Bass showed up with a lot of problems. Traded a better bass and then he ghosted me. It’s what finally drove the nail in the coffin for deals on talkbass for me. Signed off after admin didn’t help, now I just trade or sell locally so nothing like happened to you or previously to me can happen again.
Lmfao where do I start????
I'll sum it up with this- I now have a shitload of expensive luthier tools and a bunch of knowledge I gained through watching videos and making mistakes over the course of time.
And I can also tell you anything that's wrong with a guitar that can be perceived through photographic means, guaranteed.
I don't buy online anymore unless it's new from a retailer with a bitchin' return policy.
This right here. ^^^
Some of us learned the hard way. Costly, time consuming, and occasionally heart breaking…but I’m glad to know now what I didn’t before.
Worst was a guitar that showed up from reverb with a penny sized chip of paint missing from the finish. Guitar played fine though, so I kept it.
I know that’s not a bass, I play both.
My first bass was from a pawn shop. It sounded like shit in store and the guy just said it needs to be tuned and I didn't know any better yet. After I got home and was looking up how to tune it and stuff I realized the neck was insanely warped to the point where I couldn't play anything above the 8th fret. My brother tried and failed to turn it into a guitar hero 2 controller but failed lol. Now I see it's neck every time I open my closet.
My first bass went into early retirement because the neck broke. Wish I knew how easy it was to swap at that age, then again, getting a replacement wasn't as easy as hoping on ebay and ordering one.
It was March of 2018. My Ibanez SR505 needed a refresh. So I bought a 2014 Warwick Rockbass Corvette $$ fiver for $600. When it arrived I was horrified. The action was way higher than I like. But, hey, I live literally across the street from a music store. I took it in and asked them to do a proper setup on it.
A few days later they handed it back to me saying there was nothing they could do about the action, something about the neck being twisted. I was devastated.
Fast forward two years. We're in the early days of the pandemic. I'm stuck at home a lot. YouTube is becoming my main source of "television." I began watching Dave's World of Fun Stuff. I binged his videos for a couple of weeks and then it hit me: I could use what I have learned to solve my own problem.
And it worked.
But one thing troubled me. Well, two things did. First was that lousy music store. It just goes to show you that just because someone will take your money to do this stuff doesn't mean they know how.
But the second thing that bothers me is the lack of good information on this subject on the internet. Seriously, find me a tutorial that meets the following criteria:
* Measures things
* Uses the right tools
* Does things in the right order
* Target measurements are reasonable
Anyway, I decided to make a simple website to fight back against the bullshit. That site is [brokeassguitars.com](https://brokeassguitars.com). It is my hope that people find it helpful.
I remember you sharing that link not long ago. I checked it out, still have it on my desktop. In the process of my first solo setup (I posted that here, ) picked up a set of feeler gauges today, have a nice set of Allen's. I just love the idea of doing it myself and ending up with the results I want without having to drop off pick up wait etc such a pain in the ass. Now something little goes off I'm usually back in business in a few minutes. Thanks Again.
I swapped a bass I bought new for a used Ibanez BTB. It turned out that the truss rod is stripped completely and I didn't even think to look for that when the trade was happening. The former owner then vanished from the face of the earth with the perfect bass I traded.
Before you continue to assume, I sold it to a fellow bassist and luthier who was willing to take it off my hands and repair it, fully aware of the stripped nut.
not really a trade but i sold the only bass i had for a bass i liked better,even checked the neck and the relief seemed fine but when i changed tuning i had to adjust the truss rod and it did nothing after like a full turn or something so now im stuck with that bass and cant afford to repair it right now,im so damn pissed.
Bought a Stratocaster a few months back, maybe not a bass, but still used. The gig bag smelled like sunflower seeds. That's it. I'm really picky about buying used gear, so my worst experience isn't that bad. I don't buy used stuff without testing and examining it thoroughly.
Edit: My P Bass purchased at an estate sale has no serial number. Pots were damaged and had to be replaced, but it's a '78 with otherwise original parts. At $200, it was a... steal mwahaha! Jokes aside, it may have been at one point, but the previous owner is dead and I'm making sure that it gets the love it deserves.
I bought a MIM Fender Jazz for a fair but not ridiculous price off FB Marketplace. It had a badly bowed neck, only realised when I got it home. I moved it on with an honest description and a £20 hit, which I thought was pretty lucky.
It was advertised as 'selling on behalf of my husband'. Now I consider any 'selling on behalf of x' ad as dodgy - a), why aren't they selling it themselves? b), it's an obvious excuse to claim ignorance when inevitable complaints are levied.
I also learnt to check for bowed necks!
I bought a used bass I had wanted for years, but the neck was so flexible it was not stable when fretting notes - they would go sharp or flat from my hand's pressure. I had stars in my eyes and didn't notice or want to notice when I tried it. It was not an inexpensive instrument - $4,500 new, 15 years ago.
I could never figure out why it was so unstable.
Exact same for me. Love how you put it…I had stars in my eyes. Didn’t notice I could make notes go sharp or flat when I went to look at it. This bass is 48 years old so I’m giving it a bit of a pass. I love playing it and it sounds fantastic, I just have to have a more gentle touch with it.
Never had a bad experience buying used. Here's my tips:
- Bring a portable amp that can run off battery. You can get a cheap one, it's just for testing and definitely worthwhile to have if buying used.
- Test all the electronics. Flip every switch, turn every knob both ways.
- Bring a tuner. Tune it up and play some jams for a few minutes at least.
- Play all the way up the fretboard on at least 2 strings. Just go up fret by fret to see if there are issues.
- Look down the neck to see if it is warped or bowed.
- Only buy used online if it's from a larger seller. There are a lot of legit small businesses who sell a lot of guitars on Reverb. Find one that also advertises that they set their instruments up. I've never had an issue buying off reverb from these types of sellers. (I highly recommend Franklin Guitar Works - great stuff at great prices free shipping with car and they make sure the instruments are setup too)
I traded a one year old fender player plus p bass for a really sweet Lado neck through bass, only to get home and find the neck was horrible warped. And of course buddy wouldn't answer the phone when I called. Prick.
There are two. One was a Gumtree find out of London. They shipped all right but I looked up the seller and he was progeny to one of the most famous con artists in Britain. Okay, I get the American Deluxe Precision and the electronics are shot. Taking it open, under the pickguard it looks like someone spilled a bong in there. Conducting junk all over the preamp board and one of the pots had a punched in shaft. I was able to resurrect it but the neck reacted to minute weather changes so I passed it on.
The second is a G & L ASAT bass in beautiful red sparkle. But it wasn't set up right, and when I turned the truss rod, it was jammed. I took it to my trusted luthier and he told me he can turn it if I take responsibility for stripping the thread or breaking the rod. I was able to get my money back, the seller went to the luthier and made him turn the nut, it worked. But the luthier told me the neck bowed at the wrong place when he adjusted the action.
So, both buys had obvious tells but I didn't take the signs but rather went with good faith. I don't have that faith anymore.
I traded some scummy guy from Facebook a jazz I built from a kit for some Jackson or Dean or some crap, I can't remember anymore. I was playing around with a lot of mods and builds at the time and I wanted to convert it to a fretless. The electronics on it were completely botched (he didn't mention this), I figured whatever, I'll swap the pickups later, as time went on I realized I was putting more work and money into the project than I wanted so I just cut my losses and sold it for parts. The jazz I traded wasn't anything spectacular, but the scammer definitely made out on this trade.
Bought a 70’s Japanese p-bass from Reverb. Had an ugly sticker on the pick guard. When I took it off it looked like someone had tried to etch a swastika into it with a soldering iron (which they’d subsequently turned into a window). Whoever had done it had also burned the word “SEVEN” onto the back of the head. I put a new sticker on it kept the bass cause it plays beautifully.
TLDR: Beware of stickers on used basses. They are NEVER decorative.
I bought a studio monitor on reverb. The shipper made the mistake of writing "fragile" so large on the box you could see it from space. For people that don't know, parcel companies treat these messages as a challenge. The box looked like it was hit by a train. It turned on but didn't work. Luckily the dude gave me a full refund, because there was also a chunk of wood that broke off. I eventually took it apart and basically the volume knob wasn't secured to the board very well (bad design) so a good thump was all it needed to break it off.
