Originally Posted by: john of MTBe careful...when buying a guitar. Make sure it sounds good, is in good shape and plays nicely. Unfortunately, that pretty much rules out mail order and online purchases. So if that's the way a buyer wants to go...be careful out there.
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Buying a guitar is hard, even if you know what you are doing and what you are looking for. First off, there are the multitide of options within a given brand and model - bridge style, neck shape, fretboard material, etc. When I bought each of my electric guitars (Fender Strat and Gibson LP Faded Studio), I spent hours in the store playing them. In both cases, after a week or so of using the guitars at home, I picked up on things I wasn't too keen on that I should have picked up on in the store. Fortunately they weren't deal breakers that gave me buyer's remorse, but they were eye opening for me because I felt I did so much research and spent so much time with the instrument in the store.

When I purchased my amp, I walked in with the intent of buying a Line 6 modeling amp and walked out with a Peavey tube amp.

So, with that experience, as tempting as it is sometimes, I will never purchase a guitar or an amp online.
[QUOTE=john of MT]
But most of all -- I just love the oxymoron of "All generalizations are false."
:D