Guy came in today to try out a Custom Shop Tele. He ended up staying for over 5 hours, noodling away insufferably on all sorts of other guitars. Ended up buying a completely different model, but called a couple of hours later to say he wants to return it.

What is the matter with some people?!

JP

Some sort of guitar then. He spent how much on a guitar? Should have known what he wanted, like most proper enthusiasts.

He was looking at guitars in the £1500 to £2800 range. I don’t understand what he was trying to ascertain; even the most picky pros we’ve sold to haven’t spent more than an hour comparing guitars.

JP

Sounds like he took it home and his wife saw the price tag 😉

I don’t know how many hours of mucking about I did before finding my Tele… I testdrove dozens of guitars, bought some, sold them, tested some more… Not all on the same day, though, but I did spend literally a whole day in denmark street going door to door when I got my acoustic. And at least he actually bought one, rather than getting a couple of plectrums.

But is this not literally the main reason guitar shops exist? It’s still a product that people want to feel and hear and see how it sits round their neck and of course how you look in the mirror. That, and selling starter sets with really horrible amps. (I’m assuming nobody buys tab books any more, when I worked in one I couldn’t believe how many we sold…)

A Tele is quite a specific look and sound, what did he buy instead?
Also what grounds for returning it? Unless it’s faulty can you just offer him a credit note?
Thought if he’s as much of a time-waster as he sounds then a refund and good rid is probably best!

Sounds like he took it home and his wife saw the price tag

If that happened he’s a rank amateur!
Smuggle into mancave and hang on wall/put on stand. If you’re ever asked ‘what that old thing? Swapped it in ’89 for a Mexican strat.’

He bought a Thinline Tele with TV Jones pickups.

We’re pretty much an online business (several businesses, really), so thankfully don’t get too much of this sort of thing. I did, once, have to ban someone, though, who bought a total of 15 harmonicas over a two week period and kept exchanging them.

JP

I’d like a Mustang with a maple fret board please. Will only test play for less than an hour. Can you help?

It took me months to find my current Strat (bought and sold two in that time), took me 15mins to buy my Duesenburg.

Some guiiiitarz take ages to find, some just fall in your lap.

Did he play Stairway??
🤪🤹‍♂️🤯

I did, once, have to ban someone, though, who bought a total of 15 harmonicas over a two week period and kept exchanging them.

I don’t know anything about guitars so have no business on this thread but I know that’s one dirty bastard. Don’t you sell things you suck/blow with a returns exemption like M&S undies? I’d imagine Anne Summers has similar exclusions….

I did, once, have to ban someone, though, who bought a total of 15 harmonicas over a two week period and kept exchanging them.

I don’t know anything about guitars so have no business on this thread but I know that’s one dirty bastard. Don’t you sell things you suck/blow with a returns exemption like M&S undies? I’d imagine Anne Summers has similar exclusions….

They were all unused – that’s the only way they can be exchanged, unless they’re faulty.

JP

rOcKeTdOg

Subscriber

I’d like a Mustang with a maple fret board please. Will only test play for less than an hour. Can you help?

Maybe. Let me talk to my business partner – he sources everything. The only thing we’ve got anywhere near that at the moment is a 1963 Jaguar, but there’s always new stuff coming in.

JP

Hold on, I thought you sold coffee. Confused.

I’m as indecisive as they come and once seriously played guitar (only an occasional potterer now). Completely understand the noodling away for hours, but once bought it’s a done deal. That’s why you noodle away for hours in the first place.

Hold on, I thought you sold coffee. Confused.

4 different businesses spread over a couple of warehouses. Coffee is one of them; the others are guitars, harmonicas and chess sets. I’m involved in the first three, but not the last one, which is my business partner’s original business.

JP

He came to pickup a new guitar but lead you on really? The brass neck of him!
E needs stringing up!

Buyers remorse.

