Post by CTGull on Jun 9, 2022 18:47:30 GMT -5
THE STORY: I just happened to look at Facebook Marketplace and I saw it. I quickly bought it. I asked about the story and she said "Thank you for the buy! I’ve had the guitar for a long time and have been the only owner to it. My dad bought it for me when I first started to learn the guitar in 2008 and I fell so in love with it. As the years went by I wanted to upgrade and saved up enough money to buy a Taylor. Not much of an interesting story but it has been played a lot and still has the life to make someone else happy." I was confused, it wasn’t new in 2008, but I’ll bet it probably looked like new at that time. I didn’t say anything, I was just happy to have found it. I was hoping it is one of the ebony models. That would be awesome!!
THE SHIPPING: Today was a HUGE range of emotions! After it shipped I paid UPS $5.99 to have it sent to the local UPS Store so it wouldn’t be sitting on my porch in the sun or rain for who knows how long. WHY does UPS charge to do this when FEDEX does it for free?? It would add another day, but it’s worth it. BUT, this morning they said it would be delivered today!! I’m taking a half day tomorrow, I had planned on picking it up shortly after it was delivered, but it was delivered today at 10:20am!! Now I have to WAIT!!! I couldn’t stand it and left at 2:25pm!!
I got there about 3pm and they pulled out a box with a guitar headstock sticking out of it. I was in shock!! I’ve never seen anything like it!! There’s a chunk of the wood and cream binding missing. She said she LOVED this guitar (but recently upgraded to a Taylor), how could she do this?? The manager said there's absolutely no way they would have accepted this package to ship. They said if I opened the box (to see if there was any more damage) I owned it, and suggested refusing it and it would go back on the next truck out and I would demand a refund. I reluctantly agreed.
I drove home without the guitar I was so anxiously waiting for. I wrote a slightly nasty Facebook message demanding a full refund, saying UPS will be returning it. Then I looked up Facebook’s terms of service, which said No Refunds, and her ad said No Returns. That made me think sending it back was a bad idea because then I would end up losing on two counts, no guitar and lose my money. I immediately went back and told them even though it is damaged I HAD to accept it or I’d end up with nothing.
When I got home I find she did a full refund!! Now I feel bad!!! It’s completely reversed!! I have the money AND the guitar!! That’s not right!! She replied, saying she had to make an emergency trip and she had a trusted family member ship it, so it’s not her fault. Now I felt worse!! I offered to give her $75, half the original price.
She asked for pictures of the guitar to be sure I wasn't trying to rip her off, which I understood. I sent a picture showing the headstock damage and the wear in the body at the pickguard. She said she couldn’t accept half of what she was asking for it and said she would pay to have it shipped back. I explained it normally cost about $100 to ship a guitar, Facebook must be getting a HUGE volume discount. I sent a picture of a FEDEX receipt for the last guitar I shipped showing it cost $109, with the weight and box dimensions. I also said the UPS manager would absolutely refuse to ship it back like that, I would have to buy a new box, bringing the cost to over $125, almost as much I as she wanted for the guitar. I said I bought it as a collectible guitar with the intention of fixing it up. The damage reduces its value greatly. I offered to give her $100, which she accepted.
This sucks that the turn of events sort of spun me from the “victim” to the bad guy, exaggerating it a bit. I thought I did the right thing. I told her I fix guitars as a hobby and side business, I have a forum where I share what I learn and do, I would sent her a link to the thread for repair of this guitar.
I was really looking forward to seeing it, but I didn't expect it to greet me thru the box!!
THE OBSERVATIONS: She definitely did play it a lot! There are many divots in the fretboard and frets, and wear in the top near the pickguard. And some minor scratches and dings here and there, typical of it’s age. Used by not abused! Unlike some I’ve found that must have spent their whole life in the case or a closet, or looked like they had been dragged on a cross country trip. There’s also a crack thru the bridge pin holes, which is fairly common, and a couple of small pieces missing. The grain of the bridge and fretboard look like rosewood, even though they look to have been “ebonized”. The Yamaha tuners were replaced with Grover’s, with plain washers under the heads of the retaining nuts, and no screws to keep the bodies from rotating. There are divots in the frets and fretboard up to the 6th fret. It was shipped with the lightest old extra light (.009”-.038”, 3 wound) 80/20 strings slacked randomly. I tuned it to “D”, they are the floppiest strings I’ve ever felt. The nut action is low for all strings. The neck relief is zero. The action is 1/8” low D & a little under 7/64” high D. The neck projects about 1/8” below the top of the bridge. The bridge is .28” thick, the saddle sticks out .08”/.06”. It looks like the guitar was professionally set up at some point since there are nicely cut string ramps in the bridge pin holes.
THE PLAN: Obviously, it needs a neck reset and a possibly replace the first 4-5 frets, or it might be OK with a good levelling, I will try that first. Since the strings are the lightest bottom end I’ve ever seen, I will need to install new Light strings when doing the neck reset to get the right pull on the neck to set the neck angle. I intend on leaving the fretboard as is, no sanding, leave the original finger divots. I may leave the crack thru the bridge pin holes, I’ve seen much worse, and I don’t want to mess with the original patina. Repairing the headstock with require stabilizing the few loose pieces of wood, lightly sanding, and finding some closely colored binding to be formed & cut to fit. I’ve read I can drop acetone into the binding gaps to “melt” it together. And try my best to blend the repaired wood and new binding to match the 47 year old patina.
There's some damage on the other corner, but there's nothing missing.
