rwfelton Posted May 10, 2014 Share Posted May 10, 2014 i recently purchased a 2014 les paul studio from zzounds.com. first time to ever buy a guitar sight unseen. i did this due to their financing. but i was able to pay the guitar off before the first month was over. i paid the full price of $1,089 plus i bought a case and strap for it for the additional prices. i had it for about a week before i was actually able to do a lot of fiddling around with it. upon my full inspection i noticed that the volume/coil tap knobs were a bit shaky. i have owned a few gibson in my life and never had shaky knobs. then as i started turning them i noticed that tops to the knobs were not seated correctly either. i was able to push them down and get them seated but they are still shaky. i also found a piece of plastic stuck between the body of the guitar and the pickup ring. it actually then comes up between the pickup and the ring. i'll post a pic. i know gibbys used to come with plastic on pickguards and over pickups etc. i contacted zzounds 3 times by email to see if they could have accidentally sent me a (what they call) "like new/blemished" guitar. the "like new/blemished" guitars sell for about $300 less. it has been over a week since i have contacted them and still have not heard back from them. their lack of communication makes me think that they may have made a mistake and do not want to respond. i am seriously thinking of sending it back before my 30 day satisfaction guarantee is over, getting my money back and going to find something else from somewhere else. has anyone else out there had jiggly knobs on a les paul? or know about the plastic under the pickup ring? sorry. i tried changing the title and i guess i don't know what i am doing and posted it twice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjsinla Posted May 10, 2014 Share Posted May 10, 2014 The short answer is; if the guitar is worth $1100 to you that I would keep it. The long answer is that Zzounds might also charge you a restocking fee as you had it for a while and there may be a few marks on it. But, it sounds to me as if this matter of the bits of plastic has been very concerning to you. I don't think anybody here is going to be able to help you decide this ultimately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwfelton Posted May 10, 2014 Author Share Posted May 10, 2014 The short answer is; if the guitar is worth $1100 to you that I would keep it. The long answer is that Zzounds might also charge you a restocking fee as you had it for a while and there may be a few marks on it. But, it sounds to me as if this matter of the bits of plastic has been very concerning to you. I don't think anybody here is going to be able to help you decide this ultimately. my main concern would be that if they did accidentally send me a returned instrument and they charged me $1100 and the returned ones are $700 then i was robbed by zzounds. and like i said... i haven't gotten a response from the company and it has been a week. when i was interested in buying the guitar they replied back to my questions and concerns by the end of that same day. the guitar has no marks or dings since i purchased it 2.5 weeks ago. i have only taken it out of the case a couple of times. i still like my 61 reissue sg much more. i can easily take the refund and go hand a pick a guitar at this point and get a better deal. GC will beat anyone's prices and since i paid the guitar's financing off in just a couple of weeks then (according to zzounds' policy) i have a 100%, non limited, 30 day customer satisfaction guarantee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwfelton Posted May 10, 2014 Author Share Posted May 10, 2014 The short answer is; if the guitar is worth $1100 to you that I would keep it. The long answer is that Zzounds might also charge you a restocking fee as you had it for a while and there may be a few marks on it. But, it sounds to me as if this matter of the bits of plastic has been very concerning to you. I don't think anybody here is going to be able to help you decide this ultimately. and the fact of the knobs having so much movement in them. my sg is almost 30 years old and has no jiggle in the knobs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwfelton Posted May 10, 2014 Author Share Posted May 10, 2014 and the fact of the knobs having so much movement in them. my sg is almost 30 years old and has no jiggle in the knobs.... and how does plastic get under the pickup ring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjsinla Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 my main concern would be that if they did accidentally send me a returned instrument and they charged me $1100 and the returned ones are $700 then i was robbed by zzounds. and like i said... i haven't gotten a response from the company and it has been a week. when i was interested in buying the guitar they replied back to my questions and concerns by the end of that same day. the guitar has no marks or dings since i purchased it 2.5 weeks ago. i have only taken it out of the case a couple of times. i still like my 61 reissue sg much more. i can easily take the refund and go hand a pick a guitar at this point and get a better deal. GC will beat anyone's prices and since i paid the guitar's financing off in just a couple of weeks then (according to zzounds' policy) i have a 100%, non limited, 30 day customer satisfaction guarantee. The whole idea of "returned instrument" is a concept more due to the fact that Zzounds are an online business. At a store, plenty of people may have played a guitar before it is finally purchased. In the old days, the guitar you bought frequently had fingerprints and pick marks on the guards. The difference today is that the online business must sell you the guitar so that you can try it out. You get to return in if you don't like it. That's no difference than what Guitar Center does, they let you pick out a guitar, play it in the showroom, take it home, and still return it. They still sell those units as new when they are brought back for the most part. Anyway, like I said, "if the guitar is worth $1100 to you in it's present condition, keep it." if not, return it and buy one of the used ones. They will probably not be that much different. Also, I've noticed wiggly knobs on some guitars before. That can be due to the size of the inside of the knob (I've seen differences between different models.) It can also be due to loose nuts on pots which I've also seen. Those issues can be fixed and are not necessarily due to a guitar being new or used. As far as that plastic that you showed, I've never seen that before. That seems to be the deal breaker for you. You might as well return the guitar so that you can have the peace of mind that you seem to be seeking. I'm not sure if anyone here is going to be able to tell you what you need to hear to alleviate your anxiety about your new guitar. Bottom line, if the guitar did not arrive in the factory sealed box, you may never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwfelton Posted May 11, 2014 Author Share Posted May 11, 2014 The whole idea of "returned instrument" is a concept more due to the fact that Zzounds are an online business. At a store, plenty of people may have played a guitar before it is finally purchased. In the old days, the guitar you bought frequently had fingerprints and pick marks on the guards. The difference today is that the online business must sell you the guitar so that you can try it out. You get to return in if you don't like it. That's no difference than what Guitar Center does, they let you pick out a guitar, play it in the showroom, take it home, and still return it. They still sell those units as new when they are brought back for the most part. Anyway, like I said, "if the guitar is worth $1100 to you in it's present condition, keep it." if not, return it and buy one of the used ones. They will probably not be that much different. Also, I've noticed wiggly knobs on some guitars before. That can be due to the size of the inside of the knob (I've seen differences between different models.) It can also be due to loose nuts on pots which I've also seen. Those issues can be fixed and are not necessarily due to a guitar being new or used. As far as that plastic that you showed, I've never seen that before. That seems to be the deal breaker for you. You might as well return the guitar so that you can have the peace of mind that you seem to be seeking. I'm not sure if anyone here is going to be able to tell you what you need to hear to alleviate your anxiety about your new guitar. Bottom line, if the guitar did not arrive in the factory sealed box, you may never know. thanks. i appreciate the concerns and the help. this is the first new gibson i have purchased in over 20 years. and zzounds isn't like sweetwater when it comes to warranty. sweetwater does a 2 year warranty. zzounds only gives 30 days for anything. after that 30 days they won't even take a faulty amp. a buddy of mine got a marshall dsl40c when the first runs came out. it had some kind of internal problems. the problems started about 3 months after he bought the amp and zzounds told him that there was nothing they could do after the first 30 days and that he had to contact marshall. marshall sent him to a "certified" technician. he had the amp for about 4 months total trying to find the problem. finally about 2 weeks ago marshall decided to send him a new amp.... sweetwater told him that if he would have bought it from them then they would have sent him a new amp instantly without having to deal with marshall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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