that's what's coming through on the video, but something about it just seemed not right. By they way, I'm really looking forward to part 2 of your Hamer documentary.
@brynjones737120 күн бұрын
A very well made video, full of information about the Epiphone range of guitars. Looking forward to some more videos.
@VictorGonzalez-gk1nr21 күн бұрын
Fantastic watch. Great content guys. Impatiently awaiting for part 2.
@screamingintothewind23 күн бұрын
Guitar Center also charges $120 for a full guitar set up. I found a guy at local shop that's been around for 40 years set up my new Fender Custom shop for $30! He did an excellent job!.
@screamingintothewind23 күн бұрын
i love Guitar Center. I have friends that work there, and I love going up there to hang out and jam with the guys. That being said, I only buy high end guitars at this point of my career. I will not buy one from Guitar Center. Their high end guitars are in the Platinum room hung on locked hooks. People try to turn the guitars in the locked hanger messing up the neck and headstock. They rarely have more than couple high models and they are already on the floor. You can't order it online because 90% of the time your order will be shipped from another store where the guitar was treated the same. When I spend $5K+ on guitar I don't want 50 people to have touched it and played before I did. I still go to Guitar Center and hang out occasionally. I try out guitars, and then I buy it from Sweetwater. There's a $11,000 PRS Private Stock on the wall at my Guitar Center I've lusted after for 3 years. The price was finally reduced to $8,000. I was tempted, but it they dropped the price because everyone and their brother played it and now it has wear. Who on Earth buys a $10K Floor model??? Blows my mind.
@DannyRedCheeks23 күн бұрын
I had an 86 chaparral custom with a single humbucker Best guitar I have ever played and owned
@jerryhatrick586024 күн бұрын
Better than either fender or Gibson. Not as good. Better. Gibson and fender sucked 70's-80's into the 90's even. That kind of money for a guitar they should be zero warrenty repairs.
@arlo220324 күн бұрын
One word: Sweetwater
@chrisromano338825 күн бұрын
Over 20 years ago, I went to GC with 1500$ in cash to by my first Les Paul. There were 3 asswipe salesguys looking at me like yeah right your gonna buy it. I was 22 and assume these pricks thought i wasnt worth getting off their ass to get the lp down from the top row. So i found the head douchebag who acted worse. I then pulled out the cash waved it around and walked out asking if they knew how late sam ash was open. They all followed me as i pretended my car was half a mile away. Then they followed me begging back to gc where my car really was.💩
@MercyNoMore26 күн бұрын
Looking forward to part 2, this was a good documentary.
@triplev353926 күн бұрын
I can remember seeing a white exployer by Hamer in the early 82 83 maybe in small store in Centralia IL. They may have had a few double cutaways also.
@asandiegoguy26 күн бұрын
My daughter sold guitars at the LA store. The pressure to sell the pro coverage was brutal. She HATED working there. Having said that, I do believe they have provided a valuable service in that you can actually see and play guitars you are considering. It’s more and more looking like the future will be watching online reviews, comparisons, testimonials, and making your decisions sometimes without ever seeing or holding the instrument in person. Alamo music does a great job of providing demos and comparisons, but they will probably end up succumbing to the pressure of trying to make it as a brick and mortar.
@gabbygabbylicous3131327 күн бұрын
I first heard of Hamer Guitars when Glenn and KK started playing them in Priest. Kk's red and white custom v was was sick that he started playing on the Defenders tour i wanted that guitar so bad and i always ❤ Glenn's custom black and white and his white and black guitars they made for him on the Turbo tour. They also made KK's mini V wich he played for a long time. I didn't really like the mini V. I was happy when he stopped playing it. More happy when he got rid of that perm. 😂 🤘🤘
@MrDevins28 күн бұрын
Hamer will always make me think of Rick Nielsen
@69jomen28 күн бұрын
Can't believe more Strat's are sold than Telecasters....
@Ottophil28 күн бұрын
I love gibson and fender and prs. Id love to own a hammer some day
@drunk24728 күн бұрын
Very cool video. Cant wait for prt2
@jimwilson949829 күн бұрын
My Hamer USA Daytona is absolutely flawless. I think it out strats a strat, custom shop on steroids.
@donbutler8760Ай бұрын
is that Brian Kehew doing the interviewing?
