NGD Wood Library DGT but kind of a let down

[ViperDoc]

Again, it is then based on the false premise that every guitar coming out of the factory is flawless. That's not the case.

How could this guitar have passed Q/C and go out the factory w/o Q/C's green light:

More orange peel and lacquer splatter:

It effectively didn't get buffed in the heel area for some reason. And unless the lights were out that day it would not have been possible for Q/C not to see it.

That's probably the sh!ttiest finish on a PRS I've ever seen. WOW.

 

[joefods]

Got a chance to look at it a little more closely yesterday. Still haven't really gone over it. I kinda don't even want to touch it since it most likely will have to go back. But this was concerning around the neck as well. It has some sort of crease in the finish. Looks like it is in the wood as well. Not sure if its from a jig they use to set the neck or what.

 

[Proteus]

Looks like they started that one on Friday afternoon...and finished it Monday morning.

 

[docteurseb]

Got a chance to look at it a little more closely yesterday. Still haven't really gone over it. I kinda don't even want to touch it since it most likely will have to go back. But this was concerning around the neck as well. It has some sort of crease in the finish. Looks like it is in the wood as well. Not sure if its from a jig they use to set the neck or what.

That's from the marks left when they put masking tape during the finish process.
Ideally it's taped closer to the joint, but it's not a concern.

 

[bodia]

That's from the marks left when they put masking tape during the finish process.
Ideally it's taped closer to the joint, but it's not a concern.

Completely agree

 

[joefods]

That's from the marks left when they put masking tape during the finish process.
Ideally it's taped closer to the joint, but it's not a concern.

Ah that makes sense. Thank you for the explanation.

 

[dmatthews]

I highly recommend that you be a "customer" on this one.
I'd be sending it back for a full refund myself, but if you love it bargain HARD for a lower price.
A LOT lower.

 

[joefods]

I highly recommend that you be a "customer" on this one.
I'd be sending it back for a full refund myself, but if you love it bargain HARD for a lower price.
A LOT lower.

I feel like that’s what I’m gonna do, go the full refund route. I would have liked a better answer than “send some more pictures”. I wanna be patient. I know places are short staffed or backed up. But at the same time I don’t feel like worrying about it all day long.

If the price was too good to pass up I’d definitely think about keeping it. I’m just worried if I ever decided to sell it or trade it in, I’m gonna lose a lot of value for its condition.

 

[dmatthews]

I feel like that’s what I’m gonna do, go the full refund route. I would have liked a better answer than “send some more pictures”. I wanna be patient. I know places are short staffed or backed up. But at the same time I don’t feel like worrying about it all day long.

If the price was too good to pass up I’d definitely think about keeping it. I’m just worried if I ever decided to sell it or trade it in, I’m gonna lose a lot of value for its condition.

Yup, the only way I'd keep it is at a price that equaled used.
Even at that there's a certain amount of "lunchbag letdown" that likely won't go away.

 

[tyfu20]

That is straight crap, hell I've bought "blemished" from one of my favorite retail stores and they've looked brand new. Definitely get your cash back.

 

[Sybo]

It was a quilt top Wood Library Modern Eagle V, second hand.

Sent it back to the dealer because at the time PRS wasn't doing non-warranty work (i.e. no PTC for 'used' guitars at that time), which I understood even though the issue was from the factory.

At first I thought the original owner re-sprayed the heel/fingerboard for whatever and did a terrible job, but I sent pics to a friend and he told me he had indeed seen similar stuff being posted in recent weeks.
Later on as I was browsing Reverb I saw a brand new one and could immediately tell it had the same orange peel on the cut-away based on the light's reflection.

You now know why the notion a guitar coming out of the factory is flawless now makes me chuckle a little bit.
Luckily, it is true the vast majority of the time.

BTW, the original dealer (not the one I bought it used from) is the one with the amazing 55-point inspection, so now you know how bogus their inspection is.

I have had the same 55 point inspection failure myself………….. blatant visual oversight …….

 

[docteurseb]

That is straight crap, hell I've bought "blemished" from one of my favorite retail stores and they've looked brand new. Definitely get your cash back.

While I too would ask for a return/refund, I'm no longer convinced it's this dealer's fault here (having dealt with them before).

Shining an intense light at a gloss finish will always show many polishing/buffing marks, the darker the finish the worse it looks.

