Best Place To Buy New Gear, Regular Music store or internet? Options

[Nels]

Hey guys and/or gals,

Hoping some of you out there will shine a bright light on the subject of buying on-line.

Every piece of gear I own,(guitars, amps, recording gear, etc.) I've gotten at a local music store.(Sound Post, Guitar Center, etc.) I'll be getting some more gear in the near future and so I was wondering.....if anyone could comment on their experiences when ordering on-line.

Can anyone comment on their experiences with the likes of Musiciansfriends.com, ..GuitarVision.com and other such places?

Would it be safe to order a large, fragile and very expensive piece of equipment, like the Triton Studio, for example?(That's a lot of money to be gambling with.) ....And what about the return policy dilemma?

As with most of you, I've had some good and not so good experiences when buying at a regular music store, but the one thing that I just can't knock is that... ...if needed, you can return the piece of gear to the regular music store and not have to wait anxiously for a replacement. ...And generally one can check the gear out before ones buys.

Any thoughts, I'm sure would help others as well.

Thanks,
Nels

[Kalki]

I've used Musician's Friend, Music123, ZZounds and they all have about the same prices and the same shipping charges. I like KraftMusic for synthesizer stuff - they were nice and friendly and got me some fair bundled deals - the bigger sites wouldn't even consider it when I mailed them.

I'd be careful buying guitars and acoustic instruments online though - they tend to vary more than the electronics. Also, if a guitar messes up, chances are there's somebody in the music store who can fix it for you. If it's electronics, it'll just go somewhere else for warranty repairs, and you can do that almost as easily as the store can.

As for the synthesizers you discuss, they're all good. I'd really look at the Triton Extreme. USB connectivity and being able to put a Microdrive in it seems really convenient. It doesn't seem to have an mLAN option, but as long as you can use SPDIF, the sound quality will still be good.