A lot of people have been asking us why they should buy their guitars from Wired Guitarist when they could go to one of our competitors that they feel might be able to offer superior service or pricing.

This is a perfectly valid question, and if you’re anything like me, you probably feel there isn’t a massive difference between various guitar dealers…

…to be honest, you’re right.

There is very little difference between the levels of service and insight that corporate stores can offer.

This isn’t their fault though; they are set up largely to appeal to the lowest common denominator, which is fine, because there is a legitimate need for that kind of dealer.

The aforementioned dealers don’t bother hiring high quality employees for one simple reason – they are unnecessary.  Yes, there are a few experienced and helpful folks working at big box retailers (I really believe they should be paid more!), but that is the exception, not the rule.

Why would you need someone with 10+ years of experience when you could just hire some kid fresh out of high school because your target market isn’t going to know the difference between a veneer and an actual top on a guitar?

It doesn’t make sense to pay for top tier talent when it won’t be utilized.

In our case, we cannot say the same.  Our community is made up of experienced, educated guitarists that ask smart questions, and so ensuring our team is as experienced as possible is crucial!

Want to know how a Mayones or PRS Private Stock stacks up to a Blackmachine?  

I can assure you that an underpaid employee working at a generic big box store isn’t going to know the difference – we do.  Moreover, we can tell you what it would cost to source a Blackmachine, how they sound, and if they’re worth it for your play style.  Don’t believe us? Check out some of our articles written by our employees. They know gear.

The same philosophy behind corporate stores and their hiring p is prevalent at massive stores and extends into the way these corporations send guitars to their customers.  The vast majority of guitar players are not going to notice flaws like router burn marks, imperfectly leveled frets, or hard to find dings – so why shouldn’t these big box stores send guitars like that out?

Nobody is going to notice, right?  Right!  

…not for us.

Our community would tear us to pieces if we sent out a guitar that was anything less than flawless, and rightfully so.  This is part of the reason we send so many guitars back to manufacturers we deal with.

Only a few days ago, a manufacturer asked us why we sent back 40% of the guitars we received and said that other dealers didn’t send nearly as many back, saying that the average return rate was around 5% to 10%.

Now, I’m an extremely honest guy, and prefer to be as upfront as possible, so I told him that our clients are not morons with room temperature IQ, they are experienced guitarists that know what they deserve for their money.  They have spent, literally, hundreds of hours talking guitar…they aren’t going to fail to notice flaws.  

If they have a problem with the amount of guitars we find that aren’t meeting our quality standards, then we have no problem cutting the brand from the line up we carry.  I’m not interested in selling anybody faulty guitars.  Needless to say, he was a little surprised, but he agreed and said this wouldn’t be an issue moving forward.  It remains to be seen whether or not he will stick to his promise.

Now, some companies might claim to offer in-depth inspections prior to sending out guitars, but at the end of the day they are still paying someone minimum wage, or close to it, to “inspect” your guitar.  Where is the motivation for them to really outperform and excel with every guitar they ship out?

Personally, I believe that anyone working for us performing to our high standards should be paid well.  I don’t care whether they are guitar techs or CEOs.  I have no problem paying a guitar tech more than 3x or even 4x the industry standard if it means I don’t have to worry about any of our clients being dissatisfied.

At this point, you’re probably wondering how we afford to pay our employees well, while still operating as a business effectively.  We actually own and operate a number of successful businesses with this philosophy, and the reason for it is actually quite simple…

Motivated, happy employees do better quality work, which means more satisfied customers, which then translates into more sales for us.  These employees pay for themselves, and then some!

Suddenly, it makes sense how Wired Guitarist manages to offers killer service at the lowest price point possible, doesn’t it?

Yes, we have to stick to price floors set by brands, which other dealers also have to adhere to as well, but that doesn’t stop you from reaching out privately about the best pricing we can offer.

You might be under the impression that large stores can offer lower pricing because they buy in huge quantities, but to be honest the price breaks they receive aren’t big enough to outweigh their huge fixed costs due to increasingly inefficient systems they rely on.  

Want an example?  What about a certain big box chain store that has so much debt it can barely afford to stay afloat?  Hint, Bain Capital was involved.

Thankfully, because our community exists, we don’t have to worry about things like heavy marketing expenses or writing pages and pages of bullshit about multipoint inspections done by an underpaid employee that is just collecting a paycheck and doesn’t care about the client.  

Our philosophy is part of the reason we are one of the few online only dealers authorized by brands like Paul Reed Smith and Ibanez.  If you read Ibanez’s website, you’ll notice they don’t actually authorize online only dealerships.  We are one of the only exceptions to this rule.

All we have to do is focus on delivering the best guitars possible at the best prices, and the community takes care of the rest – and that’s exactly what we do.

If you’d like to take a look at the guitars we carry, please click here.  Remember, we can order just about anything in from any of the brands we carry.

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