You get what you pay for..DONT BELIEVE IT.

[Athana]

BIG RANT.
This is why I get infuriated when some fool says.."you get what you pay for"..
Thats a lot of BALONEY DONT BELIEVE IT..
The guy trying to present that phrase to you usually is just trying to justify his pricing/interests and often belittle your interests, at the same time..

So I bought/spec'd the most expensive guitar made by Fender, a Masterbuilt in Shell Pink. A Masterbuilt is a custom spec'd/benchmade guitar, made by one guy..
in 2009 it was list $8000 & cost $5K..
used now, this one would go in the $5's on ebay.
What Im trying to say is this is decent money,like buying a D18A 37' new in 2009.

The first thing I did was buy the best strap anywhere,a DiMarzio Italian Leather Strap for that guitar..black..within the first week I start noticing a mark on the face of the guitar..in like 10 days I have a permanent black stain right where I can see it.
What to do..DiMarzio says opps..sorry about that..dont know how you can get it off.
Any responsibility for the ineptness..nothing.

So I dont play the guitar much.. maybe to avoid looking at that stain..
Still not getting what I paid for right..

So I decide to play it now..but neck is a little too much relief..but guitar sure is sounding good..
I try to take neck off to adjust it but neck is stuck in body cavity..
Fender says take it to a Fender service guy, finish may not have fully cured and has stuck together..WELL..WELL
Thats not my fault either..I sure aint getting what I paid for..

So 3 hrs drive to service guy in a 14 mile per gallon vehicle..
Can you take these apart and maybe try to clean the Black stain off my nice pink guitar?
After 5 minutes guy comes back before having done anything and says I dropped some stuff & a can dented the face of your guitar.. WEEELLLL..
Am I getting what I paid for yet people..?
Now all of a sudden after that long drive my Masterbuilt is worth how much less if I need to sell it..?

What now..extremely good person this guy offering to send it back to Fender to have body refinished at his expense..will be gone for 4 months & this poor guy to have to pay this for a dent?
He even offers to take the guitar & pay for a new Masterbuilt which must be like $6k now.
Only a low life would take him up on that offer for a dent.

Anyway..will I ever get what I paid for..?
Now I got a guitar with neck stuck to the body..a black stain & a dent..
none of it my fault..maybe I did not pay enough..?

Anyone ever tells you "You get what you pay for" go somewhere else .

[BoneDigger]

Not sure I see the purpose of this rant. But, I will say that most of the time when I buy something I get that something in return for my money. So, I do "get what I pay for."

Todd

[jdinco]

I don't see the correlation either, carelessness and/or accidents have nothing to do with value when purchasing a custom guitar. I am sorry for your string of bad luck, but I don't think it's Fenders fault. Nice guitar....

[ecguitar44]

Seems like you paid $5,000 extra for pink paint on a $3,000 guitar.

Bummer about the stain, neck, and ding. All can be fixed. Life's too short to dwell. You'll be jammin' out on that thing in 4 short months.

[moondoggie999]

Beautiful Strat! Love the color. The slight dark mark gives it character. Instead of worrying any further, embrace the mark and dent and call this one "Scar" short for Scarlett.

[Guitar1083]

Originally Posted by Athana

BIG RANT.
This is why I get infuriated when some fool says.."you get what you pay for"..
Thats a lot of BALONEY DONT BELIEVE IT..

I'm so sorry you are going through all this, such a beautiful guitar.
Many years ago my friend said - you get what you pay for.
Well every time i get to rub that saying in his face, i do.

I hope you hold onto your guitar, and maybe years down the line you will take it out and love for all new reasons. kind of how some actors grow on people.

Hang in there.

[franchelB]

While I do understand the value in getting "what you paid for", I also understand the fact that "stuff" happens in life. Though it is somewhat strange that all of this "stuff" started happening at the same time to your guitar.

Nonetheless, in most cases, I still believe "you get what you pay for".

[MissouriPicker]

Sorry you've had all these problems, but crap happens. Life is too short to get bogged-down in this kind of stuff. Move on. Play your music, and enjoy you guitars. I wish you the very best, my friend.

[Fred]

If somebody told you that was an ACOUSTIC guitar, you really got cheated.

