Is the used market primarily the rejects ?

[ewalling]

When I see high-ticket items in the classifieds, I often wonder this: someone buys a spectacular guitar online without hearing it, and when it arrives, it sounds unspectacular. The approval period has passed and they want to recoup some of their money.

This causes me to place more faith in sales of cheaper, more utilitarian instruments. These may get moved around as players see other guitars they'd like to try and apply the one-in-one-out principle.

[Glennwillow]

I have certainly sold guitars that were rejects for me but there was nothing wrong with them. The people who bought them got a great deal and they are happy.

I also think that some players go through a lot of guitars to acquire the experience of playing all these different guitars. When they move on to try something else, they sell off perfectly good guitars, some stellar.

Finally, as we guitar players get older we have to sell stuff off or leave the problem to our surviving family to do it. None of those guitars are rejects: they are the ultimate keepers. I'd pass my guitars down to my family but only my son plays. And he already has all the guitars he needs.

- Glenn

[Graylocks]

reject as you are using it is not equivalent to defective.

[cyclistbrian]

A lot of folks on this forum (myself guilty of this) sell off guitars for tonal defects only a dog can hear, cosmetic faults only an electron microscope can see, or boredom, or regret over impulse buy or chasing the next one or.....

[dwight558]

In my own case, it can sometimes be the realization that it is a great guitar, but one needs to be with the right owner.
For instance, I am more of an old time/bluegrass player. But I bought a Martin 000-28VS that has beautiful expressive tone and volume, thinking that I would try to learn more finger style or Travis picking.
That was around 4 years ago and I have yet to concentrate on fingerstyle.
Now I would trade it in a second for the right D-18.

[J Patrick]

Originally Posted by Graylocks

reject as you are using it is not equivalent to defective.

Excellent point….but aren’t almost all used guitars rejects by this reasoning….there are rare cases when folks have to sell guitars for financial considerations…..other than that they’re either sold to acquire something else or they just aren’t meeting the owners needs or expectations….either way they’re being rejected….

….if you follow the strict definition of reject it means to dismiss something because it’s either inadequate inappropriate or not to ones tastes or preferences…..

[tadol]

I can think of a number of guitars I’ve gotten because the original owner didn’t have them buried with them and family didn’t want them, or taking all of them on a long distance move is impractical, or they didn’t have the money or desire to pay for necessary repairs. Some sell them because they decide that they want/need a very specific body, wood combo, or dimensional specification - yes, I’ve seen really fantastic guitars rejected because a dimension off by .005”. Some people need a brighter, more trebly guitar - some think more bass is desirable, and those expectations change as ears age or playing styles adjust. Some people buy guitars extremely spur of the moment, and discover the infatuation isn’t going to hold up to a lifetime. And some buy because they think they can resell it easily, based on a name or model number, or some indication of scarcity.

Rejects? Probably some, too - but it would be hard to say what percentage -

[L20A]

Originally Posted by OldFrets

Even if it is... one person's reject guitar is another's holy grail. If that's a cliché, it's because it's frequently true.

This is what I was thinking however I hardly ever buy used because one just never knows what they may be getting.

The reverse is that I have sold at least 8 used guitars in the past few years.
Of those guitars, 2 were well played and in need of some work.
This was fully disclosed and the price reflected it.

[Thrillhouse]

I don't have an exact number but I've owned around 40 guitars in 20 years. I currently have 1 so that means I've sold at least 39 guitars. I can count on one hand the amount of guitars that I thought were just not that good. The rest just weren't right for me at the time.

[Gchord]

Maybe not primarily, but there's bound to be more than a few. Let's say I buy a xxx, then a year later I play a friend's new xxx (or I play one in a store) and realise mine doesn't sound as good. What am I going to do with mine, burn it? No, sell it.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that a healthy percentage of used guitars either need a neck reset or are close to needing one.

[OPJ77]

Great thread topic OP.

[BluesKing777]

Perhaps these guitars fit in another category.....over the years, I have bought 5 guitars from a second hand instrument/pawn shop.....they all had amateurish work done on them previously - awful nut and saddle, neck needs a severe tweak...and a couple of guitars had been written on with texta...

But as I played them in the shop, something spoke...not one of them is a guitar I would say is my 'style', usually 00 size, but are guitars I have read about in these very pages and now had a chance to give them a try without too much outlay!

So I played them as best I could for a while and then...off to my professional plus luthier/tech for some torturing back in to shape.

And I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

As they are not my ideal shape guitars, I thought I would move them on but I just can't seem to give up a guitar that now has, for example, a high density bone nut and saddle and all new frets with a fully tweaked neck! But perhaps once I get tired of them........, off they will go to a lucky buyer

BluesKing777.

I guess from my extremely limited experience, I would say not. I chose a used guitar because it was the one that felt the best, sounded the best and had the most bang for the buck. If there's something wrong with it, I'll probably find out soon enough, but since it didn't break the bank, it's not a big deal. I don't know how you can tell if a guitar needs a neck reset, but I'm hoping if it was really a lemon, Guitar Center wouldn't have bought it from the last owner for resale. That's optimistic, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Norman is all that I believe he is. I like the fact that it's got some accumulated "energy" which feels positive, and that it's broken in. It's very easy to play. Makes my fingers so happy.

[Rosewood99]

There is the old saying, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

[musicman1951]

I buy used guitars whenever I can find what I want used. Instruments often go through a lot of owners. I've been trading up for many years. The guitars I've traded were lovely guitars, but I eventually found something I liked better.

My Martin Authentic was the exception. I could no longer handle the size of a dread. The lucky player who got that guitar purchased a guitar that looked like new and sounded wonderful with the depreciation all taken care of by me.

I'v never thought about the former owner, just what the guitar means to me.