Guitar Center — Local services in Middleton

Only just beginning my experience of choosing and purchasing a new electric guitar, I couldn't have been happier going into Guitar Center for the first time. Gorgeous establishment set in a nice little shopping area. Although pretty far from my place in downtown Madison, the Uber costs to get out there and back have been completely worth it. I have now been back three times in the last 3 weeks, so I feel ready to comment.

My first trip out, I had the pleasure of meeting Kyle, a self-proclaimed Ibanez fanboy who completely understood both why I was buying a guitar, and what type of music I wanted to play. We gushed over the greats like Malmsteen and Vai, and he steered me into the Ibanez family with a lot of introductory info and an emphasis that it was about having fun with the instrument, not reaching a particular destination. Although I didn't buy any of the guitars on site that day, as I left he commented "Good luck on your quest!" No employee gets told to make customers feel like a badass, but man, he absolutely nailed it.

My next visit, I arrived with a newly bought Ibanez RG450DX (a far better model of guitar than I have the skill to rightfully own), and was greeted by Sam, a friendly drummer who had no qualms setting up my new gear, ensuring the tremolo angle and other assorted parts were in check. She was thoughtful and informative, helping me stumble my way through the new terminology without ever making me feel inferior or stupid. An absolute delight to work with.

Now, my third time was my worst experience, but for very distinct reasons. I broke a string very soon after Sam's diligent tuning and setting up, so with some trepidation I went back not two days later to have it restrung. The guy who helped me did not have a name tag, which only became noticeable after I realized that he was doing a very poor job with my guitar. I only needed one string replaced, but he didn't seem to know how to unlock the old string to insert the new. He was sullen and pretty quiet, not explaining what he was trying to do, while jabbing and prodding with different hex screws seemingly at random. This made me extremely nervous; I've no problem handing shiny new equipment over to someone who knows what they're doing, but he literally just stood there for a good 10 minutes as I watched, without recourse to any of the other myriad employees standing around the store. Finally, he actually pulls out his cell phone to look up a YouTube video of how to change the string. This was probably the most appalling thing I've seen someone do on their job in a while - not because he necessarily should have known how to do it, but that he thought the best solution was to do exactly what a layman like me would do at home. Why am I travelling all the way there if that's the level of skill I can expect? I even commented after 15 minutes of awkwardly watching and waiting, "Umm, is there anyone else here who may know how to unlock the string?"

In the end, after 20 minutes he finally went to ask Jozy, the store manager. In less than 10 seconds, Jozy had unlocked the string and explained exactly how to do so. An affable fellow and skilled guitarist, Jozy redeemed the trip by giving my guitar some expert treatment and chatting with me for the next half-hour as he did so. It was a good ending to an unfortunate waste of time, and I left feeling better - but knowing I should just learn how to do these things myself from now on.

All told, this is the best place to go for musical gear and a (mostly) knowledgeable and very fun staff (special shoutout to Alex - who while only briefly helping me check out, still managed to make me feel like I belonged there). I would absolutely come back again, and want to thank everyone mentioned for all of their help....

I have just had the worst experience in GC. I had a lot, good ones and not so good but in all the cases I just don’t understand why you end loosing a lot of time every time you make business with them. This is something that happens with all GC’s, so I would like to clarify that what I’m posting next could have happen at any Guitar Center store. I’ve bought a used Ludwig hand hammered bronce snare by the web page. It was listed as “excellent condition”(the pictures seemed to reflect that and algo it has diecast hoops) and that included a case. When I went to this store to order it, I asked Steve (he was awesome btw) if he could call the store where the snare was and confirm with them if the case was included and if the snare was in the “excellent condition” that the listing said. They told me that the case wasn’t anymore included but the snare was great, so Steve figured out with the store manager to get me a soft case with the snare. All up to here was great. When the snare arrives and I get it out from the box in the store, I noticed that somebody messed with it by changing the hoop, they said “Taiwan”, when everyone knows that Ludwig is made in the United States (also the add said it). Also the hoops had some rust on them, pretty “excellent condition”, right? So I decided to get a refund from GC... and here we go again. All the process is so slow and bureaucratic that you feel like your are being punished for returning an item... yes, for returning an item that they messed up in the first place. I paid cash, but due to GC politics they always make the refunds in a cheque. The ball is always on their side of the field... Now I have the cheque that I have to wait more that an hour, without the sum of the shipping because they forgot to put it on it... once again waiting long time for $10, so I decided to buy something with that money because I was to tired of waiting. I go to Wells Fargo to cash the cheque and they start verifying at the phone with GC so they can give me the money... GC told the bank not to pay me and that I should go back to the store. Back to the store I spoke to Logan, the manager, he spokes with the bank and tell me to go again there. Back again to the bank, verification process again, waiting again. Got the cash. Of course - $7 cashing fee...

It’s pity because GC has good deals on used items, but I’m not going to make business again with them. All the process it’s very denigrating although if the customer is always “&...

The number of 4-5 star reviews is insane. The only redeeming quality this store has is the really nice and chill employees, which is probably enough to get it reviewed well by people who don't know any better. Here's the issue: The state of the equipment.

Every guitar I tried was either broken in some way or filthy. When I say filthy, I mean the amount of dust and dead skin cells caught in the pickups and bridges of the guitars was insane. There was grime, grease, and dust all over EVERY guitar I picked up. I understand cheaper guitars or even used gear that has seen its fair share of play, but even the brand new $1.5k+ guitars were filthy or in disarray. There was an American Pro II Strat I tried that had razor-sharp frets and janky switches. There was a PRS S2 custom 24 that had janky pots that were scratching. Another Strat with frets that were so dirty that the nickel was gold and cruddy. The rosewood fingerboards were so dry, you would think we lived in Arizona. I was considering buying a guitar with a budget of $2k. If I had bought one of those guitars, it would have cost me almost $200-300 to get those guitars back in playing condition. Unfortunately, this is part of the reason why no one takes GC seriously as a reliable store anymore. No semi-serious musician would ever consider buying a guitar here, getting anything fixed, or even buying strings for that matter.

The only redeeming quality of this place was the floor sales guys. They all seemed genuinely interested in getting people into music, which is the most important thing. All the other stuff can be fixed, but good employees are hard to come by.

Hire someone to come and take care of the instruments; it...