Thomann Affiliate: www.thomann.de/intl/index.html?offid=1&affid=3210 ML Sound Lab: ml-sound-lab.com/ Sweetwater Affiliate: sweetwater.sjv.io/k0mGvx My personal Thomann recommendations: thmn.to/thocf/cv37zixo68 My webstore for Captures, presets etc: ko-fi.com/sonicdrivestudio
I agree that any instrument approaching or exceeding $1,500 should be flawless or near flawless. I once bought a Schecter Apocalypse from SweetWater that arrived with multiple cosmetic issues, intonation problems, sprouted frets, damaged hardware, and frets that were FLAT (no crown and visible tooling marks). It blew my mind that a guitar priced above 1k could even ship in that condition. Any faith I had in SweetWater’s “quality inspection” was shaken, too. This was my first “big” guitar purchase as a young adult and it really bummed me out.
If that guitar has a few cosmetic issues already, scratch it some more, put a few more dents in it and resell it as Sonic Drive Studio Lab LTD for $7000
I bought many guitars at different price levels and get some very good set-ups and sometime very bad, even on very expensive instruments. The main thing is that it forced me to learn about neck set-up, pickups, vibrato, electronic for a guitar, intonation (and youtube helped a lot) … which is part, to me, of the guitarist journey too 🙂
The setup is super important. When a new player or someone who doesn't understand much about what's going on with a guitar gets a badly setup one, it may cause them to give up guitar all together. They may not understand why it plays and/or sounds like crap, or that it can even be fixed. They may think they are the sole problem. That can be the ultimate in discouragement. Information like this can hopefully help some people become happier players. Nice job John :)
I've bought a few guitars from the Gibson Demo Shop on Reverb and those guitars have been setup properly and I've had zero issues from them. The only issue I've had was an Ibanez Iceman 420 that I bought from Sweetwater when they were first released. It was obvious that they never set them up prior to shipping but that's expected from a guitar made in China and sold by a big company like Sweetwater. Lucky for me I know how to set up a guitar and have the tools to do it but I can see how a new guitarist or kid would be disappointed.
I've gotten 4 bad guitars in a row from Sweetwater over the last 6 months. (3 Schecters and a US PRS) 1st was a Schecter BlackJack SLS C-1 FR-S........the sustainiac pickup was completely dead (nope, not the battery). 2nd was a Schecter C1 SLS Custom with a twisted neck. 3rd was the overnighted replacement for the SLS Custom and that one had the same neck twist. The most recent was a PRS CE DW Floyd with horrible wiring. The split coil didn't work and 5th position (full neck) didn't work at all. There were 2 disconnected wires and the rest had very shoddy solder points. The replacement PRS (just received last week) so far seems solid and no wiring issue.
With the twisting, is it that the side of the neck with the lower strings is "bowed" a little bit more, so twisted in that direction? I've seen that exact thing twice recently
@@SonicDriveStudio Actually the twist was on the high string side. So if you held the body up level to your eyes and looked down the neck, the headstock (on both) tilted to the right. (Severely on the first one, not quite as bad on the second) but it extended up the neck past the scarf joint.
I bought a Schecter that had some really strange tuning stability issues. I’ve been playing guitar for a long time so I recognized it pretty much immediately. It was something unlike any experience I’ve had before. Turns out the neck wasn’t bolted on all the way. As in I could actually slide a business card into the neck pocket and I could see right through the space. Because of this the neck actually moved. I can’t believe this passed QC at the factory and I can’t believe that the company I bought it from didn’t notice. It was a $900 guitar so I expected better
@@SonicDriveStudio Might have been but I could not get the screws to move. After a couple emails I sent it back as defective. I hear a lot of good things about Schecter so this really surprised me. I just assumed it was the universe telling me not to buy that guitar
I bought a schecter apocalypse floyd a couple years ago and after having it a few months, as I was setting it up, I realized when I had my neck relief straight on the high side, it was bowed on the low end. Long story short, I sent it back, and they said that yes, the neck was twisted. They sent me a new one and it is absolutely fantastic. I think it made it better that at that point, I was outside of the time frame to return to the seller, so I dealt directly with Schecter. I've returned an ibanez premium for being screwed up before. I have a small suspicion that the online store I shop from gets b stock. But they offer free financing, and they always make it right in the end, so 🤷
@@dimerocks123 Had a Suhr for 10 years and couldn’t get the neck adjusted right. It needed to go a particular direction and the adjustment was maxed. Exchanged some emails with Suhr and ended up sending it to them and they got it all set up and it’s been perfect ever since. I know that Suhr’s are expensive but they stand behind their product like no other company I’ve seen
VERY important content... This should be a first video, every aspiring guitarist should watch. I am sure, EVERYONE had experience of buying first guitar (or second,) and have a bittersweet feeling about it.
This is awesome. The problem of bring the instrument to a luthier to fix, is that not all countries have easy access to that. In my example I tend to fix them myself because I dont have a local luthier.
I totally agree with you! I've already bought and returned many guitars to Thomann due to quality issues, from different brands. Some of them were really disappointing, and the worst, I had waited way too long to receive them-over a year! And when they finally arrived, there were quality issues like cracks in the paint, a cracked neck, and poor neck joints, all of them were at least over 1200 EUR. Personally, I believe that any guitar priced over 1000 EUR should undergo quality control by the seller as well. Unfortunately, many of the big resellers rely 100% on the manufacturers, meaning they don't perform any checks themselves-they just resell the products without even looking at them. When I asked for a check before shipping (which I've done after experiencing these issues), they wanted to charge around 60 EUR for it. In my opinion, that's a really bad business model. So, I sent the guitars back and didn't purchase them again.
In over 20 guitars bought online, the only one that I would have send back was a high-spec M2M Balaguer that cost around 2400$ (flaws: large gaps (~1mm) sided to side and asymmetrically cut neck pocket, triple ply binding that sometimes was 2 ply because parts were painted over some times, a scratch plate that did not fit but was forceably screwed onto the body anyways, painting imperfections,...). But best they could do was 100$ off the guitar and a T-shirt. From that I learned that I can not trust smaller builders and will not do so again.
