Guitar Center To Start Pedal Modding?

[Paul Marossy]

I just got an email from Guitar Center saying that they were going to start offering "pedal and pedal board customization services". That is a scary thought....

[Govmnt_Lacky]

That is a scary thought....

Actually, when I read this the first thing that came to mind was "Wow... I bet there are a lot of people on here that could use THAT work!"

Silver lining  I am sure they will need experienced people to do the modifications.

[Paul Marossy]

I was a vendor for GC at one point a few years ago, but it was only for very intermittent repair work. I wonder how they would work it. I wonder if they hooked up with some well known pedal modder or something...

[gjcamann]

I bet it's a mail order thing. Wonder if you'll even get your original pedal back? Maybe they've even gotten Boss to sign on an provide pre-modded pedals.

[Paul Marossy]

I bet it's a mail order thing. Wonder if you'll even get your original pedal back? Maybe they've even gotten Boss to sign on an provide pre-modded pedals.

I would be very surprised if it wasn't some sort of mail order based thing.

[joegagan]

the company seems to be in serious trouble ( unrelated to the email mentioned). i doubt anyone in the organization actually knows anything about the implementation of said plan.

[Jdansti]

> "pedal and pedal board customization services"

Translation:

Put this pedal first, and then this one, and then this one...

If they really get fancy, then they will "custom" prepare patch cables and power cables to the right length.

A stretch would be to build a "custom" pedal board based on your selection of a few specs such as L/W/H and power supply rating.

I cannot see any retail store being stupid enough to allow one of their hacks to open a brand new $250 pedal, thus voiding the manufacturer's warranty, and tinkering with it.  And what are they going to do once it's open, play around with all of the SMDs in there?   Are you kidding?!?! 

[Paul Marossy]

i doubt anyone in the organization actually knows anything about the implementation of said plan.

Yeah probably so 

[J0K3RX]

The GC by where I live isn't doing so good... they don't carry anything in stock and the floor is getting bare, no amps except for Line 6 etc... They are reachin with this new service the "GC Garage"... wonder what genius executive came up with this marketing strategy? Probably the same one that tells the locations what to stock and what not to stock based on some sales spread sheet. Do you have 7 string pickups, nah, nobody buys those...But, we can order them for you! No sh!t, I can order them myself but I figured I would stop in and get them now!? Nobody buys them because you don't have any maybe? That's just one example...   

[CodeMonk]

The GC by where I live isn't doing so good... they don't carry anything in stock and the floor is getting bare, no amps except for Line 6 etc... They are reachin with this new service the "GC Garage"... wonder what genius executive came up with this marketing strategy? Probably the same one that tells the locations what to stock and what not to stock based on some sales spread sheet. Do you have 7 string pickups, nah, nobody buys those...But, we can order them for you! No sh!t, I can order them myself but I figured I would stop in and get them now!? Nobody buys them because you don't have any maybe? That's just one example...   

And that makes it an even bigger problem IMO.
A few years ago, I wanted to get a new speaker for my Valvetronix AD30VT.
An Eminence Ragin Cagin.
It took about 4 1/2 weeks.
Never again. If they don't have it in stock there, I'm not  buying it there.

This sounds like the death rattle of the company to me.

[joegagan]

Music retail and manufacturing are in a rough patch .
A lot of these big companies are tied to each other. A hefty percentage of fender's output is sold thru GC, fender is reportedly having financial issues. Mesa amps did not have a booth at NAMM for the first time in decades this year.
We only have a 'mini" GC in albuquerque, but the store is visibly in disarray both in inventory and staff- wise.

[joegagan]

It is easy to imagine the genesis of this new pedal&  pedalboard service blabla idea. A bunch of execs sitting around drinking their bottled waters, brainstorming ways to increase revenue without significant inventory cost. " hey! We've already got pedalboards,pedals & cables in stock, and we have employees on the clock, let' s put em to work making stuff!"

At our local store they have gone back and forth between farming guitar repair work to outside repair shops , then an edict comes down from corporate that they shall now do their repair work in house, some crappy repairs and hijinx ensue, repairs get farmed out again, and on it goes.

[joegagan]

> "pedal and pedal board customization services"

Translation:

Put this pedal first, and then this one, and then this one...

If they really get fancy, then they will "custom" prepare patch cables and power cables to the right length.

A stretch would be to build a "custom" pedal board based on your selection of a few specs such as L/W/H and power supply rating.

