Mesa Potentially not selling through Guitar Center any more.

[GieBoo]

Why do I feel like I'm in " Ted and Bill's Excellent Adventure " every time I set foot in a GC . Don't get me wrong and don't let me HiJack the thread I've actually meet helpful, capable and knowledgeable sale help in a couple of GC's I've been in at Beaverton, Or. and Paramus , NJ But, My last experience in a GC in Clackamus Or.made sure it's my last experience in a GC ever. I went in looking for a Les Paul Intent on trying everything they had available and made it clear I was serious and had $400,000.00 to play with. I asked for a clean type fender to use to try them and a private Booth and was given a room with some high end amps in it with a Fender Dual Professional and he than brought me an Epiphone LP and after a few minutes of me playing that and a comparatively cheap LP with Gibsons name on it he put a young kid in the room with me who plugged into a Mark V and proceeded to set up some low volume high gain supper distorted Death Metal tone and riff out some nonsense till I thought I would go mad and left. Could have sold me a Les Paul Custom or a custom shop guitar and blew it royally. I . won't be seeing the inside of a GC any time soon And anything that they do that will help there eventual demise will please me immensely.

If you had literally $400,000 to 'play with' then why wouldn't you have gone through the vintage department of the GC hollywood, or worked directly with a platinum manager? Show me ONE music chain with over 10 stores where EVERY store and EVERY salesperson is 100% knowledgeable on gear. Not going to happen. And out of ALL the GC with un-knowledgeable staff, I'd bet real money you'll find the same percentage of indy stores with the same outcome.

Also GC employees are usually commissioned base, and while I don't doubt your account, I find it odd that if a customer claiming to have near a half million dollar budget walked (or $4,000 for that matter), the salesperson would put an Epi in your hand. Although, given some salespeople i have encountered, I wouldn't exlude this from the realm of possibilities.

However you also said you have been in stores where people knew what they're talking about.

My opinion about GC. If you want to shop there, here's what you do. Find THE guy. Most stores has at least one. A person who has been there for some time and knows their ****. Work with him/her. Keep going to them and give them your business and you will be taken care of.

Of course the same thing is true with Sam Ash or any other chain, and obviously EVERY music store. But remember, any music store is fellow musicians trying to earn a living. If you find one salesguy you don't care for, hit up another. Again, find THAT guy. The one who's with it and takes care of his/her customers.

 

[GieBoo]

I went into the Towson, MD GC last night to look at a Mark V. I was surprised when the salesman told me that they would no longer carry Mesa. I bought my Single Recto from them in 2010, and was hoping to buy another one. He said, from what he's heard from management, that Mesa wanted them to up the amount of amps that they've been ordering. His example was "Say we order 100 Triple Recto's, they want us to order 400 instead". That doesn't make much sense to me, but that's just want 1 salesman told me.

Awe the mandatory minimum stocking levels. It's amazing they're (boogie) is keeping any dealers with the that these days. From what I understand, Boogies 'Dealer Agreements' haven't changed in a 100 years. They're still operating from the idea that they're the only boutique maker out there. Not true these days. Every boutique maker has a lot of similarities in what they expect from their dealer force; however, none, that I am aware of, require minimum stocking levels. However, many of the big boy guitar vendors do, which you see less and less big brand representation in the smaller indies. They simply cannot afford the initial inventory load-ins required. All those dollars tied into inventories that do not move too often causes a lot of those dealers to go away. Sad.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Seems a mistake, maybe. We don't know the facts. They lost a huge distribution channel.

But boogie has not kept up with the times in new cheaper amps kids are playing. Guitar is less popular these days. Seems more kids play guitar bro than guitar.

Time will tell. At 3 stores I visit, they all say Mess can be challenging to deal with.

Hopefully it works out well. Guitar Center is a sinking ship. CAA2 rating? I would not want them owing me money. It would be great for the small stores if GC tanked. But I would hate to see all those people without jobs.

 

[guitarrhinoceros]

Seems a mistake, maybe. We don't know the facts. They lost a huge distribution channel.

But boogie has not kept up with the times in new cheaper amps kids are playing. Guitar is less popular these days. Seems more kids play guitar bro than guitar.

Time will tell. At 3 stores I visit, they all say Mess can be challenging to deal with.

Hopefully it works out well. Guitar Center is a sinking ship. CAA2 rating? I would not want them owing me money. It would be great for the small stores if GC tanked. But I would hate to see all those people without jobs.

I don't think it's a mistake at all. Most GCs I've been to take horrible care of their on-floor stock. Thus, I think it's best for the overall brand to be only in stores that have better oversight over their stock.

Mesa was a brand to be reckoned with before GC, and they'll be fine without 'em.

 

[GieBoo]

... Guitar Center is a sinking ship. CAA2 rating?

Guitar Center enjoys good relationships with most all its vendors. One of the reasons? All its bills are paid on time. This has been the case for decades. This was the case with Mesa Boogie as well. Botoom Line: Two different business models. That's all. It takes considerable inventory dollars to stock a lot of amps from one brand (especiall when most of those amps cost the dealer of $1K for each unit), let alone for 85 stores like GC had for Boogie.

Guitar Center's financial situation is not unlike many retailers the past 6 years. It has nothing to do with parting ways with Boogie. In fact, GC has expanded its amp offerings from different vendors these past few years.