> For people that don't know, parcel companies treat these messages as a challenge.
As a long time Letter Carrier - no, we don’t. Learn to pack your shit or stop being cheap and pay for proper handling and insurance.
No problem ordering online can’t be solved by not being cheap and *actually* packing your shit properly.
This is not on the big three (USPS/UPS/FedEx) it’s on shitty sellers and cheap buyers.
Caveat Emptor.
For real. My wife sells vintage home goods online, which can be *much* more fragile than any music equipment, but she knows how to pack shit and has had zero problems with shipping in hundreds of sales.
Yeah, I’ve never had anything marked fragile show up in rough shape, and out of maybe 1,500 outbound and +400 inbound packages I’ve shipped in the past 20 years, I’ve had 2 mangled boxes, 2 destroyed items, and less than 10 lost items.
I’ve had a bare, unlocked case with a Peavey T-40 arrive intact, a squier wrapped in leftover, half popped bubble wrap and a Frankenstein construction of single layer cardboard arrive to me just fine.
I wonder how many mangled boxes have >30% unpadded space in the boxes. There’s only so much cardboard can protect; it can’t defy physics.
Being one of the big three, I am most certainly careful with everything. Especially if I know it's an instrument. FYI most damage comes from the transfer places like the airport where things get pulled out of one transport container, ride a belt, and get put into another. Stuff gets jammed up and the backlog can crush boxes even before you can stop the belt.
I bought a PRS SE for a killer price with a hardshell case. I think the seller charges $75 for shipping which I thought was steep. He'd clearly done this before, he packed it nicely, in a square box so you couldn't tell it was a guitar. It said "GLASS" and "FRAGILE" all over. Strings were detuned, no neck tension.
The guitar played/still plays fantastically. I was impressed with the little tricks the shipper used, they worked, and they were respected. No "Ace Ventura P.D." experiences here. Thanks for caring.
I remember hearing on Lifehacker that a good way to stop evil carriers from treating your packages like soccer balls is to have a kid in your family (or you yourself) sloppily write something like "Happy Birthday Grandma!" in crayon or marker on the box because they'll then think it's a gift from a kid and will treat it with better care. I've never tried this myself 😅
Or… pay for appropriate shipping, handling and insurance.
As a letter carrier - your stupid tricks are old and tiresome… and we see right through it.
Your idea is bad - and easily thwarted. Stop giving bad and easily seen-past advice on the Internet because - it won’t work.
Bound to happen - I have been a letter carrier for a long time and I won’t lie, am tired of taking the blame because people didn’t do their due diligence.
I am the first to make something right for our customers (Having worked at both USPS and UPS.
I just have no patience for people chiseling to the bottom dollar - and wondering why they get such poor results, if that makes sense?
It was probably a decade or so ago now, but I had a friend order clove cigarettes from Indonesia after they were outlawed (thanks, Obama). IIRC they claimed to be free of import fees.
They showed up in a package that said "Happy Birthday, Andy!"
Is this still the best way to get cloves?
I mean I’ve bought a ton from GC, I wouldn’t know where to start since I could type volumes here but usually what gets me upset is them selling a rare piece to someone else after I’ve bought it and it’s still in the store.
We've got 2 local music stores in my town. At one, I was trying a guitar out and a lady working there came up to me and said "I dont mean to be rude, but im getting a headache..." which, considering I had only been playing for like 60 seconds and I was also playing pretty conservatively felt a bit insulting. Then she walks off and I decide to buy the guitar. So im buying it at the counter and she comes back and asks the cashier if it was $350 or $450 and the cashier goes "$350, but whos counting..." It wasnt the worst encounter ever but Id rather not get passive aggressively judged when im going out of my way to pay the local shop markup to "support local business".
The other place is better in general, but the owner/only person who works there couldnt resist making a politically charged comment about a shirt I had on that was making fun of Ted Cruz of all people. And I get that political shirts will attract opposition like flies on shit, but again I just felt like it was particularly unprofessional when youre a small business owner... I still go there but I cant shop with the guy without being reminded of his opinion on Obama. Which hes totally entitled to, but I dont really want it to be part of my shopping experience.
I’ve bought from guitar Wal-Mart because they are complete idiots and have sold me vintage custom LPs for hundreds of dollars before. I used their incompetency to buy my house, cars, etc. I’ve run guitar stores for many years so feel free to buy locally from me ya hippy.
This just happened 2 months ago. I wanted to get into buying used & locally so started browsing OfferUp and saw what seemed like a great deal for a green Yamaha rbx260 (weird p bass all things considered).
The photos looked okay and the seller had a good reputation so we met and I quickly paid for it (big mistake I barely inspected it) since I had to get back to work ASAP. When I finally sat down and checked it out everything was off- had so many cuts and blemishes on the back and front (photos taken hid the damage), the wiring was pretty old and had some unbelievable hissing, and worst of all there wasn't a truss rod nut. I was so pissed off and just let it sit for a week before I started to try and patch it up.
I was able to find a cheap replacement nut and I took my first stab at replacing pots and the input jack as well as putting copper tape shielding. The truss rod surprisingly was intact just had no nut and once it was all said and done it actually was playable and didn't sound bad minus the pickups still having hum issues. In the end I took it to a pawn shop and got some cash back which I used to get a cheap samick p bass which I love to death and I learned a ton about repairing and maintenance with only a $60 loss on my end so could be worse. Also that pawn shop sold that bass for double what they gave me TwT.
Inspect carefully if buying used!
No story, but I recommend buying used in-person. Craigslist, FB Marketplace, local music stores. That said, I did purchase a Highway 1 P-Bass off eBay and it's one of my faves. If you must buy online, I recommend seeking out a highly rated dealer who posts lots of photos of each instrument and who is willing to list any obvious flaws.
My Reverb experience has been 7 for 7 great experiences. A couple used bass guitars, 2x regular 6-string guitars and 3 pedals. All purchases were what I had expected or better.
That said, I bought a shitty guitar and Peavey amp about 20 years ago for $50 when I was 16 yrs old. The guy lived across town, had govt. cheese smashed into the carpet of his front porch, generally unkempt house, putting it nicely. Fast forward a couple days and my mom is yelling at me for bringing roaches into the house. I took the amp outside and started pulling every screw, taking it apart piece by piece and roaches started rolling out of every little opening/part/reverb spring etc. Had to do the bomb/smoke thing and then a follow-up.
I may have only spent $50 for two pieces of useless garbage but my parents spent hundreds cleaning the place. Sorry, Mom...
Nothing! I've bought one new instrument my whole life. There's zero chance I would buy a bass without playing it first, though. I'll never buy a new one online, let alone used one.
I've had great experiences in both my most recent purchases. Brand new mod shop p-bass and used Stingray HS. I still love the Stingray more even though the Fender was custom made. Both are awesome.
Haven't had any terrible experiences buying used, but I did have a guy bitching about me not being a "serious buyer" because I changed my mind about buying a guitar. I don't remember how long before the pick up it was, but it was at least a few hours (possibly a day) before so it's not like he was sitting around waiting for me. If that's too inconvenient for you, then sell your stuff to a pawn shop.
Never had a bad experience buying used because I know what I'm looking at. Can tell you my best experience though. Went to buy a '96 Jackson Dinky off Craigslist for $200. Dude said for another $100 he'd throw in a Line 6 Spider 3 amp, a hard plastic Fender road case and an '85 Ibanez Proline. Bright pink. I gave him $300 and took my haul home.
Come to find out the Ibanez is pretty rare. They only made them for a year and the factory colors were black, white and red. EXCEPT a small handful were painted an Iced Cherry Blossom Pink. HSS, and 3 mini switches. One for each pup.
All original down to the Japan stamp on the tuners. Found one exactly like mine on Reverb for $1,000. Not a bad $100 investment.
Both guitars are absolute shredders too. TOTAL SCORE!!
