The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

[LLL]

2013 Gibson Les Paul Traditional

Preface: Owned an '89 Custom Black Beauty (waited 6 months for them to make it - special order lefty) for years; was my #1 go to.

Sold that one in mid 2Ks.

So 2010's come around and I'm thinking, "I need a Les Paul".

Got a new 2013 LP Traditional for (IIRC) ~$1600 in 2014. Honey Sunburst.

Played it for a few months. In fact, the guitar is all over this full song recreation of mine (Don't Look Back - Boston):



But after few months; after the "new car smell" wore off, I realized that it just wasn't all that.

It played just fine (except the poor upper-fret access, as we know with LPs) - (I did do a setup) not bad, but not "wow! this LP kills!".

The plastic creme pickguard and binding (especially the neck) started looking cheap to me.

And the finish started looking ugly to me. The HSB (honey sunburst) finish looked cool with the slight flame top, but it seemed
there was gobs of clearcoat on top of that, and looking at it up close (as you do when playing) it just looked, well, "cheap". Like an Agile LP finish (I've had those).

Turns out I sold it not long after for $200 profit. Never gelled with the guitar.

Alright so it wasn't necessarily a turd, but considering what I paid for it, it totally failed to blow me away or exude any mojo. And that is turd-worthy.

[BeKindRewind]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

I have a couple but I'll start with my Gibson Firebird VII. As soon as I saw one I fell in love with the looks of it, bought one off eBay , paid a ridiculous amount for it, over $2000 iirc, + shipping and duties. It sucked. Didn't stay in tune(like really didn't stay in tune.), sound good, or feel good at all. Yeah, it was mind bendingly gorgeous, but it felt like an epiphone yet cost me almost 3 grand all said and done.




Also when I was a young'n, I bought a brand new epiphone zakk Wylde Les Paul and it was an enormous pile of crap.

I ordered it online brand new. Id just started working for my dad and he thought the guitar looked really cool so he didn't hesitate at all to lend me the money and spend the summer paying him back.

I got the guitar, showed up in a sealed epiphone box packed with foam, was so excited.

Right off the bat, i notice the finish, it looked really nice from far away but as soon as you looked up close it's a horror show. The bullseye was crooked in spots, the back od the neck where it's supposed to have that V thing where the unfinished part meets the headstock looked sloppy. It was not a B stock guitar - this was a full price production epiphone.


And the headstock inlay didn't look great either. Also, the fret inlays looked like they were made out of a toilet seat. Not even the good fake pearl, like low end Jacksons have. Just ... toilet seat.

I go to tune it up.. *snap*, low E "grover" tuner breaks right there. 10 minutes out of the brand new box. Haven't even played my first power chord yet and the tuner key just spins and doesn't turn the post. Wonderful. I called up grover and they sent me out a free replacement, but it took about a month to get.

In the meantime i decided to take a look inside and take the pickups out and just kinda take a look under the hood. This was when they came with EMG HZ pickups in them. Soon as i unscrewed the pickups they fell apart, like the plastic housing came right off and I noticed they were being held on,
and im NOT making this up,

by a ****ing christmas card with santa clause on it, ... Cut up into shims and jammed into the sides of the covers to make them stay on. Which... obviously failed. Yup. Underneath the covers they were just a mess of glue and I started to wonder if they were actually EMG's or not being used on these guitars. I plugged it in and played it (as a 5-string..) and they sounded fine however.

So I finally get the replacement tuner, and immediately I notice the actual real gold plating on this one makes it really obvious that the other 5 are cheap fake crap gold.

I string up the guitar and finally got to play it and it just sucked balls. I actually liked the pickups, but it just played like garbage. It had terrible fretwork and just felt gross to play. I already had a USA stratocaster, a Gibson SG standard and a USA jackson V at this point so the epiphone was just a cool looking toy to play with . But i didn't think it would be THAT bad. I'd read all kinds of reviews saying it was "just as good as the Gibson!"... Ha.

I played it maybe a handful of times that summer and man it sucked working to pay that piece of garbage off!

Moral of the story :
-Just because the spec sheet says "Gold grover tuners" and "emg pickups" , doesn't mean it's the actual same hardware you'd get on a high end guitar.



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[St_Genesius]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

AVRI Jazzmaster. I hated damn near everything about it. Except the way it looked. It was gorgeous.

[shupe13]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

I've not bought a flat out turd before, but I've had LOTS of buyer's remorse. I tend to rush into guitar purchases.

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[dystrust]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

I wouldn't say I've ever bought a turd, but I've had a few that underwhelmed once the honeymoon was over.

