So....I've seen this thread on a bunch of musician's forums, and given the fact that a bunch of us are likely to have either worked or spent considerable amounts of time in music shops, there are usually a few stories to tell.

One of my most memorable incidents was the time I bought a guitar from my local music shop, went to pay and then got a s****y look off the guy behind the counter and was then accused of trying to not pay for the gig bag I'd brought with me to take it home in. Yes, I'm going to buy a guitar and then steal a gig bag numb nuts!

I'm generally left pretty unimpressed by the knowledge and service in most shops (don't get me wrong, most of them have one or two guys who are great though). Most recently, I was going to get my bass set up and thought it would be good to get some strings from my local shop...told the guy I needed a tapered B.....cue long conversation where he pretended to know what he was talking about and then tried (and failed dismally) to convince me that a regular B string was what I wanted. I'd much rather he just said that he didn't know and either went and found a colleague who did or told me to call back later.

The guy who owns one of the local shops around here wrote this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQpapoKA ... re=related
He made a pretty penny off it back in the day, it was a number one for a while. He's a really cool guy, his name's Phil Sampson. Man can do wonders with a screwdriver and a soldering iron.

Relevant link from reddit:

[youtube]_-xX7iWvzbo[/youtube]

Yeah, music stores. Every pack of guitar strings I bought in one of them was supplied with receipt for "Volin string B" - aside of thicker ones, which were usually upright bass strings. In another one I was told cheap Schecter guitars were American made. Good we have internet now and it's pretty easy to do research.

A few weeks ago I moved back to Cali and decided to visit the local Guitar Center. Now, having been a patron of Guitar Centers in both San Jose and L.A. in the past, I've always walked away with great experiences from a knowledgeable staff. Well, I walk in to the one here in NorCal and decide to ask the only employee I actually see if they had any availability info on the Devin Peavey guitar. Conversation went like this:

"Hi! I was wondering if you could tell me whether or not you have any information on the availability of the Peavey PXD Devin Townsend signature guitar?"

"What? Peavey makes guitars?"

"Yeah, you have a few on your wall."

"Oh, woah. Ummm, no, I don't know anything about that."

"Well, can you maybe look in your system?"

"No, I only know Gibson's."

"Ooookay.... Hmmm. So,what do you think about the federal raid on the Gibson factory?"

"Who's factory?"

"Alrighty then! Hey, thanks for your time! See ya!"

I remember a sign in a guitar shop that said:

"Please, no Stairway!"

[JuZ]

As nothing more than an occasional noodler who hasn't played an instrument "properly' in ages, I've had almost nothing but shit experiences with music shops. Way too many condescending tossers, sadly.

A good music shop is like a good bike shop. If you find one that isn't staffed with elitist brand-nazis and instead has people who at least pretend to want to help you, give them your business!!!

I don't think it's elitism as much as..."EVERYBODY PLAYS THESE AND IT DRIVES US FUCKING NUTS!! It's like when working in a toy store and everybody pushes all the "click me" toys.

But... They forgot 'Nothing Else Matters'

[Octillus]

As nothing more than an occasional noodler who hasn't played an instrument "properly' in ages, I've had almost nothing but shit experiences with music shops. Way too many condescending tossers, sadly.

A good music shop is like a good bike shop. If you find one that isn't staffed with elitist brand-nazis and instead has people who at least pretend to want to help you, give them your business!!!

This may no longer be relevant but when I bought my guitar, I heard smells like teen spirit 4 times in one trip from different people. SIGH.

Enter Sandman needs to be on that list.

I think the most annoying part of working in a music shop for me was the never ending quote of "Epiphones/Squires are shit. You want a Gibson/Fender". What makes it even worse is when they try out a guitar and can barely string two powerchords together.

Or the people that like to be really vague on what product they actually want i.e can I have a set of 10's please?

[swervedriver]

One of my amplifiers has been in repair now for 4 months, and it remains to be fixed. They claim they're working on it. It's still under warranty so it's not going to cost me anything, but damn... In the same time they're using to fix it I could've obtained an electronics degree and built an amp myself.

In the same time they're using to fix it I could've obtained an electronics degree and built an amp myself.

Are those two things connected?

[swervedriver]

In the same time they're using to fix it I could've obtained an electronics degree and built an amp myself.

Are those two things connected?

Well, if I had an electronics degree I'm sure I could solder them together to connect them.

In another one I was told cheap Schecter guitars were American made. Good we have internet now and it's pretty easy to do research.

Funny thing, visited the same store to check basses - and got handed some average Schecter precision copy as an "American custom shop" product. I wonder if it's some sort of company guideline or perhaps I just look like a gullible tool.

[swervedriver]

One of my amplifiers has been in repair now for 4 months, and it remains to be fixed. They claim they're working on it. It's still under warranty so it's not going to cost me anything, but damn... In the same time they're using to fix it I could've obtained an electronics degree and built an amp myself.

I finally got it back last month, after being in repair for over 7 months. Still hums, although they claim it's due to its old age/circuitry and thus cannot ever be fixed. It's not a volume-dependent hum at the moment, and they've said they got rid of the volume dependence of the hum. But it's been so long, I don't even remember whether it was volume-dependent in the first place when I turned the amp in for repair all those months ago...

And then 2 weeks later I bought a new amp.