Buc McMaster Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Fuller's shop is within a mile of the old homestead so it's where I buy my strings and the occasional accessory as needed. Went this past weekend for some new "wires" and took some time to browse around what is perhaps the best Mom & Pop music store in the city. You want guitars, Fuller's got 'em in spades! Strats by the dozen, Les Pauls & SGs by the truck load, classic Gretsch hollowbodies of all description, racks of Rickenbackers.......this store has the goods. The acoustic selection is very impressive. Taylor, Martin and Gibson are the primary lines and they have a selection second to none. I'm a southpaw, which realy limits my options at nearly all retail stores, but Fuller's does have a few "lefties" hanging. A very good looking J45 Vine is tempting but the Grover machines blow the whole vide of that one. They have an SJ200 True Vintage without a pickguard! I'm told Gibson did not tool up lefty for the unique shape of the TV guard, and it is a bit different than a standard SJ. The big ol' jumbo sunburst looks very nice without a pickguard but the top would suffer under long term play. An Epiphone McCartney 1964 "Texan" model was the best sounding of the lot of lefties, but they all suffered from terrible factory setups: high in the nut, full height saddles, old crusty strings and stinky t-rod adjustments on every single one of them. Sure, all of these things are easily corrected, but with price tags over 2K (and higher) on all of them, it bugs me that the guys that wander the floor all day long there can't spend the 30 minutes it would take to make each of those instruments so much more appealing to a shopper. They played horribly and sounded worse - yuck. I know these guitars are much better instruments than they are being presented..... They had some very interesting Fuller's Exclusives. A few 1968 reissue J45s were quite appealing visually. I particularly like the look of one in trans-red and a white pickguard with the Norlin-era Gibson logo on it.......very good looking instrument! They have some screaming blinged out SJ200s under glass in the acoustic room that are simply gorgeous, but they are righties and are just eye candy to me. I did handle one of the 200s equipped with Grover Imperials to check the balance with the heavier machines........I bought a set for mine but have yet to install them. The large tuners do change the way the guitar feels and I'm still not sure I want to make that change to the WC. I suppose I'll have to go again and hold that upside down guitar some more....... All in all, Fuller's a killer guitar source with excellent inventory and a great staff. I see the store mentioned now and then on internet forums and I think they do a good share of their business over the web. They certainly have some of the best guitars around here and in depth. Time well-spent on a Saturday afternoon among the wood and steel that captivates us all........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannusguy Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 i envy you your proximity to the store (i think). i've bought 4 guitars from them and have never set foot in the place. i've found jeremy fuller to be very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 333 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Fuller's packs the trailers and heads this way twice a year for both the Dallas and Arlington guitar shows. It's the highlight of the shows for me, as Fuller's brings an incredible inventory of exceptional Gibsons and other brands, inclusding some great exclusives made just for them. The Gibson Acoustic trailer is always set up right next to the Fuller's tables, as a measure respect for this fantastic dealer, and to provide sales support in the way of answering questions, etc. My J35 reissue is a Fuller's exclusive, and it's a corker. Red 333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballcorner Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 . . . but they all suffered from terrible factory setups: high in the nut' date=' full height saddles, old crusty strings and stinky t-rod adjustments on every single one of them. Sure, all of these things are easily corrected, but with price tags over 2K (and higher) on all of them, it bugs me that the guys that wander the floor all day long there can't spend the 30 minutes it would take to make each of those instruments so much more appealing . . .[/quote'] I totally understand your complaints about store set ups, but as a person who once worked in and later owned a vintage guitar shop I just want to say a few words: No matter what set up you chose to do on a new or used instrument, it is relatively certain that the buyer would want something different - so there is no point doing it twice. Crusty strings are simple. You can put a sink and soap in the middle of the guitar room and nobody will ever use it, so the strings are usually dirty the second day after they are changed. You can't funnel an endless supply of fresh wire onto the stock - so you restring what generates the most interest and you put a fresh set on a guitar if someone with a legitimate interest really wants to have a go. Truss rods should all be properly adjusted and a good shop should have control over temperature and humidity. On these issues I completely agree - but think of how many guitars they have in the shop and how much it would cost in both product and labour to restring them all twice