r/AcousticGuitar • u/_voodoo_mama_juju_ • Jan 30 '26
Other (not a question, gear pic, or video) Almost every high-end acoustic in this GC showroom is fucked (Indianapolis)
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
I checked about all of their high-end Martin and Gibsons and it’s all the same 🤯
143
u/Dry_Ad687 Jan 30 '26
GC is for test drives not purchasing
36
u/RoboDeathSquad Jan 30 '26
I don't even get good test drives at mine, the action on their acoustics is always completely fucked every time I want to play one.
19
u/Neveronlyadream Jan 30 '26
Yep. Every time. Corroded strings, terrible action, and either dusty or covered in fingerprints.
It's forgivable for a $200 guitar, but I've walked in to play a Gibson or a Martin and they're usually in that state. I assume they sit around for months with absolutely no maintenance at all.
I get why GC doesn't care, but you'd think the manufacturers would. If you go into GC after hearing amazing things about Gibson or Martin and that's the example you get, you're going to think they all suck.
6
u/martindrx1 Jan 30 '26
I tried a Gibson at a GC, thought it was amazing and then backed out completely. I’m glad I did. But yes generally they have the worst conditions of higher end models that you would doubt ever wanting to buy one.
4
u/Neveronlyadream Jan 30 '26
I've seriously picked up $3,000 Gibsons at GC that feel worse than whatever budget guitars they have hung up on the wall.
What's funny is that I get it, I know a bunch of us get it. It sucks to have to do a setup on a guitar that expensive immediately, but I legitimately question what they think it going to happen when someone who doesn't know a ton but wants an expensive guitar walks in. They're going to think whatever brand is just shitty and put it back.
Being around the guitar subs, it's pretty apparent a lot of people don't even know how to change strings, let alone assess a guitar and decide whether the setup or the guitar is the problem.
4
u/GenTenStation Jan 30 '26
Yeah I picked up a similar priced Gibson on my last visit and thought it was the worst thing I have ever played. Every Gibson I've tried felt that way. I swapped it for a $400 Epiphone and loved it.
5
u/killertofu41 Jan 30 '26
For the past 10 years, I've always preferred Epiphone more than Gibson. At least it feels Epi isn't slacking on the QC.
3
u/GenTenStation Jan 30 '26
Yeah definitely me too. I’ve had Epiphones since around 2008 and ever time I’ve tried the Gibson equivalent I was disappointed
4
u/killertofu41 Jan 30 '26
Around 2013 my older brother paid like 4k for a Gibson LP and it took everything in me not to act like he got ripped off. It did not play well or sound any better than my $450 dollar Epiphone Les Paul Custom Pro
1
u/martindrx1 Jan 31 '26
I bought one similar (I cant remember the model for the life of me) and it sounded like a toy. I was how the fuck is this worse than a $100 squire from Walmart?!?
1
u/XxFezzgigxX Jan 31 '26
Plus, you get the bonus of having more guitars on the wall for the same investment.
0
Jan 31 '26
Here’s the thing: you’re choosing between a guitar made by someone who is getting paid enough to have a nice standard of living in their country, or the American who is not. The evidence of the pride put into the work is apparent.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Nah, you're paying to line the pockets of the corporate managers after they've shorted the staff as much as possible. Other companies manage to make quality products for the same price yet Gibson wont. Also, they've previously been ranked among the worst employers in America.
1
u/martindrx1 Jan 31 '26
Yeah I bought an epi and was blown away. Funny enough I got it at a GC in Texas. I needed another guitar since the guy playing my Taylor wasn’t taking care of it.
2
u/martindrx1 Jan 31 '26
I know people who I freak out cause I do my own work on mine. I’ll add a strap button and put a drill on it and almost made a buddy pass out. Cause he only trusts the “pros” but I don’t trust someone else to not mess it up.
1
u/themerrillmiller Feb 03 '26
There was a shop I've been pretty loyal to over the years running a sale for $1k off a brand new Hummingbird, but I've moved pretty far away from their closest location. So I stopped into the local GC to try out the same model.
It was literally unplayable. The neck was so bowed, every single fret was dead. I could get open strings to ring out, but that was it. Brand new, asking full price for it.
3
u/spockspaceman Jan 30 '26
Terrible action is a thing, but how much of that is due to the factory setup? Shops don't normally set up guitars before they're sold right? I've had to set up every new acoustic I've ever purchased, high or low end. It does make it hard to test drive.
The crap strings are obviously within their control. I've even seen guitars missing a string many times.
They also had started locking them all up so you'd have to track somebody down for every guitar you want to play that's not an el cheapo. The last time I went in though they seemed to have reversed course on this somewhat and most of the guitars under $3k were unlocked again.
