Not having a go at you, just your post looked like you were getting the money back without returning the goods, you clarified this by stating that you are returning the goods, end of story. I hope your next purchase goes better than this one. Thanks for answering my question.

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My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

Thanks jnastyne for your leanient reply I appreciate that. Impulse 7, yeah, you too man, takes a real man to say those kind of words after our conversation, n you do obviously know your stuff so your last post was really nice to read and I am starting to feel really welcome in here. Perhaps under all this I know I have been a tad stupid, just the way the seller replied to stuff, particularly his last reply, like he sounded more desparate. He was saying for all the parts and import tax the guitar was worth about £1100 to £1200. All in all that's about $1900 USD and I if I got the guitar for such a low asking price, after all that hastle of going to build it and having it for less than a year, now letting it go for less than half the cost price to build it, well that sounds fishy doesnt it. If I had the knowledge to send for parts to USA and build a guitar costing that price I am pretty sure I would not be selling it so soon and if I did, I would be having a reserve price of at least £950. I really did not know there was so much stuff going around for Fender. This is probably not the place to be asking and if I get shot down in flames this time I deserve it, however, two questions just while I have the attention of some good guys.
There are mixed reviews of the Alnico 3 pickup (stock pup with the usa stndard). Basically it is all individual preferance, but are they up there, are they well respected? I am looking at buying new in the UK, from the cheapest dealer of fender stndards, where I can get to try a few out, as I have heard now that the mim ones are really pretty decent and more of an alternative sound, perhaps with slightly lesser quality electronics and finish but differant rather than a step down from the USA standard. I feel being into Rock myself, that the American is probably the way to go, in that cool new charcoal colour. I really only then want to secure the trem, as I never use them anyways, an tuning is more important to me, the solid bridge ones or whatever they are called again are waaaay more expensive, so, I reckon I will be staying within this budget. MIM's are $660 Highway 1's $800 ish an USA standards with the lovely case are $1260 in this shop, so not too bad at all. However if there is one particularly good guitar that a lot of people end up buying I cood stretch with some saving up. I have this idea of sound, and from what I gather, it is what a lott of people are after, a crunchy at times but sophisticated kind of tone, with lots of change 'reaction' from the pick ups. The reason it has taken me so long to look for a strat as I fancy a change, as I am ACDC as so GIBSON sg owner and own Standard SG(pups cool, but not overly hot displaying charactor with a little crunch). I want the Strat for thick, creamy but not killed, kinda like Hendrix type sounds if that makes sense. Not the smoother 2 dimentional sound I kinda presume the mims are. Ive also heard that seymore Dunc's are hotter, I presume more heavy and so with less of the subtlty of the Alnicos, so any opinions or pointers to a good topic would be warmly accepted. Both the owner of my recent buy and I will have our money guitar back with in the next few days, so that is all tied up now, my hunch on the guitar is the nice new charcoal USA strat with Alnico 3's. Anyways thanks for all your help guys.

Mandrum, check the specs on each guitar on this site, and you'll be able to figure a lot of stuff out - I look at the specs of different models all the time, and learn new things almost every time I do so.

I have a Highway One Strat, with the stock Alnico 3 pickups in it, and I like them. It's completely true to say that they do sound different that the pickups in an American Standard, or an American Special model. Try different guitars out and see what you think.

If you're after vintage/classic Strat tone, then the Highway One may not be what you're looking for. Alnico 3's sound more "brittle" than standard Strat pups, which is why they're often referred to in a disparaging way.

I've got to side with Lomitus on this one. The guitar was advertized as american with a classic vibe body and Highway1 neck. It's there in the description, plain as day.

Not something I'd go ballistic defending myself over, if I were the seller. It looks to be a case of you bought something, later found out for whatever reason you dont like it. I'd refund your money less postage costs on receipt of the guitar.

As you say though it plays and sounds great so why worry? Aside from the mother of toilet seat scratchplate it looks great.