[Teleman52]

I agree that you don't always get what you pay for. But I wouldn't say this story really proves that.

I gotta say I never understood paying for a custom shop fender. Don't get me wrong I love fenders, my name is teleman obviously. But they're basically the most primitive type of electric guitar, a piece of wood with a neck bolted on. I've built one, it's not rocket science or even could it be considered hard when you compare it to building an acoustic or doing a set neck joint. The cheaper ones can sound just as good and better.

And that's why you don't always get what you pay for with guitars, the wood doesn't know how much it's supposed to cost, a cheaper guitar can very well sound much better than a guitar costing 3 or 4 times it's price.

Quick curiosity, how did you get a mark in that spot from the strap?? The strap shouldn't even be touching your guitar on a strat, am I missing something?

[CyberFerret]

I'm not sure how your strap could give you that black staining on the upper horn of your guitar ?!? Do you store it in the case with the strap still on and draped over the body of the guitar?

I NEVER do that with any of my good guitars. I ALWAYS store them with the strap off so as not to encourage any metal bits or the leather itself from rubbing on the finish.

[JSK983]

I get it. I would not be happy. I'd contact fender about the stain. Surely there is a way to get the stain out. Yeah that is a bad deal the guy dented the guitar. If he is a professional let him pay for it. He damaged it when it was in his possession. You'll tell people great things about him taking responsibility for his mistake and he gets more business.

[aknow]

I can't believe anyone would pay $5K for a Fender strat like that.
I also don't care for the color. It's your fault your car gets low mpg, why complain about that? Whoever sold you that guitar got what you paid for.

[JTFoote]

Sounds like this entire mess has given you a terrible attitude towards all items of a materialistic nature, and so I propose to take the whole thing off of your hands for $1500.00. At least you'll have some kind of compensation for the lackluster drunken QC guys at Fender who were kinda-sorta at work on the Friday afternoon when your guitar came careening, dead last, whipping down the conveyor belt while still dripping paint. and I'm sure that with patience, I'll eventually find a way to get that durned warped neck off and replaced it with something real good, like a Squier part.

In the meantime, the evidence of your breakdown will be safely out of sight, never to torture you again, and I will have done a service for you that is literally priceless, therefore putting you in my debt. But being the nice guy that I am, I won't hold you to it, thereby releasing you of any further obligation, and setting you free. Which ought to be worth at least another 20% drop in price, plus free shipping and insurance.

This offer expires in 37 hours, so shake a leg and get rid of it, old son, before you off yourself, which would require me to painfully haul my old tuckus out of my easy chair in order to travel to your house, drink beer on your lawn, and water the flowers disgracefully, right before I snatch the guitar and hide the evidence. (Maybe during too, depends on the weather). I could just see me trying to get a pink guitar out of police station - I'd never be able to live it down - the laughter would ring in my ears for seconds, and I don't have time for that sort of nonsense, anyway. There's still beer in the cooler.

Your truly,

The guy with a tin type shingle outside his door and a diploma from somewhere in Arizona, near the plant where they make candy wrappers for stuff you only see at Christmas.

P.S. PM me, and I'll send you the mailing address. Be sure that you pack it nicely now, because I don't want to have to refuse the package.

P.P.S. You are welcome in advance, no need to get overly emotional about this. Helping you is my civic duty as a citizen and a semi-professional something-or-other (a big Latin word), because I've dated around, ya know? If you can talk a woman into buying the beer, you can do anything. Always pick the ones with no teeth; they're broke-in.

P.P.P.S. No charge for the advice. Guys like us, we gotta stick together!

[Athana]

Originally Posted by CyberFerret

I'm not sure how your strap could give you that black staining on the upper horn of your guitar ?!? Do you store it in the case with the strap still on and draped over the body of the guitar?

I NEVER do that with any of my good guitars. I ALWAYS store them with the strap off so as not to encourage any metal bits or the leather itself from rubbing on the finish.

I usually buy a strap for a guitar and put it on usually with washers to prevent accidents of guitar slipping off the pin ..I drape them over the body in the case.. When I saw this I looked at my two other guitars which have DiMarzio Italian strap..and found both have staining.One a Relic Cunetto has a real dark one, but it blends in..it happened so gradually on it I thought it was part of the original job..yeechs!