Balls – and there was me wanting to spend 4 hours trying out a chess set 😉

Sounds like a place worth a visit. I have a kinda hankering to find out if a USA Strat is worth the dollar over my old mexi.

Sounds like a great concept shop/cafe. Guitars and harmonicas, good coffee, and chess boards to play other caffeinated people on. You can even buy the guitars and chess boards if you like them enough!

Maybe tested it in a warehouse/completely different setting then got it home to find it sounded nothing like he thought it would? Can see how that would work, like car park testing bikes.

Maybe tested it in a warehouse/completely different setting then got it home to find it sounded nothing like he thought it would? Can see how that would work, like car park testing bikes.

I don’t think he has that excuse – he brought his own AVRI Tele to test it back to back with the ones he was looking at. At one point he even had his own guitar and one of the Teles on his lap at the same time, swapping between them back and forth.

As my father once said to a similarly annoying customer years ago – ‘There should be a law protecting people like me from people like you!’

JP

If you don’t like time wasters you shouldn’t sell guitars. My guitars come from Warmoth, local second-hand sellers, Thomann and… shops. One of those I had no intention of buying, I was in another town, walked past a guitar shop and said to Madame, “mind if I have look around”. The salesman said to try anything that took my fancy and an Ibanez electro-acoustic did, to the point I started comparing it wit others. I asked to plug them in to check the pickups, they all sounded crap on his boutique acoustic amp but he gave me the run of the amp section and tolerated me cranking a fender Mustang up enough to see which ones sufffered most feedback. Here it is:

And this is what it sounds like plugged into the Mustang amp running through the big cab.

You sound like every music shop owner’s dream customer.

JP

You should be arrested for crimes against shorts.

Except that if it had failed any of the tests I wouldn’t have bought it. Would I then have been a tyre kicker? I’ve always fancied an Epiphone EJ200, the one without the cutaway. They had one in a local shop, I really liked the sound but realised my fingers were suffering and the reason was the frets had been dressed to the point I was pressing more on the wood than the string. When a refret was priced in along with the hassle of getting it to a competant luthier I explained my reservations and left.

Sounds like a place worth a visit. I have a kinda hankering to find out if a USA Strat is worth the dollar over my old mexi.

If you’re ever in the Bath/Frome area, drop in and try one.

JP

If you’re ever in the Bath/Frome area, drop in and try one.

Just don’t stay 5hrs tho….

I don’t have anything useful to add but I just wanted to finish a post with…

JP

salad_dodger

Subscriber

I don’t have anything useful to add but I just wanted to finish a post with…

JP

Lol. I found that very confusing when I glanced at this thread.

JP

Just don’t stay 5hrs tho….

Unless they have toilets I couldn’t.

I’m not surprised he didn’t take the custom shop. It’s a bit of a misnomer “custom shop”. “Custom” normally means you spec what you want like you do with Warmoth: I want the narrowest c-shape you do, 10-16 radius, 6105 stainless frets, matt nitro on the back gloss on the front, 22frets, don’t round of the fret ends – and that’s what you get. Fender custom shop stuff is mainly based on older Fender models; off-the-shelf custom shop guitars are IMO just idiosycratic reproductions. If you want a fat neck then get a 52 reissue or the corresponding custom shop – or just get a standard Mexican Baja because they have the same neck profile.

Of all the Fenders I’ve played my favourite necks are: Squier Infinity Strat, Mexican Strat and Classic Vibe Tele. Not much point buying a custom shop then untill they decide the Mexican Strat is a classic worthy of a custom shop replica.

Just keeping the thread running with some musing, JP, don’t mind me.

And at least he actually bought one.

Well he didn’t really .

Ah, Frome.   That explains it all…

I’d say its the same with many people who don’t know what they actually do want.

Unless they have toilets I couldn’t.

