Buy before you play it?

[hayvis]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

This mind set of no buy unless you try is all very well, if you are buying run of the mill generalist instruments from your high street dealer.

Once you develop more specialised or specific tastes/needs it becomes totally impractical.

I have bought a number of guitars via eBay - including my collings DS1, ahnd my Harmony H1270 12 string.

Further, you don't pop into town just just pick up a 1934 gibson archtop, a Santa Cruz "RS" or a Custom re-built 1964 Martin D12-20 al of which I bought from a foreign country (the USA) and had shipped across the Atlantic by the sellers, and in the case of the two flat-tops - from private individuals.

The Archtop was bought from a US specialist retailer, and it was the only one that gave me any trouble.

My DS1 arrived from a private seller in Wales in absolutely pristine condition and it seemed that it had never been played.
My Santa Cruz (from up state New York) was as tight as a drum when I first got it.
My Martin D12-20 (from North Carolina) needed a good few weeks to "settled down" to British climate etc.

I have "seen and inspected" used purchases including my Collings DS2h which was bought from a guy who couldn't even play it and the action was ridiculously high, but I knew that it could be adjusted - because ...it was a Collings.

Because of my difficulty in travelling long distances I have bought three guitars which, in the end the seller brought to me on the understanding that I would pay their travel expenses. One, my Eastman Archtop did have issues that the seller was unaware of but we did a fair deal for both, and none of them would take the money for travel.

NOTE: with every high value online purchase, I initiate a dialogue, usually but not uniquely with the vendor to ask lots of questions. This not only answers those questions but gives me information about that person.

Recently I enquired about a "vintage" item being sold only abut 20 miles from me. I asked to visit to inspect it and offered to pay in cash, paypal or bank-to bank. He would only agree to this if I paid first, then visited. No deal.
I think the item is still unsold.

Final point:

As Chris Martin and many others have been known to say - a new guitar sounds the worst its EVER going to sound.
Guitars, at least "good" guitars, need to be opened up/played in, whatever, and adjusted to your precise needs.

That means that "good" guitars don't "just happen" they have to be played in with your style.

Obviously I get your point, but the way I see it, is if spending £10,000 on a guitar, I would rather pay an extra £2000 and go across the world on a road trip to see it first (which I am planning at the moment). Far more exciting to me than waiting for the postman....

....If I wanted to keep spending £10,000 on guitars every year then I would see my psychiatrist instead, and he'd talk me out of it for probably £2-300...

[backdoc]

Almost all of my acoustics were bought online or from someone here on this forum. I have had good luck with all of them except the one I bought from LA Guitars. One other, that I bought from someone on the forum, was a dud until it got a good setup. That one became my #1 until I got my J-45 studio from Sweetwater this past weekend. Overall, I think I've been fortunate with buying before playing.

I will say that when I bought my Eastman E20OOss at a guitar shop in Durham, I wasn't even looking for that model. They had two in stock and one was a bit of a dud and the other was amazing, so I bought it.

[KalamazooGuy]

I've bought a couple online and have been happy with what arrived. Playing before buying though does make more sense, especially if you think know exactly what you want. The last thread I started here, I indicated I was ready for a D18 and got great feedback. After a failed craigslist connection, I put it on the back burner for a couple weeks. Coincidentally, we were planning a trip to Chicago and I decided to jump on a shop's website and narrowed it down to a few mohagany guitars that were in stock. I played quite a few D18s and J50s that day. The one I left with though was a small guitar that looked like it was drug behind a truck for a week. Multiple repaired cracks and top issues. It is simply the finest sounding guitar I have ever played with light strings. It was also below my budget I had saved up. I never gave it a second look on the website. I will say that the first "nice" guitar I could afford looked great but I learned lots from overlooking something as basic as that 1 and 9/16 " nut.