Rant: maybe I should have taken up the guitar instead !

Jeremy Bender

Platinum Member
Here's the story: I go into a music store, walk past the guitars that are being tested on different amps and with different effects pedals (so the guys thinking about buying this new $1800.00 Gibson les paul can hear what it's possibilites are.) I think to myself: Hmmm...good idea.

I get to the drum section and first i find the instrument I've chosen to play with a cardboard sign on them saying DON'T PLAY. Now these drums cost twice what that Gibson did. I think to myself: Hmmm...maybe thay just don't want people to walk in and start bashing on these. Fair-enough.

I then introduce myself to the salesman and tell him that I am in fact a drummer here to audition some new instruments. I'm in the market for a nice sounding maple or bubinga shell kit. He says "OK...cool. here's some sticks" I then ask him for a drum key.This is when it starts to get weird. I said well it's not like a guitar or a piano where it's either in-tune or it's not. I'd like to hear the tuning ranges of these drums."Well we normally don't like to do that." I thought that was kinda odd.

I then ask him, "In adddition to a drum key, I'd like a couple of different heads to try on one of the toms, so I can hear the potential of these shells." He says "we never do that."

Now keep in mind, they will gladly let you plug any guitar into an amp while trying all kinds of effects with no problems. But if you're about to drop $3000.00 on a set of Yamaha maple customs absolutes or Tama bubinga starclassics, and you want to really hear what they can do, the salesman look at you like you're from another planet!

Needless to say I didn't buy any drums that day. With the current economy the way it is, I would think people would be standing at the front-door of businesses-hawking potential customers to come in and check out their products. I wonder if the major drum manufacturers know what their "authorized-retailers" are really doing to their bottom-line.

If I experience this again at a local store, I'll contact the various drum manufactures President and tell Him my experience and why I didn't purchase their product.

In the mean time I'm saving for Roland V-Drums. I know what they sound like from the internet and I can order them online. Sooo...no salesman to deal with and no commission to pay.
Thanks for being patient enough to read this long-winded rant...
 
I understand the frustration but I am not surprised they don't want to switch the heads (or let the customer switch the heads) just so someone can try them out. Do they let people put other strings on guitars when they try them out?
 
And store owners wonder why we don't support them and buy our goods online. If we can't hear them before we buy we might as well buy online and save some money. Using 80.00 worth of heads to try tuning may be asking a bit much but give me the drum key anyway so I can hear what the drums sound like. I think everyone should print out Jeremys letter here and put it in our pocket when we go to buy or try to buy drums. and then ask why can't we bang on the drums if they can play the guitars.
 
Yeah, that's a bummer.

You should go in and ask if you can play their V-Drums, then ask if you can change the heads. Then watch their reaction!
 
I think asking for different heads is way over the top.

They should let you hit them and maybe tune them but then you risk having to go retune the drums after every tom, dick, and harry tunes them all over the place and leaves them that way.

Your experience was not that bad,I have heard of much worse. Plus you say your saving for V-drums so you probably do not have the money to purchase right away,which I imagine a good salesman would be able to notice right off the bat.

I do not envy anyone who has to support themselves by selling musical instruments.
 
OK let me explain...I do have the money already for a high end kit and am in the market wich I would hope that keeps me out of the "every Tom, Dick and Harry" classification.

Secondly there obviously is no reason to change the heads on V-drums account the sound is altered in the drum module.

Thirdly, I really don't know if the stores allow customers to change the strings on guitars, I do know they're allowed to try them with an amp and effects. Try getting a store to let you play drums into a PA system ! (OK...even I think that would be over-the top).

But seriously, it is a business transaction after all, and there has to be some give and take. I take the time to listen to these drums; they give me the time and tools to do this; I in-turn give them thousands of dollars; they give me the drums.

Or...there's always other stores who need the money. It's like buying a car, you don't have to buy one today...but they have to sell them
 
*Maybe* if you brought in your own heads to swap out, they might let you try switching them out. I COMPLETELY understand why they're not willing to crack open a bunch of new heads just so some potential buyer can try them out on a kit. It's an expensive gamble!

Plus, if you re-tune the drums, there's the possibility that you might damage the heads, and even if you didn't, someone would have to re-tune the drums after you leave (or just leave them completely in a horrid tuning state, like Guitar Center...). The only time you can really get away with this kind of behavior is if you know the people that work at the store very well, and they know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are serious about the purchase...
 
The employees tend to treat everyone like they're just there to beat on the drums and leave, a quickie, if you will.
 
I would have probably behaved much of the same, if I were in his shoes. Just because you've got a fat roll in your pocket doesn't mean you're entitled to test out different heads and do whatever you'd like w/ their drums. We're talking about very expensive drums which they still need to try and sell, if you're not going to buy them in the end. Those heads need to sell too...and they're not worth anything to a retail store if they're used.

Contrast this with Guitar Center, which allows you to beat the hell out of the drums on the floor. The floor kits look terrible and the heads are destroyed. Big, greasy hand-prints everywhere, dings and dents all over the drums and hardware, big pits in the heads. I would *never* buy drums off the floor, from them.
 
Thirdly, I really don't know if the stores allow customers to change the strings on guitars,

generally - no they don't. There can be exceptions - if say it's a teaching shop and you are an advanced student moving up levels or if you have a relationship (ie you are a reliable repeat customer) and you a pretty far along in the purchasing process (and the instrument is expensive enough)
Though even there it's probably more common in say the classic[al] guitar specialty shop than your avg rock-n-roll electric guitar shop


I do know they're allowed to try them with an amp and effects.


that's more akin to try different modular system components such as a kick pedal or cymbal set or drum brain - as no individual module is being reconfigured (changing the action or strings on a guitar, retubing an amplifier or altering an effect through trimpots or component swaps etc)

[interesting note on guitars - they aren't really in tune or not]
 
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