2 MSR Prices for New Guitars

[skeeterbuck]

If the major players, Gibson,Fender, PRS, Martin, Taylor etc. offered their guitars with 2 MSR prices, one with a unlimited lifetime warranty and the other at about 15-20% less but didn't have a warranty which price would you chose and why?

 

[SinglecutGuy]

No company in their right mind would offer that for two main reasons.

#1- Those manufacturers run off a profit margin of about 35% give or take a few points, which anyone in this industry will tell you, is not a lot. Volume is what pays the bills. They don't have any way to create a margin by discounting their product to the dealer, to then resell it. While it may move numbers initially....

#2- This would devalue the product, and ultimately affect the pricing of the resale market, which would further the gap between a new and used item, thus giving the end-user more of a reason to buy used. Ultimately putting the manufacturer out of business.


Moral of the story, buy new and support your local music stores.

 

[skeeterbuck]

Yea I understand that their not going to do it. My question is IF they did would you pay the additional amount for the peace of mind for having a warranty or pay the lesser amount and take the risk that you won't have any problems.

 

[big_aug]

Does a warranty even cover anything that wouldn't be cheap to have fixed at a local shop?

 

[Tim Plains]

I would not because I modify mine.
Not to mention there is no lifetime warranty outside the US. Gibson anyways.

 

[stevieboy]

I don't buy the extended warranty on anything when offered.

And as far as guitars go, I've never had anything go wrong that might require a warranty repair.

 

[Gallery]

After almost a year of ownership the paint over the glued seams on my ES-335 started to crack and delaminate from the guitar. It was almost as if the glue off-gassed because it hadn't finished curing. Anyway, Gibson made good on the warranty and gave me a new one. The guitar was stored under normal conditions and no irregularity was evident when I first got it.

Because of that situation, I'd never buy a new, or almost new, or new without tags, or new from an unauthorized dealer, guitar without the warranty. I see lots of people selling new guitars without warranties for thousands of dollars. You'd better discount that **** by at least 50% for me to bite. I work too hard for my money to take that risk.

Used guitars are a different story. After several years, there's not much that can go wrong that would be really expensive to fix. It's really only the first few years where you're at risk.