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Ooohhh.... Ur the guy...

Curious if anyone else has run into this before.

I'd run low on strings so went into a music store in the next city north of me. Bought six packs of Ernie Balls Super Slinkies. While at the counter the fella, ring'n the sale thru, and I were chatting it up.

So he says I must be pretty brutal on guitars if I needed that many packs of strings. Told him 'nope, I build CBG's and give'm away. Had to school him on what CBG's were. Then after I tell him what they are he says... "Ohh, ur the guy" then got quiet and finished the sale... Thank you come again...

I was kinda puzzled by the response but after I got back to my truck I figured maybe he'd heard or saw some of my gits and thought I was cutting into his biz... Thats all I could come up with.

So... does anyone else find music stores friendly or a bit.... short, with you when they know you build CBG's???

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on April 27, 2016 at 7:49am

Guitar snobs. We run into that all the time. CBGs are not "real" instruments, yadda, yadda, yadda.

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Permalink Reply by BP - RabidSalad - on April 27, 2016 at 8:49am

Is that Guitar Center in _____________ , ___.??? LOL sorry I couldn't help myself.

These fella's certainly didn't want to chat any further. This was the first I'd run into this and it did puzzle me for all of maybe 5 minutes.... Everyone I've met that played or didn't, have thought the cbg's were great.

snobs... I guess they're everywhere...

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Permalink Reply by Alan Hergert on April 27, 2016 at 9:34am

I have a little different story.

I got a text from a local used music store saying they would give 20% more for used gear. I grabbed a three string I had sitting around to see if they would give me enough for a set of strings.

The manager was kind of excited and said I would make more money if they consigned my work. He offered to take three guitars. I brought a couple more over later.

They offered me a decent return - 70% of retail. They also set pretty good prices.

That's the good news. The bad news is they haven't sold yet.

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Permalink Reply by JL on April 29, 2016 at 3:39am

They don't sell well when sandwiched between a used plywood 6 string for half the price of the CBG on one side, and a $30 plank-not-a-strumstick on the other side.

And if none of the salespeople know how to demonstrate a CBG, it often looks like an expensive wall decoration like the not-a-real-sword you find at the imports store in the mall.

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Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on April 27, 2016 at 2:54pm

Last time I visited a guitar shop I asked to see a CBG just to see what they had, none.

"It was just a fad that died out a couple of years ago, nobody wants to buy them anymore"

I just smiled and thought to myself 'yeah because we're building them ourselves and selling them ourselves'

Personally I think these guitar shop guys have their head up their own sales strategy.

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Permalink Reply by Kigar on April 27, 2016 at 3:09pm

I have found the people in Guitar Center to be mostly arrogant no matter what I went there for. I wasn't metal shred dude so I wasn't worthy. Strings are a lot better deal online at Musicians Friend, their house brand is really low priced alot of the time (no affiliation).

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 27, 2016 at 3:47pm

Don't spend much time in guitar stores these days. They don't know much about what is in their store, much less anything else.

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Permalink Reply by gary herget on April 27, 2016 at 3:49pm

Local music shops are very supportive of CBG's. GC not so much. Don't shop there anymore!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by BP - RabidSalad - on April 28, 2016 at 3:10am

Thats a really good idea... I have a son-in-law thats a wannabe Bob Dylan. I offered him a cbg and he turned it down. Recently I showed him the vid of the one string shovel 'Rage Against the Machine' and the fella playing Led Zepplin's Kashmir. He took a guitar...

So very definitely have some links if you're a nonplayer like I am. Pretty much everyone has a cell phone these days.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Carr on April 27, 2016 at 4:40pm

It's probably been 10+ years since I went into a Guitar Center even though there are a few relatively nearby. I've been in a couple of local stores recently and left disappointed with both the selection of merchandise and attitude of the salespeople. Further away in the Atlanta metro area, there are some "Our *Stuff* Don't Stink" stores that have high end merchandise but terrible, snobby, attitudes. So, these days I buy guitar stuff online or from individuals locally.