Best place to buy online?

LazyLightning

LazyLightning

New member
Hi folks,
I am in the market for a Gibson SG Standard, and not sure where is the most trustworthy online vendors (with solid return policies)

I had originally planned to just buy a brand new one from Gibson, but they don’t have the finish I am really looking for. Everything is Cherry, I’m looking for a more Walnut or slightly darker. I’ve seen a few used ones, but I’m just not sure I want to buy one used.

I have seen some Tributes with the finish I like. This will be my first Gibson and in all likelihood the guitar that will have to last the rest of my life. Which for my playing situation is completely fine. Is there a huge difference between a Standard and a Tribute, isn’t the Standard a better over all choice?

I keep seeing Reverb and Sweetwater Come up in searches, are they legit places to spend $1500.00’ish

Thanks for any help
Chris
 
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Reverb is really up to the seller. Go with ones with tons of pics, and lots of positive feedback. Sweetwater is a very legit retailer that takes care of their customers. Never a bad experience.
 
I've bought from Reverb, Ebay, Sweetwater, Guitar Center, Musicians Friend, AMS, and Pro Audio Star. Out of all of them IMO Sweetwater is the best, they have exceptional customer service, and often times you can see pictures of the actual guitar you're buying. Also in my case, I live about three hours away from their warehouse, so i get everything from them next day without having to pay for faster shipping.
 
Local brick and mortal stores often sell out of state without taxes. These can be the best deals.

Musicians Friend / Guitar Center typically offers 15% off purchases, and there is 8% cash back after 45 days.

ProAudioStar often has amazing deals and you can submit offers online without having to deal with a salesperson. They are a gear warehouse on the east coast.

zzounds and AMS have been known to have great deals too.

Sweetwater photographs guitars and assigns you a "sales engineer" (which some people like). They price match, don't know if they also do 8% cash back.

There is no "right answer"; if there was, there would only be one place to buy gear. It varies based on many circumstances.
 
I've dealt with MF, GC, AMS and Sweetwater. Haven't had a bad experience. What I like about Sweetwater is they have a lot of pics of the actual guitar you are looking to purchase, down to the serial and will often have multiple serial numbers listed for the same model so you can look at more than one and see which one you like best. They then go through it themselves and make sure everything is in order before sending it along. I've ordered strings from them and usually get some candy in the box too.
 
Although I do not have an opinion regarding which online music shop is best, I have been ordering music gear online for 20 years now. I used to order from AMS and MF a lot. On Friday, I created a Sweetwater account to order about $2000 of stuff. It is already here. It arrived this morning. I was just writing an article for an assignment from a client of mine and now I am opening boxes...

I do not know if everything checks out yet, but I am very impressed by how quickly this order arrived. Sweetwater is definitely a safe place to spend a few grand.
 
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