How much wear on a new guitar is normal

[dalto]

So I bought a new MM guitar from a chain store and it arrived this afternoon.

When I pulled it out of the box I was a little surprised at the amount of wear on the guitar. There isn't any major gouges or nicks but there is lot of surface wear and small scratches all over the finish and pickguard. The pickguard is fairly loose and as a result there is small bits of stuff stuck under it. On top of that it was just dirty.

Just to be clear it this was a used guitar I would think that it was in great shape but it isn't a used guitar and I didn't pay a used guitar price. I wasn't expecting it to be untouched by human hands or anything but none of my other guitars ever came with this much wear on them.

I was planning to call the store tomorrow to discuss it but before I did I wanted to get some feedback from the more experienced guitarists to make sure I was not being unreasonable with my expectations.

Honest feedback is appreciated.

 

[Bryan]

I think you definitely have a point of contention.

Even buying a guitar in person, some wear is expected, especially if it has been hanging for a while.

But any store worth their salt would at least clean it up before you walked out with it.

To just pull it off the rack and ship it to you as is? That's inexcusable.

Someone could have at least passed a cleaning cloth on it.

Just my opinion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bhull]

Buying from a major chain, you'd be surprised how used a 'new' guitar can get if it's been in the store for a long time. You really have to do your diligence, inspect it and then you can choose to return it, or try and work a discount with the store.

It might be worth having them double check it wasn't accidentally listed wrong, or even just had the wrong one sent to you.

Also, it's a lot easier for the forumites here to give feedback if we can get a few pics

 

[DrKev]

Definitely call the store and make a complaint. They should offer to refund you something off the price or send you a cleaner guitar. I've worked in a store shipping instruments to online customers and if a new guitar came from the showroom I would often be shocked at the condition. It's like the public eat fried chicken before they try a guitar! GROSS! That was an important part of my job there - make sure guitars were clean and in the condition described before shipping, and if it wasn't in "new" condition after I cleaned it, I made sure our customer service people knew and could deal appropriately with the customer before they received the guitar.

 

[Johnny Alien]

Make sure that the plastic isn't still on the pickguard. That can sometimes be less than obvious and that plastic can get real dinged up looking. If the rest of it is just cleaning it up then I personally would see if I could get a small discount and then polish it up myself.

 

[Illuminated]

This is a responsibility of the guitar shop: sometimes i saw dusty guitars , scratched , abandoned on a stand or hung on the wall with old strings and zero maintenance. This immediately kills my gas. Selecting a good guitar shop is as important as the choice of a good guitar.

 

[GWDavis28]

If you had gotten it from GC, next time have them ship the guitar to a local GC so you can check it out before buying.

Good luck, I'm with everyone else here, if it's not to your liking contact the place and either return it or work with them to bring the price more inline if that works for you.

Glenn |B)

 

[dalto]

Thanks for the advice everyone. It is very helpful and I appreciate it.

To answer the question above I did make sure the plastic had been removed from the pickguard.

I called the store today and they assured me that it was new and had never been used or in a store on display. I told them that the wear on the guitar was consistent with a guitar that a decent amount of play time on it. They asked for pictures which I unfortunately can't take until I get home.

*sigh*

 

[vkaz44]

If the guitar wasn't in the original factory cardboard shipping box and sealed, then I would say it was on display and in use.
just return it if you want a "brand new " one.

 

[dalto]

If the guitar wasn't in the original factory cardboard shipping box and sealed, then I would say it was on display and in use.
just return it if you want a "brand new " one.

Yeah, it was actually sent in a box from another manufacturer.

The good news is that after I sent the pictures they offered to take it back at no cost to me. The bad news is that they can't send me another one because that was the only one they had.

I appreciate everyone's advice on this as I wanted to make sure I wasn't being unfair to the vendor.