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I've seen basses like that in the OP, usually right out of the box.
Not sure I want a GC sales clerk grudgingly setting up my basses on orders from his manager. Something tells me I'd still have to take a tool to it.
I have some amazing players in my collection that had absolute crap set ups when I bought them. I think every bass I've ever bought was not set up to my liking and had to be tweaked.
Not sure I want a GC sales clerk grudgingly setting up my basses on orders from his manager. Something tells me I'd still have to take a tool to it.
I have some amazing players in my collection that had absolute crap set ups when I bought them. I think every bass I've ever bought was not set up to my liking and had to be tweaked.
If the strings are 3/4 inch above the fingerboard, someone should tighten that truss rod to see if the action can be brought to a reasonable level. If not, it should be sent back...IMO
Since the chances are 99.9% in favor of the action problem being a simple truss rod/set up issue, I highly doubt it would be a candidate to be returned to the factory.
And with 45 days to see for yourself, I think it's worth that .01% chance.
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Was in the local south KC area GC a couple weeks ago to meet a guy I'd contacted who was selling a bass on Craigslist, said he'd meet me at the GC which he said he'd done before. I sat in the bass room for probably at least 25 minutes playing around with various basses while waiting. No one from the store ever approached or acknowledged me. They had two used Epi Thunderbird Pro's on the wall (priced at $379 each - they sell on the local Craigslist for $200 - 250 regularly) which I briefly checked out, neither of which was playable due to lack of setup. Pretty much anything I took off the wall to noodle with had not even remotely been set up.
Seller finally showed up, I plugged into one of the bass amps on the floor, played it a bit, bought the bass. We walked out carrying the bass, no one ever spoke to us or to my knowledge even looked at us. I assume they saw the guy carry it in but who knows?
I hadn't been in a guitar store of any kind in a few years but this lack of any contact from someone in the store really surprised me. I would have thought someone would have at least made a brief contact to see if I had any questions etc. Weird.
Seller finally showed up, I plugged into one of the bass amps on the floor, played it a bit, bought the bass. We walked out carrying the bass, no one ever spoke to us or to my knowledge even looked at us. I assume they saw the guy carry it in but who knows?
I hadn't been in a guitar store of any kind in a few years but this lack of any contact from someone in the store really surprised me. I would have thought someone would have at least made a brief contact to see if I had any questions etc. Weird.
No I meant someone at the store should adjust the truss rod so the bass is playable and send it back if it can't be adjusted enough. I wouldn't buy or recommend someone buying a bass with that much forward bow.
I just did a setup on a Squier J that had 1/2"+ relief and the truss rod would not adjust enough to get the action where I would like it. I even added a washer under the truss rod nut. The best I could do was get it into "playable" territory.
It was bought from CL, so the owner is stuck with it.
I've asked the tech at my local GC about this. He said there are just too many instruments to stay on top of it since he's one of only a couple employees qualified to do it properly (and he's always busy with customers' repair work). There are huge swings in the humidity level in the store which doesn't help matters. He said if I wanted to play something that was out of whack, just bring it to him and he'd make it right. No big deal.
And there's the difference. This thread is not discussing CL purchases, it's discussing GC purchases.
Guitar Center gives you 45 days to set it up (to your standards - not those of some transient sales clerk who may know next to nothing about set-ups - and within reason so as not to void the warranty and return policy), hunker down over it, audition it to you heart's content, and make sure it's 100% to your liking. That's why it's not a gamble to buy a poorly set-up guitar at GC, and that probably contributes to their reluctance to set up a bass just to (1) have the owner take his own tools to it and re-set it up to his liking, and (2) have the bass returned because the buyer was just testing it out.
In reality, frozen/bent/effed up truss rods (on anything above a used Squier on CL) are pretty rare. I'd bet my entire bass and guitar collection against yours that the bass in the OP is not suffering from a bad truss rod. And even if it is, the buyer is out nothing, zero, zilch, nada. Return policy to the rescue!