@SapulpaGuitarAcademyАй бұрын
Brian does interview Rick. Those clips in particular are from Brian's show "Rather Have The Story" KZread channel. I've linked the full episode below. Brian was nice enough to allow me to use the footage for this video.
@paultew579Ай бұрын
About everything you said is pretty much right on way understaffed staff is not knowledgeable and they need dedicated people running the registers that are not trying to sell guitars it seems like people feel they got the short end of the stick if they're having to run the register it's not the glamorous job but when we get ready to buy something we want to cash out and be out of the store within minutes it took me 5 hours on one occasion and 4 hours on another occasion to make some trades with guitar center it's beyond ridiculous and even just to cash out a straight-up purchase can take over an hour or more and as you mentioned to purchase accessories there should be no line waiting they should be able to cash you out in just a couple minutes max less than 60 seconds for strings and accessories
@KennyBlackbird-oo1ptАй бұрын
I used to have one of what I think was Hamer's earliest catalogs and price list. It was in black and white with about four or six pages. I think this was back in '78 or '79!
@WillyNailer-dj4ncАй бұрын
Lol I haggle with gc all the floor guitars I always say " nah, I'll pay the tag price for the guitar in the back in a box. I want a discount of the floor model"
@SpritsailorАй бұрын
For two years during COVID the local GC did not carry any change! They would accept cash, but would not give out change. I was asked to donate to the store with the change I was owed. I went home and ordered online from another store. I haven't been back.
@hybrydsanity5857Ай бұрын
they are rite behind sam ash but with a better web site they should emphasize more on that and change the stores to sell more accessories and DJ stuff things for the home studio will go , they can sell you the guitars on line and let you try it at the store . doing lessons in the store is a good Idea but yes I think they will be closing some stores in the next couple years. They do have to fix the customer waiting around thing that always been going on and always lame , but at this point they can't afford to do that otherwise it's a sinking ship.
@brettdavis6151Ай бұрын
Can’t wait for Pt. II! Growth! Expansion! Contraction! The New Hartford years…
@park171Ай бұрын
Still have the red slot wall! Best Buy and many other retail chains are I trouble but…. Here’s my take. Guitar centers business model was based on two strategies. 1) eliminate the mom and pop stores by using anti competitive practices by per buying their inventory as most stores leased to sell. 2) broader retail branch presense sell to the pros but! Mostly try to sell to the larger family base. 1 out of every house hold had 1 musician and they tried to sell Squires to the other families too. It worked. The issue became that upgrading never panned out as the most sales to beginner ended up not perusing a musical path. GC had way too much committed real estate and purchased inventory to fill up way too many stores. Overall it’s too bad. Even Sweetwater in 2024 is suffering when it come to expertise on the gear they sell. Just think of GC and their 240 plus stores. Just my take.
@billyhelmick2952Ай бұрын
Zounds is where I buy all my music gear!
@chrisstephens6194Ай бұрын
My st20 with Wilkinson tuners and pick ups is absolutely fantastic for the money
Пікірлер
eff GC...
I agree with your take on GC but people will lament losing this store and I would be very sad to see it disappear from our mall. I have bought a few good things from them but I spend equally with the locally owned long time music store in my town also
Ive always buy my guitars and gear at Sam ash, guitar center. I will never buy my guitar or gear on line. I need a hands on to make a purchase.
Guitar center has bad management.
The problem is cost. Guitar & gear is too damn expensive
Sam thing that happened to block busters. Netflix
I’ll tell you what happened. Amazon
You get what you pay for. With Harley Benton, you get a product that seems good at first but is made cheaply. And if you have a problem, you have to contact Germany to get it resolved. Good luck.
Guitar center sucks!!!!! Is a poor investment and anyone putting money in this company is a huge gamble
I agree with everything you said. They're on borrowed time at this point...they'll be joining Sam Ash. If you refuse to evolve with technology and be customer centric you won't last.
My buddy just bought a fake guitar made in china on their website in the used. Chibson 😂 He tried to call customer service and they hung up at every turn. But they have 45 days return policy. 1200$ for a POS fake guitar. They obviously don't hire people who know what they are doing... 😂
I bought a new D18 a few months ago and the bridge was defective. It is covered under the Martin warranty but I bought the pro coverage so I was going to let GC repair it. Turns out that it would void any future repairs in that area under the lifetime martin warranty. So I asked if they could trade it out for another D18. They didn't want to do that but they essentially totalled it under their warranty to pay me back so that I could buy another D18. When I went back to get the other "new" D18, it was covered in hand prints/smudges and the strings were corroded. I honestly thought they were trying to sell me a used guitar. It still sounded perfect, so I decided to get it anyway since the original one will most likely be gone for a couple of months. Oh and the manager wanted the original one back. Nope. That one is either mine or the insurance company's. A totalled car does go back to the dealer to be repaired and sold again.