They include:
ESP Eclipse Standard
ESP Vintage Plus S
'77 Gibson Les Paul Custom

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

Not really turds but there have been guitars that were good guitars that I just never fell in love with. There was one that I played for years that I fell out of love with. It's a perfectly fine guitar but when I play it after about 5 minutes I know why I moved on.

A guitar with unstable tuning is really annoying. That kills the buzz.

I have it down to about three guitars that I play and don't have any desire to try different guitars right now.

This might be one reason I don't get into playing the acoustic guitar much. The only acoustic guitar that I ever loved was this about 80 year old Gibson. I could play that thing for days. I inquired of the owner if he would ever consider selling. He was like no way: "You don't have enough money to buy that guitar, and even if you did I plan on being buried with it."

[AlexR]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

G&L S500......like a deluxe strat.

It had everything - great grained ash body, flame maple neck with a nice rosewood board, lovely honeyburst finish, was easy to play and the trem worked well.

It even sounded killer......unplugged.

Once plugged in it was dead though.....flat.....lacking the spark that good strats have. I even swapped out pickups for both forms of Duncan Antiquities and that couldn't save it. The partscaster I assembled just blew it away, so as nice as it looked it had to go.

I also had a 99 SG that was the same.....great acoustically but flat plugged in. The 2001 SG I bought later had poorer acoustic tone, but is great once amplified.

[GuitarStv]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

I don't buy guitars very often . . . but have been happy with all of 'em purchased.

[VinceT]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

2008-ish, I bought a PRS Swamp Ash Special - HSH, bolt-on. Played beautifully. Looked amazing (red sunburst).

I didn’t know then nearly as much as I know now about how to make guitars work with gain stages, amps, setups, etc. but I still believe that guitar was as lifeless as it comes. In the lower reaches of the neck, it was fine - jangly, articulate - but up around the 12th fret it was just DEAD - no sustain, no vibrancy, just nothing. Over the course of almost 40 years, I’ve sold only two guitars - this was one of them.

Sometimes wish I could get a hold of it now and see if a decade’s experience would make a difference - then I catch myself and pick up a guitar that works for me right now!


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[Diego]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

Ibanez Prestige RG1550.

A good guitar ruined by it's Edge Pro trem system. Would NOT return to pitch if your last trem usage was a pull. It would remain sharp unless you dived it. It visited many techs and they couldn't fix it. Ibanez sort of acknowledged the issue with it's trem in the end.

The stock pickups were a joke. Screw holes would wear out even with low torque. I also never fully bonded with the neck profile. It played OK but it never sounded that good. Tried JBs, Breeds, Evos, a Screamin' Demon and a Tonerider Generator.

Sold it and bought my Ibanez SZ which is far superior, more reliable and sounds way better for a third of the price.

[Mincer]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

Occasionally it happens. Sometimes there's just a honeymoon period, and it wears off. Sometimes there is a weird balance thing I don't notice until I am standing for 3 hours. I think I've been really happy with every guitar I've bought, but it doesn't always last for one reason or another (kinda like women).

[ehdwuld]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

I had a Mexican Strat
That was a find
Three tone burst
Maple neck
Used with the plastic still on the pickups
For $299 out the door

It played fine
Sounded great

But after playing the Ibanez and Epiphone Florentine
With the skinny necks it just felt odd

Just didn't bond with it at all

Wanted to
Just kinda dint

[Mincer]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

My Steinberger ZT3 was like this- a wonderful trem system built into a boring, characterless multi-piece maple body. The Trans Trem could bend all the strings in tune with each other (they move at a different rate than one another), but the guitar was heavy (for a headless) with a chunky neck that 3 sets of pickups couldn't make sound any good. I eventually traded it to a student for another Music Man.

[Dave Locher]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

I always play before I buy, but many years ago (late '80s) I got taken in by a 1978 Ibanez ST-50. Loved the look - black with dark rosewood pickguard and cream humbuckers. Seemed like the perfect cross between an LP and an SG. One of the first times I played it live I used my backup guitar (a LP copy) for the last song and realized I could play better on the other guitar! Wide, thick neck plus Strat scale = fighting the guitar.

Sold the Ibby that week and found a fantastic SG a couple weeks later.

[B2D]

Re: The Guitar You Thought You'd Love But Turned Out Was A Turd

Ibanez JEM 555 - I thought it'd be a good budget version of the JEM 7V. It was not. Bad quality hardware and the neck did the pretzel act less that 6 months into owning it.

I owned a Sterling by Music Man Silo 30 for a hot minute - the thing had no sustain and wouldn't stay in tune. Again - this is a budget version of the Silhouette Special, and I meant it as a backup for my USA made Silhouette.

I guess the lesson here is don't buy cheap versions of nicer guitars - just save up and get the nice one.