That right there got me laughing!
Ahhhh, man, so true, so true.
Amen. Haven't been to a GC since April, and i've never felt better! It's like rehab, im off the drugs now. In fact, about once every two months i place a large order through Redco for raw cable and connectors and then my tech and i just build whatever we need on the spot. I love it.
Nothing beats the confusion on some kid's face when i tell him that we build all of our own cable and that we can put together something with Mogami quad-core and top-of-the-line Neutrik connectors for far less than half of the cost of the equivalent Mogami cable at Guitar Center. I swear most of the kids that come through my studio don't even realize that it's possible to make your own cables...
Here's a fun little story about Guitar Center that has no point, but i will tell it anway.
I have a good friend who worked at my local GC store for a while. I used to go in there and shoot the breeze, occasionally buy something, and always make him look about 15 things up in the computer system. My local GC (Canton, MI) sucks for pro audio stuff. They have an unbelievable guitar selection, but the pro audio department is decidedly lacking. In fact, they have a UA LA-2A in the rack in the studio room, and it's seriously gathering dust, never plugged in, and for years i have had a suspicion that it's literally the same one that they've had since i started going in there years ago. It's also about the ONLY piece of high-end recording gear in the entire store. Oh, they have an LA-610MkII as well i guess, whoop dee doo. Seriously that is it in there though. The rest is maudio, presonus and b-word gear. So anway, one day we were in there laughing about how they will never sell the LA-2A, i mean really just snickering and having a "way-too-funny" type of moment. So i asked him to get on the terminal and check to see how long they have had that specific LA-2A. He's punching in numbers for a minute, and im still chuckling and going "you're gonna love it. are you ready, youre going to be laughing..." He stops, looks up at me, big smile on his face and says "dude, this store hasn't sold a single LA-2A the entire time they've been here! The one in the studio has been here since 2002!"
It's totally a "had-to-be-there" moment, but man were we dying. And yes, i know that it's probably the location more than it would be the employee's fault, coupled with the fact that the Southfield, MI location moves TONS of higher-end gear, and they are only a half hour drive from the Canton store, but still, it's just so funny to me for some reason.
They have a term called "Gilligan" which the guys at the Canton store use for anyone who comes into pro audio and asks hours worth of questions with no intent to buy anything. That is most people that go through there in fact. They like to take you on "the three hour tour"
Ok, im done laughing at GC for now.