Gas Station Guitars........anybody here buy from them

Garold86

The joy of a sunburst is that you can see the grain through the finish. The one on the website, which as you say is a good few hundred more than it should be, looks to be a 2 piece alder body based on the grain pattern. Basswood would be a lot plainer than that.

Fwiw, I have a black tl62b-tx - it's a lovely guitar, albeit one with a baseball bat of a neck.

lustycourtier

Neilybob said:

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

Not too long ago he had a really interesting Japanese market only signature Epiphone 355 that was being marketed with "MIJ" in the listing title. I'd never heard of it but was intrigued so did a bit of googling on it, thinking it might be something from the same line as the Elitist stuff. Turned out it's not MIJ at all but Chinese-made on the same production line as the normal Epi stuff*.

Thinking it may be a genuine error I emailed the guy to advise, expecting him to remove the "MIJ" and downgrade the ludicrous pricing a bit. He did indeed take "MIJ" out, but kept the price as it was - £1500 for a Chinese-made Epi! No thanks! 

*To be clear, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Chinese-made Epis, they churn out some great stuff! 

Wow! That’s nuts. 

I’ve just imported an early Navigator 335 copy from Japan via Buyee all for under (just) a grand! 

£1500 for a Chinese 355 is pretty cheap nowadays. They are rare so people pay it. The only one I’ve played was pretty poor 

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Mike58 said:

A friend of mine is in the market for an excellent condition Fender Japan double bound ‘62 Custom in sunburst model TL62B-TX
This dealer seems to have exactly what he wants albeit a couple of hundred pounds more than most ads. 

The only issue I see in the ads is mention of specific woods ie. Alder and Indian Rosewood as it must be difficult to prove this.
I presume you can tell basswood from alder by the neck pocket? 

It’s a shame they don’t show neck pocket stamps.
So if the guitar was not as described you would have grounds to return it ? But not accepting credit card gives you little protection in these situations.
it’s a tricky one, 

There's a nice looking double bound MiJ sunburst Tele just been listed on Facebook, probably more sensibly priced then anything at Gas Station!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/guitarexchange/permalink/5826400060772913

(Does that link work? Never seemed to be able to figure out how to share links to FB marketplace stuff!)

bertie

MIK Tokai ALS 65 (three screw truss cover)  "heavy relic"  for a fiver short of £900  -  yeah right OK

badabingbadaboom

Comment removed

badabingbadaboom

Stop press! I need to set the record straight. After writing on here criticising Gas Station Guitars yesterday, I am delighted to report that the owner (Keith) has reached out to me today extremely apologetic, but he has been away from home with tech issues and didn’t see my messages re the problems with my guitar until today. Keith is being completely decent and has agreed to pay for all restorative work including a full refret. I take it all back. My faith in humanity (well, guitar sellers) has been restored x Bill

prlgmnr

On ebay/reverb or direct from his site?

guitargeek62

"They" are only 40 mins from me - I enquired before about picking something up in-person but just got evasive answers and no response.

DuploLicks

badabingbadaboom said:

Just bought an expensive dud from this charlatan. Way overpriced but was advertised as being very playable with loads of life in frets etc. The thing was falling to bits - nut loose, significant nicks and dinks in the fretwire. Unplayable without a significant set up and complete refret. Now I know why the seller doesn’t want you to see the guitar beforehand. He talks about a store front! I can guarantee that this will NEVER happen! And yes, I can confirm that good ol’ Keith does not respond to any communication post-sales and does not provide any paperwork. Worst experience in 4 decades of buying guitars. You have been warned!

In the interests of fairness are there any photos that we can pore over? 

Offset

@badabingbadaboom - could you not simply exercise your rights under distance selling regs and return it?

Out of interest, what was the guitar?

McToot

By the looks of your forum name @badabingbadaboom surely you can just go round there with some of the boys and 'make him an offer he can't refuse'...

  

badabingbadaboom

McToot said:

By the looks of your forum name @badabingbadaboom surely you can just go round there with some of the boys and 'make him an offer he can't refuse'...

  

Haha i love it. Thanks for cheering me up. I’m a lover not a fighter x

badabingbadaboom

Comment removed as problem resolved 

Offset

badabingbadaboom said:

Offset said:

@badabingbadaboom - could you not simply exercise your rights under distance selling regs and return it?

Out of interest, what was the guitar?

Yeah i probably could but the seller is not responding to any communication and I’m not the only one to have experienced this. I’ve got a great tech here where i live and he can do the work at a reasonable price. It’s a 66 reissue CIJ Jag that I would like to keep if he can resolve the issues. If only the seller had priced this 20% lower, which would be a more realistic price, I wouldn’t be complaining. Lesson learned

That's really not good.  I guess you like the guitar sufficiently to persevere with it but I'm sure it's left a nasty taste in your mouth.  A salutory 'caveat emptor' lesson to the rest of us.

What is it with guitar businesses owned by people called 'Keith'? 

Cirrus

There's something about Les Pauls that does it, i think. I noticed it when buying and trying to sell Les Pauls in the past - that brings the dickheads out. Sure there are normal decent people just like any other guitar, but with a Les Paul for sale you'll also get people negging you, laugh-reacting your facebook classified post, pestering you with multiple messages etc etc.

Luckily I have found good buyers and sellers too, it's just a bit soul denting when you put a post up on a facebook for sale group and an hour later 4 people have laughed at it and one's told you to fuck off in a PM.

Can't remember if I've already said it in this thread, but I've messaged the Gas Station Guitars guy a couple of times with genuine interest in guitars, and he's not replied, so now I just skim straight past his stuff on Reverb.

OilCityPickups

It never ceases to amaze me how some businesses just happily go 'full cowboy' and not work out that word will get around. it takes years to build up a good reputation and about five minutes to bork it up entirely. To me it's bonkers: even in the current economic climate folks are willing to spend a bit on what they want (rather than need) so why be a prick, screw them around and make everyone mistrustful of people in the industry? 

Sure a price is a price, and if they are pricing high then either they won't sell and will have to bring their prices down, or sit on a pile of stock that's going nowhere. However, not to answer communication from a customer who isn't happy ... that's just being a Cnut (early English king) with intent. 

badabingbadaboom

Comment removed as problem resolved 

Lebarque

No experience myself, but I know someone who bought a guitar from them and it arrived with a neck break. There was a story about "we had another one that happened to too". They arranged pickup and promptly refunded with excellent customer service and comms. My mate says he would buy from them again.  

brooom

Offset said:

badabingbadaboom said:

Offset said:

@badabingbadaboom - could you not simply exercise your rights under distance selling regs and return it?

Out of interest, what was the guitar?

Yeah i probably could but the seller is not responding to any communication and I’m not the only one to have experienced this. I’ve got a great tech here where i live and he can do the work at a reasonable price. It’s a 66 reissue CIJ Jag that I would like to keep if he can resolve the issues. If only the seller had priced this 20% lower, which would be a more realistic price, I wouldn’t be complaining. Lesson learned

That's really not good.  I guess you like the guitar sufficiently to persevere with it but I'm sure it's left a nasty taste in your mouth.  A salutory 'caveat emptor' lesson to the rest of us.

What is it with guitar businesses owned by people called 'Keith'? 

I don't know but Keith at redplate amps is most excellent when it comes to customer service. So not all Keiths are cut from the same cloth.