Alex Skolnick: Music Store Horror Stories

[eljodon]

When I bought my new PRS in GC I tried 10 of them, and every single guitar was out of tune and the room had a bunch of nice amps and they all buzzed,. There was somthing wrong with the wiring and this was GC in Hollywood which is a huge store. You would think they could afford to have the proper AC wiring. If you're trying an amp having all that buzzing would make it hard to demo an amp!

 

[Splinterhead]

Surprisingly enough my experiences at GC have been good. I helped out a friend buying a high end Fender Strat and they pretty much left us alone running rampant around the store trying out guitars and plugging into different amps. The sales guy who helped, while really not that knowledgeable, was decent enough. Sam Ash? well that's a different story...

 

[Deleted member 3860]

... "You never know who's buying from you, or who they know. Try to realize that you can't play favorites in your line of work. A little respect goes a long way."

I learned this lesson in my late teens when I had a job selling shoes in the mall.
I would kiss the butt of the well dresses business woman and virtually ignore the guy dressed in farm clothes... until I learned the well dressed woman wasn't really interested in buying anything, she was just killing time on her lunch break.
Meanwhile, the farmer (who just happened to own the largest dairy farm in the area) dropped a few hundred dollars buying shoes for the new school year for his seven kids.

Never judge on appearance and don't play favorites.
That lesson served me well in later years when I got a gig working in the local music store.

 

[colimofsmoke]

Rudy's has got to be my least favorite guitar store ever.

 

[mindseye]

About 15 years ago a buddy and me where both shopping for Les Paul's and stopped in som little shit store in the next town over from us..... We walk in and after about 15 min. Of no one talking to us we ask to try out a couple of guitars so some dood who looks pissed that we bothered him grabs one of the two guitars we asked for "1 at a time" he tells us in a dick head voice.
So my buddy starts checking the guitar out and not even 5 min. after he hands us the guitar he looks at us and hollers " are you guys even gonna fucking buy something"
My buddy and I had about $6k between us, we both turned around and said not any more, pulled out our wallets showed him the cash he just missed out on and told him to have a nice day.

Good times!!!

 

[ConcreteVampire]

fun read. My personal faviorite of my own experience is when I was trying to buy a 12ax7 at GC (needed one in a pinch) and the guy swore up and down I could use an EL84 in it's place

Well Duh Darren! It's a bigger tube, it would have given you more gain!

 

[thiswaythatway]

FWIW, I live in northern ocean county NJ. Musicians Workshop in manalapan, Russo's Music in Hamilton, and Guitar Center in East Brunswick all have very friendly staff willing to help...

HAHA, Me and a friend were in Russo's years ago and a few guys there were huge dickbags. First, I ask to try a Diezel VH4 and the guy starts trashing them up and down, talking about how shitty they sound given the price tag. Then he just tries to plug me into their Bad Cat amps, I say no thanks I'd like to try the Diezel. Then he tells me how much better Bogners are.

So eventually I get plugged into a VH4 and I'm playing at really low volumes, and my friend is also playing something and maybe 15 minutes goes by and were getting dirty looks from some old guy in there. Then another dickbag comes over and wants to know if were just jamming out or if were going to actually buy something. I unplug, go over to my friend and say, let's get outta here.

 

[thiswaythatway]

If that's the one fuckface that I'm thinking of from Rudy's that he talked about that guy is well known.........to be an asshole.


The sad part is that there are plenty of good people out there in music stores but the jerk off's get talked about more often.

Which fuckface...there are a lot of them there now. They completely went downhill. There were only 3 people that I have ever dealt with that weren't assholes in however long i have been in the city. Rudy, Dean and I think Alex (or whoever ran the old upstairs amp room.) Rudy owns it and is pretty cool. Dean, I believe ran the shop and can be cool but depends on the day and is usually behind the counter, and is immediately who I envisioned from the story and the amp guy was by far the coolest but is long gone and they moved that shop around the corner.

A fat guy with a lazy eye. I remember they always would yell to turn down whenever their phones rang. It's like hey, you wanted to work in a music store, deal with it.

I think a lot of these music stores guys thought it would be cool to work in a music store, then realized that it turned out to be just another low paying job, then they got all grumpy.