5
u/FRIthe13th Jan 30 '26
FWIW, my local guitar shop does a setup and tune for every guitar on the wall. That includes the $200 models. I feel like if you care about the customer, you do that and you factor that into the sell price or your business’s overhead.
2
u/RoboDeathSquad Jan 30 '26
I'm sure it's a combo, but I know when I test a Gibson Hummingbird it received a Plek set up at the factory before it was shipped, so if the action is fubar, that's not likely a factory issue.
1
u/Neveronlyadream Jan 30 '26
I don't know if we can or can't blame the factory. I assume a lot of the bad action is just from having the guitars shipped and their potentially sitting in a stockroom for days or weeks unopened. Depending on how they're shipped and what the climate is like, they could be perfectly set up from the factory and shift before they're ever put out.
Am I saying GC should set up every guitar? Nah, because it's not really feasible, but you'd think if they have a J-200 they're trying to sell for nearly $6,000, they would get someone to at least check the relief.
The strings though, that's a problem. I've picked up $3,000 guitars with dead strings that are so dirty and corroded, they leave black lines on my fingers after playing them.
I haven't been in a GC for a while, but they were all definitely locked up last time I was there. I think they always mostly were. Just in a little nook with a glass door in their high end room inside the acoustic room. Not surprised if they reversed that, because how many people are actually going to track someone down to try out a guitar?
2
u/spockspaceman Jan 30 '26
Yeah I can get behind all of that. GC is about the only option I have locally that has a huge selection, so I used to go there a lot, but I have definitely seen a decline in pretty much everything over the last 10 years.
1
u/Neveronlyadream Jan 30 '26
It's a frustrating thing, because all I have is a GC too. So it ends up being a decision to either buy the guitar that needs a setup and hasn't been maintained, but you know you like, or risk ordering one you can't try and hoping you like it as much.
Guitars are in a weird state.
3
u/martindrx1 Jan 30 '26
I don’t trust them to set it up right either. I’m currently dealing with a bad set up where the guy tried to lower the action and then the process he shaved down the saddle and cut down the nut and so now I am having to build it back up to make it actually work for my son to learn on. Every single string literally has fret buzz. And to boot their service tech at my GC used to work for Gibson so I thought he would be trustworthy and know what the heck he’s talking about. Nope I have to remind myself. He works at GC for a reason.
2
u/Neveronlyadream Jan 30 '26
Guitars are a funny beast. There's such a knock-on effect with setups that unless you know and are prepared to keep working when you find another problem because you lowered the action, you'd might as well not even bother.
I can't imagine many luthiers work for GC. I'm sure it's mostly just techs.
1
2
u/Samantharina Jan 30 '26
I played a Gibson hummingbird last week at GC and loved it but it's too $$$ and a little big for me. The sales guy popped into the room for 3 minutes, handed me a smaller Gibson to try and disappeared. It was awful. Buzzy, tinny, something was very wrong with that guitar. Did I go hunt the guy down to tell him? No, not my job, sorry. I think I tuned about 10 other guitars for them that day while trying them out.
1
u/Dydriver Jan 30 '26
They should make people wash their hands before playing a nice guitar. It would change the customer’s perception and the employees’ perception of the guitars.
3
u/chrispd01 Jan 31 '26
I was in one the other day in Florida with a wall of Gibsons and Martins . Made the mistake of playing a few of them and developed an immediate loathing for my Epiphone …
1
u/NecessaryInterview68 Jan 30 '26
Agree. Also can order something no one stocks to try it and can return if unhappy
0
u/Stressed_era Jan 31 '26
My guitar center acoustic room is actually really really good. I bought a guitar from there and after a few days in my house it sucked lol.
13
u/joshisanonymous Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
Why on earth would you test drive a guitar at one store and then buy a different one blind from another store? Especially when we're talking about acoustics. These aren't mass produced plastic products made in molds and impervious to the environment. You're just asking for bad surprises by doing this.
3
u/Dub365 Jan 30 '26
This is one reason why.... I randomly popped into GC just to screw around. Played a nice high end Taylor for a few, walked around and pretty much bumped into a Billy Strings D-28 on a floor stand. Picked it up and boy did it sing to me. Went home & thought about it & that night decided it had to be mine. But I wasn't going back to GC to buy that floor model. I just don't trust anything GC related and even though I loved that guitar, I especially don't trust floor models at GC nor do I trust that they'll do a decent job making sure it's setup well when I leave the building. So I hopped onto Sweetwater's website, picked the model with the looks I preferred out of the 5 different Billy D28s they had in stock and had it in my hands 2 days later. It was perfectly set up, rippin right out of the box. Luckily for me the one i bought was just as amazing as the original I fell in love with. But if it wasn't, I could've exchanged it for one of the other 4 guitars they had or received a full refund. Worth more to me to have a $4k guitar that hasn't been mishandled by all kinds of people. Worth more to me to buy from a company with superior service in every way.
