What's Your Worse Experience Buying a Guitar

[Big Ron]

How about a thread for guitar nightmares. I'll take the lead and start with mine.

Several years ago I went as a guest of one of the local guitar / music shops to a big guitar show in a neighboring state. If you anything like I am and have not been to one of these extravaganzas, by all means go to one. Only before leaving have a friend take all your money, credit cards and checks away from you and handcuff yourself behind your back - then go and enjoy. LOL

Not having such a friend nearby I got to the show and like a kid in a candy store went absolutely NUTS. Finally caved in and bought a 52 Reissue Telecaster which to this day is still my favorite guitar.

Oh yes, the nightmare: One evening while walking through a lobby of the big hotel nearby I saw a group of guys jamming in the lobby (guitar players and impromptu jam sessions were everywhere). I noticed an acoustic (well known brand name) guitar in a case laying on a coffee table with a FOR SALE sign on it. I ask about it and a guy told me it belonged to a friend that wanted $200 for it - I was amazed. I picked it up and discovered it was an import but still, of a great name, and the wood was beautiful. I was so taken by how beautiful this guitar was that I got GAS immediately. I offered him $100 just as a semi-gag but he countered with $150 and I bought it right there. No receipt, no drivers licence, no who are you - nothing!

The strings were tuned down (should have been my first clue) a step or so but the guitar had a good sound - and hey, I got me a really fancy wood looking brand name acoustic electric for $150. I asked about the low tuned strings and was told that the mysterious owner sang in low voice and he liked his guitars tuned that way. (missed clue 2)

Took it to my hotel room and tuned it up to standard pitch and played a song or two before my buddies showed up for dinner. The next day at the show I took the case to brag on my recent acquisition to the group and opened the case to find that the neck had an outward bow in the lower part of the neck about the 9th fret. and the top third of the body of the guitar was caving in. This wasn't a little hump in the neck this was a hump about 1/2" or so. From the nut to the 9th or 10th fret the neck was straight and could be played OK. at the hump the neck caved down into the body and the top of the body was bent inward.

One of the group, and a good friend of mine, was a Master Luthier, and he shamed me for buying something before he got a chance to check it out.

Fortunately I sold the guitar to a family who wanted a wall hanger for a decoration and got my money back... But for a while that was my nightmare guitar purchase.

What about yours?

Ron

[Meggy]

Probably I would have to go for the first electric I bought (at the age of 16, so that would make it 1981 or there-abouts. It was a red Epiphone semi-acoustic with a bolt-on neck. I'm not sure when it was actually made, but in Japan I think, probably in the 70's, and nothing like a vintage American made Epiphone. I paid way too much for it with hindsight, and in fact I would say it was a piece of c&%p if I'm honest. Several of the frets were loose, and it sounded rubbish. I wanted it because it had f-holes like a proper jazz guitar!

I have recently seen a similar guitar sold for far too much (IMHO) on ebay, and described as a "hard to find, vintage collectable". A vintage collectable piece of &*^% I would say!

[Tom Karol]

Well, I haven’t ever bought a really bad guitar, but I have made a couple of horrible trades.

Bought a 1960 Gretsch Chet Atkins Nashville for $200 in the summer of ’68 and traded it for an EKO 12-String Dreadnought (birdseye maple sides and back) in the spring of ’69.

Then in the early 90’s I traded a ’66 L-4C (bought in 1972) for a Godin Acousticaster (cognac-finished quilted maple).

Those were the two really dumb ones.

[mr. beaumont]

i've never had a bad guitar buying experience, but that's because i'm a chronic "walker." as soon as something irks me or seems fishy in the slightest sense, i'm out. i'm like this with everything, really--it took my wife and i 6 months to buy a dishwasher after we started looking, and i'm sure she wanted to kill me several times, but i got exactly what i wanted at the price i wanted, so...i guess i win.

[X-500]

I bought three of my Guilds sight unseen (in person that is - there were photos). Three times that could have resulted in a nightmarish event.

I drove to Montreal for the X-700. I was lucky and they were all in very good to mint condition (X-170).