 

[lettmusic]

this thread brings up some horror music store shits.
I've been playing for 26 years now, 22 years professionally. Through the years I don't know how much i've spent on gear, easily have purchased over 30 guitars, 20+ amps and countless amount of other musical gear and accessories.
Funny thing is, I look a lot younger than my age. So once in awhile I go in a music store, and some shitfuck 20 yr old will give me the business and tell me shit like I have to take off my jacket before trying a guitar I've always show utmost respect to stuff that's not mine, especially when trying out gear in a store. But the attitude on some of these douche, I don't know, man.
Couple months ago I was trying out a YJM Strat, and the salesman was giving one of these douchebag trips. I was being as nice as possible to the guy, but I couldn't help but think in my head : " You stupid fuck, i owned a YJM when Fender first released. And currently have a 1973 scalloped cream Strat that I beat the shit out of when we were touring"

 

[soc_monki]

ive only had one bad experience in a music store. i think it was around 10 year ago, and i was in Meridian, MS (me and some buddies met up with another buddy who lived there, and we were heading to the coast to a show). anyway, we go to a local store and i want to check out some guitars, thinking of buying a new one. i decided i wanted to try and Les Paul, and they had a pretty emerald green studio on the wall. so i ask nicely if i can try it out. guy gets it down, i plug in, and proceed to play a few songs. i guess i struck a nerve when i decided to try out a few Randy Rhoads tunes, and i guess doing a bit from Crazy Train pissed the store guy off. he said something about if i was actually going to buy it, or i had been piddling around enough. i heard the comment, turned off the amp, unplugged, and handed him the guitar back and left. im sorry if me wanting to play something that i like to play and use to check out how a guitar feels with particular techniques pissed him off so much. Randy used a Paul, so i figured it would be a fitting tribute. whatever...maybe i should have played over the mountain instead...?

any other store i havent had a problem with. theres one about 45 minutes away in muscle shoals alabama that i havent been to in a long time, but i used to go for lessons years ago. bought my 5150 there, always enjoyed it. nice guys, knowledgeable. few stores in town, mostly just used gear, but ive picked up a few gems like my PSA-1 for 125 bucks. couple other pieces as well for cheap. and the GC in Nashville is pretty nice. got my Schecter there, and every time ive been in there the guys are super cool, dont know if they really know much because i dont ask all that much. i know what i want, what i like, they seem happy to assist if i need help. other than that, painless.

hopefully it stays that way...i hate dealing with douchebag salespeople.

 

[thiswaythatway]

You guys think the stores over there in the states can be bad? ...

Trust me, nothing tops the bullshit that surrounded Denmark Street in London for the last 20 years... I have been treated like absolute scum by some of the workers in those stores. Many of the guys down there acted like they were rockstars, even though the majority of them were total fucking losers. I can think of a dozen times where i had a fat wad of cash in my pocket, ready to buy something and walked into the stores to try out guitars.. only to have the store workers refuse to let me try anything and talk to me like shit.

Infact, one time i remember trying out a guitar in one of the stores. I was playing some fairly technical shred stuff in the testing booth, and i noticed that i was getting some attention from the people in the store. I happened to notice that the store manager (who was stood in the corner of the room) was glaring at me and looked pissed off.. The manager was all dressed up, trying to look like a rockstar. He looked like a twin of Chris Impellitteri haha!
Suddenly next thing i know, the store manager stormed through to the back of the store in a fit of temper, walked into the next booth, plugged in his own Ibanez RG into a cranked 5150 stack and was trying to out-shred me and drown me out with earth shattering volume. Half the people in the store walked out because of all the noise he was making... It was sickeningly loud (gig volume) and i couldn't even hear myself think at this point. Pissed me off big time, because i was actually ready to buy the guitar but the experience put me off completely. So i just put the guitar back on the shelf and walked straight outta there without even saying a word to anyone.

Because of all the shitty experiences i have had at guitar stores, i have now been buying almost everything online for the last 7 years. I would rather spend more money and buy internationally from top guys/friends of mine like Curt @ Squid Music or Ralph @ ModSquadMusic etc. I certainly won't spend a penny in a store where the workers treat people like crap.

That happened to me. I was playing really low volumes and some rockstar from the music store plugs in 15 feet away from and turns up seriously loud and the guy is looking at me. I laid the guitar on the ground, left the amp on, and walked out as the guitar was feeding back.

