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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 04:42 PM
I'm thinking on buying a guitar online (Amazon). I've never been much of an online buyer, and even much less regarding fragile things like a guitar. I'm scared it might get fucked up during the shipping.
I live in Honduras and I assume the shipping comes from the US.
Do you have any experiences ordering guitars and the state on which your product arrives?
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04-18-2012, 05:03 PM
Personally, I could never buy a guitar without handling it first. But I play mostly classical and flamenco, which is different than buying factory produced equipment that has some degree of consistency behind it. What guitar are you buying?
"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 05:27 PM
I wouldn't do that.
You'll have to pay to have it set-up at a guitar store at best anyway. You should really buy one after you've played it though. That is what I'd strongly recommend, for an electric.
If it is classical, no way should you order online in a million years.
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 05:37 PM
What type of guitar are you looking at?
If it *does* get messed up in shipping, the retailer will replace it via filing a claims. Just make sure you get plenty pictures.
Most guitars in stores on the shop rack or setup like shit.
The best thing to do is learn to setup your guitar yourself. it's a simple matter of adjusting the trussrod usually 1/8 turn one way or the other, and lowering/raising the saddles a quarter turn or so each. Very simple stuff.
Most electric guitars play pretty consistently when they're produced from the factory. Every once in awhile you get a lemon or a real star, but overwhelmingly one is gonna play the next one.
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 06:24 PM
Agreed, you really should try a guitar before you buy it. I almost bought a Gibson Goldtop unseen once, thank God i tried it first... way too thick neck for me...
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 06:47 PM
I know, and I agree fully. However the variety of guitars over here is extremely limited, you see almost the same guitars in every store its annoying.
Setting up a guitar sounds really nice, but sounds hard and I barely have any time, which is a reason my playing has decreased. I want to buy this new guitar to get more inspiration.
I'm going to hit up the stores maybe tomorrow and see what they have.
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 09:27 PM
Quote: (04-18-2012 06:47 PM)FretDancer Wrote:
Setting up a guitar sounds really nice, but sounds hard and I barely have any time, which is a reason my playing has decreased. I want to buy this new guitar to get more inspiration.
Inspiration comes better from jamming with musicians better than you.
Or FX pedals
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-18-2012, 10:33 PM
If you're a casual player and are worried about a guitar being broken in transit, you could just buy one "prebroken", ie something like the Saga electric guitar kits. They actually get half-decent reviews, and you'd probably learn a fair amount putting them together. Reviews have been mostly pretty good; I'm considering one as a learner instrument because I really enjoy making things, plus they're cheap enough that you could learn a lot modifying one and not feel too bad about any mistakes.
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-20-2012, 01:49 PM
Did not read responses but I would advise against buying a guitar with out playing it first
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04-20-2012, 02:50 PM
Do you trust the Honduran postal service?
How much you looking to spend?
If it's a PRS or anything upper-end, better go get it yourself or have a visiting friend bring it along.
As for places to buy, I always use ebay. I brought a mint PRS 8 years back, saved about $2000 off the retail price, probably $1000 if it had been from a store.
A year from now you'll wish you started today
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Ordering Guitars Online
04-20-2012, 04:04 PM
Just came from a guitar store, I saw beautiful guitar and immediatly wanted to try it out. It felt awesome, exactly what I needed. I'm never buying a floating bridge guitar again, what a pain in the ass, a pain I have to endure for so many years.
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Ordering Guitars Online
05-03-2014, 02:20 PM
If you buy from a reputable dealer there should be nothing to worry about. I bought a SG online and it was perfect when it came.
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Ordering Guitars Online
05-03-2014, 02:29 PM
This is an old thread but I give two thumbs up to buying guitars online.
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Ordering Guitars Online
06-05-2014, 02:23 AM
^^That's a very good point about new guitars.
I should have been more clear. I've only ever bought used guitars online from well-repped eBay sellers. Highly repped eBay sellers are meticulous about describing the pros and cons of their instruments (to avoid bad ratings).
New guitars from Amazon or someplace similar would be a different story altogether and I would proceed with extreme caution.
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Ordering Guitars Online
06-05-2014, 04:47 AM
Would you buy a car without test driving it?
I've spent hours at the store handling a half dozen instruments I was somewhat interested in buying and found that none of them were to my liking. And then I found one that wasn't even in my radar that felt right that I bought.
The other thing too is that even chains like Guitar Center have techs handy that can fine tune the guitar for you. For a retail job it's pretty sweet that they can spend a lot of downtime just playing and call it work.