NBD Fender MIM disappointment

[sxaxsx]

I would play it and not worry about it. It's a 2007 MIM. Not a 2023 Fodera. And those are cracks not scratches. I just saw a thread about waiting 24 hours to unpack a bass shipped in winter. Lots of people were saying no need to wait, but maybe this is a reminder to err on the side of caution.

 

[SkylineFiver]

One thing that would bother me is that the cracks/scratches under the strings line up with bridge screws and the possibility that the wood is also cracked.

 

[DaveParker39]

Yeah that looks like finish checking. Which is certainly not shown in the eBay listing. Depending on where it shipped from and the route it took (and care taken) a drastic temperate change can cause that, but usually not on a poly finish. I mean, if it plays well and sounds good I’d just keep it and maybe try to get a small refund from the seller.

Yeah... I mean I've seen things like fret spout in a dramatic humidity change, minor cracking on nitro finishes due to climate adjustments. But all of this on a thick-as-a-brick poly finish? Seems sus to me. I've subjected instruments to far worse situations and never seen anything like this.

 

[Crusher47]

The real question.... is the decal in the right spot?

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Over the Christmas holidays it was 8 degrees above zero at my house, frozen water pipes, water were drains frozen and had to be thawed once I got my water flowing again. Georgia is typically not a severely cold weather state however we experienced unusually cold weather a couple of weeks ago

Wow, I hope there wasn't to much damage when your pipes froze.

 

[2thAche]

At best ask for some money back. Ultimately it's an MIM so it's not like you need a mint edition cause it's gonna be worth a fortune later.

If it plays and sounds great, who cares.

 

[dkelley]

and to think that people pay literally thousands of dollars to have their brand new custom made instruments "ROAD WORN". I know it isn't the same. But I always thought that paying for road wear is ridiculous... specially since some of them literally look like the guitar was dragged along an ashphalt road for a few hundred feet.

Yours, I TOTALLY get the disappointment, and you need to be compensated, but if it's such a great player then most folks won't notice the cosmetic damage while you are playing on stage. But you ought to get a heck of a discount deal on the package.

 

[BobDeRosa]

I never get this response. With that line of thinking:

* Cars are vehicles meant to get you around it, not looked at.
* Coats are meant for keeping you warm, not looked at.
* Houses are for providing shelter, not looked at.

Having a choice, would you drive a beat up, rusted old car? Wear a dirty, discolored, frayed coat? Live in a house painted the ugliest combination of colors, in old, faded paint?

Probably not.

Not to say that "war-scarred" instruments aren't cool or don't have character; they do. But most of the time, we want to put those scars there ourselves, or buy an instrument KNOWING they're there. OP obviously thought he was getting a scar-free bass. Those scratches/finish cracks are pretty severe and it's reasonable to return it.

That being said, if it plays really well and was a good deal, I'd just hold on to it and have it refinished at some point.

False equivalency. Cars, coats and houses are in a completely different category. Other tools -- hammers, paint brushes, toilet plungers, etc. -- would be a more appropriate comparison. Do you care more about how those look or about whether they do the primary job they're intended for? As I said, the primary job of a bass is to create music, and that's what we should be most concerned about. Everything else is secondary.

 

[Roger W]

Well, more power to you. /Salute.

Some of us are a little vain.

Fortunately Adam Smith wrote that vanity was not a mortal sin, but a driver of the economy.

 

[Relayer71]

False equivalency. Cars, coats and houses are in a completely different category. Other tools -- hammers, paint brushes, toilet plungers, etc. -- would be a more appropriate comparison. Do you care more about how those look or about whether they do the primary job they're intended for? As I said, the primary job of a bass is to create music, and that's what we should be most concerned about. Everything else is secondary.

Hammers, toilet plungers don't come in different colors, finishes, styles (that have nothing to do with functionality).

Image is hard to separate from music, whatever the music. There's some associated look with most genres, and that includes the instruments in some cases.

Anyway, neither here nor there, I guess!