Do you have to play it before buying it rule?

When this occurred, they'd only deal with a dealer (no problem there, with my buddy's shop) but would only replace if I was the original owner, and shipped back the original neck. I would have been happy to ship the neck back, and happy to have even paid a few hundred. But I was not the original owner. It was a 10+ year old guitar at that point.
That’s pretty shitty.
 
Yes for me. I’ve had too many experiences where something I thought would be great wasn’t, and also many times when something I never would have given a second look ended up being WAY cooler than expected.

Some of my favorite guitars have been ones I never would have picked online, but only found because of trying random stuff in a store.

That 2015 Anniversary LP was a perfect example
 
I’m usually a proponent of playing a guitar before buying but that position has been challenged by a couple Gibsons that arrived over the last couple years. Somehow managed to land two of my favorite guitars spec’d perfectly to my preferences.

I think I got lucky.
 
While playing before buying would be preferable, it's not necessary. I've bought plenty of guitars without trying. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they get sold because it was not my thing after all.

But most of the time the guitars that got sold weren't some immediate "this is not for me" thing, but I might own the guitar like 6-12 months before moving it on.

The only guitar bought online that I sent back very quickly was the Strandberg Boden OS 8 LE, simply because it was completely shit quality. I also didn't like many aspects of its design.

By comparison e.g the KDC "Barncaster" Tele I picked up used was basically a "took a look at it, decided it seemed good, went home to play it" type deal because it wasn't very expensive. Still love it after putting a bit of work to make it great.
 
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