I could write a whole essay about this... Last year, a bought a Strandberg Boden NX6 Trem for 1.700€. The trem was defunct out of the box and did not move at all, it had scratches on the lower cutaway and a lot of the fret ends had black markings. I returned it and Strandberg even accused me of making these scratches, lucky i made some photos asap after unboxing it, which i had to send to them. This year, i bought a Schecter Reaper 6 Elite FR S for almost 2.000€, because the company has a good reputation price/quality wise. Well: - Even after spending a lot of time setting the guitar up, it can not achive the same buzzfree string action on the upper and lower frets like the other cheap-ish guitars i have at the moment, not even with the truss rod being close to loose - The Tremblock/Springs rub on the backplate when using the vibrato to both sides - The Tone and Volume Poti Knobs are like 3mm above the guitar body, what is up with that? - The vibrato arm housing of the FR 1500 is so tight that even when loosening the grub screw it is impossible to insert/remove the arm without scratching the lower part of the arm - The fret ends, especially on the 1st to 7th fret, should be treated better, they are not super sharp, but definitely not better than those on my much less expensive guitars -Same goes for the fret finish/polish, even though it has stainless steel frets, they are not properly polished, not super scratchy but far from smooth, just like on my other guitars
Over the last few years I’ve seen a local shop send back entire shipments from a well-known brand, then a year later heard that they got their QC issues in line. I’ve seen that same story over and over again throughout the years. A problem is that people want cognitive ease and simple answers; if they see a guitar from a brand that is poorly made, that brand is forever bad, or the trust is hard to earn afterwards. If they have a “cheap” guitar that isn’t great and spend more and have a good experience, that solidifies a “throw money at it” mindset, which falls apart in so many ways. Also, so much gear has started as budget options, then suddenly they’re sought after and the price skyrockets. I think the best way to approach things is to try and stay open-minded and objective on a case by case basis. QC ALWAYS comes and goes in waves. There isn’t a brand that I’m aware of that has been faultless throughout their time. How they’ve handled it and made things right is something to consider, but I really try to view every guitar I get my hands on without baggage of the brand’s history.
The 55 point Sweetwater inspection has been a joke to me, at best they open it to put the card and candy in it. I don't know why I am ok with the factory sending them to dealers with set up needed but it bugs me less than buying from a dealer that IMHO should be setting them up. I bought 2 Evertune guitars from SW that get the 55 point inspection that showed up w/o the action set up or the correct tuning for Evertune.
I've heard Sweetwater was purchased by a private equity firm a lil while back. I'm starting to wonder if that 55 pt inspection is the first casualty of said new ownership.
Truss rods always seem to be slightly off when buy a guitar. I think, even if the guitar was set up, the temp changes cause the neck to move and the action is typically affected by the neck relief. Price and expectations of what is acceptable is variable. Cheap guitars I will likely be doing some mod work anyway. Fret work is the most I will do for a guitar under $500, assuming it is minor leveling and not a refret situation. If the guitar is $1k or more, bad frets are just a dealbreaker. Most cosmetic issues I can deal with assuming it isn’t actual damage. Once we get into the $2k and up range, I would expect no cosmetic blemishes or sloppy finish work without asking for a b-stock discount.
I had several PRS SEs and Epiphone LPs coming in with major flaws that i need to sent back immediately. Beginning after Corona it is that Guitars doubled in price and dropped QC about 50%. I have 1 JET JS-400 Guitar for 175 EUR that is totally perfect and even never goes out of tune since it got unboxed, recently i aquired a JET JS-700 MBK for a very good Price of 345 EUR but it came with every second fret loose, managed to hammer them back in, but 2 Frets are still a bit high but don't interfere with playing, the Locking Tuners had partly some play in them, 3-way Toggle was broke. But because of no fret sprout and after fixing the frets the Guitar played and looked fine, very great resonance, i contacted the Shop and told them either i sent it back or after fixing the frets i could would take care of exchanging the broken Toggle Switch and the crappy Locking Tuners for a nice discount. So they agreed on a good discount and i got the Guitar for 265 EUR. Now i have a great playing Guitar with everything fixed for around 300 EUR total. But if you cannot even fix the smallest problems yourself these kind of Guitars are really unacceptable!
I started playing in the early 2000's. For the first 10-15 years I played my experience was the USA made fender guitars would reliably be great instruments out of the box. Never had to worry about setup/fretwork/playability/anything. in the past 10ish years every USA made fender I've picked up that wasn't custom shop has felt awful. I understand setups can be done, but when i'm paying close to 2k for an instrument I shouldn't expect sharp fret ends and to NEED to get a thorough setup done to make it playable.
Its part and parcel of the days we live in... instead of checking whether the thing is good to go before sending it... they let that person send it back if they have an issue and they'll send a new one in replacement
Quality content, as per usual. Nice work. In the USA, I believe Sweetwater is the best online retailer. I've purchased 3 guitars in the $1100-$1600 USD price range and all were setup perfectly. They inspect and run a setup process on all guitars.
I personally think this is indeed the case actually. least its a lot more apparent in the lower end ($750 lower) to mid range models($1500-$750) in my findings. I have never had issues with my pricey guitars for the most part ($2k+). That being said the main QC issues that get my attention are ones that affect play-ability and require specialized tools to address. Fret sprout/leveling, badly cut nuts, bad soldering work, tuning instability that cant be solved (the worst of them all!), etc etc. Most of my guitars are north of $1200 CAD, so I am very much particular about flaws. Cosmetic flaws I am more flexible provided its not super large dents or chips especially in the neck. I would accept dings if its a good b-stock deal. But north of $2000 (arguably even $1500)? I do expect perfection and would not settle for less. If there are issues with truss rods or I notice bad nuts I do not hesitate to return an instrument at all. Those are issues that can potentially have no recourse or are time consuming and expensive to have fixed. These issues in a new guitar especially are unacceptable. My ESP M-II Roselia almost made me do this but I figured it out, the answer was patience and letting it acclimate more! It has a one way truss rod and the relief is so low but it still has incredible action, the truss rod is barely engaged on that thing yet plays like butter, Its an anomaly! Great video and this is one of my favorite points of discussion when it comes to guitar purchases and what players are willing to settle for in terms of quality.
I recently special ordered a new Reverend guitar, who is known for their QC, and the frets were so sharp it was unplayable. There’s no way the neck got checked before it was shipped. I fixed it myself.
If I buy a guitar it just have to be good and I have to feel happy. It doesn't have to be expensive. I bought a used Baby Z from Dean Guitars because it just felt so well, it resonates very well and after a set up it is still a really good guitar that I like. Generally I'm making a set up, with new guitars, new strings, some adjustments and a sound check. Sometimes I have to adjust the pickup hight and also the pole screws to get the sound I like. I think no matter what guitar you buy, everything had to be well done without any issues. An expensive guitar normally will be in a higher quality as a cheap one, but both should be without any issues and it has to make funn to play these guitars.
I have two evh wolfgang specials, £1000+ guitars, and both came with switches that didn’t work properly which caused me some anxiety. I replaced the switches with switchcraft ones and now the guitars are perfect and I love them. I shouldn’t have had to do that on guitars of that price but I’m glad I sorted them out as I now have two great guitars that I truly love.
