New Schecter Nick Johnston MII missing ground wire to trem claw

[Eagle]

Yes it is routing. Or it could be teeth marks . Seriously blunt cutter and the cheapest spring claw I’ve ever seen.

 

[deepskyone]

The inside of my 200 EUR Squier looks better. I expected a lot more from a guitar 5x the price.

Instead I managed to snatch a B-stock MIJ Jackson So-Cal Misha Mansoor for 1.9K EUR which is flawless apart from a tiny ding on the back of the headstock. A small price to pay compared to a discount of 450 EUR.

 

[Eagle]

They always cut corners somewhere in budget instruments . It is not possible not too but you do need to know where and if you can do something about it. To pretend that you can just do the same for less without explanation is a lie. This is the Lie that I don't like behind Sire and similar in ignorant (or paid ) reviews .They literally do polish a turd ,well dip it in polly and stick a pearl pick guard on it.

 

[State of Epicicity]

To me, every brand is suspect enough to where I do not order online. I play a Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Black Limba, and it was made very well, but took me getting some great advice to realize the Floyd nut was not screwed down all the way, which initially caused trem pulls not to return to zero. Schecter overall has had wildly uneven QC for a long time, in my experience, with the models I've played. Same for LTDs. I always want to like LTDs until I pick one up and see the quality in person. But the QC problems I've seen on expensive as hell Gibsons take the cake.

I don't know what it takes to be able to trust a brand, but I imagine the two biggest superstrat boutique names are always safe, Suhr, and Anderson, except for the number of Suhrs I've read about with unfixable dead notes. And Vigier too, mostly. Aristides seem to be perfect for the money, with Caparison too. But all these guitars are expensive.

But to me, online is just a crapshoot. People do it all the time, but I'd honestly rather travel to play any guitar. It's too damn personal. Even if it happens to be made well, can I deal with the neck? Does it have any mojo at all? When I bought my Epiphone Les Paul in the late aughts, it had better tone than the many Gibsons in the huge selection at the shop.

On the other hand, the best guitar I ever bought was a Washburn P3, made in America. Incredible craftsmanship, best tone I've ever experienced in a guitar, from a brand no one cares about!

So I don't know. I wouldn't feel bad about getting a guitar with QC problems; the question to me always is, are they fixable enough to make it worth the money and effort. For me, as long as the neck and fretwork is good, I can deal with most other stuff myself. Sorry you had a bad experience like that, with bad customer service too from the shop, but I wouldn't write off any brand or country of manufacture because of it either. That will just lead to buying expensive guitars (not that expensive guitars are not worth it!). I've handled guitars from Indonesia that are made great. Again, total crapshoot!

 

[Eagle]

To me, every brand is suspect enough to where I do not order online. I play a Schecter Sun Valley Super Shredder Black Limba, and it was made very well, but took me getting some great advice to realize the Floyd nut was not screwed down all the way, which initially caused trem pulls not to return to zero. Schecter overall has had wildly uneven QC for a long time, in my experience, with the models I've played. Same for LTDs. I always want to like LTDs until I pick one up and see the quality in person. But the QC problems I've seen on expensive as hell Gibsons take the cake.

I don't know what it takes to be able to trust a brand, but I imagine the two biggest superstrat boutique names are always safe, Suhr, and Anderson, except for the number of Suhrs I've read about with unfixable dead notes. And Vigier too, mostly. Aristides seem to be perfect for the money, with Caparison too. But all these guitars are expensive.

But to me, online is just a crapshoot. People do it all the time, but I'd honestly rather travel to play any guitar. It's too damn personal. Even if it happens to be made well, can I deal with the neck? Does it have any mojo at all? When I bought my Epiphone Les Paul in the late aughts, it had better tone than the many Gibsons in the huge selection at the shop.

On the other hand, the best guitar I ever bought was a Washburn P3, made in America. Incredible craftsmanship, best tone I've ever experienced in a guitar, from a brand no one cares about!

So I don't know. I wouldn't feel bad about getting a guitar with QC problems; the question to me always is, are they fixable enough to make it worth the money and effort. For me, as long as the neck and fretwork is good, I can deal with most other stuff myself. Sorry you had a bad experience like that, with bad customer service too from the shop, but I wouldn't write off any brand or country of manufacture because of it either. That will just lead to buying expensive guitars (not that expensive guitars are not worth it!). I've handled guitars from Indonesia that are made great. Again, total crapshoot!

Never seen a Vigier with any sort of an issue.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Never seen a Vigier with any sort of an issue.

And of course Vigier has that superlative selling point of completely avoiding dead notes, which is like magic.

 

[eaeolian]

I think one of the disappointing take-aways here is that it's pretty obvious QC is being thrown out the window. The initial Indo LTDs I played were solid, very unlike the initial Jackson Indo guitars. Now they all are pretty meh, which is ridiculous when you're paying $1K for them.

 

[madmarcus1960]

I'd keep it if they took 10-15% off. It's any easy fix.