Guthrie Govan, European deliveries delayed in the extreme with no word

[terje_t]

Hi,

Sorry for making my first post on the forum a negative one. I have a red Style II (Tele) San Dimas that I have nothing but good feelings about, and a Guthrie Govan Birds Eye on the way. Or so I thought..

I have posted about the rather long wait I have experienced since I ordered a GG model in June of 2014 over at TGP: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/ind...lures.1598865/

I'll summarize the situation briefly here too:

I ordered in June of 2014, was told it would be delivered in December 2014. December came and went, and so did a full 7 (!) more promised delivery dates. In May of 2015 I received a sort of explanation that the Guthrie model was difficult to produce, with hard to source materials and this together with high demand was to blame for the delays.

Fair enough.

In mid June 2015, I was told that seven guitars had arrived in the Netherlands. They had all failed inspection. Some problem with the nut. The guitars were sent to England for evaluation and possible repairs. All traces end after that. I have not received any information from the retailer here in Norway and no word from Fender Scandinavia. No new delivery date has been given. Charvel is referring me back to Fender Scandinavia.

Does this fit anyone elses experience with higher priced Charvels ordered into Europe? I have read something about having to prepare for a long wait from the Charvel Custom Shop. But this is not a Custom Shop guitar.

We are now a full seven months after the scheduled delivery date. If the wait itself wasn't bad enough, the complete and disrespectful silence from Charvel/Fender is getting to me at this point. What would you do?

[euronymous]

Buy one from USA dealer. Done!!

And Guitarguitar UK has couple of them available at the moment.

[shreddermon]

I have no idea of what ordering for Europeans is really like, only know of hassles through others here. But that sounds like you may be getting the runaround by a dealer over there. If so, cancel the order and go elsewhere.

[Larz]

Even in the US there can be long waits on production USA select guitars depending on what Jackson is working on at the moment, like if you want a pinstripe KV2 or something like that and it isn't in stock anywhere.

Your wait, given the missed deadlines and lack of communications sounds lousy. You are the customer and have the power to walk away if this is no longer tolerable to you. Hopefully you can do it without being out some deposit money and order one from a better dealer who wants repeat customers and treats them that way.

[jestremera]

I can attest to the issue with the nuts on these guitars. I literally just took mine to the repair shop to have the nut fixed this afternoon. The dealer I got it from told me that a customer asked to have the stock nut replaced. The slots are ridiculously deep, causing the open strings to "choke" a bit. At the same time, the action at the first fret is very high. Weird. All this is getting repaired on mine this weekend. I can say that the guitar is amazing otherwise and worth the wait. I'm sorry for your trouble but you won't be disappointed.

[terje_t]

Thank you, everyone!

I agree 100% that my best bet would be to cancel at this point. Money talks. But since I ordered last year the list price of this guitar has gone up significantly, and the dollar vs the NOK has worsened, so I'd be taking a big hit reordering from someone else at this point :/

thanks for the info, @jestremera. I find it a bit baffling that guitars in this price range leaves the shop with an obviously bad nut. Makes me slightly worried for the rest of the guitar..

[ps43203]

those are stellar quality, I would be worried about just getting the damn thing. A nut is easy to have corrected, sorry for your hassle. I would be furious by now.

[neilli]

That sort of wait is super frustrating, especially when you see them on ebay! I did hear that there were delays getting the production guitars correct and to Guthrie's liking (something to do with the bridge?), but that was months ago now. And there's plenty of them around (there's 4 at musiczoo and 2 at Wild West right now, plus some others on ebay) so they're not proving that difficult to produce.

There have long been stories about the US and Japan getting the 'best' guitars (better tops on LPs etc), but I have no idea if FMIC prioritise dealers in the US (and Japan) above europe. But the fact that there's another cog in the machine (the european distributor) means 3 steps instead of 2 which leads to more wiggle-room for error/blame.

But if you're trapped by a favourable price (or rather the current poor exchange rate) I'm not sure there's much you can do. Have you talked to the distributors direct rather than going through your retailer?