This could well be a late Friday evening build that was deemed good enough to ship out the factory.
Either that or it was bought, returned, and cleaned up which is when it could have collected that amount of polishing swirls.

The reason this one (and its siblings) didn't sell quicker is a combination of:
- solid paint back/neck on a Wood Library not being the preferred choice. Even at identical specs WL cost more than a Core, so dealers usually make them look a bit different than a Core with either different neck woods, or translucent/natural finishes for the neck/body. Solid paint was the only choice here though given the neck+body wood choice (drastic different colors).
- DGT not being the most popular model, they don't fly off the shelves anywhere as quickly as a CU24/594.
- Black/grey tops aren't the most popular somehow. I've had a harder time re-selling frostbite and charcoal guitars than other colors.

That's probably the sh!ttiest finish on a PRS I've ever seen. WOW.

Same here. Thankfully it's the only one I ever got that looked bad. It's unfortunate because it was a really good guitar, but considering how often I wasn't cycling through guitars at the time I was really worried of this being an issue on resale.

 

[joefods]

While I too would ask for a return/refund, I'm no longer convinced it's this dealer's fault here (having dealt with them before).

Shining an intense light at a gloss finish will always show many polishing/buffing marks, the darker the finish the worse it looks.

This could well be a late Friday evening build that was deemed good enough to ship out the factory.
Either that or it was bought, returned, and cleaned up which is when it could have collected that amount of polishing swirls.

The reason this one (and its siblings) didn't sell quicker is a combination of:
- solid paint back/neck on a Wood Library not being the preferred choice. Even at identical specs WL cost more than a Core, so dealers usually make them look a bit different than a Core with either different neck woods, or translucent/natural finishes for the neck/body. Solid paint was the only choice here though given the neck+body wood choice (drastic different colors).
- DGT not being the most popular model, they don't fly off the shelves anywhere as quickly as a CU24/594.
- Black/grey tops aren't the most popular somehow. I've had a harder time re-selling frostbite and charcoal guitars than other colors.

I am not sure what to think. The dealer said its never been out of the shop and the showroom has been closed. The scratches are deeper than just typical polishing scratches. I have had black back PRSs before and they did not have the amount of swirls on the back this has. Definitely scratches from use and not little swirls or microabrasion from using an inadequate rag. I have 15 year old black les pauls that are in better shape. I have never received a new guitar with this many swirls and scratches on it.

I understand what you are saying about shining an intense light on the finish. I have detailed many high end automobiles of mine to a flawless finish and understand all about lighting. But these are 13 watt CFL bulbs that are 15 years old in my ceiling fan. It's the only light source in the room and the room is very dim. If I wanted to shine some 5000 watt work lights on it, I could pick up every flaw everywhere. The lights are simply to capture the defects in a photo. They are seen with the naked eye in person.

Here is my question. I wonder if I traded this guitar in to the same dealer (or any dealer) if they would accept it as brand new condition or would they make me take a hit on the value because of how it looks? That is really my main concern, paying the new price for a guitar not in new condition.

 

[dmatthews]

I am not sure what to think. The dealer said its never been out of the shop and the showroom has been closed. The scratches are deeper than just typical polishing scratches. I have had black back PRSs before and they did not have the amount of swirls on the back this has. Definitely scratches from use and not little swirls or microabrasion from using an inadequate rag. I have 15 year old black les pauls that are in better shape. I have never received a new guitar with this many swirls and scratches on it.

I understand what you are saying about shining an intense light on the finish. I have detailed many high end automobiles of mine to a flawless finish and understand all about lighting. But these are 13 watt CFL bulbs that are 15 years old in my ceiling fan. It's the only light source in the room and the room is very dim. If I wanted to shine some 5000 watt work lights on it, I could pick up every flaw everywhere. The lights are simply to capture the defects in a photo. They are seen with the naked eye in person.

Here is my question. I wonder if I traded this guitar in to the same dealer (or any dealer) if they would accept it as brand new condition or would they make me take a hit on the value because of how it looks? That is really my main concern, paying the new price for a guitar not in new condition.

Based on the pics I've seen there is no way I'd accept it as new whether it was a personal sale, or if I was taking it in trade at a shop.
No way.
Get a full refund. Play hard ball.