Bought a Jazz bass, previous owner had pulled out the pickups with a spoon or something, which means there's large dents and scratches on the bodywork. Took a look inside the pickup slots and he'd covered it entirely in shielding tape. No idea if it's actually safe to play so I haven't touched it since
Aside from general maintenance, I've never really had a nightmare experience buying used. Stuff like replacing tubes, fixing intonation, or cleaning the contacts under synth keys have usually been good trade offs for the money saved. Plus I usually end up learning a lot more about the instrument. The one bass I got used was treated like loyalty, no blemishes, and aside from the high action and dead strings, it's been pretty great.
There is one though that I kinda fucked up on. The vocalist in our band owed money, about a thousand for rent, which they paid most of it back aside from 300 bucks. She had to move, so she offered to sell me a seven string guitar which was an RG, even has EMG pups on them. Said the guitar was one of the higher tiered ones. Didn't have an RG, 300 bucks is a great price, and I trust her, so I agreed, and lo' and behold it was a near entry level seven string with EMGs in them. Still a bit miffed about it but meh.
Nothing that couldn’t be solved with a return, but I once scored a Fender Urge II (Stu Hamm signature) from Guitar Center online and had it shipped to my local store.
When it got there it was in a terrible set up state and the truss rod was stripped so it could not be set up at all. Unplayable.
GC gave me my money back no arguments, but it was a bummer since those basses were so hard to find at any kind of reasonable price.
Lost $500 buying a used bass off Reverb. They forced the seller to accept the refund, but that fucker just scribbled out the his address and wrote return to sender on it. After that, reverb broke off all communication with me.
Fuck Reverb.
That's totally chickenshit. Never bought a guitar off Reverb, but almost did. Kinda leary about all that. Got a Digitech eq and a couple cases through Reverb though. Luckily there weren't any problems. After reading your story I'll probably never get a guitar through them. Unless it's local and I can see it in person before buying. Sorry about your loss man.
Not a bass but I had a not great one recently. Got a Sterling JP70 at a decent price. Everything looked good in the pictures except the usual fingerprints. NBD Easy to solve. Guitar arrives, it's in great shape other than the bridge being dusty so I remove the strings and bridge and throw the bridge in the ultrasonic cleaner.
I go back to the guitar to start cleaning it. I oil the fretboard and go to wipe the rest of the guitar down. The fingerprints wont come out..... at all. The fingerprints are in the finish. So that's going to be a bitch to fix.
I had a schecter km7 mkiii also show up recently. It had two busted locking tuners. One was missing the locking pin and the other was literally just cutting the high E string when you tried to tune it. I'm more mad that I wasted two sets of strings on it than I am that I have to replace the tuners.
My worst experience was buying new at guitar center. The closest guitar center didn't have what I wanted so I was going to drive across town to the other one to get it. I called before I left and they said they had them in stock and asked them to hold one for me. That trip in that cities traffic was going to be like an hour and a half each way at least.
I drive the hour and a half there super stoked to be getting a guitar I'd really wanted for over a decade. I show up and the only one they have is dogshit. All the knobs were missing and it had a broken tuner and a big chunk of wood out of it. Obviously, I'm not buying that one and I'm really fucking pissed that I'm spending nearly 4 hours in traffic because they lied to me.
I'm still dead set on getting that guitar that I've longed for for so long. So we order it and it will get delivered to my house. I wait for the week it took to get there, the box looks good from shipping. No damage whatsoever to the box. I open the box, AND THERES A HUGE CHUNK OF WOOD MISSING FROM THE BODY. WTF. How did QC let that out the door.
So I take it back to the closer guitar center and explain the situation and the manager offered a 15 dollar gift card for my trouble. I spent more than that in gas just dealing with this garbage.
And that my friends is why I will never buy another guitar from guitar center.
I’m sorry for your troubles. I bought a Fretless jazz online from GC. Came in fine. Took it to get setup and flats on it. I also had them price match for one I saw online. They did it no problem. I’ve never had a bad experience at GC except for the time I went to buy a fender deluxe I think it was and the dude kept telling me it was one of James browns amps. I was already sold on it but he just kept going on and on about. Twas a great amp though.
Thanks. The guitar I got in the end is great. It now has several thousand hours on it and I love it so much I bought two more. They are my mains.
Those are really the only bad experiences though and aside from the gc one the other two aren't that bad. Tuners are easy to replace and I'm hoping I can just buff the clear coat out.
I've had mostly good experiences buying in general though. A few guitars were essentially brand new and I got them half price because of really small issues like a volume knob not being tightened down. One guitar the nut popped off so it just needed to be glued back on.
Calling ahead to make sure they have it, get there and they don't. I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. Something about wasting that kind of my time when I've taken extra steps. It really reaks of scumbag to me. I don't think I'll ever get over that crap nor do I care to.
I knew my Aria was in horrific cosmetic condition and was sold "as is". Not a problem.
I was a little disturbed when I took it out of the box and it was covered in a pretty thick layer of dust. This was a large, highly regarded music store, they could've at least run a damp cloth over it for two seconds before packing it.
I was gassing for a used Orange O bass for about a year when I heard they were reissuing them. Idk why anymore. I guess I just wanted to own some Orange gear and I wanted a P bass for the collection so it seemed like a good fit. So I put in an order on Sweetwater but the thing was backordered for months. I finally got impatient enough and ordered a used one from the new run off Reverb.
Welllll I got the thing and it was pretty rough. Looked like QA failed big time. Neck pocket was wonky and binding was pulling off on bass side. Paint job was overall a mess. Paint from biding bled into body paint. Color was a terrible orange.... Nothing like in the pictures. To make matters worse there was black crap all over bass like crap got all over the paint and they just clear coated over it. Thing was a mess.
Needless to say I was pretty bummed. I don't mind a few battle scars but in this case the bass was just built wrong. It felt like a cheap toy. Long story short, I gave the seller an ultimatum, take the bass back or heavily discount it for me. He chose the latter so I then flipped it and made a little bit of money on it. Guess it kinda worked out in the end.
Bought an expensive used boutique bass on Reverb. It had been stored improperly, probably for a long time. The neck had shrunk so badly there was a half inch of fret hanging off the G side. When the G string was tightened it just slid off the fingerboard. Neck through. Unsalvageable.
Bought a used Sting Ray there. Shipper sent a one pound package via UPS, in my name, to a different address in my city. Someone signed for it, the shipper used the receipt to claim I had received the bass. Low rent scam but still 100% PITA.
There are others. Overall, I’m a net loss for Reverb purchases. I window shop there but doubt I’ll ever buy again.
I got my first and last bass from a pawn shop, a Korean Washburn 5 string with the slanted j pickups. It looked nice and I thought I got a steal for it due to some pots being scratchy/intermittent but it turned out the truss rod was maxed out and the neck had horrible bowing/intonation issues. It also happened to be my first 5 string, which made for a horrible first impression. Sounded pretty terrible due to the preamp/bland pickups so I sold it for a little more than I paid for. The best part of all is that because Washburn has an American flag logo on their tuning keys I actually thought it was a MIA bass, so that was fun finding out the truth
Ordered a base that was listed as LH. It wasn't LH. The pictures were reversed. This was almost 20 years ago though. The next used bass I bought went very smoothly. The seller was great.
Bought my first PA system a year or two ago. Small one for my basement studio. It was a used Yamaha Stage PA 300 I THINK, they don't make that model anymore. It was on Craigslist. Red flag I ignored guy offered to bring it to my house. Just never happened before. He brought it over, I plugged it in and sound came out. That's as far as I checked. Used it once or twice was unimpressed but my buddy said it sounds good, I knew it didn't. One night my son was using it with his buddies and from upstairs I could really tell how bad it sounded. Like an AM radio. Waited for them to clear out and checked the sound up close. Both tweeters were blown. I called the guy on it just for the sake of calling him on it, of course after two weeks he was blaming me. He'd also thrown in an acoustic bass guitar with preamp for $40, a few cheap disco lights. I think the tweeters cost over $100 to replace and I did it myself. I was pretty pissed over it, just someone being dishonest. I said next time something terrible happens to you remember this.
Every now and then stuff like this happens and it just reminds me to stay on my game. Generally I get what I pay for and after awhile it's easy to let my guard down...
