RE: OT: Warning! Musician's Friend Warning!

["Jonathan@full-moon.com" <Jonathan@full-moon.com>]

Too bad to hear your pain Mark.

Especially when it comes at a part of life so close to my heart - You can 
take my girfriends away, burn down my house, let loose wolves to chase me 
naked into the long cold night; as long as a shiny new toy is in the mail, 
that I got a real deal on and is guaranteed to make me a rock star, 
everything will be ok.

> Sorry-I had to interrupt-How about Alto Music?I can personally guarantee 
you
> a better price and better service.I'm sure plenty on this list can vouch 
for
> us.Email-altomusic@altomusic.com.The next time you need gear try
> us.....BTW-Repeaters and echoplexes are not on the too distant 
horizon-Soon!
> I promise!-Jon from Alto

Yup, I'll vouch for them. They know what they are doing, and are always 
looking to get you what they need, not make a sale. Anything new, I've 
bought from them, since the echoplex group buy.

As far as good bay area shops, 'Computers and Music' in San Francisco 
doesn't get good marks. They don't know their equipment and they won't 
bother themselves to set equipment up for you to demo. They also tried to 
sell me gear by quoting a whole load of rather imaginary features that 
they 
misread off the back of the product pamphlet; I don't want to pay extra to 
a local shop just for the privelege of educating their staff.

Starving musician in Sunnyvale isn't bad, but they trade mostly in used 
gear; of which there is a better choice on the internet. They will rent a 
lot of stuff (I'm not sure if they will rent all of their used inventory) 
- 
pretty good if you suddenly need to record vocals or something and don't 
have the rig for it. The staff seem to know what their doing, as far as my 
interactions with them.

There's a store in Redwood city, on El Camino, whose name is on the tip of 
my tongue (Gerbers? something with a G :>). They have a good selection of 
gear, and usually mark stuff down at the register. The staff aren't that 
knowledgeable, at least in the keyboard department. However, they are not 
working on commision, which makes their life, and ours, easier.

There's a store called Draper's in Palo Alto, just down the street from 
me. 
Not as wide a selection as the place in Redwood city. I haven't bought 
anything them; they are more one the 'musical toy store' category - lots 
of 
beginners guitar sets on sale and the like. They have some nice custom 
guitars and basses in the corner too. I tried out the Hand-sonic there, 
which we discussed a while ago, and I decided wasn't for me.

>Last Friday I was told that if the "trace" didn't turn up something by
>yesterday, they would just send me another one, next day, at no extra 
charge.
>Yesterday I was told that the item was no longer in stock, and the trace 
might
>take weeks.  They refuse to cancel the order and refund my money.  They 
refuse
>to sell me a GR-33 at a discount.  After speaking to another FedEx rep 
today, I
>find that still no trace has been put on this order.
>

I would do a chargeback under these circumstances on principle. That, or 
small claims court.

>Finally I get an email telling me that they are sending me a GR-30 and I 
should
>receive it tomorrow.  Were they out of stock?  Are they really sending it?
>Good question.  Oh, and get this: They are now out of the GK-2 pick up, 
>so 
my
>synth will be useless.

Ouch. Insult added to injury. Still, a gk-2a pickup should not be hard to 
find

Good luck Mark, maybe I'll see you next Sunday?

bIz



On Tuesday, December 05, 2000 6:59 PM, JHKNICKS@aol.com 
[SMTP:JHKNICKS@aol.com] wrote: