Guitar Center tried to jerk me

I did not make this blog to tear companies down, businesses, or individual sellers who are trying to get their bag. I want to make that very clear.

However, I do want to share my own experiences if it can help people make responsible purchases or at the very least navigate the vast waters of the used gear market.

I buy and sell used gear quite often as one does.
If you love this audio/music shit you know.
We all have apprehensions and horror stories—things don’t always go as expected.

But that’s part of the game. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

With all that being said, I want to share with you all my first experience with Musician’s Friend and Guitar Center of Austin. Because Guitar Center’s hoe asses tried me.

I do want to preface this by saying my experience with Guitar Center in Austin is what went sour.

Musician’s Friend and I have no beef at all. Their rep, Sean, handled my grievances with the utmost grace and professionalism.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you what these hoes at Guitar Center Austin did.

What Went Wrong With the Used Lauten LA-220 Listing

Guitar Center uploaded a Lauten LA-220 to Musician’s Friend, and they pictured the Lauten LA-220 V2.

So naturally, that’s what I thought I was getting.

I checked this listing several times. I even put it into ChatGPT. I am sorry for all the anti-AI users, but I was apprehensive from ordering from Musicians Friend as I typically buy gear on Reverb.

Yes, pictures did show the Lauten LA-220 V2.

I zoomed in on the red logo that only on lives on the V2.

When I tell you guys I zoomed in on the grill to assess how much damage it had, and it was minimal.

The mic was listed at great condition, which is something that my ChatGPT did retain when I put the link in and asked it to analyze it.

In hindsight I am so glad I did this, because Guitar Center did take the posting down after the microphone sold. That’s fine, seemed like protocol to me. I bought the mic, they remove the mic. Nothing fishy there.

That means that they’re not sitting there using one post for five hundred different microphones.

Still, the way the microphone was delivered definitely was giving off bait and switch vibes.

Upon receiving the microphone, I was excited.

I hadn’t used a proper condenser microphone in about a year now.

The last condenser microphone I used before switching to a SM58 temporarily was the TLM 102.

I Was Excited to Buy a Condenser Microphone Again

I’ve owned the TLM 102 a couple times. I can do an in-depth review of it, but in general, for me, it isn’t on my never sell list.

It will always be a microphone that is something I can depend on for clean, good quality vocals.

But I had acquired an SM58 off of Marketplace for forty dollars before selling the TLM 102.

My issue wasn’t with the sound of the 102. It was just the fact that I could get so damn close to it with an SM58 via mixing that it didn’t even feel like worth keeping, especially in this untreated space that I was in at the time.

I also have tools like Waves Clarity and Waves DeReverb, that while not full replacements for an untreated room, get the job done just fine.

My Previous Microphone Journey: The EV Cardinal, and CAD M179

The microphone I had before the TLM 102 was the Electro-Voice Blue Cardinal microphone, and I got some really good sounds on the go with that bad boy.

The only reason why I sold it is because I felt like I could hear its age. Despite getting a good sound out of a mix, the mic sounded a little bit paper thin.

I had done a lot of looking around. I feel like if I was going to get a condenser mic, it needed to be better than my old trusty CAD M179 that I used to have.

As much money as I made with the CAD M179 freelancing on Fiverr and with outside clients as well, I just feel as if it was a little darker sounding.

I wanted something better, and I wanted something with more character than the TLM 102 had.

I had to find something with a little bit more punch.

Why I Chose the Lauten LA-220 V2

I landed on the Lauten LA-220 V2 because of how it sounded on various creators who reviewed the mic.

It just seemed to have a distinguishable character compared to others at its price point.

I saw one for sale on Musician’s Friend used for $250 and I pulled the trigger.

A no brainier…at least that’s what I thought.

Only to get home from work the day it arrived and see that Guitar Center sent me the V1.

I was having a lot of mixed feelings about having received the V1 because… it did sound good.