Oooo. I got sucked in with a super rare gibson es335 bass in Ebony. It Played well enough but didn't have the tools to check the truss. Decided to buy it, got it home opened up the truss cover and...... the nut is stripped no big deal right? Wrong. Rod was absolutely wrecked and was pulling back into the body. Seller turned into a ghost. Thankfully still salvageable just needs major surgery.. It's currently still in the shop. Just getting a new fretboard now and it'll be all fixed up.
Pain in my ass and in my wallet..
A fairly recent experience, although worked out well. I had wanted a hollow body for a while. There was someone selling a gold top Jack Cassidy signature on eBay but only around 20 miles away from me. I couldn’t afford what they were asking (buy it now) so left it. Noticed a couple of weeks later that it hadn’t sold so I dropped the seller a message being really honest - I couldn’t afford the asking price, if it didn’t sell and they would be open to an offer, I’d like it. I made them an offer, granted substantially lower than they had it listed. It was all I had, didn’t expect them to go for it but worth a try. The message was ignored. Fast forward a couple of months, I receive a message from the seller saying it hadn’t sold still and they would be willing to accept my offer if I paid in cash….
I went round to this place and was greeted by a guy who sadly was quite clearly an addict - I would have assumed heroin addict. I was taken into the kitchen where I was met by a lady, also a user. It sucks even saying it (I’m sorry) but I was then immediately worried about the bass being stolen. As I looked at the bass (it was filthy - grimy fretboard, Jack input needed replacing, missing knob, ancient strings). I made chit chat with them to try and establish if this thing was legit. Through the course of the conversation, I really warmed to this couple. They were trying really hard to better themselves. He had bought this for her from a band mate years ago when she expressed an interest in playing. I got her to show me some of her chops and helped her with hand placement etc. I was there for around 45 minutes chatting. Eventually I bought the bass. I really hoped their story was genuine and I wanted to help, even if this meant a good looking ornament! I still hope their story was genuine.
Anyway, I then spent a while cleaning it up, fixing, replacing and giving the bass a shit load of tlc. It paid off as it’s now a beautiful instrument. A few knocks and dings, but clean, looks great, full of character, and most importantly, is legit!0
got a secondhand frankenbass with noname yet solid and heavy p body and japanese pj neck. had to put a thin piece of wood in the neck saddle to compensate the lesser width. but it came with nice and powerful DiMarzio pickups so i’ve decided to keep it. i was a noob and wanted “fender” so bad, haha)
In addition to broken broken truss rods and returns this might be the most annoying experience for me.
Two years ago I was on a lookout for a better 5-string for gigging and recording. An used Alembic 5-string showed up on a local instrument marketplace and it was somehow really affordable and never gigged, even tho it was almost 30 years old. Not a single scratch on the body etc. I had tried a 5-string Alembic before and it was the smoothest thing.
Luckily I was the first guy to contact the seller and I would go and check out the bass and try it out. If it would be legit, I'd buy it. We exhanged some emails and then I called the guy and asked about the origins lf the instrument etc. Apparently there was a lot of history on the instrument, it was ordered from the same place I got my first Jazz bass and sold by a dealer/bassist I knew. Serial numbers matched the paperwork and it even had a VHS tape from the Alembic factory. The current owner was a retired gospel musician who had traded all his previous gear on the 90s to buy this instrument.
We set up a date for next thursday or friday (it was tuesday then) since it was located on another city with 2 hours drive and it was the only day that I could do a trip that week. I was over the moon.
The next day the guy calls me that another guy is going to come from another city and buy the bass. Apparently he had not reserved the bass for me, even tho that is the norm on the site and we had talked about me buying the bass if it was as described. I asked about this but he wanted to sell it for the first taker and fast. He promised to call me if the other guy would not show up or not take the bass. Then he would reserve it to me.
My fault for not asking about reservations.
Honestly, I was pissed. Mostly I was angry to myself for expecting a reservation without asking since every single thing I have bought from the same place was reserved if a date was set up. I thought that I'd be polite for not asking.
The next day the guy sent me a couple of updates by text. The another buyer was late etc. He called me again on the evening and told that the another guy did not want to buy the instrument since it was a 5-string(??) and due to the fact that I was on the line before him LOL.
Got the bass in the end. But thats the last time I expect any reservations before asking.
My first bass was a 90's Kramer p bass. I bought it on craigslist the previous owner said it sounded great but she had taken the strings off so I couldn't try it out. I go to guitar center and buy strings. Take it home, string it up, and the input jack isn't working. 12 year old me freaks out. I take it back to guitar center, they charge me like 10 or 20 dollars to solder one connection. For the next few weeks I wonder why bass is so much harder than playing guitar. I figure out eventually that the neck is bowed to shit. Eventually I trade it and $20 for a squier p bass that wasn't much better.
Bought a strat used, had it on the kitchen table to restring, clean electronics etc. I sprayed contact cleaner into the pickup selector and a roach ran out from under the guitar. Killed it. I take off the back cover to inspect the tremolo cavity and notice movement. I pick up the guitar and set in onto a lawn chair outside and I spray contact cleaner into the cavity. Omg at least 20 roaches from the size on an ant up to the size of my thumb ran out of the guitar and scatter onto my patio. I haven’t seen any roaches inside my house but I know I didn’t kill all of them. Anyways all used guitars go through a quarantine process in the garage now.
Bought a Warwick Thumb on ebay. It was replacing another Thumb I had moved years earlier and regretted. It finally came; I opened the box and the first thing I see is a case with ridiculous stickers, cracks, and missing pieces in it, I thought yeah okay as long as the inside is safe and secure. So, I open it up and find that the bass in the case is not the bass I bought. It was a Thumb, alright, but after a little sleuthing I learned that the ebay bum I bought it from used pictures from some forum of an entirely different Thumb with an entirely different serial number, a number that was from an earlier batch with a thinner neck, this one also had a wear mark over the pickup from use. I figured, well that sucks, but hey my last thumb was from the thick neck generation too, so whatever. I then plugged it in to find that the pickups don't work! Not only that, I eventually had to replace three tuning pegs because they wouldn't hold tension. Luckily I was able to at least get a partial refund for some new Bartolini pickups.
My fantastic Aria Pro II TSB 650. One of (if not) the best sounding most comfortable bass I've ever played I got it for 400usd. If anyone ever get to play one, take your opportunity!
Fender Jazz 5 showed up with an unadvertised/unpictured crack in the headstock, many unpictured blemishes and cracks in the finish, the one finish crack pictured was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than it appeared in photos; a crack in the body next to the input jack which had been replaced with an aftermarket jack; and a loose/wobbly tone knob.
They included a free set of cheap flatwounds in the (broken) case though!
When I was a kid, my dad got me a bass off ebay. It came with the neck completely snapped in 2. It was not wrapped so well, and I could tell that it had been thrown/dropped several times on the way.
Tobacco stained Olympic white is the best color!
My worst experience- 1973 guild JSII from guitar center online. Has fairly high action that I haven’t been able to get sorted myself (nor cared enough to take it in). It’s more than just the trussrod. Unsure if it’s the non original bridge or a neck angle issue. It also has a loose pickup cover.
I bought a used Squire p-bass that was a little back bowed, nothing a quick truss rod wouldn’t fix. I took it home, took off the ancient strings, cleaned it up, and put new strings on. The back bow was back with a vengeance. I loosened up the strings, and adjusted the truss rod just a little at a time, until it stopped turning. Nothing changed. I ended up throwing the neck in the trash and I don’t remember what happened to the body.
Bass showed up with a lot of problems. Traded a better bass and then he ghosted me. It’s what finally drove the nail in the coffin for deals on talkbass for me. Signed off after admin didn’t help, now I just trade or sell locally so nothing like happened to you or previously to me can happen again.
Lmfao where do I start???? I'll sum it up with this- I now have a shitload of expensive luthier tools and a bunch of knowledge I gained through watching videos and making mistakes over the course of time. And I can also tell you anything that's wrong with a guitar that can be perceived through photographic means, guaranteed. I don't buy online anymore unless it's new from a retailer with a bitchin' return policy.
This right here. ^^^ Some of us learned the hard way. Costly, time consuming, and occasionally heart breaking…but I’m glad to know now what I didn’t before.
