NHD... almost

MPR

MPR

Active member
On Sunday, I ordered a 2005 Newport Pro in Vintage Natural from Empire Music. UPS delivered a guitar box today, I opened it up, and inside was… this Newport Pro with an amber flamed maple top and victory inlays on an Ebony board. They did send me the right case, though—in the guitar I actually ordered, someone had swapped out the Seth Lovers for Lollar Imperials and put different knobs on it, and the original pickups and knobs were in the case pocket. Seeing as the guitar they sent me is listed for a $999 more than the one I bought, I'm surprised they weren't a bit more careful.

Anyway, they sent me a return shipping label and promised to overnight me the other Newport (in the maple Newport's case) as soon as they see I've dropped this one off at UPS.

 
MPR said:
On Sunday, I ordered a 2005 Newport Pro in Vintage Natural from Empire Music. UPS delivered a guitar box today, I opened it up, and inside was… this Newport Pro with an amber flamed maple top and victory inlays on an Ebony board. They did send me the right case, though—in the guitar I actually ordered, someone had swapped out the Seth Lovers for Lollar Imperials and put different knobs on it, and the original pickups and knobs were in the case pocket. Seeing as the guitar they sent me is listed for a $999 more than the one I bought, I'm surprised they weren't a bit more careful.

Anyway, they sent me a return shipping label and promised to overnight me the other Newport (in the maple Newport's case) as soon as they see I've dropped this one off at UPS.
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Tell ‘em you’ll ship as soon as they credit you $999 on the guitar you actually *WANTED ! Nyah, AH Ahhh

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Got the right one delivered late this morning. It does have a bit of binding separation at the upper waist and lower cutaway, but that was in the description. Bridge pickup cover has a fair bit of pitting. I was planning to swap in some TV Classics on this one anyway, but I plugged it in to test as-is with the Lollars, and it sounds ace. I recorded an A/B of this and my Artist Custom (with the stock Seth Lovers), and I was surprised that the Lollars are quite a bit lower output. I recorded the Newport first, then without changing any settings on the rig, I plugged in the Artist and was immediately clipping the recording interface on the clean channel, had to cut about 12dB to get roughly the same perceived loudness clean. Anyway, the hollowbody and slightly lower output definitely make this sound smoother and more open than the Artist. The Seths have a bit more quack. Two different flavors of good.

I'm still thinking one Newport with Firebird pickups, one with Filtertrons, an Artist with Seth Lovers, and Artist Korina(s) with 3 P90s gives me a pretty killer stable.

I actually wanted to move the Firebird pickups from my other Newport (vintage orange transparent with Bigsby) to this one and put the 'trons in that one, to complete the nod to Gretsch, but I'll gonna have to get or make custom pickup rings to do so, since that Newport came from the factory with the bigger chrome rings that TV Jones's Gibson-style mounts won't fit.

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MPR said:
I'll gonna have to get or make custom pickup rings to do so, since that Newport came from the factory with the bigger chrome rings that TV Jones's Gibson-style mounts won't fit.
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These are only $8.00 each and come in short or tall, black or cream: https://tvjones.com/em1-gibson-style-pickup-ring-with-mounting-screws/

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RING_-_EM1_BLACK_TALL_PROFILE-CP__84975.1599782101.jpg
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ETA: sorry, I failed to congratulate you on a spectacular purchase. Fantastic! 

 
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I was traveling yesterday and stopped at a gas station for a rest room break.  I decided to grab a Powerball ticket.  Handed the girl a twenty.  She gave me the ticket, four fives and three ones in change.  I immediately said “hey you gave me too much change”, and she was thankful that I was honest.  I believe in karma, and while every man has his price, mine would be a lot higher than $5.

THAT SAID, if they sent me that wrong guitar, it would have taken me several more minutes to come to the decision you made to call and tell them.  If it was Guitar Center, it might have taken several hours, or maybe days LOL. You made the right and moral decision, but if I was the owner of that shop, I would have at least credited you $50 for your trouble.

 
Cary said:
… if they sent me that wrong guitar, it would have taken me several more minutes to come to the decision you made to call and tell them.  If it was Guitar Center, it might have taken several hours, or maybe days LOL. You made the right and moral decision, but if I was the owner of that shop, I would have at least credited you $50 for your trouble.
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Honestly, holding onto the other guitar wasn't even a temptation. I know it's worth more on the open market, but I didn't want maple and victory inlays; I wanted the spruce top and clean fretboard (if I could have custom ordered one, I'd probably have gone with no inlays at all). I did think about asking for some sort of monetary credit for the hassle, but I figured it was already gonna be a rougher day on the guys at the shop than on me, plus they had to pay quite a bit of extra shipping between the return of the wrong guitar and overnight air for the right one. And on my end, two more days of waiting and a stop by the UPS store on my way to work isn't exactly a heavy cross to bear.

And now I have a funny story to tell about my new guitar.

 
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MPR said:
Honestly, holding onto the other guitar wasn't even a temptation. I know it's worth more on the open market, but I didn't want maple and victory inlays; I wanted the spruce top and clean fretboard (if I could have custom ordered one, I'd probably have gone with no inlays at all). I did think about asking for some sort of monetary credit for the hassle, but I figured it was already gonna be a rougher day on the guys at the shop than on me, plus they had to pay quite a bit of extra shipping between the return of the wrong guitar and overnight air for the right one. And on my end, two more days of waiting and a stop by the UPS store on my way to work isn't exactly a heavy cross to bear.

And now I have a funny story to tell about my new guitar.
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Spruce top, clean fret board for the win.

 
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