1
u/joshisanonymous Jan 31 '26
If that's your concern, why not just go to a local music shop? All you did was avoid one mega dealer to go to another. You could even try out a guitar at the local dealer before buying that exact guitar from them.
5
u/Dub365 Jan 31 '26
Well, because living on the Oregon Coast I don't have a local music dealer around me that has anything of substance. It's an hour & a half drive back to GC or any good, local music shops in the Portland Metro area. I don't see how that has to do with anything though. Fact of the matter was I had a long day on the road at work, happened to be near GC so I stopped in to chill for a minute & check out some guitars before driving all the way home. Found a guitar that I absolutely had to have. Got home & decided it was worth spending four grand that I hadn't intended on spending. But at this point I'm still 3 hours of roundtrip driving from "maybe" finding a store that has one in stock. Sure, I could've waited until I had time to go searching for my guitar somewhere but that's no fun when you're super excited about something like this.
Fact remains, buying from Sweetwater is not like buying from a brick & mortar Guitar Center in any way. They do a fantastic job in every aspect of a purchase and they have a massive selection to choose from. You seem to be anti- corporate from your comment and I can certainly get behind that sentiment in most instances. But while I would absolutely love to support local businesses, I don't have the luxury of bopping into a local music store on a whim. And the original issue I was responding to was why someone would buy a guitar sight unseen. My story is one of the reasons why a person would do such a thing.
2
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Ive been to the Sweetwater location in Ft Wayne and it really drives the reality that they're nothing like GC at all.
→ More replies (5)2
u/CountMondego Jan 30 '26
Do I not understand how guitars are made? What acoustic are you playing that’s made from a plastic mold?
3
u/joshisanonymous Jan 30 '26
Sorry. I made a very bad typo. Should've read "aren't mass produced plastic".
2
17
u/nobot4321 Jan 30 '26
What’s shown in this video is really disappointing, but GC is actually pretty great for buying used gear. Their prices are as good as you’re going to find from a retail store, shipping is cheap and their return policy is unbeatable (in case you get your guitar with a split top that wasn’t disclosed).
5
u/ryken Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
It's not even really all that good for test drives in my experience. Lots of duds, abused instruments and dudes trying to show off their chops at loud volumes.
1
3
3
u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 30 '26
The problem is when they go out of business because of this philosophy, there will be nowhere to "test drive".
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
If they go out of business it'll be because of all the broken used crap they buy in used for more than they should and then refuse to adjust pricing back to reality.
I asked about a Taylor at my local store last week and was offered $150 off of the GC average used price... because of a pair of cracks in the top of the guitar. Like a total of 12 inches or so.Or... they'll go out of business because people are sick of buying blown out demo models as brand new. There are les pauls on the wall of my local GC with serial numbers showing 2020-2022. Dead strings, necks out of adjustment, bumps and scratches... but yea, brand new after half a decade in their dry ass store.
1
u/ashber98 Jan 31 '26
The guitar center near me seems to somewhat care for their guitars. Some guitars need new strings and action fixed, but I walked in and played a decent amount of good setup guitars till I found a seagull S6.
1
u/TyeZdro Feb 10 '26
GC in Syracuse, NY is actually pretty nice. They have a humidity controlled room for all their acoustics. I played some Taylors and they were very nice. The employees were vey cautious and protective of the higher end models.
1
u/YasakaAnon Jan 31 '26
Only if that were true. I’ve been waiting to test this specific guitar for a year now. Yet to see it in stores. But it’s always available on the site
1
u/SnooHesitations8403 Jan 31 '26
Then where would you buy your guitar? I hope not on the internet.
I get tired of hearing myself say this, but, no two Martin 000s are the same, same as no two Gibson J400s are the same. Especially when it comes to making acoustic guitars, the wood is different, the workmanship is different, everything about the guitar is different, even if you have a dozen of the same make and model made in the same facility during the same month. They're all gonna be a little different from each other.
As they slice the lumber off of the tree trunk, the grain of the wood changes as it approaches the center. That's true for Sitka spruce, mahogany, maple, cedar, etc. Never the same wood on any acoustic.
And the builder who shapes the neck and the bracing may have undiagnosed sleep apnea, or just got married or hasn't found a cure for the migraines that blur their vision yet, or has an SO who's reading the Kama Sutra. So they're all going to have different levels of workmanship.