I bought an Ibanez Premium RG not that long ago. I live in Australia, and they wanted $2000 for it. That's about the price of the entry level Prestiges, so it wasn't exactly cheap. The frets weren't seated properly, there were 4 frets that would move when pressed down. I dunno how that passed QC. Ibanez took it back and sent me a new one which was perfect, no complaints, very nice guitar, but a total lemon managed to make it past QC.
I have 2 Solar guitars. >1200 euro guitars. Both needed 300 worth of fretwotk leveling and adjustments. Which makes the gap to let's say a Hapas smaller and smaller.
I fix all the issues myself. I have only had to send two guitars back to the manufacture and it was due to one with a neck twist and the other had an over sized neck pocket causing the neck to be loose no matter how tight the screws were.
I paid 3k (Australian) for an e-ii eclipse. First one had a twisted neck and even the replacement has some finish imperfections, a dodgy selector switch and the nut is a bit average. It's nitpicky stuff but for that money you expect something to be pretty much perfect but nowadays thats not what you get.
I just bought a used 2023 LP 60s Standard, and the shop spent an hour setting it up for me. So many nice used guitars out there that you can see in hand before you buy it... Unless you are going truly custom, there is no point in buying sight-unseen. Guitars aren't rare...
I definitely don’t think they HAVE TO set guitars up, but I think it’s a competitive advantage to give that extra layer of personal touch and reassurance at every price point except maybe under £100. If I buy a guitar at £400 and it’s just had a quick bit of TLC and fret polishing, I’m going to be shouting to the rooftops about how good value for money it is
The last 4 guitars I've gotten (Schecter, Ibanez, Solar) have all had really bad fret sprout. It's so bad that the fret tang is making visible lines in the side of the fretboard. These issues are present right out of the box in my humidity controlled room. Real big bummer when you're spending over 1k on a new instrument. It's disheartening when I keep hearing review channels sing the praises of quality control for these brands but i've never seen it myself.
With my first salary I wanted to buy à Gibson. I went to the store, check a Gibson sg, but I wanted one completely new, nobody else before me ever touched it, so I asked for another Gibson in stock. When I played it home, it was a mess: bad sounding, twisted neck, even the case had issues…so I asked to switch for the one I checked in the store. Now I always check what I buy if possible.
It depends for me. I think that, when something is mass produced, it’s harder to smoothen out all manufacturing flaws. There is just a standard deviation in those machines where they produce a small amount of errors. I understand that, at a certain price point, these are not caught by QC. Nonetheless, to me, flaws that are detrimental to playing the instrument are always a problem. When you buy an instrument, it’s fair to expect it plays okay. I’ve bought expensive and rather cheap guitars with high frets or badly cut nuts like nobody’s business. I think that’s never acceptable. But a flaw in the finish, for example, I can understand at certain price points. And no, I don’t think this is something that’s only of our time. At least not in the guitar world. If anything, I’d think there’s less flaws in guitars…depending how you would define a “flaw”. All Gibson les Paul standards nowadays would have almost the same neck, whereas in the 50s they would widely differ. I’d say, we’ve just become used to guitars always playing and feeling more or less the same, a flaw just catches your eye very quickly. And my god, back in the 90s you wouldn’t be able to buy anything half decent under 600-700 bucks.
In my opinion any guitar $3K and up should be flawless - no excuses whatsoever - also customer service is extremely important - I've given up on certain brands just due to poor customer service experiences alone - If I'm spending several thousand dollars on an instrument I expect them to promptly address any issues - it sucks because every time we have to ship the guitar there's a chance of further damage etc. I recently bought a custom Kiesel that was over $4K and there are chunks of wood that have just popped off the spalted maple top due to insufficient finish... That will be my last purchase from them
It's most important to make sure it's possible to send it back and get a refund when buying a guitar online. My most expensive is a ~2200€ Duesenberg Caribou Stardust which is certainly an unusual choice for a heavy player, i bought it online and the binding at the headstock is a bit flawed which really shouldn't be at that price but everything else is exceptional quality and the guitar works so insanely well that i don't really care. Also got an Indonesian LTD H3-1007B i paid 1200€ online and when i'm picky the 3rd fret is a bit pokey but it's not really bad. Compared to the Duesenberg the saddle and pots are inferior quality on the LTD which is much more "issue" when playing it. Still a nicely made guitar overall, no cosmetic issues. But i think there's lots of good guitars out there, even at lower prices.
i agree 100% i bout a guitar after 3 the guitar cracked next to the nick, and its 20 radius and i i don't now how to adjust the action. i love the guitar so much but that qc action thing is killing me. i even contacted the factory the gave me the wrong action set up, if anyone know what the coarct action for Jackson us misha 6 plz wright it
Going through this now. I’m in the market for an LTD EC-1000. Now I have already have one from years ago. That is Korea made and it’s perfectly fine. But I have had friends who bought Indonesia Made LTD’s and they had nightmare issues. The problem is… 85% of all NEW LTD models are being made in Indonesia because they moved their main factory to Indonesia. So I am having trouble finding one through the big sellers that is Korea made. Some people may not mind this as John mentioned. But for me… if I am spending $1300 on a guitar I want to make sure it’s made where I trust it will be quality. This truly is unfortunate because ESP’s that are Japan made are FLAWLESS 👌🏼 but you’re talking twice the price of NICE LTD. So it’s expected for LTD to be somewhat less quality than an ESP. BUT I just really think it was a horrible decision for LTD to switch the majority of their guitars to be made now in Indonesia. Because it used to be their $4-500 guitars were made in Indonesia and there $1000 and up (Deluxe Models) were made in Korea. So it’s definitely causing me some fear in receiving one made in Indonesia. Because for $1300 the guitar should be perfect minus needing a good setup done of course. And it’s not an easy process personally calling each distributor and making sure the one I will order will in fact be made in Korea. But thank you John for bringing this up… this is definitely a great discussion topic and certainly a common issue in today’s guitar industry.
"Made in Japan" Ibanez RG550 reissue has wonky 5 way switch (loss of signal) and I know other 2x RG550 that have this issue. I had to replace mine with Gotoh and 0 issue for a year feel sturdier. Obviously the original 90s RG550 has much better switch.
It's not just guitars. It's nearly every product. Have you looked at or purchased footwear recently? Recycled plastics used for athletic shoes is garbage even for well known quality brands,( plastics degrade after single use) don't even get me started on the fact that every footwear manufacturer is using ineffective adhesives to attach soles, all the brands have soles that are detaching and are barely reliable beyond 6 months of just daily office or road walking use. The sole materials are thinner and wear out or break off in chunks within 60 days in some cases. Companies need to make a profit, but not at the expense of QC . Once the word is out they may likely have burned the customer bridge and they will soon go under. Ripe for the picking of some private equity firm looking to continue selling products as a lifestyle brand and then "pump and dump" when they've used up the company name and write off any loss.
