At Guitar Center. No budget limit. Closed my eyes. All guitars sucked. Anyone else?

[lolainnb]

So I’ve been itching for a nice LP and decided to just treat myself.

The thing is is have 5 guitars that have been keepers already. Everything is covered as far as styles but when I see a nice burst or vintage guitar I fantasize about owning one.

So I decided to give myself no limit at GC (ok maybe I did limit it to $3000)

But 3K can get you mostly any high end guitar at my store.

I decided to stop focusing on specs and looks and just grabbed whatever caught my eyes from the top rows.

•chose a nice prs that was $1600
•A les Paul that was over $2400
•A couple of strats in the $1100-1500 range
•Grabbed a Mitchell guitar for shits and giggles because it looked amazing from far away
•A couple of expensivish epiphone LPs
•A nice Gibson SG for $1200
•A schecter in the $800 range

In total 10 or so guitars. I grabbed the first one in my list and made an effort to not look at it once it was in my hand. I repeated the process with all guitars. Just noodling around and trying to see my initial impressions.

It’s so weird because after playing 3 or 4 you can’t really remember why you picked it up in the first place.

So my experiment was inevitably comparing these to what my brain liked from my guitars at home.

Every single one of them was just meh.

Some were sharp and nasty. Especially the epiphone satin finish LPs

The Mitchell guitar felt like the PRS

The gibsons were not different from Edwards at home. Same thing with the fenders I tried.

So what did I learn? I learned that maybe I suck at appreciating value or maybe I just don’t need another guitar. Seriously, Ibthink I like collecting them like artwork on the wall but.

Having said all that, the Mitchell guitar was so nice that if the headstock said prs, my superficial ass would have bought it.

 

[Los-D]

I jammed on one of the Mitchell guitars a few years back and was pleasantly surprised for the price. Solid singlecut. YMMV

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

Allegedly, it's a Cort. Sounds interesting, very interested in the stock pickup set....be even more interested if it was 25.5 inch scale.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I'm trying to remember the last time I stepped foot in a GC? Been a long time.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

I'm trying to remember the last time I stepped foot in a GC? Been a long time.

Been over 10 years for me ..at least

 

[JiveTurkey]

I'm trying to remember the last time I stepped foot in a GC? Been a long time.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Oh yeah! Now I remember. I was digging LPs out of the dumpster!

 

[Warmart]

Main Atlanta GC has 15-20 primo guitars on hand at all times. Will they be setup to play well?

Other 3 or 4 GC's suck ass.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Main Atlanta GC has 15-20 primo guitars on hand at all times. Will they be setup to play well?

Other 3 or 4 GC's suck ass.

Yeah the ATL location was always the best. Spent mucho dollars there over the years.

 

[Warmart]

Yeah the ATL location was always the best. Spent mucho dollars there over the years.

Heh, me too!

 

[norminal]

In before the fence post.

 

[gy1900s]

So I’ve been itching for a nice LP and decided to just treat myself.

The thing is is have 5 guitars that have been keepers already. Everything is covered as far as styles but when I see a nice burst or vintage guitar I fantasize about owning one.

So I decided to give myself no limit at GC (ok maybe I did limit it to $3000)

But 3K can get you mostly any high end guitar at my store.

I decided to stop focusing on specs and looks and just grabbed whatever caught my eyes from the top rows.

•chose a nice prs that was $1600
•A les Paul that was over $2400
•A couple of strats in the $1100-1500 range
•Grabbed a Mitchell guitar for shits and giggles because it looked amazing from far away
•A couple of expensivish epiphone LPs
•A nice Gibson SG for $1200
•A schecter in the $800 range

In total 10 or so guitars. I grabbed the first one in my list and made an effort to not look at it once it was in my hand. I repeated the process with all guitars. Just noodling around and trying to see my initial impressions.

It’s so weird because after playing 3 or 4 you can’t really remember why you picked it up in the first place.

So my experiment was inevitably comparing these to what my brain liked from my guitars at home.

Every single one of them was just meh.

Some were sharp and nasty. Especially the epiphone satin finish LPs

The Mitchell guitar felt like the PRS

The gibsons were not different from Edwards at home. Same thing with the fenders I tried.

So what did I learn? I learned that maybe I suck at appreciating value or maybe I just don’t need another guitar. Seriously, Ibthink I like collecting them like artwork on the wall but.

Having said all that, the Mitchell guitar was so nice that if the headstock said prs, my superficial ass would have bought it.

I play a Squire contemporary telecaster, and I own a 1974 Gibson LP custom, An American standard strat, and a 1968 Gibson 335.

It is what it is

 

[metropolis_4]

I think you can hit a point where you just feel content and the desire for more goes away.

I sometimes like the idea of owning more but when it comes down to it the last few times I’ve been in a shop planning to buy something I’ve also walked out empty handed because I just didn’t find anything that interests me that I felt excited about spending the money on. I think it’s because I’m so content with what I have

 

[laxu]

I think you can hit a point where you just feel content and the desire for more goes away.

I sometimes like the idea of owning more but when it comes down to it the last few times I’ve been in a shop planning to buy something I’ve also walked out empty handed because I just didn’t find anything that interests me that I felt excited about spending the money on. I think it’s because I’m so content with what I have

I've gone to a fair number of guitar stores here in Japan and the selection is incredible. But I've bought nothing because I already have plenty of nice guitars.

A gold flake MIJ Gretsch G6129 at around 1500 € tempted me though...

 

[spawnofthesith]

Guitars at GC are pretty much universally horribly set up in my experience

Like almost seems like effort was put in to each and every guitar to make the setup bad on purpose

 

[JiveTurkey]

Good stuff now that inspires GAS is so expensive that it is just way too easy these days to not care about new gear. As sad as that sounds

 

[metropolis_4]

Good stuff now that inspires GAS is so expensive that it is just way too easy these days to not care about new gear. As sad as that sounds

Definitely. There are some things I’d like to have, but they’ve crossed the line into being more expensive than I’m willing to pay for an electric guitar.

It’s hard to get excited about a $3,000 guitar when it doesn’t play or sound any better than the one I spent $300 on 25 years ago

 

[metropolis_4]

Guitars at GC are pretty much universally horribly set up in my experience

Like almost seems like effort was put in to each and every guitar to make the setup bad on purpose

It really depends on which GC and who is working there when the guitars come in.

My guy at the one by me does a great job setting them up! If I pull something off the rack to check out he’ll do a quick setup to make sure it’s where I like it

 

[spawnofthesith]

It really depends on which GC and who is working there when the guitars come in.

My guy at the one by me does a great job setting them up! If I pull something off the rack to check out he’ll do a quick setup to make sure it’s where I like it

The Arvada location has been frustrating me in every way imaginable since I was a teenager just last week I ordered something online for pickup that was in stock and I got an email that it was ready but to call ahead to confirm. I had to call 3 times before they would even look up my name/order because they just wanted to argue with me for some reason that it probably wasn't ready. It had been ready in the queue for hours

Englewood is kind of far from me but it seems like they tend to get nicer stuff in there and have a better selection lol

 

[metropolis_4]

The Arvada location has been frustrating me in every way imaginable since I was a teenager just last week I ordered something online for pickup that was in stock and I got an email that it was ready but to call ahead to confirm. I had to call 3 times before they would even look up my name/order because they just wanted to argue with me for some reason that it probably wasn't ready. It had been ready in the queue for hours

Englewood is kind of far from me but it seems like they tend to get nicer stuff in there and have a better selection lol

Look for Chris Budín at the Arvada store. Really cool guy who knows his shit! I think he’s there Tues-Sat afternoons