Old topic, dead horse, etc. alert.
I have been in different Guitar Centers maybe 4 times in my life, all 58 years of it. This past weekend I was on a business trip to City Of Industry and visited the Glendora store in an attempt to play some mandolins.
On my way to the acoustic room, I passed an Ibanez electric guitar that caught my eye because the lower bout was cracked and the plys of the top exposed. It was also missing the switch tip and 3 knobs and the binding was deformed; it was a hot mess and "scratch and dent" priced at $399. Two guitars down was a brand new one also priced at $399. So, yeah, retail and stuff.
Onto acoustic room and ALL the mandolins in stock:
#1) a shiny Loar F ($599) that was unplayable/untunable (open strings OK, 3rd fret and above not OK and vice versa).
#2) a less fancy Loar F that was unplayable because the price tag holder was woven in between strings and nut
#3) a Mitchell A that I choose not to play after hearing it
So, if you live somewhere where you can try before you buy a mandolin, count yourself lucky.
Bookmarks