Have you ever been really disappointed with a guitar you bought?
 

Being in Australia where range and high prices make buying overseas a good option, I bought a number of guitars online based upon reputation and reviews.

I have had a number of hits (especially with Martins and my Lakewood) and a couple of misses; but the one that stands out was in 2006; a new Gibson SJ.

I was really excited by this guitar as a number of my favourite artists played one, however from the moment it arrived it was a dog and I mean a dog.

Firstly the build was disgusting, glue evident all through the internal body, the fitted electronics rattled and the action was terrible. No amount of adjustments, string changes or playing made a difference.

Even with new strings it the tone was totally muffled and it thudded as though it was full of stuffing.

I now realise that Gibsons from that period were very hit or miss and that they are now building consistently great guitars, but this was a salient lesson in the pitfalls of buying unplayed.

The guitar ended up traded for a Martin.

So what's your worst experience?

Probably, but I'd never admit it in public. I'm usually more disappointed in my playing of it, and that trumps my dissatisfaction with the instrument itself.

First Pete Townshend says you really have to thrash an SJ to make it sound good. But then, he thrashes everything else as well. I think he's only destroyed one SJ-200, and allegedly, that was for charity.

Now the new Epiphone EJ-200 is solid top, sounds good, and only costs $400.00 USD.

However, were you to buy one of those sight unheard, and it sucked, you would get little, to less than no sympathy about it here.

OTOH, my feeling is, it's very hard to milk out $4000.00 worth of sympathy over a lousy guitar, in no matter how many forums you try.

So, next time, I'd but the Epiphone version, and let the other children make fun of me as they will for dong so.

Another Australian who has also bought guitars from the USA.
I picked up a 1996 Taylor 422 Quilted Maple.
Unlike your Gibson, this guitar is in superb, unmarked condition but I quickly discovered the smaller Grand Concert size body presented tonal limitations and I just can't bond with it.
I like the tonal depth of a dread but really love jumbo guitars.
I tried many different brands and types of strings but the result is always the same to my ears.
2 weeks ago I put on a set of 'octave' strings from a used 12-string set and this little guitar sounds unbelieveably good. Totally changed it for me, can't put it down.
Go figure.

Not me, but my wife yes, she has been disappointed with many a guitar I bought. . . . I hope this doesn't turn into a model bashing thread.

I was not happy at first with what I now consider my best guitar. I played a lot of guitar in my younger years and paused for a career and family. When I returned to playing I bought a (brand) guitar to get back to playing but this guitar was missing the sound that I grew up with. The 60's stuff and all. Sold that guitar and went with a Martin, the guitar of my generation. It was a D-18DC in 2002. I think my expectations were too high. I was not impressed. I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. This guitar was fresh off the factory line. Green as can be. As it acclimated and adjusted from being a brand new guitar, it improved. Oh, did it improve. After 13 years it is still my #1. I have played pre-war Martin Dreadnaughts and other Martin models, Authentics, GE's, Custom Shop offerings and many guitars from other builders. I have not found a guitar that is better, to me, than this one.

I have also found that it is important to play each guitar in a way that will bring out it's potential. Every guitar is different and it takes some time to figure out how to bring out it's strenghts.. I don't play any of my guitars the same. If you play every guitar the same way and expect it to play the way you want, you will miss out on some really great guitars. Learn to adjust to each guitar and you will experience many great guitars.
.......Mike

Several.... One that may surprise a few people would be the Martin D28. After the newness and the "oh wow, I own a Martin D28" bit wore off I began to really listen to the guitar in contrast to what I was doing with it and wanting something different. I have nothing negative to say about the D28's quality or tone other than it just wasn't the best fit for me. I felt unsatisfied as if I'd spent all this money and still not gotten a tone that really worked for me (this was before I knew about OOO and OO body styles). I assumed the problem was my approach. The problem was I had the wrong guitar for the way I play finger style.

