Jay and Dave...
Sorry to be sending you an email again, but I finally received my XV-620 in Ice Blue Metallic. I was very excited due to the shipping delays, but patiently waited for the guitar to warm up to room temperature and finally unpacked it. This is not my first Xaviere guitar or even my first XV-620. I previously had a Seafoam XV that UPS had damaged during shipping and Jay, you did an excellent job of handling that issue (which you probably don't recall, but I want to give props where they are due!) Unfortunately, this XV is incredibly poor condition and I'm shocked to believe it was even shipped at all. I won't be able to take pictures until this evening, but there are numerous fretwork issues, finish streaks (especially on the back), black spots in the finish, the strings have oxidized, the neck felt gritty and the edges of the fretboard are discoloured and grimy. Also, the end of the fretboard where it meets the pickguard has a strip with no finish on it at all and the pickguard is cut extremely poorly. I didn't even take the time to plug it in... just put it back in the box until I can take pictures.
This is probably my most disappointing "NGD" as we say at Harmony Central and Mark Wein's Guitar Forum (I'm a long time member, Kerouac) ever. I've been a big advocate of your products and have recommend them numerous times to my own students. I'm just lucky that I received this instrument instead of one of my students, because that would have reflected very poorly on me and would have been a terrible experience for a first time buyer.
Again, I'll send photos to you as soon as I'm able to this evening, but there is absolutely NO reason that this guitar should have ever been shipped... the B-stock XV-585 I ordered arrived in better condition than this. Please let me know what the next step is.
That sucks. You're all waiting for your new x ray glasses only to discover they just look stupid. 