Worst was a guitar that showed up from reverb with a penny sized chip of paint missing from the finish. Guitar played fine though, so I kept it. I know that’s not a bass, I play both.
I returned a bass that got all dinged up in shipping. Cost too much to ship. Burn.
My first bass was from a pawn shop. It sounded like shit in store and the guy just said it needs to be tuned and I didn't know any better yet. After I got home and was looking up how to tune it and stuff I realized the neck was insanely warped to the point where I couldn't play anything above the 8th fret. My brother tried and failed to turn it into a guitar hero 2 controller but failed lol. Now I see it's neck every time I open my closet.
My first bass went into early retirement because the neck broke. Wish I knew how easy it was to swap at that age, then again, getting a replacement wasn't as easy as hoping on ebay and ordering one.
It was March of 2018. My Ibanez SR505 needed a refresh. So I bought a 2014 Warwick Rockbass Corvette $$ fiver for $600. When it arrived I was horrified. The action was way higher than I like. But, hey, I live literally across the street from a music store. I took it in and asked them to do a proper setup on it. A few days later they handed it back to me saying there was nothing they could do about the action, something about the neck being twisted. I was devastated. Fast forward two years. We're in the early days of the pandemic. I'm stuck at home a lot. YouTube is becoming my main source of "television." I began watching Dave's World of Fun Stuff. I binged his videos for a couple of weeks and then it hit me: I could use what I have learned to solve my own problem. And it worked. But one thing troubled me. Well, two things did. First was that lousy music store. It just goes to show you that just because someone will take your money to do this stuff doesn't mean they know how. But the second thing that bothers me is the lack of good information on this subject on the internet. Seriously, find me a tutorial that meets the following criteria: * Measures things * Uses the right tools * Does things in the right order * Target measurements are reasonable Anyway, I decided to make a simple website to fight back against the bullshit. That site is [brokeassguitars.com](https://brokeassguitars.com). It is my hope that people find it helpful.
I remember you sharing that link not long ago. I checked it out, still have it on my desktop. In the process of my first solo setup (I posted that here, ) picked up a set of feeler gauges today, have a nice set of Allen's. I just love the idea of doing it myself and ending up with the results I want without having to drop off pick up wait etc such a pain in the ass. Now something little goes off I'm usually back in business in a few minutes. Thanks Again.
I swapped a bass I bought new for a used Ibanez BTB. It turned out that the truss rod is stripped completely and I didn't even think to look for that when the trade was happening. The former owner then vanished from the face of the earth with the perfect bass I traded.
Bought a Schecter bass with it’s truss rod stripped. Worst week of trying to fix it ever. Ended up selling it at a loss.
So, you sold a bass with a stripped truss rod? That’s what you’re complaining someone did to you!
Before you continue to assume, I sold it to a fellow bassist and luthier who was willing to take it off my hands and repair it, fully aware of the stripped nut.
Apologies!
I've seen that happen before too. Easy to overlook. It's one of the first things I'd check now that I've seen it happen to a buddy...
not really a trade but i sold the only bass i had for a bass i liked better,even checked the neck and the relief seemed fine but when i changed tuning i had to adjust the truss rod and it did nothing after like a full turn or something so now im stuck with that bass and cant afford to repair it right now,im so damn pissed.
Bought a Stratocaster a few months back, maybe not a bass, but still used. The gig bag smelled like sunflower seeds. That's it. I'm really picky about buying used gear, so my worst experience isn't that bad. I don't buy used stuff without testing and examining it thoroughly. Edit: My P Bass purchased at an estate sale has no serial number. Pots were damaged and had to be replaced, but it's a '78 with otherwise original parts. At $200, it was a... steal mwahaha! Jokes aside, it may have been at one point, but the previous owner is dead and I'm making sure that it gets the love it deserves.
I say varies as naturally, dwarf sunflowers take less time than mammoth sunflowers.
I bought a MIM Fender Jazz for a fair but not ridiculous price off FB Marketplace. It had a badly bowed neck, only realised when I got it home. I moved it on with an honest description and a £20 hit, which I thought was pretty lucky. It was advertised as 'selling on behalf of my husband'. Now I consider any 'selling on behalf of x' ad as dodgy - a), why aren't they selling it themselves? b), it's an obvious excuse to claim ignorance when inevitable complaints are levied. I also learnt to check for bowed necks!
I bought a used bass I had wanted for years, but the neck was so flexible it was not stable when fretting notes - they would go sharp or flat from my hand's pressure. I had stars in my eyes and didn't notice or want to notice when I tried it. It was not an inexpensive instrument - $4,500 new, 15 years ago. I could never figure out why it was so unstable.
Exact same for me. Love how you put it…I had stars in my eyes. Didn’t notice I could make notes go sharp or flat when I went to look at it. This bass is 48 years old so I’m giving it a bit of a pass. I love playing it and it sounds fantastic, I just have to have a more gentle touch with it.
Never had a bad experience buying used. Here's my tips: - Bring a portable amp that can run off battery. You can get a cheap one, it's just for testing and definitely worthwhile to have if buying used. - Test all the electronics. Flip every switch, turn every knob both ways. - Bring a tuner. Tune it up and play some jams for a few minutes at least. - Play all the way up the fretboard on at least 2 strings. Just go up fret by fret to see if there are issues. - Look down the neck to see if it is warped or bowed. - Only buy used online if it's from a larger seller. There are a lot of legit small businesses who sell a lot of guitars on Reverb. Find one that also advertises that they set their instruments up. I've never had an issue buying off reverb from these types of sellers. (I highly recommend Franklin Guitar Works - great stuff at great prices free shipping with car and they make sure the instruments are setup too)
I traded a one year old fender player plus p bass for a really sweet Lado neck through bass, only to get home and find the neck was horrible warped. And of course buddy wouldn't answer the phone when I called. Prick.
Cat shit in the case of a guitar I bought on eBay, seller refunded completely and told me to keep the guitar... Worked out
Alright this one’s kinda funny lol. And I don’t feel too bad having a chuckle about it since it seems like everything work out for ya
Be glad you couldn't smell it... 🤢
There are two. One was a Gumtree find out of London. They shipped all right but I looked up the seller and he was progeny to one of the most famous con artists in Britain. Okay, I get the American Deluxe Precision and the electronics are shot. Taking it open, under the pickguard it looks like someone spilled a bong in there. Conducting junk all over the preamp board and one of the pots had a punched in shaft. I was able to resurrect it but the neck reacted to minute weather changes so I passed it on. The second is a G & L ASAT bass in beautiful red sparkle. But it wasn't set up right, and when I turned the truss rod, it was jammed. I took it to my trusted luthier and he told me he can turn it if I take responsibility for stripping the thread or breaking the rod. I was able to get my money back, the seller went to the luthier and made him turn the nut, it worked. But the luthier told me the neck bowed at the wrong place when he adjusted the action. So, both buys had obvious tells but I didn't take the signs but rather went with good faith. I don't have that faith anymore.
I traded some scummy guy from Facebook a jazz I built from a kit for some Jackson or Dean or some crap, I can't remember anymore. I was playing around with a lot of mods and builds at the time and I wanted to convert it to a fretless. The electronics on it were completely botched (he didn't mention this), I figured whatever, I'll swap the pickups later, as time went on I realized I was putting more work and money into the project than I wanted so I just cut my losses and sold it for parts. The jazz I traded wasn't anything spectacular, but the scammer definitely made out on this trade.
Bought a 70’s Japanese p-bass from Reverb. Had an ugly sticker on the pick guard. When I took it off it looked like someone had tried to etch a swastika into it with a soldering iron (which they’d subsequently turned into a window). Whoever had done it had also burned the word “SEVEN” onto the back of the head. I put a new sticker on it kept the bass cause it plays beautifully. TLDR: Beware of stickers on used basses. They are NEVER decorative.
This one was a roller-coaster of a story
I bought a studio monitor on reverb. The shipper made the mistake of writing "fragile" so large on the box you could see it from space. For people that don't know, parcel companies treat these messages as a challenge. The box looked like it was hit by a train. It turned on but didn't work. Luckily the dude gave me a full refund, because there was also a chunk of wood that broke off. I eventually took it apart and basically the volume knob wasn't secured to the board very well (bad design) so a good thump was all it needed to break it off.