Very little saddle left.
Oddly, the tuners were installed without the anti-rotation screws.
The washers under the tuner retention nuts are not stock. I will find some fancy plated ones.
Some divots in the fretboard.
And fret divots.
The action is a bit high, but it is deceiving because the extra extra light string must have half the tension of normal light strings. There will be more neck movement with full tension.
THE SHIPPING: Today was a HUGE range of emotions! After it shipped I paid UPS $5.99 to have it sent to the local UPS Store so it wouldn’t be sitting on my porch in the sun or rain for who knows how long. WHY does UPS charge to do this when FEDEX does it for free?? It would add another day, but it’s worth it. BUT, this morning they said it would be delivered today!! I’m taking a half day tomorrow, I had planned on picking it up shortly after it was delivered, but it was delivered today at 10:20am!! Now I have to WAIT!!! I couldn’t stand it and left at 2:25pm!!
I got there about 3pm and they pulled out a box with a guitar headstock sticking out of it. I was in shock!! I’ve never seen anything like it!! There’s a chunk of the wood and cream binding missing. She said she LOVED this guitar (but recently upgraded to a Taylor), how could she do this?? The manager said there's absolutely no way they would have accepted this package to ship. They said if I opened the box (to see if there was any more damage) I owned it, and suggested refusing it and it would go back on the next truck out and I would demand a refund. I reluctantly agreed.
I drove home without the guitar I was so anxiously waiting for. I wrote a slightly nasty Facebook message demanding a full refund, saying UPS will be returning it. Then I looked up Facebook’s terms of service, which said No Refunds, and her ad said No Returns. That made me think sending it back was a bad idea because then I would end up losing on two counts, no guitar and lose my money. I immediately went back and told them even though it is damaged I HAD to accept it or I’d end up with nothing.
When I got home I find she did a full refund!! Now I feel bad!!! It’s completely reversed!! I have the money AND the guitar!! That’s not right!! She replied, saying she had to make an emergency trip and she had a trusted family member ship it, so it’s not her fault. Now I felt worse!! I offered to give her $75, half the original price.
She asked for pictures of the guitar to be sure I wasn't trying to rip her off, which I understood. I sent a picture showing the headstock damage and the wear in the body at the pickguard. She said she couldn’t accept half of what she was asking for it and said she would pay to have it shipped back. I explained it normally cost about $100 to ship a guitar, Facebook must be getting a HUGE volume discount. I sent a picture of a FEDEX receipt for the last guitar I shipped showing it cost $109, with the weight and box dimensions. I also said the UPS manager would absolutely refuse to ship it back like that, I would have to buy a new box, bringing the cost to over $125, almost as much I as she wanted for the guitar. I said I bought it as a collectible guitar with the intention of fixing it up. The damage reduces its value greatly. I offered to give her $100, which she accepted.
This sucks that the turn of events sort of spun me from the “victim” to the bad guy, exaggerating it a bit. I thought I did the right thing. I told her I fix guitars as a hobby and side business, I have a forum where I share what I learn and do, I would sent her a link to the thread for repair of this guitar.
I was really looking forward to seeing it, but I didn't expect it to greet me thru the box!!
THE OBSERVATIONS: She definitely did play it a lot! There are many divots in the fretboard and frets, and wear in the top near the pickguard. And some minor scratches and dings here and there, typical of it’s age. Used by not abused! Unlike some I’ve found that must have spent their whole life in the case or a closet, or looked like they had been dragged on a cross country trip. There’s also a crack thru the bridge pin holes, which is fairly common, and a couple of small pieces missing. The grain of the bridge and fretboard look like rosewood, even though they look to have been “ebonized”. The Yamaha tuners were replaced with Grover’s, with plain washers under the heads of the retaining nuts, and no screws to keep the bodies from rotating. There are divots in the frets and fretboard up to the 6th fret. It was shipped with the lightest old extra light (.009”-.038”, 3 wound) 80/20 strings slacked randomly. I tuned it to “D”, they are the floppiest strings I’ve ever felt. The nut action is low for all strings. The neck relief is zero. The action is 1/8” low D & a little under 7/64” high D. The neck projects about 1/8” below the top of the bridge. The bridge is .28” thick, the saddle sticks out .08”/.06”. It looks like the guitar was professionally set up at some point since there are nicely cut string ramps in the bridge pin holes.
THE PLAN: Obviously, it needs a neck reset and a possibly replace the first 4-5 frets, or it might be OK with a good levelling, I will try that first. Since the strings are the lightest bottom end I’ve ever seen, I will need to install new Light strings when doing the neck reset to get the right pull on the neck to set the neck angle. I intend on leaving the fretboard as is, no sanding, leave the original finger divots. I may leave the crack thru the bridge pin holes, I’ve seen much worse, and I don’t want to mess with the original patina. Repairing the headstock with require stabilizing the few loose pieces of wood, lightly sanding, and finding some closely colored binding to be formed & cut to fit. I’ve read I can drop acetone into the binding gaps to “melt” it together. And try my best to blend the repaired wood and new binding to match the 47 year old patina.
There's some damage on the other corner, but there's nothing missing.
Very little saddle left.
Oddly, the tuners were installed without the anti-rotation screws.
The washers under the tuner retention nuts are not stock. I will find some fancy plated ones.
Some divots in the fretboard.
And fret divots.
The action is a bit high, but it is deceiving because the extra extra light string must have half the tension of normal light strings. There will be more neck movement with full tension.