Guitar Mythology 101

Bathead · **Joined:** Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:23 am **Posts:** 833

I think that stems from the similar idea that the second you drive a brand-new car off the dealer's lot, it is considered used, and immediately drops in value. I don't know as to how that would apply to guitars.

lomitus · **Joined:** Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1598

Bathead wrote:

I think that stems from the similar idea that the second you drive a brand-new car off the dealer's lot, it is considered used, and immediately drops in value. I don't know as to how that would apply to guitars.

Yea, but even with cars, you do have people who will take them for a test drive. Now certainly car dealers will often have "demo vehicles" specifically for this purpose and those cars will go for a little less but still, you seldom see a new car sitting on a lot with an odometer reading of exactly "000000.0". Either way, that value doesn't drop "when you drive it off the lot", it drops when you "buy it and then drive it off the lot". Of course with a car you -can- check that odometer to see just how much the car has been driven. Even there though there is still some "gray area"...for example, my wife once bought a "new" car (an '87 Cavalier to be exact) that was actually used as a runner vehicle for the car lot. They had apparently used it to run things back and forth across the lot and from one lot to another, etc.. The car had about 1000 miles on it but was otherwise in perfect condition. In this case, the car wasn't "new", it wasn't a "demo" but it had never been titled either so very technically it wasn't "used" or pre-owned. In this case my wife did get a little discount on the price, but it wasn't that terribly significant (even though it had considerably more miles on it than even a demo would). So the question there is, just how many miles can a car have on it...even if it has never been titled...and still be considered "new"?

Now I would think from that perspective, the same thing would apply to a guitar as well...as I said above, with some place like Guitar Center you can actually buy the instrument, take it home and play it for a while and if you don't like it, as long as it's in the -same condition- as you walked out of the store with it, you can get a full refund and and you -know- that store will turn around and sell the guitar again "new". Technically a person could play that guitar in their own home for 2 or 3 weeks and as long as it's still in "new condition", they can return it for a full refund. In the case of guitars however, you don't usually see them sold at a discount because they are "demos". Does that really mean the guitar is "new" just because the authorized dealer turns around and sells it that way compared with a "used" instrument that may never have been touched?

Think about this...for something like a guitar sitting on a show room floor at your favorite music store, that instrument could have been played -a lot- before the buyer ever walks in to the store. You've got the Saturday afternoon wankers (I love that expression! LOL!) who may sit there for an hour or more just making "noise" on it, you have people like myself who may simply be curious about it if it's a new model or just comparing models or something, you have the folks who may be looking at an amp and just grab the first guitar they see and in some cases you may even have some of the store's staff playing it after hours (I know at least one local store that has "after hour jam sessions"). Can an instrument that may have been played by as many as half a dozen people or more really be considered as "new"? Yet that's the way they are sold... If it's sitting in the store then it -must- be new. BULLSH*T!

For better or worse, I think that a lot of people really get too hung up on the definition of what's considered "new" and what's considered "used" as apposed to the actual condition of a given item (and the same thing applies to the term vintage as well...just because it's old doesn't mean it has a lot of "value"). Let's face it...a lot of folks are simply "cheap" (myself included) and some people will certainly try to get a deal based on those definitions and maybe that's the problem. That said, if a given item is clearly in new vs. "like new" condition...than what's the big deal?

Maybe I'm just getting overly pragmatic in my old age. I guess I'm just going to put this one up there with Road Worns and contemporary art...I don't get it.

Peace,
Jim

cvilleira · **Posted:** Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:58 pm

lomitus wrote:

paisley strat wrote:

I love it when somebody tries to sell a guitar as "new". How can it be "new" if you are selling it, and not an autorized Fender dealer??? If you own it, it is already used. And if you played it once for 30 seconds, it is not new. The second you walk out of the store, it is no longer "new".
You can say " like new, mint condition, excellent condition, pristine, in its case since forever, never seen a gig etc. " Just not new.

I agree with this sentiment...but only to a point. If someone has already "purchased" the instrument, then certainly it should be sold "as new" or "mint", etc.. I recently sold the Squier Bullet I purchased last year and that is in fact how I sold it, "as new". I had only played the guitar a small handful of times and I even included the original shipping container....which was also "as new", LOL!!! For the record though, I had sold it to a lady to use for a charity auction...some band from out of state was going to sign it and then it was going to be raffled to raise money for autism. Now I wasn't at the auction so I can't say for sure but I'm willing to bet that they did in fact auction the guitar off as "new" as apposed to "like new" or anything else...and I can't really see anything wrong with this.

