Shoreline Music • FAQ

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Here is where we endeavor to answer the great frequently asked questions that have plagued mankind for generations, questions like, "How wide is my saddle?" and "What pickup should I get?". Just click on each question for an answer, or you can also just scroll down the page to read through the whole list:

General questions

• Do you offer a trial period or guarantee?
• How can I tell what you have in stock?
• How and when will my order ship?
• Do you take email orders?
• How much do you charge for shipping?
• Can I arrange for expedited shipping?
• Do you ship to other countries ?
• What sorts of payment do you accept?
• Do you match prices?
• Do you carry anything other than what is listed on your website?
• I only just ran across your store. Do you have testimonials I can read?
• How can I order a print catalog?

Gear Questions

• Do you sell used gear?
• Do you have recordings of your gear?
• What pickup should I get?
• If I'm going to buy a pickup, do I need a preamp to go with it?
• How do I measure the width of my saddle?
• What are the names for the different parts of my guitar?

Do you offer a trial period or guarantee?

Yes. You can read the details of our guarantee by following the link marked "guarantee" at the top left of every page of the website, or by clicking here.

How can I tell what you have in stock?

For all of our accessories—tuners, strings, cables, capos, pickups, preamps, etc.—we try to keep at least one of everything in stock, and deeper inventory on top sellers. This means that for most orders, we will have your gear in stock, ready to ship the day you order it. But, backorders from manufacturers do happen occasionally. In most cases, vendors will drop-ship directly to you. If this is not possible, we'll let you know right away about any backorders, estimated fulfillment times, etc.

With instruments, however, it is a different story. Our builders make anywhere from 20-60 instruments a year, often with 3-6 month wait times. While we occasionally have several guitars from any one builder in stock, it is more often the case that we are backordered, and taking waiting list signups. Therefore, when considering any new guitar from us, it's always best to call to confirm inventory.

How and when will my order ship?

99% of both domestic and international orders placed on weekdays before 1:00 pm California time get shipped same-day, via US Priority Mail, First Class Mail, or Express Mail International. Most of the rest get shipped within 2 business days. If we anticipate a delay, you'll be notified immediately and given the option to modify or cancel your order. Further details can be found on our shipping page.

Do you take email orders?

Given our order volume—not to mention our email volume—we cannot take orders outside our normal channels. This means no email orders. We still take phone orders, but the single most reliable way to place an order is to use the website and shopping cart. Even if you are placing a custom order, we will ask you to enter your details through the website, so that they're automatically entered into our order database.

How much do you charge for shipping?

All domestic orders are shipped for free. We also ship most orders free to Canada. Further details can be found on our shipping page.

Can I arrange for expedited shipping?

Yes. Most orders under a pound can be shipped Express Mail in the US for an additional $20, with greater additional fees for heavier packages. This number is calculated right in our shopping cart, and you're given the option to choose your shipping preference when checking out. Please see our shipping page for details on international shipping.

Do you ship to other countries?

Yes we do (everything except Korg and Grado), and given the recent decline in the value of the US dollar, ordering from our store has never been more attractive to international customers. We have a customer base that covers the majority of the world's countries, and we regularly ship to the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, France, and other countries too numerous to list here. For details on international shipping, please see our shipping page.

What sorts of payment do you accept?

We'll take payment pretty much any way you want to get it to us. The standard electronic methods are Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or Paypal. The standard paper transactions are Money Order, Cashier's Check (or similar), or personal checks. Please make all checks and money orders payable in US dollars.

Do you match prices?

Yes. Keep in mind, however, that the way other stores can afford to offer bargains is by refusing to guarantee what they're selling. Read the fine print in the "guarantees" posted on their websites—most have lists of exclusions a mile long, and the products excluded from their guarantees typically include basics like electronics (that is, pickups and amps), strings, guitars, headphones and more. Because of this, we used to match prices only if the source of the lower price was willing to match our guarantee. It turned out, however, that no one was ever willing to match our industry-leading guarantee. I just decided to start matching prices, anyway, giving you the best of both worlds. So, if you find, in writing, a lower delivered price on a new, current, in-stock item from another store, we'll match the price, even if they won't match our guarantee.

