# Ever Know Any Scumbag Music Store Owners?



## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I have known a few. Complete dirtbags. How about you?


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

yeah , usually easy to spot ... and not just music stores


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## reckless toboggan (Mar 9, 2019)

Oh man. Absolutely.

*runs and makes popcorn.

This is gonna be an entertaining thread if people start telling stories.


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

you mean "absolutely pristine xxx guitar and yyy amp , only played by a little old lady in church on sundays"

or "highly modified by (insert name of choice here) " with cold solder joints and zip cord jumpers showing.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Nope but why do I get the feeling this is taking over from butterknucket's "discuss" threads.


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## vadsy (Dec 2, 2010)

Electraglide said:


> Nope but why do I get the feeling this is taking over from butterknucket's "discuss" threads.


nah, this is at least gear related


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## SG-Rocker (Dec 30, 2007)

I've been to a number of independent shops that never seem to move _any_ merchandise.
To the point where you can't help but wonder how they stay afloat.

For example, my hometown store still has a Gibson Robot SG and Marshall Vintage Modern head and cab.
Still listed at full MSRP.

Perhaps a thread about money laundering operations possibly masquerading as music stores?

There are Canadian stores on Reverb and Amazon that price their merch about 150% to 200% higher than MSRP.
There's no way they reel in enough suckers to stay afloat with those prices.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Several years ago I dug my gear out of storage and started playing again after a few years not playing at all. My old tube amp needed some minor attention so I took it to the only local music store in Orillia.

I asked the kid working there for a rough idea of the cost for a general cleaning of the guts and de oxit on some scratchy pots on my old Fender amp. I was quoted $150.

I left the amp there and after three weeks still no call that it was done. Eventually I happened to be nearby and stopped in and there’s my amp sitting in the corner. I wasn’t impressed. The owner happened to be here this time so I asked him what I owed him. After some humming and hawing and looking through papers, $275 plus tax. I explained to him I was quoted $150 and I never received any call saying it was going to be more. I asked why was it more? What else did they do other than a cleaning? We’re there pots or something that needed to be replaced? He ruffled through his papers again and said...I don’t know. Seriously? You charge me almost double and have ZERO explanation?

I paid...and never spent another penny there. I still go in and look when I happen to be nearby but I never buy so much as a pack of strings or a pick. I simply refuse to help keep him in business. The simple fact is, he saw me getting back into playing, I had a few bucks and decided to hose me. Sure he got his extra $125 but being so short sighted, missed out on the thousands I’ve spent elsewhere since.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I think I'm suppressing those memories and I plan to stay out of therapy, so...no.


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

I'm from the Sarnia area originally and there were a couple of dodgy ones back in the day. Haven't encountered any crooked ones in Toronto.


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## vokey design (Oct 24, 2006)

player99 said:


> I have known a few. Complete dirtbags. How about you?


I see you are in Ontario, KW area by any chance?


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

SG-Rocker said:


> Perhaps a thread about money laundering operations possibly masquerading as music stores?
> 
> There are Canadian stores on Reverb and Amazon that price their merch about 150% to 200% higher than MSRP.
> There's no way they reel in enough suckers to stay afloat with those prices.


The turn over is too slow and obvious for money laundering in music stores. As far as the stores on Amazon and Reverb go, seems they're still there so someone must be buying at their prices.


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## Guncho (Jun 16, 2015)

JBFairthorne said:


> Several years ago I dug my gear out of storage and started playing again after a few years not playing at all. My old tube amp needed some minor attention so I took it to the only local music store in Orillia.
> 
> I asked the kid working there for a rough idea of the cost for a general cleaning of the guts and de oxit on some scratchy pots on my old Fender amp. I was quoted $150.
> 
> ...


Or more likely the repair actually cost that much but they neglected to contact you when they realized it was going to cost more than the estimate.

So bad customer service not fraud.


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

There were quite a few in Montreal when I was growing up-Jack's Music comes to mind


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## DaddyDog (Apr 21, 2017)

Is it against forum rules to name them? A formerly large store in Mississauga comes to mind.


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

Jack's Music is long gone


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## Merlin (Feb 23, 2009)

A certain store on L.A.keshore in Mississauga comes to mind...


