Have you ever ended up getting a dud?

Pdubs76 · #1 09-22-2021, 02:48 PM

Tell me about your experience. What kind of guitar was it? What made it a dud? Did you return it or resell it? Also, could it be possible that most cases with these perceived duds could be solved with the right setup/strings or even the setting in which they are played?

LakewoodM32Fan · #2 09-22-2021, 02:56 PM

I would not say a "dud" but I learned a lesson early on in my auditioning days. Watch out for "cedar rooms" or shops with rooms fully optimized for acoustics. Unless you have the same setup at home you'll be disappointed once you get there that you can't recreate what you heard. I've already moved the couple that came home due to a stellar cedar room sound only to not be able to recreate that at home.

Part of my auditioning process is to find hopefully the least optimized room in the shop, and when possible bring at least one of my guitars I'm familiar with for a reference tone.

Alnicol · #3 09-22-2021, 02:58 PM

Lowden S23 . Soft frets .Wear after 10 hours playing. Delicate finish , very easily scratched.
Unremarkable tone . Sold it within a couple of weeks at a considerable loss in exchange for a Patrick James Eggle Linville.
A totally outstanding guitar - a keeper.

Draft Guitar · #4 09-22-2021, 03:21 PM

A D-28 reimagined series. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps I fell victim to the "cedar room" previously mentioned. Perhaps it was just a dud.

Although the guitar did play well, it just didn't project enough or have a big enough sound for the canon that it should be (sounded quite thin
). I used D'addario EXP 17s on it and tried a few others, but always went back to the EXPs. They weren't the problem. The room that I normally play in isn't the problem either. I ended up selling it about 18 months later, tried to wait for it to break in a bit, but didn't really happen. Picked up a Huss & Dalton TD-R and immediately heard the sound I was after.

Later than that I picked up a D-18 GE and it also had a sound I was after (but quite different than the H&D).

I'm sure this is just me, but the guitars that I gravitate to have hide glue construction. The D-28 did not. Maybe?

BoneDigger · #5 09-22-2021, 03:32 PM

Mine was a 1990s Martin D28. So many expectations for that guitar. I ended up trying every type of string I could find for it, including mediums and lights and the guitar was just a dud. I eventually sold the guitar locally.

Gdjjr · #6 09-22-2021, 03:45 PM

D'Angelico Tammany- it was a beautiful guitar and I liked it at GC- but after I got it home I just couldn't bond with it- I took it back.

Had a Gretsch Jim Dandy- same thing. Plus it sounded like card board at home!

Coler · #7 09-22-2021, 04:00 PM

Yeah I had a Martin GPC12PA4 12 string that just did not live up to any reasonable expectations in terms of tone. Very playable though. But sounded dead, flattened, muted, smothered. I had it new from Thomann and they were very decent in taking it back.

Andromeda · #8 09-22-2021, 04:05 PM

A Breedlove Discovery Dreadnought. It's hard to describe the sound but it sounded muted or like the guitar was stuffed with socks. It just didn't ring out. I sold it this year.

Rev Roy · #9 09-22-2021, 04:19 PM

Nope. And if I did I figure what was a “dud” to me would probably be a gem to someone else. That’s just how subjective tone is.

Brick is Red · #10 09-22-2021, 05:00 PM

Yes. I had to look it up, but I bought a Breedlove Passport PLUS OM/CMe, H-H online about 8 years ago on Ebay. Traditional OM shape and headstock, Solid Western Red Cedar top, laminated mahogany back and sides, herringbone binding. It was awful. The intonation was off in a way that I have not ever seen or heard before or since. Chords sounded awful anywhere on the neck. Notes had no sustain, warmth, or tonal flavor to be heard. Total dud, beyond the intonation problem.

It was inexpensive, so not a big deal. After a string change and a day to try it again, I knew it had to go . . . to someone who liked what they heard, or into a fire pit. I couldn't possibly have put it up on Ebay. I don't do people like that. Who knows how many times it changed hands before it landed in my unlucky lap?!?

I decided to sell locally, as I wasn't going to sell it to someone who didn't play it in front of me first. It sold quickly, to the first person that played it, and remember I telling everyone who asked that I was selling because I didn't like the guitar.

Looking back, it was the type of instrument that would make a beginner choose bass or a horn. I hope nobody was malicious enough to donate it to an unsuspecting vet. I think of that guitar and think that it should have met its fate as a stage prop in an Animal House stage revival (think Stephen Bishop's character and his acoustic guitar being smashed by Bluto Blutarsky)

Edit: Could the problem causing it to be a dud have been solved with a setup? In this instance, I highly doubt it. I now know how to do setups and set intonation by adjustments at the saddle and nut. I didn't back then. Based on memory, it was off in a way that suggested something was geometrically off, for lack my finding better words for it. It wasn't an action issue like high nut slots causing the the notes to go sharp at the first few frets or anything as readily ascertainable as that.

Benjo · #11 09-22-2021, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alnicol

Lowden S23 . Soft frets .Wear after 10 hours playing. Delicate finish , very easily scratched.
Unremarkable tone . Sold it within a couple of weeks at a considerable loss in exchange for a Patrick James Eggle Linville.
A totally outstanding guitar - a keeper.

I bought then immediately returned a used Lowden S 12-string. It was a total dud. No sound to speak of. I did also buy two Lowden F models, one used and one new, and love them both. So maybe the larger body size and increased volume is the main factor there.

Boozehound · #12 09-22-2021, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LakewoodM32Fan

I would not say a "dud" but I learned a lesson early on in my auditioning days. Watch out for "cedar rooms" or shops with rooms fully optimized for acoustics. Unless you have the same setup at home you'll be disappointed once you get there that you can't recreate what you heard. I've already moved the couple that came home due to a stellar cedar room sound only to not be able to recreate that at home.

Part of my auditioning process is to find hopefully the least optimized room in the shop, and when possible bring at least one of my guitars I'm familiar with for a reference tone.

This is the truth. Some of those stores have magic rooms. Everything sounds good in them!

Jeff Scott · #13 09-22-2021, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LakewoodM32Fan

Part of my auditioning process is to find hopefully the least optimized room in the shop...

The bathroom?

RP · #14 09-22-2021, 05:40 PM

Keep in mind that one person's dud is another person's gem...

Jeff Scott · #15 09-22-2021, 05:41 PM

The only dud I can think of is the 2001 Taylor 512c I bought brand new in the summer of '12. After about three weeks of trying to figure out the weird resonances emanating from it I traded the Taylor to Guitar Center as fodder for the amazing Martin that I saw there and rescued from their clutches.