Now wonder why more and more are taking chances and just buying over the interwebz.

 

[MrDan666]

That happened to me. I was playing really low volumes and some rockstar from the music store plugs in 15 feet away from and turns up seriously loud and the guy is looking at me. I laid the guitar on the ground, left the amp on, and walked out as the guitar was feeding back.

Now wonder why more and more are taking chances and just buying over the interwebz.

Haha it's pretty hilarious when shit like this happens... I almost couldn't believe it at the time, i mean surely the guy could've just been nice to me and i would have bought the guitar, so he would've got the commission too. But he had to go and be a grumpy jealous fucker and miss out on a deal/make himself look like an idiot!

I'm glad that i can trust several online stores, because now i can buy online without any worries and always get excellent service!

 

[Mudder]

I guess I've been lucky. For the most part I either get ignored altogether or decent typical retail service. There is one store where I get great service all the time, and always from the same guy. He's a musician and probably has experienced all the crap this thread talks about, so he's always awesome. When I first came in it was obvious I knew nothing and he was super helpful. That was 15yrs ago, now he's the store mgr and still helps everyone the same. So if you're in Portland go check out Portland Music in SW Portland and ask for Corey.

 

[bpetersen]

I will say that Alex Skolnick was REALLY respectful and answered any questions and signed everything that was presented to him at an Anthrax/Testament show in Denver. Awesome post.

 

[59Bassman]

I almost hesitate to bring this one up, but when I was 15, I'd just started playing guitar. This would have been about 1987. I was a HUGE Lynch fan. I'd saved up all summer for an amp, and my dad and I drove 250 miles to get to the nearest Guitar Center (in Minneapolis). I wanted to buy something that sounded like Lynch, upgrading from my old Peavey Bandit 65.

We got there, and when I wanted to plug in, my dad asked if the salesguy would let me try one of the Jackson Soloist customs they had. I was stunned. I still recall that the guitar had some sort of lightning graphic on it. I started playing around with an Ampeg SS-140C with my dad watching, and I was hacking my way through "Dream Warriors". I know I was awful. However, the long-haired salesguy came over, yanked the guitar out of my hands and said "NO, THIS IS HOW YOU PLAY IT!" and proceeded to play for about 5 minutes. Dunno what he was thinking - probably that he was helping a newbie out, but I felt humiliated. It was 10 years before I went into another GC.

A few years later, I was in a Schmidt Music chain store. They had a white Lester on the wall, and I was looking for a new guitar. As I recall, the guitar was something like $800. I asked to play it, and the guy looked me up and down and said "Do you have $800 in your pocket?" My response was "No, if I did, the last place I'd be was at SH!T music". Turned around and left. Ended up paying almost twice that for a custom guitar instead.

 

[DeezDemos]

Having been on both sides of the counter myself, I get why some music store personnel can develop attitude. While I don't condone poor customer service in any way, anyone who's ever been to GC on an afternoon when schools out can maybe empathize a bit. Working at a music store was one of the worst experiences I ever had as a musician. Last thing I wanted to do after work was play a fucking guitar or listen to music. Once I got all the gear I wanted with my employee discount I got the hell out.

FWIW, I don't think I was ever an ass to anybody because that's not really in my nature. I do however recall making myself scarce quite often, especially towards the end....

 

[Heritage Softail]

I almost hesitate to bring this one up, but when I was 15, I'd just started playing guitar. This would have been about 1987. I was a HUGE Lynch fan. I'd saved up all summer for an amp, and my dad and I drove 250 miles to get to the nearest Guitar Center (in Minneapolis). I wanted to buy something that sounded like Lynch, upgrading from my old Peavey Bandit 65.

We got there, and when I wanted to plug in, my dad asked if the salesguy would let me try one of the Jackson Soloist customs they had. I was stunned. I still recall that the guitar had some sort of lightning graphic on it. I started playing around with an Ampeg SS-140C with my dad watching, and I was hacking my way through "Dream Warriors". I know I was awful. However, the long-haired salesguy came over, yanked the guitar out of my hands and said "NO, THIS IS HOW YOU PLAY IT!" and proceeded to play for about 5 minutes. Dunno what he was thinking - probably that he was helping a newbie out, but I felt humiliated. It was 10 years before I went into another GC.