I cannot see any retail store being stupid enough to allow one of their hacks to open a brand new $250 pedal, thus voiding the


manufacturer's warranty, and tinkering with it.  And what are they going to do once it's open, play around with all of the SMDs in
there?   Are you kidding?!?!

 

Honestly, i think you have more detail in your three sentences than they have in their whole plan.

[Paul Marossy]

Music retail and manufacturing are in a rough patch .
A lot of these big companies are tied to each other. A hefty percentage of fender's output is sold thru GC, fender is reportedly having financial issues. Mesa amps did not have a booth at NAMM for the first time in decades this year.

So do you think that sales of products as a whole is down or just that Guitar Center is a problem for the manufacturers?

[Mark Hammer]

I suspect that if there IS a problem with places like GC, it is the exact same problem afflicting bookstores.  Why go to a bookstore to see if they have it, and wait 3 weeks for your order to come in, when you can find it cheaper on Amazon, order it without leaving your desk, and get it in 4 or 5 days?  Maintaining inventory in a bricks and mortar store is a big challenge when one goes up against large volume mail-order warehouse places.  It becomes an even bigger challenge as the scope of what counts as music gear gets ever wider, with more brands, more products, and more categories.  Thirty years ago, no music store needed to carry software or USB interfaces.

So, in theory, if you want to keep a bricks&mortar store viable, you have to offer something that mail-order warehouse retailers can't or won't.  Pedal-modding and pedalboard customization fit that bill.  Lots of folks feel the BUM syndrome, and lots of folks have pedalboards but don't want to invest in the gear and skill-acquisition it might take to make custom-length cables, interface pedals with loop selectors, etc.  And as for "modding", a person could probably make an industry just doing true-bypass installation.  How long either of those services could sustain a chain like GC is anybody's guess, though.  And anyone working at GC, doing pedal benchwork likely wouldn't take long before venturing off on their own.  If you have the chops and tools to do custom mods, why wouldn't you quit, stick up a web-site, announce your services on the relevant forums, and give it a go?

[Paul Marossy]

I suspect that if there IS a problem with places like GC, it is the exact same problem afflicting bookstores.  Why go to a bookstore to see if they have it, and wait 3 weeks for your order to come in, when you can find it cheaper on Amazon, order it without leaving your desk, and get it in 4 or 5 days?  Maintaining inventory in a bricks and mortar store is a big challenge when one goes up against large volume mail-order warehouse places.  It becomes an even bigger challenge as the scope of what counts as music gear gets ever wider, with more brands, more products, and more categories.  Thirty years ago, no music store needed to carry software or USB interfaces.

So, in theory, if you want to keep a bricks&mortar store viable, you have to offer something that mail-order warehouse retailers can't or won't.  Pedal-modding and pedalboard customization fit that bill. 

I was always under the impression that Musician's Friend and Guitar Center were one in the same, but maybe that's wrong. The reason I got that idea was that around 1998 or so there was a Musician's Friend store that opened up here in Las Vegas, and then about maybe a year later it was suddenly a Guitar Center.

Anyway, yeah, I personally would rather just order whatever online - then I don't have to go to GC and deal with the goons there, them telling me that they don't have it but can order it, it saves me time which I'll never get back, etc. At the same time I am annoyed that you can't go to a store and try out a certain guitar for example because no one has it in their store.

[kodiakklub]

Music retail and manufacturing are in a rough patch .
A lot of these big companies are tied to each other. A hefty percentage of fender's output is sold thru GC, fender is reportedly having financial issues. Mesa amps did not have a booth at NAMM for the first time in decades this year.

So do you think that sales of products as a whole is down or just that Guitar Center is a problem for the manufacturers?

its a problem stemming from the manufacturers. GC is contractually obligated to buy a certain number of strats, teles, JM's, deluxe reverbs, hot rods, etc. every new model year whether GC thinks they can sell them all off at their preferred price or not. its the old way of doing things and they are now learning like everyone else that the old way of doing things doesnt work anymore, hence why they are getting creative. and oh yeah, the CEO of GC used to work for Fender!! HA! i refuse to buy music gear of any kind new. theres so much on ebay and craigslist at a steep discount "like new". bring back the mom and pop music stores!!

[wavley]

I suspect that if there IS a problem with places like GC, it is the exact same problem afflicting bookstores.  Why go to a bookstore to see if they have it, and wait 3 weeks for your order to come in, when you can find it cheaper on Amazon, order it without leaving your desk, and get it in 4 or 5 days?  Maintaining inventory in a bricks and mortar store is a big challenge when one goes up against large volume mail-order warehouse places.  It becomes an even bigger challenge as the scope of what counts as music gear gets ever wider, with more brands, more products, and more categories.  Thirty years ago, no music store needed to carry software or USB interfaces.

