expirediconian | Staff posted Dec 03, 2022 12:18 AM
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
expirediconian | Staff posted Dec 03, 2022 12:18 AM
Fender American Professional II Stratocaster Electric Guitar (Various Colors)
+ Free Shippingfrom $1249
$1,700
Adorama
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That being said, this is the 5th Fender guitar I have bought from Adorama and 4 out of the 5 have been in a similar condition when they arrived. They are always in boxes that have been opened and re-sealed. They always have the tags and accessories included but often show light wear. No more than you would get if you bought a guitar that had been on display in a store but very different than when you buy from a normal online retailer. I have always wondered exactly what the nature of Adorama's deal with Fender is. This next part is only speculation on my part, but I have always wondered if these are guitars that come back to Fender from the retail channel and then are sold to Adorama.
Either way, not a huge deal but something to be aware of if you are picky about such things.
Other than that, the guitar is great. I am not sure I love the v-mod pickups but that is just a matter of personal preference.
It did come with the trem arm tip broken off. I messaged Adorama but they have not gotten back to me about that yet.
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I've only ordered open box used from adorama but have done so 5x. Everytime the guitars have shipped in factory box with no packing material in the factory box. BUT, the factory box was inside a bigger/massive box that was full of packing foam.
Out-of the 5 guitars, 4 were brand new looking. 1 guitar arrived with a nickle sized chip in the finish exposing the wood. I called adorama, made them aware the listing said open box not damaged condition. They immediately issued a return and refund.
If i order new, I want factory sealed. ...Unless the company is providing a set up on the guitar. My LP studio from sweetwater feels fantastic!
Out of offered choices Rosewood Fingerboard, Mercury is my favorite combination.
Post your experience once you get it, a few have posted here that they might have gotten open box guitars, and I think for me as well. Mine was setup great, etc. and first impressions when i got mine are the same with shipping damage but the guitar looking great but handled before... but I thought that it was awesome with respect to setup/quality other than an open G buzz/deadish string (sustain is like a 3rd of length of the other strings) that I though would be easy to fix. After a several hour setup session including a fret polish, installing lockers and new set of ernie ball 9's, and significant time work on checking fret levels, rebuilding the bridge to remove possible buzz sources, cleaning out the pickup and trem spring cavities, tightening EVERY screw that could possibly be the source of buzz, and a bunch of other stuff. The buzz was reduced, but the string is still kind of dead.
I bring this up wondering if Arodama gets guitars that have been determined to have a gremlin, either by another shop or by Fender themselves or something, to explain the deep discounting on these american strats?? Nothing that would cause an instant return like obvious defects or blemishes, but rather the kind of hard to notice thing (unless you are a luthier or very experienced) right away... stuff like on mine. I plan on trying again a bit more scientifically (eg track down the buzz as I used to try and track down noices in a car more scientifically with a screwdriver in the ear stethoscope kind of approach), and if that doesn't work talk to a luthier. Until then I won't really know if there is anything significant wrong with mine.
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No, they don't spend many more hours on regular production line US guitars as compared to Mexican made. Labor cost is higher in the US plus materials are a bit better. That's why they charge more for them.
"Two builders have the same exact blueprints. One guy makes an entire development of the houses so he buys all his material discounted in bulk and find cheaper labor to throw the whole development up vs the other builder is building the house of himself so he had top of the line materials and takes his time putting the house together just right."
For Custom Shop Fenders - yes, that would be correct comparison, but for mass produced models time spent on each guitar is about the same on US and Mexican ones. As an example, see one response above - someone bought a US Strat and finishing job was crap.
No, they don't spend many more hours on regular production line US guitars as compared to Mexican made. Labor cost is higher in the US plus materials are a bit better. That's why they charge more for them.
"Two builders have the same exact blueprints. One guy makes an entire development of the houses so he buys all his material discounted in bulk and find cheaper labor to throw the whole development up vs the other builder is building the house of himself so he had top of the line materials and takes his time putting the house together just right."
For Custom Shop Fenders - yes, that would be correct comparison, but for mass produced models time spent on each guitar is about the same on US and Mexican ones. As an example, see one response above - someone bought a US Strat and finishing job was crap.
- Poor quality tuners that may be harder to make fine adjustments to. In the worst cases, they may slip and be hard to keep the guitar in tune.
- A lower quality bridge/trem. Usually not a huge problem on a fixed bridge guitar like a tele but a low quality trem system on strat or similar may cause tuning stability problems
- Poor quality fretwork. Frets will often lack polish and sometimes have poorly finished fret ends.
- Low quality electronics. Things like using linear cheap linear pots is common here. Using a linear pot for volume will basically make it so the entire volume adjustment comes in the last 20% of the knob. Switches that are mushy and don't click into place is also common at these price points.
- Less attention to finish work. There is a greater chance of some problem with the guitar. Issues with the frets, paint issues, less attention to the neck finish, poorly installed hardware, mis-wired electronics. These problems can occur on any guitar but occur much more frequently on less expensive guitars. These things come down to luck in most cases.
- Really, really poor quality strings. I have received guitars with such poor quality strings that it was beyond understanding that they would ship that way. Of course, strings are easily replaced.
- Low quality pickups. This can manifest in a lot of ways but shouldn't really be a problem for someone who is learning guitar.
- At that $400 price point a guitar is unlikely to have a quality hard case included as this one does. It will usually either come with nothing or a "bag" which is little more than a dust cover.
To be clear, the exact situation depends on which specific guitar we are talking about. Some sub $400 guitars are terrible and others are pretty good. It also depends if we are talking about a guitar that retails at $400 or one that is discounted down to $400. I would expect most guitars at the $400 price point to not exhibit *all* the problems above but only a portion of them. However, a guitar in the sub-$200 price range may show all of them. It just really depends on the model in question.All that being said, don't take any of that to mean that you *need* to buy a more expensive guitar to have a good experience. That isn't the case.
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Box picture:
https://imgur.com/a/99jDrdf
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