Lauten LA-220 V1 vs V2: The Wrong Mic Still Sounded Good

I haven’t yet used the LA-220 V2 at the time of writing this article so I can’t compare it to the V1 I received.

I’m going just off of YouTube videos and TikTok content but I don’t think I’d be far off in comparing the sound between the V1 and the V2 to the sound difference between the mark one and mark two of the Audient iD4 audio interfaces.

The original Audient iD4? I love the sound of that thing.

It didn’t sound as expensive as the MKII, and there is a sound difference between the first generation Audient interfaces and their MK II upgrades.

The LA-220 V1 seems to have a brighter sound, from what I can hear, the V2 has.

So the Lauten LA-220 V1 reminded me a lot of the iD4 Mark MK1 in that way.

Sonically I didn’t hear any flaws in the LA-220 V1 really. It sounded great. It just wasn’t the microphone I ordered and I was left wondering if I was going to miss the sonic enhancements of the V2, as it’s obvious that there’s a bit more body to that microphone.

But even though I’d received the wrong microphone and the grill was dented as fuck, and a rubber band on the shock mount was missing and it had a weird pizza stain looking mark by the logo and it was more so in fair condition than great condition as it was listed, I was still enjoying using it for the day I was testing it.

In fact, I tested it in an untreated living room with very high ceilings, knowing that there would be that natural reverb, and I wasn’t mad at the results.

Actually, I almost kept the damn thing. I was very torn as to whether I wanted to return the V1.

Then I had a conversation with my good friend Anthony. And he was liking the sound of the microphone. He was even encouraging me to keep it.

But the elephant in the room was that I paid for a V2.

The Core Problem: I Paid for a Great Condition V2 and Got a V1 that was Fair at best

Anthony encouraged me to pursue some kind of compensation from Musicians Friend and Guitar Center Austin for the difference of receiving the older more cosmetically damaged mic… if I was actually going to keep the microphone.

I was well within its 45-day return window and I didn’t want to go through the hassle of boxing it back up and returning it and waiting on the refund.

Before discussing this with Anthony, I hadn’t even thought to do this, but after some back-and-forth, receiving a portion of my money back for the mismatch didn’t seem unreasonable.

So I went ahead and called up Musician’s Friend and was able to explain my position.

Sean at Musician’s Friend was very helpful and understanding about my dilemma and did what he could, speaking to Guitar Center Austin for me to try to work something out.

Now is a great time to mention that before I even ordered this mic, I mirror called the Guitar Center and asked them if this purchase fell under the forty-five-day return window, and the guy who answered my question was pretty helpful.

But at no point in that conversation, did he verify that it was the V2 and not the V1 nor did I feel like he needed to because I saw what was pictured and it looked reasonable to me.

But even so , I was well aware of the risk of purchasing used on Musician’s Friend or any site online period. I took the risk.

Why I Almost Kept the Lauten LA-220 V1

I wanted to like the microphone I received.

Hell, I wanted to keep the microphone. I’m tired of the search for the right mic, you guys.

I was hoping that I could make it work and call it a damn day.

And going solely off of the sound, maybe I could have.

It was a very bright sounding microphone compared to my SM58. The opened high-end was damn near perfect.

As I am writing this, I’ve been asking myself why I sent it back if the sound was pleasing to my ear.

It came down to a couple factors for me: longevity of investment, a little bit of pride, but mostly how unerring and uncompromising Guitar Center was to meet me halfway at all.

I just couldn’t allow myself to keep something that I had essentially overpaid for, even if it sounded amazing.

It was really a decision I pondered throughout the entire next day.

And Sean did ask me what my price would be in a perfect world to make things right.

What would the perfect medium of compensation be in a perfect world? And I told him my price: $100.

Mind you, I had this microphone overnighted to me, thinking it was the V2. So yes, a hundred dollars would have made me forget about the entire thing and pretend that I’d ordered the banged up V1 in the first place.

