Hi all,
I have done some trading recently, some totally amazing guitars. A butterscotch strat deluxe, Gibson chet atkins sst and a gibson l 50 archtop.
When received the strat and sst, they were dusty smudged and badly set up, the l 50 as great tho.
All three guys were lovely and clearly had a passion for guitars.
Before I trade, I always give the guitar a proper once over Polish, nice setup and if needed new strings, but rarely over the last year have other people done the same. It's not really a gripe as I love setting up cleaning them anyways but, am I alone in the cleaning before trade stakes?
What do you guys do?
What's the worst condition you have received a guitar in?
Comments
Not new strings as they'll usually want their own gauge and brand on.
To send something out dirty is just the height of disrespect to the puchaser in my view. Most people would 'mint up' their car before selling it - I can't see why you wouldn't do the same with a guitar.
Worst was a Jackson Stealth, from Jersey, that unbeknownst to me at the time, I got stung on the tax on. Described as VGC, being a basswood body, of course the Floyd posts were rocking and falling out and the ultra thick lacquer had cracked. Put it down to experience as it was a bad design in the first place and never bought anything from Jersey again.
I've never sold a guitar, but I imagine if I did, I would wire wool the neck and oil it if it was rosewood and clean the strings and polish the body as a minimum. If it were high end I would change the strings. It is nice to get something instantly playable without others gunk on it I guess. But I do this cleaning thing regularly anyway. If you are charging any sort of money for it, it is just bad show to send it out covered in pizza and dog hair with rusty strings on it. It is disgusting. Most people who have guitars like that are actually blind and can't see how disgusting they are.
Receiving doesn't bother me that much I guess, as I take them all apart anyway. But don't like opening cases to find a million fleas hopping out. Set up is a very personal thing. So usually I give them a thorough clean when I do it. I sometimes like the challenge of getting vomit off a case. It makes me feel wholesome, like I have achieved something. People who expect new from an item that is sold for less than a quarter of the reduced retail price kind of annoy me though.
I have a special Henry vacuum attachment for cleaning guitars that I specifically use for them, so it doesn't get sand etc on it. But you just don't know. Some buyers must be pretty anal. The best guitars I have got have arrived in pieces with spiders in them and starches from being kicked about on the garage floor. I like crap like that sometimes, but then I would never pay big bucks for it.
I've only had one minging guitar sent to me, most sellers have been pretty good with cleaning things before they send them out.
I did get one guitar though that had had its natural finish polished with something very strong smelling (not a 'bad' smell, but you knew when you opened the case) - and that kind of put me off the guitar until it lost the smell!