Guitars you really wanted, but turned out to be a disappointment

Gibson explorer, though for me, it's not built poorly or have a neck I don't like, it just sounds too warm and muddled.

I hate it because it's one of my favorite guitars to play, it just doesn't sound very good. I might try offsetting some of the mud with different pickups, but even acoustically it sounds kind of dull so I'm not sure what good it'll do. I'll never sell it though. I just don't play it as much as I'd like to.

 

ESP Ninja Amott sig (the one with the mirror pickguard). Flew to another state to try it out with coin in wallet ready to purchase. Played it for 5 minutes and walked out of the shop. It was an awesome instrument, the finish on it was sick but i just couldn't deal with the neck profile.

 

The Agile Septor Elite 730 just the scale length and it being 7 string it hurt my fretting hand to much to play also was a bit to much depth to it not enough bite in its tone.

 

Ibanez USA Custom RG. Sold my beautiful RG1550FM -RBT to buy it which was an even bigger mistake.

However, the USA Custom turned out to be terrible. Every piece of metal was well rusted, the pickups were horrible and it never stayed in tune. Also turned out that the neck wasn't original (though it was an RG770 neck, so not far off) so I sold it about 2 - 3 weeks later.


Gibson Gothic Flying V. Wanted one since they first came out and the opportunity came up for a great deal. Now the guitar sounded incredible, played great and was in good condition. However I could never get the Low E to intonate and quite frankly, I looked like an idiot playing a V.

 

I wanted to get a Squier strat, but now that I've had mine for 4 years, I've never really been satisfied with it to be honest. My two big ideas of improving it are to change the pickups from the stock ones to some nicer ones and replace the neck with a 22nd fret since I am not a 21-fret guy.

 

Strandberg Boden OS. Well, it wasn't what I truly wanted (which was the Skervesen Shoggie I eventually got) but I gave the Strandberg a try because it was cheaper and available right away. If we ignore that I got a total lemon that should not have ended up in my hands, their design has several issues:

• Bolt-on heel goes high up the neck, enough to get in my way.
• Adjusting action is a major pain. Detune string, remove string, unlock post, raise/lower post, reverse previous steps. Repeat 6+ times.
• Tuners are super stiff. I had to use the allen key to turn them at all.
• Endurneck does nothing for me. I prefer the more subtle version of it on my Skervesen, those angular edges are not a plus.
• Scale length could be 0.5" shorter on the high strings on 8-strings and slightly longer on the low strings on 7-string models. Both my Kiesel AM7 and Skervesen Shoggie 8 feels much better than the Boden OS 8 did.

I would still be interested in a headless bass from them and really want to like their guitars but they are far from perfect. I wish the Boden Js were more available because they are built so much better than the Korean models.

 

Definitely depends on what pickups you have and style of music you are playing. I have a USA V with 496R/500T pickups that slays at everything from modern high gain metal to blues. I have a MUCH more expensive LP Custom Shop Figured Custom with Burstbucker 2 and 3 that sounds like hot garbage IMO. Bad for everything and doesn't seem to play well with anything I own. I also have two with their Gibson P90 pickups that are 10/10 (for P90 purposes). And I just bought a 2018 HP SG with Classic and Super '57 pickups which are great for blues and rock, but the low end is rounded and fat (prob what you have in yours?) which does not make for good modern high gain style playing (tight riffing and detuned clarity). Through a Sky King (Fender style) amp with Ethos TWE pedal (Trainwreck) it was an absolute 10/10 for me earlier today... so good I was almost late for work lol. But I wasn't playing Periphery covers either...

So really depends on what style you are playing and your rig.

For me, it was my Mayones NAMM Setius. I so wanted to love her. The neck finish was amazing and the guitar was flawless. But it just did nothing for me. I usually don't mind thicker necks (I love my Schecter Loomis!), but the neck was clunky and not fast. The tone was so sterile too. Probably perfect to mate with an Axe FX lol.

 

I had the Gothic Explorer, I found the exact same thing. The low E just would not intonate. Plus, much like the earlier Explorer comment, it really sounded like mud, even after I changed the pickups. It's a shame, I really loved the look of it, and it was the first guitar I ever bought with my own money, but I parted with it more than a decade ago. In my weaker moments I still miss it, but I've parted with a lot of other guitars I've loved much more.

 

Just some advice for everyone that visits this thread: even if a guitar disappointed you, you may find that you love another of the exact same model. I've had that happen so many times that I stopped judging brands and models altogether. You can get an amazing Agile, a terrible Suhr, and vice versa.

