A long and winding road

And thus brings to a close a circuitous path, which came to naught...

As part of my reward to myself for working a zillion hours per week (and bringing large amounts of cash into the family coffers), I decided to spiff myself by buying an effects pedal -- something I hadn't done in a while.

After some consideration, I'd decided on the Danelectro "Black Licorice", from their "mini" series. Basically, an octave-distortion pedal. Oddly, it wasn't available at any of the local music stores that I'd looked at online, so I decided to buy it off Amazon and have it sent to the U.S.

Found a few sellers within Amazon -- but only one of them actually shipped internationally. I placed my order. The shipping cost was nearly as much as the pedal (and pricier than other sellers that shipped internationally, for other pedals). But, 'twas the only one that shipped that specific pedal, so I was kinda stuck.

A few days later, got a message saying that there was a back-order. And a few days after that, got a message saying it was **still** on backorder -- but they'd waive the shipping. Sure!

Then, while browsing my local pawn shop, saw it for a similar price -- but (obviously!) no shipping! But, didn't think I could cancel my order, so I just shrugged.

Then, got an e-mail saying it was further delayed, but I'd get some discount on my future purchase with them.

And finally, they cancelled my transaction, saying they didn't know **when** it would be in stock. So, I nipped down to the pawn shop and bought it.


But wait! Took it home, tried it out -- and discovered that the input jack was gimpy: it worked fine if you pulled upwards slightly on the guitar cable -- but then would cut out if you pushed down. (I'm guessing the previous owner had accidentally stepped on the cable...)

Took it back to the pawn shop. They took it t the back room, said that they'd put a new battery in it and now it was working. I pointed out that the battery wasn't the problem, but the guy asked me to take it home and see. Fair enough.

Took it home. Nope -- not the problem. Brought it back.

This time, the guy said he'd send it out for repairs, would probably be a week. A week later, got a phone call saying that it would cost more to fix it than it was worth, so they'd just refund me the money.

I went in, and got my refund. Bid on a pair of other pedals on eBay (here in Australia), and got them (both within the same auction) for the same price as the pawn shop pedal.


So, hopefully they'll show up in a day or so -- and that'll be the end of the story. :)


--GG