Is Guitar Center going to be around much longer? Fender too?

GuitarDojo

GuitarDojo

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I really hate that place and 90% of the people I have dealt with there can bite it, But if GC goes down where will those all Dbags go???


If your drinking coffee, put it down before you read this. Its a spiller....
How Guitar Center Will Kill Us All - BANG Your Head Guitars

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Fender too?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/breakingviews/2012/07/12/fender_stock_buyers_will_gently_weep_.html

Clear this up for me..... Fender has been going in debt for a while, rumour is that anything made after 2010 is not as good quality as years prior??
 
For my part, they can't go out of business fast enough. Either that, or change the name to Voldemart ;)
 
That is good and bad news. The good news is that when I retire I wanted to own a mom and pop music store, just like the one I used to frequent as a kid. That could still happen now, but the bad news is that I probably won't be selling fender guitars either. I know Fender was going to IPO and they decided not to because of their current position, I was going to buy some for nostalgic reasons. This hobby of ours is getting screwed left and right. I bet none of us thought that this was going to happen when we were listening to KISS in '78. I know it's all eb and flow of life and all that stuff, but the music business has taken a lot of hits in the last 15 yrs and I'm not sure what it's going to take pull it out of the other side.
 
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They will both eventually go bankrupt to eliminate their debts, but are too well known to vanish.
 
With debt numbers like that it's only a matter of time before they start closing the non performing stores and scale back their opperation.
 
Bain Capital (the company Mitt Romney started) bought Guitar Center in 2006. This gives GC pretty strong financial backing.
 
This is all a dual edged sword. I hate GC almost as much as I hate Sam Ash(gave up on those tools after buying several items that were obviously used/returned and resold to me at full price as new). At the same time, I don't miss paying full MSRP at the Mom and Pop stores. As bad as GC is, I cannot give enough praise to Musician's Friend( which is apparently GC's online arm). The pricing and customer service I have received from them over the yeras has been absolutely stellar.
 
Fender yanked the IPO at the last minute. And, wow, that guy has a grasp of grammar like someone who had Jim Beam and bananas for breakfast.
 
Mmm, anyone ever placed an order with the Fender Custom shop, is a deposit needed when ordering. I was thinking about getting something made.
 
the bad news for the 'future' is that quality gear prices are going UP, UP, UP, which is going to have a net effect of driving most companies out of business.Supplies will also go down.The music industry will be increasingly dominated by 'appointed' minions who serve the interests of corporate and even government desires to control and dumb down the populace...Although there are many more 20 year old's these days that can play at a virtuoso level than there was 20 years ago, the average musician today is not as skilled as the average musician of 20 years ago.More 'musicians' today are of the DJ variety than people who actually play an instrument...which is not a good sign at all.I predict the price of tube amps and tubes will skyrocket soon to 'protect' the environment, just as high quality guitars already have.... I think the incidents with Gibson are good portent of what is to come.Obviously, certain political parties will make this happen faster than others.I am hopeful fractal does not get sold to a corporation someday that may buy them not only for their tech, but also just to eliminate them because they are of the non-corporate model.The world is being robotized, including people.Sure hope I am wrong.
 
Well, here's my 2 cents. The guy that wrote the article hardly comes off as having much education or business savvy. Here's a hint: if you think you have to cuss to make a point, you might try a more intellectually compelling argument. As for his business assessment, countless businesses have had boom times, and struggled with leveraged debt. GC may or may not end up in bankruptcy, that will largely depend on how management steers the company through our severely depressed economy, and for the near future, the elections in November. As noted above GC owns Musician's Friend, so like AIG, some of their organization is under-performing, but others are sustainable.

As for Fender, it certainly seems to me that their quality is extremely poor. Then again, Gibson seems to suffer from the same ailment. When I went Bass shopping a few years ago, I started on a quest for a Fender Jazz Bass. I tried a bazillion of them including uber expensive stuff from the "custom shop". I found crappy fretwork, plastic parts that were cheap junk, lousy pots, poor intonation, bad set-ups... you get the idea. And that was the custom shop stuff. I was extremely disappointed. I tried a few boutique basses but just didn't want to spend that much. I had and parted with an old Jazz bass, and I will say that the old stock one was 100% better than the junk they make now.

I love old Gibsons. When looking for a hollowbody, I tried a lot of Gibson's high end archtops (L5 etc). Then I found a used Heritage Sweet 16 in a little shop here in TX. It blew away ALL of the new Gibbys I tried. Traded a Historic 335 for the Sweet 16. Never regret it. The Sweet 16 is WAY better than anything coming out of Gibson now. If you like archtops, you have got to try the Heritage. Awesome guitars. After a few years, I got t missing my 335 so I started on a quest to find another. I tried vintage ones (yikes on the price) and new ones. Quality on the new guitars was crap. Then I tried a Heritage 555. It is stock but loaded with Seth Lover pu's. Absolute killer guitar. WAY better than any Gibby I tried. Until Fender, and Gibson figure out why their old used gear sells for 5 times the price of their new stuff, they will continue to die in the marketplace. To quote a famous politician, "It's the quality stupid".
 
