About 5 years ago, i went into guitar center in mayfield heights ohio and there was a rare respite from the usual $300 instrument line they normally have hanging there.
There was an Ibanez LGB30 which is the more reasonably priced (chinese made) version of the very expensive LGB-300 guitar.
It was used and they wanted about $800 for it which was reasonable for (retail) used.
I played it and it sounded REALLY good. Except that it was a buzz-fest. Sounded like a sitar if you dug in even a little. I asked them if I could get a free fret level and they said I could not but that the repairman was relatively inexpensive.
So I bought it and left it for the repairman to work on. I figured if I could get a great jazz axe for $900, it would still be a great deal.
A week later, I get a call from the repairman saying that there was no buzzing and he didn't know what I wanted done on it. I was kind of shocked and offered to come in and demonstrate the issue. I was kind of puzzled because it wasn't just one or two frets. The buzzing was all over. I'm guessing the nut was cut way too low or that there was a high fret, very low on the fingerboard.
At any rate, I come in and he plugs it into a little SS marshall with the preamp dimed, and proceeds to play a bunch of chugga-chugga and metal riffs on it at high gain, on the bridge pickup and says, “See, there's no buzzing”.
I asked him for the guitar, adjusted the amp so that the master was all the way up, the preamp was down around 9 O'Clock, put the guitar on the neck pickup and played a few jazz lines and chords.
He replied, “What is that??? I don't even know what that is. WHO PLAYS LIKE THAT???”
I asked him if he was familiar with jazz guitar or clean sounds and he said he was not but that he knew some people played without gain.
NOTE - THIS IS GUITAR CENTER'S REPAIRMAN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT.
He told me, “I would have no idea how to fix something so that playing that stuff sounds good”. I thanked him for his time and immediately took the guitar back to the sales counter and initiated a return.
