You Will Never Read Another Sweetwater Review Like This One.

I received a Sweetwater gift card and compensation as part of my relationship with the Quality Blue Community. All opinions expressed are my own.

Yes, this is a sponsored review post. BUT! It is a sponsored review post with a DRAMATIC TWIST, which I am going to reveal to you right off the top. Witness this Facebook post I shared with the world a few weeks ago:

If you’re using your amazing powers of deduction here, you might have guessed at this point that the product I was supposed to review for this post WAS IN THAT BOX. And no, I was not exaggerating. I did, indeed, run over an exquisite Martin guitar. And it was, indeed, a horrible feeling.

After taking this photo (for evidence! Not for Facebook!), I ran inside with the box in my arms, imagining the worst. I opened the box and became slightly more hopeful when I saw that the good people at Sweetwater had packed within that box– and layers of air padding– a second box. And within that second box, the sweet, sweet Sweetwater people had included a well-padded guitar carrying case to hold my beautiful (yet surely shattered) Martin Guitar. And, miracle of miracles, within that carrying case was MY NEW MARTIN GUITAR, COMPLETELY INTACT. And even tuned to perfection, so that I could immediately begin composing a FedEx revenge song.

What a way to back into a review post, am I right?

However, it is a perfect (albeit dramatic) way to illustrate the total joy that comes with ordering a musical instrument from Sweetwater.com. It is even fair to say that ordering from Sweetwater is how I like to imagine it will be one day to order stuff online in Heaven. (Yes, I’m pretty sure there’s shopping in Heaven, because DUH. It’s HEAVEN.)

First off, I was able to choose and order my new guitar within just a few minutes. This was no small feat, because when buying something higher-priced, like a musical instrument, I am meticulous about knowing exactly what I’m getting. When you order an instrument from Sweetwater, knowing exactly what you’re getting goes to a whole new level.

For one thing, I was able to read a number of reviews about the guitar, detailing the sound quality and the various scenarios people were using it in– Reviews are critical for me as an online consumer. I almost never buy anything online without reading reviews of it first. In this case, the reviews of the Martin LX Black Little Martin made me even more excited– I liked its size because I wanted my kids to be able to handle it– but in the reviews, plenty of professional adult musicians had bought this particular guitar, because its size made it easier to take on the road AND its sound quality was amazing. Reviewers also raved that the price for this level of guitar was fantastic.

But lots of sites post reviews, right? What carries Sweetwater beyond the competition is that you can look at multiple online photos of the actual guitar (by serial number) you’re thinking of buying– Sweetwater even e-mails you those photos after you’ve ordered the guitar, so that, if you want, you can print them out and carry them in your wallet and look at them lovingly until your actual instrument arrives.

 

Add to this the fact that Sweetwater offers free shipping, free return shipping, free tech support for your guitar and a two-year warranty on all guitars that they sell and I’m… well… sold. In short, Sweetwater does a great job of making you feel good about your purchase before it has even arrived.

And. There’s More. Every guitar that comes into Sweetwater is unboxed and put through a 55-point inspection by a professional, to make sure everything is in perfect working order. They even tune the guitar so that it’s ready to go, right out of the box. This is a great selling point for parents (and pretty much everyone else) who like things to arrive READY for Christmas morning.

After I placed my order, I got a personal phone call from a Sweetwater employee making sure that everything had gone smoothly. I got an e-mail with photos of my new guitar. I got an e-mail letting me know my guitar had been delivered. (And I was like, ‘No it hasn’t, there’s nothing on my doorstep.’ And then, an hour later, I was like, CRUNCH. Oops.) And finally, I got another e-mail making sure all was well. The e-mails weren’t system-generated, either. They were all from the same person, my ‘personal Sweetwater engineer’– a guy named Steve– and they all included his telephone extension, and well, that personal touch goes a long way, in my opinion.

As if all that weren’t enough, Sweetwater even included a bag of candy with my order. It’s the little things, people.

For those of you who are slow readers or have a short attention span, here’s a visual recap of what matters here:

Behold! My Guitarcophagus! (This was the box-within-a-box that was in my driveway.)

 

Behold the dent that came from my running this box-within-a-box over! Seeing this, I thought there was no hope.

 

Within this Guitarcophagus lay something wrapped in cloth, by the name of… Martin. (I’m sorry. I can’t stop the mummy references. Steve, my personal Sweetwater engineer, probably just CAN’T with me right now.)

 

IT LIVES!!!!

 

Don’t hate the playa…. (Or the mom who didn’t vacuum the playroom carpet before taking blog photos. So 2007. I know.)

 

I’m so happy with Sweetwater, in fact, that I decided to write a song about it– on our new guitar! The fact that I can’t (yet) actually play a guitar did not deter me. ANYTHING FOR SWEETWATER. ANYTHING FOR STEVE.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this is probably the best experience I’ve ever had ordering online, and my opinion is backed up by so many reviews on the site itself- I couldn’t help but notice that reviewers didn’t just want to talk about the quality of the instrument they had purchased, they also wanted to talk about the customer service. Now, I can understand why!

So… are you thinking of buying a guitar from Sweetwater now? If so, here’s some information to help you make your decision. If someone on your ‘Nice’ list is asking for a guitar this Christmas, be sure and check out Sweetwater on Cyber Monday for some seriously sweet deals.

But let’s be honest– I had you at “Sweetwater packed my guitar so well, I ran over it and it was still in perfect condition!”

Didn’t I?