Watching this video with my black californian elite to my side, awesome
I have access to 3 GCs, each one run very differently. Coming form decades of musical instrument retail, I had begged the GC management closest to me (which they FINALLY made the following change a few years ago) to understand that guitar accessories cannot be behind a counter where you have to ask a busy salesperson to get it for you- accessories must be on kiosks b/c older people (the people with most of the money) can't even see that far behind the counter. I'm still trying to get them to understand why it's bad for business to keep guitars up high so customers can't even see them. Also, keeping better instrument up high denotes "out of reach" for not only budding musicians, but for parents, thus helping to murder future clientele. It is better to keep them at eye-level behind glass which gives them more perceived value. Never mind having to ask a sales person who then needs to go find and climb "the ladder of shame" just to get it down and put it away. How demoralizing and anti-sales is that? I gave these suggestions without suggesting they were doing something wrong, just to offer professional help to pass onto upper management at corporate.
Great reviews! I picked up the slash Epiphone without the amp and this guitar is fun! Well built sounds great too and even has an onboard tuner on the pickup 🫠 the sustain is forever! I’ve been playing since I was 16 I’m 62 now 🥶 so I’ve had a few guitars 🎸 Anyways just wanted to put that out there, it’s a great guitar for the price 🤙🏾
If you give a bad review they take away the comment section from you and you can never review again.. I’m grounded for life 😂
Seeing the Kaman name reminds me of a different form of corporate consolidation. Kaman Aerospace in Bloomfield, CT primarily does vibration analysis of helicopter blades, going back to before corporate raiders tore apart United Technologies with Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, Otis, and Carrier, and mixed in former Raytheon. Kaman owned Microtime (NTSC video time base correctors), a home medical electronics company, and several brands of drums and percussion on top of the guitars line. That positioned them to do serious acoustic analysis by audio vibration and stroboscopic high speed photography, using military and aerospace tools, from sister companies on site.
The biggest drawback I've found about Harley Benton is that the Reverb store doesn't offer everything in the line up. I've been trying to get a hold of a DC Junior, but they only seem to be offered on the Thomann website. The other drawback is that that every DC Junior I've seen detailed in KZread videos seems to have the intonation be just slightly off. Maybe that's what's coming through on the video, but something about it just seemed not right. By they way, I'm really looking forward to part 2 of your Hamer documentary.
A very well made video, full of information about the Epiphone range of guitars. Looking forward to some more videos.
Fantastic watch. Great content guys. Impatiently awaiting for part 2.
Guitar Center also charges $120 for a full guitar set up. I found a guy at local shop that's been around for 40 years set up my new Fender Custom shop for $30! He did an excellent job!.
i love Guitar Center. I have friends that work there, and I love going up there to hang out and jam with the guys. That being said, I only buy high end guitars at this point of my career. I will not buy one from Guitar Center. Their high end guitars are in the Platinum room hung on locked hooks. People try to turn the guitars in the locked hanger messing up the neck and headstock. They rarely have more than couple high models and they are already on the floor. You can't order it online because 90% of the time your order will be shipped from another store where the guitar was treated the same. When I spend $5K+ on guitar I don't want 50 people to have touched it and played before I did. I still go to Guitar Center and hang out occasionally. I try out guitars, and then I buy it from Sweetwater. There's a $11,000 PRS Private Stock on the wall at my Guitar Center I've lusted after for 3 years. The price was finally reduced to $8,000. I was tempted, but it they dropped the price because everyone and their brother played it and now it has wear. Who on Earth buys a $10K Floor model??? Blows my mind.
I had an 86 chaparral custom with a single humbucker Best guitar I have ever played and owned
Better than either fender or Gibson. Not as good. Better. Gibson and fender sucked 70's-80's into the 90's even. That kind of money for a guitar they should be zero warrenty repairs.
