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I'm thinking of buying a Epi ES339 from Sweetwater because of their 55 point check on every guitar they sell.
Has anyone bought a guitar from them and if so was it setup properly?
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04-22-2012 12:10 AM
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Hi Bob,
I've never bought a guitar from Sweetwater, but my son has bought a lot of recording equipment from them and has always received exemplary customer service.
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Only issue I've had (and others I've talked to) is they will say they have things in stock they don't, so takes longer than expected to get things.
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Amen. My last three orders showed items in stock when they were not. I ended up cancelling and ordering from someone else. No guitars, though.
Originally Posted by docbop
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I bought three solid-body guitars from them, all came well set up, they gave me higher gauge strings too.
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I never had any problem with them. They seem to be the most "human" of the online dealers. They usually give you a nice follow-up phone call, not the hard sell, just to practically chit chat. The pictures they post are of the actual guitar you will buy, I believe that is what they do.
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No guitar here, but one recent and relevant experience: I had a poorly packed item arrive, but the customer service was superb, the replacement was packed beautifully, and they sent me a shipping label to return the first shipment.
I would call them for two reasons: First, ask them how they will pack your guitar and case to make sure it arrives undamaged and still properly set up. Second - based on the other comments - you can kill two birds with one stone by making sure the item is in stock.
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I've had dealings with them for more than 10 years. They have always been fast, responsive to my needs, and very helpful. You can't go wrong dealing with them in my opinion.
Bill
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Bought a case from them- they tripped all over themselves trying to make me a customer for life- completely positive experience.
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I bought my ES345 from Wayne Davis at Sweetwater. Perfect transaction, and the guitar is/was perfect - not one defect I could find. She's a keeper.
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I buy lots of strings from them and the occasional accessory - they always put candy in the box...they've won me over.
But seriously, having a dedicated sales rep for you is actually quite cool. I like SW alot.
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I bought an adapter from them and 3 years later they called and offered me a classical guitar. I am not sure why they though I needed one.
A year before that I was looking for a Fender custom shop deluxe start and I emailed them. They gave a personal sales-agent, but when I emailed him to ask a few questions about the guitar and to see if they could lower the price a bit I never heard back from them. I bought the guitar from Rudy's instead.
They seem to have this idea of being really great customers service but I would rather have them answer my questions than calling me randomly and offering products that I am not interested in. Even Musicians friend was able to answer those questions.
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I never bought a guitar from them, but with everything else it's always been smooth sailing especially considering that they ship to me in Canada.
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The "personal sales engineer" thing has always been a turn off to me. Several calls a year "just to check in" on my music needs invariably leaves me thinking that I don't need or want anyone to rattle my cage regarding the possibility that I have been lax in addressing my music needs. I'm pretty good at figuring out what I do or don't need. The one time I bit and asked the sales engineer about a specific product, he tried to wing answers about something he knew nothing about. Maybe the next time they call, I'll cut the cord. Originally Posted by Soco
While I am sure that Sweetwater sells good stuff and has general customer service policies no worse than the norm in the industry, I don't like getting unsolicited calls with warnings that my failure to order will result in them cutting off the catalog that I didn't order in the first place.
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Ha. Ha. The world turns on Sweetwater. I have emailed them before when I was shopping around for Gibbies. While the "sales engineer" assigned to me was polite and tried to answer my questions, I found that Sweetwater was pretty inflexible on price; MAP was what I got. I did not bite. I found out later that I could get 20% or more off MAP from other authorized Gibson dealers.
I don't know if this pricing strategy has changed as that was in 2009/2010. But the "sales engineer" guy was helpful in trying to find answers to my questions.
Conclusion: Sweetwater seems like an honest outfit but I could do better on price elsewhere (where the service was equally good and honest).
The candy in the box thing; while it is a nice gesture, I don't appreciate surprise food products in my boxes. To wit; a few years ago, I ordered a gadget (NOT from Sweetwater) for myself that I did not really need immediately. I took about six months to finally open the box. I found a packet of complimentary microwaveable popcorn and it had turned rancid. It would really turn me off to find "surprise candy" that had turned gooey packed with a guitar.Last edited by Jabberwocky; 04-28-2012 at 02:58 PM.
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Personal Sales Engineer
I told them clearly and politely right off the bat that I did not want any unsolicited calls or catalogs. To their credit, they have so far honored my request - and why not? No vendor wants to piss off a customer. Originally Posted by bborzell
Price
The Sweetwater price is often the same (MAP) price as other online vendors. But I have noticed that the Sweetwater price is often slightly higher than either Amazon or Musician's Friend (even accounting for shipping). I'd really like to give Sweetwater some business - because their service was exceptionally good - but why should I call them to see if they will match a price instead of just buying from the cheaper but still reliable vendor? Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
As for instruments, I avoid online buying for two reasons. First, I want to play the specific copy that I buy. For example, if I'm buying a Yamaha YTR-8310Z trumpet, I don't want to buy a 8310Z; I want to buy the 8310Z that sounds good to me. Second, I haven't paid anything close to MAP for decades. MAP is minimum advertised price - not minimum price face to face. (And I'm sure from his remarks that Jabberwocky knows this.)
Selection
Sweetwater has some specialty items others don't carry. For example, some people mentioned the Kemper Profiling Amp (a modeler) yesterday in another thread, and I believe Sweetwater is the only US source. But they don't t have quite as broad a selection of the stuff that I normally shop for (or gas about LoL).
I think Sweetwater is trying to find a market niche that works for them, and their current combination of personal sales engineers, pricing, and selection is probably what works best for them at the moment.
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I have purchased from Sweetwater:
Super Champ XD
Roland Cube 40
Fender Blacktop Strat
The pricing on the Fenders were competitive at the time I bought them with free shipping. In the case of the Blacktop Strat it was 100 less than GC or MF.
Everytime they've called ahead of shipping to make sure they were shipping what I ordered. Nice - in this day of online fraud.
Only TINY issue I had was when I bought the XD. The preamp/inverter 12ax7 was microphonic. I told the rep this and he sounded very confused. He didn't know what I meant. No biggie. I solved it myself and had fun trying different tubes in the process.
Sweetwater is good. I have had MF and GC both "overlook orders" for over a week, after stating that an item was in stock.
BTW, my Strat came from Sweetwater to CA in 5 days.
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