Either way, I would point out that I think your definition is really splitting hairs a bit. You said here "And if you played it once for 30 seconds, it is not new."...if you think of things from that perspective than most guitars sitting on a show room floor would technically NOT be new. Let's face it, there are folks in and out of places like Guitar Center, Sam Ash and even the local Mom & Pop stores all day long who will sit there and play a given instrument...sometimes for quite a while (see the thread where "wankers" were mentioned), then put it back on the rack. I know I've certainly done this myself on MANY occasions over the years. For example, how many folks here went into their favorite Fender dealer and checked out those new "Road Worns" when they first came out...but didn't actually buy one? I know I was certainly curious about them (and thought they sucked afterward)! I'm sure most of the Road Worns at my local GC probably had as much as several HOURS of playing on them before they were sold as "brand new". Same thing when the Highway 1's first came out. Yet these instruments are still sold as "new"? From that very specific point of view, neither my '96 MIM Standard or my '08 Squier Standard were "new" because they were on a show room floor and had likely been played a number of times before I ever walked in...which is fine except for one problem; I never got any discount on either of them because they were "used"! LOL!!!

I wanted to point this out because it seems as though you're a bit hung up on a definition here in that "new" can only mean "from an authorized dealer" as apposed to the actual condition of the instrument itself. Let's look at an extremely hypothetical situation...let's say that someone buys a brand new guitar from someplace like Musician's Friend (or other catalog). We're talking an instrument that is indeed brand new in the original shipping carton and has -never- seen a show room floor. Now let's say that while that guitar is being shipped, said person experiences a major family crisis...lost his job for example (which let's face it...happens a lot now a days). So when the guitar arrives, instead of trying to return it to the "authorized dealer" where he bought it and possibly loosing money on shipping, the person decides to sell it right away on someplace like Craigslist. The shipping carton has not been opened, the instrument has not been played...it's as fresh as the day it went in to the shipping carton. Is this instrument really anything other than brand spankin' new simply because the person selling it isn't an "authorized Fender dealer"? Dude...let's face it...this instrument is more new than most of the instruments at that authorized dealer that may have been played -a lot- sitting on the show room floor!

This raises the question...if the person had of returned it to the authorized dealer who would have certainly turned around and sold the instrument again as "brand new", how is this really that different from the person selling it himself? Is it simply because the place he bought it from is an "authorized dealer"? It's the same instrument in the exact same condition...right? Let's say that someone buys a Strat from Guitar Center. They take it home, play it for half an hour or so and then decide they should have bought a Les Paul instead (or the wife simply beats the crap out of him for bringing home -another- guitar) so the person takes the guitar back that evening for a full refund based on GC's "30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee". Not a mark on the instrument...all the factory tags and stickers are still in place, etc.. Do you -really- think that GC is going to put that instrument back on the shelves and sell it as "used"? If they gave the person a full refund and the instrument is still in "new" condition, you can bet they're going to sell that instrument at the same price again. What's more is that if you or me were to walk in to that same store a week later, neither of us would have ANY clue at all that the instrument had ever been out of the store...the instrument would still be "new" because we're buying it from an authorized dealer, right? But wait...someone walked out the door with it? Come on dude...does it really matter?

My point here is simple (despite my rather lengthy explanation), the definition of "new" should refer to the actual condition of the instrument and isn't solely and exclusively related to the term "authorized dealer".

Now to keep this relevant to the OP's topic, I think the single biggest myth I ever heard was from a local guy who owned a Tele that was supposedly set up by the guy who used to do the setups for Nokie Edwards of The Ventures. This guy really believed that the 30 year old rusted out strings and the setup...which made the guitar -completely- unplayable...not only increased the value, but somehow made the guitar sound better! LOL!!! I sat there and asked the guy to his face how bad intonation could possibly make the instrument sound better and he just kept saying that it was because it was set up by so and so some 30 odds years before. The -only- thing I could think was that if it were mine, I'd polish the crap outta the chrome, put some fresh strings on in a heart beat, fix the setup and get that sucker playable again. What a horrible waste to leave an instrument like that sitting just because you thought the person 30 years in the past who did the setup (without any documentation I might add) increased the value....oye.