One word: Sweetwater
Over 20 years ago, I went to GC with 1500$ in cash to by my first Les Paul. There were 3 asswipe salesguys looking at me like yeah right your gonna buy it. I was 22 and assume these pricks thought i wasnt worth getting off their ass to get the lp down from the top row. So i found the head douchebag who acted worse. I then pulled out the cash waved it around and walked out asking if they knew how late sam ash was open. They all followed me as i pretended my car was half a mile away. Then they followed me begging back to gc where my car really was.💩
Looking forward to part 2, this was a good documentary.
I can remember seeing a white exployer by Hamer in the early 82 83 maybe in small store in Centralia IL. They may have had a few double cutaways also.
My daughter sold guitars at the LA store. The pressure to sell the pro coverage was brutal. She HATED working there. Having said that, I do believe they have provided a valuable service in that you can actually see and play guitars you are considering. It’s more and more looking like the future will be watching online reviews, comparisons, testimonials, and making your decisions sometimes without ever seeing or holding the instrument in person. Alamo music does a great job of providing demos and comparisons, but they will probably end up succumbing to the pressure of trying to make it as a brick and mortar.
I first heard of Hamer Guitars when Glenn and KK started playing them in Priest. Kk's red and white custom v was was sick that he started playing on the Defenders tour i wanted that guitar so bad and i always ❤ Glenn's custom black and white and his white and black guitars they made for him on the Turbo tour. They also made KK's mini V wich he played for a long time. I didn't really like the mini V. I was happy when he stopped playing it. More happy when he got rid of that perm. 😂 🤘🤘
Hamer will always make me think of Rick Nielsen
Can't believe more Strat's are sold than Telecasters....
I love gibson and fender and prs. Id love to own a hammer some day
Very cool video. Cant wait for prt2
My Hamer USA Daytona is absolutely flawless. I think it out strats a strat, custom shop on steroids.
is that Brian Kehew doing the interviewing?
Brian does interview Rick. Those clips in particular are from Brian's show "Rather Have The Story" KZread channel. I've linked the full episode below. Brian was nice enough to allow me to use the footage for this video.
About everything you said is pretty much right on way understaffed staff is not knowledgeable and they need dedicated people running the registers that are not trying to sell guitars it seems like people feel they got the short end of the stick if they're having to run the register it's not the glamorous job but when we get ready to buy something we want to cash out and be out of the store within minutes it took me 5 hours on one occasion and 4 hours on another occasion to make some trades with guitar center it's beyond ridiculous and even just to cash out a straight-up purchase can take over an hour or more and as you mentioned to purchase accessories there should be no line waiting they should be able to cash you out in just a couple minutes max less than 60 seconds for strings and accessories
I used to have one of what I think was Hamer's earliest catalogs and price list. It was in black and white with about four or six pages. I think this was back in '78 or '79!
Lol I haggle with gc all the floor guitars I always say " nah, I'll pay the tag price for the guitar in the back in a box. I want a discount of the floor model"
For two years during COVID the local GC did not carry any change! They would accept cash, but would not give out change. I was asked to donate to the store with the change I was owed. I went home and ordered online from another store. I haven't been back.
they are rite behind sam ash but with a better web site they should emphasize more on that and change the stores to sell more accessories and DJ stuff things for the home studio will go , they can sell you the guitars on line and let you try it at the store . doing lessons in the store is a good Idea but yes I think they will be closing some stores in the next couple years. They do have to fix the customer waiting around thing that always been going on and always lame , but at this point they can't afford to do that otherwise it's a sinking ship.
Can’t wait for Pt. II! Growth! Expansion! Contraction! The New Hartford years…
Still have the red slot wall! Best Buy and many other retail chains are I trouble but…. Here’s my take. Guitar centers business model was based on two strategies. 1) eliminate the mom and pop stores by using anti competitive practices by per buying their inventory as most stores leased to sell. 2) broader retail branch presense sell to the pros but! Mostly try to sell to the larger family base. 1 out of every house hold had 1 musician and they tried to sell Squires to the other families too. It worked. The issue became that upgrading never panned out as the most sales to beginner ended up not perusing a musical path. GC had way too much committed real estate and purchased inventory to fill up way too many stores. Overall it’s too bad. Even Sweetwater in 2024 is suffering when it come to expertise on the gear they sell. Just think of GC and their 240 plus stores. Just my take.
Zounds is where I buy all my music gear!
My st20 with Wilkinson tuners and pick ups is absolutely fantastic for the money