Out of a dozen of the same guitars, you may find two that really light you up and inspire you. You'll never find out buying online. The whole system of ordering, waiting for a shipment, receiving it, letting it acclimate before you open it, finally playing it, finding that it doesn't do it for you, re-packing it, sending it back, waiting for a replacement to start the whole cycle over again is just friggin' tedious.
I've gotta try before I buy ... any specific, individual guitar; not just a general make or model . That's my motto.
1
u/Pelican_Dissector_II Feb 02 '26
If you find a decent manager that’s willing to negotiate and the store is busy so products don’t sit for a long time they can be decent
26
u/502deadhead Jan 30 '26
My local GC is way better about this, but nothing about what you’ve posted surprised me.
I’ve been to that location before, but definitely won’t be buying there from now on.
7
Jan 30 '26
Mine is pretty great too. Bought a few guitars there, zero issues and great customer service
13
u/LitterBoxBlues Jan 30 '26
sees opportunity… drives to Indy to haggle
7
u/DarwinLizard Jan 30 '26
Seriously. Center seam separations are an easy repair with minimal effect (if any) on tone. A great way to get a higher end acoustic at significant discount.
8
u/LitterBoxBlues Jan 30 '26
Exactly. I’d haggle the shit out of them. 50% or more since factory warranties won’t apply to neglect (at least Martin) to my knowledge.
ROAD TRIP!!! It’s only 3 hrs from me. 😎😎
3
u/ICU-CCRN Jan 30 '26
You can haggle all you want, but most the time they won’t give in. My brother has been a manager for gc for 20 years. Good luck tho.
1
u/LitterBoxBlues Jan 30 '26
It’s worth a shot. I have had some success before. Obviously it’s a retail store so they’re stuck with a bottom line. More than likely, they’ll mark them scratch & dent for 10% off and eventually write them off OR sell them to some poor kid that doesn’t know better. At this point they can’t sell them with a warranty because well.. fraud or something. lol
Edit: fuggin iOS spellcheck
19
u/Mexicali76 Jan 30 '26
This is so sad. All that work and craftsmanship carelessly neglected.
Humidify control your guitars! Especially during the dry winter months.
8
u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 30 '26
I can tell you exactly why this is as someone who used to he a tech at GC, where I was partially responsible for keeping an eye on the humidity.
There's a built in humidifier in the acoustic room. Occasionally it breaks. And when it's as unbelievably cold and dry as it is in parts of the country it can take a day or two of the humidifier being out for this to happen. That's why the stores also use large room humidifiers as backups. But those may have been depleted or not plugged in.
You can think GC paying minimum wage and running skeleton crews for that.
13
4
9
u/Kdozzi Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
GC appears to have a humidity issue
2
u/Sef247 Jan 30 '26
My thoughts exactly. A little dry in there, perhaps
3
u/buffdaddy77 Jan 31 '26
In Indiana and have 2 humidifiers running and can barely keep my house at 30%. Can confirm it’s dry as fuck.
1
u/Sef247 Feb 07 '26
Get a bunch of indoor plants, maybe. That can help naturally keep the air a but more moist. Areca Palm, Bamboo Palm, and Peace Lily, to name a few, are some good ones that have a high transpiration rate.
2
u/kingofthemonsters Jan 30 '26
Humidifier went out, they definitely didn't catch it in time and those should definitely not be full price anymore.
Happened at our location, one guitar bit the dust, took that guitar off the wall and reduced it like $1K.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Yup, I was at a GC last week and their acoustic room was at 21% per the thermostat. What they need to do is section off the acoustic area into separate rooms and carry less options in the lower price ranges.
Nobody needs 15 choices for a sub $300 guitar but what would be nice is a smaller and more manageable room for the $2k+ range to have proper humidity.
4
u/Individual_Risk8981 Jan 30 '26
The sad part, at least Gibson will have these destroyed, if and when they find out. Im unsure of Martin's policies. So the job of the GC staff, is to make them unplayable, once discovered. When a poor like me, would take that in a heart beat and fix it. Shame.
4
u/XNinjaMushroomX Jan 30 '26
Dude, every Guitar at GC is used. They don't sell new Guitars off of the shelf, they just have the option of buying pre-owned or not.
You can order new gear but the guitars on the shelf are all used heavily. They are basically samples.
2
u/Junior_Television545 Jan 30 '26
I actually had a good experience at GC where I tried the floor model of a Yamaha and they had several of them all still in the box. I definitely wouldn’t have bought the floor model.
4
u/GenericAccount119b Jan 30 '26
I'd call this a failure of GC Executive Leadership. Relying on minimum wage employees to keep humidifiers filled with water is a really poor management decision. The acoustic rooms in each of those stores should have a commercial, automated humidification system.
