spudmunkey
Well-Known Member
There's more non-returnable stuff in general.
While true, and I'm sure I touched on it in the "Never again..." thread, but much of that is on things that they just never offered, or would have flat-out refused to do.
I remember whenever someone would get them to do a custom burst, it was big news! Even something as simple as a blue-to-red burst, or a "reverse dragonburst". There was an upswing in them willing to do more, which seems to have correlated in Jeff getting older and more involved behind the scenes, if the timeline in my head makes sense. By the time the PB bass rolled out in 2013, that was a Jeff-designed model, and he had already been doing custom finishes and even supposedly treated boards for years before that. I can't say if those previous non-standard bursts (even when made from standard colors) were returnable or not, though. After the SH550 was lauched, I remember someone wanted one painted in opaque black paint, and with a inline pointy headstock. After a long back-and-forth I know they agreed to do it, but I remember it was talk-of-the-town over on the forum when he said it wouldn't be returnable, that they would only do it if it still came with the flamed top under the black paint (because back then the base spec was flamed maple and they refused to build any with lower-cost woods) and that there wouldn't be a discount on cheaper wood even if they did agree to it.
Nothing about that build was something they didn't offer on other models, and yet it still took lots of effort to convince them to do it.
What is clear though, is that many of the NEW options are non-returnable. Things they never offered before. Buckeye burl, their raw tone satin finish, etc. I don't remember seeing all that many NAMM builds on the in-stock store more than a couple years ago. It seems like they just brought fewer to NAMM, and then sold them through the factory store. So having them online but not returnable isn't all that much of a change in policy.
I'm not discounting that there also haven't been increases in what's non-returnable from things that used to be OK like the pickup situation (them installing your own pickup, even if it fits the standard routes, is non-returnable even if it's their old older pickups you happen to have lying around (or specifically purchased for a future build)), but the vast majority of things that are non-returnable would have simply gotten a "no" not-all-that-many years ago.