a week and then deduct those costs from weekly profits. Most stores with really large selections have a percentage of their stock on credit. There are costs to carry that selection in addition to the standard overhead for rent, mortgage, wages, energy costs, insurance, benefits, breakage, theft et. al. Spend a whole day in the store and count how many guitars sell. Imagine that less than 30% of the selling price is gross profit from which all your expenses have to be covered and then ask if you would have fresh strings on everything if you owned the store? In the stores I was involved with, we always wanted to encourage people to try the instruments. If you can't afford a 1930s Gibson, it doesn't mean you should never play one. So there are trade offs for providing selection and access, and I have to assume the conditions at Fuller's are a reflection of that reality. I can tell you this much for sure: If you think you really want to buy a guitar at Fuller's or any other good shop, and you ask your product advisor to have it set up and put new strings on it so you can make a final decision - they will do it for you, especially if you back it up with a 20% refundable deposit, and you can come back in a few days to try it out. In the store I owned, I offered a 7-day no questions asked full refund so people could play the guitar at home for a week before pulling the final trigger (funds were held in trust) and for regular customers an overnight loan was no problem. I sold one guy 20 guitars in 16 months by letting him try first and buy later. Rest assured, almost everything he bought had crusty strings on it when he first picked it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerpopper Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I totally understand your complaints about store set ups' date=' but as a person who once worked in and later owned a vintage guitar shop I just want to say a few words...[/quote'] Thanks for posting that. Just like your explanation about why guitars ship with plastic pins, this makes perfect sense. Some of us (who live near well-stocked stores) may not realize the luxury of the selection in those stores. Not only that, but margins of profit for guitars are not that great anyway and I'm sure competition and the current state of the economy are making those margins slimmer all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballcorner Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 From what Buc describes, Fuller's seems to have about 2 million in inventory. Indeed, I would love to live near such a store - crusty strings or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwolf Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I live near (well, sort of near) Fullers--about an hour or a little more south in Galveston. I get up that way now and again. It's really an incredible store. Lots of really nice guitars, and more Gibson high end custom shop one of a kind creations than you'd ever believe in one place. I bought a Custom Shop Hummingbird 12 string from them about two months ago. Really nice guitar, and, having played for 35 years, it's the first 12 string I've owned. Every time I've been in Fullers, the folks have been really friendly and accomodating. You couldn't ask for better service. While I was trying out the 12 string, I noticed it had way too much neck relief. Pointed it out, and the salesman had it adjusted immediately. I think that kind of service speaks for itself, and a dead set of strings would probably be changed immediately if pointed out as an issue by a customer. Interestingly, the two Gibson acoustics I've bought recently had some sort of coated string- I think they must be D'Addario EXP's, as the balls are color coded. That might go some toward keeping the strings a little less crusty. Fuller's does an incredible job, and I really like to support the locally owned shops rather than the corporate giants. My other local shop is Danny D's Guitar Hacienda down in Webster. Danny's a great guy, does all my repair and set up work. He stopped carrying Gibson a few years ago, so I was really bummed about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buc McMaster Posted April 3, 2009 Author Share Posted April 3, 2009 No matter what set up you chose to do on a new or used instrument' date=' it is relatively certain that the buyer would want something different - so there is no point doing it twice. [/quote'] I managed a large Mom & Pop guitar shop for 12+ years and was in a position to see that the instruments that hung on our walls were in playable condition. Sure, the strings might get old and need changing, but with a crew of 4 to 10 guys (depending on the day of the week) walking the store all day there was plenty of time and manpower to make simple rod adjustments and restrings during "downtime". We had a repair shop in-house and I sent the worst of them through there for more complicated jobs. Yes, I understand most folks like to tweak their own guitars to taste, but a neck that looks like a ski jump needs store adjustment before it's presented to the public for sale. And sure, I could have asked the kindly slaesman at Fuller's to tweak it for me.......heck, gimme a wrench and I'll do it myself. But my point is why should this not be done until a customer requests it? The guitar is obvioulsy in need of attention.......attend to it. Take away one of a potential buyer's objections before it's an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.