Any guitar players on TW?

I have never had a bad experience with them. Hopefully it all sorts out for you soon. Waiting is never fun I feel you. Your mind starts to wonder etc.. But everything seems to take longer now.

 

I never had a backorder situation with MF, so I can't share that experience. As far as any regrets, don't forget that you can always turn around and sell/trade if you don't want it, and recoup a good portion of any perceived loss, or, in the case of a trade, maybe fulfill some other want.

 

I have had a lot of issues in the past with Musicians Friend/Guitar Center.... had a high end acoustic that was shipped to without a case and without any packaging (yes really! Just the guitar loose in a box!); got a huge run around trying to return it, ended up driving an hour to return it for a refund, just for the store manager to refund it as store credit... and once they refunded it as store credit, there was apparently no way to get that reversed and refunded back to my card. It was a nightmare.

Also a similar back order experience on a pedal; showed as in stock when I purchased it, turns out it wasn't. Was told next week, then two more weeks, then another week; cancelled after that - but even that was a headache. They had to like submit a ticket to cancel it or something, so it was like another week before I got confirmation it was cancelled, and then another week before I saw my refund.

Then recently I found a great deal on a used amp I've been looking for, and against my own better judgement, went for it. Arrived in horrible shape, barely packed, and in too light weight of a box. All the tubes were broken, the front baffle broke off, and there was no power cord with it. I called them up, and was basically told to pound sand. My options were to ship it back for a refund (for which I would need to source a proper box and proper packing material) or keep it and deal with it. They didn't offer to replace tubes, didn't offer to send me a power cord... nothing. I ended up keeping and repairing it myself, but reminded me once again they are a terrible company to do business with these days.

I primarily stick with Sweetwater; they've always been awesome.

 

Thanks!

It's not that I don't want it, but I'm rethinking the cash end of things. Like, I got into the one thing I told myself I wouldn't do...look at it as a payment rather than an overall cost. At 0% it's less of a liability than it needs to be (and I have the cash to pay in full if I really wanted to) but it's more a case of...$1,800 isn't a small amount of money, am I crazy for doing this, do I really play enough to justify, etc, etc. Once I have it, I'll be like cool, this is awesome, I have a legit half stack, etc, etc.

Hindsight is 20/20. I should have taken the Sweetwater offer as the financing was similar (0% for 24 mo vs 0% for 36 mo) and they still had the same Marshall MS-4 mini-amp rebate. At the time MF was offering something like $140 in store credit with purchase so that swung the pendulum. I hadn't read the negatives prior to signing up for the CC to get the financing and at this point I'm reluctant to open another line of credit.

What I laugh at is the rep keeps giving me dates which she claims are arrival, not MF ship dates. The most recent is 11/26. I want to be like, MF is shipping Economy Ground for the Midwest to the East Coast Thanksgiving week? If I don't have a tracking number last week, it's not coming. My hope is the fact I requested a warehouse ship guarantees a new in box Marshall amp rather than a GC stock item. Once I get the $140 in credit I'll bang out a pair of Boss pedals and call my relationship with them done. Someday it will show.

 

I had the same internal argument before I bought my Les Paul. "I don't really play enough to justify spending 2K on a REAL guitar" But I had wanted one since I was a teenager and I am finally in a good enough position financially that I could afford it so I pulled the trigger and it was the best money I've ever spent. It gave me the push I needed to start taking lessons and now I play almost every day. I'm learning new stuff every week from lessons and also getting back stuff I lost over the years of not practicing for long stretches.

 

Same. Wanted to get into a 7 string and upgrade from my ESP when I discovered strandberg. Saw the price and said the same thing you did. Luckily, my wife is a music lover too, and after telling me how much her flute cost, I had no issue getting a strandberg and a new amp as well, and I still only got maybe 2/3 to her cheap flute.

Very glad I did at the end of the day. I wound up really connecting with the guitar and play a lot more now because of it.

 

picked up a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4. Gonna start doing a little recording finally.... its only taken a couple of decades to collect the needed gear, but I am finally gonna make a stab at it. Any of you guys using Ableton Live? Love it? Hate it? things you wished youd knew ahead of time?

 

I haven't used it years, but I used to like Abelton Live.

 

Been a while for me too, but I always used Reaper personally. Not much experience with Abelton.

 

Enclosure drilled and ready for the board and the like. Revv clone should be done pretty soon now.

 

I cancelled my Musician’s Friend order on Wednesday and called Sweetwater. I ordered the head, a Boss SD-1, a Boss DS-1 and power supply.

I’ve learned that I desperately need new cables as some minor hiss in my old amp means a ton of hiss in the FX loop. I know it’s cabling so I just need to get them. I also need to work out how to use the pedals to get the tone I want.

Lastly I desperately need a luthier to go through my guitars. My main guitar is a Tokai strat clone with a Duncan Invader which sounds good if a little crunchy (I may mess with the wiring connections to reflow solder). My backup is an Agile LP DC clone with absolute junk weak pickups.

Maybe when I pay off the amp (0% for 48 is too good not to finance for awhile) I’ll investigate a real guitar if I stick with it but this is progress and progress is good.

 

And done. Gotta get some better knobs. Those are all I had.

Revv clone:

 

I was gonna do a half pickguard with a aluminum pickup ring on the neck, but now I am thinking of just going the full pickguard route.

I can do another color pickguard too. Black just looks good on this. You can see the neck. It have black inlays.

 

Looking good boss!

 

Thanks. I think I finally figured out what I am going to do for the pickguard. It's gonna be something kinda like the Merle Haggard F-hole thinline pickguard.

 

Hardest part about a NGD during winter weather; is having to wait to open the box. All I can do now is make sure it's as comfortable as possible as it acclimates overnight. I'm sure the Mrs wont mind sleeping on the couch tonight

 

I find it's best to read the Sweetwater catalog to my new guitars before bed.

Now I wanna know what it is.

 

looks like a Reverb logo on the box....
width seems to suggest an acoustic....
maybe an Orangewood??? or I could be way the hell off... figured Id throw one out...

 

It's a Heritage Millennium Standard Ultra; will post some pictures a little later. It's painful sitting here doing work stuff knowing it's sitting there waiting to come out of it's box.

 

"Let me out... come play me...."