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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Less than 5 minutes from my local Guitar Center is a store that is as opposite as can be yet sells the same type of product. I am posting their website below if you have a few minutes to surf it. Check out the "The Store" photos and see the varity of electric and acustics. The "View Online Catalog" section has pictures of guitars that cost 20k. Perhaps this will generate a discussion on how we shop for and purchase our guitars or what we want from a music store.
The Guitar Centers have their place and have moved lots of product for the factorys. I just think it is interesting that just a short distance away, an "old school" store seems to be doing just fine.
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Brad |
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Posts: 171
Location: Indiana | That's a nice store, Brad. You can tell music isn't just their business, it is their passion. It would also appear that they have someone who is pretty good with helping them build and maintain a nice website which also says a lot to me. It takes some effort to do that.
The Indy area where I am from is much the same way. A huge Mars store recently went out of business. (I never really did like the atmosphere there...it felt too much like a "superstore") while a small, locally owned IRC music center down the street continues to thrive. They take care of their customers. There are also a couple of stores that specialize in violins and other stringed instruments that have that old world feel to them when you walk in. Quality instruments and quality service are very important to them.
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Location: SE Michigan | I have been to both the stores you are talking about and Hueber Breeze is miles ahead of the Roseville GC. Sometimes I would rather eat worms than go to GC, but the sad truth is that they have tons of products and often times it is either buy it a GC or order it on-line and wait. When I am forced to go to GC I usually bolt right through the electric-amp section and make a bee-line for the acoustic room. I dont feel comfortable with a bunch of 15 year olds torturing Asian copy guitars through outragously over-powered amps. I almost bought an Adamas CVT from them last year but they could not find the battey holder. They seemed surprised I was even interested in the Adamas.
I like the Aucoustic Room at Hueber, seems like they take much better care of their guitars and the people are great. However last time I was there I played some high-end Gibson acoustics (some over $3000) and it was sad to see such dirty nasty-old rusted out strings on such beautiful guitars. I would think a $3000 guitar deserves a fresh set of strings every few months whether it's sold or not.
I hear the Holy Shrine of Guitar stores in our area is Elderly Music in Lansing. Their web site is great and all the people on various message boards rave about them. Soon as I save enough for my next guitar I am taking a drive out there. |
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Location: south east Michigan | "15 year olds torturing asian copy guitars on over powered amps"
I could not have said it better.
Perhaps there are alot of HuberBreese type stores around that I just don't know about.
Brad
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Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | I HAVE to weigh in on this, since my Adamas Melissa Etheridge 12-string came from Huber & Breese!!!!
Yes, it is a far cry from GC. I only frequent our local one any more because I can feed my desire to try out Ovations on the way home from work. I do my best to ignore the 15-year-olds torturing cheap electrics at volume setting 11.
The ONLY time I've ever been to Huber and Breese is when we bought my 12-string. It is on the complete other side of the metropolitan Detroit area from me. But I am saving my pennies and nickels and twentys to buy a U.S.-made Ovation 6-string and it may well be bought from Huber & Breese. Even if I have to order it, so what????
Yes, my 12-string had corroded strings on it when I bought it...but I figure on that, and they gave me a new set of Elixirs for it, no complaint at all. The battery for the tuner was dead, too(didn't try to tune it there---and the guitar was built in Sept.-Oct. 2001, it had been there a while). It was still WAY, WAY better than GC.
And....Elderly Instruments in Lansing....WELL worth the trip...I've bought 2 guitars there, my CC01 and an Epi Les Paul...pleasant atmosphere, pleasant people, lots and lots of stock, and they don't mind at all if you play them. It's in an old 2-story I.O.O.F home in the Old Town section of Lansing, about 8 blocks north of the state capitol, just on the west side of the river that goes through town. The parking lot in back is sheltered by trees beside the river.
I will warn you, the place looks and is OLD. Kinda funky. That's a part of its charm.
Elderly will be under consideration for when I buy my 6-string, but if they don't have EXACTLY what I want, I will go to Huber and Breese, and if they don't have it, I will order from them. They appear to be cheaper than Elderly.