 

[László]

That's not at all typical of a new PRS. It's shop wear. Period. In 31 years of PRS ownership, including current stuff, nope. Never happens.

 

[docteurseb]

The dealer said its never been out of the shop and the showroom has been closed.

While that may be true, it is also true that:
- it is a 2019 model
- the showroom would have been closed in March/April 2020, at the earliest.
That still leaves a few months for it to be traumatized by customers if it wasn't stored all the time in the case/warehouse.

From what you say, I'd still opt for a full refund. You're never going to be happy with it at this point.
And while the pandemic years have made dealers a lot less generous w/ discounts, paying full MAP for a 3 year NOS guitar is already way too much; it's only OK if this was a dream guitar in flawless condition.

 

[joefods]

While I too would ask for a return/refund, I'm no longer convinced it's this dealer's fault here (having dealt with them before).

Shining an intense light at a gloss finish will always show many polishing/buffing marks, the darker the finish the worse it looks.

This could well be a late Friday evening build that was deemed good enough to ship out the factory.
Either that or it was bought, returned, and cleaned up which is when it could have collected that amount of polishing swirls.

The reason this one (and its siblings) didn't sell quicker is a combination of:
- solid paint back/neck on a Wood Library not being the preferred choice. Even at identical specs WL cost more than a Core, so dealers usually make them look a bit different than a Core with either different neck woods, or translucent/natural finishes for the neck/body. Solid paint was the only choice here though given the neck+body wood choice (drastic different colors).
- DGT not being the most popular model, they don't fly off the shelves anywhere as quickly as a CU24/594.
- Black/grey tops aren't the most popular somehow. I've had a harder time re-selling frostbite and charcoal guitars than other colors.



Same here. Thankfully it's the only one I ever got that looked bad. It's unfortunate because it was a really good guitar, but considering how often I wasn't cycling through guitars at the time I was really worried of this being an issue on resale.

While that may be true, it is also true that:
- it is a 2019 model
- the showroom would have been closed in March/April 2020, at the earliest.
That still leaves a few months for it to be traumatized by customers if it wasn't stored all the time in the case/warehouse.

From what you say, I'd still opt for a full refund. You're never going to be happy with it at this point.
And while the pandemic years have made dealers a lot less generous w/ discounts, paying full MAP for a 3 year NOS guitar is already way too much; it's only OK if this was a dream guitar in flawless condition.

I agree with you. The tags say 1-10-20 so it probably did see some brief shop use. And yes they aren’t generous with discounts anymore. Best I could do was $235 off. Which is nice but it’s mostly symbolic when you are spending this amount of money. It’s not like that would make or break the deal.

I’ll be sad to see it go back since I really like the color and top. But it doesn’t make sense keeping it. I’ll have to shell out another grand plus for a 22 model but it should be pristine.

 

[joefods]

Not to beat a dead horse but I went to box it up this morning and finally gave it a pretty thorough look through. I haven't touched it much since I noticed the condition of it right away and was waiting to see what the dealer said. There is no way it could have left the factory like this. I am not blaming the dealer, because they might not know what happened to it either. But this had to have been played. No way this was new and sitting in its case in a pandemic shut down showroom. This is on the upper side of the body. I hate to keep carrying on like this. Like don't get me wrong, this is not even close to the worse thing to ever happen to me. I have just never seen any guitar, regardless of price, in this condition and listed as new. The tuners look like they either have some tarnishing to them or some polishing compound on them. Maybe it missed a stage during the buffing process? The pickup covers, bridge and frets look practically flawless. It really is a head scratcher.

 

[dmatthews]

Yeah... you're doing the right thing boxing it up and sending it back. It sucks, but that guitar is used.
Best of luck mate.

 

[show_a_little_faith]

And yes they aren’t generous with discounts anymore. Best I could do was $235 off. Which is nice but it’s mostly symbolic when you are spending this amount of money. It’s not like that would make or break the deal.

For your next purchase, I'd definitely push for more of a discount than that. In the last 6 months, I've bought an SE for 13% off, a core 594 for 10% off, and a core Hollowbody Piezo for 15% off. Each was from a different retailer too. Also, both of the cores were less than a month old - it's not like they had been sitting around and the stores were anxious to unload them.
I know supplies are limited, but if you're not getting treated right hopefully you can get a better deal from someone else (and still get the guitar you want!)