Stupidest thing you've ever done in a music store?

[Axe]

So I'm at ye olde guitare shoppe and want to look at an American tele. Problem is they're waaaaaaaaay up there, the headstock maybe nine to ten feet off the floor. So I wait for a salesperson.

And wait.

And wait some more.

Then I see a couple of little foot stools around, maybe a foot high. Well, I'm no clutz, despite my 41 years of age. I climb up, reach way up (I'm only 5-8) and get it down without a problem.

I play it for about 10 minutes and still no salesperson. So it's time to put it back.

I get back on the footstool, holding the tele with both hands by the bottom. I reach up and, just as I'm slotting the headstock into the hanger, I start to lose my balance and begin pitching forward.

All that flashed through my mind was me taking down a wall of a couple of dozen teles and strats, each with a minimum price tag of $1,000.

So with only a millimetre to go before I completely go arse over tea kettle, I manage to get the tele home and throw myself backwards off the stool away from the wall of guitars.

My fall was broken by a Matchless Avenger 2x12 combo. I landed on it on my back and rolled over on to the floor.

I look over and the pimply 17-year-old doing nothing but squealies and dive bombs on some Ibanez looks over and says, "Dude, are you okay?"

I mumbled something and scampered out, more embarrassed than I've been since I was an awkward teen.



There's also been the times when I turned on an amp without checking the master volume. I almost blew out the windows once with a Triple Rec.

[BrendanO]

Paid sticker price.

[Dickarms]

sold half my gear

[Yarbicus]

Worked.

[benjamin801]

sold half my gear

Paid sticker price.

Worked.

Oh, and here's mine. I already shared this in the "when we were n00bs" thread, but: I walked into a guitar store when I was 15 and started talking about Gibson Les Paul this and Gibson Les Paul that, trying to be a know-it-all, spouting off things I'd gathered from thumbing through the GP magazines at my school library. Only I was pronouncing "Les Paul" like a French word. The mullet heads behind the counter were totally snickering at me, and I didn't realize for weeks why that was.








Well fuck you, guitar store dudes. Guess who owns a Lay Paul now!

[Marc G]

Played Stairway....

[100 watt]

Was trying out a guitar thru some random amp, and this emo kid kept urning up loude & louder until it pissed me off.

Unplugged & walked up to a 2203 reissue fullstack, plugged in, let it warm up for a sec & dimed everything except the gain (12:00) and master (12:00) & went into the intro of "We dont get fooled again".

small store.

was asked to leave.

[Axe]

was asked to leave.

My friend always blasts it when he goes in -- on purpose -- to see how long until someone asks him to turn it down. They always groan when they see him come in.

Thing is, he's a monster player, so he always gets a crowd around him watching. They usually boo when he gets told to turn it down.

[ComOp]

I was in high school, it was a school day, but I talked my buddy with a car into taking me down to the music store to trade my old guitar in for this one I was drooling over. The little music shop I went to was a little mom and pop outfit. I was taking lessons there so we were all on a first name basis. I get in the store and the store owner is chatting with a guy who looks oddly familiar, but I didn't really put it together in my head, I was set on that guitar hanging on the wall. I walk up to the counter and talk to the shop's guitar tech, break out the guitar I am trading. The shop owner looks over and then brings the guy he was chatting with over with him as the tech and I work out a trade deal. As we finish up and I get my new axe, the store owner says to the guy he was chatting with, "Hey Jim, you probably know him, he is Chris D's kid."

I look at the guy and know right away I am in deep shit, sure enough it was one of my dad's coworkers. My friend with the car gets super smooth and blurts out, "Yeah, we had a minimum day today."

The store owner gets this look on his face like, LOL you dumbasses and then says, "Oh yeah, I guess it's a school day isn't it."

My dad's coworker just laughed and said, "I am not gonna say anything to your dad, relax."

Dad got home from work and yeah.... Fucking guy told him. Not only did I get fucked over on the parent front, but my parents called his parents too and my buddy got fucked over too.

[Axe]

My dad's coworker just laughed and said, "I am not gonna say anything to your dad, relax."

Dad got home from work and yeah.... Fucking guy told him. Not only did I get fucked over on the parent front, but my parents called his parents too and my buddy got fucked over too.

What a fucking asshole. Like it's any of his business.

[Dickarms]

i can see him blabbing, but not after he said he fucking wouldnt.
was the guitar worth it though?

[ComOp]

i can see him blabbing, but not after he said he fucking wouldnt.
was the guitar worth it though?

It was a Fender MIJ 1987 Contemporary Stratocaster, first version... The type 3 bridge (Kahler) with a single humbucker at the bridge... Loved it.

[theAntihero]

I went into a guitar center to try a Windsor when they first came out and there was like 4 kids doing volume wars with various metal songs, progressively getting louder and louder.

So i couldnt really hear myself and was getting a bit pissed, so turned up pretty loud and played Manic Depression, turns out playing 3/4 loudly kills the timing of everyone else in the store so they shut up.

A couple of the fathers that went with their kids were not happy with me.

[Harvest]

Not me myself, but I helped a friend load up his Slash Jubilee head & cab when we were about 19 and headed into the city to trade it for a Line 6 AX212 combo. Thankfully the music store only offered him $750 for both and we drove back home with the Marshall.

Myself, I dunno. I had a high G string break on a 12 string I was trying to tune up and it took a chunk outta the top on a $2000 Taylor 356. I actually don't spend much time at all at the music store.

[jamminjohn]

way ta go, op

[racerevlon]

Bought a Marshall TSL602. What a hunk of shit. Couldn't sell that bitch fast enough. My Spider Valve 212 sounds better (and has better speakers).

[VTM]

Wore white spandex while battling a case of random, explosive diarrhea.

[Elessar [Sly]]

Plugged into a Line 6....

[marshallnoise]

fap?

[DNW]

Nothing much.

Walked in to a place to just start looking around for a cheapie POS to just bash about with at home and fuck around with different tunings (seeing as all my guitars were Floyd'd 7s)... ended up spending I think $1700 or so.

As soon as I stepped outside my brain went, "... you fucking idiot."

[JimmyPaeg]

I don't do stupid things in music stores.

I did see an employee drop a CS Strat once though.

He sorta laughed it off and said 'that's why we have insurance'.

[Axe]

A local shop has a good collection of amps but NONE OF THEM are ever hooked up to the cabs they're sitting on. I can't tell you how many times I see kids trying to play through them and not being able to figure out why they make no sound. I can't imagine how many transformers that get blown there.

[Dickarms]

this. i see so many heads with power but no load at GC

[The Anomaly]

I took a shit in a GC once, that's about it. Nothing embarrassing, and I've been going to music stores since 1981.

[Devin]

Myself, I dunno. I had a high G string break on a 12 string I was trying to tune up and it took a chunk outta the top on a $2000 Taylor 356..

The fuck!?!


Stupidest thing I've ever done was sell my Peavey Prowler to GC for $50

I mean I only paid $200 for the thing in the first place but fuck that was an awesome amp. Still miss it sometimes.