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No no and no

Niki, usually I agreee with what you say, but I have to say this time I dont.Having gone back and read lomitus' post, it was mean spirited and self serving.Sure the buyer probably could have come here to ask questions before the fact and it would have saved him alot of grief,but I would hardly call him lazy,greedy or stupid.Unfortunately the nature of alot of ebay transactions these days are sellers purposely overprice things or misrepresent the item hoping to trick someone who isnt as knowledgeable into buying it and some of the sellers are really good at that.Like one person stated ,not once did the word Squire ever come up.The only thing American on the strat was the neck itself.A total misrepresentation of the product.Recently I spied a 92 SRV on ebay going for over 5k.The description had photos of the pickups , the neck with the date and name stamped on them ,etc ,etc.It stated that the first "50 or so" SRVs were made in the custom shop and that the man who signed the neck was a master builder.He even refered to a website that mentioned the custom shop part.The fact is that they were never made in the custom shop,but to most people wouldnt know that unless they really researched it.My point is that alot of unsuspecting people get taken all the time, but it doesnt make them "lazy ,stupid or greedy."I have always felt that this website has been a great source of info and there are alot of knowledgeable folks here, you included,but if we allow people to bully and disrespect other people, the new people here will quit asking for help and go else where.To support lomitus' remarks supports the bullying mindset in my opinion.

Budglo

I dont agree with the name calling, I think thats bang out of order. It's something I despise. I know full well that you cant label somebody like that solely based on a single situation that you weren't a part of and dont know the exact details of. As far as Lomitus himself, I say go easy on the guy. He's had a hard time of it this last year, a very hard time. I've been on the wrong side of his wrath in the past let it pass. I did and get along fine with him now.

I would however argue the point that, if you buy something without researching it you deserve everything you get. Fact of life time, there are people out there who just want to rip you off. Not saying thats what this is, I see nothing rip off about it. OK I'd want £20 knocked off the price for the cost of a new scratchplate, but thats just me.
The OP has already proved the point that he can research the item, by posting a question here. The tuners are over spec, the bridge is a bit of a mismatch but I certainly see nothing misrepresented about it.

All it takes is google.
let me google classic vibe
Clearly shows what a classic vibe is, doesnt it?

If you look before you leap you dont land in doodoo. Ok I know there are people who at times pounce on a sale after seeing it in the final couple of minutes. If you do, you take a risk.

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No no and no

Yeah I'm with Nikininja on this one. The ad is only slightly deceptive, if at all, but I wouldn't say its blatant misinformation. One look at that description and you can tell it is a partsocaster. If you don't know what a classic Vibe is, it is very easy to google it, and a bunch of results will come back telling you it is a Squier line. American Neck with 22 Jumbo frets= HWY1. American Standard Pickups. Looks to me as if the Seller was pretty straight forward except he should have listed it as an American Partsocaster, since it seems to be made of about 50% American parts

Niki, you make a good point about doing research before hand.I have done my share of buying on ebay and I know that if I dont research its my own fault .There are some sneaky buggers on there for sure.The fact that the other person is getting his money back tells me there wasnt anything sneaky going on.As far as the other poster I mentioned ,I will drop it ,nuff said.

guys, rather than argue, I get what you are saying, however can I ask a question,

is a classic vive body fender or squire?

Mandrum, I hope that last post was sarcastic. It takes about six keystrokes to cut and past "classic vibe" into google. If you don't know by now, than I feel like a tool for defending you.

Well, since I feel like I'm being attacked here for posting my own personal opinions, even though a couple of people do seem to agree with them, I guess I'll take a moment or two and defend myself.

First to mandrum...

In my second paragraph I said, "While I'm not cracking on the OP specifically here". I'm sorry you chose to take this personally...my rhetorical wasn't aimed at you specifically as much as the people in general who do what you apparently did (and admit you did)...bought an instrument from an auction site without researching it and apparently without even reading the description. That said, I stand behind what I have said there and more specifically, my comments about "taking responsibility" certainly seem to apply to you based on your rebuttal and since you aimed that rebuttal at me, you may now feel free to take the rest of this personally as I will be addressing your comments directly.

You screwed up and when someone points that out to you, you get all bent out of shape over it instead of simply being an adult about it.

Further,


I'm sorry but I have to -completely- disagree with you. I dunno...maybe your a dreamer or perhaps you somehow see people as being better than they really are or something but the simple truth of the matter is that "shady people" such as you describe here have existed since the beginning of our recorded history and will continue to exist as long as people are motivated by "financial/personal gain". Regardless, if a person wants to protect one's self from such people, it's up to the -individual- to do so. I'm sorry but if you're really going to spend your hard earned money on that bottle from the snake oil salesman without even looking at the lable, I honestly can't sit here and feel sorry for you, let alone blame him.

