Ouch. It's a shame you can't play before you pay as with most instruments I'm familiar with. I've played some very expensive guitars that were utter crap and would've been ready to kill something/somebody if I had purchased blind.

You'll most likely be able to have it worked on (right?), but thats more $$ of course.

I feel for ya BD. I hate big money purchases.

I always try play before I buy. Alto flute are hard to find in store though, they are generally custom made to your specifications (and same with bass flutes). But I found this one in store, played it, and loved it. The problem is that it has a couple of faulty screws and the trill keys weren't working right. Every wind player will tell you that a screw that is turned even an 8th of a turn will throw the whole thing out of tune. It's not expensive to fix, since I'm a regular customer and they give me discounts all the time, but I'm frustrated.

It's my first time buying a flute at that store (not going to say in case they monitor their reviews through Google or anything), and while I don't think they did anything wrong, they insinuated that I broke the instrument when I brought it home. Funny, because when I bought a guitar there last year and brought it right back to fix some scratches that were there already, they never batted an eye.

I bought my soprano C flute at the Flute World store in Detroit (when I was down that way - I didn't purposely drive 5 hours for a flute, lol), and I had no problems. Sigh.

I know this will blow over soon enough and I'll have a beautiful instrument in my hands, but for now I'm just annoyed.

I'm playing on a Classic Player Jazzmaster for 4 years now. In love. Have (as everybody else I guess) to change the bridge in a couple of weeks. I'm playing on a Fender BluesJr.
I also have a Washburn mandoline, a Cort Bass, a Casio SK1 and other childish stuff (Ukulélé, Bontempi Keyboard), and a Asama Drums set (with some yamaha pads).

Jazzmasters are the jazz masters. As intended.

It's pretty ****ed up that I've spent around that much on pedals alone.

I've never really been big into pedals. I used to have a DOD Death Metal pedal that was my favorite for years but have since gone the multi-effects expression pedal route for quite a few years while starting with a small Zoom back in the 00's. Then the cat pissed on it and ruined it so I had to go bigger. The cat and me have since made amends.

I have a ukulele and it's blue.

I decided I'd add up all of the gear I have in my room currently for ****s and giggles.

Guitars
Fender Telecaster '72 custom RI - 450$ used
Martin DCX1E - 600$ used with hardshell case
Fender Jaguar '65 RI - 2700$ new with insurance and case

Pedals
DE Torn's Peaker - 60$ new
DE Punch Love - 60$ used
DE Disaster Fuzz - 100$ new
EHX Big Muff NYC - 50$ new
ProCo Rat - 90$ new (not in working condition atm)
Ibanez DE7 - 70$ new
EHX Pulsar - 85$ new
Custom ProCo Rat copy with white noise circuit - 200$
MXR 10 band EQ -120$ new
Dunlop Crybaby 535Q - 140$ new
Catalinbread Montavillian - 160$ new
Hardwire RV-7 - 150$ new
Boss OC-3 - 130$ new

Amp

Crate V18 - 150$ new (Unfortunately, it's all I have for right now, but it's pretty good considering that it's actually a crate.)

Total - 5275$

The next thing I'm going to do is gut the crate, turn it into a cab and run a Fender Blues Deluxe through it.

@alex: You have a lot of pedals I am very interested in hearing, especially that MXR Eq. I have never had much success with pedal Eq's in a chain. I wouldnt crap on crate that much I used to own a Blackheart tube amp made by crate and it sounded AMAZING, unfortunately I had to sell it.

Plankton I liked your picture so I threw my **** up on one as well. The cab is borrowed though unfortunately and the wah broke. Need a new one.

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2791/fsme.jpg

Thats a decent chain Rez.

Would love to own one of those. I have a Jag Bass, and it's VERY comfortable to play. Stock p'ups in it?