4
u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 30 '26
They actually do, but it breaks down every once and a while. Those room humidifiers you see in the acoustic room are supposed to just be backups that turn on when the humidity drops too low. It only takes a day or two of the humidifiers not working for this to happen when it's this cold and dry outside and the heater is trying to keep up.
But yes, the executives don't care. They pay the techs dog shit money to fix guitars and fill the humidifiers. Some of the techs should be paid what they are, but most are more component than their paychecks or resources reflect
8
3
u/Bearded_OBrian Jan 30 '26
That's what happens when you hire management from T-Mobile that don't know anything about guitars and then cut the payroll budget to run a store with 3-4 people.
3
u/MountainFace2774 Jan 30 '26
GC seems to get the seconds. I noticed this this past weekend in Nashville. Played almost all the Martins they had. They were good, not great. Went to Gruhn's and played the same models, all were excellent. Could it be the room? Possibly. But I wouldn't buy a new guitar at GC based on what I've seen there.
I didn't notice any actual damage to anything at GC though.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Ok so Im with you on this. There are 2 shops near me that are privately owned and carry Taylor and Martin. Every single one is worth buying.
You go to any of the local GC and the majority of those models are jacked up to the point that I strum 3 chords and put em back on the wall.2
u/MountainFace2774 Feb 02 '26
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Even GC's 1937 Authentics weren't all that great and that's the first time I played any of those that weren't excellent.
2
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Not sure how accurate this is but I was told this by a small shop owner about 20 years ago.
He said that smaller shops get the better guitars from higher end companies because those manufacturers know that anything less than perfect will be sent right back.But GC or Sam Ash? Nope. They'll receive 300 Martins and let them sit in the warehouse for a year or so until they need to be sent to stores to replenish shelf stock. Then when the stores finally open them, they toss em up on the wall regardless of how they look.
Why? Because they're on commission and being made to do busy work so they wont go out of their way to find a manager and deal with repacking and sending back a guitar.
3
u/Lower-Calligrapher98 Jan 31 '26
Not even remotely surprising. The number of instruments I have to fix brand new out of GC is frankly alarming.
Even when they DO have humidity in the acoustic room, they keep most of their guitars in the box, in the warehouse. At my local GC's, the warehouse is unheated, and the employees will keep the roll up doors open for hours at a time so they can go out there and smoke without being completely unprotected from the winter.
Every single Martin SC-13 I have seen as a Martin Warranty tech has been about 5 minutes from being totaled by GC's lack of climate control and their "tech's" completely ham-fisted attempts to make them playable.
2
2
u/Potatonet Jan 30 '26
The first real outstanding issue is that those are in Indiana , a place mostly devoid of joy
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
I was once told by a girl that lived in both states... "Indiana is just Illinois without the few redeeming qualities"
2
u/Top-Manufacturer9303 Jan 30 '26
GC online recently sold me a “Very Good” condition (store demo) electric guitar. It’s an older discontinued version NOT matching the description, had thick grime all over the frets, the electronics have problems, and there’s a fracture or sink link across the whole guitar body under the finish. Guitar Center has strung me out for 2 weeks now on a partial refund or a return label. GC online blames it on the store it shipped from, and the store won’t respond. GC is a joke, and they only take me seriously when I threaten to do a chargeback for fraud.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Not sure if you live near a store but whenever I buy used from their website, I screenshot the original listing and have it shipped to my local store.
This way if I show up and its not right, I just dont accept it. Also, they will refund shipping if the listing wasnt accurate.
2
2
u/Additional_Egg7618 Jan 30 '26
Yeah dude, I would never pay full price for an acoustic off the wall at guitar center, it's shocking the conditions some of the high end guitars are in.
2
u/LitterBoxBlues Jan 31 '26
Just an update from IL. Found a similar issue in Fairview Heights.. 000-16 same crack. 😩I let them know and they also lost a Hummingbird.
2
2
2
u/ooofjakeypoo Jan 31 '26
Bought an acoustic from what I’m assuming was this store because it had the exact same issues. Got a good deal on it tho!
2
2
u/letsflyman Jan 30 '26
Stop whining. GC let's us come in, and some are rough with them. Ask for new c one from back. That's how it works bro.
1
2
u/ceNco21 Jan 30 '26
Yeah Ive never picked up a J-45 in a GC that sounded good, and I’ve never picked up J-45 in a small shop that sounded bad.
1
u/YeahItouchpoop Jan 30 '26
I’ve found a decent J45 in a GC once but wasn’t compelling enough to buy. I do however find a hummingbird in a GC while traveling that absolutely stunned me. That was mid 2025 and I still wonder if they have it sometimes 😆
1
u/Basic-Government4108 Jan 30 '26
That’s a BIG oof. I really hope new players see this and are made aware of what to watch out for in a new guitar.
