I’ve only bought ONE new bass or guitar in my life; one of the first Dano Longhorn reissues around ’97 when they were selling for $189 including a ‘tweed’ gig bag and free shipping….
As this was a cross country purchase, I’d never know if they spent an hour setting it up as best possible (no truss rod adjustment, a single slab of wood as your bridge “saddles” etc.) But it played as well as any original Longhorn I’ve ever played, and that’s a few dozen. And while the fit and finish was not up to Jerry Jones standards, I wouldn’t hesitate to grab mine for a gig or session - I never remember anyone saying “nice bass, too bad it doesn’t sound as good as aa JJ Longhorn”.
Anyway, tomorrow I’m buying a Classic Vibe 50s P-bass, in large part because after nearly 20 years, I still hit some major clams with the short scale Dano. My hands have been playing 34” scale basses since I traded from my original EB3 to a ‘70 Jazz. If 19 years with the Dano hasn’t given me the ability to switch between scale lengths at will, it aint gonna happen. So a new Squier will look cool, should help end my frequent clams, and the price is nice. But as a newcomer to buying a new bass from a store, particularly a local store, what do you get as part of the deal?
They claim to be making around $30 on the deal and are doing it to build a relationship with a local musician who does not purchase from either of the modern Wal*Mart type music stores. If that is even partly true, would you expect any kind of setup on a new “made in China” squier? Or do they hand you the cardboard box with your name on the side and wish you luck? Or do they open the box, and spend 2 or 3 times that $30 number (remember this is LA where $15 is the minimum hourly wage to make French fries; I hope a good guitar tech is making a bit more than that) to perform the level of setup that even used guitars got prior to leaving the store.
Obviously, I’ll ask when I go in to close the deal tomorrow, but I’m curious what kinds of experiences are common to guys buying low cost instruments from local stores? Do you get a nice “thank you” and a sealed cardboard box or does the local shop owner spend the the large amounts of downtime on a typical weekday fiddling aournnd with your bass, setting it up and tweaking it until there really isn’t much more that can be done. That was my experience when I used to purchase lots of used guitars back in the 70s / 80s, But has the post-sale set-up become another profit center, like an extended warranty??
As this was a cross country purchase, I’d never know if they spent an hour setting it up as best possible (no truss rod adjustment, a single slab of wood as your bridge “saddles” etc.) But it played as well as any original Longhorn I’ve ever played, and that’s a few dozen. And while the fit and finish was not up to Jerry Jones standards, I wouldn’t hesitate to grab mine for a gig or session - I never remember anyone saying “nice bass, too bad it doesn’t sound as good as aa JJ Longhorn”.
Anyway, tomorrow I’m buying a Classic Vibe 50s P-bass, in large part because after nearly 20 years, I still hit some major clams with the short scale Dano. My hands have been playing 34” scale basses since I traded from my original EB3 to a ‘70 Jazz. If 19 years with the Dano hasn’t given me the ability to switch between scale lengths at will, it aint gonna happen. So a new Squier will look cool, should help end my frequent clams, and the price is nice. But as a newcomer to buying a new bass from a store, particularly a local store, what do you get as part of the deal?
They claim to be making around $30 on the deal and are doing it to build a relationship with a local musician who does not purchase from either of the modern Wal*Mart type music stores. If that is even partly true, would you expect any kind of setup on a new “made in China” squier? Or do they hand you the cardboard box with your name on the side and wish you luck? Or do they open the box, and spend 2 or 3 times that $30 number (remember this is LA where $15 is the minimum hourly wage to make French fries; I hope a good guitar tech is making a bit more than that) to perform the level of setup that even used guitars got prior to leaving the store.
Obviously, I’ll ask when I go in to close the deal tomorrow, but I’m curious what kinds of experiences are common to guys buying low cost instruments from local stores? Do you get a nice “thank you” and a sealed cardboard box or does the local shop owner spend the the large amounts of downtime on a typical weekday fiddling aournnd with your bass, setting it up and tweaking it until there really isn’t much more that can be done. That was my experience when I used to purchase lots of used guitars back in the 70s / 80s, But has the post-sale set-up become another profit center, like an extended warranty??
