I went to two shops today to play some Taylors and other less significant guitars. Let me start off by saying that there needs to be more seperate acoustic guitar shops where I can sit and play a guitar I am interested in and not be able to hear it because the sales kid has some ska crap blaring over the gemini DJ equipment. That's one thing to be said good about GC, at least they have a completely sealed off acoustic area. I went into a Taylor dealer today and was unimpressed. Nothing at all against Taylor, and I am sure I understand why this shop is the way it is. It is in a mall in a small town and I know they are hard up to make sales. But I felt like I was at a used car lot. The sales kid, who knows a lot about guitars because he has had a Big Baby for four years(!) (prototype I'm sure), told me what he could do for me today, "i'll give that one to you for $20 under list if you buy it today" after he checked with the manager- that kind of stuff. I ended up sitting there and comparing a 310 with a big baby, trying to justify the sound vs. price difference, and had another guy trying to pressure me to buy the baby. Just an overall bad experience, but I was able to at least hold and compare the Taylors I am interested in. I just wished I could go to shop where the primary thing was acoustic guitars and I could actually hear the guitar I was playing, not some crap blaring out of the PA, that's all. The other shop I went in is not listed as a dealer by Taylor, but has more Taylors on the wall than the dealer in my town. They have three babies on the wall, including a koa one that is tagged at $81 OVER list price. I like this shop because they just get the guitars down and leave me to play or they will sit and chat while I play, and they have a lot of relatively nicer guitars to compare (martin dm, tacomas, taylors). Today the "high end" room was full of a drum set, keyboards, and a bass rig. The girl who was later sweeping the floors was sitting in there chatting with her kid rock looking boyfriend while he banged on the snare drum. !!!
Sorry to air my dirty laundry, but I just feel strongly that there needs to be more acoustic only guitar shops where I can shop in peace! I'll start writing up my business plan tomorrow. Maybe I'll call my shop Tonewoods. That would be nice....
