Was disgusted today.

[yellowv]

Well I am in NY on vacation. Today I was in Manhattan and was excited to see a Sam Ash. I walk in the door and first thing I see is a counter with about 20 PRS hanging on the wall behind it. So I was like this could be good. So I walk in a bit more and see on the back wall a ton of LP's straight ahead on the wall behind another counter. Now in between the front and back of the store is where the disgust hit me..... The middle part of the store!!! There were guitars hanging on the wall 3 high and so close together they were just banging into each other. Now these guitars consisted of everything from $350 Ibby's to an $8000 custom shop ESP Lynch. There was a Charvel Dimartini, a Jem, a few Lynch's an ESP Alexi, etc. All sitting there where every idiot could bang them off of whatever was next to them, and believe me they did. I was disgusted to see these high end awesome instruments brand new with dings, dents, scratches, etc. I have never seen such a collection of awesome guitars in one place... PRS, Gibson, Fender, Suhr, Anderson, ESP, etc. Now most of the Gibbys, Suhrs, Andys, etc. were out of reach there were a bunch of custom shop Fenders and the other guitars I mentioned all kept like they were garbage. How a shop could keep those guitars like that is just beyond comprehension. Sorry had to vent.

 

[TRENCHLORD]

Leave it to the big chain corporation. They probably don't give a shit and will just turn them in on their insurance if they get to bad to sell.

 

[JamesM]

I completely agree with you. People don't appreciate the things they have, nor do they respect them as the pieces of art they are.

Somewhat relevant... While it is very childish and shouldn't be relevant, when I see people with a great deal of expensive gear but they are just terrible players or musicians (or even worse, they abuse this gear!), it pisses me off. That's definitely due to jealousy, no doubt, but it is surely not unreasonable. Terrible sounding Axe-FXs, box pentatonics played on USA Custom Shop Strats and the like all kill me.

Jealousy mode off.

 

[Church2224]

This is why I never buy from Sam Ash, Guitar Center, Musician's FIEND, ect. They never care about how they treat the guitars. Or even yet they buy B Stock guitars and sell them for the price of a non defected gutiar and still try to pass it off as the real non defected one.

Do your research before buying my friends. A good guitar dealer is just as good as a good guitar.

 

[MetalMike04]

my words of advice, always buy local.

 

[JamesM]

Pretty sure Yellowv doesn't need shopping advice, it seems he's been around the block a couple times.

 

[Ironbird]

Sadly, the worst part of this is that they'll try to sell these banged up instruments at full price.

I just started a similar thread in the BC Rich Players Forum. One member shared his experience of seeing a sales guy trying to polish an Epiphone bass with a scouring pad!

 

[Jack Secret]

Remember another thing about Sam Ash on 48th in NYC. They also own Manny's Music across the street so it's moot to run across the street trying to get a better deal.

 

[signalgrey]

sam ash is fucking awful. i refuse to buy anything from that company.

 

[loktide]

a sales guy trying to polish an Epiphone bass with a scouring pad!

that's actually a great way to get a matte finish. i did it to my yamaha bass, and it turned out awesome

 

[yellowv]

I surely didnt go there to buy anything. Just to look around. Buying a guitar on vacation and taking it home on a plane isnt the best idea. Although they did have an ESP skulls and snakes that looked to be in decent shape for $1600.

 

[BigPhi84]

When I was up in Atlanta about a month ago, I stopped by their Sam Ash. I was interested in checking out some teles. Well, went I get to their Fender wall, the guitars are stacked so tight diagonally (I hope you get that), that I have to remove three guitars of the wall to get to the one I want to play!!! Absurd. And yes, they were all dinged up.

 

[metalman_ltd]

They could care less its all about the money. I went to guitar center there was an ibanez there I wanted. it had a huge chip on the horn I took it up and they wanted full price I tried to get it cheaper but no deal.

 

[Origin]

His store his rules. It can irk you but if it does just take your business elsewhere, not much else you can do

 

[themike]

Leave it to the big chain corporation. They probably don't give a shit and will just turn them in on their insurance if they get to bad to sell.

Actually - Sam Ash, and this store in particular, started out as a small family business with the Manhattan store as one of their original locations. The corp. is still run by the Ash family, but I will admit that they have definetly lost the "mom & pop shop" mojo they started with

 

[Kr1zalid]

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Wall guitars have always been the sacrificial lambs of the guitar store. Their main purpose is to have people try them out so the store can order a replacmemnt or sell back stock. A guitar store doesn't want you to buy the floor model. That may seem like a strange concept, but think about it. They could just keep everything under lock in key or hanging in the sky, but then nobody would be able to try anything and fewer sales would be made. Guitar stores have to let you try gear, it's the ONE thing they still have over online retailers (with the improvement of return policies they probably won't have that edge much longer ). So they have two options, limit and police thier sales floors heavily (limiting is a death wish in retail) so that all the wall guitars are kept in "first condition", which is just about impossible, or sacrifice a couple every so often so the greater majority are left in back, safe in thier boxes and/or cases. Now think of what happens to that wall guitar. Say the model is discontinued, or they simply won't be carrying them anymore, or even that it's just gotten to beat. What do they do? Sell it as a scratch and dent with warranty (fucking awesome!) or blow it out as used. At first it would seem like a loss, but think about the markup. Let's say Sam Ash gets Gibson Les Paul Standards for $1000 each, and then sells them for $2200. Well, after every Tom, Dick, and Jane beats the shit out of the wall Les Paul, they decide to sell it for $1600 as a Scratch N' Dent special. They still make a profit, a sizeable one too, and the person buying it can go and brag on an internet forum about the awesome Les Paul he got for $600 because of a few small scratches. Everyone wins, especially the guitar store.

 

[orakle]

reason why i ordered an Ibanez RGD-2127z directly from canada's distributor

ill never accept that any of my instruments have dings or scratches

i babysit them way too much ;D

 

[Kabstract]

Thing is, my locals charge around 50%+ what I can get online, even after shipping and taxes. One store had a Line 6 M9 at $550! You can get that off eBay at $400 no problem.

 

[Devyn Eclipse Nav]

I saw one horrible example of a Schecter Damien with a MASSIVE chunk missing out of the back edge. As in, quarter inch deep, 2 and a half inches across. AND IT WAS STILL FULL FUCKING PRICE. Which is why I'm no longer buying Floor Model guitars. I'm ordering them all now. And it doesn't help that half the people that work at these places don't know what the fuck they're doing.