> For people that don't know, parcel companies treat these messages as a challenge. As a long time Letter Carrier - no, we don’t. Learn to pack your shit or stop being cheap and pay for proper handling and insurance. No problem ordering online can’t be solved by not being cheap and *actually* packing your shit properly. This is not on the big three (USPS/UPS/FedEx) it’s on shitty sellers and cheap buyers. Caveat Emptor.
For real. My wife sells vintage home goods online, which can be *much* more fragile than any music equipment, but she knows how to pack shit and has had zero problems with shipping in hundreds of sales.
Yeah, I’ve never had anything marked fragile show up in rough shape, and out of maybe 1,500 outbound and +400 inbound packages I’ve shipped in the past 20 years, I’ve had 2 mangled boxes, 2 destroyed items, and less than 10 lost items. I’ve had a bare, unlocked case with a Peavey T-40 arrive intact, a squier wrapped in leftover, half popped bubble wrap and a Frankenstein construction of single layer cardboard arrive to me just fine. I wonder how many mangled boxes have >30% unpadded space in the boxes. There’s only so much cardboard can protect; it can’t defy physics.
Being one of the big three, I am most certainly careful with everything. Especially if I know it's an instrument. FYI most damage comes from the transfer places like the airport where things get pulled out of one transport container, ride a belt, and get put into another. Stuff gets jammed up and the backlog can crush boxes even before you can stop the belt.
I bought a PRS SE for a killer price with a hardshell case. I think the seller charges $75 for shipping which I thought was steep. He'd clearly done this before, he packed it nicely, in a square box so you couldn't tell it was a guitar. It said "GLASS" and "FRAGILE" all over. Strings were detuned, no neck tension. The guitar played/still plays fantastically. I was impressed with the little tricks the shipper used, they worked, and they were respected. No "Ace Ventura P.D." experiences here. Thanks for caring.
I remember hearing on Lifehacker that a good way to stop evil carriers from treating your packages like soccer balls is to have a kid in your family (or you yourself) sloppily write something like "Happy Birthday Grandma!" in crayon or marker on the box because they'll then think it's a gift from a kid and will treat it with better care. I've never tried this myself 😅
Or… pay for appropriate shipping, handling and insurance. As a letter carrier - your stupid tricks are old and tiresome… and we see right through it. Your idea is bad - and easily thwarted. Stop giving bad and easily seen-past advice on the Internet because - it won’t work.
I saw your other comment and was waiting for your reply 🤣🤣🤣
Bound to happen - I have been a letter carrier for a long time and I won’t lie, am tired of taking the blame because people didn’t do their due diligence. I am the first to make something right for our customers (Having worked at both USPS and UPS. I just have no patience for people chiseling to the bottom dollar - and wondering why they get such poor results, if that makes sense?
It was probably a decade or so ago now, but I had a friend order clove cigarettes from Indonesia after they were outlawed (thanks, Obama). IIRC they claimed to be free of import fees. They showed up in a package that said "Happy Birthday, Andy!" Is this still the best way to get cloves?
No way, my dude… … your best bet would be to go to Canada, eh? Then - proceed to smuggle at your own risk.
I mean I’ve bought a ton from GC, I wouldn’t know where to start since I could type volumes here but usually what gets me upset is them selling a rare piece to someone else after I’ve bought it and it’s still in the store.
[удалено]
We've got 2 local music stores in my town. At one, I was trying a guitar out and a lady working there came up to me and said "I dont mean to be rude, but im getting a headache..." which, considering I had only been playing for like 60 seconds and I was also playing pretty conservatively felt a bit insulting. Then she walks off and I decide to buy the guitar. So im buying it at the counter and she comes back and asks the cashier if it was $350 or $450 and the cashier goes "$350, but whos counting..." It wasnt the worst encounter ever but Id rather not get passive aggressively judged when im going out of my way to pay the local shop markup to "support local business". The other place is better in general, but the owner/only person who works there couldnt resist making a politically charged comment about a shirt I had on that was making fun of Ted Cruz of all people. And I get that political shirts will attract opposition like flies on shit, but again I just felt like it was particularly unprofessional when youre a small business owner... I still go there but I cant shop with the guy without being reminded of his opinion on Obama. Which hes totally entitled to, but I dont really want it to be part of my shopping experience.
I’ve bought from guitar Wal-Mart because they are complete idiots and have sold me vintage custom LPs for hundreds of dollars before. I used their incompetency to buy my house, cars, etc. I’ve run guitar stores for many years so feel free to buy locally from me ya hippy.
This just happened 2 months ago. I wanted to get into buying used & locally so started browsing OfferUp and saw what seemed like a great deal for a green Yamaha rbx260 (weird p bass all things considered). The photos looked okay and the seller had a good reputation so we met and I quickly paid for it (big mistake I barely inspected it) since I had to get back to work ASAP. When I finally sat down and checked it out everything was off- had so many cuts and blemishes on the back and front (photos taken hid the damage), the wiring was pretty old and had some unbelievable hissing, and worst of all there wasn't a truss rod nut. I was so pissed off and just let it sit for a week before I started to try and patch it up. I was able to find a cheap replacement nut and I took my first stab at replacing pots and the input jack as well as putting copper tape shielding. The truss rod surprisingly was intact just had no nut and once it was all said and done it actually was playable and didn't sound bad minus the pickups still having hum issues. In the end I took it to a pawn shop and got some cash back which I used to get a cheap samick p bass which I love to death and I learned a ton about repairing and maintenance with only a $60 loss on my end so could be worse. Also that pawn shop sold that bass for double what they gave me TwT. Inspect carefully if buying used!
No story, but I recommend buying used in-person. Craigslist, FB Marketplace, local music stores. That said, I did purchase a Highway 1 P-Bass off eBay and it's one of my faves. If you must buy online, I recommend seeking out a highly rated dealer who posts lots of photos of each instrument and who is willing to list any obvious flaws.
So far I’ve only had good experiences but I’m fully aware that is not a common thing among people who’ve bought used stuff
My Reverb experience has been 7 for 7 great experiences. A couple used bass guitars, 2x regular 6-string guitars and 3 pedals. All purchases were what I had expected or better. That said, I bought a shitty guitar and Peavey amp about 20 years ago for $50 when I was 16 yrs old. The guy lived across town, had govt. cheese smashed into the carpet of his front porch, generally unkempt house, putting it nicely. Fast forward a couple days and my mom is yelling at me for bringing roaches into the house. I took the amp outside and started pulling every screw, taking it apart piece by piece and roaches started rolling out of every little opening/part/reverb spring etc. Had to do the bomb/smoke thing and then a follow-up. I may have only spent $50 for two pieces of useless garbage but my parents spent hundreds cleaning the place. Sorry, Mom...
…but played like a dream.
Nothing! I've bought one new instrument my whole life. There's zero chance I would buy a bass without playing it first, though. I'll never buy a new one online, let alone used one.
Thank you so much for sharing
lol
I've had great experiences in both my most recent purchases. Brand new mod shop p-bass and used Stingray HS. I still love the Stingray more even though the Fender was custom made. Both are awesome.
It didn't work, i took it back to the pawnshop and they refunded me
Haven't had any terrible experiences buying used, but I did have a guy bitching about me not being a "serious buyer" because I changed my mind about buying a guitar. I don't remember how long before the pick up it was, but it was at least a few hours (possibly a day) before so it's not like he was sitting around waiting for me. If that's too inconvenient for you, then sell your stuff to a pawn shop.
Never had a bad experience buying used because I know what I'm looking at. Can tell you my best experience though. Went to buy a '96 Jackson Dinky off Craigslist for $200. Dude said for another $100 he'd throw in a Line 6 Spider 3 amp, a hard plastic Fender road case and an '85 Ibanez Proline. Bright pink. I gave him $300 and took my haul home. Come to find out the Ibanez is pretty rare. They only made them for a year and the factory colors were black, white and red. EXCEPT a small handful were painted an Iced Cherry Blossom Pink. HSS, and 3 mini switches. One for each pup. All original down to the Japan stamp on the tuners. Found one exactly like mine on Reverb for $1,000. Not a bad $100 investment. Both guitars are absolute shredders too. TOTAL SCORE!!
