"Used" stamp on Headstock?

[D Carroll]

Epiphone puts a "2nd" on it if it is a factory B-stock. Not used.

[aliensporebomb]

 

I forgot there was store in Bloomington. Not on my side of town. I've been doing business with the Woodbury and Roseville stores for years. I like both stores. I alway search thier web site for new arrivals. Found a few good deals over the years. The Roseville store stocks a good selection of parts and tubes. If I need something in a pinch I usually run down there.

 

 

I got my Alvarez CE acoustic and my Ibanez Artist AR300 at the Woodbury

store, a cool place to look around for new gear.

 

The Burnsville MGR is close to me and sort of danagerous because they are

an ESP dealer (not LTD) and do random custom orders of ESP horizons, a

guitar I've always wanted one of.

[Dr Wanker]

 

Epiphone puts a "2nd" on it if it is a factory B-stock. Not used.

 

 

Yeah. Some people just don't get it. Some STORES stamped guitars used, (factory returns might, but who returns to the factory instead of the distributor?). A factory guitar with marks on it isn't USED, it's a blem or a second. Usually a Blam has marks (bumps scrape) and a second has a minor flaw (like bubbles in the finish, wrong inlays or a part is on crocked) but still plays fine.

[John Hinton]

I just bought a 2010 Epiphone Les Paul goldtop from an individual for really cheap. It's stamped USED under the stain and the last 3 serial numbers are gone. It has coil tapping exposed black pickups, and Grover tuners with a pickguard. Restrung it and has superb action. Pickups are really fat. Thought it was a Slash but truss rod cover says les Paul standard and no tulip tuners. Marked limited edition custom shop and plays great. What is it?!!

[crustoleum]

MIRC

[brucebennett]

Google " MIRC  Franklin TN"

 a well kept secret in the industry.. until now.

 they buy up as much of all the factories broken or damaged guitars they can,   and they repair them and stamped them "used" on the back of the headstock and resell them to places like MGR and other small dealers that just want to have some well known name brands on the walls without the huge Dealer Minimum buy ins required by the Manufacturers.

 They do excellent quality work and there is nothing to fear,  except for maybe the pricing.  some models,  depending on the repairs required,   can get darn close to full retail once in the stores..

 

 

[1001gear]

Previously Un- owned dun fit. I like the idea though. I guess they don't do one off repairs?

[6down1togo]

Gibson does not sell guitars marked as"seconds" or "blems'. They push them through high volume e -retailers and hope for the best. The inevitable return gets recycled as a return guitar with a corresponding price reduction. If unsold at a reduced price, they are returned to Gibson and accumulate for "special sale". CME most recently had a major blowout of hundersds of Gibson guitars described as "floor models". All were basically new but carried no Gibson warranty and were shipped in CME packaging, not Gibson. Memphis ES-335's were as low as $1800 and Les Paul Standards as low as $1300.  CME provided their own warranty for these guitars.

Epiphone sells their blems/defects/returns to 3rd party refurbishers who are instructed to mark them as 2nd or Used or deface the serial number to avoid bogus warranty claims. Where a serial numbers is defaced a new, non-conforming serial number sticker is applied. Sometimes the defect is a simple solder joint connection failure or a small cosmetic on an otherwise new guitar requiring a simple touch up or solder refloat.  In other  cases, you will find re-glued fingerboards, repaired headstock breaks, miss-matched (OEM but incorrect for the model) or non-oem pickups and non-oem hardware on these guitars. An large group of Epiphone Ultra III Les Pauls was defected due to cracking of the plastic jack plate from overtightening. I bought one from a dealer (for $350) who specializes in refurbished guitars and it was new in every aspect including the replaced jack plate.  It was however, stamped 2nd and also had the serial number overstamped with X's.

Rejected Washburn guitars guitar are marked with a single punch in middle of the back of the headstock and sold to third parties refurbishers and retailers specializing in these types of guitars.  I bought a "Used but like new" Washburn HB 35 from a well-known used guitar chain and found they had peeled off a compliance sticker normally located at the base of the neck and placed it over the punched hole in order to sell it as a first quality guitar rather than a second.