The replacement arrived today..

On first inspection it seems fine, and half hour plugged into a Vox AC4 left me quite satisfied...


So my take on all this is...

I never pay anywhere near full retail, can wait patiently for years for prices to drop,
and must be prepared to hit the credit card for on the spot buy now or miss it lightning sales...

Eg 400 quid guitars for £150... 900 quid guitars for £350... those kind of approx bargains
[of course previous advertised retail prices should be taken with a pinch of salt]

..and then accept the risk that what is delivered might most likely be ex shop demo or B stock..
but in reality frequently turn out to be brand new factory fresh sealed box.

For many years £200 was my absolute price limit,
But in the last decade I've gradually shifted up a level,
but have still never paid more than around £350.

I've bought more than enough heavily discounted Asian manufactured instruments
to expect the fret finish to not be perfect.
But at the prices I pay, as long as they are playable, I can work around it and life goes on happily enough ever after.

I've never owned a 'real' USA Gibson or Fender - so can't compare,
but the guitars I have sound and play good & authentic enough for gigging & recording.

Actually, I do own just one real American made guitar - A Jerry Jones replica of a 1960s Danelectro Baby electric Sitar.
I've got better made Japanese & Korean guitars.

As for individual guitars possibly sounding slightly different in any one production batch..
Well.. I just accept what is delivered and live with it.

This is the first guitar out of dozens, in over 20 years of buying mail order, from UK, Europe, & USA
that was so severely damaged...

So either I've been pretty lucky, or buying sight unseen aint the terrifying minefield so many guitar 'experts' propound it to be...???? 😜

Right now, I'm more cheesed off that I lost another day so close to xmas, stuck in the house waiting for the courier...