Unfortunate recent EBMM experience

Hi guys! Long-time lurker, new register. Over the past several years, I’ve owned a JPX, a JP15, a cutlass, an axis BFR, and a couple majestys.

I decided to buy a new guitar last week, and I was totally torn between a Bali burst majesty, and the new rosewood JP15. Very last moment at guitar center, I had them place an order for the Bali burst. I’m a sucker for blue, and for maple.

I got it last week. It looked amazing. I was very excited. I plugged it in, changed the strings, tuned it up, and then… bam. 12th fret G and high E string, the notes died in half the normal time. Clean, dirty, saturated, whatever… the notes always died out on me. It happened a few other spots, but those were the most noticeable.

Lame… weak… curses! I don’t expect perfection out of every guitar a company makes 100% of the time. Mistakes happen, they slip through. I checked relief, it’s fine. Action was fine, and frets were level. Bizarre. A weird piece of wood, I thought. A fluke. I returned it, and guitar center shipped me another one.

Exact same problem, in the same places. Very disheartening, to say the least. I took it in, the tech looked at it, he was baffled. He said he could try a fret job, but he’d return it if he were me.

So, I did. I ordered the jp15. As I said, those two were basically tied in my book, but now I’m wondering, what is the deal? On the FB group, one guy said he went through a few Bali bursts before giving up. Was this particular guitar snakebit, or is it just me and this dude getting all the bad luck?