Anyways, as always these are just my opinions.

Peace,
Jim

BitstreamCowboy · **Posted:** Thu Oct 29, 2009 3:45 pm

rkreisher wrote:

One guitar myth I like is "if you buy this guitar, it will improve the way you play". In my experience the only thing that improves your playing is well playing. Practice...Practice....Practice

That's not totally untrue. A high quaility, premium instrument feels better and plays easier than a cheapo guitar with a flimsy neck and a body made of 10 pieces of scrap wood. I started on one of those but never really made advancement until I got a good guitar. Then, because the guitar was such a joy to play I practiced a lot.

rkreisher · **Posted:** Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:21 pm

manabu108 wrote:

rkreisher wrote:

One guitar myth I like is "if you buy this guitar, it will improve the way you play". In my experience the only thing that improves your playing is well playing. Practice...Practice....Practice

That's not totally untrue. A high quaility, premium instrument feels better and plays easier than a cheapo guitar with a flimsy neck and a body made of 10 pieces of scrap wood. I started on one of those but never really made advancement until I got a good guitar. Then, because the guitar was such a joy to play I practiced a lot.

Hmmm....I guess you are right. That was the reason I got rid of my ESP LTD QM 100-HH. I just did not like playing it. It's not that it was a bad guitar, I just did not ever bond with it.

RK

Bathead · **Joined:** Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:23 am **Posts:** 833

Yeah, one of the reasons I stopped playing initially after learning only a few chords when I was a kid, was because the guitar was a Piece o' Crap (tm) with heavy strings
( no such thing as light guage strings. That I knew about, anyway).
I can't be %100 sure, but I believe if I'd had ,say, a Strat, I might have stuck at it a bit longer.
:oops:

Maybe.

lomitus · **Joined:** Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1598

manabu108 wrote:

rkreisher wrote:

One guitar myth I like is "if you buy this guitar, it will improve the way you play". In my experience the only thing that improves your playing is well playing. Practice...Practice....Practice

That's not totally untrue. A high quaility, premium instrument feels better and plays easier than a cheapo guitar with a flimsy neck and a body made of 10 pieces of scrap wood. I started on one of those but never really made advancement until I got a good guitar. Then, because the guitar was such a joy to play I practiced a lot.

I can't really hold with that as I've seen some guys with the rattiest gear you can imagine who just play their hearts out. Would they prefer a nice instrument? Yea...probably...but it doesn't stop them from playing. I knew an old guy once many years ago who played in a blues band with a buddy of mine. This guy played thru...jeesh...it was something like an old Silvertone or something...one of those really early "department store" guitars from Sears or Monkey Wards or something. A very -serious- POS to say the least. The guy didn't even have his own amp...he was always tickled to plug in to my bud's old Twin. Every night that guy got on stage though, he just poured his heart out...unbelievable guitar player.

Respectively, I've known guys with top of the line gear who couldn't play a note. We auditioned one guy not too long ago who showed up with a $2000 PRS and a Marshall half stack...couldn't even jam over a simple I-IV-V. As I've said so many times over the years (both in regards to guitars and photography), it's not the gear, it's the person using it. Better gear may allow an experienced player to do more but inexpensive gear should never stop you from playing. If you love playing and -really- have a passion for it, then you play you and are grateful for whatever you have.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone but to me saying "a good guitar makes you play better" is a cop out...it's an excuse to go out and spend money on something fancy. The focus is on the gear and not the music and to me that's not what being a musician is all about. Having reasonable gear is just icing on the cake.

Again just my $.02 worth,
Jim

(go ahead...let the flaming begin)

Bathead · **Joined:** Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:23 am **Posts:** 833

I'm not saying a good guitar makes you play better, in and of itself, but it helps to make it more enjoyable so that you are more likely to play more, and THAT makes you better.

BitstreamCowboy · **Posted:** Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:21 pm

lomitus wrote:

manabu108 wrote:

rkreisher wrote:

One guitar myth I like is "if you buy this guitar, it will improve the way you play". In my experience the only thing that improves your playing is well playing. Practice...Practice....Practice

That's not totally untrue. A high quaility, premium instrument feels better and plays easier than a cheapo guitar with a flimsy neck and a body made of 10 pieces of scrap wood. I started on one of those but never really made advancement until I got a good guitar. Then, because the guitar was such a joy to play I practiced a lot.