And now that more and more GC's are featuring something a little closer to a "qualified tech" on staff, you can even make the purchase with the understanding that you want the bass bumped to the front of the line and the tech to do a basic twenty-minute set-up on it so you can start playing and enjoying it. If you're that paranoid about it, after the tech is done and before you leave the store, plug it in and see what it does after a decent set-up. If it's not a player or has a flaw, you don't even have to leave the store with it, just march it back to the counter, say, "No good," and get an immediate refund.
There's also a good chance that a staff member might be willing to simply stick a hex wrench in there and give the rod a slight twist just to see if it works, if that's your only concern. Adjusting rods doesn't change warranty or return policy.
If I could only purchase a bass or guitar that was set up to my liking right off the rack or out of the box, I'd own zero guitars and basses. I might even play a basic generic set up and not know what to think, because my set up requirements are far from "generic," so it's hard to say how helpful a "generic" set-up would be. Also, a rod can be frozen in the "generic" position as well, so there are no guarantees there either.
FWIW, I currently own over 100 guitars and basses, have probably sold off another 50, and not one came to me set up to my liking and ready for the stage and studio. To most players, the average generic set-up equals "close, but no cigar," and can be just as misleading. So we're going to have to invest the time and effort anyway.
In short, you want to blame the noobs at GC for losing a sale because they didn't set it up and make it "more playable?" Go ahead. It's a mathematical certainty you are only cheating yourself out of a great bass. Experienced players and smart buyers know better.
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buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Blaming Guitar Center for the bass not being set up properly is like blaming 7/11 because your bag of chips had more air than actual chips.
The bass looking like it belongs in a sporting good store falls on the company who's name is on the headstock for not properly setting it up before the QC tag was placed on it.
The bass looking like it belongs in a sporting good store falls on the company who's name is on the headstock for not properly setting it up before the QC tag was placed on it.
Or blaming the car salesman because when you went to do a test drive you had to adjust the seat, steering wheel, mirrors, and the radio wasn't tuned to your favorite station.
I blame GC for not noticing it.
I walked in there and in under a minute I saw it. It would take me maybe a few more minutes to fix it too or at least get it better. As I said before and others have pointed out, including a former GC employee, they simply don't care. They could have their in store tech go in the bass room (maybe 20 basses) and go through each one of them in one or two days max.
I worked at a music store as a repair tech and we went through every single guitar in the store on a regular basis.
When someone bought a guitar, we set it up to their specs.
We sent back bad guitars on a few occasions.
Not one neck ever looked, nor would they ever get to that condition and we never saw one come in like that.
I really should go back in a few weeks and see what it looks like...
why I won't buy from them used. What they call good, excellent, very good, etc-----is usually wiped out somehow. I don't trust them.
I blame it on poor store management, not GC as a whole. Although the franchise seemed to be a lot better 15- 20 years ago.
First, your avatar made me smile.
Then i saw you were from Seattle.
Followed the link ... cool stuff & playing
(Sorry for the thread sidetrack/not sorry)
Thanks! It's always nice to get good feedback. I'm not sure the circumstances but now I see your bandcamp I remember having listened to your band before. Good stuff! I dig it.
If (insert name on headstock) puts a QC tag on the product and states that it is good, then why should GC (or any other store for that matter) question the set up?
When someone bought a guitar, we set it up to their specs
How do you know that the GC center doesn't do the same just by asking the sales person before purchasing? It seems to me that your whole rant has been undone by your own words.
Yeah, we set up their guitars to the way they liked it. We put on the strings they wanted and did a full setup. Not one bass or guitar started like this one. No customer would have ever seen a neck that warped in that store. We wouldn't have wanted to try to 'fix' something like that and then sell it to a customer that doesn't know any better.
I said in the opening post that by having a bass for sale that really is not playable because the neck is warped and the strings are a mile off the fingerboard makes it pretty hard to sell and by ignoring it for months makes it even worse.