I’m not surprised he didn’t take the custom shop. It’s a bit of a misnomer “custom shop”. “Custom” normally means you spec what you want like you do with Warmoth: I want the narrowest c-shape you do, 10-16 radius, 6105 stainless frets, matt nitro on the back gloss on the front, 22frets, don’t round of the fret ends – and that’s what you get. Fender custom shop stuff is mainly based on older Fender models; off-the-shelf custom shop guitars are IMO just idiosycratic reproductions. If you want a fat neck then get a 52 reissue or the corresponding custom shop – or just get a standard Mexican Baja because they have the same neck profile.

Of all the Fenders I’ve played my favourite necks are: Squier Infinity Strat, Mexican Strat and Classic Vibe Tele. Not much point buying a custom shop then untill they decide the Mexican Strat is a classic worthy of a custom shop replica.

Just keeping the thread running with some musing, JP, don’t mind me.

We do have toilets in Frome (they’ve made it this far!)

You seem to care a lot about neck profile. For me it’s really not that important – you can get used to most profiles. The most important thing for me (and all of the professional musicians we’ve sold to) is how a guitar sounds, and that’s where the Custom Shop guitars are usually pretty good. There’s a definite difference between them and the American Standard and equivalent guitars, and we’ve done plenty of blind testing to know that this isn’t just confirmation bias.

JP

I can swap out the pickups in half an hour and we have some demands that many don’t. Like the guitars custom shop pickups are very good copies of historic fender models with all the qualities and limitations of the originals. When junior was getting serious about music we tested a lot of pickups and encountered a lot of headaches.

The first set were the standard alnico 5 in a classic vibe tele (Fender US at the time along with Gotho tuners and other things that found their way onto classic vibes around 2012). Really nice sounding fairly low output pickups with an excellent bass growl. However he wanted something with bit more output and grain. I argued against suggesting it’s easier to use a boost and add grain with pedals – start with a clean signal and dirty it up rather than having a dirty signal you can’t clean up. He insisted so:

So we tried Crel 666 which have huge magnets. Oh wow man! We thought and then cranked the amp, added some effects and the electronic howling started. We took the pickups back and the good man wax potted them. Still they howled. I took the pickups out of the guitar and still they howled. I’ve got the neck pickup in a guitar where it’s fine because I don’t use much drive or effects with the neck pickup.

We tried a Demarzio Twang King. That howled too and frankly didn’t sound good to our ears, the originals were better and the following much better.

To get a bit more output without electronic howl we decided to use either the original low-output alnico 5s (you’ll note we consider alnico 5 low output anything less is just puny), stacked single coils or humbuckers in his main stage guitars (mine too but I don’t have trouble as the lead channel on a Marshall TSL is as far as I go in terms of drive) So:

Seymour Duncan stacks. These are ace, the original tele sound but totally impervious to interference. Not enough bass for junior.
Fender N3. These are a bit marmite, they’re medium output and sound tele on steroids. I like them, roll off the volume and they’re very sweet. Junior has adopted them because even with metal levels of gain they’re properly noiseless and with two pedal clicks they’re clear as a bell. I have a set in a Warmoth tele, they’ve got real bite and growl through a Fender Bassbreaker.

And humbuckers. I have no wish to look further than Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Zebras. They’re in a Fender Blacktop, a sort of tele Les Paul. Oh and they’re split so at a flick of a switch they’re cleaner and brighter.

I’ve also got a Seymour Duncan P90 in the neck on one tele. Nice warm sound but again you can’t abuse the effects.

So I’m not too fussed what pickups are in the guitar when I buy it, the only electric guitars I’ve got with the original pickups are Classic Vibe teles and a Mexican strat.

and there was me wanting to spend 4 hours trying out a chess set

3 moves isn’t much of a test drive!

jjprestidge

Member
Hold on, I thought you sold coffee. Confused.

4 different businesses spread over a couple of warehouses. Coffee is one of them; the others are guitars, harmonicas and chess sets. I’m involved in the first three, but not the last one, which is my business partner’s original business.

JP

I used to sell chess and game boards. I had a guy call up and ask if we had a specific board in stock. I said “I’d have to check mate”.