I can't really hold with that as I've seen some guys with the rattiest gear you can imagine who just play their hearts out. Would they prefer a nice instrument? Yea...probably...but it doesn't stop them from playing. I knew an old guy once many years ago who played in a blues band with a buddy of mine. This guy played thru...jeesh...it was something like an old Silvertone or something...one of those really early "department store" guitars from Sears or Monkey Wards or something. A very -serious- POS to say the least. The guy didn't even have his own amp...he was always tickled to plug in to my bud's old Twin. Every night that guy got on stage though, he just poured his heart out...unbelievable guitar player.

Respectively, I've known guys with top of the line gear who couldn't play a note. We auditioned one guy not too long ago who showed up with a $2000 PRS and a Marshall half stack...couldn't even jam over a simple I-IV-V. As I've said so many times over the years (both in regards to guitars and photography), it's not the gear, it's the person using it. Better gear may allow an experienced player to do more but inexpensive gear should never stop you from playing. If you love playing and -really- have a passion for it, then you play you and are grateful for whatever you have.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone but to me saying "a good guitar makes you play better" is a cop out...it's an excuse to go out and spend money on something fancy. The focus is on the gear and not the music and to me that's not what being a musician is all about. Having reasonable gear is just icing on the cake.

Again just my $.02 worth,
Jim

(go ahead...let the flaming begin)

Ok Jim. I do concede to your point. You've clearly described both extremes. But I believe that most of the people here fall somewhere in the middle. You've got a group of people with a passion for a fantastic musical instrument. Not only that, this instrument is available at a price that is accessible to the beginner and as well as having high quality models to appeal to those who are more serious about their music or with means. Judging by the questions that people ask and the responses I've seen here I'm willing to be that most of these folks can hold their own.

budglo · **Joined:** Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:17 pm **Posts:** 1986

I started out playing with a hondo guitar in my early 20s.A bugger to play, it was like playing razor wire.I gave it up a year later.Got to the point where it wasnt a pleasure to play.Fast forward to 93.Started playing guitar again,this time on acoustic.After a year I bought myself a low end Martin.After 3 more years bought an electric.I own 3 MIA strats and have been gigging for a while.While a great guitar player will play anything and sound great ,most of us if we arent playing a guitar we enjoy playing, will probably move on to something else.While playing a nicer guitar may not make us play better per se,it will make it more enjoyable and therefore motivate us to play more.I use Craftsman tools for my job rather than made in Tiawan tools because they are more reliable and they make the job go easier and faster.A good craftsman uses good tools because he or she takes pride in their work.They use the best they can afford.

Robertb911 · **Joined:** Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:20 pm **Posts:** 69

guitarman0128 wrote:

Signature models make you sound like your favorite artist.

You mean my EJ strat won't actually make me play like Eric Johnson?? No!! That's not what the guy at the shop said. Where did I put the receipt...

I'm sure my EJ signature plectrum makes a difference too over the normal JD Jazz 3... :oops:

J Giles · **Joined:** Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:14 am **Posts:** 13

It seems many of these myths become fact when the word 'better' is replaces with 'different'. Rosewood fingerboards do sound different. (not to mention feel) Nitro finish sounds different to poly. Guitars themselves do sound different with play and just plain age.
For a start the magnets in the pickups loose a bit of power over time which mellows the tone. That's a fact, if it sounds better or not is opinion...not really myth. I think they even weakened the magnets in the relic series to sound old (If I'd spent that much on a bashed up guitar I'd try to say it sounded better too).
The wood actually seems to get used to fact it's a guitar too. The strange tensions and vibrations act upon the wood and affect the way it matures. On acoustic guitars this is well accepted as fact, and this carries through to electrics, although it's less obvious.
Is an authourised dealer the only way to get a new guitar? It's the only way to be 100% sure it hasn't been gigged, even if it has been tickled.
Dodgy guitars hinder playing. A good player can still use one to entertain but a minimum level of quality is needed. That level is easily reached by most guitars these days, it's hard to blame any shortcomings in ability on a squiers neck for instance
Most cheap guitars sound junk though...another story

lomitus · **Joined:** Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1598

manabu108 wrote:

Ok Jim. I do concede to your point. You've clearly described both extremes. But I believe that most of the people here fall somewhere in the middle. You've got a group of people with a passion for a fantastic musical instrument. Not only that, this instrument is available at a price that is accessible to the beginner and as well as having high quality models to appeal to those who are more serious about their music or with means. Judging by the questions that people ask and the responses I've seen here I'm willing to be that most of these folks can hold their own.