A few years later, I was in a Schmidt Music chain store. They had a white Lester on the wall, and I was looking for a new guitar. As I recall, the guitar was something like $800. I asked to play it, and the guy looked me up and down and said "Do you have $800 in your pocket?" My response was "No, if I did, the last place I'd be was at SH!T music". Turned around and left. Ended up paying almost twice that for a custom guitar instead.

Oh man, what a story!

I had a couple guys that helped me at Sims Music in Columbia SC. One was a freak player. Played Tumeni Notes one day when I went in and asked him to show the latest cool lick. He showed me a few licks, helped me get my first Mesa and Kramer guitar. I actually miss not being near that store. Way cool.

Same thing at Ace Music in Va beach. Cool people and helpful. Helped me restore my used SG I paid 200 for.

 

[racerevlon]

A couple people have already nailed my favorite stories, both GC and both in the vein of the Julia Roberts Pretty Woman scene.

First one was the "do you even have any money?" bit. I ask for another salesperson and as the other salesperson is being less of, but still a d-bag to me, I pull out the $3500 cash from my pocket to get a pick. They both about pissed themselves falling all over themselves ("I was helping him first/he asked for me instead") all the while I'm talking about how I REALLY like this guitar/amp pairing. They're salivating, commission numbers running through their heads. I get done, unplug, and tell them I'm heading over to Sam Ash, where I'll buy the gear because they both need a lesson in respect. Wonder if they ever learned...

Next up, similar situation but I actually stayed in the store and bought from another salesperson who was way nicer and more respectful. The guy who was a dick to me and lost the sale confronted us both as I was ringing up with, "What the hell?? I spent time with you and you give HIM the sale?? That's MY sale (turns to other salesperson "Put MY code on that or I'm going to (Manager)." I interject at this point and tell him, you're right, you did spend time with me first. But you were a disrespectful, condescending ass the whole time, and at the end of the day I can buy from whomever I choose, and I'm sure your manager will tell you the same thing, so do you want to go get him and we can ALL have this conversation, or do you want to maybe think about how you treat people and keep your job? He totally missed the point--called me a dick and walked away. Every time I went in after that I made sure I bought from the same cool guy and that the asshole saw. Eventually, I never saw the asshole again. Probably doing horribly at selling used cars now.

A little respect goes a long way. Most of us on here aren't Alex, but we DO have coin to burn on gear!!

 

[bigdaddyd]

If that's the one fuckface that I'm thinking of from Rudy's that he talked about that guy is well known.........to be an asshole.


The sad part is that there are plenty of good people out there in music stores but the jerk off's get talked about more often.

Which fuckface...there are a lot of them there now. They completely went downhill. There were only 3 people that I have ever dealt with that weren't assholes in however long i have been in the city. Rudy, Dean and I think Alex (or whoever ran the old upstairs amp room.) Rudy owns it and is pretty cool. Dean, I believe ran the shop and can be cool but depends on the day and is usually behind the counter, and is immediately who I envisioned from the story and the amp guy was by far the coolest but is long gone and they moved that shop around the corner.

A fat guy with a lazy eye. I remember they always would yell to turn down whenever their phones rang. It's like hey, you wanted to work in a music store, deal with it.

I think a lot of these music stores guys thought it would be cool to work in a music store, then realized that it turned out to be just another low paying job, then they got all grumpy.

Seriously though, Rudys used to be so cool back in the day. It is where I learned about Riveras and Fulltone from Andy...that's it his name was Andy, not Alex. When the amp and effects were upstairs. I remember being there when they shut it down because John McEnroe came in. I haven't bought anything there in years except a magazine, because of the shit you describe though. I think Andy had a Rocktron Repiflex on hold for me a lifetime ago that belonged to Larry Mitchell and someone else sold it out from under me. I got there to pick it up and it was gone. They don't give a shit about the regular guy, they cater to super wealthy and famous and the super collectors.

 

[jlbaxe]

I have had great dealings with GC but I only deal with 2 guys, well one now. The one guy Capt'n Morgan sold me about 4 or 5 guitars but had it out with some guy being a dick in the store and right hooked him dropping him. Everyone said the guy deserved it but they had to let capt Morgan go. So now I deal with one guy only, I don't always buy something but he is always cool with me and helpful.