guitar center jacksons?

[usmc50bmgsniper92]

I was in pittsburgh today and on my way home i stoped at the guitar center by the monroeville mall. man this place was huge! there were hundreds of guitars but after looking for a long time i only spotted a handful of jackson's? you could find every low buck epiphone, dean, etc... but few jacksons, what gives? I asked the counter guy and he said there isn't much a demand for jackson's and thought they were junk! and tried to sell me an ibanez! i about shit, I pretty much told the guy he didn't know what the hell he was talking about and left. Anybody else have an experiance like this? Are jackson's like the hated guitars these days? lol

[pro-fusion]

Guitar Center stores vary in their buying policies. Some of them have quite a few Jacksons, though almost always the lower-priced imports. Typically a bunch of JS's, with a few DK2's and DKMG's thrown in for good measure. Occasionally I see an SL2H at the local GCs around here.

[Rich#6]

In my 21 years of playing that has always been the case going all the way back to when the had only 10 stores.

[StukaJU87]

I was in my local GC just the other day trying to pick up some 12ax7's (which they did not have) and when I checked out the guitar section there were a total of 2, count 'em, 2 import Jacksons. No USA's.

[VinceV]

I just happened to walk into one today. I haven't been to a GC in a year or so. I was looking for a Korg tuner, that of course they didn't have. I looked around a bit and it's basically a Fender/Gibson place. Lots and lots of low end gear. A few Les Pauls and a few PRSs. All up high on the wall. They did have 1 Jackson some import that was beat to hell. No need to go back at all. With good online dealers, I can't see what I would need from this place.

[UFORocks]

The Cherry Hill and Plymouth Meeting stores both have the same black USA SL2 sitting up on the wall for $2100.00. I think they're the same ones that have been up there for over three years now. There's a handfull of beat up imports on the wall or floor in easy reach, but nothing to get excited about. The Jackson brand has really fallen behind over the years. No advertising, no endorcements, nothing. And charvel, forget it, most of the GC guys have no idea what a charvel is.

The last time I asked about a Jackson at GC the sales guy started talking PRS.

-Steve

[Axewielder]

Man if it wasn't for eBay and PayPal, I would never have even seen a USA Jackson. I'm serious, they are pretty scarce around these parts.

[UFORocks]

Man if it wasn't for eBay and PayPal, I would never have even seen a USA Jackson. I'm serious, they are pretty scarce around these parts.

The only way I ever knew about Jackson was through my old man. My first guitar was an Ibenhad, and at that point I really only thought there were three brands of guitars; Gibson, Fender, and Ibanez for those who couldn't afford the other two. One day my pop comes home with this tobacco burst Jackson SL1. "What's that"? I said, and the rest is history, I've been a Jackson player ever since.

Though, I really enjoy my LP Copy, the one guitar I will NEVER sell.

-Steve

[FastJunkie]

Yeah I don't understand why Jackson has been so poorly advertised. There's companies that advertise their endorsers a lot, like dean who advertises their dead endorsees more than Jackson advertises their living. Not a fan of Dean but it shows what a little money into the marketing dept. can do. Kids play guitars their heroes play and not many people in popular music play jacksons/charvels anymore, they all went to ESP lol....

[HiOctane]

Yeah I don't understand why Jackson has been so poorly advertised. There's companies that advertise their endorsers a lot, like dean who advertises their dead endorsees more than Jackson advertises their living. Not a fan of Dean but it shows what a little money into the marketing dept. can do. Kids play guitars their heroes play and not many people in popular music play jacksons/charvels anymore, they all went to ESP lol....

I agree. I still swear by Jackson, but they are missing the boat with advertising and endorsees. The most basic and key marketing tool that's not up to snuff is the website- it's not updated very often and doesn't have a lot of information. If you look at ESP, Dean, Ibanez, etc., they are doing a lot more in this area and I think it makes a big difference.

[PowerTube]

I was in pittsburgh today and on my way home i stoped at the guitar center by the monroeville mall. man this place was huge! there were hundreds of guitars but after looking for a long time i only spotted a handful of jackson's? you could find every low buck epiphone, dean, etc... but few jacksons, what gives? I asked the counter guy and he said there isn't much a demand for jackson's and thought they were junk! and tried to sell me an ibanez! i about shit, I pretty much told the guy he didn't know what the hell he was talking about and left. Anybody else have an experiance like this? Are jackson's like the hated guitars these days? lol

Of course the idiot told you that they were junk. He wanted to sell you something, so anything he doesn't have in stock is "junk." That's their mentality. They want to make the quick sale and piss on you after you walk out the door.

They operate on the 80/20 Rule, like a lot of stores these days. The 80/20 Rule is something that the corporate beancounters came up with some years ago. It means that 80% of the customers are buying 20% of the available gear (these numbers are estimations, of course). So, since their logistics show that 80% of their customers want an el cheapo Epiphone, Ibanez, or a Squier Starter Pack, that's what they stock. Of course, what they'll tell you when you ask about something decent is that "we don't have a market for that here."

Then on the rare occasions when they do get a decent piece of gear in, that piece of gear looks like a pawnshop special after about a month; missing locking nuts, tarnished frets, dents, chipped paint, etc.... so because nobody is impressed with a guitar in such a sad condition, it'll sit there for two years until they finally unload it in a "Red Tag Sale" to someone like us who knows how to set up and maintain a guitar. And because it sat there for two years, it reinforces their concept that "we don't have a market for that here." It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

By the way, Guitar Center sucks.

[excon]

A while back I checked about 7 big music stores in my area for USA Jacksons and I could not find one in stock. There has been a Sam Ash at my local mall for about 7 years. When I first started going there they usually had about 10 Jackson imports and a USA or two. Now they have 4 or 5 Jackson imports and I don't remember when they last had a USA. It really bugs me to see Jackson withering away like this. I agree with others about the endorsements. If they had some more popular endorsees and ads things would probably pick up. I’d really like to know what the hell FMIC is thinking.

[Wylde06]

I was just in my local GC to buy some strings and I figured while I was there i would see if there were any Jacksons worth looking at. All they had was a JS Rhoads, which was at the very top of the wall, a DK2 and 2 DK2M's, all of which were up top.

[Robert Burns]

I agree with everyone..although i have to say that 2 of the 5 GC's in
Arizona have around 10 Jacksons..*(9 imports) 1 (usa) and quite
a few over $5K Gibsons, and Fender Custom Shops. Sure junk abounds..
but they do have at least some high end stuff...although always about
30% too high priced. Especially their PRS stuff! I went to their Friday
2 hour unbelievable special red tag sale...and they didnt have 1 item
reduced more than 30%! So i left without spending any money.
I was hoping for at least 1 special deal...like maybe an RR5 for $550 or
something really discounted!

[Bengal65]

These are all good comments. Before I found this forum in 2004, I thought Jackson's and Charvel's were history long ago. I've been playing 45 years now (damn I'm old), lived in at least 44 states (because of my job), visited almost every music store in each town and have never seen a Made in USA Jackson or Charvel in a music store. Guitar Center especially. They may have had an import, but I never would notice those. When Mars Music was still around, I would check out their lines as well as regular visits to 3 GC's in my area. Jackson's and Charvel's maybe, an old beater. Or, it could have been new since it's Mars or GC and had been used and abused demo

The big corporate stores are for mainstream products and as stated, best "rate of return". Good for the bean counters. I had a recent discussion with one of the store mgrs. He told me more policies each week and the guy's up top don't even understand the music business at all. Just profit margins!

Now, go try to find a Petros (as in Bruce Petro's) Fingerstyle acoustic at GC