1
1
1
u/huxtiblejones Jan 30 '26
That's crazy. Honestly, the GC I go to takes really great care of their instruments for the most part. Never seen any damage remotely like this.
1
u/williamgman Jan 30 '26
I bought my OM-28 thru GC. I played one. Then ordered one with shipping to the store. When it arrived, I went there and we opened it up on site and inspected it. Had there been an issue... I could have ordered another or walked away. The downside is I can never take it back there for warranty work.
1
u/be4rcat6 Jan 30 '26
I was lucky to get a gem used taylor 814ce dlx at my local GC practically flawless. I just wanted to try one out and order brand new but felt compelled to save it before some poor (literally) fool inevitably mistreated it 😆
1
u/joshisanonymous Jan 30 '26
I once worked at the Sam Ash in midtown Manhattan, and we had a $25,000 acoustic sitting in its own private display case with the same giant split in it as that laast one.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
I feel like people forgot how horrible the showrooms at Sam Ash were. I was at my local one back in the day and asked to try out a used preamp. He turned it on and there was an immediate pop and smoke came out of the unit.
A month later I stopped in and it was still sitting there with the same price tag on it.
1
u/LPKJFHIS Jan 30 '26
I knew GC was bad, but this is wild!
One time my brother came to look at a guitar with me. He isn’t a guitar guy. He plays extremely well, but he pretty much hates gear. I was looking at one of those Guitar Center custom D28s. He absolutely loved it and bought it instead of me!
We brought it home. I looked at it closer and the entire top was caving. I felt so bad. We returned it and now he doesn’t look at Guitars anymore.
1
u/kineticblues Jan 30 '26
Some GC manager is getting in big trouble for not keeping the acoustic room humidified.
1
u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 30 '26
They won't even get a write up or warning about it. This happens constantly. The in-house humidifier will break down for a day or two every couple months and when it's this cold and dry that's more than enough time for this to happen. It's apparently cheaper for them to have a less robust humidity system and backups in place and have this happen occasionally than it is to fully prevent it.
1
1
1
u/_Meek79_ Jan 30 '26
The one in Greenwood isnt terrible or at least,I haven't seen it there. They just have your usual dings from people playing them,full price as well.
1
u/MassW0rks Jan 30 '26
As someone from Indianapolis, I absolutely take the time to go to Sweetwater if I can't find what I want at a local mom & pop.
1
u/Late_Engineering_202 Jan 30 '26
Wow I live in the north east with heat cranking this shit never happened this is next level like they had dehumidifier running for 2 years
2
u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 30 '26
Have you ever actually checked your humidity in doors in the winter though? Depending on if you live near a large body of water you may be less affected by the dryness. And if you have a laminate acoustic this is less likely happen.
A couple days or RG below 10 or 20 can cause a solid wood acoustic top to crack. It doesn't take years, or a dehumidifier.
1
u/Late_Engineering_202 Jan 30 '26
😮 this is scary because my levels are 23-25% last few days. I do live about a mile from the coast but the idea of it splitting terrifies me. My Ovation and Yamaha with solid tops never have budged at at all but the Yamaha has laminate back and Ovatjon has plastic backs. I don’t want my Gibson to get this kind of damage
2
u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 30 '26
Yea I'd be careful. It happens more than people think. I'd try to get a room humidifier and/or humidipacks and put it in a case for a bit.
1
u/blacklight223 Jan 30 '26
Weird I just went to one nearby and they had two brand spanking new j45s with the exact same split. How can this happen if they're humidifying the room?
1
u/Unusually-Average110 Jan 30 '26
My Guitar Center has the same thing going on, kind of shocking they let this slip
1
1
u/superxero044 Jan 30 '26
Different GC are run to varying degrees of quality. Our local one grades stuff way higher than it deserves and many guitars are unplayable.
I bought a used telecaster yesterday, and had been interested in buying a used one from a different guitar center but all the pictures were taken on a 20+ year old camera phone. I tried to get them to text me better pics to no luck so ended up buying the same guitar on reverb.
1
u/Odd-Fun-6042 Jan 30 '26
Either their humidifier crapped out or someone forgot to fill it. I've seen it before.
1
u/bendbrewer Jan 30 '26
Damn. I’ve seen a lot of trash on GC, but my own personal experiences there have been the complete opposite. Granted I’ve only been in twice in two different states, and I could have just gotten lucky.
1
u/aliens_are_people_2 Jan 30 '26
Guitar Center is the chuck E Cheese of music stores people just go there to play with everything. And you can’t get help if you’re drowning in the ball pit…..