Roger
1976 Applause AA14-4 6-String
2001 Adamas 1598-MERB Melissa Etheridge 12-String
2003 Celebrity CC01 Spruce Top 6-String |
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Location: south east Michigan | Roger,
I did not think it would take long for you to chime in on this. Did you know that the Guitar Center was that close to Huber-Breese? What do you think about them being able to co-exist?
By the way...I had to make a sales call at Haggerty & Van Born roads last thursday.
Brad
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Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Looks like you have some nice stores to check out in that area. Huber Breese is far from a ma-pa operation, and I'm sure they do a huge buisness on the net (note their website is their inventory pages from www.gBase.com).
Around here, the only stores besides the "big box" stores that survive, are the stores that are part of the scenery, institutions in the area if you will. Even they had to go online full bore and provide other kinds of services not available at the GC's and MF's of the world. |
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Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | I think there is room for both Huber-Breese and GC....I don't know where the Roseville GC is without getting the address and looking it up on Yahoo....it wouldn't have mattered if I had known it was there, I already knew I didn't want to buy my 12-string at GC.
Actually, I was looking for a Balladeer 12-string when we went to Huber & Breese....I had already found one at Marshall Music in Allen Park, but was looking for one a little cheaper if I could find it. All H&B had for Ovation 12-strings was a Celebrity Deluxe, which I wouldn't even bother to play, and the Adamas ME I bought. We wouldn't have even considered it except the salesman came back with a stupendous price(it HAD been sitting there 2 years).
GC's market is people who want to buy at a "big box store" like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc., which have a lot of choice and are supposedly cheap. I'm broken of that for buying guitars. I prefer to play before I buy, although with dealers like Huber & Breese, Elderly and our friendly moderator Al, I would forego that, because you know you are going to get support after the sale if there is a problem. I've never played a U.S.-made Ovation mid- or deep-bowl that I thought sounded bad, anyway.
Huber and Breese is more of an enthusiast's store. When my wife and I walked in on a Saturday afternoon, there were a couple of guys plugged in, one playing blues, another tormenting "Dust In The Wind". A nice ambience. Gibson Custom Shop guitars on display(behind the counter and I don't blame them), and a pleasant atmosphere in the acoustic room.
I buy strings and books at GC, but little else.
Brad, you were 2-3 miles south of where I live....Lilley and Ford....but I work in Dearborn!
Roger
1976 Applause AA14-4 6-String
2001 Adamas 1598-MERB Melissa Etheridge 12-String
2003 Celebrity CC01 Spruce Top 6-String |
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Location: south east Michigan | I wonder. Do the local grown stores compete price wise with a big box stores? Or does Guitar Centers buying power give them a huge volume discount? On an $800 instrument a difference of $70 is not a factor if there are other conciderations. But $170 might make a difference.
Roger....I'm glad you found what you were looking for at such a good deal. It was one of those "planets are aligned" situations. On the downside, I bet Huber-Breese will think twice before putting a simular high end Ovation into their inventory.
Brad
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Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Brad, I'm sure that Huber & Breese won't bother to stock any more Adamas guitars after having the ME 12-string sit there for 2 years. This is why I may go elsewhere if I decide to get an Adamas 6-string, I would have to order it for sure.
Elderly Instruments' Ovation stock doesn't move a whole lot faster....I check their website every other day(watching for nice used Os), and their Adamas guitars pretty much sit.
GC's buying power gets them a better price, but then they try to gouge you by charging you for the case that should come WITH the guitar!!!
I priced out the Balladeer 12-string at Marshall Music, and it was a price without case. OK, they were up front about it....I looked at the price at our local GC (they have FOUR Balladeer 12-strings now), and it is $42 HIGHER, and they hide the fact that they don't give you the case with it! Plus, the price is almost exactly what you can get it for online(often with the factory hardshell case)! They're hoping that you will think, WOW, the same price as online...THEN they sock you with "Do you want a case with that?" after you say you'll take it.
I priced out a S771 Balladeer 6-string (they had one in the new burst finish) with original hard case at Huber & Breese the same day we bought the 12-string, and it was the same price as the guitar at GC WITHOUT the case and cheaper than the same at Elderly....so you know where I'll try first. |
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Location: south east Michigan | Your experience will be helpful to me this spring. With any luck I will buy my first Ovation in 32 years.
When the time comes, I hope I can run across an upgrade like you found.
Brad |
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The anti-Guitar Center
