Guildedagain
Enlightened Member
I got it back yesterday, after 3 days of waiting for the UPS truck, I nearly lost my mind. I was hearing the truck in the middle of the night.
Wife says you better hurry, truck is out there.
I run out there and the driver is starting it up and leaving, WTF?
I'm screaming, waving, jumping through an iced over creek and she - the driver - finally hears me, stops the engine, opens the door.
I'm out of breath "Don't you have something for me?".
Are you 32XXXXX?
Me "Yeah, I've been waiting for you for 3 days".
No apology.
"I was gonna drive away cause I need a signature" she says.
Puts the box down, has scanner in hand, and just walks back to truck.
Forgets the sig.
Just found out Washingtonians are spending $450 million more on weed than they did before the pandemic, and our county the highest increase in the state, 144% more than before the pandemic, and it shows.
So I drag the 26lb box back to the house, open it and get the guitar out.
Immediately apparent, the rare high end G&G case has a lot more wear on the real leather ends that before, like it went out on gigs. There's leather actually missing - case had never been out of the house - and it's not even at the bottom of the guitar, somebody was whacking the headstock part of the case into things.
Opening the case, the guy didn't bother to put any kind of paper between the strings and frets, no padding at all over the guitar to keep it down.
Now on to the weird and disgusting.
The guitar has been played lots, nasty grungy, even the old relic knobs look like they need a wash now.
There's pubes or pet hair or something on it, which I blow away with blower, gross.
This is where I'm starting to get upset.
There's a whole bunch of pockmarks and scratches with under where your arm rests, it's all buggered up from body jewelry.
And even worse, right above the pickups, full on center on the guitar, the same f'ed up pockmarks and scratches.
On the backside, there are gnarly new scratches, even white paint from bonking into a wall.
This guitar hasn't had a new scratch over here ever. It was quite aged/reli-ed when I got it, and I never put one scratch in it, just kept it polished.
Then I take neck off to see how hard they turned the truss rod, and that's when I lost it.
My neck shim is missing.
I contacted Reverb at that point to tell my new helper that: The guitar has been played lots, disgustingly dirty and has new scratches and dings everywhere.
And my neck shim is missing.
Took pictures of all of it and sent them to Reverb.
Then I took it all apart, polished the scratches out best I could.
I put new strings on it, then had to take them off because new neck shim was too low, then the neck shim was too high, then eventually I got it just right for height and angle.
By this time, it was 11pm, hours past my bedtime, and I had it playing sweeter than a guitar has a right to.
The dark spot on the PG at 11 o clock is grime, wet finger grime that dried on.
Really messed up scratches from a metal bracelet or other jewelry.
This is the level of grime, the dark stuff around the lower screw is player DNA and schmutz.
Where is the Ski Jump?
This neck is straight as an arrow.
Good Grief, look at these scratches at the bottom, I'd never send a guitar out like that, ever.
Here's the headstock end of the case, it's got more wear than it ever did the whole time I owned it.
So it's exactly what I expected.
He played it a lot.
He treated it like he didn't care.
He sent it back with damage. Lots of scuff and the nicks from the jewelry are bad enough that you can feel them.
In regards to the neck issue that cause the return, I'd like to take it to a reputable vintage shop, and say: Play it and give me a snap description of it.
It would go like this.
"Wow, amazing Strat".
And one last thing, this business of his about there not being any harmonics at the 5th fret - which is why he took it to a shop - is really 100% a fabrication, or he doesn't know how to pluck harmonics, but there is really nothing wrong with the guitar in any way.
Wife says you better hurry, truck is out there.
I run out there and the driver is starting it up and leaving, WTF?
I'm screaming, waving, jumping through an iced over creek and she - the driver - finally hears me, stops the engine, opens the door.
I'm out of breath "Don't you have something for me?".
Are you 32XXXXX?
Me "Yeah, I've been waiting for you for 3 days".
No apology.
"I was gonna drive away cause I need a signature" she says.
Puts the box down, has scanner in hand, and just walks back to truck.
Forgets the sig.
Just found out Washingtonians are spending $450 million more on weed than they did before the pandemic, and our county the highest increase in the state, 144% more than before the pandemic, and it shows.
So I drag the 26lb box back to the house, open it and get the guitar out.
Immediately apparent, the rare high end G&G case has a lot more wear on the real leather ends that before, like it went out on gigs. There's leather actually missing - case had never been out of the house - and it's not even at the bottom of the guitar, somebody was whacking the headstock part of the case into things.
Opening the case, the guy didn't bother to put any kind of paper between the strings and frets, no padding at all over the guitar to keep it down.
Now on to the weird and disgusting.
The guitar has been played lots, nasty grungy, even the old relic knobs look like they need a wash now.
There's pubes or pet hair or something on it, which I blow away with blower, gross.
This is where I'm starting to get upset.
There's a whole bunch of pockmarks and scratches with under where your arm rests, it's all buggered up from body jewelry.
And even worse, right above the pickups, full on center on the guitar, the same f'ed up pockmarks and scratches.
On the backside, there are gnarly new scratches, even white paint from bonking into a wall.
This guitar hasn't had a new scratch over here ever. It was quite aged/reli-ed when I got it, and I never put one scratch in it, just kept it polished.
Then I take neck off to see how hard they turned the truss rod, and that's when I lost it.
My neck shim is missing.
I contacted Reverb at that point to tell my new helper that: The guitar has been played lots, disgustingly dirty and has new scratches and dings everywhere.
And my neck shim is missing.
Took pictures of all of it and sent them to Reverb.
Then I took it all apart, polished the scratches out best I could.
I put new strings on it, then had to take them off because new neck shim was too low, then the neck shim was too high, then eventually I got it just right for height and angle.
By this time, it was 11pm, hours past my bedtime, and I had it playing sweeter than a guitar has a right to.
The dark spot on the PG at 11 o clock is grime, wet finger grime that dried on.
Really messed up scratches from a metal bracelet or other jewelry.
This is the level of grime, the dark stuff around the lower screw is player DNA and schmutz.
Where is the Ski Jump?
This neck is straight as an arrow.
Good Grief, look at these scratches at the bottom, I'd never send a guitar out like that, ever.
Here's the headstock end of the case, it's got more wear than it ever did the whole time I owned it.
So it's exactly what I expected.
He played it a lot.
He treated it like he didn't care.
He sent it back with damage. Lots of scuff and the nicks from the jewelry are bad enough that you can feel them.
In regards to the neck issue that cause the return, I'd like to take it to a reputable vintage shop, and say: Play it and give me a snap description of it.
It would go like this.
"Wow, amazing Strat".
And one last thing, this business of his about there not being any harmonics at the 5th fret - which is why he took it to a shop - is really 100% a fabrication, or he doesn't know how to pluck harmonics, but there is really nothing wrong with the guitar in any way.
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Punching a wall for you now, GA!