EBMM Abasi Kaizen

[jephjacques]

Yeah I stopped trying to sell shit on reverb, it's just not worth the hassle anymore. I just consign stuff at actual guitar shops.

 

[Wucan]

I sold my ET Viper a few months ago on Reverb. I set a price I thought was reasonable, ignored lowballers and eventually someone made a close enough offer. No muss no fuzz on the transaction.

Most of my buying experience has been good too. Only one stands out - I got a Squier that came without the whammy bar, I pointed that out since the guitar was described "as new" and the ad didn't mention a lack of vibrato, and he went absolutely apeshit on me telling me he'd have Reverb force me to ship the guitar back. That's legit the only sketchy guitar experience I've had in classifieds, and I'm a regular Craigslist enjoyer...

 

[The Blue Ghost]

The Reverb experience nowadays:

 

[SalsaWood]

Yeah, just to piggyback on this, there is no "as is" on Reverb. There's "as described in the listing." And there IS buyer protection if the guitar isn't as described. I list all my guitars this way because I'm not a music store. I'm a guy selling gear on the side and then buying more gear. Why would I have something ridiculous like a 30 day return policy?

Try returning a guitar you bought through Craigslist. Ask one of those dudes you meet in a parking lot what their return policy is.

Anything beyond "as described" on Reverb is the seller going above and beyond.

The terminology is exactly "as described", but Reverb means as is (described). What if it's not as described? Reverb won't do anything about it. It's like asking the local classifieds paper to back up a private sale of a broken lawnmower, not their problem. I can get fucked over anywhere else too, I don't know what I need to pay Reverb for.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I don't think folks realize that you still have to vet Reverb sellers. I don't give a shit how their rating looks, if they have less than a dozen or so transactions and it's all cheapo stuff, I pass.

 

[Wucan]

The terminology is exactly "as described", but Reverb means as is (described). What if it's not as described? Reverb won't do anything about it. It's like asking the local classifieds paper to back up a private sale of a broken lawnmower, not their problem. I can get fucked over anywhere else too, I don't know what I need to pay Reverb for.

That's not true. Reverb is more like eBay, which is why they charge both a transaction and a payments fee for every sale. If they're not doing anything about people selling shit in worse condition than described or with undisclosed defects then they're reneging on their own rules.

 

[SalsaWood]

That's not true. Reverb is more like eBay, which is why they charge both a transaction and a payments fee for every sale. If they're not doing anything about people selling shit in worse condition than described or with undisclosed defects then they're reneging on their own rules.

It is true, I lived it three times in a row. Once with a S5527, once with a Mayones Regius 7, and once again with another S5527.

The first S5527 had flat frets, filed flat. The Regius had a twisted neck and was completely unplayable- well I guess it would do 7 notes, all the open strings. The other S5527 was sold as mint but had swapped pickups, fucked up wiring, and some pretty serious undisclosed blemishes.

Of course I had to prove to Reverb that these things didn't happen during shipping just so they could tell me I'm on my own. This was a year ago so I don't have the emails anymore, but hand to God they didn't back up a single thing at all. On the last one I literally had to do a chargeback through PayPal and returned the guitar to some warehouse in the middle of BFE. The other two I had to take up the rear reselling something that wasn't even close to the value I had originally paid for. I've bought maybe three or four guitars off Ebay in my life, two of them I still have now, but all were good to go and as stated. I've bought three guitars off Reverb and while yes it might be rotten luck 100% of them were not straight up deals by the sellers.

 

[somethingsomething]

The terminology is exactly "as described", but Reverb means as is (described). What if it's not as described? Reverb won't do anything about it. It's like asking the local classifieds paper to back up a private sale of a broken lawnmower, not their problem. I can get fucked over anywhere else too, I don't know what I need to pay Reverb for.

I mean, not according to Reverb's website. Reverb has a page on what to do if an item isn't "as described" right here: https://help.reverb.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003063773

I can't comment on what Reverb's support is like, but they certainly claim to have some kind of "buyer's protection" if an item has some significant defect that wasn't in the listing's description. Obviously, if support isn't stepping in when there's good reason too, that's an issue with Reverb. My experience on eBay is that support pretty much always sides with the buyer, even when they're in the wrong. But I don't know about Reverb. I've been lucky enough to not have any significant issues.