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

I've talked about it before, but there's at least 1 dodgy gear shop owner in the GTA. Somehow they have a loyal following, and the dodgyness has evolved over the years in terms of the biz model adapting to the online era. Still a dick tho. Possibly even more so.

Back in the day they just banked on being the only store with a given rare (on the market in TO) guitar/bass so would have haggard e.g. (what I was looking at at the time) vintage Gibson basses for 150% of the going rate for a a closet classic. They moved them on the premise that when a touring band came through and had their vintage Thunderbird stolen or broken, theirs was the only one readily available for the gig. It might sit there a year but it would happen eventually. Considering the shape this particular example I recall was in (looked like it was keyed across the front with a power drill for starters; bridge moved - common mod for intonation with the original treble-side post hole unfilled and eroding at the edges) I wouldn't be surprised if they'd been offsetting the locked up capital by renting it out in the meantime.

A decade later I contacted a kijiji seller who turned out to be this same store about an amp head. I was calling to see if I could check it out , booked a time (was in storage- had to get it) and planned to bargain the price down because it was a bit high. 5 min after I got off the phone with the jr clerk the owner called me back to advise me they were revising the price. I asked in which direction (like what are the chances, right ) - he said upwards. I told him what I thought of that and hung up. The next week I saw he listed that amp on Reverb for double his former (already inflated) sticker price. Meanwhile I scored the same head a month later on Reverb, shipped to me from the city of manufacture for an all in (brokerage etc) price less than his original ask (not much but still). 2 years later the guys's reverb ad was still up. ...LOL still there right now (the price appears to have come down a tad - still over 1k more than original kijiji ask tho) while I've had my amp now , like what, 6 years? In that time I have bought (locally), fixed, and flipped (locally) the half power version of that same head for 1/4 of that price, which is about 5/8 what I paid for the big one.

Incidentally, that smaller amp (which was great - sounded better than the bigger one - esp the tremelo - kinda wish I had kept it and sold the bigger one sometimes) was bought by a guy who had it modified by some hot local tech to be more Marshally (a shame as it sounded great, just not Marshally at all and are not common around here - like just get a Marshall if that's what you want; there's enough of them around... or if you have to Mod and want a more robust build, a Traynor at least), and then tried to flip it for not quite double what he bought it from me for, AND tried to justify the price using (not only the name tech's mods) but also the repair work I did before he bought it (fuse holder and multi-cap can replacment; forget what else - so hilarious not just bc took credit for my work, but also it was work that doesn't cost that much and wouldn't normally affect price except maybe in a downward direction cuz not original) . I LOLed.

.... hmmn, maybe I should replace the original cap can on my bigger one - wonder if that would make it sound as good as the smaller one. I know the power in my studio is dirty as hell; the ripple must be epic.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Guncho said:


> Or more likely the repair actually cost that much but they neglected to contact you when they realized it was going to cost more than the estimate.
> 
> So bad customer service not fraud.


Perhaps. That doesn’t explain away the fact that he had no idea why it was almost double what I was quoted. Any respectable store owner would have at the very least eaten his profit and discounted the end price to some degree. Frankly, I’ve spoken with the guy in passing several times and he’s kind of a dick.


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## High/Deaf (Aug 19, 2009)

Scumbag owners? Shit, that's too easy. 

How about good guy owners? That's a challenge. I'm old enough to remember a few of those. I'd start with Gordie Brandt. But, in the world of 'Made with China', max profit at minimum cost, don't support local and buy in the States and ship it to the border, they are all probably long gone. Yeah Canada!


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## oldjoat (Apr 4, 2019)

JBFairthorne said:


> That doesn’t explain away the fact that he had no idea why it was almost double what I was quoted.


today , all ontario businesses have to give a written estimate ... and can't charge more than 10% above it without written consent ... 
no consent = here's your quote plus 10 % and thank you for doing the rest for free.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

There was a music shop in Thornhill used to lend us stuff like Les Pauls and Twins. They loaned me a 56 Gold Top for a couple of weeks and the dude said you need to buy this guitar. They wanted 1,200 but probably would have sold it for a grand; I was short of pots to piss in at the time so couldn't buy the guitar - too bad.

