Guitar Center To Start Pedal Modding?

[DougH]

  I was paying for the service of an indie, but not actually getting service.

People worry about the big box stores, but this is exactly where a small store can successfully compete - service and knowledge.

If they are smart, you are absolutely right. In my experience, most of them are not smart and are very short-sighted. Hello Sam Ash.;-)

[Paul Marossy]

i do not enjoy dealing with staff though . i may not be steevie ray vai but i do not enjoy being treated like a complete tool , by guys with piercings , ink , all sorts of odd facial hair , and snarky attitudes . i keep my hands ion my pockets when shopping , i am extremely polite and i dont make small talk . if i do have a question i just expect folks to make some bit of effort , and not give me an immediate attitude

Sounds like my experience the one time I went to Ed Romans to buy my first Parker in 2005.  I never wanted to go back there again, and I didn't.

This has been my experience on and off my whole life at many mom & pop music stores (and mom & pop businesses in general to some extent). Some are okay but others just have too much attitude, and then cry about how they're losing to the big box stores. This is why I don't lose sleep over the big box stores, where in my experience, although the staff can be pretty dopey at times, they've also been friendly to me. The big exception to this for me was buying a TV from a local TV guy who was really helpful vs. the oblivious guy at Circuit City. But I have run into too many local music store guys with attitudes to be that sentimental about mom & pop stores.

I realize this varies from store to store, and area to area. But I will not patronize any place of business who acts like I should consider it a privilege that they let me in the door.

The small "mom and pop" stores here were never like that for me. It was only after the big corporations came to town that my customer experience changed. Ed Roman is an exception, he was just kind of a bozo because he apparently knew all these famous guitarists and was puffed up with pride because of it. His shop was pretty large, never seen so many guitars in one place in my life - there must have been 2,000 or 3,000 in the store all arranged by brand. Anyway, they had tags on the guitars that said "do not touch" and something about getting the salesman to help you. But they would ignore you when you were clearly waiting around to try a guitar. They were much more attentive to some dude wanking on a stack probably because of commission potential. But in my book all customers should be treated equally. The only reason I endured that was because it was THE only place local to get a Parker. Anyway, all the privately owned smaller stores I used to go to were so opposite of that that it's ridiculous.

[Paul Marossy]

So I went to Guitar Center the other day to get a trem arm for a guitar and asked the guy behind the counter about the pedal modding thing. He says that each store is supposed to have a guy in it that can do the work there. In this particular store I went to, they say "he's really good", and is "trained luthier", "a guy who went to school for this stuff" and is "not just some dude who is good with a soldering iron", "he actually knows what he is doing".

We'll see how long this idea lasts...

[garcho]

Right, because knowing how to make a wooden instrument teaches you everything you need to know about basic electronic audio signal processing. 

[wavley]

I want to know where he went to school for this stuff because most electronics programs don't really even teach you to use a soldering iron, not that theory is a bad thing because it's a great thing.  But when I went to school we picked up a soldering iron for one night per semester.  I was already working in electronics for years anyway, but the kids just out of high school still didn't know how to solder when we graduated.

[Paul Marossy]

I want to know where he went to school for this stuff because most electronics programs don't really even teach you to use a soldering iron, not that theory is a bad thing because it's a great thing.  But when I went to school we picked up a soldering iron for one night per semester.  I was already working in electronics for years anyway, but the kids just out of high school still didn't know how to solder when we graduated.

Yeah, I hear ya. Must be because he knows how to wire pickups is what makes him qualified...