Nothing wrong with Streamliner pricing. But you don’t generally get a free setup for far more expensive guitars either, right?
You mean That you don’t have a full time luthier, on retainer?!?!?!
It would be great if the big box stores hired a luthier to set up guitars over a certain price point as an incentive to buy from them. How many kids just starting out or even having played for a few years even know about setups or how a guitar properly set up should play? It’s most likely they buy because they like the way a guitar looks and there is an emotional connection of some sort. And of the people who have been playing a long time but lack the setup skills how many know what to look for when buying a guitar? Best course of action is to learn the setup skills yourself to do the setups as well as maintain the instrument over the course of its time with you. I’m guessing margins are too thin to hire a luthier and competition is pretty stiff. I’d rather buy from the online shops and fix any issues rather than make the trip to a store only to hear a teenager loudly playing the obligatory death metal and speed scales.
It has long been my understanding that manufacturers intentionally cut nut slots on the shallow side and leave it to the dealer/buyer to determine whether they want them cut deeper to personal preference on the premise that you can always remove material, but you can't add it back.
I worked in a music store once upon a time. We'd set up all the guitars, but we'd do the best job on the guitar we most wanted to get rid of that week. Next thing you know, someone would be walking out with that guitar, the one that just seemed to "speak" to him, yada yada. And then we'd grab the next guitar we wanted to get rid of and make that one play great.
Now that I know what to look for, and can do the work myself, I’d be better able to get a better price on a guitar in person at the stores.
I agree, but it depends. I have taken guitars in to different places, and when I get them back they did not do as good as I would have. So I would redo it to my standards. So I quit using those clowns all together. After a few years and a few guitars, I got pretty good at the basics.
I think you nailed it, and all the more so when it's a Fender, which is a collection of interchangeable parts.
In the Age of Information Ignorance is a choice. There are so many free resources available to learn these skills that not learning them is either fear or laziness. Youtube has so many tutorials, and there are free articles with step by step pictures showing how to do all of it. I used to be afraid of touching the truss rod but I got over it. I learned how to do setups and maintain my guitars out of necessity. Because of that I gained a better comnection to my guitars which inspires me to play. And, it’s pretty damn satisfying making small adjustments, fixing things by getting creative if necessary, and setting up the guitar to play just right. I lack the specialized tools to do surgical repairs but one day I will acquire those tools for such emergencies. All it takes is the desire to learn and get over the fear of screwing something up.
Very true, especially the part about gaining a better connection with your guitar. When you do your own setups, you have a to more understanding of what is going on when a problem crops up. At the heart of it, an electric guitar is a pretty simple object.
Pretty much any adjustment you can make is reversible.
Yes, no question about whether buyer can set it up by himself. There are so many tutorials etc. Truss rod tighten, bridge down and so on BUT if the nut is not correctly cut you are pretty much stuck, starting with the nut cutting etc. is not really welcomed as DIY.
