I recently bought a KM-380S from the Guitar Center website, used, and it has a couple of what may be minor issues that I thought I'd put up here and see what others have to say about it.
GC has a five-level grading system from "excellent" (grade 1) down to "poor" (grade 5.) This instrument was listed as "great" (grade 2.) The price was pretty decent. Unfortunately, GC is notorious for poor or missing photographs. Most items have a single, often blurry, photograph to accompany them, and descriptions of used items is minimal. It's the sort of thing I wouldn't dare do as a seller on eBay -- I always include plenty of photos and err on the exhaustive side when describing an instrument. Not so GC, apparently.
The instrument has several nicks in the top, as shown below. They only show up under certain light angles, so maybe they missed them, but it was not clearly noted in the description.
The other issue, which I've never seen before, are these strange dark markings on the fingerboard binding. They are not pencil lines though they look like it. I tried cleaning them up but they are not surface blemishes, but some sort of cracking in the binding itself. They are only on the side shown, not on the other side. Has anyone else ever seen this sort of blemish?
In addition, the "Kentucky" inscribed tailpiece was nicked and sufficiently scratched up to notice. I posted a query about getting a replacement in the Equipment sub-forum, in the event I decide to keep the instrument, but I am contemplating returning it. I have already sent GC a short email note explaining my concerns, stating that I think they were being over-generous to themselves by giving the mando a grade that I think was at least one level higher than justified. I mooted the possibility of a partial refund or else a return (which they allow, but is a pain in the butt.)
I've had used instruments before -- in fact, my instruments are almost exclusively bought used because it's the best way to get a deal -- and I've never seen a nearly-new instrument with these issues (I've had very, very old instruments that were basket cases, but this one is not in that category.)
The question is, am I being overly picky and obsessive about these issues, or do you think I'm in the right? I can overlook one or two little nicks on a used instrument, but these marks are pretty blatant.
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