Online bass purchase: MF vs SW dilemma

[MasterG]

You can get discounts at Sweetwater. Everytime I've bought something from them I've put it in my cart...sent my rep an email and say Ben check my cart. What's the best you can do on it 5 minutes later I get an email back with a nice discount. After 1,000s of dollars I've never failed to get a discount. Last purchase was a Charvel San Dimas ProMod. Sold for 899...Got it for $779

 

[RudyTardy]

Check out Pitbull Audio out of San Diego. They exceeded all expectations when I bought my Stingray from them last year. I was surprised to get the bonus bucks reward and wound up picking up an guitar amp with that discount.

This was my bass and it was EXACTLY as listed. Beautiful looking and playing instrument but their service was just as impressive: Ernie Ball Music Man Stingray Special HH Bass Guitar, Rosewood Fretboard, Burnt Amber

Good luck with your search!

BTW I adore Sweetwater as well. I only found Pitbull because they had the finish I liked and there weren’t many left in stores before it was discontinued. Was very glad I did.

Agree on both fronts. Pitbull is awesome. They ship professionally and quickly. Highly rec. I like SW too, but like everyone says the 55 point is useless. I bought an Am Pro II Strat recently and it had a poorly cut nut and some issues with the rolled edges. That said, I fixed it myself because it was much lighter than the other options and I love that. Pros and cons to each!

 

[Kukulkan61]

Buy used and save a lot more then 200.00...

 

[ashtray]

My friend ordered a guitar from SW. it came completely factory wrapped/sealed. No one ever opened the box to do a 1-step inspection, much less 55!

Careful with the MF coupons - the list of things you can’t use it on is notoriously longer than you would believe. That said, if you call with the coupon, they can usually apply it.

I have only used the bonus cash once. It always disappears. I think you get the bonus cash in the quarter following your purchase, but I guess it’s only good that quarter and then gone the next? I have lost all but $3 in bonus cash, and have easily spent $1,000 in one year recently. So the bonus cash is never tempting.

I’ll cherry pick their Stupid Deals every now and then, and usually order strings through them. (I had been using a smaller string reseller in 2019, but never got any emails from them since.)

In your case with $200 difference, I’d go with MF. Note - if you don’t like an item, you have to pay the shipping to return it. And I had one case where I bought an $800 guitar marked down to $300. What I received was a $300 guitar that needed major fret work - new guitar! Sloppy binding, and paint over the binding in areas. Just garbage. Their customer service offered to either exchange it for another (what, all the others magically have much better QC?), or I had to drive 50 miles to the nearest authorized repair center to have it inspected. I kept it, did a full fret level, crown, polish and sold it a year later for $250. Bleh. (It was $1,100 “list” and $799 normal price, but $299 clearance price. But it ultimately was a $299 guitar. Very misleading.)

 

[bassbrad]

Price matters and I can and always do my own set up anyway. I buy from both retailers and others without issue or preference.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I'm a long-time MF customer, going back to when they were an Oregon-based mail-order company (before I had internet). I've never bought a bass mail-order or online, but I'm about to. Sweetwater comes so highly recommended, I thought I'd give them a shot with a pre-order.

First thing that stands out is that SW doesn't appear to have a rewards program like MF (8% back in spendable funny money on virtually every purpose, redeemable as cash on any future purchase). I guess I can write that off as the cost of the extra setup work SW supposedly does.

But then today I get a 15% off coupon from MF. So in addition to 8% back in funny money, they'd also be throwing me $157.50 in discount.

I emailed SW; they won't match price. So my options are:

1. keep my pre-order at SW, leaving north of $200 on the table but get the legendary SW customer service and a bag of candy (would I get $200 worth of that? I'm having a hard time imagining it.)
   
2. cancel SW and order MF, saving >$200 but accepting that I'll be basically getting the instrument drop shipped from the manufacturer (but it's a manufacturer known for good quality, so...)

My loyalty to MF is just about the $$ at this point, so I'm leaning hard to option 2 here. What say you, TB hive mind?

I don't think it gets better online than sweet water. Well, except maybe some mom and pop shop. One that spends time handling and dressing everything that comes in and goes out. You know?

Musician's friend is just guitar center with a rewards system.

I've had much better luck with Zzounds.

Sweetwater where it counts.

 

[mmon77]

I've had good experiences from both, and have no problem ordering from either. I didn't like SW's phone call thing, but to their credit, they did stop calling when I asked. Actually MF has kinda appropriated that tactic as well, but also stopped when I asked.

All other things being equal, I usually end up ordering from MF because of their loyalty rewards program. Especially with bigger-ticket items (at least they are to me), it's hard to pass up a few hundred dollars back to spend some other time.

Also, MF has given me a discount when I called and spoke to someone a few times. To be fair to SW, the most expensive item I've purchased from them was already highly discounted at the time, so a further discount would have been a pipe dream.

 

[wmhill]

Every time I "try" to order from MF/GC to use a coupon or discount, something goes awry and I can't get the savings, EVERY TIME. I'm willing to bet things may not turn out as you expect, and there will be a disappointment post in the future.
.

 

[Indiana Mike]

I’ve gotten discounts at SW , gotta ask a real person.

I heard preorder, but the horror stories of MF basses being yanked off GC walls and shipped as new in box only to have dings , missing accessories etc…

I don’t trust MF. New should be new , not a demo.