I'm sorry my friend but I seriously doubt if anyone's going to wave their magic wand on this and make all of the "bad guys" just disappear...it's just -NOT- going to happen. However if a person -chooses- to make smart purchases and smart decisions, then they generally will not get taken advantage of. People get taken advantage of because they allow it...so again, please don't blame the bad guys for your own ignorance.



And -if- my mother had wheels, she'd be a wagon. -If- the dog hadn't of stopped to crap, he would have caught the squirrel. -If- wishes were dollar bills, we'd all be rich. -If- we lived in a "fair" world, my mother wouldn't have recently passed away, my father wouldn't be recovering from major surgery and my brother wouldn't be in the hospital right now. Lot's of "ifs" in the world my friend...sorry but it doesn't change a single damned thing...life's hard and the world if a very unfair place to live. You deal with it, you take responsibility for your own actions and move on.

You can whine and complain about all of the dishonest people on something such as Ebay and in the rest of the world for that matter but again...I seriously doubt that anyone is standing there twisting your arm, holding a gun to your head -forcing- you to hit the bid button. -You- made that choice...not the alleged dishonest sellers.



Hhmmmm...you say your "not greedy" but then you post something like this....? Wow.

Seriously...most folks who know me around here know I'm a cheap bastard. I have -nothing- against someone trying to get a "good deal" or even a "steal"...I do it all the time myself. I'm typically a person of limited financial means myself and I -always- try to get the "most bang for my buck". That said I won't typically risk my money trying to snag something if I don't know what I'm going. "Chance"...your own word here. You want to "gamble" with your money, that's fine...lot's of people do. Just don't sit there whining about it when you get burned.

Now honestly here, I could go on but there's probably no point. Based on your first reaction, I seriously doubt if you're going to take any of that in anything other than an offensive mannor.



Budglo...



Ok...I can accept that forums on an internet don't always convey the proper sense of emotion or sentiment that dealing with such a topic can in person. As such, I can see where perhaps my comments could come off as "mean spirited" (even though I assure you they were -NOT- intended that way...if I were truly being deliberately mean or rude, there would be no question at all about it). However, one must also ask...just because it may have rubbed a few folks fur the wrong way, does that make -any- of what I said any less true? Are you sure this isn't simply a case of "the truth hurts"?



As I just said to the OP, if you read my second paragraph, my comments were not original aimed at him/her/it specifically as much as people in this type of situation in general. I'm sorry my friend, but regardless of whether it was the OP or not, how exactly do you blame the seller if you're not willing to do the research...or as appears to be apparent in this case, even read the full auction description? Isn't that kind of like me smashing in to the back end of your car while you're sitting at a red traffic light...and then trying to blame -you- for sitting at that light?



I don't deny this at all. Trust me, it drives me nuts when I see folks who jack the shipping prices because they -know- they're not going to get what they want for the auction themselves. What's the sollution? DON'T BUY FROM THEM! As I just said to the OP...I seriously doubt ANYONE is standing behind you twisting your arm and holding a gun to your head forcing you to hit that "BID NOW" button. If the item seems questionable or misrepresented or the shipping is out of line or the seller's feedback is questionable....or if you just don't know what the devil you're doing, JUST WALK AWAY. It really is as simple as that.



"unless they really researched it"...my friend, you've hit the point of my comments right on the head. I'm sorry but someone who dumps that kind of money withOUT researching it first -is- an idiot in my book or they simply suffer from "have to have it" syndrome...which in my book is equal to greed.



Ok...for the sake of fairness and deliberation, let's say a person is considering bidding on a Fender Strat on Ebay (although the item can be any high dollar item...flat screen TV, computer, car...whatever). If the person chooses NOT to research what it is they are spending their money on, how exactly do -you- define that? The way I see it is thus...

1.) The person can't be bothered to research it - Sorry but to me that makes them -lazy-. Especially with something like a guitar, it's not -that hard- to ask questions!

2.) The person doesn't know they should research what they are buying - If you -know- there are people on places such as Ebay who are out to screw you, shouldn't you -know- you need to research things a bit...and wouldn't that equate to "stupid"?

