re: Best place to find used electric guitars?

What kind are you looking for?

I've only bought 1 used guitar online and it was a mistake. Buying new online or buying fixer-upper guitars online can be a real treat, but the odds of purchasing a used guitar online only for it to arrive at your home in the box ready to play and sounding exactly how you want are 1,000,000:1. Never buy used unless you can hold it in your hands, pluck the strings, and plug it in.

With that being said, Craigslist is a great place to look as you have the convenience of browsing online paired with the proximity to check it out in person.

Hitting up local guitar stores (like The Perfect Guitar, Allison's, Zeagler's, ect) and pawn shops is also a must.

200

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I've only bought 1 used guitar online and it was a mistake. Buying new online or buying fixer-upper guitars online can be a real treat, but the odds of purchasing a used guitar online only for it to arrive at your home in the box ready to play and sounding exactly how you want are 1,000,000:1. Never buy used unless you can hold it in your hands, pluck the strings, and plug it in

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Perhaps Ive just had better luck, but throughout the years Ive bought a PRS Santana SE guitar that played and sounded great. I then sold it on eBay a few years later. Ive bought my current no.1 Gibson Les Paul Standard heavily modded on eBay and it is the best guitar Ive ever played. Ive bought and sold the previously mentioned Les Paul Studio and it was a great guitar as well. All used, all in great shape and all as advertised. I get what youre saying about being able to feel, inspect and see how the guitar actually resonates and sounds in person, but by living by that rule of thumb, you can miss out on some great guitars. It's a chance Im willing to take for the right deal I suppose. YMMV.

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I agree. I just prefer to know what I'm getting when I decide to spend that much money on something

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The only guitar I really took a chance on was the Les Paul Standard I mentioned earlier. I bought it for $2500 in the dark. I did my homework and bought it from an ebay "guitar store" and got the guy on the phone multiple times before finally pulling the trigger. This guitar had 50+ HD pics on it from every angle and was actually gutted and had all of the caps, tone pots, bridge inserts, bridge tailpiece, tuners and fret work completely redone. I asked the guy to set it up exactly how I like to play. It arrived perfect out of the box. I changed the stock Gibby pups out of it (Burstbucker Pros) to some Motor City Detroiter's in which I spoke with the owner of Motor City multiple times about exactly how I wanted to pups wound. Two years later, it is still my no.1 and a guitar I would have missed out on if I wouldnt have found it online. I wouldnt buy one from a seller that only has 100 or so transactions and isnt knowledgeable. I would only deal with someone that knows there stuff if it's a high dollar guitar like mine.

So I've found what I want but it's at a GC out of state.
Do you think I can trust that this guitar is in as good a shape as the salesman is telling me?
I'm a little nervous about buying it without playing it but I've done the research on this model and it's proven that they are pretty good guitars.

We just had a Guitar Expo here in O-town last weekend. Thousands of instruments to check out. Maybe you should look for such an exhibit near you.

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but it's at a GC out of state.

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What city/state?

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Do you think I can trust that this guitar is in as good a shape as the salesman is telling me?

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I would as I have dealt with them before, but I don't know this particular salesman. Does it have a warranty? Can you send it back if you don't like it?