Hey manabu,
You actually have a good point there to in regards to the range of instruments available from Fender alone. A comment that I and a few others have made over the years is that in regards to the low end or "entry level" instruments out there today (Fender/Squier or otherwise), while they are certainly still entry level instruments they are about 1000% better than instruments at the same price level some 30 years ago. I remember brands like Memphis, Lotus, Cort and others...even a Squier Affinity Strat blows them out of the water.

In fact I once had an old Cort Explorer copy which I had gotten used for $75. This was -way- back in my early days of playing...I had gotten it because it was cheap and because it looked "cool"...sort of had that EVH look to it. Turned out that the look was all color tape (like electrical tape) and it was on there to hide a number of major problems including a MAJOR crack at the neck pocket in the plywood body. The funny thing was...I used to play the crap out of that guitar! LOL!!! Even though the guitar didn't have the trem, because of the crack in the body I was able to "bend the neck" and basically have the same effect. The crack finally did get so bad that I ended up parting out the guitar...but that neck is still on another project guitar I built years ago (double fat tele...first body I ever cut myself). I also had an old Rhthymline Tele copy that was the same way...the body wasn't even a "good" laminate. In that case though, that thing just had the funkiest sounding pickups....and it turned out that it wasn't even a full scale size...some odd b*stard size. Very strange guitar. Of course, I still have my old Memphis LP copy too :-)

.

Either way, the quality of entry level instruments has improved drastically over the years and Fender (and others) certainly do make a nice range of instruments for all levels of players...and all tastes.

Peace,
Jim

Shredd6 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:40 am

I'm really starting to question the whole MIJ Squier thing. Over the years I have picked a couple up and played on them. I never actually owned one though.

I can get Korean Squiers much cheaper. Although, I will admit that the MIJ squiers were very nice, I would say that my Korean made Squiers are every bit as good and would go a step further and say that my MIK Stagemaster neck-through guitars are crafted better than the MIJ Squiers I've run across. And now the general consensus is that the new CV Squiers are the best Squier has put out. And I can't say I disagree. The craftsmanship is every bit as good as my Stagemasters, just a different animal.

So I'm starting to think that the MIJ Squiers being the best Squiers you can buy is just a myth anymore.

paisley strat · **Joined:** Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:34 am **Posts:** 821

lomitus wrote:

paisley strat wrote:

I love it when somebody tries to sell a guitar as "new". How can it be "new" if you are selling it, and not an autorized Fender dealer??? If you own it, it is already used. And if you played it once for 30 seconds, it is not new. The second you walk out of the store, it is no longer "new".
You can say " like new, mint condition, excellent condition, pristine, in its case since forever, never seen a gig etc. " Just not new.

I agree with this sentiment...but only to a point. If someone has already "purchased" the instrument, then certainly it should be sold "as new" or "mint", etc.. I recently sold the Squier Bullet I purchased last year and that is in fact how I sold it, "as new". I had only played the guitar a small handful of times and I even included the original shipping container....which was also "as new", LOL!!! For the record though, I had sold it to a lady to use for a charity auction...some band from out of state was going to sign it and then it was going to be raffled to raise money for autism. Now I wasn't at the auction so I can't say for sure but I'm willing to bet that they did in fact auction the guitar off as "new" as apposed to "like new" or anything else...and I can't really see anything wrong with this.

Either way, I would point out that I think your definition is really splitting hairs a bit. You said here "And if you played it once for 30 seconds, it is not new."...if you think of things from that perspective than most guitars sitting on a show room floor would technically NOT be new. Let's face it, there are folks in and out of places like Guitar Center, Sam Ash and even the local Mom & Pop stores all day long who will sit there and play a given instrument...sometimes for quite a while (see the thread where "wankers" were mentioned), then put it back on the rack. I know I've certainly done this myself on MANY occasions over the years. For example, how many folks here went into their favorite Fender dealer and checked out those new "Road Worns" when they first came out...but didn't actually buy one? I know I was certainly curious about them (and thought they sucked afterward)! I'm sure most of the Road Worns at my local GC probably had as much as several HOURS of playing on them before they were sold as "brand new". Same thing when the Highway 1's first came out. Yet these instruments are still sold as "new"? From that very specific point of view, neither my '96 MIM Standard or my '08 Squier Standard were "new" because they were on a show room floor and had likely been played a number of times before I ever walked in...which is fine except for one problem; I never got any discount on either of them because they were "used"! LOL!!!