 

For sure agile are still good guitars just I should try and shorter scale length.

 

I'm starting to realize this as well with a lot of Explorers. They tend to sound muddy and undefined compared to other guitars. Even my current Explorer sounds pretty dark compared to other mahogany-styled guitars. Had to sell my Epiphone 1984 because of this.

 

This is probably fair. I do have other gibsons that absolutely crush. My LP traditional is hands down my favorite guitar overall. Stock everything and it sounds/plays amazingly. That guitar is how I found out I love fat necks. I can play that thing for days and not cramp up like I do on any ibanez or modern schecter. I have a peavey rotor with an equally fantastic neck, which I play much more than the gibson explorer just because it sounds nicer to me.

 

Another vote for the Gibson Gothic Explorer. Always wanted a Gibson Explorer, mine actually sounded beastly, but the guitar was made shitty.
The finish was weak, it felt like it was losing value everytime I picked it up. The fretboard was breaking off. The worst was that any amount of sweat and the finish on the back of the neck was like glue. Wrote a bunch on it, super inspired, took it to practice once and wished I had brought a back up. Sold immediately after.

 

My first Ibanez back in 2007, which was XPT700. Edge III bridge really sucked ass. Overall very "indonesian" feeling guitar, gloss painted neck.

2011 the first sevenstring, Schecter JL-7 NT. It had old and thick Schecter neck profile, and that was way too thick. EMG 707 pickups weren't great either.

First Prestige Ibanez in 2015, RG652KFX-KB. There was just something about that guitar I didn't feel. It was beatiful though, and one of the best looking guitars I've owned.

And last Ibanez RGA121-NTF. Cosmo black hardware, laquer it has in body and neck combined with rosewood fretboard have kind of icky feeling, volume pot is also too close to the bridge. Probably will end up selling this too.

Every guitar with tune-o-matic and high profile pickup rings has been a disappointment too, because they affect to my picking hand a bit too much. Lots of Ibanez, and I've been thinking getting something else all the time.

 

Lol, i don't think anyone is, they're few and far between to say the least...

 

‚96 Ibby JPM P2 was love/hate party. It sounded really great. Stayed in tune very well. But the thick neck was not for me at all. That over years became a deal breaker and i sold it. Sometimes i miss it tho.

 

Just about every Caparison I've owned or played.

Around 2004 I was kinda bored with Ibanez. I thought about moving a few UVs and had my mind set on a Dellinger 7. I bought two of them. Huge mistake! The fit and finish was okay at best, the fretwork was solid, but no better than an off the shelf RG1550. They didn't sound very good either. I spent a wad of cash on new pickups and put a lot of time in on the bench getting them to play like the almost $2800 guitars they were at the time, remember this was early 00's. I wound up trading them off, would of lost my shirt if I sold them. Really soured me on the brand. I've played more since and despite a couple artist models they've never spoken to me.

Another would be Strandberg, more specifically a Washberg. I was pumped to get one. I had turned down a Made To Measure spot as I didn't want to wait an additional year or two. I even drove down to Chicago to check them out. Broke my heart. They weren't awful, but they weren't great either. Tons of little flaws. Of the three available I grabbed what seemed like the best. Tried to love it for a week, threw it in a closet and put it up on CL a few days later.

 

When I first started playing I really wanted a bc rich pro x mockingbird as it had just come out at the time. So I saved up for it and finally got it and..... I basically spent more time trying to get it playable than playing it. I suspect that the truss rod didn't work as all the adjusting on earth couldn't get that neck straight. One of the posts for the Floyd also made a terrible grinding noise every time you turned it. I had to sell it for less than a third of what i paid for it because I kept it far longer than i should have. That's my biggest disappointment. I also had a esp standard m-2 maple that felt great in the hand especially the shape of the neck and had no real issues visible to the eye.... until you tried to play it and realized it resonated like a piece of wet cardboard. Total dead plank feeling.

 

EBMM JP7 w/piezo.

When they launched the JP range and saw the 7 string with piezo, I really wanted one. In 2013 I saw a second-hand one for £1600 and bought it up.

Now, it was a good guitar, no doubt. Well made, sounded pretty good - especially through a Mesa Triaxis & 2:90 . However, it just felt like a fight for me. At first I thought it was the extra string (it was my first 7). But then I just hated the term, the pickup selector position, tuning & intonation were never stable (despite setups) and a few other things. I was genuinely disappointed when I finally admitted to myself that it was not the guitar for me.

I was glad to get it sold last year and it pretty much paid for the new Ibby RG752AHM that I bought. For whatever reason, I'm totally at home with that one.