DaveA wrote: Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:31 pm
Dunno what it's like to run a guitar shop, but I've been eBaying since '99 and have sold a fair amount of gear in the past year and half or so, and it sounds bizarre that someone would try to sell a guitar at around $2k that's barely playable. "Not quite optimal," sure, that might even be a given with some models, or most. But if it's hardly playable that's like putting a car on a dealership's lot that can't even handle a test drive. Ha. Good luck with that.
I hope you are more right than I am. I am speaking of the three times out of five I've tried to sit down with an off the shelf jazzmaster or jaguar and it was just a rotten dog. This was 5-10 years ago, so I assumed it was a case of stores not being used to setting up offset fenders. Strats and other common models tend to play okay.
The worst was a black $2K jazzmaster at a guitar center in Cincinnati. It would not play past the 10th fret or so. Beautiful atrocity of an instrument. Had a similar experience with a MIM jazzmaster someplace (probably Raleigh). Lots of dead notes and strings rattling all over. These seemed like they did not get the basic truss rod check or anything. The third was a vintage modified Squier jaguar in a sam ash in Cincinnati. I don't recall the deal with it. I just recall it sucked. I figured it was the actual guitar model because the Squier J. Mascis Jazzmaster next to it felt and played great. I did pickup a recent Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster that played the best of any I've picked up (I've only played a handful), but I know that shop does all their own set ups.