Guitar Center

First, let me say say that my experience here, which was absolutely excellent, was due to the exceptional service provided by Chris. He is a genuine professional and absolutely attentive to your particular needs. In my case, I visited for the purpose of looking at amps for my newly acquired electric guitar. Because my experience with guitars was limited to acoustics, I did not have the language to express exactly what I desired in an amp, for this was my first purchase. Chris was very enthusiastic to help me, so much so that he took the time to walk away from what he was working on to show me exactly how each amp differs from the other. What I found particularly impressive was that Chris recommended I seriously consider the Fender Mustang (which was around a mere $ 100), in that I am a beginner and that I am still in the stage of evaluating my interest in electric guitars. I was very impressed by this recommendation, for it spoke of a genuine recommendation free of commission or any other thing that detracts from my genuine needs. Chris was more interested in making sure he provided me with proper guidance than he was in selling me any single thing. As a salesman by trade, I can appreciate this greatly. I told Chris that I would like to view options above the Mustang model, which he was happy to do. He took a considerable amount of time explaining to me precisely the options they offered and was sure to evaluate their appropriateness based on my needs, which includes future, unrealized progress and needs for options that I cannot fully appreciate at the moment. We ended up discussing the Fender Champion 100 at length, and I chose to buy it. Chris was super cool in terms of conversation during the transaction, which was important to me in that it added to my experience and memory of buying my first amp. Chris saw that I was carrying my 18 month old kid and insisted on helping me transport the amp to my car, despite the fact that there were other customers in the store. Chris was very polite in telling the customers that he’d be with them right away, but that he needed to assist me in light of my hands being full. The customers, naturally, were very receptive to Chris’ service and smiled. Though I live in Williamsburg, which is about one hour away, I will absolutely, positively drive to this location for all my guitar needs.

I generally limit my visits to Guitar Center to when I need a consumable item (string, picks, etc) at 8pm on weekday. For those things, Guitar Center is fine.
Most notably, I was in the market for a bass guitar and was cruising around to the various stores. I was actually looking for a jetglo Rickenbacker 4003… strangely enough, this location had a USED one. It was priced appropriately based on its visual appearance, but when I got near it, I noticed that it smelled like a smoker’s jacket. I informed the sales associate and then made an appropriate cash offer. He declined. I bumped up, he declined. So I left.
Upon returning a week later, the guitar was priced at just below my second offer. I bought it. No-​haggle policy is perfectly acceptable for new gear, but not used… it’s best to keep that inventory moving.
There are better places to go to find unique/​vintage/​used instruments. I guess I just (kind of) lucked out on this one.

Nice selection, the manager there, Kevin, personally helped me pick out a guitar book and had a lot of knowledge about which ones would best suit my needs! Super nice!

Everything you would ever need to play music and they let you touch everything! Very knowledgeable staff.

Not too many choices these days in Richmond for musicians other than online shopping. I still prefer to haul it to the west end and visit Guitar Center with ANYTHING I could possibly need from bass strings, instrument cables, DJ equipment, lights etc. The staff is always friendly and USUALLY knows more than me about most things. Compared to the mess of a music company next door with perhaps the worst customer service in town, GC gets all my future business.