However, for me, it was when I recieved my X-150. It was a bitterly cold week in January. You know where I'm going with this. And when the guitar arrived via UPS, yup, checking all over the frigging thing. I kinda spazzed on the seller, but after regaining my composition, I realized it wasn't his fault. You have to look close to see it and it didn't affect the playability.

It was a lesson well learned; don't have a guitar shipped with a laquer finish in the winter!

[JohnW400]

My worst experience was with a classical guitar. I put in an order for a guitar that was advertised on their site for $2500. They told me it was out of stock but they would put my name on the first one that came in.

Well 4 months later it arrived, but now the price was $3200.

This was $700 more than was listed on his web-site, plus the exchange rate had gone down.

Anyway, I said that was out of my range. About 20 minutes later they called back and left a message that they figured since I had waited so long that they could do $2800. I immediatley called back after I heard this message (20 minutes later) and got their machine. I told them I would take the guitar.


When they didn't call me right back I called again. They told me that in the meantime someone had come in and was checking out the guitar as we spoke and that if that person wanted it at the full price it he would sell it to them. If they didn't sell it to him, then I could have it.

I thought that was prettty poor on their part since they had already offered it to me and I got back to them in a resonable amount of time. In my mind once I said 'I'll take it" that should have been it. Once they called me back and offered it to me , it became my right of refusal again.

Anyway, they lost a customer plus all the negative publicity I can stir up

BTW, It's the Guitar Shop in Philly. Their business practices suck

[Fidelcaster]

I recently bought from an online shop (euroguitar.com) a new Godin Detour, a 24,75" superstrat. The guitar I received had a flawed rosewood fretboard: it looked like the person who cut the wood to lay the frets started to cut it in the wrong places (there were small cuts in the wood near to the frets and parallel to them); and there were also two big notches in the rosewood. This defect was deemed "unimportant" by the staff of the shop so I had to pay the returning costs.

So I learned not to buy guitars sight unseen, especially based on just a brand's reputation.

[abracadabra]

I bought a classical guitar in Guitar Center for something like $400 in the mid 90's. I thought it was a perfectly good price, although I hadn't done any research at all.

A few years later I tried to sell it, in good condition, to a used instruments shop. I wanted like $150 for it but he just laughed and offered about $80. I told him what I paid for it in guitar center and he laughed again.

I'm still not sure who ripped me off, Guitar Center, or the used guitar shop owner, but I never sold it. It's a pretty decent guitar (Takamine G116). I still have it and play it every day. So I guess the story worked out ok after all!

[TieDyedDevil]

I no longer buy guitars "off the rack", but eight years ago a Gibson Blueshawk had a dead spot on the neck that I didn't notice until after the purchase. If that's the worse that ever happens, I'll consider myself fortunate.

Back around `73 or `74 I bought a couple of Fender guitars: a Strat and a Jazzmaster. Up until that point all I ever had was cheap imported guitars, fixed up to be reasonably playable. I figured that the Fenders would be a big step up. Boy, was that a disappointment. Fortunately I was able to sell them quickly.

[SamBooka]

I once bought an archtop that no one in the jazzguitar.be forums liked.
I am still trying to live it down.

[Doctor Jeff]

This is a mixed story. I recently ordered a Lanikai tenor ukulele from Amazon (S-TEQ acoustic-electric)--was unable to find it locally or in Madison or even in Omaha, had trouble finding any online vendors that had it in stock. After purchasing, I was informed it would not ship for 3-5 weeks.

I then called Parrish Music, a new local store in nearby Viroqua, WI, and the guy there made a phone call to his vendor, called me back in 20 minutes, and said we'll have your uke in in 1 week. Made me pretty happy. Turns out he's a uke player himself who is planning on organizing ukulele workshops, etc.

It costs $50 more, but I feel better buying locally, having great personal service, and getting the instrument much sooner.

[Big Ron]

I agree with the concept of buying locally if at all possible; by the way, right up until you find that the local store wants $ 3,750 for the PRS you are looking at and you can buy just "like new" (we hope) used ones for $1,700.

At that point I would gladly give an extra $50 or $100 to a local store but often the Price spread is too wide to over look.