I bought my PRS SE Custom 24 as B-Stock. The reason it was in there was tooling marks on both sides of the fretboard and minor chip in the paint you can’t even tell if you’re not staring at the spot. I ended up getting it for $600.
I've had a bit too many bad experiences with B-stock. Not from PMT of course, other vendors. So i'd personally skirt that. Ex demo can be an absolute home run of a deal.
When I bought my Pacifica they gave me a few second hand guitars to try, an expensive Squier and a gorgeous Ibanez, both of which were more expensive new than the Pacifica I wanted, but both were much better guitars. I turned down the Ibanez because of the pickups, double humbucker, which I wasn’t sure I wanted, but it played like a dream…and the Squier wasn’t the Strat shape I wanted and it did have cosmetic issues and while it played beautifully, I didn’t think it would’ve inspired me to play as much as my Pacifica has (or the Ibanez would’ve). I don’t regret buying the pacifica, but I wouldn’t have regretted getting the Ibanez either as it was gorgeous…it just goes to show that with B-Stock or preowned, you’re fine, IF the guitar is the right guitar…
Every guitar hanging on the wall should get a mandatory discount at all guitar shops. That goes for all the gear on the floor. Just like every other demo item in retail stores. It’s BS that stores that have 30 ppl a day manhandling gear, try to sell them as new/retail. If they don’t have a brand new one in box, unopened, there’s no way I’m paying retail. And stores need to realize they’ll absolutely go outta business. With online purchasing and free shipping, there’s no reason to pay retail for gear sitting on the floor getting used. Not to mention companies like AMS, and zZounds offer payment plans, interest free, for anyone basically. If music stores wanna stay in business they need to change everything.
B stock is my preference. This gets you a full warranty, and most importantly, the reason it's classified as B stock is documented. This usually includes detailed pictures, if the defects can even be shown that way? It's like getting free extra info about the guitar, plus a discount. I'd much rather have 10 pictures of my actual guitar to scrutinize. Than 5 stock photos of that model. Pictures tell a thousand words.
What you say may well be true but all too often B stock savings do not make up for the lack of manufacturers warranty and whilst PMT may offer a 2 year warranty not all music store do. Regarding manufacturers warranty, I purchased a pre owned Taylor 150e, but Taylor will not honour the warranty even for obvious manufacturing faults. Also in some cases the second hand price is more that the cost of new. I was recently looking for a Katana 50 Mk3 and found two, one B stock and one pre-owned, both were more expensive than buying new.
Great video! Actually I didn't know that "ex demo" could be a returned instrument. I always thought it wouldn't have left the shop so mat any abuse would have happened under the stern eyes of the music shops employees.. ;-)
they sometimes give good deals but it's a shame no one seems to give a good trade in price anymore, i've been offered really low prices and i've just walked away.
demo vs brand new in box (in my store i go to) isnt a big enough diffrence in price for me to say hell ya ill take the demo 9/10 id rather have it in the box because its only like 100 or a bit more you save but sometimes ill take the demo if its all i can get (like the dave mustaine kramer vanguard theres a limited green and there was only 3 left in my country in that colour so i had to take the one on the wall ) but it was still brand new
Best way to save money is nit picking when you go to a guitar store. Oh this paint is horrible,this pick ups suck, these tuners are horrible ECT... Don't ever act like it's just awesome. You can always get them to drop the price a little bit and sometimes a lot. .