So before selling off both my Martin's I ended up adding a OOO-15 which I liked better than the D28. Again, I've always thought in terms of tone and feel in reference to what I'm doing with the guitar. I have never been of the mindset $3000 will absolutely buy me a better guitar than $1200 will... I do believe there are a good number who honestly think a D-28 is a step up from a D-18 in tone and playability. That's just not true at all. The truth is tone is subjective and if you prefer the wider nut the D-18 will be more playable and a better choice. If you're mostly a light finger style player, any OOO (even the $1200 OOO-15) will probably be better than the D28 for your playing. Just like red heads aren't going to "do it" for everyone, just because rosewood is rare and expensive wood doesn't mean it's a great fit for you or that you should feel like your guitar of less monetary value is any lesser of an pro-grade instrument because of it's lack of ornamentation or rare wood.

Sorry for the rant. I know I shouldn't care what people do with their money or how they feel about these things, but I hate that ignorance is causing players to spend more for "higher end" acoustics when they should just be judging their guitar candidates with their ears and hands. IMO if you haven't progressed to the point that you can use your ears and hands to pick a good guitar for what you need to do with a guitar then you should really consider the reasons why your spending all that money on an upgrade in the first place. I

Oh yes! A particularly nasty new Gibson ES135 bought unseen, uplayed (yes, I know...). Tuner screws missing, bridge offset by half an inch, tailpiece misaligned, 'ES135' decal misaligned, body full of wood chips, finish crazing, unfinished frets...
Then there was the J200 with an off-centre back strip and floral pickguard with vanishing (after a month) flowers. Don't even start me on that one!:D The pickguards used to be engraved; now they use cheapo screenprints. I was so disappointed; I had lusted after a J200 for decades-my good friend has a '57-and I wanted one just like Dylan's on the cover of Nashville Skyline.

Yes. I bought a D-18 that was a real dog. Worst guitar I have ever owned. My $400 Tak was a better guitar.

Yes, but someone here will probably have what I was disappointed with!

My only regrets on the guitars I've bought is that I didn't buy them sooner.

Well, now I've unsighted everything! ;)

I'm a lefty so I don't have a lot of options when it comes to buying a guitar

A few years ago I bought a Taylor 714ce and after a couple and after a a week of torment..should it stay or should it go...I realized it wasn't my cup of tea.

Last year I bought a 2009 Martin D18 and returned it because the sound of this particular guitar just wasn't doing it for me

When I first bought my L-00 I was disappointed with it for a few reasons:
- pickguard was lifting (probably due to heat since it was delivered in the summer
- had a thuddy note just sharp of Bb (produced a loud thud that decayed fast)
- couldn't really figure out the tone at first, something seemed off

Since I got the guitar for an unbelievable price I decided to stick with it for a bit knowing I could probably sell it for close to how much I paid. I put some work into removing the pickguard and reapplying it with the Stew-Mac adhesive sheets. Got a good setup which improved the intonation and quit pulling the Bb sharp (which removed the thud).

However the single biggest improvement was that the tone finally came to life after playing it for a few weeks. I put on a fresh set of strings right when I received the guitar, and played it until they died, then put on another fresh set. It wasn't until the second set that I noticed the tone had matured, sweetened, and the guitar started to really resonate. There has been much discussion on opening up adi tops, and at this point I am a believer that this process was "waking up" ;) the adi, and now the guitar sounds better than I could have imagined.

It is my most responsive, lightest built, thinnest finished, most resonant guitar and I can't imagine letting it go now. Glad I stuck with it for a while!

disappointment
 

While at the Martin factory (decades ago), I bought a factory second D35 to play while my M38 was undergoing one of it's neck resets. What a beautiful guitar that D35 was! You know the adage about beauty being only skin deep, this was an example. It didn't sound or play nearly as well as the M38. I had a good time with the D35, until the M38 came back home. One chord on it and I knew the D35 was history. I kept it for a few years as a backup, but never played it, though I would open the case once in a while to look at it.

No fault of Martin. It was a second and was sold very cheaply to me. I never could see what made it a second. But it was easy to hear and to feel. It was like a beautiful woman who wouldn't love and couldn't cook.

I gig regularly and look at acoustics and all guitars like a tool of the trade. I have a Yairi that I bought 30 yrs ago for $300 and the neck is superb and I made alot more money with that guitar than my Martin's. However, the Martin's have been a hit a miss. The PA series have a nice presence that's good for performing. I recently had a D-16 that played good but wasn't good in a band mix.