Who plays music?

[MileHighGrowler]

(05-31-2021, 10:59 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: LOL.  Yeah, I believe you.  If it's any consolation I'm pretty sure all stores were like that back in the day.  I know Buddy Rodgers was just as bad if not worse.

Those were the glory days of music retail (for the stores).  They just worked off of retail price.  I remember when we finally got a Guitar Center and being amazed at the prices and the selection.  I'd never seen anything like it.  I liked the place so much I ended working there for 4 years.

There's a LOT I miss about the old days.  Cincy's local music stores aren't one of them.  I do however very much miss the classified section in the Enquirer and garage sales.  Back in the day you really did have a chance of finding something unbelieveable but the internet and specifically Ebay ruined that.

Buddy Rogers in NCH was where I bought my first strat.  I had a few minor repairs/setups done there as well.  Expensive, but good service.  I was feeling nostalgic a few months ago and went searching for them online.  Doesn't look like they sell anything other than band instruments any more.  But lots of memories there.  

I remember when GC came to Forest Fair Mall.  But I remember more when Sam Ash opened in the early 2000s.  Got my Martin acoustic there for several hundred under MSRP, which felt like the steal of the century to me.  Plus the selection.  And back then, you could go in any large music store like that and just as easily grab a $5,000 guitar as a $200 one off the wall and play to your heart's content without someone bugging you.  The GC near me now I grab picks and strings at and every guitar over about a grand is locked up and you have to ask to touch it, and then they sit there to make sure you're careful with it.  So I've just stopped going to play and dream about new guitars for the most part unless I'm really serious about buying something.  

Craigslist and eBay had some awesome deals for a while until people wised up.  People unloaded some real quality instruments 15 years ago online for cheap because they didn't know any better.  Now everything is overpriced and people are selling fakes.  I feel like the only way to really get lucky now is estate sales, garage sales or just knowing someone that's willing to part with equipment they don't use so don't see the true value.