Well I am a Fender guy since my first USA Strat in the late 80's. Why would someone hate Fender-in this thread also? You don't like em, don't buy em. I will say that I would not buy any new Strats unless they were USA deluxes. That's why I have my 06 and 08 USA Dlx strats. Of course, I still have my 89 USA Std Strat-always will. That thing hs seen thousands of miles .Those they put the quality into. Can be found for $1,300+ NEW. But, like I said that's the USA deluxe models. Please tell Brad Paisley how poor his Tele and Strat sound.
All I'm saying is they make a good guitar for a reasonable price. So why the heck do you want them to go out of business? We all cannot afford the$2200 to $3,500 guitars. Sorry.
They will not go out of business because the Strat and Teles are at the roots of all this R&R stuff. Read a little bit. Gibsons are OK,.but overpriced iMHO-same with others I could mention. But I am not tryinf to start a war-Just happen to disagree.
 
Stratman68 said:
You don't like em, don't buy em.
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Precisely.

I am not trying to be argumentative Stratman. I think the point is that Fender's quality has severely declined over the years, and it shows in what people will pay for the old ones. I don't hate Fender's. I've owned a bunch over the years. Bought my first in 1966, so it's not like I have anything against them. Been playing them for more years than I can recall. Still play them. Nothing would thrill me more than for both Fender and Gibson to take a serious course correction and build 'em like they used to. Currently, such quality does not fit their business model. Further, if you get one of their hand made custom shop guitars, you are easily in the $2200 - $4,000 range. Hardly a stock guitar bought at GC. For that money, I'll take a Suhr, Anderson or PRS any day.
 
I've been a Strat player for almost 30 years. Love the guitar, period... hate monsters that only see $$ and crap out BIG TIME on quality vs. quantity and customer service with no regard whatsoever. Let them burn so they'll sell the rights of the name to someone who will give a shit about common folk once again... at least until they become money monsters. And that is why I'll never buy a new product from them again.
 
As PatZag noted, I just got an email Tuesday that by Sunday West LA Music will be gone, bought/absorbed and shut down by GC. 46 years and *poof* they are gone. They were probably the largest independent store left in LA.

I don't know how many times I've walked into a GC intending to buy and ended up walking out again empty handed. They seem to have mastered the art of alienation.

As for Bain owning them, don't kid yourself -- they have been and will make a ton of money off of GC, even if it eventually tanks. For them, the profit is always there in fees, etc, even if it kills the company in question (images of vampires, leeches, etc.)

TT
 
Fortunately, there are some people still building good stuff. PRS builds quite a few top notch products in the old school Gibson style, and you can even get one at GC, although other dealers are probably a better choice. If you want a Fender style guitar, there are many options. My main complaint with GC is that they don't keep their inventory in pristine condition. Any kid can walk in and damage the guitars they have in stock. Currently, I have 2 Gibsons, a 355 and a 356, both quite nice, but Gibson does not have much interest in accomodating their customers. Asked to have a 356 built with better tuners, told no way. What's up with that? I can remember when I could call the factory and get the same treatment a well known star performer would get. In 1974, I called the factory with a question about pickups, and they sent me one COD for $27. Those days, sadly are gone. Last time I called, I was asked, by the boss " Who are you, and why should I have one of my luthiers waste his time with your order?" No problem, I just bought a Heritage. They will happily build anything you want. You don't have to have any special credential, just the money to pay for it. Fender, Gibson, GC will all be gone if they do not start to realize that the customer is vital to their success.
 
Geezerjohn said:
Precisely.

I am not trying to be argumentative Stratman. I think the point is that Fender's quality has severely declined over the years, and it shows in what people will pay for the old ones. I don't hate Fender's. I've owned a bunch over the years. Bought my first in 1966, so it's not like I have anything against them. Been playing them for more years than I can recall. Still play them. Nothing would thrill me more than for both Fender and Gibson to take a serious course correction and build 'em like they used to. Currently, such quality does not fit their business model. Further, if you get one of their hand made custom shop guitars, you are easily in the $2200 - $4,000 range. Hardly a stock guitar bought at GC. For that money, I'll take a Suhr, Anderson or PRS any day.
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First, I didn't mean to reply to you. But you are wrong. As I stated, the USA Deluxes are fine-well built, nut is perfect, neck is nice and plays like butter and they are not $2,000+. I have been playing since the year of the flood-I think I can feel a good guitar when I play one. I've played Les Pauls, Suhrs, etc, etc. Big deal is what I have to say. Nice guitars, yes- so.........My deluxes's are 06 and 08-not like they are old. And they are great. My reply was to KF-. Why the heck would you say something like that?
 
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