New Tribute S-500 VW; not very happy

[Craig]

Hi,

I am Frank, 63 years, I decided to learn to play the guitar 6 months ago on an old Cort Z-42 (very good for the money!), and now my wife for 35 years gave me a brandnew G&L Tribute S500 in Vintage White for Christmas.

It sounds wonderfull to my ears, but on inspection by the guitar tech it turns out the strings don't align with the pickups at all.




What do I do? Send it back? Dealer is Thomann in Germany.

Thanks and a merry christmas.


Frank

Last edited by Craig on Sun Oct 08, 2017 1:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: fixed image postings

Hi Frank,
Try this,
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3488

I bet that'll do the trick.
cheers,Elwood

Thanks, Elwood, we'll give it a try.


Frank

Can you post a full picture? I am enjoying both my G&l guitars and I am sure you will too.

This looks fine to me, probably isn't noticeable at all.

The neck thing didn't work. After careful inspection: the pickguard needs to be trimmed and re-seated, including drilling new holes, filling and repainting the old ones, hoping it doesn't devaluate the guitar.

Our guitar repair man, who used to sell GL guitars in the Netherlands, was not very happy with Thomann, who said this was the way the guitar should be built (!). Further: the body is not made of mahogany as the GL website and the Thomann sales ad states, but it is probably basswood. So I have a dealer reluctant to warrant the guitar, and a guitar that is not what I was made believe to buy.

I've paid $580 for this guitar thinking this was a step-up from the Cort. But even my $180 Cort Z-42 is a much better build than this guitar. At this pricepoint I can expect maybe some cheaper tuners, pots, etc., but NOT a bad build, which seems to be the normal case with GL guitars, according to Thomann, nor misleading advertising (basswood in stead of mahogany).

I am very disppointed in GL guitars and Thomann. Maybe someone at GL can trace back the serial number and the quality control card and figure out what went wrong.

Thanks,


Frank

It looks like the string alignment issue may be due to an improperly cut nut. You may want to check that.

If the picture was taken directly above the guitar, in looking at the pickguard/ trem alignment it appears that the pickguard was improperly installed. I think the techs diagnoses is correct. --Darwin

Hi Frank

I have heard a lot of good things about Thomann's customer service. According to their webseite, they have this:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/helpdesk_moneyback.html

http://www.thomann.de/gb/helpdesk_warranty.html

Why don't you talk to one of their customer representatives personally? I'm sure they will help you. My own short experience with their customer service has been very good.

Good luck!

This was a short lived pleasure. Thomann choose not to respond to emails, neither did we hear from G&L Guitars.

The guitar is on its way back and, in view of complete absence of customer service, we'll never buy at Thomann nor shall we ever buy a new G&L Guitar again. You simply don't know what will be shipped.

Frank

BTW: there was another thing that bothered me: the tone controls were like on/off switches. At position 5 all trebble c.q. bass appeared/disappeared, absolutely no gradual adjusting here.

FWIW, you may want to look at Pre-BBE (Leo-era) G&L's… They don't disappoint and for now anyway they can be picked up fairly cheap!

Cheers,
KF

@Katefan: thanks for the advise: we're taking everything in our own hands now: our guitar tech is on the lookout for some pre 1992 G&L. He still has all the contacts and there are some opportunities. I will probably ask here about serial numbers when it gets serious.

As for this thread: let me clarify:
There is nothing wrong with the guitars, misfortunes can happen. It all depends on how customer care handles a case of bad luck or slip-through. And there it goes wrong.
Endless email discussions with customer care reps (Thomann: G&L dealer in Germany) first denying any warranty, then discussing over a 60$ repair job, asking detailed specifications for the work the to be done and a detailed estimate, can you believe it? It takes longer and costs more to write the estimate than to repair the guitar. It also costs Thomann more to discuss replacement than the replacement itself. Penny wise, pounds foolish.

Total silence from G&L. Unbelievable that after 9 days G&L still hasn't taken action.
This thread has by now been read by 240 people, all wondering why G&L doesn't step in.


Frank

This thread has by now been read by 240 people, all wondering why G&L doesn't step in.

I figure most at G&L are on a holiday break.
Good call on looking for a Leo-era ax,
elwood

@Katefan: thanks for the advise: we're taking everything in our own hands now: our guitar tech is on the lookout for some pre 1992 G&L. He still has all the contacts and there are some opportunities. I will probably ask here about serial numbers when it gets serious.

As for this thread: let me clarify:
There is nothing wrong with the guitars, misfortunes can happen. It all depends on how customer care handles a case of bad luck or slip-through. And there it goes wrong.
Endless email discussions with customer care reps (Thomann: G&L dealer in Germany) first denying any warranty, then discussing over a 60$ repair job, asking detailed specifications for the work the to be done and a detailed estimate, can you believe it? It takes longer and costs more to write the estimate than to repair the guitar. It also costs Thomann more to discuss replacement than the replacement itself. Penny wise, pounds foolish.

Total silence from G&L. Unbelievable that after 9 days G&L still hasn't taken action.
This thread has by now been read by 240 people, all wondering why G&L doesn't step in.


Frank

There is no excuse for the behaviour of your local reps and distributors.
The G&L factory I believe has an annual shutdown for the holiday season and is usually not responsive at this time of the year. Craig, who oversees this site and has contacts at the company is also out of town for another week.

I would go for a replacement ...... I have seen some nice Tributes and I have seen some with sloppy neck pocket , I agree I would rather buy a Tribute in person , in your case ask for the replacement and tell them not to call you unless the replacement looks great ...... my self any year American made should be nice quality but the "leo era" is the last of the hand made guitars , I have both BBE and Leo era and have no problems with either

yes like mentioned , this is a bad time to contact G&L and the same with Craig of this site ...... I would let the holidays pass and contact G&L next week when they are back in the shop

I just returned from my vacation late last night, so am playing catch up on the site.

Both the G&L factory and the German distributor you bought the guitar from were on holiday break.
The distributor did post on their website under their hours section about being closed. I did not
find out which days G&L factory was off until after my return, so I was not able to post these dates
before I left for vacation. (BTW, they were off from 12/24 and returned on 1/4)

I am curious as to how you decided that the body wood on this Vintage White Tribute S-500 is not Mahogany?

Did you return the guitar to the distributor and get refunded? I assume you did, since I see in another post that you
are looking at used USA G&L's.

What was the outcome?