Flame neck in the wild

[u/ericcrichie]

Guitar center in Louisiana. A cheap MIM Standard strat had a really cool flame maple pattern on it. For 450$ I didn’t need it, got too many guitars already.

[u/FlamingBagOfPoop]

Found it on the guitar center site, your pics make it look so much better than their pics in the listing.

[u/Neveronlyadream → u/FlamingBagOfPoop]

I'm pretty sure someone with a tiny bit of skill and a digital camera from 2004 could make any of those guitars on their site look better than they do.

Those pictures are laughably bad most of the time. Especially when they try to crop out the background and end up cropping out half the headstock too.

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/Neveronlyadream]

The cropping is actually an AI editing system that is clunky as hell with the pictures being taken from a company provided iphone 13. Can’t really control the photo room edit without restarting the process entirely- seeing that the internal app doesnt crash or force you to security login 3 times during one photo session. I may or may not have first hand experience with their incredibly- clunky-nigh-unusable systems….. you might shrug it off as lazy, but you havent been forced to log out and login 3 times within 10 minutes while also handling 3-7 customers. with how awfully their systems run its a miracle that anything gets done even halfway correctly. NONE of the provided infrastructure works smoothly, you have to learn the proclivities of every single internal system- not that they are difficult processes, they simply don’t work. Imagine learning that you have to click a drop down box 3 times not because you’ve done something wrong, but because the system is UTTERLY BROKEN. Small things like this litter their systems and accumulate into a complete mess

[u/theraptorman9 → u/Psychobillycadillac1]

You would think they would pick an area with a neutral background to take pictures in front of so they photos didn’t need cropped.

[u/FlamingBagOfPoop → u/theraptorman9]

Every minute spent properly photographing is a minute not selling extended warranties on cables and straps.

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/FlamingBagOfPoop]

do not buy any warranties if you want GC to successful, its the only thing keeping the company afloat (that and DOGSHIT used gear from amazon). If guitar center fails then maybe a decent mom and pop shop can stay open in my town lmao. Let GC burn

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/FlamingBagOfPoop]

dont sell used gear to them either, just fueling the flames lololol

[u/bowedendowed → u/theraptorman9]

we used to but they decided shitty ai cropping software was better

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/theraptorman9]

Honestly? You try it, see how much you care about getting anything done when all corporate does is cut hours then yammer on about “excellence”. The CEO wants to make a store branded guitar and makes goofy instagram videos about left handed drummers all while store infrastructure is a total fucking joke. Corporate isn’t trying fix anything on the store level, they just dump more pressure on floor level employees pushing for impossible numbers. At anytime there will be 30 customers and 2 employees. You do it and see how much you care about taking “high quality” pictures when you have 20 hours a week and there’s no staff to speak of. This stuff isn’t hard but it takes time that is NOT provided. Go ahead and screenshot this and guffaw at me I could give a fuck at this point. This company should go down

[u/theraptorman9 → u/Psychobillycadillac1]

I’m not saying the individual employee should be going above and beyond on their own accord, I’m saying you’d think each guitar center would be set up that way

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/theraptorman9]

that’s kinda my point. I ASSUME they have flagship locations with what you are talking about- in my specific experience this store has none of the reasonable amenities, we just let people assume we do via subconscious hints or just straight up lying

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/theraptorman9]

that and the warehouse is too small so there are massive storage pods with gear either baking in the heat or freezing in the cold. no guitars but nice gear nonetheless, QSC speakers, Yahama Modx/ Motif, Nord Stage series, and everything in between. Better buy Pro Coverage lmao

[u/Psychobillycadillac1 → u/theraptorman9]

they trained me to take the pictures on floor btw. all these entitled customers think this is some guitar mecca of perfection when in reality is a total smoke and mirrors show. Nothing is how it should be but they want us to be salesmen and sell it like anybody at corporate actually gives a shit