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Sweetwater Demo Basses
- Thread starter Desmoface
- Start date
If I was buying a bass, absolutely without a doubt, the FIRST place I'd be shopping, is the "scratch and dent" sections.
Unless its a catastrophic problem, and strictly cosmetic?
I'll take the discount. Thats just how I roll.
A player is the only bass I'm interested in...and a player is gonna get scratched and dented.
Unless its a catastrophic problem, and strictly cosmetic?
I'll take the discount. Thats just how I roll.
A player is the only bass I'm interested in...and a player is gonna get scratched and dented.
I'm with ya, that's why I haven't pulled the trigger yet, LOL. I keep going back to the demo's. Sweetwater is offering a 10% discount so the Demo's are ~$1500.
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If you have a good sales rep you can get the demo price for a new bass, or at very close to it.
I bought a demo Sire M5 from Sweetwater and had no issues. They seem to cert honest about every nick and ding and make sure they get a good setup before they're shipped out.
I haven’t bought a demo bass from Sweetwater, but I have bought a couple of demo cabinets and a couple demo pedals. All the demo gear I have bought from them has been in almost new condition, and I wouldn’t hesitate to get any demo gear from them.
I actually just bought a demo Epiphone Emperor bass. It was listed as having a few scratches and scuffs. Since the price was right, I went ahead and bought it. Bass arrived in the factory box which was re-taped and double boxed. The items listed were very hard to see on the bass. If they hadn't been noted you'd never know they were there unless you did a fine tooth comb inspection. The very few small imperfections that I did notice could easily be buffed out, but I probably won't go to all that trouble. They're visual and don't hurt the playability so I just consider it as MOJO and ID markings should it ever get stolen.
That said it does need some setup work. The nut is too high, the neck relief and other basic stuff. Over all I feel I got a good deal. I'd buy a demo from Sweetwater again. IDK if these are customer returns (EDIT) their site says some may have been returned by customers. or not but since they give the demos their 2 year warranty. If there is an issue you can send it to their in-house repair center for warranty repair. As you can see it looks fine.
That said it does need some setup work. The nut is too high, the neck relief and other basic stuff. Over all I feel I got a good deal. I'd buy a demo from Sweetwater again. IDK if these are customer returns (EDIT) their site says some may have been returned by customers. or not but since they give the demos their 2 year warranty. If there is an issue you can send it to their in-house repair center for warranty repair. As you can see it looks fine.
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I hear that there may be a nice Sadowski, Metroline there, with new bridge screws...
[edit] Yeah... I opened that can of worms. But, in all seriousness (opinion)... I'm of the thought that if something came back, the "IN HOUSE" techs may have the inclination to go it over more diligently than they would something direct from the manufacturer that is SUPPOSED to be READY TO GO. We all buy used basses from each other here. SW, may pay more attention to a return (that they lost commissions/shipping on), in order to make sure that it STAYS IN THE WILD.
Just my 2 pennies.
Peace,
Marc
[edit] Yeah... I opened that can of worms. But, in all seriousness (opinion)... I'm of the thought that if something came back, the "IN HOUSE" techs may have the inclination to go it over more diligently than they would something direct from the manufacturer that is SUPPOSED to be READY TO GO. We all buy used basses from each other here. SW, may pay more attention to a return (that they lost commissions/shipping on), in order to make sure that it STAYS IN THE WILD.
Just my 2 pennies.
Peace,
Marc
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I have bought demo's from them many times and got a basically new instrument at a great discount. Only once did I return a bass and it was due to a cracked pickguard. Thankfully it was actually captured in their pics online and I just didn't notice it there until it arrived and went back to look at their pics. That was something they didn't catch either apparently and it was marked as "demo" cause one of the pickup screws was slightly stripped. All in all, I have probably saved hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in the last decade alone perusing their demo and "scratch and dent" section.
I'm responsible for a good chunk of their demo basses. I've bought and returned many basses there. My Sales Engineer is fine with that because I get 15% off with my corporate discount. If I return a bass, they resell it as a demo for 10% off.
I'm sure they have plenty of demos from the store. But I can attest that many of the demos are simply returned basses.
I bought one from Sweetwater and love it. The one thing you need to realize is that even though the demo might have a mark on it here or there, the demo has been completely gone through because customers are going to play these in the store. You may be getting a better instrument.
I got my Ibanez Adam Nitti ANB306 from Sweetwater as a DEMO and paid only $2400 WITH a plek and taxes shipped to my house in 3 days....for a tiny finish flaw on the back of it and a few light scratches. The bass is $2399 retail, plus $300 for the plek, plus taxes.....so I think I made out like a bandit! It's an absolute killer bass!
Not worth it, IMO/IME. I can almost always get brand new items from them for 10 to 15 percent off retail, and they seem to mark down most B stock items only 10 percent (though on very rare occasions more).