Do you think a $150 guitar should have a perfect finish? If you're saying there's no excuse, I have to ask...have you ever finished a guitar before? Building a guitar isn't easy, especially to get to high standards. But some finishing is so difficult that a luthier will tell you that finishing itself is it's own adventure...possibly as hard as anything on a build. Figuring out the proper materials and methods can take lots of trial and error. And then there's time...and there could be LOTS of time spent on certain finishes. I've built a few guitars now, and the finish is still something I've yet to absolutely perfect, but still working.
@ Should a $150 guitar try to have double binding with a burst and a stinger on the headstock with a nitro finish? Clearly not. But it should absolutely go with and be able to maintain a high quality finish for that price range. To me, it’s like saying it’s okay for some cars to have insane panel gap and spotty paint jobs. Which is never okay at any price.
I see you have a lot of tube amps, so what’s your favorite, and which speaker do you use the most in general? I need a new tube amp head for my new Hesu Demon cab
My opinion is, that any guitar, no matter the price, should be flawless. Flawless in terms of functionality and setup. Of course you will always tweak your setup to your liking, but Jon, a guitar should be 100% set up in terms of intonation in regards to the used string gauge. But... they aren't. Got 1800 bucks schecters, 1600 bucks fenders... and they all were literally unplayable. OK, I'm an experienced player and can do the setup. But a beginner will be stuck with a shitty instrument that costs a fortune... not acceptable...cosmetic flaws? Not acceptable at all in my opinion. Even for a 500 euro instrument... I mean, that's 1000 marks, right😂
Honestly, anything over 500$ shouldn't have any uneven, scratchy frets. Accidents can happen, but generally QC is really shit nowadays. I bought a 2500$ guitar made in the US and it was more fucked up than a 700$ Epiphone made in China (which was actually pretty ok, i only needed to set up the tross rod a little). .
I would lower the flawless price down to 1200. There shouldn't be much of a difference between a 1200 dollar guitar and a 1500 dollar guitar other than stuff like pickups or stainless steel frets. If it's 1000 dollars, maybe I'll allow a small cosmetic issue but only if it's not noticeable or not bad. Now a QC issue that should never be accepted and be taken back no matter the price is the routing on the bridge isn't installed correctly and is crooked. This affects playability and tuning stability and in my opinion, that's lazy craftsmanship or someone who doesn't know what they're doing. Anything that affects playability and tuning stability should always be returned. Bad frets can be one too.
It really had gone down hill. Ibanez is one of the worst. Horrible frets and uneven frets. And that’s mostly on all Ibanez guitars I’ve tried and ordered.
@@SonicDriveStudio totally agree but sometimes short term profits are all that matter to companies. I won’t buy another Schecter, or Sire but I doubt they’ll miss my business anyway
@nobodyimportant76467 interesting regarding Schecter, the ones I have are all amazing! On one I had to redo the ground on the bridge post but other than that they're really solid
I believe anything you spend your hard-earned money on should be great, whether it’s $100 or $5,000. That said, things happen, and humans make mistakes. As long as the company is willing to replace the item free of charge if they messed up, it’s not a big deal. Sure, it’s annoying, but if they’re helpful and make things right, then they get a pass in my book.
I had a ibanez ehb1506ms for 1899 dollar came with 9 fretboard cracks told myself i am never ever buying asian made instruments again. So i went with warwick basses and they are nothing but flawless since they are handmade and same people building their proline and customshop so u know u get high end quality
I expect it from a factory (under 700,-) Issues i mean, but from a dealer, no! And issues on a famous American brand that are overpriced, no. I expect a guitar from 1500,- to be pretty much perfect, from every brand.
After seeing and playing on garbage guitars produced by Gibson, PRS, Suhr, Tom Anderson, Kiesel... I don't see any point in buying the premium segment guitars anymore. Sure, not all guitars produced under these brands have obvious QC issues, but there are enough of them and they all are definitely very overpriced. A much more reasonable option for me was to buy a set of luthier tools, purchase quality Chinese guitars and make them perfect myself. It's not hard, everybody can do it with a little practice. And it will save you a lot of time and money.
it’s never acceptable. the expensive ones should be pristine and already setup. the cheapest ones still shouldn’t have any cosmetic damage or flaws but you gotta setup yourself or at a shop.
Na, I'm never buying a new guitar again... for less than a grand ist always bad... (frets, nut and stability.) And the wood used nowadays supposed to be "mahogany" it's always the cheap Asian alternative that sound muffled no matter what. So I learned to do fret leveling, refrets nuts and shooting lacquer and now for the price of an epiphone or a prs se, I can build myself a gibby or a core. (Real african mahogany a a real nice flamed maple top.).
If you buy something and it’s not right send it back. So tired of hearing about quality control. News flash. It’s nothing new. There’s rotten guitars from every era. 😄
I think super cheap and mid range guitars are better than ever but expensive guitars are sometimes hit and miss. I paid for a full plek on the last new guitar i bought online PRS SE Hollowbody Piezo which arrived perfect with super low action with no buzzing. It actually plays better than my USA PRS Core Custom 24 which was the best playing guitar i owned until the SE came. No idea what the guitar would have been like without the plek
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I agree that any instrument approaching or exceeding $1,500 should be flawless or near flawless. I once bought a Schecter Apocalypse from SweetWater that arrived with multiple cosmetic issues, intonation problems, sprouted frets, damaged hardware, and frets that were FLAT (no crown and visible tooling marks). It blew my mind that a guitar priced above 1k could even ship in that condition. Any faith I had in SweetWater’s “quality inspection” was shaken, too. This was my first “big” guitar purchase as a young adult and it really bummed me out.
I'm sorry to hear about that. Fortunately my Apocalypse is one of the best guitars in my collection...
If that guitar has a few cosmetic issues already, scratch it some more, put a few more dents in it and resell it as Sonic Drive Studio Lab LTD for $7000
🤣
I bought many guitars at different price levels and get some very good set-ups and sometime very bad, even on very expensive instruments. The main thing is that it forced me to learn about neck set-up, pickups, vibrato, electronic for a guitar, intonation (and youtube helped a lot) … which is part, to me, of the guitarist journey too 🙂
This is engagement. I like these "rant" videos
The setup is super important. When a new player or someone who doesn't understand much about what's going on with a guitar gets a badly setup one, it may cause them to give up guitar all together. They may not understand why it plays and/or sounds like crap, or that it can even be fixed. They may think they are the sole problem. That can be the ultimate in discouragement.