Bought a Jazz bass, previous owner had pulled out the pickups with a spoon or something, which means there's large dents and scratches on the bodywork. Took a look inside the pickup slots and he'd covered it entirely in shielding tape. No idea if it's actually safe to play so I haven't touched it since
Aside from general maintenance, I've never really had a nightmare experience buying used. Stuff like replacing tubes, fixing intonation, or cleaning the contacts under synth keys have usually been good trade offs for the money saved. Plus I usually end up learning a lot more about the instrument. The one bass I got used was treated like loyalty, no blemishes, and aside from the high action and dead strings, it's been pretty great. There is one though that I kinda fucked up on. The vocalist in our band owed money, about a thousand for rent, which they paid most of it back aside from 300 bucks. She had to move, so she offered to sell me a seven string guitar which was an RG, even has EMG pups on them. Said the guitar was one of the higher tiered ones. Didn't have an RG, 300 bucks is a great price, and I trust her, so I agreed, and lo' and behold it was a near entry level seven string with EMGs in them. Still a bit miffed about it but meh.
Nothing that couldn’t be solved with a return, but I once scored a Fender Urge II (Stu Hamm signature) from Guitar Center online and had it shipped to my local store. When it got there it was in a terrible set up state and the truss rod was stripped so it could not be set up at all. Unplayable. GC gave me my money back no arguments, but it was a bummer since those basses were so hard to find at any kind of reasonable price.
Lost $500 buying a used bass off Reverb. They forced the seller to accept the refund, but that fucker just scribbled out the his address and wrote return to sender on it. After that, reverb broke off all communication with me. Fuck Reverb.
That's totally chickenshit. Never bought a guitar off Reverb, but almost did. Kinda leary about all that. Got a Digitech eq and a couple cases through Reverb though. Luckily there weren't any problems. After reading your story I'll probably never get a guitar through them. Unless it's local and I can see it in person before buying. Sorry about your loss man.
No doubt. Their, "customer protection" is worthless crap.
Not a bass but I had a not great one recently. Got a Sterling JP70 at a decent price. Everything looked good in the pictures except the usual fingerprints. NBD Easy to solve. Guitar arrives, it's in great shape other than the bridge being dusty so I remove the strings and bridge and throw the bridge in the ultrasonic cleaner. I go back to the guitar to start cleaning it. I oil the fretboard and go to wipe the rest of the guitar down. The fingerprints wont come out..... at all. The fingerprints are in the finish. So that's going to be a bitch to fix. I had a schecter km7 mkiii also show up recently. It had two busted locking tuners. One was missing the locking pin and the other was literally just cutting the high E string when you tried to tune it. I'm more mad that I wasted two sets of strings on it than I am that I have to replace the tuners. My worst experience was buying new at guitar center. The closest guitar center didn't have what I wanted so I was going to drive across town to the other one to get it. I called before I left and they said they had them in stock and asked them to hold one for me. That trip in that cities traffic was going to be like an hour and a half each way at least. I drive the hour and a half there super stoked to be getting a guitar I'd really wanted for over a decade. I show up and the only one they have is dogshit. All the knobs were missing and it had a broken tuner and a big chunk of wood out of it. Obviously, I'm not buying that one and I'm really fucking pissed that I'm spending nearly 4 hours in traffic because they lied to me. I'm still dead set on getting that guitar that I've longed for for so long. So we order it and it will get delivered to my house. I wait for the week it took to get there, the box looks good from shipping. No damage whatsoever to the box. I open the box, AND THERES A HUGE CHUNK OF WOOD MISSING FROM THE BODY. WTF. How did QC let that out the door. So I take it back to the closer guitar center and explain the situation and the manager offered a 15 dollar gift card for my trouble. I spent more than that in gas just dealing with this garbage. And that my friends is why I will never buy another guitar from guitar center.
I’m sorry for your troubles. I bought a Fretless jazz online from GC. Came in fine. Took it to get setup and flats on it. I also had them price match for one I saw online. They did it no problem. I’ve never had a bad experience at GC except for the time I went to buy a fender deluxe I think it was and the dude kept telling me it was one of James browns amps. I was already sold on it but he just kept going on and on about. Twas a great amp though.
Thanks. The guitar I got in the end is great. It now has several thousand hours on it and I love it so much I bought two more. They are my mains. Those are really the only bad experiences though and aside from the gc one the other two aren't that bad. Tuners are easy to replace and I'm hoping I can just buff the clear coat out. I've had mostly good experiences buying in general though. A few guitars were essentially brand new and I got them half price because of really small issues like a volume knob not being tightened down. One guitar the nut popped off so it just needed to be glued back on.
Calling ahead to make sure they have it, get there and they don't. I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. Something about wasting that kind of my time when I've taken extra steps. It really reaks of scumbag to me. I don't think I'll ever get over that crap nor do I care to.
Not a bass but bought an behinger x-touch off facebook and it wont turn on and the guy ghosted me
No bad experiences.
buy local
I knew my Aria was in horrific cosmetic condition and was sold "as is". Not a problem. I was a little disturbed when I took it out of the box and it was covered in a pretty thick layer of dust. This was a large, highly regarded music store, they could've at least run a damp cloth over it for two seconds before packing it.
I was gassing for a used Orange O bass for about a year when I heard they were reissuing them. Idk why anymore. I guess I just wanted to own some Orange gear and I wanted a P bass for the collection so it seemed like a good fit. So I put in an order on Sweetwater but the thing was backordered for months. I finally got impatient enough and ordered a used one from the new run off Reverb. Welllll I got the thing and it was pretty rough. Looked like QA failed big time. Neck pocket was wonky and binding was pulling off on bass side. Paint job was overall a mess. Paint from biding bled into body paint. Color was a terrible orange.... Nothing like in the pictures. To make matters worse there was black crap all over bass like crap got all over the paint and they just clear coated over it. Thing was a mess. Needless to say I was pretty bummed. I don't mind a few battle scars but in this case the bass was just built wrong. It felt like a cheap toy. Long story short, I gave the seller an ultimatum, take the bass back or heavily discount it for me. He chose the latter so I then flipped it and made a little bit of money on it. Guess it kinda worked out in the end.
Bought an expensive used boutique bass on Reverb. It had been stored improperly, probably for a long time. The neck had shrunk so badly there was a half inch of fret hanging off the G side. When the G string was tightened it just slid off the fingerboard. Neck through. Unsalvageable. Bought a used Sting Ray there. Shipper sent a one pound package via UPS, in my name, to a different address in my city. Someone signed for it, the shipper used the receipt to claim I had received the bass. Low rent scam but still 100% PITA. There are others. Overall, I’m a net loss for Reverb purchases. I window shop there but doubt I’ll ever buy again.
I got my first and last bass from a pawn shop, a Korean Washburn 5 string with the slanted j pickups. It looked nice and I thought I got a steal for it due to some pots being scratchy/intermittent but it turned out the truss rod was maxed out and the neck had horrible bowing/intonation issues. It also happened to be my first 5 string, which made for a horrible first impression. Sounded pretty terrible due to the preamp/bland pickups so I sold it for a little more than I paid for. The best part of all is that because Washburn has an American flag logo on their tuning keys I actually thought it was a MIA bass, so that was fun finding out the truth
Ordered a base that was listed as LH. It wasn't LH. The pictures were reversed. This was almost 20 years ago though. The next used bass I bought went very smoothly. The seller was great.
Bought my first PA system a year or two ago. Small one for my basement studio. It was a used Yamaha Stage PA 300 I THINK, they don't make that model anymore. It was on Craigslist. Red flag I ignored guy offered to bring it to my house. Just never happened before. He brought it over, I plugged it in and sound came out. That's as far as I checked. Used it once or twice was unimpressed but my buddy said it sounds good, I knew it didn't. One night my son was using it with his buddies and from upstairs I could really tell how bad it sounded. Like an AM radio. Waited for them to clear out and checked the sound up close. Both tweeters were blown. I called the guy on it just for the sake of calling him on it, of course after two weeks he was blaming me. He'd also thrown in an acoustic bass guitar with preamp for $40, a few cheap disco lights. I think the tweeters cost over $100 to replace and I did it myself. I was pretty pissed over it, just someone being dishonest. I said next time something terrible happens to you remember this. Every now and then stuff like this happens and it just reminds me to stay on my game. Generally I get what I pay for and after awhile it's easy to let my guard down...
