| Author |
Message |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 1:08 pm: | |
I saw an AG195 that looked to be in great condition on e-Bay this morning. I decided to use the BIN feature to purchase the guitar. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s a legitimate auction and that the item is in as good a shape as the ad indicates. Feedback is a tad sketchy - only 2 transactions and one was neutral. Well, I’ll post the outcome of the transaction once I have received the guitar.
On a side note, I foolishly sold a very nice AG195 along with a few other guitars last year. I was feeling guilty that I had more guitars than I needed. I’ve since had a change of heart and regret my momentary quest for guitar acquisition simplification. Heck, I see all the great guitars you guys have – why the heck should I feel guilty! 
Here's a link to the auction. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7390311546&rd=1&sspagename=ST RK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 |
Msawitzke
Username: Msawitzke
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 1:22 pm: | |
Nice...I saw that too and thought about buying it. Good price. Congrats! |
Acetan
Username: Acetan
Registered: 09-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 1:40 pm: | |
It looks good except for the slightly over-sized hard case, but that's in good shape also.
Ace |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 1:44 pm: | |
Yeah, I do not care for the case either. I will probably order a GB case at some point. The GB case is very nice, a little slimmer and has the nice shroud that goes over the top.
I just hope the auction is legit and that the guy knows how to pack a guitar. |
Funkle
Username: Funkle
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 1:45 pm: | |
Darryl,
The way I look at it is having guitars is like having money in the stock market or real estate. You can always liquidate them if you need to, and if you're wise about your buying, they'll sell for more than you paid for them.
-Sven |
Acetan
Username: Acetan
Registered: 09-2003
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 2:49 pm: | |
Totally agree, Sven; except we'd have more fun at the mean time.
Ace |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 3:38 pm: | |
Hey Sven,
Thanks for helping to put things into perspective. Makes me feel down right responsible for making these investments. 
One thing I think I know for sure. When it comes time for my kids to go to college, it'll be a heck of a lot easier selling my Intel stock then it will be my guitars. |
Regg
Username: Regg
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Monday, February 13, 2006 - 9:12 pm: | |
Nice catch, Darryl. 
I haven't seen those much on Ebay...yet. Lotsa guitar for the money IMO. |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 10:22 am: | |
Hmmm. I'm getting cold feet on this one. I PayPal'd my payment to the seller right after the auction ended. He said he did not receive the funds although my PayPal account indicates the transfer was done successfully. He asked me if I would transfer money to a different e-mail address because he mistakenly used the wrong e-mail address in his e-Bay auction.
I do not have any experience with this kind of situation, but I'm thinking I give up any type of buyer protection if I just remit payment to an e-mail account that is different than the one associated witht this specific auction.
I've cancelled my original payment and have asked the seller to re-send an e-Bay invoice with his "correct" e-mail account. Haven't heard back from him.
Does this sound suspicious? Or is this an understandable screw up by an e-Bay rookie? |
Aroee
Username: Aroee
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 11:19 am: | |
You should be able to look up the details of your payment on your Paypal site. If the transaction has gone through, use the "print screen" on your keyboard and copy the transaction details onto Wordpad or a similar word processor. Then you can send him an e-mail with your reciept attached as *.rtf or *.doc format.
There's probably easier ways to do this also but this way should work.
Hope it works out for you. |
Funkle
Username: Funkle
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 11:21 am: | |
It sounds like it could be legitimate. I have been in the same situation where I accidentally used an email address that was not linked to may paypal account.
I would wait to hear back from the seller for sure. And I would finance the paypal transaction with Visa or MC (either debit or credit card) so that you have the buyer protection that they offer. This saved me once. Visa was quick to refund me for a guitar that did not ship.
-Sven |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - 10:05 pm: | |
Okay Sven, I'm taking your word for it.
I have taken the blind leap of faith and PayPal'd the money to the seller. He won't be shipping 'til Friday - didn't explain why.
