Semantics over gear condition

KnightBrolaire

mothman is real and stole my catalytic converter
Joined
Mar 19, 2015
Messages
21,216
Reaction score
28,480
Location
Minnesota
I see people here complaining because they spot a grain of dust under the finish near the jack input or a rough cut under the pickguard, so send the guitar back because its unacceptable... but a guitar without a pickup is considered Mint :D
Had you actually looked at the pics of the guitar, you'd see that I take very good care of my gear. The worst this guitar has is some very minor scratches on the back of the body and I mean minor, you have to be very close to the guitar to even see them.
I have a 100% positive feedback rating on reverb and ebay specifically because I'm straight up and brutally honest about the gear that I sell, with pics showing off any flaws (if there are any).

And for people going " HURR DURR JUST INSTALL A NECK PICKUP" - I had one in there for quite some time, and the level of interest in the guitar was basically the same. Also I think people are forgetting that I even offered to install a neck pickup if someone wants one.
 

Hollowway

Extended Ranger
Joined
Dec 28, 2008
Messages
17,798
Reaction score
14,849
Location
California
My guess is that a guitar like that would sell way faster on a site like SSO than on Reverb, since we’re pretty geeky about stuff here. Most of us wouldn’t sweat a pickup swap here. But who knows, maybe some others wouldn’t even know what a missing pickup means.

Out of curiosity, when people take out a neck pickup, is it to sell it? Or what is the reason to not just keep it installed and never use it?
 

KnightBrolaire

mothman is real and stole my catalytic converter
Joined
Mar 19, 2015
Messages
21,216
Reaction score
28,480
Location
Minnesota
My guess is that a guitar like that would sell way faster on a site like SSO than on Reverb, since we’re pretty geeky about stuff here. Most of us wouldn’t sweat a pickup swap here. But who knows, maybe some others wouldn’t even know what a missing pickup means.

Out of curiosity, when people take out a neck pickup, is it to sell it? Or what is the reason to not just keep it installed and never use it?
In my case, the sentient is long gone. I sold it to someone on here who wanted a neck pickup to go with a bridge pickup I was selling.
 

This site may earn a commission from merchant links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.

Lindmann

SS.org Rectangular
Joined
Aug 20, 2014
Messages
332
Reaction score
441
Location
Planet earth
I know a lot of people who wouldn't dare to use a soldering iron because a) they don't have one and b) they think they aren't capable of doing that.

And I know people who play through a neck pickup (weird right?).

Combine those two and you have someone who would never consider such a guitar "excellent condition".

I for one have no problems with soldering and I rarely use the neck pickup, but I don't have any spare pickups laying around. And I want neck pickups in there, just for the esthetics. So a guitar which is missing it wouldn't be my first choice either.
 

TedEH

Cromulent
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
12,581
Reaction score
12,344
Location
Gatineau, Quebec
a) they don't have one and b) they think they aren't capable of doing that
There is also c) They are really bad at it. :lol:

As much as basic soldering is not that hard to figure out... it's also pretty easy to do a bad job of it. I'd by lying if I said every pickup swap I've done looks like a pro job once I'm through with it.
 

Drew

Forum MVP
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
33,496
Reaction score
10,964
Location
Somerville, MA
And for people going " HURR DURR JUST INSTALL A NECK PICKUP" - I had one in there for quite some time, and the level of interest in the guitar was basically the same. Also I think people are forgetting that I even offered to install a neck pickup if someone wants one.
And how far do you trust the soldering abilities of some random guitarist on Reverb? I'm sure you're competent, but that's because of this site, which isn't info I'd have on Reverb.

Honestly, this is something that you could easily pre-empt by re-installing the pickup as part of the process of getting the guitar ready to sell. The guy's nit-picking, sure, but he's also definitely not wrong that, to 95% of guitarists, the guitar as listed is NOT fully functional, with an empty pickup cavity and switching that still is wired up for a neck pickup.
 
Last edited:

crankyrayhanky

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
1,091
Reaction score
350
Location
Austin, Texas
I would agree with the potential buyer here, but it is clearly a tactic to beat you down on the price. Decision goes to the OP
 

LeviathanKiller

Knee-shooting Archer
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
2,146
Reaction score
1,359
Location
Deep Southeast
I'm not going to mark a guitar sold without pickups as Poor Condition. That's a swappable part that a huge majority of people replace upon purchase anyway. Anything other than that or strings missing and I would say something MAYBE. The condition to me would be the appearance and structure of the instrument. A successful and/or easily reversible modification should not ding the condition of an instrument.
 

LeviathanKiller

Knee-shooting Archer
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
2,146
Reaction score
1,359
Location
Deep Southeast
Maybe the majority on this board, but I don't think that's representative of the actual majority of people who buy used guitars.
When I put crap pickups in a guitar just to have it sell, you better believe they'll swap them once they get it :lol:
 

LeviathanKiller

Knee-shooting Archer
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
2,146
Reaction score
1,359
Location
Deep Southeast
I think people forget that a lot about enthusiast forums like this.
I guess it's just different based on the gear you're selling because I've mostly sold 7-string guitars and the people are familiar with forums and such and even talk to me about what they plan on switching the pickups too once they get the guitar lol
 

A-Branger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
3,956
Reaction score
1,633
Location
QLD, Australia
sorry to be another guy, but you should have put a neck pickup and THEN put the add.