Information like this can hopefully help some people become happier players. Nice job John :)
I've bought a few guitars from the Gibson Demo Shop on Reverb and those guitars have been setup properly and I've had zero issues from them. The only issue I've had was an Ibanez Iceman 420 that I bought from Sweetwater when they were first released. It was obvious that they never set them up prior to shipping but that's expected from a guitar made in China and sold by a big company like Sweetwater. Lucky for me I know how to set up a guitar and have the tools to do it but I can see how a new guitarist or kid would be disappointed.
I've gotten 4 bad guitars in a row from Sweetwater over the last 6 months. (3 Schecters and a US PRS) 1st was a Schecter BlackJack SLS C-1 FR-S........the sustainiac pickup was completely dead (nope, not the battery). 2nd was a Schecter C1 SLS Custom with a twisted neck. 3rd was the overnighted replacement for the SLS Custom and that one had the same neck twist. The most recent was a PRS CE DW Floyd with horrible wiring. The split coil didn't work and 5th position (full neck) didn't work at all. There were 2 disconnected wires and the rest had very shoddy solder points. The replacement PRS (just received last week) so far seems solid and no wiring issue.
With the twisting, is it that the side of the neck with the lower strings is "bowed" a little bit more, so twisted in that direction? I've seen that exact thing twice recently
@@SonicDriveStudio Actually the twist was on the high string side. So if you held the body up level to your eyes and looked down the neck, the headstock (on both) tilted to the right. (Severely on the first one, not quite as bad on the second) but it extended up the neck past the scarf joint.
Sapwood crap
I bought a Schecter that had some really strange tuning stability issues. I’ve been playing guitar for a long time so I recognized it pretty much immediately. It was something unlike any experience I’ve had before. Turns out the neck wasn’t bolted on all the way. As in I could actually slide a business card into the neck pocket and I could see right through the space. Because of this the neck actually moved. I can’t believe this passed QC at the factory and I can’t believe that the company I bought it from didn’t notice. It was a $900 guitar so I expected better
Wow, luckily that was an easy fix. I will say that my recent Schecters have been really good in terms of QC with a minor exception here and there
@@SonicDriveStudio Might have been but I could not get the screws to move. After a couple emails I sent it back as defective. I hear a lot of good things about Schecter so this really surprised me. I just assumed it was the universe telling me not to buy that guitar
I bought a schecter apocalypse floyd a couple years ago and after having it a few months, as I was setting it up, I realized when I had my neck relief straight on the high side, it was bowed on the low end. Long story short, I sent it back, and they said that yes, the neck was twisted. They sent me a new one and it is absolutely fantastic. I think it made it better that at that point, I was outside of the time frame to return to the seller, so I dealt directly with Schecter. I've returned an ibanez premium for being screwed up before. I have a small suspicion that the online store I shop from gets b stock. But they offer free financing, and they always make it right in the end, so 🤷
@@dimerocks123 Had a Suhr for 10 years and couldn’t get the neck adjusted right. It needed to go a particular direction and the adjustment was maxed. Exchanged some emails with Suhr and ended up sending it to them and they got it all set up and it’s been perfect ever since. I know that Suhr’s are expensive but they stand behind their product like no other company I’ve seen
Seems to be common problem with a lot of newer guitars. Gonna upgrade my tuners on my Ibanez .Standard bridge
VERY important content... This should be a first video, every aspiring guitarist should watch.
I am sure, EVERYONE had experience of buying first guitar (or second,) and have a bittersweet feeling about it.
Thanks! I think in a lot of cases people don't even realise what's wrong with their instrument, and that sucks
@@SonicDriveStudio Yes... It's easier now, but 20+ years ago it was hell.
This is awesome. The problem of bring the instrument to a luthier to fix, is that not all countries have easy access to that. In my example I tend to fix them myself because I dont have a local luthier.
I totally agree with you! I've already bought and returned many guitars to Thomann due to quality issues, from different brands. Some of them were really disappointing, and the worst, I had waited way too long to receive them-over a year! And when they finally arrived, there were quality issues like cracks in the paint, a cracked neck, and poor neck joints, all of them were at least over 1200 EUR. Personally, I believe that any guitar priced over 1000 EUR should undergo quality control by the seller as well. Unfortunately, many of the big resellers rely 100% on the manufacturers, meaning they don't perform any checks themselves-they just resell the products without even looking at them. When I asked for a check before shipping (which I've done after experiencing these issues), they wanted to charge around 60 EUR for it. In my opinion, that's a really bad business model. So, I sent the guitars back and didn't purchase them again.
In over 20 guitars bought online, the only one that I would have send back was a high-spec M2M Balaguer that cost around 2400$ (flaws: large gaps (~1mm) sided to side and asymmetrically cut neck pocket, triple ply binding that sometimes was 2 ply because parts were painted over some times, a scratch plate that did not fit but was forceably screwed onto the body anyways, painting imperfections,...). But best they could do was 100$ off the guitar and a T-shirt. From that I learned that I can not trust smaller builders and will not do so again.
I could write a whole essay about this... Last year, a bought a Strandberg Boden NX6 Trem for 1.700€. The trem was defunct out of the box and did not move at all, it had scratches on the lower cutaway and a lot of the fret ends had black markings. I returned it and Strandberg even accused me of making these scratches, lucky i made some photos asap after unboxing it, which i had to send to them.
This year, i bought a Schecter Reaper 6 Elite FR S for almost 2.000€, because the company has a good reputation price/quality wise. Well:
- Even after spending a lot of time setting the guitar up, it can not achive the same buzzfree string action on the upper and lower frets like the other cheap-ish guitars i have at the moment, not even with the truss rod being close to loose
- The Tremblock/Springs rub on the backplate when using the vibrato to both sides
- The Tone and Volume Poti Knobs are like 3mm above the guitar body, what is up with that?
- The vibrato arm housing of the FR 1500 is so tight that even when loosening the grub screw it is impossible to insert/remove the arm without scratching the lower part of the arm
- The fret ends, especially on the 1st to 7th fret, should be treated better, they are not super sharp, but definitely not better than those on my much less expensive guitars
-Same goes for the fret finish/polish, even though it has stainless steel frets, they are not properly polished, not super scratchy but far from smooth, just like on my other guitars
Over the last few years I’ve seen a local shop send back entire shipments from a well-known brand, then a year later heard that they got their QC issues in line.
I’ve seen that same story over and over again throughout the years.
A problem is that people want cognitive ease and simple answers;
if they see a guitar from a brand that is poorly made, that brand is forever bad, or the trust is hard to earn afterwards.
