New Tribute HB

Today I received a Tribute Legacy HB I purchased on-line. The dealer said it was "used, mint, no blemishes" but it came in the G&L inner carton with tools, hang tag, and the plastic still on the pickguard. Seems it wasn't really used. Overall it's nice but the build quality doesn't seem nearly as good as my Tribute ASAT Jr. Might be partially due to a lack of richness of the clear satin finished neck as opposed to tinted gloss. Also I can feel some of the grain pattern on the back of the neck and there is a rough spot in the satin finish near the neck to head-stock transition.

One real oddity is that the white tremolo cover on the back of the guitar has turned yellow with a pristine white circle in the middle. Looks like there was a sticker on it and bleached by the sun, but the plastic is still on the cover. As long as it isn't a sign of some sort of abuse, I guess I really don't care. I don't have any online photo storage so no picture attached. Any thoughts on how this might have occurred? There's also an "Inspected by" sticker on the clear plastic covering the pickguard. Finally the hang tag that tells the G&L Tribute story has about 5 spelling errors on it. Funny. Not sure if I am going to keep it, but if I do does anyone know if these guitars fit in the SKB economy Strat case?

Last question first: Yes, the Tribute Legacy HB will fit into a standard Strat style case.

As for the rest, something sounds fishy. Things don't all add up. Not sure what else to say.

edg

as far as the neck , sand lightly with some 1500 to 2000 grit sand paper for a few swipes to smooth it out , don't go crazy or press hard , your just trying to knock the high spot down a little and smooth it out

One real oddity is that the white tremolo cover on the back of the guitar has turned yellow with a pristine white circle in the middle. Looks like there was a sticker on it and bleached by the sun, but the plastic is still on the cover. As long as it isn't a sign of some sort of abuse, I guess I really don't care. I don't have any online photo storage so no picture attached. Any thoughts on how this might have occurred?

My guess; there is a refurbishing dep't that might use parts from other returns. Then they just put some plastic film over things and send it out to sales.
(Maybe it was returned because there was no tremelo cavity cover )

Once you get the neck smoother, brown paper bags work nice to buff it up a touch (tip from FredtheFinisher )

Thanks. The open wood grain can be felt through the very light finish that was put on the neck. In order to fix it I would have to sand the neck and refinish it. I'm just going to send it back. I am very surprised and disappointed at the quality of this guitar. The frets are nice, but there is no way it should have left the factory with the neck like this and a discolored tremolo cover. I have other Tribute instruments and the overall quality of this one isn't close.

Thanks. The open wood grain can be felt through the very light finish that was put on the neck. In order to fix it I would have to sand the neck and refinish it. I'm just going to send it back. I am very surprised and disappointed at the quality of this guitar. The frets are nice, but there is no way it should have left the factory with the neck like this and a discolored tremolo cover. I have other Tribute instruments and the overall quality of this one isn't close.

Since this was a used instrument, you cannot be sure that the neck and other parts are stock to this guitar from the factory. What is the serial number?
Do you have any photos of the guitar? If so, please post them.