But yeah, you still have to exercise caution. I've seen established music stores list a guitar as "mint and unplayed" when I could easily tell that the pickups had been swapped.

 

[SalsaWood]

They kept telling me to talk to the sellers, the sellers kept telling me "Let's see what Reverb says", and surprise surprise I got left holding the short end of the guitars.

I'm telling you straight up, I did everything 100% by the book and they didn't do a single thing for my end of the situation as a buyer. Maybe it's hard to believe they wouldn't back up their word, but it happens all the time either between people promoting their business fast and loose, employees that don't GAF, or just lying to get people in the door.

I'd be very interested to hear of any instances where Reverb did in fact protect the buyer after a crooked deal. They didn't back up my two 1k$+ and one 3k$+ transactions fer shit.

 

[Andromalia]

Anyway, this was like weeks of drama in the close-knit JP guitar selling community previously. But yea, if I could pay not to deal with such people I would. I haven't found that option yet though

Well to me the good side of online sales is I don't have to deal with the salesmen that stick to you like glue spewing nonsense about goods they know less than you. If I have to suffer that crap online, I'll go back to the shops, at least it's easy to make a salesman shut up.

 

[Wucan]

It is true, I lived it three times in a row. Once with a S5527, once with a Mayones Regius 7, and once again with another S5527.

The first S5527 had flat frets, filed flat. The Regius had a twisted neck and was completely unplayable- well I guess it would do 7 notes, all the open strings. The other S5527 was sold as mint but had swapped pickups, fucked up wiring, and some pretty serious undisclosed blemishes.

Of course I had to prove to Reverb that these things didn't happen during shipping just so they could tell me I'm on my own. This was a year ago so I don't have the emails anymore, but hand to God they didn't back up a single thing at all. On the last one I literally had to do a chargeback through PayPal and returned the guitar to some warehouse in the middle of BFE. The other two I had to take up the rear reselling something that wasn't even close to the value I had originally paid for. I've bought maybe three or four guitars off Ebay in my life, two of them I still have now, but all were good to go and as stated. I've bought three guitars off Reverb and while yes it might be rotten luck 100% of them were not straight up deals by the sellers.

That's super shitty. The one time I bought a guitar off Reverb that had a significant undescribed problem, I was able to get a partial reimbursement that covered the cost of repair.

 

[somethingsomething]

I'd be very interested to hear of any instances where Reverb did in fact protect the buyer after a crooked deal. They didn't back up my two 1k$+ and one 3k$+ transactions fer shit.

The only time I had to deal with support was on a pedal purchase, so it wasn't super costly. It was an instance where I bought the pedal and then the seller was like, "oops, pedal doesn't work, I'll cancel the order and refund you." And then he just never did anything.

I had to contact support and they made me wait like two weeks for a refund while they "contacted the seller." I was like, "you can see our messages, right? Dude told me he wasn't going to ship the pedal, so what are we waiting on?"

Anyway, I DID get the refund, but it was annoying. I imagine a situation where you're claiming a guitar wasn't as described is more difficult just because there are so many variables.

 

[Soya]

They kept telling me to talk to the sellers, the sellers kept telling me "Let's see what Reverb says", and surprise surprise I got left holding the short end of the guitars.

I'm telling you straight up, I did everything 100% by the book and they didn't do a single thing for my end of the situation as a buyer. Maybe it's hard to believe they wouldn't back up their word, but it happens all the time either between people promoting their business fast and loose, employees that don't GAF, or just lying to get people in the door.

I'd be very interested to hear of any instances where Reverb did in fact protect the buyer after a crooked deal. They didn't back up my two 1k$+ and one 3k$+ transactions fer shit.

I had lots of positive experiences with reverb customer service pre-Etsy. After the buyout and offloading of the customer service it's been much worse. Sort of glad these days I don't really buy and sell stuff, too much trouble.

 

[MetalDestroyer]

Did they drop the price on the Kaizen for the full release? The initial run are all listed at 3999, but the regular page on Music Man's website has them at 3799:
EDIT: that's actually the 6 lmao. Did they announce a 6 at all or have I just been out of the loop?

