Hey everyone! I saw a great deal and jumped on it for a used Mark Holcomb SVN walnut (7 string) guitar. It was $599 from guitar center, and after shipping and tax came to about $650. However, after playing it, I have noticed some issues with it. My gut is telling me just return it and if I really want this guitar, buy one for $150-$200 more (many used listings in this range that look great) to not have to deal with any of the things I've listed below. I wanted to post here and get other thoughts though before I go through the effort of returning it. Let me know what you would do! For context I have no experience working on guitars and while I have some mild interest, I really don't have the bandwidth to dedicate to that right now.
Primary issues:
1. Humbuckers are not stock. This is supposed to have Seymour Duncan alpha and omega humbuckers, but these are something else. It's unclear what they are, and I'm not really comfortable removing them to try and find out. But my assumption is since there is no visible branding, they are probably of lesser quality.
2. There is some buzzing/noise that I think is coming from the tone pot. I had a really hard time tuning it because the signal was so noisy. When I have the tone turned down all the way, it's ok, but otherwise it makes the signal noisy. Perhaps a simple fix for someone who knows how to work on guitars, I'm not sure.
Other issues:
3. Truss rod cover is blank. This is weird to me as it's supposed to say Mark Holcomb.
4. Tone knob was falling apart when it arrived. I tightened the screw on the pot and that's stable now, but the knob comes off when trying to activate coil tap. I think this is an easy fix by spreading the flanges, but will only do that if I decide to keep it as I don't want to risk breaking anything.
I don't expect to have any problems returning it for a full refund as I think it is clearly not as described and Guitar Center has a 45-day return policy.
It really is a beautiful guitar, but I had ordered a Schecter Reaper 7 at the same time, also on a good deal and that one showed up great. I'm new to 7 strings and I think realistically I don't need to keep both of them anyway (however it's really hard to fight the urge because I can tell this guitar would be amazing when functioning properly!)
Thanks for any feedback!
[note: tried to post this a bit ago with pictures, but I don't see that it went through. Since this is a new account, I think that's why. Perhaps if a mod sees this you can enable images for me so I can post them? I promise I'm not spamming
]
Primary issues:
1. Humbuckers are not stock. This is supposed to have Seymour Duncan alpha and omega humbuckers, but these are something else. It's unclear what they are, and I'm not really comfortable removing them to try and find out. But my assumption is since there is no visible branding, they are probably of lesser quality.
2. There is some buzzing/noise that I think is coming from the tone pot. I had a really hard time tuning it because the signal was so noisy. When I have the tone turned down all the way, it's ok, but otherwise it makes the signal noisy. Perhaps a simple fix for someone who knows how to work on guitars, I'm not sure.
Other issues:
3. Truss rod cover is blank. This is weird to me as it's supposed to say Mark Holcomb.
4. Tone knob was falling apart when it arrived. I tightened the screw on the pot and that's stable now, but the knob comes off when trying to activate coil tap. I think this is an easy fix by spreading the flanges, but will only do that if I decide to keep it as I don't want to risk breaking anything.
I don't expect to have any problems returning it for a full refund as I think it is clearly not as described and Guitar Center has a 45-day return policy.
It really is a beautiful guitar, but I had ordered a Schecter Reaper 7 at the same time, also on a good deal and that one showed up great. I'm new to 7 strings and I think realistically I don't need to keep both of them anyway (however it's really hard to fight the urge because I can tell this guitar would be amazing when functioning properly!)
Thanks for any feedback!
[note: tried to post this a bit ago with pictures, but I don't see that it went through. Since this is a new account, I think that's why. Perhaps if a mod sees this you can enable images for me so I can post them? I promise I'm not spamming
]