I wanted to point this out because it seems as though you're a bit hung up on a definition here in that "new" can only mean "from an authorized dealer" as apposed to the actual condition of the instrument itself. Let's look at an extremely hypothetical situation...let's say that someone buys a brand new guitar from someplace like Musician's Friend (or other catalog). We're talking an instrument that is indeed brand new in the original shipping carton and has -never- seen a show room floor. Now let's say that while that guitar is being shipped, said person experiences a major family crisis...lost his job for example (which let's face it...happens a lot now a days). So when the guitar arrives, instead of trying to return it to the "authorized dealer" where he bought it and possibly loosing money on shipping, the person decides to sell it right away on someplace like Craigslist. The shipping carton has not been opened, the instrument has not been played...it's as fresh as the day it went in to the shipping carton. Is this instrument really anything other than brand spankin' new simply because the person selling it isn't an "authorized Fender dealer"? Dude...let's face it...this instrument is more new than most of the instruments at that authorized dealer that may have been played -a lot- sitting on the show room floor!

This raises the question...if the person had of returned it to the authorized dealer who would have certainly turned around and sold the instrument again as "brand new", how is this really that different from the person selling it himself? Is it simply because the place he bought it from is an "authorized dealer"? It's the same instrument in the exact same condition...right? Let's say that someone buys a Strat from Guitar Center. They take it home, play it for half an hour or so and then decide they should have bought a Les Paul instead (or the wife simply beats the crap out of him for bringing home -another- guitar) so the person takes the guitar back that evening for a full refund based on GC's "30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee". Not a mark on the instrument...all the factory tags and stickers are still in place, etc.. Do you -really- think that GC is going to put that instrument back on the shelves and sell it as "used"? If they gave the person a full refund and the instrument is still in "new" condition, you can bet they're going to sell that instrument at the same price again. What's more is that if you or me were to walk in to that same store a week later, neither of us would have ANY clue at all that the instrument had ever been out of the store...the instrument would still be "new" because we're buying it from an authorized dealer, right? But wait...someone walked out the door with it? Come on dude...does it really matter?

My point here is simple (despite my rather lengthy explanation), the definition of "new" should refer to the actual condition of the instrument and isn't solely and exclusively related to the term "authorized dealer".

Now to keep this relevant to the OP's topic, I think the single biggest myth I ever heard was from a local guy who owned a Tele that was supposedly set up by the guy who used to do the setups for Nokie Edwards of The Ventures. This guy really believed that the 30 year old rusted out strings and the setup...which made the guitar -completely- unplayable...not only increased the value, but somehow made the guitar sound better! LOL!!! I sat there and asked the guy to his face how bad intonation could possibly make the instrument sound better and he just kept saying that it was because it was set up by so and so some 30 odds years before. The -only- thing I could think was that if it were mine, I'd polish the crap outta the chrome, put some fresh strings on in a heart beat, fix the setup and get that sucker playable again. What a horrible waste to leave an instrument like that sitting just because you thought the person 30 years in the past who did the setup (without any documentation I might add) increased the value....oye.

Anyways, as always these are just my opinions.

Peace,
Jim

According to Fender, "new" means purchased from an authorized Fender dealer. In reguards to warantees, they are only extended to original retail purchasers. So that means, if you sell your guitar 2nd hand, even if unplayed and in "like new "condition, it does NOT have the Fender warantee that is given to the original retail purchaser. That right there tells you that it is now longer "new" if sold privately. Check on this website for info concerning warantees.
I have been buying and selling guitars for over 30 years, and I have never gotten a manufacturers warantee on a guitar I have bought privately. New is new. There is no gray area. A demo guitar, if sold by a Fender dealer MAY still carry the warantee. That is up to the retailer. That may be the only time that a guitar has been played, and sold "as new". If money changes hands, it seems that it no longer can be considered new.
Here is another whole thing to screw us up, what about restocked, or B-stock items????

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