Do you carry anything other than what is listed on your website?

Yes and no. Our entire instrument inventory is right here on the site—Shoreline is not a secret Goodall or Lowden dealer, and every builder we represent is shown on these pages. But our satellite stores on Amazon and eBay often have listings for accessories that don't yet appear on this website.

I only just ran across your store. How long has Shoreline been around? Where can I find out more information about your store? Do you have a list of testimonials I can read from your customers?

If you do a WHOIS lookup of current online guitar stores, you'll find that the creation date of "samusic.com" (our original website address) predates every one, often by many years. That's just the technical way of saying that Shoreline has been online longer than any other guitar store—we're even older than Amazon and eBay.

However, we don't post lists of customer testimonials on this website, for several reasons. First, although lots of stores solicit and display a handful of testimonials from their customers, I've always thought this approach was kind of fishy. I mean, it would be easy enough for any store only to post the really good comments. So I decided to forgo the testimonial listings. However, we do have a record of unsolicited customer responses that is impossible to fake, and you're welcome to check that out: We are one of the highest-rated merchants—in any category—on Amazon.com, and we of course have plenty of eBay feedback, too. In fact, between our Amazon feedback and our eBay feedback, you'll find tens of thousands of responses which, while only a fraction of our overall customer base, should be enough to give you a representative picture.

How can I order a print catalog?

For now, we're keeping prices low by listing our inventory online, so we don't have print catalogs. Sorry.

Do you sell used gear?

Yes, we do. You can find a list of what's available on our Closeouts page, where we also sell overstock and discontinued items. If you're looking to score some good deals, it's worth bookmarking the Closeout page.

Do you have recordings of your gear?

Sort of. While we have posted a handful of recordings on our MP3 page, you won't find any set of pickup recordings anywhere that's as comprehensive as the collection posted by Doug Young. Doug's has graciously allowed us to link our customers to his site. If you have a lot of free time to spend listening to recordings of every guitar pickup under the sun, give his site a visit, and while you're there, be sure to check out his music. As far as guitar recordings go, we simply don't do them. Don't get me wrong—I understand the desire to hear comparison recordings of all sorts of guitars. In fact, this is what we set out to do when I bought this shop many years ago. The problem is that even with high-quality mics and digital recording, most recordings tend to misrepresent in some fundamental way the guitars being recorded. In fact, it is sometimes true that good recording guitars are often less satisfying to hold and play than guitars that don't record well. This means that the guitar that sounds great on the recording might very well be a dud in your hands. Given all this, I've just decided not to do any recordings.

What pickup should I get?

This question is discussed in detail on our "What pickup should I get?" page.

If I'm going to buy a pickup, do I need a preamp to go with it?

Yes...usually. Although there's lots of technical ways to describe it, the gist is this: A preamp gives your pickup the extra juice it's missing. Passive guitar pickups require much more gain to reach a good volume, and this tends to result in thin and noisy tone, as well as a higher risk of feedback. Active pickup systems normally include the needed preamp onboard your guitar, either in the endpin or mounted on the side. This onboard preamp is often the only preamp you need. Passive systems have no such preamp, and typically require one within 5 or 6 cable feet of your guitar. But either type of system can benefit from an external preamp. For instance, the Baggs Para Acoustic DI not only gives the necessary signal boost to passive pickups like the PUTW Guitar Pickup, but can also provide useful tone control and feedback attenuation for active pickups like the B-Band AST or Baggs I-Beam Active. It also helps that preamps like the Baggs PADI double as a DI box, saving you one extra piece of gear.

How do I measure the width of my saddle?

This question is discussed in detail on our saddle width page.

What are the names for the different parts of my guitar?

Diagrams can be found on our guitar parts page.