New Toy(s) redux

Although I was very excited to get a hold of a nice Telecaster from a gentleman from the City of Angels, I had a feeling deep inside that things would get complicated. Story goes like so: I am the master of spending lots of time on the interwebz finding the best shit for the cheapest-ish price....which is how I found my Telecaster. A nice (at least I assume he's nice) fellow named Larry who is from Los Angeles was selling his 1997 Tele Standard with various electrical and cosmetic upgrades for a price that was about $50 or so dollars less than anyone else out there...not to mention that I talked him into shipping it to me for an extra $25. The upgrades on said Tele were a new Seymour Duncan hot wound Humbucker that fits in a single coil routed mount, as well as a matching hot wound single coil in the neck position....other upgrades were a super nice aftermarket pick guard. After talking "shop" a bit, Larry explained that he builds his own tube amplifiers and ships everywhere which leads me to believe he has packaging down to a science (which he actually did after inspection). Now the part where this turns to shit...a little anyway.

I wait 5 days and a large box shows up on my front porch. I open the box and spend about 20 mins taking the stellar packing job apart and finally get to the guitar. I am so excited to play it I check the tuning quick and realize that there isnt a tuning machine for the High E string....its in the bottom of the box. Upon further inspection of the Tele I find that the guitar is NOT exactly what I was told it was. The Tele was some crazy ass version that was not a Thru Body strung model and instead of having the nice ass bronze compensated saddles it has some whack hard tail with surface rusted hardware....pissed. Not only were parts on the Tele "funny", but the pickups (which are Seymour Duncans) are actually some other model which isn't too big of a let down but still not what I was buying. The body of the guitar has some gnarly marks on it and the fasteners for the electronics are a bunch of crazy ass shit that should NOT be used on a guitar....let alone screwing together some A-holes rigged up compost bin in their backyard.

All in all, I happen to be friends with a gentleman who plays guitar for (and is an experienced guitar tech for) Janitor Bob and the Armchair Cowboys so all is not lost. Worst part about this whole thing is that I have to deal with UPS's claims department....which I would rather rip my penis off and throw it in the woods than have to do. Here's to buying shit that you can actually put your hands on before you buy and transport yourself...