Boogie will do fine without GC, and GC will do fine without Boogie, especially since the number of GC's who did not stock Boogie far outnumber those who did. Everthing I have heard has been that GC and Boogie have worked together well during this transition out of doing business with eachother. It's simply a matter of two different business models. That's all. Tin-foil hats can be left at the door.

 

[b0nkersx1]

Every GC I go to these days has more and more low to mid range gear and progressively less high end gear. In my anything-but-expert opinion, I think the internet has kind of swallowed a large portion of the high end gear market.

I could be completely wrong, though.

 

[SteveO]

Guitar Center enjoys good relationships with most all its vendors. One of the reasons? All its bills are paid on time. This has been the case for decades.

All it takes is a little internet searching to disprove this statement. GC is in pretty deep with Fender alone.

 

[GieBoo]

GC is a terrible sales outlet for high-end gear (except for Gibson and PRS, which sell themselves to anybody with more cash than skill**)

Again ... depends on the GC and the individual salesperson. Same thing with indies. Take 240 plus indie stores and how many of them don't know what they're talking about. I'm sure the ratio will be somewhat close to GC.

 

[GieBoo]

Guitar Center enjoys good relationships with most all its vendors. One of the reasons? All its bills are paid on time. This has been the case for decades.

All it takes is a little internet searching to disprove this statement. GC is in pretty deep with Fender alone.

No. All it takes is someone working in the industry to know this. I do. I have for sometime. GC could not survive in a speciality retail market like this if it didn't have good relationships. If Walmart pisses off a towel maker, no big loss; they carry products across many different categories and industries. Guitar Center, like Sam Ash, is a retail chain in a very limited industry making at a whole, less that $7 billion in annual sales. That' $7billion for the whole domestic MI industry. If GC and Sam Ash didn't work well with vendors, they wouldn't be a round for long. It's simply too small a industry to have a bully-strong arm tactic in dealing with suppliers.

 

[allphourus]

http://truefire.com/forum/showthread.php?11307-Guitar-Center-Enjoy-it-while-it-lasts

http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Electric-Guitars/Does-Guitar-Center-s-Mayan-calendar-end-in-April/td-p/34417943

http://www.musicincmag.com/News/2012/120221/120221_alanfriedman.html

http://thetoneking.com/wp/life-support-how-long-until-they-pull-the-plug-on-guitar-center/

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/moan-zone/813463-guitar-center-fiscal-problems-includes-musician-s-friend-harmony-central-others.html

 

[shimmilou]

Blogs and speculation on some forums? Not very impressive, considering that two of your links are the exact same blog posted in two different places, and the rest is forum members speculating about that blog.

It would be more believable if there were some links to the actual Moody rating, or at least something concrete.

BTW, April has come and gone.......GC still here. :wink:

 

[Heritage Softail]

Guitar Center enjoys good relationships with most all its vendors. One of the reasons? All its bills are paid on time. This has been the case for decades.

All it takes is a little internet searching to disprove this statement. GC is in pretty deep with Fender alone.

This above is a manual manipulation and a misquote of what I said. It is what someone else said. I do not think GC is doing great. They have a poor credit eating and liquidity.

That said, it s a tough business with shrinking demand of their core product, guitar. Hopefully they will bounce back. Too many jobs on the line.

 

[DWAKO]

GC isn't going anywhere... The company has done nothing but expand and grow. Sales have been increasing, new stores have opened, and by the end of the year GC will be the number #1 supplier of musical instruction through their GC Studios program. In my area a new store was opened and they are revamping 2 of the older stores. There have been no signs of the company going out of business, it's actually been quite the opposite. To me those blogs have little ground to stand on. Time will tell.

 

[phyrexia]

good riddance.

 

[exbest182]

I bought a brand new mark v from GC today for a little over $1600... Mesa is honoring the warranties.. So the gettin' is good! While supplies last.

 

[GieBoo]

Poor credit is not the rating they have. Their rating is "good".

GC has excellent relationships with most all of its vendors, especially guitars and amps. From boutiques to giants. Blog posts written by someone who knows someone who's friends with a guy who used to date a door girl at GC is hardly someone to listen to. Regardless of what people want to believe, or think they know as an 'insider', which most aren't even close to being, I work in the industry and the statements I am making are factual. Believe what you want, but anyone stating otherwide simply isn't telling the truth, because chances are, they don't know what the heck they're talking about.

 

[soulsurfer]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/12/buyouts-bain-guitarcenter-idUSL2N0EO24720130612

Doesn't sound all that 'good' to me. Doesn't sound all that bad either. I don't doubt that they can turn this around, but not before they struggle for a bit longer.
It looks like they are flat net with increased assets...meaning they are paying their bills and taking what's left and reinvesting into the company. They are banking on the economy to turn around.
With increased assets come increased liability.

Some see this as a bit risky for the business...others see it as a necessity to stay in business.

 

[elvis]

Seems like this is a company that everyone loves to hate.

In my own experience, they are not so much about customer service, but they carry a really wide selection and are price leaders.

I used to shop there a lot, but these days I spend more time at the local shop that is a couple bucks more but has very good customer service. I still go to GC to look around. I think the quality of the employees did go up after the acquisition. But I miss haggling for gear.

 

[allphourus]

Let's bring this one back from the Dead,

http://www.fretboardjournal.com/podcast/podcast-77-eric-garland

 

[shimmilou]

Yeah, over a year has passed, and GC is still going strong. So much for the predictions of pending doom. :roll:

I am still a satisfied customer. 8)