If they have a “cheap” guitar that isn’t great and spend more and have a good experience, that solidifies a “throw money at it” mindset, which falls apart in so many ways.
Also, so much gear has started as budget options, then suddenly they’re sought after and the price skyrockets.
I think the best way to approach things is to try and stay open-minded and objective on a case by case basis.
QC ALWAYS comes and goes in waves. There isn’t a brand that I’m aware of that has been faultless throughout their time. How they’ve handled it and made things right is something to consider, but I really try to view every guitar I get my hands on without baggage of the brand’s history.
The 55 point Sweetwater inspection has been a joke to me, at best they open it to put the card and candy in it. I don't know why I am ok with the factory sending them to dealers with set up needed but it bugs me less than buying from a dealer that IMHO should be setting them up. I bought 2 Evertune guitars from SW that get the 55 point inspection that showed up w/o the action set up or the correct tuning for Evertune.
I've heard Sweetwater was purchased by a private equity firm a lil while back. I'm starting to wonder if that 55 pt inspection is the first casualty of said new ownership.
@@GregoryMerritt-o1f Nah, it wasn't really done before the purchase either.
Truss rods always seem to be slightly off when buy a guitar. I think, even if the guitar was set up, the temp changes cause the neck to move and the action is typically affected by the neck relief.
Price and expectations of what is acceptable is variable. Cheap guitars I will likely be doing some mod work anyway. Fret work is the most I will do for a guitar under $500, assuming it is minor leveling and not a refret situation. If the guitar is $1k or more, bad frets are just a dealbreaker. Most cosmetic issues I can deal with assuming it isn’t actual damage. Once we get into the $2k and up range, I would expect no cosmetic blemishes or sloppy finish work without asking for a b-stock discount.
I can definitely live with neck relief not being perfect, that just happens
I had several PRS SEs and Epiphone LPs coming in with major flaws that i need to sent back immediately. Beginning after Corona it is that Guitars doubled in price and dropped QC about 50%. I have 1 JET JS-400 Guitar for 175 EUR that is totally perfect and even never goes out of tune since it got unboxed, recently i aquired a JET JS-700 MBK for a very good Price of 345 EUR but it came with every second fret loose, managed to hammer them back in, but 2 Frets are still a bit high but don't interfere with playing, the Locking Tuners had partly some play in them, 3-way Toggle was broke. But because of no fret sprout and after fixing the frets the Guitar played and looked fine, very great resonance, i contacted the Shop and told them either i sent it back or after fixing the frets i could would take care of exchanging the broken Toggle Switch and the crappy Locking Tuners for a nice discount. So they agreed on a good discount and i got the Guitar for 265 EUR. Now i have a great playing Guitar with everything fixed for around 300 EUR total. But if you cannot even fix the smallest problems yourself these kind of Guitars are really unacceptable!
Thank you for tips, especially how to check nut height! Ordered my first relatively expensive guitar from major online store, wish me luck 😁
I started playing in the early 2000's. For the first 10-15 years I played my experience was the USA made fender guitars would reliably be great instruments out of the box. Never had to worry about setup/fretwork/playability/anything.
in the past 10ish years every USA made fender I've picked up that wasn't custom shop has felt awful. I understand setups can be done, but when i'm paying close to 2k for an instrument I shouldn't expect sharp fret ends and to NEED to get a thorough setup done to make it playable.
Its part and parcel of the days we live in... instead of checking whether the thing is good to go before sending it... they let that person send it back if they have an issue and they'll send a new one in replacement
Quality content, as per usual. Nice work. In the USA, I believe Sweetwater is the best online retailer. I've purchased 3 guitars in the $1100-$1600 USD price range and all were setup perfectly. They inspect and run a setup process on all guitars.
I personally think this is indeed the case actually. least its a lot more apparent in the lower end ($750 lower) to mid range models($1500-$750) in my findings. I have never had issues with my pricey guitars for the most part ($2k+). That being said the main QC issues that get my attention are ones that affect play-ability and require specialized tools to address. Fret sprout/leveling, badly cut nuts, bad soldering work, tuning instability that cant be solved (the worst of them all!), etc etc. Most of my guitars are north of $1200 CAD, so I am very much particular about flaws. Cosmetic flaws I am more flexible provided its not super large dents or chips especially in the neck. I would accept dings if its a good b-stock deal. But north of $2000 (arguably even $1500)? I do expect perfection and would not settle for less.
If there are issues with truss rods or I notice bad nuts I do not hesitate to return an instrument at all. Those are issues that can potentially have no recourse or are time consuming and expensive to have fixed. These issues in a new guitar especially are unacceptable. My ESP M-II Roselia almost made me do this but I figured it out, the answer was patience and letting it acclimate more! It has a one way truss rod and the relief is so low but it still has incredible action, the truss rod is barely engaged on that thing yet plays like butter, Its an anomaly!
Great video and this is one of my favorite points of discussion when it comes to guitar purchases and what players are willing to settle for in terms of quality.
I recently special ordered a new Reverend guitar, who is known for their QC, and the frets were so sharp it was unplayable. There’s no way the neck got checked before it was shipped. I fixed it myself.
If I buy a guitar it just have to be good and I have to feel happy. It doesn't have to be expensive. I bought a used Baby Z from Dean Guitars because it just felt so well, it resonates very well and after a set up it is still a really good guitar that I like. Generally I'm making a set up, with new guitars, new strings, some adjustments and a sound check. Sometimes I have to adjust the pickup hight and also the pole screws to get the sound I like. I think no matter what guitar you buy, everything had to be well done without any issues. An expensive guitar normally will be in a higher quality as a cheap one, but both should be without any issues and it has to make funn to play these guitars.
I have two evh wolfgang specials, £1000+ guitars, and both came with switches that didn’t work properly which caused me some anxiety. I replaced the switches with switchcraft ones and now the guitars are perfect and I love them. I shouldn’t have had to do that on guitars of that price but I’m glad I sorted them out as I now have two great guitars that I truly love.
I bought an Ibanez Premium RG not that long ago.
I live in Australia, and they wanted $2000 for it. That's about the price of the entry level Prestiges, so it wasn't exactly cheap.
The frets weren't seated properly, there were 4 frets that would move when pressed down. I dunno how that passed QC.
Ibanez took it back and sent me a new one which was perfect, no complaints, very nice guitar, but a total lemon managed to make it past QC.
I have 2 Solar guitars. >1200 euro guitars. Both needed 300 worth of fretwotk leveling and adjustments. Which makes the gap to let's say a Hapas smaller and smaller.
I fix all the issues myself. I have only had to send two guitars back to the manufacture and it was due to one with a neck twist and the other had an over sized neck pocket causing the neck to be loose no matter how tight the screws were.