So, in theory, if you want to keep a bricks&mortar store viable, you have to offer something that mail-order warehouse retailers can't or won't.  Pedal-modding and pedalboard customization fit that bill. 

I was always under the impression that Musician's Friend and Guitar Center were one in the same, but maybe that's wrong. The reason I got that idea was that around 1998 or so there was a Musician's Friend store that opened up here in Las Vegas, and then about maybe a year later it was suddenly a Guitar Center.

Anyway, yeah, I personally would rather just order whatever online - then I don't have to go to GC and deal with the goons there, them telling me that they don't have it but can order it, it saves me time which I'll never get back, etc. At the same time I am annoyed that you can't go to a store and try out a certain guitar for example because no one has it in their store.

GC bought Musician's Friend and changed the all the MF store fronts to GC and kept the online "separate" so folks doing mail order didn't have to pay taxes since there was no brick and mortar store.

The company is doomed for failure because their only concern is to put Sam Ash out of business "Just like we put Mars out of business" is what I used to hear when I worked there.  I also worked at Mars, it was the investors pulling out that put Mars out of business.  Mars had a 5 year plan to loose money as Begelman (who was also the guy that started Office Depot) planned and promised to start turning a profit in the fifth year, and many of the stores were... just not fast enough for the shareholders.  After I lost a hip in a car accident trying to get to work at GC in a hurricane they terminated me and took away my insurance while I was still in physical therapy/a walker.  When I informed them that it was illegal to do that under the Family Medical Leave Act they "re-hired" me.  When I was well enough to work again, they refused to put me on the schedule.  Since I was technically employed I couldn't get unemployment and almost lost my home until my appeal with the unemployment folks went through just in time to save me.

So the moral of the story is: a local repair shop screwed me so I learned how to work on electronics.  GC screwed me so I got a job in electronics.  Now I love my job in GHz/THz R&D.  Sometimes getting screwed is a good thing.

The point of that long story is that I got a job at a pro audio repair shop and ended up making deliveries to the back doors of half a dozen GC's and making way more money fixing their $h*t than I ever did in sales.  My guess is that any mods they do will be farmed out to these local shops who are authorized repair shops for a lot of these brands, so maybe they can technically do authorized mods.

[Paul Marossy]

its a problem stemming from the manufacturers. GC is contractually obligated to buy a certain number of strats, teles, JM's, deluxe reverbs, hot rods, etc. every new model year whether GC thinks they can sell them all off at their preferred price or not. its the old way of doing things and they are now learning like everyone else that the old way of doing things doesnt work anymore, hence why they are getting creative. and oh yeah, the CEO of GC used to work for Fender!! HA! i refuse to buy music gear of any kind new. theres so much on ebay and craigslist at a steep discount "like new". bring back the mom and pop music stores!!

I know about the obligation to buy certain quantities when I used to know the owner of a small music store. So the problem for GC is that people aren't buying the products then, and GC takes a loss. Makes sense.

After MF/GC came to town, every single mom and pop store here except one or two went broke. I am still irritated about that after all this time. I used to get some great deals at one of these places that doesn't exist now. 

[Paul Marossy]

GC bought Musician's Friend and changed the all the MF store fronts to GC and kept the online "separate" so folks doing mail order didn't have to pay taxes since there was no brick and mortar store.

After I lost a hip in a car accident trying to get to work at GC in a hurricane they terminated me and took away my insurance while I was still in physical therapy/a walker.  When I informed them that it was illegal to do that under the Family Medical Leave Act they "re-hired" me.  When I was well enough to work again, they refused to put me on the schedule.  Since I was technically employed I couldn't get unemployment and almost lost my home until my appeal with the unemployment folks went through just in time to save me.

So the moral of the story is: a local repair shop screwed me so I learned how to work on electronics.  GC screwed me so I got a job in electronics.  Now I love my job in GHz/THz R&D.  Sometimes getting screwed is a good thing.

That makes sense now about the change of ownership. Someone may have told me that before but I forgot.  

I got screwed back in March 2009 when I got laid off. Then I was building pedals full time for a living until circumstances forced me to go back to my old job. Now I'm getting screwed every day. I'm working to get self-employed again!

That's really lame about how they treated you after you got hurt BTW.