Oooo. I got sucked in with a super rare gibson es335 bass in Ebony. It Played well enough but didn't have the tools to check the truss. Decided to buy it, got it home opened up the truss cover and...... the nut is stripped no big deal right? Wrong. Rod was absolutely wrecked and was pulling back into the body. Seller turned into a ghost. Thankfully still salvageable just needs major surgery.. It's currently still in the shop. Just getting a new fretboard now and it'll be all fixed up. Pain in my ass and in my wallet..
Yeah I always buy in person
I’ve had bad experiences buying used amps, but instruments and pedals has been largely positive.
A fairly recent experience, although worked out well. I had wanted a hollow body for a while. There was someone selling a gold top Jack Cassidy signature on eBay but only around 20 miles away from me. I couldn’t afford what they were asking (buy it now) so left it. Noticed a couple of weeks later that it hadn’t sold so I dropped the seller a message being really honest - I couldn’t afford the asking price, if it didn’t sell and they would be open to an offer, I’d like it. I made them an offer, granted substantially lower than they had it listed. It was all I had, didn’t expect them to go for it but worth a try. The message was ignored. Fast forward a couple of months, I receive a message from the seller saying it hadn’t sold still and they would be willing to accept my offer if I paid in cash…. I went round to this place and was greeted by a guy who sadly was quite clearly an addict - I would have assumed heroin addict. I was taken into the kitchen where I was met by a lady, also a user. It sucks even saying it (I’m sorry) but I was then immediately worried about the bass being stolen. As I looked at the bass (it was filthy - grimy fretboard, Jack input needed replacing, missing knob, ancient strings). I made chit chat with them to try and establish if this thing was legit. Through the course of the conversation, I really warmed to this couple. They were trying really hard to better themselves. He had bought this for her from a band mate years ago when she expressed an interest in playing. I got her to show me some of her chops and helped her with hand placement etc. I was there for around 45 minutes chatting. Eventually I bought the bass. I really hoped their story was genuine and I wanted to help, even if this meant a good looking ornament! I still hope their story was genuine. Anyway, I then spent a while cleaning it up, fixing, replacing and giving the bass a shit load of tlc. It paid off as it’s now a beautiful instrument. A few knocks and dings, but clean, looks great, full of character, and most importantly, is legit!0
got a secondhand frankenbass with noname yet solid and heavy p body and japanese pj neck. had to put a thin piece of wood in the neck saddle to compensate the lesser width. but it came with nice and powerful DiMarzio pickups so i’ve decided to keep it. i was a noob and wanted “fender” so bad, haha)
In addition to broken broken truss rods and returns this might be the most annoying experience for me. Two years ago I was on a lookout for a better 5-string for gigging and recording. An used Alembic 5-string showed up on a local instrument marketplace and it was somehow really affordable and never gigged, even tho it was almost 30 years old. Not a single scratch on the body etc. I had tried a 5-string Alembic before and it was the smoothest thing. Luckily I was the first guy to contact the seller and I would go and check out the bass and try it out. If it would be legit, I'd buy it. We exhanged some emails and then I called the guy and asked about the origins lf the instrument etc. Apparently there was a lot of history on the instrument, it was ordered from the same place I got my first Jazz bass and sold by a dealer/bassist I knew. Serial numbers matched the paperwork and it even had a VHS tape from the Alembic factory. The current owner was a retired gospel musician who had traded all his previous gear on the 90s to buy this instrument. We set up a date for next thursday or friday (it was tuesday then) since it was located on another city with 2 hours drive and it was the only day that I could do a trip that week. I was over the moon. The next day the guy calls me that another guy is going to come from another city and buy the bass. Apparently he had not reserved the bass for me, even tho that is the norm on the site and we had talked about me buying the bass if it was as described. I asked about this but he wanted to sell it for the first taker and fast. He promised to call me if the other guy would not show up or not take the bass. Then he would reserve it to me. My fault for not asking about reservations. Honestly, I was pissed. Mostly I was angry to myself for expecting a reservation without asking since every single thing I have bought from the same place was reserved if a date was set up. I thought that I'd be polite for not asking. The next day the guy sent me a couple of updates by text. The another buyer was late etc. He called me again on the evening and told that the another guy did not want to buy the instrument since it was a 5-string(??) and due to the fact that I was on the line before him LOL. Got the bass in the end. But thats the last time I expect any reservations before asking.
My first bass was a 90's Kramer p bass. I bought it on craigslist the previous owner said it sounded great but she had taken the strings off so I couldn't try it out. I go to guitar center and buy strings. Take it home, string it up, and the input jack isn't working. 12 year old me freaks out. I take it back to guitar center, they charge me like 10 or 20 dollars to solder one connection. For the next few weeks I wonder why bass is so much harder than playing guitar. I figure out eventually that the neck is bowed to shit. Eventually I trade it and $20 for a squier p bass that wasn't much better.
Bought a strat used, had it on the kitchen table to restring, clean electronics etc. I sprayed contact cleaner into the pickup selector and a roach ran out from under the guitar. Killed it. I take off the back cover to inspect the tremolo cavity and notice movement. I pick up the guitar and set in onto a lawn chair outside and I spray contact cleaner into the cavity. Omg at least 20 roaches from the size on an ant up to the size of my thumb ran out of the guitar and scatter onto my patio. I haven’t seen any roaches inside my house but I know I didn’t kill all of them. Anyways all used guitars go through a quarantine process in the garage now.
Bought a Warwick Thumb on ebay. It was replacing another Thumb I had moved years earlier and regretted. It finally came; I opened the box and the first thing I see is a case with ridiculous stickers, cracks, and missing pieces in it, I thought yeah okay as long as the inside is safe and secure. So, I open it up and find that the bass in the case is not the bass I bought. It was a Thumb, alright, but after a little sleuthing I learned that the ebay bum I bought it from used pictures from some forum of an entirely different Thumb with an entirely different serial number, a number that was from an earlier batch with a thinner neck, this one also had a wear mark over the pickup from use. I figured, well that sucks, but hey my last thumb was from the thick neck generation too, so whatever. I then plugged it in to find that the pickups don't work! Not only that, I eventually had to replace three tuning pegs because they wouldn't hold tension. Luckily I was able to at least get a partial refund for some new Bartolini pickups.
Any bass with two truss rods always has a severely twisted neck, as if the previous owner only ever used one of them
My fantastic Aria Pro II TSB 650. One of (if not) the best sounding most comfortable bass I've ever played I got it for 400usd. If anyone ever get to play one, take your opportunity!
Fender Jazz 5 showed up with an unadvertised/unpictured crack in the headstock, many unpictured blemishes and cracks in the finish, the one finish crack pictured was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than it appeared in photos; a crack in the body next to the input jack which had been replaced with an aftermarket jack; and a loose/wobbly tone knob. They included a free set of cheap flatwounds in the (broken) case though!
When I was a kid, my dad got me a bass off ebay. It came with the neck completely snapped in 2. It was not wrapped so well, and I could tell that it had been thrown/dropped several times on the way.
Tobacco stained Olympic white is the best color! My worst experience- 1973 guild JSII from guitar center online. Has fairly high action that I haven’t been able to get sorted myself (nor cared enough to take it in). It’s more than just the trussrod. Unsure if it’s the non original bridge or a neck angle issue. It also has a loose pickup cover.
I bought a used Squire p-bass that was a little back bowed, nothing a quick truss rod wouldn’t fix. I took it home, took off the ancient strings, cleaned it up, and put new strings on. The back bow was back with a vengeance. I loosened up the strings, and adjusted the truss rod just a little at a time, until it stopped turning. Nothing changed. I ended up throwing the neck in the trash and I don’t remember what happened to the body.