The Price Issue: Why $100 Back Felt Fair

I only had actually seen one other V1 for sale, and that was on Reverb. And if I could guess, by the time you’re reading this, it’s probably still up for sale because there’s a nicotine smell in the listing.

And shout out to that guy for being honest. I’m not shitting on him for his honesty, but I don’t know anybody that would want to buy a nicotine smelling microphone.

So I wasn’t looking at the V1 outside of that.

I’m not saying Guitar Center did this themselves to deceive me—hell they deal with thousands of different pieces of gear every day. But they handled it in a way that made me feel like they were trying to pull one over on me.

Guitar Center said they weren’t willing to honor my proposed amount of $100 and didn’t even give me a counter…it just didn’t sit right with me.

At this point, I couldn’t keep the microphone because now I’m gonna feel like a sucker—because you guys sold me some shit that was not what I ordered then are basically telling me to just deal with it or return it.

At the end of the day, that’s what it came down to.

Edit: And no surprise of mine, as I’m going through and editing this blog post after sending the microphone back, Guitar Center already relisted the damn thing on their website at $219 (pictured below) before my my refund has processed.

Would I have kept the microphone off they countered with $30? Probably so. It at least would have covered the overnight shipping costs and saved me the trouble of returning the mic and writing this damn article in the first place.

Calling Lauten for their advice and Factoring in Microphone Age

Ok readers, bear with me because this may have been overkill, but there is seriously you’re not enough information between the difference of the V1 and the V2 online…so I even called Lauten, because I was really torn, and that’s how much I like the sound of the V1 on my voice.

They assured me that the microphones were pretty similar, but to keep in mind that older microphones are more susceptible to have been exposed to stuff that can damage them, which I thought was very interesting that they would say as it was something I hadn’t considered regarding my investment.

If he had just left it at “they’re pretty similar, the redesigns are here and here,” I probably would have just justified keeping the V1 because it sounded butter on me already.

But the age of the microphone and not knowing its history got to me.

Also, I didn’t realize how old the V1 was or how long the V1 had been around but this wasn’t a huge consideration in my search for microphones as I’d considered other older mics, too— such as the champagne colored Shure KSM 32.

However, at bare minimum I’d need something to ease any buyers remorse that I was beginning to have with my obsessive overthinking about the purchase I’d made.

Duh, I Returned the Microphone

Of course I sent the V1 back.

And right now, it’s me and my SM58 and my SM7B, two dynamic mics that aren’t bright enough in the high end without EQ.

I hate to be that guy, but for me, I just prefer the sound of a condenser microphone when recording.

Still, at this point I’m falling in love with the SM58 for its reliability at its price.

If I solely cared about how I sounded post processing, my search would be over to be completely honest with you.

Hell, I’m not even sure I would need the SM7B for my uses, but that’s a blog post for another day.

As Cam’ron would say, the best ability is availability.

With that being said, I have to go get my hair cut. I’ll see you guys next post.

Takeaways for Buying Used Gear From Guitar Center or Musician’s Friend

If you are buying a used microphone, used condenser mic, or any used piece of gear online, this experience taught me a few things:

• Screenshot or save the listing before you buy, especially the photos and condition rating.

• Zoom in on product details that distinguish one version from another.

• Confirm the return window before ordering.

• If the item arrives wrong, contact customer service immediately.

• Be clear about what you paid for versus what you received.

• If you are open to keeping the item, ask for fair compensation.

• Consider the age of used microphones, not just the sound.

• Don’t ignore condition mismatches, especially if the item was listed as “great condition” and what you got was fair at best.

• If the seller will not offer a fair adjustment, returning the item might be the best move.

TLDR: I paid for a Lauten LA-220 V2, received a Lauten LA-220 V1, and the condition was not what was listed.

The V1 sounded good. Honestly, it sounded really good. But at the end of the day, the right sound does not erase the wrong transaction when you buy from assholes like Guitar Center Austin.