 

[dangevans]

SW has been awesome for me, but if you order something from them, get ready for them to call you every few days to ask how things are going with your purchase. Eventually, I had to tell them, "Look- I appreciate your concern, but if there is a problem, I will let you know." Then they stopped calling me all the time.

 

[Bret Music]

With MF and GC being one in the same, seems like they have way more gear in stock. SW here lately not so much. I have alot of gear from SW in the last 3 or 4 years and never a problem with anything. I made a couple purchases from MF in the last couple months and returned one. MF returned the item no problem. The returned item was a short scale sterling by MM and it was in terrible shape. I just got a Sterling Ray34 from them 2 weeks ago and I was worried because the box was destroyed upon delivery. If it wasn't in a deluxe gig bag it would of been in bad shape. So thats the difference for me, SW gear is gone through and repackaged and checked for been damaged. Maybe because of my location, SW items is almost always free fedex 2 day shipping for me.

I would prefer to buy from Sweetwater, and if you establish a friendship with your sales rep you can get some discounts and some good deals.

 

[el murdoque]

If you take the $200 you save with your purchase with MF,
You could take about half of it and give it to a local luthier to install a set of your favorite strings and do a proper setup.
The remainder would be well spent by taking the missus out to dinner to celebrate a new bass guitar

 

[Dirk Diggler]

If you're looking for deals, Sweetwater is really not able to budge much anymore.
The only way to get any movement is to buy some things and establish a relationship with your sales rep.

However if you have any problems, they will work very hard to make things right.
I've noticed a lot of gear I've been looking at is waiting to get back in stock for many months now.

 

[MNAirHead]

Sweetwater... speak to a manager

 

[commonplayer]

MF’s 15% coupons have literally never worked on anything I’ve wanted to buy. Must be a huge exclusion list.

 

[Bassclef46]

Sweetwater does have great customer service, but the reason they have to have such great customer service is to make up for all of the problems with their products. the 55 point inspection is a complete marketing scam. Their techs dont do anything when they inspect. If they did, they would catch even the simplest defects from the factory. Most of their rep for customer service comes from them fixing their mistakes.

I have never bought from MF, but all things being equal I would choose MF. In your situation I think choosing MF is a no brainer

 

[Raoul_Duke]

SW seems to have better CS and you don’t have to worry as much about being sent broken inventory. MF usually has more discounts available.

 

[Spidey2112]

I've honestly never been impressed with Sweetwater's "55 point inspection."

Same. If they're advertising it as a selling point, they really should do it, as opposed to just signing off the 3x5 tag.

I love Sweetwater, too... but, I love the deal, as well.

 

[40Hz]

MF’s 15% coupons have literally never worked on anything I’ve wanted to buy. Must be a huge exclusion list.

They have “a few” manufacturers on their excluded list:

“Products from the following manufacturers are excluded: A Designs, ADAM, Aguilar, Allen & Heath, Alvarez, Ampeg, Antelope Audio, Apogee, Apple, Arturia, Ashdown, Ashly Audio, Avantone, Avid, BAE, Beetronics FX, Blackstar, Bose, Boss, Burl Audio, Catalinbread, Chapman, Crate, Cusack Music, D.W. Fearn, Dangerous Music, Dave Smith Instruments, Dean Markley, Duesenberg USA, Earthquaker Devices, Earthworks, Electro-Harmonix, Elysia, Empress Effects, Epiphone, Ernie Ball Music Man, EVH, Fender, Fender Custom Shop, Focal, Focusrite, Fostex, Friedman, Fulltone, Fulltone Custom Shop, Gallien-Krueger, Gibson, Gibson Custom, Golden Age Project, GoPro, Heritage Audio, ISP Technologies, JHS Pedals, Keeley, Kemper, Korg, Kurzweil, Kush Audio, LaChapell Audio, Lag Guitars, Lewitt Audio Microphones, Lindell Audio, Mackie, Manley, Meinl, Metric Halo, Millennia, Mojave Audio, Moog, MOTU, Native Instruments, Neumann, Nord, Novation, Orange Amplifiers, Pettyjohn Electronics, Phoenix Audio, PRS, Radial Engineering, Randall, Rane, Reloop, Reverend, RME, Rockett Pedals, Roland, Royer, Ruach Music, se Electronics, Serato, Shure, Slate Digital, Slate Pro Audio, Slate Media Technology, Softube, Soundbrenner, Source Audio, Squier, Steven Slate Drums, Studiologic, Suzuki, Taylor, Teenage Engineering, Telefunken, Teletronix, Toft Audio Designs, Tube-Tech, Voodoo Lab, Vox, Walrus Audio, Wampler, Warm Audio, Westone, Xotic Effects, Yamaha, ZT, Zvex.”
​

Basically it’s not MF/GC’s discount at all. The discount only happens if the manufacturers agree to subsidize it. And since many of them have their own marketing and promotion programs, I can see where they wouldn’t be all that interested in letting a distributor hog all the goodwill a price break might generate for them.

 

[G On Bass]

I prefer Sweetwater and their customer service. But when there's $200 in play and they have declined a chance to price-match, then that might be be significant enough to consider doing this one deal elsewhere. I had to do that recently on a Mac. Costco had 'em on sale and SW wasn't allowed to match the price...