Buying Guitars Mail-order or On-line, do ya?

[junplugged]

Great replies, very interesting, and it looks like most, so far, are saying that they do buy on-line. I bet that's not the same in other groups of people who aren't together on the internet, I guess since we're all here, and technical to a degree, that it would make sense that a lot of us are getting guitars shipped to us.

The companies are doing well, I'm guessing, since they're still around and have good stock in the instruments.

I've gotten plenty of gear this way, just not an instrument, so that's the one thing I think is different since it's not quite the same as all the other stuff...rack stuff, cables, strings, duplicates of stuff already owned, capos, effects, etc.

The only other thing that I can think of at the moment that's more like an instrument is a mic. It's good to try those too, but I've found that only a few stores carry what I'm looking for. And with cheap mics, it's ok. Also I was able to return a mic recently, not even b/c it was bad, but b/c I saw a combo deal they had w/ a pre that I didn't know about so I got the one included in the combo....

 

[Flamin Lip]

If you do your research on the vendor and the model of guitar youre buying, you stand an EXCELLENT chance of getting a great guitar that will make you happy for years.

BUT......Ive played great strats and dog strat.....killer LPs and rag LPs. To say that a guitar doesnt really "speak " differently from another of the same model, is just wrong. I dont have room for a guitar that Im not necessarily in love with. So I enjoy the thrill of the hunt(locally) even if it cost me more money(which it never has!).

No mail order brides for this guy!

 

[Hard2Hear]

Electric, yes. Acoustic, no.

I only buy the big names. Say what you will, but I can make a Gibson electric great if it isn't perfect to begin with. Big deal. An electric guitar is very simple to make sound and play really good. But I only get models I am familiar with to begin with.

Acoustics, even in big names, vary guitar to guitar...even within the same exact model...because the wood is much more a part of the sound and feel of it. And wood is natural and it is not ever going to be the same one example to the next. And they are alot harder to make sound good if they don't start out that way.

H2H

 

[philboyd studge]

Electrics yes, acoustics no, with the exception of the occasional used acoustic and only after a lot of conversation with the seller.

 

[gvarko]

As long as you know what your buying...

And expect to perform a setup / string change on used models it is a great option.. I have purchased and sold over a dozen with no problems at all!!

 

[junplugged]

Well, I have one good story I know a guy who even got a surprise gift from the wife of a Rick 12 string from MF. He didn't like the action and wasn't sure what it was that would have to be adjusted, so they said, buy another one, compare them both and send back one or both. He did like the second one and sent back the first one and is really happy with it. It was also his first shipped encounter, he said they were great over the phone, so I was impressed.

I think it was around $1100.

 

[scrubs]

I've only purchased one guitar online. It was a new, mid-level Fender acoustic-electric. This was about 5 years ago (from MF). I had gone to bunches of music stores and that one always stood out from a sound/feel standpoint (same model played at 3 or more stores -- all sounded great to me). I suppose I could have asked the music stores to pricematch the online retailer (about $300 cheaper), but I guess it did not occur to me at the time. The guitar arrived in perfect shape, looked and sounded great. I got a good tech to do a setup because I wanted heavier strings than came with it. I am extremely satisfied with the purchase.

That being said, if I was buying a higher-end acoustic guitar (>$1000), I would probably want to try it out first. Cheapo acoustics, and any electrics, I would have no problem buying online.

My vote: I would (and have) bought online for the sake of convenience and would do it again.

 

[Flamin Lip]

No offense to MF, AMS, sweetwater................but keep your money local(whenever possible). Otherwise in 5 years, you wont be able to run out and get a set of emergency strings before your gig because all the locals will be closed down! 90% of em match cat./net pricing anyway.

 

[apl]

No offense to MF, AMS, sweetwater................but keep your money local(whenever possible). Otherwise in 5 years, you wont be able to run out and get a set of emergency strings before your gig because all the locals will be closed down! 90% of em match cat./net pricing anyway.

Or you could order several sets at once from MF, and reorder when you're down to one set...

 

[junplugged]

No offense to MF, AMS, sweetwater................but keep your money local(whenever possible). Otherwise in 5 years, you wont be able to run out and get a set of emergency strings before your gig because all the locals will be closed down! 90% of em match cat./net pricing anyway.

That is a good point, I do go local when I actually want (need?) something. But there's stuff that I get on-line that just isn't available locally. Especially mics we talk about here, but the ones that are, I did get locally. I got my first 2 locally.

And my real guitar purchases I got locally. And my digital recorder, and a lot of stuff, actually most of the stuff that is available both, I go local.

