My son took up playing the bass about 2 1/2 years ago and has become quite good at it and he LOVES making music. Last January we saw a nice Carvin bass with a case for sale on Craigslist for $650.
Before driving two hours to see it, we decided to check out some of the local music stores to see what they had available. We went to Boston Guitar Works, they're only a couple of miles away from us, and they happenned to have a used Carvin bass there.
It was a little older and scratched up and had a broken battery compartment, but it was an upgraded model from the one we saw on Craigslist. This bass plays active and passive, the active part wasn't working so Heath took it in the back room for about 20 minutes and said he found a bad connection. Heath offered to sell it to my boy for $500 and said he would replace the broken battery compartment for free, providing we paid for the part, and he would also set up the action on the bass at no extra cost. Heath also said that he would have it ready for us within 2 days of receiving the part. This sounded like a great deal for my boy and we accepted. (These basses sell for about $1150 new).
My son's birthday is in February and he used all of his birthday money to purhase the bass and a $100 case for it. We were told it wold take a week to get the part and we should have the bass in about 10 days.
After 2 weeks I began to follow up on the status and I was told that the part hadn't yet arrived.in the weeks to follow I was given the same reason many times and eventually I was told by Heath that I was being a pain to him and that I should be grateful for how nicely he has treated my boy. I stopped calling!
After almost 6 weeks from the date of purchase, I got a voicemail that it was finally completed and ready to be picked up. When I went to get it, I tried it out before leaving the store. The strings were buzzing and he told me it was the best that this particular bass could be set up. I left the store with it, quite dissapponted.
Within a week the active function stopped working, AGAIN! I returned it to the store and asked the clerk to have this problem fixed and take care of the buzzing of the strings. We left it for another week and got a call that it was all set. When we got there, the active didn't work at all, again. We left it with them one more time and we were called the next day and told that the battery wasn't pushed in all the way. When we got there, the strings were still buzzing and we were told that we owed another $65 for setting it up again. We didn't pay it, took the bass and never went back to Boston Guitar Works.
A couple of months later, the active function stopped working again. We took it to Guitar Doctor in Whitman, MA and they told us that someone had gone in with a hot soldering iron and completely destroyed the circuit board. Of course I can't be sure who damaged this instrument so badly, but I have a pretty good idea. They charged us less than $100 for labor to replace the circuit board and set-up the bass properly. The part cost another $175. The bass now sounds awsome and we haven't had a problem with it since. I highly recommend these guys at Guitar Doctor for sales an repairs. They're honest and know their stuff. They're on-line guitardoctor.com or can be reached at 781-447-4520.
I'm also a bass player and since this experience we've purchased a lot of equipment. NONE was purchased at Boston Guitar Works. Beware! Beware!
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