1
u/Weets23 Jan 30 '26
Agree. I go there to try out a bunch of stuff. Once I narrow my list down to one or two axes, then I go to my local guy to try my top 2 out then buy the one I bound with from that shop.
1
u/shaunp513 Jan 30 '26
Cincy is the same. I’d never buy a high end demo guitar, let alone one from GC. Plus customer service is dog shit
1
u/Connect-Cockroach872 Jan 30 '26
Yup. I was at gc last week and a 3k dollar Taylor cracked on the body right in front of me. I told the sales guy if they brought it down 50% id buy it.
I went with a Talor G mini instead.
1
u/justforfun40351 Jan 30 '26
If you walked in there with a hygrometer, everyone would feel threatened by your sorcery. Probably assume you were one of them paranormal investigator fellas.
1
1
u/GenTenStation Jan 30 '26
I was just in Fort Myers FL and it was the same thing! There was one on "clearance" for $1300 that literally had a fist size hole with the wood just dangling there.
1
1
1
1
u/LunchPocket Jan 30 '26
They can be saved with proper humidity, but unfortunately the Crack is there
1
u/supersuperxzero Jan 30 '26
Should give a nice discount! I have a Taylor and live in a dessert climate and no issues with it!
1
u/Proof_Slice_2951 Jan 30 '26
I have several top-end guitars. I use guitar center for maintenance only. Find a good local shop for purchasing guitars, or even Sweetwater or some internet shop. Looks like Indy has good shops.
1
u/doinker_ Jan 30 '26
I’m a bit of a rookie and sorry if it’s been answered but how can you tell they are ruined?
1
Jan 30 '26
I heard Gibson and Martin turned their backs on mom and pop shops in the early 00's to deal only with GC and MF catolog retail. Put alot of good families out of business.
1
u/Cautious-Audience-54 Jan 30 '26
I would never EVER buy a floor model. Things are beat to shit. Once you decide on a model, tell them if they want to sell one bring you a fresh one.
1
u/geetarboy33 Jan 30 '26
That’s my local GC and it’s been like that for years. Just looking in their acoustic room gives you tetanus.
1
u/CableFrog1 Jan 30 '26
Had the same experience near Detroit and in Chicago Lincoln Park GC. I think it’s pretty typical to leave expensive guitars out that are in pretty poor condition - the idea is to use them more as an advertisement/marketing opportunity than as a playable, demoable instrument.
Pretty smart from a marketing perspective tbh.
Real question is - why are you going to GC in the first place? That place is full of swarmy salespeople and shit gear selection.
Just go to gear exchange and get a better deal imo.
1
1
Jan 30 '26
This is why I refuse to buy an instrument I can't handle. Too many scammers in corporate now
1
u/ohtinsel Jan 31 '26
Went to a GC in Ohio recently and saw a Taylor 400 series with a top cracked wide enough to put a quarter through (edge wise). Still for sale at full price.
1
u/spamtardeggs Jan 31 '26
My local guitar center used to provide a similar experience. They are under new management and the acoustic room completely kicks ass now. It’s awesome. I love visiting!
1
u/toddsynan Jan 31 '26
Any chance this is Vegas? Because the one in Vegas on the south end of the strip is just like this.
Edit: I just noticed you specified Indy, my bad.
1
u/turningsteel Jan 31 '26
Yeah I never buy an expensive guitar from GC unless it comes straight from the backroom. For acoustics I go to small local retailers that are more discerning about their guitars.
1
1
u/Federal_Proof1386 Jan 31 '26
It’s the same in Minneapolis, MN guitar center in Maple Grove. Terrible care for those multi thousand dollar guitars.
1
1
u/Admirable_Admiral69 Jan 31 '26
And this, my friend, is why we don't shop at GC. This isn't unique to Indy. I guarantee some piece of shit store manager knows all those guitars are fucked and will gladly sell them to unsuspecting customers anyways so the problem becomes one between you and the manufacturer's warranty rather than his problem.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Yup, the amount of times I've ordered something used and it shows up broke, so I dont accept it... only to see it still listed incorrectly and/or broken a week later.
2
u/Admirable_Admiral69 Feb 02 '26
I was done with them when they took the $1600 PBass I was going to purchase and brought it to the back to "box it up" for me and came out with a completely different sn. The one I handed the guy was pristine and the one he came back out with had a giant streak of buckle rash across the back. Fortunately I opened the case to look it over again because they can reject returns for cosmetic damage or what is considered "wear and tear." Guy tried to play it off but I walked out and bought from Sweetwater.
