I love you? Well, sure, that's nice. I was thinking: "Out for Delivery."
I am the "big idea" guy; Joan is the details person. I mentioned to her that the guitar was showing "Awaiting delivery info" in McAllen, TX, according to the tracking information I had. She said, "The package has been transferred to the Brownsville UPS hub and has been loaded on the truck, and marked out for delivery." She has the UPS app that gives her way better details. She knows the status of a UPS package as soon as UPS gets it... if it has our address on it, she immediately knows who the package is from and the enroute/delivery status. Pretty impressive.
My info is old school. Of course, I remember the days before you got the tracking info: your package will be there when it gets there. I remember when we would anxiously await a delivery, wondering when it would show up, even if the tracking said, "Out for Delivery." Now, Joan says, "UPS just crossed over the swing bridge." Really impressive.
Gone are the days of glancing out the window like a kid waiting for the ice cream truck to pull into the neighborhood. Now: the driver has stopped for lunch; he's having a BLT with extra mayo.
;-)
I have mixed feelings. I'm anxious to see if this new pickup system on the guitar is as good as the reviews are saying. My experience with the music store in Wisconsin was pretty awful. The owner was decent; the dipshit salesguy who gave me a half-assed apology responded to the note I sent to Reverb; I was letting them know this place still had an ad up, showing the guitar in stock... "Only one left - order now!" They have now closed that listing. A full day after I had it out with them. Way to stay on top of things. They didn't close it until I said something. Hope the guitar is as good as expected - I don't want to have to deal with them again.
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Makes me laugh. Joan has been giving me occasional updates: it's less than a mile away, but it's on the other side of the ICW... he's at the Dairy Queen now... he's at ArtSea (one of our favorite gift shops by the lighthouse). Her app is saying between 4:00 and 7:00. The less specific tracking I have is saying by 9:00pm. Signature required. They said that when Apple sent back my MacBook Pro... nope. Drop it and run. Didn't matter to me - I had the laptop in my hands.
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Yep, it showed up...
UPS was stealthy. They put it on the steps to our back deck, didn't knock on the door, didn't ring the doorbell, didn't ask for a signature. We didn't know it was there until I was ready to go check mail just after 4:00.
I opened the box (after I got back from checking mail). The guitar is good looking. The fret work on the bottom side of the neck is awful... the fret ends stick out beyond the binding on the side of the neck; it's hard on the left hand.
John from the music store called to see what I thought of the guitar. I'm guessing he's sorry he did that. He offered to send a tag so I could ship it back... he is trying to make an effort to make up for their previous crap move. He also said he personally checked the guitar over before they boxed it up, as well as having their guitar tech make sure everything on it was perfect. Maybe it's me - I've only been playing guitar 56 years, so I may not know what I'm talking about (my words, not his). Seriously, the fret work on the one side of the neck is the worst I've ever seen. That can be fixed. It should have been done before it left the factory. And if not there, it certainly should have been done before it left the music store.
Rather than send it back, I will order some fret working tools and fix it myself. Hey, I watched a video... I haven't had to do this on any guitar I've owned... and I've owned a guitar or two over the years. I've done other set-up work on my guitars to get them to play the way I like; I've just never come across this situation before. This can happen when you order a guitar online, I guess; well, it hasn't happened to me. If I went into a music store and took this guitar off the wall, I would have put it right back and moved on; maybe let a salesperson know that they need to fix it.
I played the guitar for a couple hours this evening - I really like these new Fishman Fluence pickups. The rest of the guitar is comfortable. The lower part of the index finger on my left hand (where it rubs against those fret ends) is raw... nothing to do with the calluses on my fingertips.
Just a crap experience all around; truly nothing I can recommend about Cream City Music. I won't make it my life's work to tell the world about my experience with them, and you can be sure they won't send me a "How'd we do?" questionnaire. There are a lot of other really good guitar shops I've dealt with... not sure how these guys actually had this guitar in stock when no one else has been able to get their hands on them, yet. I take responsibility for buying from them - I got all excited about something new... I should have waited until a guitar shop I know and trust got some in.
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