3.) The person see's the item and they're afraid that it's such a great deal that someone else is going to get it first - Doesn't that equal "greedy" (and stupid for that matter).


Now please...in general we're not talking about sellers who are pulling a "bait and switch" thing here. It's not like you ask for more pictures and they provide you with pictures of a different guitar (although I'm sure that does happen from time to time too). Then yes...that is certainly fraud and I can't blame -any- buyer for getting p@ssed about that. In the OP's case however...and in many of the cases that get posted on these forums, that's simply NOT what happened. Someone saw something they -wanted- and usually for one of the reasons I just stated, didn't ask questions, didn't ask for more pictures and didn't do any research. So again, how can you blame the seller for that??



Ok...again I did state that my earlier comments were NOT directed at the OP personally originally...not until his exuberant rebuttal which I have addressed here. Further, I -always- state that these are just my own personal opinions or "my $.02 worth" (although I do feel it's a genuine shame that I personally feel I always have to quantify that). I post my honest opinions based on my own personal experiences for the sake of others...nothing more and nothing less. I'm sorry if you felt that my original comments were intended as some kind of personal attack...they weren't. They were honest opinions on this type of situation as a whole and nothing more. Regardless of how you and the OP chose to take them however, I have to reiterate that just because you found the way the were worded as perhaps being offensive in someway that they weren't intended, that does NOT make them any less valid.

Very simply I post my comments and opinions for the benefit of others here...in hopes that someone may learn something from them. I don't -need- to waste my time with these long rebuttals the way I do...my sole intent is to try and help others. That said, if you can't handle what are honest...and typically objective opinions, than I simply suggest that in the future you simply don't read my posts.



Yea know...one of these days just for sh@ts and giggles, I -am- going to go off being deliberately rude offensive with one of my posts...just so that people will see the difference. To any and all involved here, trust me when I say that -if- I were trying to be deliberately rude or offensive with my comments, there would be absolutely no question of it.


Sometimes I'm not even sure why I even bother with crap like this any more...

Jim

Jim,I am always one to come clean and admit I am wrong.After going back and reading everything over ,I have come to the conclusion that I overreacted ,and since I publicly posted my rebuttal, I will publicly post my apology.I tend to agree with you that there are more people that get burned due to their own fault than someone who just gets taken advantage of.95 percent of people who get taken deserve what they get .Its pretty rare these days that someone doesnt have access to the correct info at their fingertips.Sometime though the problem is sifting thru the crap to find the facts,because we all know that alot of info on the internet is just that.A good case in point was that particular SRV that I found on ebay,he even pointed people to another website to substantiate his ridiculous claims.But me knowing the history of that particular guitar like I do ,knew the claims were false.And to be quite honest , I dont mind emailing these people and ponting stuff like that out.What I find is most of those people are simply trying to screw people, but occasionally they were told wrong information themselves.But anyway, I see that your comments werent directed at any one person and it puts them in a different perspective.My apologies .Iknow I was reacting to the words , stupid , lazy and greedy and not putting the post in the proper perspective.My apologies to Niki too .

First, thank you for being up front and adult about this...and I accept your apology. Again, I know it's easy to mis-construe things written on a forum and that often things can easily get taken out of context particularly when you have someone like myself who tends to write things in a "matter of fact" sort of way.




I also agree with this completely...while there is certainly a good deal of information on the internet these days, there's certainly a good deal of "mis-information" as well and if a person doesn't have much experience in regards to any given subject matter, things can easily get confusing.

To that however I will simply add that the time to ask "Is this Strat real?" is -before- you bid or buy...not after.




I do this frequently myself...particularly with Craigslist. I'll see something like someone trying to sell a $9 guitar stand for $35 and I will ALWAYS drop them an e-mail...usually with a couple of links to price references.



I do agree that there are a great many people out there trying to screw others...I'll simply leave that by saying that this is why I feel that people need to be "informed" and "smart" buyers.



Again, apology accepted. No harm, no foul there mate.

Peace,
Jim

Hey Nick...thank you for the kind words and support...and you're right, it has been a very hard year and I tend to forget that myself sometimes...it's certainly possible that it can affect my posts from time to time.

BTW...you have a loooooooong memory there sir! LOL!

We're good mate...and thanks.
Jim