I do see the same prices for the same stuff, especially at GC, they pretty much match up w/ MF.

Sometimes some stuff on-line only is stuff that's so cheap, and unavailable locally, that I wouldn't actually even be buying if it wasn't so cheap becuase I don't even need it. Anyone else do that?

But stuff that was cheap and unavailable was $50 berry patch bay (unbal) or my Berry Tube Q, or my Art VLA, or my Berry B5.

I didn't and wouldn't get monitors, I figure they're fragile, amps too. Some stuff that's really complex and I have no experience with them to know if they're working correctly or not, I would have to get locally.

 

[junplugged]

I can't believe how many times I used the word: stuff. Where's my brain today?

 

[bongolation]

I've bought a ton of guitars and basses by mail order and have only had a couple of bum ones.

If there is something objectively defective about an instrument, almost all big outfits will take it back shipping-paid for replacement, so there is no risk. If you just don't like it, you can send it back at your expense, which is around $30.

I buy online, I buy at store sales. The only thing I don't buy is any gear that is not at super discount.

I just had an acoustic guitar from Musician's Friend survive a catastrophic failure of the packing inside a UPS truck, but that's another issue. Got dumped out square on the floor, if you can believe it!

 

[ibanezrocks]

Or you could order several sets at once from MF, and reorder when you're down to one set...

But you won't know which guitars are good anymore not being able to try them out at the store first...

 

[bongolation]

No offense to MF, AMS, sweetwater................but keep your money local(whenever possible). Otherwise in 5 years, you wont be able to run out and get a set of emergency strings before your gig because all the locals will be closed down! 90% of em match cat./net pricing anyway.

I wish that were true.

Until recently, my local Guitar Center would instantly match any delivered Internet price with an out-the-door, after-tax store price, but now they don't have the selection, as GC has a whole lot of identical stock (for example, when the Dirnt basses finally came in, they got five black ones - no other colors and they won't reorder until these are gone and nobody wants that color). If that's a local management problem or a result of a chainwide policy, I dunno, but it's a killer. What the non-chain places have is even more limited.

So...now I just buy super-closeout stuff at GC when the price is too good to pass up on gear I might have some use for, amps that cost too much to ship and nothing else.

There's just no way to match online price and selection.

If you don't like the axe, spend $30 and send it back. If it's actually defective, send it back free. Buying online's slow, but I'm the king of deferred gratification.

 

[mcmd]

Bought an MIA Strat and MIA P-bass from MF. No problems and saved major $$...
A friend of mine bought a Taylor acoustic and hasn't complained....
You should know what you are buying! If you can test drive a couple at a local store and satisfy youself that the genaral build quailty is there...then if the online price is good ....it's a good bet...good luck.

/mcmd

 

[junplugged]

Well, I just ordered a super dirt cheap semi for $129. I don't know how that's even possible but it also had about 60 reveiws, 9/10 positive so I went for it. We'll see....

 

[bongolation]

Bought an MIA Strat and MIA P-bass from MF. No problems...If you can test drive a couple at a local store and satisfy youself that the genaral build quailty is there...

There's no predicting Fender build quality from one instrument to the next. The worst lemons I've ever bought online were MIA Fenders, and the variation in MIM quality is even more erratic. It's a real risk. I recently examined five identical Dirnt basses from a single shipment. One was excellent, two were so-so and two were absolutely defective junk.

FMIC is not alone in this problem either. Don't even get me started on Gibson.

As I've said, you can send back bad product at MF's expense, so it's not a big worry, but assuming QC is going to be the same between something you saw in a store and another piece somewhere else is just asking for it.

 

[MadAudio]

Well, I just ordered a super dirt cheap semi for $129. I don't know how that's even possible but it also had about 60 reveiws, 9/10 positive so I went for it. We'll see....

Which one? Was it the Oscar Schmidt?

bongolation - you do know that GC and MF are the same company, yes?

 

[bongolation]

Which one? Was it the Oscar Schmidt?

If so, that instrument was going for $119.99 last time I looked at the MF site, down from $129.99.

The price has changed again. All colors were $119.99 a week or two back, but MF specials are extremely volatile, prices sometimes changing as much as twice in one day.

bongolation - you do know that GC and MF are the same company, yes?

I know that they are entirely separate companies owned by the same parent corporation, yes, but why is this significant?

 

[MadAudio]

I know that they are entirely separate companies owned by the same parent corporation, yes, but why is this significant?

Not significant. I was just wondering.