I believe the guitar is coming from Missouri so hopefully I'll receive it around Thursday or Friday of next week. Will let you all know the outcome. |
Earle101
Username: Earle101
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - 4:09 am: | |
i hope this works for you, wildfield, but to be honest it stinks to me. Maybe i'm just too pessimistic, but i don't trust ebayers with no history. good luck. |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 10:27 am: | |
Received the AG195 yesterday. The guitar arrived in good shape - no dings scratches, etc. Clear plastic protective pieces were still on the pickups and truss rod cover. Guitar tuned up nicely and played well, although there was a some buzzing starting at the frets that meet the body. Nothing awful and overall the guitar seemed to be at least as nice as described in the ad.
I promptly left postive feedback and dropped the seller an e-mail to say thanks and to let him know the guitar was received safely.
After dinner, I decided to check out the buzzing a little closer. The neck relief seemed a little off - perhaps too much truss rod tension as there was very little relief. I removed the truss rod cover and found some metal shavings - bad sign. Looked like someone tightened the truss rod without lubricating the threads. I removed the truss rod nut to apply some light oil.
What a nightmare. As I removed the nut more metal shavings appeared. The nut and trussrod appeared to be stripped.
Apparently someone tried to adjust the truss rod and overtightened it, or neglected to lube it first.
There are some threads left on the truss rod. Threads on the nut are shot. Hopefully the nut took the brunt of the damage. If the threads on the truss rod are gone, I'll have to try and replace the truss rod - ugh.
I don't think the seller intentionally tried to sell me a lemon. Afterall, it looked like it has never been played. Nonetheless, I'm a little miffed that someone overtightened the truss rod.
Well, I guess that's a part of the risk of purchasing on e-Bay. |
Ibanezfreak1960
Username: Ibanezfreak1960
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 10:46 am: | |
I've never heard of lubing the truss rod threads before adjustment. What purpose does that serve? And removing the nut completly to do so is not a good idea. I could see if it were oxidized to the point where it wouldn't turn but otherwise I'd leave it alone. |
Ibanezfreak1960
Username: Ibanezfreak1960
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 10:49 am: | |
most likely it was over tightened and stripped and possibly the wrong tool used. |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 11:27 am: | |
The purpose of lubing the threads is so the threads won't bind. Also, light oil helps to reduce oxidation and prevents a galvanic response between two dissimilar metals (i.e. steel truss rod and brass truss rod nut). Some makers use a brass truss rod nut. I guess the softer metal helps reduce binding.
To lube the threads, you do not have to remove the nut but you do have to back the nut off so you can put a drop of oil on the threads. Completely removing the truss rod nut shouldn't cause any damage to the neck and restoring proper relief is not difficult, even if you remove the nut.
Judging by the fact that there was little neck relief (neck was almost completely straight) I'm guessing the real damage to the threads came from over tightening the truss rod nut. That's a common problem - some players think the neck has to be perfectly straight.
Anyway, I'm not overly worried. Things happen - fortunately, I feel confident this can be repaired. Just bummed that she couldn't be played right out of the box so to speak. |
Wildfield
Username: Wildfield
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 2:27 am: | |
Okay, finally had some spare time to repair the AG195. Having never dealt with a stripped truss rod before I had to do a little research. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any info on the net or in books...so I had to try and devise my own repair.
After studying the situation for a while, I realized there was no way to get a die on the rod to cut new threads. There is no way to remove the truss rod without removing the fretboard.
I finally realized the only way to do this repair without removing the truss rod was to somehow expose more threads - threads that were buried in the neck and peg head of the guitar.
I decided the only way to expose more threads would be to use some kind of cutting tool to chip away the wood. A very sharp chisel seemed the obvious choice.
I carefully thought through the repair, wrote down the procedure and then e-mailed Frank Ford at Gryphon (frets.com) to see what he thought. He replied and said that is the way he would do it...hey, if Frank says it's the way, I guess I was headed down the right path.
Well, I successfully chipped away enough material to expose some threads. I cleaned up the damaged threads with emery cloth. I found the correct truss rod nut and installed it (after lubing the threads).
Voila - neck has proper relief, no fret buzz at all, and the guitar plays like butter.
Thank goodnes! All's well that ends well. |
Ibanezfreak1960
Username: Ibanezfreak1960
Registered: 03-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 4:08 pm: | |
Good job Wildfield. Show us some pics! |