I sent a guitar back today because of a twisted neck.... not a cheap guitar
I paid 3k (Australian) for an e-ii eclipse. First one had a twisted neck and even the replacement has some finish imperfections, a dodgy selector switch and the nut is a bit average. It's nitpicky stuff but for that money you expect something to be pretty much perfect but nowadays thats not what you get.
I just bought a used 2023 LP 60s Standard, and the shop spent an hour setting it up for me.
So many nice used guitars out there that you can see in hand before you buy it...
Unless you are going truly custom, there is no point in buying sight-unseen. Guitars aren't rare...
For an affordable electric guitar in relation to its consistent good quality, PRS SE's are a solid choice.
I got my first PRS Dusty and I HATED THAT PIECE OF CRAP. Everyone says Gibson QC sucks but I got a Custom LP and it's AMAZING
new camera? looking crisp 👍
Oh Yeah! 🙌🏾
I definitely don’t think they HAVE TO set guitars up, but I think it’s a competitive advantage to give that extra layer of personal touch and reassurance at every price point except maybe under £100.
If I buy a guitar at £400 and it’s just had a quick bit of TLC and fret polishing, I’m going to be shouting to the rooftops about how good value for money it is
The last 4 guitars I've gotten (Schecter, Ibanez, Solar) have all had really bad fret sprout. It's so bad that the fret tang is making visible lines in the side of the fretboard. These issues are present right out of the box in my humidity controlled room. Real big bummer when you're spending over 1k on a new instrument. It's disheartening when I keep hearing review channels sing the praises of quality control for these brands but i've never seen it myself.
The first thing I check is whether or not the neck is twisted.
With my first salary I wanted to buy à Gibson. I went to the store, check a Gibson sg, but I wanted one completely new, nobody else before me ever touched it, so I asked for another Gibson in stock. When I played it home, it was a mess: bad sounding, twisted neck, even the case had issues…so I asked to switch for the one I checked in the store. Now I always check what I buy if possible.
It depends for me. I think that, when something is mass produced, it’s harder to smoothen out all manufacturing flaws. There is just a standard deviation in those machines where they produce a small amount of errors. I understand that, at a certain price point, these are not caught by QC. Nonetheless, to me, flaws that are detrimental to playing the instrument are always a problem. When you buy an instrument, it’s fair to expect it plays okay. I’ve bought expensive and rather cheap guitars with high frets or badly cut nuts like nobody’s business. I think that’s never acceptable. But a flaw in the finish, for example, I can understand at certain price points.
And no, I don’t think this is something that’s only of our time. At least not in the guitar world. If anything, I’d think there’s less flaws in guitars…depending how you would define a “flaw”. All Gibson les Paul standards nowadays would have almost the same neck, whereas in the 50s they would widely differ. I’d say, we’ve just become used to guitars always playing and feeling more or less the same, a flaw just catches your eye very quickly. And my god, back in the 90s you wouldn’t be able to buy anything half decent under 600-700 bucks.
Epic rant bro 😂 which guitar triggered this?
In my opinion any guitar $3K and up should be flawless - no excuses whatsoever - also customer service is extremely important - I've given up on certain brands just due to poor customer service experiences alone - If I'm spending several thousand dollars on an instrument I expect them to promptly address any issues - it sucks because every time we have to ship the guitar there's a chance of further damage etc. I recently bought a custom Kiesel that was over $4K and there are chunks of wood that have just popped off the spalted maple top due to insufficient finish... That will be my last purchase from them
It's most important to make sure it's possible to send it back and get a refund when buying a guitar online.
My most expensive is a ~2200€ Duesenberg Caribou Stardust which is certainly an unusual choice for a heavy player, i bought it online and the binding at the headstock is a bit flawed which really shouldn't be at that price but everything else is exceptional quality and the guitar works so insanely well that i don't really care.
Also got an Indonesian LTD H3-1007B i paid 1200€ online and when i'm picky the 3rd fret is a bit pokey but it's not really bad. Compared to the Duesenberg the saddle and pots are inferior quality on the LTD which is much more "issue" when playing it. Still a nicely made guitar overall, no cosmetic issues.
But i think there's lots of good guitars out there, even at lower prices.
i agree 100% i bout a guitar after 3 the guitar cracked next to the nick, and its 20 radius and i i don't now how to adjust the action. i love the guitar so much but that qc action thing is killing me. i even contacted the factory the gave me the wrong action set up, if anyone know what the coarct action for Jackson us misha 6 plz wright it
Going through this now. I’m in the market for an LTD EC-1000. Now I have already have one from years ago. That is Korea made and it’s perfectly fine. But I have had friends who bought Indonesia Made LTD’s and they had nightmare issues.
The problem is… 85% of all NEW LTD models are being made in Indonesia because they moved their main factory to Indonesia. So I am having trouble finding one through the big sellers that is Korea made. Some people may not mind this as John mentioned. But for me… if I am spending $1300 on a guitar I want to make sure it’s made where I trust it will be quality.
This truly is unfortunate because ESP’s that are Japan made are FLAWLESS 👌🏼 but you’re talking twice the price of NICE LTD. So it’s expected for LTD to be somewhat less quality than an ESP.
BUT I just really think it was a horrible decision for LTD to switch the majority of their guitars to be made now in Indonesia. Because it used to be their $4-500 guitars were made in Indonesia and there $1000 and up (Deluxe Models) were made in Korea.
So it’s definitely causing me some fear in receiving one made in Indonesia. Because for $1300 the guitar should be perfect minus needing a good setup done of course.
And it’s not an easy process personally calling each distributor and making sure the one I will order will in fact be made in Korea.
But thank you John for bringing this up… this is definitely a great discussion topic and certainly a common issue in today’s guitar industry.
Unfortunately I'm sending an EII Eclipse back to a store today because it had issues....
Ive had solar and ltd also jackson no issue so far.
"Made in Japan" Ibanez RG550 reissue has wonky 5 way switch (loss of signal) and I know other 2x RG550 that have this issue. I had to replace mine with Gotoh and 0 issue for a year feel sturdier. Obviously the original 90s RG550 has much better switch.
It's not just guitars. It's nearly every product. Have you looked at or purchased footwear recently? Recycled plastics used for athletic shoes is garbage even for well known quality brands,( plastics degrade after single use) don't even get me started on the fact that every footwear manufacturer is using ineffective adhesives to attach soles, all the brands have soles that are detaching and are barely reliable beyond 6 months of just daily office or road walking use. The sole materials are thinner and wear out or break off in chunks within 60 days in some cases.
