Can't find good guitars anymore

[broken_fusion]

Is it just me or do music store onlys seem to carry $200-$300 guitars any more? WTF. I remember going to guitar stores and drooling over awesome guitars. I went to three Guitar Centers in the past month. Loaded with $200 pieces of shit. Then a few $3k Les Pauls so high on the wall you can't even see them.Same with the good strats. All Squires and epiphones,and the $299 Jacksons and other off name shit. Another music store by me which was always great. They have grown to three or four locations and are the best around. I bought my USA Strat there a few months ago.Went to a few locations and the same thing.They have nice Strats but other than that all cheap shit.Every one of them has schecters coming out there asses. Is it the economy? I don't want to order a guitar without trying it out but thats whats going to have to happen I guess.:think:

[Bengal65]

In the larger stores. It's most likely the economy. You have to go to the smaller shops that deal with medium to high end to see anything worthwile.

[Newc]

Mentally masturbating over guitars in a store and playing them there before ordering one from an online dealer does not equal sales, so yeah, more dealers will stop carrying "the good stuff".

[Bri]

That's a good point Newc. On the flip side, I would have ordered my kelly from the store I tried one at (the big and famous one on Sunset if they didn't make me haggle to bring the price down to MAP. They never did come down that low. They might have, but I already moved on. They also need to offer to reorder a "special order" guitar if the one that gets sent isn't up to the high standards one expects when spending in the neighborhood of 2K. The big store just said they have guys there that could fix any problems. They are not a Jackson authorized repair shop, so wrong answer.

[lynchfan6]

I've noticed this in the Musician's Friend and American Musical catalogs. This applies to amps too. Now, instead of keeping the catalogs for years with pictures of high end stuff that I have/want,,,,,,,they go straight to the trash in minutes. No USA guitars, except for Gibson and Fender,,,,and all of the ESP, Ibanez.....is all LTD or Korean/Chinese made, low end stuff. And, no more Soldano SLO100, etc in the amplifier section. Even though they still carry the high end stuff on their website, like USA Jacksons , it's not as cool as seeing it in the catalogs.

[broken_fusion]

Ok at least its not just me seeing this. I was in a GC in Denver and I was wandering around and the guy asked me if I wanted to try anything out, and I was like, ummm... No not really! There wasn't even anything worth trying out. Of course I would have liked to take the $8000 Les Paul for a spin but They probably require a deposit. Another one I was in they had a Hammet Ouji which looked decent,neck through and whatnot. But not for $1300. So I find a bolt on ESP/LTD. it was like $399. So I'm semi interested in that. So I ask the guy to try it out.He gives me a funny look and says yeah go ahead. i geuss they are not used to people asking. So I plug it into one of those Peavy modeling type amps.The guitar is horribly out of tune and the locking nut is locked. Now I go over to the sales guy whos playing a guitar and trying hard to impress and ask for the wrench. He keeps playing and looking at me like i should be impressed with his remedial skills.After about 30 seconds or so of playing He's like,yeah ok and keeps playing a little while longer.Finally get the wrench. Guitar was ok but not great so I split. No wonder people buy online.

[Shawn Lutz]

take look around GC at the kids/people there and then ask yourself if having a 3k LP way up high so no one can get their hads on it is really such a bad idea lol...

[mr426]

When I was a teenager there was a guitar store here called Knut Koupe.They carried BC Rich (before the imports), Jackson (San Dimas at the time), Charvel, Gibson (Even cutom shop stuff), and many other cool guitars.They would let you play anything too.I bought my first Mesa Mk 3 from them.Got my first ESP cutom shop from them and they were great to deal with. Alot of time there were alot of famous pepole it there as well.You would be there checking out a Jackson Tele and then Ted Nugent walks in, or Neil Schon. They had the walls covered in his Schon guitars at one point by the way. It was great place. They did have some lower line stuff for beginers, but for he most part it was just all around good guitars. They did not focus on the 10 year olds wanting a Kerry King Beginer pack. Anyway I too have noticed that most store have mostly import beginer stuff soo much that when you see even a USA Fender standard Strat you kind of wig out until you remember that may not be your thing...

[etepbbb]

I think it's as simple as they sell more of the $300-500 guitars, then the
$1000+ guitars. A local shop owner told me as much, so they buy more of the cheap ones for there inventory, because they can move them quicker. My guess is that the online and catalog retailers are in the same situation.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I would pretty much need to get a plane ticket to hold anything in my hands that is worth buying before buying it. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case with most anyone in a city smaller than New York, L.A., or Chicago.

So, I have to travel or deal with the mail-order crapshoot, pretty much. It's either the possibility I'm out return shipping, or driving several hours and possibly coming home empty-handed.

It's not the economy. It's Sam Ash and Guitar Center.

[Axewielder]

The Southeast has been a dead zone for the good Jacksons, Charvels, ESP's, and BC Rich's for the last 10 years or so. Thank god for eBay! That Model 4 I picked up last week was the first time I've ever laid eyes on a Kahler cam trem. I've still never seen a vintage Charvel strathead in person dammit.

[clifffclaven]

I think it's as simple as they sell more of the $300-500 guitars, then the
$1000+ guitars. A local shop owner told me as much, so they buy more of the cheap ones for there inventory, because they can move them quicker. My guess is that the online and catalog retailers are in the same situation.

bingo. a friend of mine owns a store here in ia, and i also teach at another store. At both, they sell 10 squire strats to every 1 usa model, and their profit is just about the same on either (75-$100). Its simple economics.

If you want good stuff, you have to go to a place like willies in st. paul.

[Jacksons Shred]

You're going to find 3-6 decent guitars at a Guitar Center with about 50+ guitars. Gotta go to the smaller shops mang. You really can't expect any shop to be loaded wall to wall with premium guitars. At my music store there's a few good ones out on the floor, but there's also a room filled with the top end guitars, the 4k gibby's and what not.

[etepbbb]

bingo. a friend of mine owns a store here in ia, and i also teach at another store. At both, they sell 10 squire strats to every 1 usa model, and their profit is just about the same on either (75-$100). Its simple economics.

If you want good stuff, you have to go to a place like willies in st. paul.

Willies is cool for vintage guitars and amps. I find cool stuff at pawn shops around town once in a while. Of course when I find good stuff, I'm usually broke, but oh well.

[mr426]

Hey Etepbb you in Blaine? I live there too..Willies is cool for vintage stuff, but for pointy things they are not as good.Still a cool place.I like Capitol Guitars in St Paul too.Good guys and they sell Jacksons.