Guitar Center nearly $1bil in Debt...

[albee1952]

Consider that 2 years ago, the Nashville GC spent who knows how much money on a complete redo of the store, inside and out. They expanded the guitar space by probably double, but shrank the pro/recording area down to nearly nothing(and Nashville is #3 nationwide in recording sales) But hey...now they have tons more over-priced Gibsons on display..............

[Benoni]

I personally think what has happened to "music" and what is called music is disgusting. Not because of content, but because of lack of depth. Most every pop song is on the same subject that has been beat to death and offers nothing new. Someone programs a loop, someone else buys it and scats random rhyming words over it, and people eat it up because it's easy.

My personal pet peeve is "artists" who present themselves as 'hardcore', yet have no idea what a struggle even is. Like a certain artist who likes to pretend he's from the streets, but grew up on the Disney channel It makes me laugh.

But, that said, we as musicians, engineers, and in a larger sense, creators; we have all the tools we need with Pro Tools and our various plugins to produce the kind of art that we believe is better. You can't tell anyone anything in this world, they have to come to it on their own. What we can do though is produce a superior product. Set trends, don't follow them. Produce the kind of music and art that you feel needs to be out there. And luckily for us today, we don't need labels or promotion or giant businesses to front us tons of cash before we can start! We can make a modest $1000 investment in gear and plugins and do whatever we want. That's the only way to change this. Build a better mouse trap.

[64GTOBOY]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Consider that 2 years ago, the Nashville GC spent who knows how much money on a complete redo of the store, inside and out. They expanded the guitar space by probably double, but shrank the pro/recording area down to nearly nothing(and Nashville is #3 nationwide in recording sales) But hey...now they have tons more over-priced Gibsons on display..............

I thought that the GC renovations were company wide(we have IDK six or seven here) and those that were around got updated. Previously they were more a traditional music store where actual musicians and such could go to purchase anything they desired. The update appeared to me to be an accountants attempt to appeal to dilettante non musical types. I could just about hear some corp rat,"those damn musicians just come in and hardly ever purchase anything, we need to move merch to the masses people!" Look what happened to magazines. A kid who cant be bothered to sit down long enough to read an entire magazine(not like us oldsters who don't have the time but wish we did)isn't going to spend the time to learn an instrument. They just want to push buttons and have everything done for them. The stepson of one friend when asked how he planned on paying for his expenses if he flunked out of school(the direction he was headed) replied that he was going to be a drummer . Or a rapper. Neither of which he had ever even tried. When this was pointed out to him his reply was that "it's not like it's hard."

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by 64GTOBOY

I thought that the GC renovations were company wide(we have IDK six or seven here) and those that were around got updated. Previously they were more a traditional music store where actual musicians and such could go to purchase anything they desired. The update appeared to me to be an accountants attempt to appeal to dilettante non musical types. I could just about hear some corp rat,"those damn musicians just come in and hardly ever purchase anything, we need to move merch to the masses people!"

I remember for years with the GC I wrote about - you could go in there on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and hear a whole bunch of guitarists playing away on various axes. Not everyone bought a guitar every time but come back in a week or two and they'd be walking out with one if not two guitars they'd been trying out. And I'm not talking about some el cheapo $500 pieces but things well north of $1000.

Not to mention the community that built up between the players. You'd walk in and see a buddy playing and ask him how he's doing and he'd do the same back to you. Sometimes you'd even end up playing the same piece while the patzers would just stand around and listen/watch. That's all gone as the salesdroids are in your face going - 'you gonna buy that or what?' Who needs that crapola.

[Bob Olhsson]

This probably explains a lot of what's going on with Avid.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by 64GTOBOY

I thought that the GC renovations were company wide

Definitely not nationwide. The local GC here hasn't been renovated since it opened. A good friend of mine works there and he told me recently that there's is the #1 store in the region in sales. Considering there's some larger stores in bigger markets in the region, that's impressive. Especially since they have no recording department to speak of...but lots and lots and lots of guitars, amps, and decent drum department. Keyboard area is pitiful. They don't even have a Montage on the floor! As far as interfaces go...well, its a sad state of affairs to say the least!

[YYR123]

They just finished revamping 1 of the 2 stores in Austin.

They made it really nice - improved their stock of top shelf guitars about 50%

Made big improvements in Synths (lots more of them) but I still haven’t seen Pro audio stuff. I was just in there Friday my daughter wanted a Tambourine....

They also have lots of guitar pedals

[mjslakeridge]

I used to really like going to the GC on Westheimer in Houston, before they moved a couple of miles down the road to a new location about twice the size. Over the years I have bought tons of stuff there, including my American Strat, guitar pedals, and a used TSR-8 and Tascam M-320B mixer which I still use (not the TSR-8, I messed that up changing the capstan belt a couple of years ago).

I remember walking into the old location once and they had a pile of used guitar cases laying in the middle of the floor. All were priced at $5 each. I bought a genuine Fender bass guitar case. It needed some repairs like gluing down the inside case liner which I did myself. I gave it away to the person I sold my Fender Jazz bass to.

Edit: One of the employees at the old location was my audio recording instructor at Houston Community College where I took a few classes and he sold me boxes of Ampex 499 1/2" 8 track tapes at cost (maybe because I paid a fortune for the used TSR-8).

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by YYR123

They just finished revamping 1 of the 2 stores in Austin.

They made it really nice - improved their stock of top shelf guitars about 50%

Made big improvements in Synths (lots more of them) but I still haven’t seen Pro audio stuff. I was just in there Friday my daughter wanted a Tambourine....

They also have lots of guitar pedals

I think this is much of their problem. They increased high-end guitar stock for 50% but guitar sales are probably down a good 50% these days

[Bob Olhsson]

They've been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for a decade. I suspect their stock simply reflected who they could get credit from.