Need help buying new guitar...

[Jivin]

Hey

I'm an Australian resident, and i'm looking at purchasing a guitar from the site music123.com. I'm looking at getting the Jackson DXMG (http://www.music123.com/item/?itemno=71131&match=1) with a Jackson hardshell case for $690USD including international postage (thats about $890AUD).

Now i'm aware of the general opinion of ordering guitars of the internet, but i'm afraid the insanely expensive prices over here transcend and negative possibilities of getting a lemon guitar or not having local service. To get the same guitar with the same model hardshell jackson case in Australia the best price I've found is $1350AUD.... thats $450 more..... and even if i get hit with tax when it hits aussie customs its still only $950

Anway, the one thing im very worried about is that, well you see earlier on in the peice I was going to get a DX10D Dinky and put 2 new pickups on it, but it has a volume knob RIGHT up under the bridge pickup, which is just plain bad on a metal guitar as far as im concerned - however, the DXMG doesnt have this (cause its only got 1 tone pot i imagine), but the knob is still rather close considering im used to a gutiar with its control down fairly low. Does anyone else have this problem with their guitar? Any ideas? cause it seems like such a small issue and I really love this guitar.

Also, your probably thinking "has this idiot played this guitar before he's thinkig of buying it?" well... no i haven't, but im tring hard to find somewhere near me who stocks one of the things so I can try it, cause i doubt i would be able to bring myself to buy a guitar without trying it out well first. Its also a bit of a bummer because to get the volume knob even that low i needed to go the DXMG model, and by doing that im getting a more expensive guitar that already has 2 EMG-HZ's in it, and although I would probably be satisfied with those pickups, i wouldnt have minded choosing them myself I suppose I could always sell the bridge HZ in mint conidtion and get an EMG-81 or a Seymour Duncan Invader. Still, that is no big deal, I would be content to go with the HZ's and look at my options IF they werent up to scratch, although ive played them before and i thought they were fine.... some peopel say pinch harmonics on them are abosulutely horrible... and i dont like the sound of that.

So, any advice that might help me in my sitation would be greatly appreciated, as im in a bit of a bind... although for me finding somewhere to have a good play on a demo of this guitar is at the top of my agenda.

Thanks a lot,

- Dan

PS: Sorry for making you all read so much

[syxxstring]

I wouldnt worry about the volume controll being too high. Many people put it thier so they can use it while playing. Youd have to be really wildly picking for this to be an issue. I prefer a guitar i can hook my pinky on to swell stuff.

[wylde1919]

I dunno about the rest of that stuff but I can say that the HZ p/ups dont sound bad doing pinch harmonics. And from my name you can probably tell I like to play alot of "pings"

[Hotrock]

Build one dag nabbit. Ask the other ozzies how much it costs to build one over there. You might end up with the guitar you've always dreamed of. You can put the controls where you want! Of course, with the way my projects are going you might end up without a girlfriend too

[mmm-pousto]

for starters I usually play strat's or strat copies....Keep that in mind.....I also find the very close volume knob highly annoying-this is what I do .....romove both tone knobs all together, you will get a hotter signal from your pick ups (as if the tone knob was turned to 10, plus a little bit more) then I plug the hole with hex screw covers ( usually $1 usd ea. at the hardware store ) this won't work for you if you use your tone knobs a lot ....... I aggree with building one yourself however ......this way you get what you want and it's usually cheaper (theoretically anyways, I want to do one but havn't yet) warmoth.com has tons of body shapes and necks and etc. etc. ...... they can route the body and drill holes for most common setups......btw if anyone outhere reading this has had any experience bad good or neutral with warmoth or making a kit guitar from them (or anywhere else) tell me what you think of them......

sorry if this is too scatterbrained for y'all

[Jivin]

Build one dag nabbit. Ask the other ozzies how much it costs to build one over there. You might end up with the guitar you've always dreamed of. You can put the controls where you want! Of course, with the way my projects are going you might end up without a girlfriend too

Hmmm

I've never built a guitar before, and the closest I have come is the warlock copy I am in the process of refinishing as a learning project. I'm not saying I dont want to build a guitar, but im talking about buying a pretty serious peice of equipment here... i mean, its like at the very low end of proffessional stuff, and I dont think i have the skill or the money to blow to go spending the money on good enough quality parts to build a guitar comparable in quality to the DXMG (for example) when there is a good chance i will root it up

And I have looked around at parts before, and from what I can see buying stuff in Australia (like everything) is pretty expensive. And from just doing some sums just now, even if I bought all the parts the cheapest way (from the US), it would still work out more expensive than the deal from music123, and thats not even factoring in the postage costs on everything besides hte body/neck.