Post
by MaritimeGuitarist » Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:33 pm
Years ago, when I was young and foolish, I purchased a classical guitar (around $1500 US dollars--over $2000 CDN) in the middle of January from a reputable seller from California on e - b a y. I was living in Northern Ontario at the time. When the guitar arrived, I immediately noticed spider web cracking all over the finish--every inch of it. Though I told myself I could live with this, it wasn't long before the guitar developed a major crack all the way from the top to the bottom of the rosewood back of the guitar. Repair estimates from a local luthier were upwards of $400 as the crack was wide enough that he would have insert an additional piece of rosewood to fix it.
I can't say for sure that these problems were due to the weather or poor construction (the guitar was built by an fairly unknown luthier), but I have never had a guitar shipped to me in the winter again. Nowadays, I would never buy a guitar without being able to try it first anyways.