I did score on a B stock item from them only once. I bought an Epiphone Amos Flying V, not because of the signature qualities, but because of liking every feature, and the fact that it came with a '50s style hard case. It was a rare case of the B stock discount being higher than normal, plus I negotiated an even deeper discount. It was also the days of no tax and free shipping for out of state purchases, so it was a $700 guitar by the time I got it, when it had been $950 or so as A stock, IIRC. Nothing was wrong with it that I could see, and I'm highly critical.
Well, turns out that those guitars shot up in value really high, really fast, and were selling for $1,250 to $1,500 used, within a year or two of their release. It's insane and rare for any guitar, let alone a cheap guitar, to immediately jump in value like that. I always wanted a '50s style V, but the Epi just wasn't up to my quality standards, and I found myself wanting to make significant mods to it. Wasn't going to do that to a guitar that was shooting up in value, and I also thought the bubble on them might burst. So I just decided to sell it, or trade it for something that I loved right out of the box.
In the end, I was able to negotiate a straight across trade with Chicago Music Exchange, for the Aubergine American Performer Tele SH I'd been eyeing, with them paying shipping both ways. The bottom line for me was that I got the [at the time] $1,150 plus tax American Performer, brand new, for $700 (it's now a $1,450 guitar). That Tele is a truly excellent sounding axe, and a much better quality instrument than the V – even thought it's far more run of the mill.
But cases like that are few and far between. I just happened to pick up a '50s style V that had features I liked, and it happened to become a hot ticket item. Other than that fortunate fluke having happened to me, I would just recommend negotiating a "brand new" item down 10 to 15 percent, rather than getting the B stock one for 10 percent off.
This is not to mention that in my experience, Sweetwater's quality as a retailer has gone way downhill in the past few year. They're no longer my go-to retailer, because of this.
I did score on a B stock item from them only once. I bought an Epiphone Amos Flying V, not because of the signature qualities, but because of liking every feature, and the fact that it came with a '50s style hard case. It was a rare case of the B stock discount being higher than normal, plus I negotiated an even deeper discount. It was also the days of no tax and free shipping for out of state purchases, so it was a $700 guitar by the time I got it, when it had been $950 or so as A stock, IIRC. Nothing was wrong with it that I could see, and I'm highly critical.
Well, turns out that those guitars shot up in value really high, really fast, and were selling for $1,250 to $1,500 used, within a year or two of their release. It's insane and rare for any guitar, let alone a cheap guitar, to immediately jump in value like that. I always wanted a '50s style V, but the Epi just wasn't up to my quality standards, and I found myself wanting to make significant mods to it. Wasn't going to do that to a guitar that was shooting up in value, and I also thought the bubble on them might burst. So I just decided to sell it, or trade it for something that I loved right out of the box.
In the end, I was able to negotiate a straight across trade with Chicago Music Exchange, for the Aubergine American Performer Tele SH I'd been eyeing, with them paying shipping both ways. The bottom line for me was that I got the [at the time] $1,150 plus tax American Performer, brand new, for $700 (it's now a $1,450 guitar). That Tele is a truly excellent sounding axe, and a much better quality instrument than the V – even thought it's far more run of the mill.
But cases like that are few and far between. I just happened to pick up a '50s style V that had features I liked, and it happened to become a hot ticket item. Other than that fortunate fluke having happened to me, I would just recommend negotiating a "brand new" item down 10 to 15 percent, rather than getting the B stock one for 10 percent off.
This is not to mention that in my experience, Sweetwater's quality as a retailer has gone way downhill in the past few year. They're no longer my go-to retailer, because of this.
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i bought a demo hofner violin bass in red from them. i couldn't find a scratch on it or any issues anywhere. alas, for me it was an ergonomic nightmare, but it was also probably the most beautiful bass i've (briefly, in this case) owned. sweetwater didn't charge me for the return, btw.
How did I not know that model was available in blue? Love that.
Great advice here. The first place I'm looking for anything these days is the TB classifieds.
If it turns out that something doesn't become a keeper, then I can flip it without much, if any loss.
This is especially true for amps and effects. Given the cost and additional risk of shipping basses, I'm less likely to buy anything that isn't likely to be a keeper.
I recently got a great deal on a Tony Franklin Precision from a TB'er (roughly 30% off MSRP) and it is absolutely MINT.
Hey everyone, thanks for all the replies. My main concern is I've heard reports of non-functioning truss rods and general lack of QC with new Precisions. I have no experience doing bass set-ups so I want to make sure the bass I get, whether it be new or used is good to go. I've looked around and can't find any luthiers in my area to have a bass checked out/set-up. Sweetwater is running a 10% off special so that makes a new bass $1665, a used P-Bass is going for around $1500, the same price as the Sweetwater Demo basses with the 10% discount.
For example, exact bass, color wise right here on TB is the this classified that I am looking at purchasing new at Sweetwater. The difference in price is $165, so there really isn't much in it to just get new. But as we all know, sometimes older is better.
Thanks again for all the responses.
For example, exact bass, color wise right here on TB is the this classified that I am looking at purchasing new at Sweetwater. The difference in price is $165, so there really isn't much in it to just get new. But as we all know, sometimes older is better.
Thanks again for all the responses.