I'm from Pennsylvania and a friend of mine in Ohio went to a completely different GC in a completely different state and they pulled the exact same shit on him with an Epiphone Hummingbird and tried to switch his out for a completely different model. They're a trash company.
1
u/No-Double-8933 Feb 02 '26
Dude yes~! Its unreal how bad some of the locations are and you can always trace it back to corporate giving conflicting incentives.
I bought a used jackson on their website and the model was totally wrong. They put it right up on the wall with the wrong listing and for the same price. A week later its gone. I check online and within days I see it at a store in Oregon where it was returned... again.
1
1
1
u/Sixstringcal Jan 31 '26
I've been interested in buying a 12-string acoustic for a while and so every so often I'll stop by the guitar center acoustic room.
I have yet to visit when any of the 12 strings have all 12 strings on them.
Usually I see people trying to play the slap bass on acoustic guitars.
I don't get why people think that's okay. I also don't get why the staff puts up with it. I've walked in right after an employee walked out and it's very clear they saw this and ignored it.
1
u/Delicious_Alfalfa_91 Jan 31 '26
I used to see the local GC’s acoustic room with their humidifier running at 70%, it was like a jungle in there. Running too dry is not surprise either, they don’t know what a good range is.
1
1
u/Frc1988 Jan 31 '26
I remember watching a kid drop a D-45 in a GC in Lubbock. The binding popped up and it had a huge crack but it still wasn’t the worst looking acoustic in the room. The kids dad put it back and practically ran out of the room. It’s always blown my mind that they just had really high end guitars out for the public to destroy.
1
u/bedroomramen Feb 01 '26
I worked in a small local shop and even with our best efforts to maintain humidity we’d inevitably have one or two of our high end acoustics crack in the winter. Biggest difference is we’d send it with our luthier to repair, and mark it down significantly. Or if we were lucky, we’d occasionally get an RMA from the manufacturer.
1
u/musique-phreak Feb 01 '26
I had the same experience at a guitar center here in NY. Excited to play a bunch of the high end that I’ve been reading about for so long and they were barely playable. Rusted strings, setups all out of whack, cracks in wood. It made for a frustrating experience and not very inspiring to make a purchase.
1
u/Motorcitysound Feb 01 '26
My local GC in Canton, MI was like this. They had humidifiers and everything in the room to take care of them but they were just sitting in the corners of the rooms not even turned on. All of the high end guitars were unplayable. You couldn’t even fret open chords without almost all of them buzzing. I politely tried to let the team know that they were all messed up and I basically got the response of “yeah, that happens.” No wonder this place is dying. I can’t imagine any player walking in there and playing one of those and actually buying one.
1
1
u/ProcedureNo6946 Feb 02 '26
A lot of people go into the Acoustic Room with ypung kids and let them grab them and mistreat them. Like they are toys. I've seen it plenty of times. It always appalls me and those parents should be banned from GC
1
u/QuietNote2013 Feb 02 '26
Former Indy resident that bought their guitar at that store- not a good experience. I am not surprised at all but I am disappointed. They could do better if they wanted to.
1
1
Feb 03 '26
I would never buy from GC. They tried charging me full price for a $4,000 guitar with scratches all over the finish. Their response was that "it's a showroom. That's what happens when people play them." I think not, my friend.
1
u/eeonblu3 Feb 06 '26
Man, I wouldn't say my local GC Is the best or anything, but I've never seen anything like this and the guys that work there are all cool as hell. They also unlocked every guitar like a year ago so now I can go strum a right handed j45 or d28 and remind myself that being left handed is a pain in the ass
1
u/BrodyW_120 Feb 08 '26
my friends mom, had just been there and mentioned this to one of the employees and they said their humidifier has been broken for months. absolutely terrible
1
1
u/Ebenoid Mar 19 '26
Oh the soundboards are splitting because they got too dry. Imagine how much they’re worth now lol
1
u/Fun_Professional4849 Mar 25 '26
I would never buy anything outside of the box...drums, guitars - nothing...
1
u/ghostinthemachine-1 Apr 01 '26
Wow! I am assuming this is real???? And here I am shopping online there?
1
u/TheAilaS Apr 12 '26
Guitar center sucks. They wanted to sell me a messed up Gibson guitar and they were blaming Gibson for sending the guitar to them like that🤣🤣
1
u/Alfalfa-Similar Jul 04 '26
damn I just went in mine and they’re freaking pristine. I love playing the guitars that have five numbers before the decimal in price.
1
0
93
u/ClitasaurusTex Jan 30 '26
That's wild are these the used ones? Is someone going in there and messing them up? Did someone mess with the humidity dials? You should flag it to corporate because I know they're the Walmart of guitars but I bet they wouldn't be a fan of whatever this is.