Where in Seattle can a satisficer buy a guitar without stress or haggling?

March 6, 2008 1:46 PM

Where in Seattle can a satisficer buy a guitar without stress or haggling?

I had a pretty nice guitar, which I sold (previously) with the plans on getting a plain old cheap guitar I wouldn't worry about. I want to walk into a store, be left alone to try a few out, pick one, pay the price on the price tag, and not feel like a chump. I don't know enough about specific guitars to buy one on eBay, and am leery of craigslist.

My previous guitar purchases have all involved haggling. I hate haggling. I just want there to be a price tag with a fair price I can take or leave.

What stores in the Seattle area would you recommend? They don't have to be guitar stores -- if Costco or Target or Cheese World had an okay steel-string acoustic, that would be fine.

posted by The corpse in the library to shopping (7 comments total)

The Trading Musician is usually good.
posted by hades at 2:17 PM on March 6

Have you checked out Trading Musician? It's on the corner of Roosevelt and Ravenna, just north of the U district. They have new as well as used stuff and the place is staffed by some pretty low-pressure people. Nice place to spend an afternoon, as I remember it; lots of cool instruments to play around with.
posted by Pecinpah at 2:17 PM on March 6

Every guitar store I've visited in Seattle has price tags on the guitars, and you're free to pick the guitar up, take it to the counter and pay the price on the tag with little interference. If you don't initiate any price haggling I don't see why the salesman would, since that'd cut into their profit/commission.
posted by bizwank at 2:20 PM on March 6

i'm not in Seattle, but FWIW, I have bought two electric basses from ebay - i got good deals and i was totally pleased with the transactions. of course, only deal with sellers that have good feedback ratings.
posted by gnutron at 4:57 PM on March 6

Costco often carries Yamaha guitars. Yamaha makes a tremendous variety of musical instruments and their entry level guitars are decent and playable.
posted by richg at 9:38 PM on March 6

The Guitar Emporium in Ballard is real high on my list of places i've enjoyed looking at musical instruments - guitar.
posted by ptm at 3:15 AM on March 7

Nthing Trading Musician. That's where my wife sold her guitar (and where I'll eventually sell my banjo when I finally realize I'm never going to get back into lessons).

And Costco always has cheap guitars. That's where my former neighbor got his. He seems happy with it.
posted by dw at 8:08 AM on March 9