Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Stupid things you've been told at Guitar Center

pinkerton · 18th February 2010

i used to work at guitar center in the houston area about 6 or 7 years ago. anyone in texas or louisiana know if greg labruzzi is still with the company? that guy was seriously a lot of fun to shoot the sh*t with. word of advice to any potential GC employees - do not work in pro audio unless ALL the other guys are clueless, including the dept. manager. you get one or two pro audio guys who know a thing or two running all the business and you cant get your footing, so to speak. if i had to do it over i'd start out in accessories.

anyway about a year or two ago the keyboard department at a neighborhood GC had apparently acquired a micromoog in absolutely horrid condition. a couple keys were misaligned (or just plain broken) and it would produce weird squelches and bloops at normal "synth bass" or lead type settings. VCA was totally unstable dead quiet one minute then ear piercing loud the next. totally broken. the price tag was $1000. yep. a grand for what was essentially scrap for other synths (maybe the audio input still fed into the filter, which didn't sound broken). and they no doubt bought it like that and tried passing it off at a ridiculous price on brand recognition alone, hoping some idiot would pay it.

i told the keyboard/pro audio dudes i'd give them 100 bucks for it. which was incredibly generous. they said i'd have to talk to the manager as he'd brought it in. so i did. and he literally laughed in my face and asked me if i knew who made it. like moog is the apha and omega of synthesis and anything with a moog logo guarantees ^$1000 simply because of the label. it wasn't even really that great of a moog in the first place ... which are already very limited synths. all i could do was shrug it off. i wasn't really all *that* interested in it anyway.

it was gone shortly thereafter. no idea what happened to it. no way anybody bought it. i'm literally the only synthesist i know of in my area outside of your hipster-with-a-microkorg type player. maybe one of the employees in another store bought it at buyin cost and shipped it somewhere. whatever.

18th February 2010	#1029
pinkerton Lives for gear Joined: Jan 2010 Location: HOUSTON Posts: 869	i used to work at guitar center in the houston area about 6 or 7 years ago. anyone in texas or louisiana know if greg labruzzi is still with the company? that guy was seriously a lot of fun to shoot the sht with. word of advice to any potential GC employees - do not work in pro audio unless ALL the other guys are clueless, including the dept. manager. you get one or two pro audio guys who know a thing or two running all the business and you cant get your footing, so to speak. if i had to do it over i'd start out in accessories. anyway about a year or two ago the keyboard department at a neighborhood GC had apparently acquired a micromoog in absolutely horrid condition. a couple keys were misaligned (or just plain broken) and it would produce weird squelches and bloops at normal "synth bass" or lead type settings. VCA was totally unstable dead quiet one minute then ear piercing loud the next. totally broken. the price tag was $1000. yep. a grand for what was essentially scrap for other synths (maybe the audio input still fed into the filter, which didn't sound broken). and they no doubt bought it like that and tried passing it off at a ridiculous price on brand recognition alone, hoping some idiot would pay it. i told the keyboard/pro audio dudes i'd give them 100 bucks for it. which was incredibly generous. they said i'd have to talk to the manager as he'd brought it in. so i did. and he literally laughed in my face and asked me if i knew who made it. like moog is the apha and omega of synthesis and anything with a moog logo guarantees ^$1000 simply because of the label. it wasn't even really that great of a moog in the first place ... which are already very limited synths. all i could do was shrug it off. i wasn't really all that* interested in it anyway. it was gone shortly thereafter. no idea what happened to it. no way anybody bought it. i'm literally the only synthesist i know of in my area outside of your hipster-with-a-microkorg type player. maybe one of the employees in another store bought it at buyin cost and shipped it somewhere. whatever.