The amount of people that plays a guitar with one pickup is pretty low as it is, but the amount of people that grabs a regular guitar, and then take the neck pickup out so they can have a one pickup guitar is pretty much down to you and one more guy, excluding the 15yr neighbour's kid who butchered his squier to have one pickup, covered it with stickers, use duck tape as a straplock and only have 3 strings tunned in dropD.

Im sorry but you had that comment coming at you. I dont care how great the body looks like, if I see a guitar I really like but its missing a pickup I would ask to drop down the price and I wouldnt trust to be in min condition, as others have stated I dont trust in someone else soldering skillz.... here on the forum yeah, but out there on the realworld Im prob expecting the owner jsut cut the cables out and didnt even un-solder them, because "who takes a pickup out?" (refer to the edgy teenager)

Just take the reverb ad off, put a neck pickup, then create a new add for it
 

LeviathanKiller

Knee-shooting Archer
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
2,146
Reaction score
1,359
Location
Deep Southeast
sorry to be another guy, but you should have put a neck pickup and THEN put the add.

The amount of people that plays a guitar with one pickup is pretty low as it is, but the amount of people that grabs a regular guitar, and then take the neck pickup out so they can have a one pickup guitar is pretty much down to you and one more guy, excluding the 15yr neighbour's kid who butchered his squier to have one pickup, covered it with stickers, use duck tape as a straplock and only have 3 strings tunned in dropD.

Im sorry but you had that comment coming at you. I dont care how great the body looks like, if I see a guitar I really like but its missing a pickup I would ask to drop down the price and I wouldnt trust to be in min condition, as others have stated I dont trust in someone else soldering skillz.... here on the forum yeah, but out there on the realworld Im prob expecting the owner jsut cut the cables out and didnt even un-solder them, because "who takes a pickup out?" (refer to the edgy teenager)

Just take the reverb ad off, put a neck pickup, then create a new add for it

You wouldn't trust the condition of someone who modded a guitar, but would if they didn't say they modded when in reality, they could have and just didn't say anything. The condition you put IS SUPPOSED to be trusted. You don't list the item in the condition you think everyone might "feel" towards it. It's objective, not personal feelings. lol
 

A-Branger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
3,956
Reaction score
1,633
Location
QLD, Australia
You wouldn't trust the condition of someone who modded a guitar, but would if they didn't say they modded when in reality, they could have and just didn't say anything. The condition you put IS SUPPOSED to be trusted. You don't list the item in the condition you think everyone might "feel" towards it. It's objective, not personal feelings. lol
if you took the pickups out swap them for something else, then swap those for the stock ones back in, and sold ti like that, up to you if you wanna mention what you have done to it or not. But if you sell a guitar missing a pickup then it raises a lot of questions, like "why would he take away the pickup?"... then you start thinking into the stereotype of person who would do it.... and think what else would be wrong
 

LeviathanKiller

Knee-shooting Archer
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
2,146
Reaction score
1,359
Location
Deep Southeast
if you took the pickups out swap them for something else, then swap those for the stock ones back in, and sold ti like that, up to you if you wanna mention what you have done to it or not. But if you sell a guitar missing a pickup then it raises a lot of questions, like "why would he take away the pickup?"... then you start thinking into the stereotype of person who would do it.... and think what else would be wrong
I think that's why we have a description section to explain what's going on if there's any special circumstances. We don't blanket it with "Fair Condition" or something like that for easily reversible things. It doesn't actually affect the condition of the instrument. I've seen tons of listings where someone has disconnected the tone pot or replaced a knob with a killswitch and so on. Condition of the instrument wasn't tied to that mod. It was disclosed, but not via the drop down of like 5 available condition options. I only use the condition to indicate amount of damage if any. Maybe that's just me though.
 

Descent

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 7, 2014
Messages
1,594
Reaction score
603
Location
Houston, TX
Late to the game but missing a pickup is definitely not "excellent" condition, good condition more likely.
When people search for "excellent" they expect to see stock guitar with few minor scratches at best, not a missing pickup.
 

A-Branger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
3,956
Reaction score
1,633
Location
QLD, Australia
I think that's why we have a description section to explain what's going on if there's any special circumstances. We don't blanket it with "Fair Condition" or something like that for easily reversible things. It doesn't actually affect the condition of the instrument. I've seen tons of listings where someone has disconnected the tone pot or replaced a knob with a killswitch and so on. Condition of the instrument wasn't tied to that mod. It was disclosed, but not via the drop down of like 5 available condition options. I only use the condition to indicate amount of damage if any. Maybe that's just me though.
agree with you, Im just repliying like what the average person would do.

You can write and explain anything you want on your sale post. But if you put a guitar missing a pickup you would have folks asking why, and eventually you would have someone asking question about the condition of the guitar, and taking advantage of it to drop the price.
 
Top