Awesome guitar store story

[Charles]

I'm not entirely sure if this belongs here but it's worth a shot

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I wander into a guitar store and am met by a very nice sales representative who wants to know if there's anything in particular I'm looking for.

"Yeah, I was wondering what you guys had in the way of extended range guitars"

Guy looks at me, peers really hard, scratches his head and finally says

"I uh...am not familiar with that term. What is that?"

"Oh, you know, like seven strings, eight strings"

He finally sees the light and leads me over to an Ibanez RG Prestige 8, which I actually happened to like very much. As he hands it down to me, he also imparts some wisdom:

"You know, my son plays a seven string. He is very involved in metal music and stuff like that."

I see something on the other side of the store and decide to try my fortune

"Hey man, I'm gonna go check out that hollowbody over there real quick, would you mind tuning the eight string up for me real quick?"

Suddenly his face goes from being quite pleasant to something that can only be described as horror-stricken, as if I had pulled out and executed a chicken before his very eyes.

"Well you see, I uh..I don't know what notes I'm tuning to for ya here..."

"Oh?"

I look at him inquisitively

"Yeah um, I'm in an AC/DC cover band..."

It took everything within me to not just die with laughter right there.

When I started playing the guitar, he looked at me with further curiosity.

"You are not playing metal music!" he said with such conviction that I was worried it would hurt him

"Yeah this is 'All Blues' actually"

"Is that a band?"

Legendary...

[etcetera]

Hahaha, glorious. At least he was just bewildered, and didn't give you the dick treatment I expected.

[adb]

last time I went to Guitar Center to try out a 7 string the rep was wearing a Venom shirt

[edsped]

Well alright then.

[ArrowHead]

Wow, he tried to be supportive and honest, and your reaction is condescension. Cool story. Someday, 20 years from now, pray you're not that guy.

[gunshow86de]

[Alberto7]

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

Wow, he tried to be supportive and honest, and your reaction is condescension. Cool story. Someday, 20 years from now, pray you're not that guy.

This. It sounds like he was being nothing but helpful and honest; however a little ignorant, but an honest man, nonetheless.

[JamesM]

YOU SURE SHOWED HIM

[matt397]

Originally Posted by Charles

"Hey man, I'm gonna go check out that hollowbody over there real quick, would you mind tuning the eight string up for me real quick?"

I confused. Your fingers broken or somethin ? For christs sake, I've never picked up a guitar in a shop an had it be in tune, its the first thing I check an the first thing I do to a guitar Im checking out.
But yeah cool story, way to put that guy in his place !

[SirMyghin]

Originally Posted by Alberto7

This. It sounds like he was being nothing but helpful and honest; however a little ignorant, but an honest man, nonetheless.

Gotta agree here, instead of trying to perpetuate a better image for extended rangers (which would help eliminate stigma) you try to put him out of his area. I am sure that will do wonders for how he looks at people picking up those instruments.

[groph]

This is totally at OP's expense.

Funny story though, but yeah at least the sales rep wasn't all like



I HATE those people. Anybody who cringes when somebody suggests that a guitar can be tuned lower than Drop D needs to golf off, seriously. At least the guy directed you towards an 8 string. I guess by applying basic guitar tuning skills he could have tuned it just fine, but let's face it. 8 strings are in a tiny minority, so maybe he was thinking it was in a strange open tuning or something nonstandard. Maybe he didn't know what you wanted it tuned to?

[NovaReaper]

Here's a better guitar store story:

>Go to shop, trade in an old Les Paul doublecutaway (one of the really cheap ones) that i never play anymore
>Buy an Epiphone Sheraton II with the money from the other guitar
>Sales rep has same taste in guitars as me
>Talk about gear and jam for an hour and a half

No one was insulted in the process either. Wow huh?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

Wow, he tried to be supportive and honest, and your reaction is condescension. Cool story. Someday, 20 years from now, pray you're not that guy.

Wow, this was not at all the kind of backlash I was expecting.

I do not mean to bag on this guy for his lack of knowledge or for being a jerk (because he was a really nice), it's just the lines he chose to deliver and the timing of them (such as telling me he was in an AC/DC cover band as an explanation for not being able to tune the 8 string) were just comedy gold. Furthermore, his earnest and brow-furrowed references to "metal music" were something I thought everyone here would find commonly amusing as the metal community tends to fall under this realm of mystery for seemingly everyone outside of it.

Again, I'm sorry everyone here is so upset and thinks that I kept this man up late at night shaking his fist at "those extended range guitarists", but I think you're all interpreting this as a whole lot more malicious than it really was.

[CrownofWorms]

Cool story Bro

[LamaSabachthani]

Not so sure I see what was so malicious. Perhaps some of the commentary was a bit hyperbolic, but alas. Not as if he said 'this tool didn't know what I was talking about'.

I always like talking to the older guys at music stores. They usually have some interesting stories about how they managed to stay in retail for so long. Not that I'm trying to get down on them - I think it's cool that they enjoy music and guitars that much that they literally make it their life's work.

[SirMyghin]

Originally Posted by Charles

Wow, this was not at all the kind of backlash I was expecting.

I do not mean to bag on this guy for his lack of knowledge or for being a jerk (because he was a really nice), it's just the lines he chose to deliver and the timing of them (such as telling me he was in an AC/DC cover band as an explanation for not being able to tune the 8 string) were just comedy gold. Furthermore, his earnest and brow-furrowed references to "metal music" were something I thought everyone here would find commonly amusing as the metal community tends to fall under this realm of mystery for seemingly everyone outside of it.

Again, I'm sorry everyone here is so upset and thinks that I kept this man up late at night shaking his fist at "those extended range guitarists", but I think you're all interpreting this as a whole lot more malicious than it really was.

Just goes to show how hard it is to convey tone on the internet I suppose.

[theclap]

OMG the ending killed me! that was so epic that he not only didn't know how to tune a guitar, no knowledge in 2 realms of genres, metal and jazz. Was this a franchise store like sam ash or guitar center?