Companies need to make a profit, but not at the expense of QC . Once the word is out they may likely have burned the customer bridge and they will soon go under. Ripe for the picking of some private equity firm looking to continue selling products as a lifestyle brand and then "pump and dump" when they've used up the company name and write off any loss.
This. General consumer product quality is vastly worse than it used to be, even for previously "high-end" products
Planned Obsolesce, all day long!
I don’t ever let a sloppy finish slide, no matter the price there’s no excuse imo. Anything hardware or sometimes frets, I just fix it myself 🤷🏼♂️
Do you think a $150 guitar should have a perfect finish? If you're saying there's no excuse, I have to ask...have you ever finished a guitar before?
Building a guitar isn't easy, especially to get to high standards. But some finishing is so difficult that a luthier will tell you that finishing itself is it's own adventure...possibly as hard as anything on a build. Figuring out the proper materials and methods can take lots of trial and error. And then there's time...and there could be LOTS of time spent on certain finishes.
I've built a few guitars now, and the finish is still something I've yet to absolutely perfect, but still working.
@ Should a $150 guitar try to have double binding with a burst and a stinger on the headstock with a nitro finish? Clearly not. But it should absolutely go with and be able to maintain a high quality finish for that price range.
To me, it’s like saying it’s okay for some cars to have insane panel gap and spotty paint jobs. Which is never okay at any price.
I see you have a lot of tube amps, so what’s your favorite, and which speaker do you use the most in general?
I need a new tube amp head for my new Hesu Demon cab
Evh ,mesa, Engl . Plenty more ❤
My opinion is, that any guitar, no matter the price, should be flawless. Flawless in terms of functionality and setup. Of course you will always tweak your setup to your liking, but Jon, a guitar should be 100% set up in terms of intonation in regards to the used string gauge. But... they aren't. Got 1800 bucks schecters, 1600 bucks fenders... and they all were literally unplayable. OK, I'm an experienced player and can do the setup. But a beginner will be stuck with a shitty instrument that costs a fortune... not acceptable...cosmetic flaws? Not acceptable at all in my opinion. Even for a 500 euro instrument... I mean, that's 1000 marks, right😂
Honestly, anything over 500$ shouldn't have any uneven, scratchy frets. Accidents can happen, but generally QC is really shit nowadays. I bought a 2500$ guitar made in the US and it was more fucked up than a 700$ Epiphone made in China (which was actually pretty ok, i only needed to set up the tross rod a little). .
maybe it’s just me, but it feels like build quality in general across the globe has dipped a bit, with exceptions.
I would lower the flawless price down to 1200. There shouldn't be much of a difference between a 1200 dollar guitar and a 1500 dollar guitar other than stuff like pickups or stainless steel frets. If it's 1000 dollars, maybe I'll allow a small cosmetic issue but only if it's not noticeable or not bad. Now a QC issue that should never be accepted and be taken back no matter the price is the routing on the bridge isn't installed correctly and is crooked. This affects playability and tuning stability and in my opinion, that's lazy craftsmanship or someone who doesn't know what they're doing. Anything that affects playability and tuning stability should always be returned. Bad frets can be one too.
It really had gone down hill. Ibanez is one of the worst. Horrible frets and uneven frets. And that’s mostly on all Ibanez guitars I’ve tried and ordered.
I always buy used, so I expect to find an issue of some sort.
I just bought a fender professional ii that was flawless. But at $1600 they better be.
only use the fret rocker when the neck is perfectly straight else it will klick while rocking😂
Solars with the typical cracked fretboards
The difference between a $100 instrument and a $1000 one is 2 hours.
I’m not a gynecologist but I’ll take a look
Quality eats into profits
Sure, but if your brand gets a bad reputation because of QC issues, that can also eat into profits!
@@SonicDriveStudio totally agree but sometimes short term profits are all that matter to companies. I won’t buy another Schecter, or Sire but I doubt they’ll miss my business anyway
@nobodyimportant76467 interesting regarding Schecter, the ones I have are all amazing! On one I had to redo the ground on the bridge post but other than that they're really solid
$1000 + shouldn't have any problems. No excuses.
Shit, $1000 is a lot for me as a 30 year old with a decent paying job
I believe anything you spend your hard-earned money on should be great, whether it’s $100 or $5,000. That said, things happen, and humans make mistakes. As long as the company is willing to replace the item free of charge if they messed up, it’s not a big deal. Sure, it’s annoying, but if they’re helpful and make things right, then they get a pass in my book.
Manufacturing overseas and CEOs are the problem.
I had a ibanez ehb1506ms for 1899 dollar came with 9 fretboard cracks told myself i am never ever buying asian made instruments again. So i went with warwick basses and they are nothing but flawless since they are handmade and same people building their proline and customshop so u know u get high end quality
I expect it from a factory (under 700,-) Issues i mean, but from a dealer, no! And issues on a famous American brand that are overpriced, no. I expect a guitar from 1500,- to be pretty much perfect, from every brand.
The best thing i ever did was learn how to do fret work. I can now fix the pig guitars that people have given up on.
After seeing and playing on garbage guitars produced by Gibson, PRS, Suhr, Tom Anderson, Kiesel... I don't see any point in buying the premium segment guitars anymore. Sure, not all guitars produced under these brands have obvious QC issues, but there are enough of them and they all are definitely very overpriced. A much more reasonable option for me was to buy a set of luthier tools, purchase quality Chinese guitars and make them perfect myself. It's not hard, everybody can do it with a little practice. And it will save you a lot of time and money.
it’s never acceptable. the expensive ones should be pristine and already setup. the cheapest ones still shouldn’t have any cosmetic damage or flaws but you gotta setup yourself or at a shop.
Ordering guitars from the Internet is always a bit of Russian roulette. Rather go somewhere where you can feel the guitar before you buy.
Na, I'm never buying a new guitar again... for less than a grand ist always bad... (frets, nut and stability.) And the wood used nowadays supposed to be "mahogany" it's always the cheap Asian alternative that sound muffled no matter what. So I learned to do fret leveling, refrets nuts and shooting lacquer and now for the price of an epiphone or a prs se, I can build myself a gibby or a core. (Real african mahogany a a real nice flamed maple top.).
If you buy something and it’s not right send it back. So tired of hearing about quality control. News flash. It’s nothing new. There’s rotten guitars from every era. 😄
Learn how to setup a $200 guitar before you buy a $2,000 guitar. Or don't, it's your money.
I think super cheap and mid range guitars are better than ever but expensive guitars are sometimes hit and miss. I paid for a full plek on the last new guitar i bought online PRS SE Hollowbody Piezo which arrived perfect with super low action with no buzzing. It actually plays better than my USA PRS Core Custom 24 which was the best playing guitar i owned until the SE came. No idea what the guitar would have been like without the plek