what e-stores have you bought from?...good and bad

distortedrumble

distortedrumble

all up in yo grill!
so far i know of:
www.zzounds.com/a--2676837
www.newegg.com
www.musiciansfriend.com which is in bed with the guitar center so they're pretty much one in the same

www.americanmusical.com
www.jandr.com
www.sweetwater.com

i know theres more out there. let me know which ones you've bought from and what was the experience.

i've only bought from americanmusical and musiciansfriend. the only reason i knew of musiciansfriend and j and r music world is because they were in the ascap brochure. i get a 5% discount on musicians friend and 25% off selected items at j and r music world. the only bad experience i had with musicians friend was buying a damaged bass amp. they say that even though the exterior is damaged, the product is still functional. well when i got the bass amp, the cabinet was damn near broken in half and the power amp didnt work on it. i was able to send it back and get my money back in a timely manner and they paid for shipping so i was satisfied. aside from that i havent bought anymore damaged goods and everything else I've bought has worked very well. an exceptionaly good mark i give musiciansfriend is for one of their 25' guitar cables. I've sent it through hell for the past 5 years. other cables bought from the music store here have come and gone in that time and they've all been through the abuse of live shows and recording and being wrapped about the elbow and stuffed in guitar bags.

I'd like to hear other stories and e-store suggetions or agreements (or disagreements) with the stores i have listed.
 
http://www.stewmac.com/ is great for hard-to-find guitar-parts stuff. They don't compete on price but the quality of their wares and their service is topnotch. They KNOW their stuff: when you have a problem you're not dealing with someone who just moved up from a McDonald's franchise.
 
i kinda like 8thstreetmusic. they're 20 bucks cheaper on the soundcraft M12 than americanmusical. i have no idea how I will amass the money for that but i'm half tempted to sell some gear to get it.
 
as for mercenary...i havent heard of much of anything from the products they sell....and after looking at the price, I'm assuming thats the high end equipment you see in pro studios. i cant see me buying from there until i win the lottery...and it better be a big lottery
 
I've bought 2 guitars at different times through Musician's Friend (I can see some of you cringing...), and although I had some minor shipping problems both times, the guitars were absolutely perfect. Of course, my favorite e-store so far is....

.....www.ebay.com

Doesn't really count, I know. But always a great place to find a deal, especially when the seller misspells words like "Oktava" in the listing.
 
yeah ebay counts....i bought a bass off of ebay....it was pretty good...it wasnt the best bass but i just needed a bass for some tracking.
 
i took another look around 8thstreetmusic when someone started talking about stereo pairs of the mxl 603s. i was impressed. I wasnt trying to spend any money on this paycheck comming up but i think i'm going for it.
 
I bought some Moon Gels from Music123.com because it was the only place I could find them. They also sell on eBay, and I've seen some significant complaints about them, including shipping broken or repacked merchandise as new.

As for ones already mentioned, I've had good luck with AMS (LOVE their EZ payment plan - why can't more people do this???), Musician's Fiend (no ,that's not a typo :D ) and zzounds.
 
Pssl

pro sound and stage lighting (pssl.com)--these guys cater more to the DJ/remix crowd, but they carry guitars and recording stuff. just like the big boys AMS, zzounds, and MF, they have the 45-day guarantee and match any price.

i have ordered from them multiple times and they pack everything really well. i'd recommend them highly. returns were a snap, and their reps actually know stuff.

I have never ordered from sweetwater simply because I hate the way they organize their catalog by giving you some kind of personalized review of the item instead of just saying who made it, how much it is, the _real_ stats, etc. Not to mention the snail mail letter i get every month from my 'personal customer service representative' who is ready to take my order. BUT, since i started dreaming about getting an AEA or Royer, i've found that they are $200 cheaper than other people on the R84...i'm sure i'll order from them one day. i'd like to hear more on people's experience with sweetwater...
 
www.fullcompass.com - I usually call Joel Pare and tell him prices and he gives me better ones. I got a soundcraft M12 there for $590 and a stereo pair of MXL603s with shockmounts and case for cheap, but I don't remember how much.
 
i wasnt too impressed with digitalproaudio's website...maybe I'm becoming old and crochitey but black backgrounds with red lettering dont have the same cool appeal as they once did for me. i do like the fact that they tell you the shipping cost once you finally get to the price of a product instead of at the final checkout.
 
Musician's Friend--Sometimes great, sometimes not so great. Occaisional screw ups-but they always fix it. Sometimes packages look like an airline got a hold of them.

8th street--Great! Never a problem.

Bayview--OK. But don't like their return policy.

Humbucker--Jake is extremely personable and nice to deal with. But I don't like that restocking fee.
 
Yeah, I hate the "call for price" crap. However, their's is usually pretty good, and the speed and shipping are top notch.

I never really understood the whole "call" thing... I mean, it's a good price. Why not go ahead and advertise it?
 
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