Kaizen

The Kaizen Guitar is a collaboration between the Ernie Ball Music Man design team and the renowned guitarist Tosin Abasi

www.music-man.com

I still think the mint is the hottest of the bunch

 

[Alberto7]

Did they drop the price on the Kaizen for the full release? The initial run are all listed at 3999, but the regular page on Music Man's website has them at 3799:
EDIT: that's actually the 6 lmao. Did they announce a 6 at all or have I just been out of the loop?

Kaizen

The Kaizen Guitar is a collaboration between the Ernie Ball Music Man design team and the renowned guitarist Tosin Abasi

www.music-man.com

I still think the mint is the hottest of the bunch

They did announce a 6:


Honestly it's more enticing than the 7!

EDIT: hhmmmm maybe you can't see that link from here. Regardless, I took it from Music Man's Facebook page, and I assume they've posted it on their other socials as well.

 

[StevenC]

Make an 8 you cowards

 

[thorgan]

They should give the people (me) what they really want...

 

[The Blue Ghost]

Tried a Kaizen at my local music shop today. Only got to try it unplugged without the trem bar but anyway.

What I like:

Very comfortable neck and bodyshape. The neck felt like a D profile to me; very flat and a tad bit thicker than say a majesty but still very comfortable. I really like the flat radius and slight tilt of the fretboard. It's not something I like more than the guitars I have at home but I really dug the neck overall.

What I don't really like:

The tuners:

Not that bad but I really prefer the regular locking Schallers and these only feel like they're different for the sake of it.

Upperfret access:

I like to play full scales and arpeggios high up on the neck and like almost all multiscale guitars I've tried that position isn't as comfortable or even playable to me as a straight fret instrument. Add a bolt on heel to that and it felt like the instrument didn't want to allow me to play above the 19th fret if I wasn't playing strictly on the high e string.

Conclusion:

Did a quick playtest on a Kaizen unplugged. Great feeling quality instrument but I feel that the Petrucci line still eats the Kaizen's lunch by offering more features and better playability. Since they're kind of aimed at the same market the Kaizen feels kind of unnecessary imo. The fan fret doesn't extend beyond 25.5" either which feels like a missed opportunity.

Sidenote: the fretboard looked more like stained maple than ebony?

Hope ebmm keeps trying new things though.

 

[Wucan]

Stained

Tried a Kaizen at my local music shop today. Only got to try it unplugged without the trem bar but anyway.

What I like:

Very comfortable neck and bodyshape. The neck felt like a D profile to me; very flat and a tad bit thicker than say a majesty but still very comfortable. I really like the flat radius and slight tilt of the fretboard. It's not something I like more than the guitars I have at home but I really dug the neck overall.

What I don't really like:

The tuners:

Not that bad but I really prefer the regular locking Schallers and these only feel like they're different for the sake of it.

Upperfret access:

I like to play full scales and arpeggios high up on the neck and like almost all multiscale guitars I've tried that position isn't as comfortable or even playable to me as a straight fret instrument. Add a bolt on heel to that and it felt like the instrument didn't want to allow me to play above the 19th fret if I wasn't playing strictly on the high e string.

Conclusion:

Did a quick playtest on a Kaizen unplugged. Great feeling quality instrument but I feel that the Petrucci line still eats the Kaizen's lunch by offering more features and better playability. Since they're kind of aimed at the same market the Kaizen feels kind of unnecessary imo. The fan fret doesn't extend beyond 25.5" either which feels like a missed opportunity.

Sidenote: the fretboard looked more like stained maple than ebony?

Hope ebmm keeps trying new things though.

Stained maple (i.e. darkened) looks more like Rosewood than Ebony. Something like this

Macassar ebony fretboards can have a lot of light/brown streaks though, so that might've been the case with the specific guitar you played.

 

[The Blue Ghost]

H

Stained


Stained maple (i.e. darkened) looks more like Rosewood than Ebony. Something like this

Macassar ebony fretboards can have a lot of light/brown streaks though, so that might've been the case with the specific guitar you played.

Hmm. The streaks looked relatively similar to the roasted maple and not like any ebony with streaks that I've seen before. If anything the closest it looked like was like the rosewood fretboard on my cheapo Ibanez but stained a little bit darker.