Another place I traded an amp for a new Ovation electric Baladeer with case way back when Ovations were all there was for electric acoustic; they wanted some cash in addition to the amp so I said well I got a shot gun in the back of my car how about adding that - owner of the store looked at the gun and said yeah OK.

More recently, Mojo Music turned out to be a good place to deal with and I like Cosmo been going there since the store was on Main Street Richmond Hill. 

So really no complaints about music stores.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Only music store owner I ever got to know was a great guy. Ran the place with his wife, little store right in the heart of downtown Edmonton. He had a band, played weddings and dances all the time. (no DJ's back then). Didn't get rich, but made a living at it, raised a family on it. I worked for him for a while, so I was in the store a lot. Never saw him fvck anybody over. They don't make people like that anymore.


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## jayoldschool (Sep 12, 2013)

Can't believe we've made it this far without bringing up the store on St. Laurent in Ottawa...


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

jayoldschool said:


> Can't believe we've made it this far without bringing up the store on St. Laurent in Ottawa...


OUT~!!!!!!!


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## SG-Rocker (Dec 30, 2007)

jayoldschool said:


> Can't believe we've made it this far without bringing up the store on St. Laurent in Ottawa...


I refer to my earlier post.


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

That store on St Laurent in Ottawa is apparently closing


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

My son is living very near there. Place certainly looks closed, but I didn't check closely.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I know a scumbag that is located in a town with lots of rural area around. Old folks come in with beautiful old guitars (Martin, Gibson etc.) for minor repairs or a string change. They will leave with a nice new piece of crap guitar and the owner just tricked them out of their valuable guitar. "You don't want that old thing, here's a nice new guitar I'll trade you for it". For a while he sold electronics and he might throw in a crappy flat screen TV.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

player99 said:


> I know a scumbag that is located in a town with lots of rural area around.


Miranda Lambert has the exact same story.


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## jimmythegeek (Apr 17, 2012)

Is that s


rollingdam said:


> That store on St Laurent in Ottawa is apparently closing


Is this the one full of Chinese knockoffs that has signs forbidding taking photos?


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

jimmythegeek said:


> Is that s
> 
> Is this the one full of Chinese knockoffs that has signs forbidding taking photos?


I thought he closed last year? He is the guitar Nazi. No guitars for you. OUT!!!!!!


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

jimmythegeek said:


> Is that s
> 
> Is this the one full of Chinese knockoffs that has signs forbidding taking photos?


It is legendary. People travel from far and wide to experience the "deals" and the unique approach to sales and customer service.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

jbealsmusic said:


> It is legendary. People travel from far and wide to experience the "deals" and the unique approach to sales and customer service.


I saw one on Kijiji, did a background check on the "brand." Some people were rather unhappy about a variety of things.


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## SG-Rocker (Dec 30, 2007)

Doug Gifford said:


> I saw one on Kijiji, did a background check on the "brand." Some people were rather unhappy about a variety of things.


Was that the ad for the TCM amp head ?

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk


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## jbealsmusic (Feb 12, 2014)

SG-Rocker said:


> Was that the ad for the TCM amp head ?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk


TCM, Intec (sp?), and a few others came from that store. I don't remember all the names, but there were a few.


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

TCM= Truglia Continental Music Intex Baron Sunrise 

I don't think he is nuts-just a very bitter man whose original store was forced into bankruptcy by investing in commercial real estate before the economy tanked. He also insisted on selling full size acoustic pianos when no one was buying them.


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

SG-Rocker said:


> Was that the ad for the TCM amp head ?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk


It was, iirc, for a Baron 335 guitar. I checked online and didn't pursue it.


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

Scumbag made some fantastic speakers for a while, until he succumbed to public opinion & rebranded as Scumback

I think I still have a SCUMBAG hat, wore it proudly

thanks Jim!!


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I knew a store that was known for selling 'fake' guitars (kit guitars with decals put on the headstocks). Obviously anyone who knew what they were doing could spot them, but not everyone can. 

They also had a reputation for selling stolen guitars.


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