How to "Buy An Expensive Guitar Very Cheaply" Part 1
For my daughter, I was looking for a lower end guitar upgrade preferably of the Gibson
Les Paul Custom type. Most direct is the Epiphone series that is endorsed by Gibson.
The Customs are at the upper end of the series and retail for $550.00 to $650.00 or more,
typically $600.00. This was more than I was willing to spend even though a new guitar
wasn't necessarily out of reach, but would noticeably set me back.
In my search for a compromise, I realized when surfing/searching on eBay.com that a
damaged Epiphone guitar could be purchased on average from $250.00 to 400.00
depending on the significance of the damage and how much other bidders were willing to
bid.
Being handy, I felt that I would be able to repair a guitar successfully myself. I cleared
this idea with my daughter and explained that cosmetically the guitar may have a “funny”
looking neck or head stock after the repair. She was accepting and the search began.
Most damaged Epiphone guitars listed on eBay have a broken off head stock which for
some reason is happening during shipment from the factory – new guitars! I thought,
“Okay, I will just add additional support to the area with pins embedded in the wood at three
areas around the truss rod at the break.” I also decided that I would only accept a break
above the nut so as not to have to deal with imperfections that would most likely remain
in the fret board afterwards. I settled on a silver burst finished guitar that had a
“professionally” repaired head stock already and the repair had not been sanded and
repainted. I thought I would just add support pins anyway and paint to finish the work
started. Needless to say, the guitar arrived with the head stock broke clean off (straight
through the neck) again. The guitar was taken back and I began the search again with
different parameters – still a broken head stock, but at an angle. Or, a guitar with a cracked
neck but still intact (as there are a number of these listed as well). I was leaning towards
the latter as the repair would be a lot easier to execute successfully.
A couple of weeks passed and I won the bid on a white Epiphone Les Paul Custom with a cracked neck
which was considered still playable for $300.00 delivered. At this point, my biggest
worries were if the neck would stay intact during shipment, and if the neck would be
straight at the fret board. The guitar arrived as stated in the listing. The fret board was
straight, the guitar was indeed quite playable but would not hold a tune from day to
day. The cracking which was visible at each side of the neck under the upper fret board and below the nut, trailed down the neck and has to be flexing with the string tension on the neck. (Pics. 1 – 3)
Pic. 1
Pic. 2
Pic. 3
Read part 2 of this series
**Exclaimer** Always have a great guitar repairman ready to fix the guitar if you can't! Mark Tenorio of Tenorio Werx in Denver, Colorado says "Buyer beware!!!! The reparability of the instrument depends on the type of damage. Each person's ability to assess and repair will be different. There are a lot of variables. Basically the buyer should really
know the return policy for the instrument in case he does not want to proceed
or decides he is in over his head. One important note, avoid the after
purchase pain knowing that we offer free estimates for repair if the
experiment does not go according to plan. This is one of the reasons we
offer classes and give free estimates. Visit Tenorio Werx for details.
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