Am I being unreasonable???

Re: Am I being unreasonable???

I just got a call from the music store saying that my guitar is done! Which means I am headed directly over there after work tomorrow.:banana::dance:
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

I sure hope the work is to the level you expect and deserve.

I think the crazy wait times comes down to organization and following a schedule. Like most of you, I've had doctors who have made me wait an hour or more for my "appointment". Why bother if you can't keep a schedule? I've had two doctors in my life that ran with military precision. My favorite had two types of standard appointments; 15 minute and 30 minute. If your appointment was at 11am he saw you at exactly at 11am. If you were more than 5 minutes late your appointment was pushed to the next open slot, if he had one. If you had a 15 minute appt you were done in 15 minutes, but for some reason I never felt rushed or pushed to get to the point. He was thorough, organized and possibly the nicest person I've ever met in my life.

My point is, a tech can be organized like that too; but I think those people are few and far between. Most people, myself included, can always use some time management assistance.

Let us know how you like your guitar!
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

This is from what I've found typical for skilled craftsman. There are so few left, they are in high demand, and their skill is often in the craft and not in planning or customer relations. I also think the sexier the project the more likely it is to get worked on.
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

mxaniac said:
This is from what I've found typical for skilled craftsman. There are so few left, they are in high demand, and their skill is often in the craft and not in planning or customer relations. I also think the sexier the project the more likely it is to get worked on.
Click to expand...

Whaaaat?

Market is swamped with people who do guitar tech and low-level luthiery work.
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

ehdwuld said:
But not well
Click to expand...

This. It's not as easy to find someone skilled enough to cut a great nut even.

San Antonio is in the top 10 largest cities in the US, and I can't even find one here in town. Whenever I ask at local stores or even techs that just do electronics and setup's, I'm always pointed to someone in Austin. I'm fortunate that Austin is only an hour from my house; and there are a dozen or more top quality "luthiers" there. But, an hour drive and still a 3-4 week wait is not great. A local drive would make it seem easier at least.
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

We have the same here, lots of "experts" with google as their best friend, but not many who have spent decades repairing and setting up guitars.
Even fewer who can figure out what the player need, or the worst ones...people who cannot play and have the technique of a jackhammer and still make it work for them.
The prices of those who actually can do their stuff has also risen to near crazy heights, but then again everybody else and their mother want higher saleries, and to add to trouble people have the mindset that reparing instrument is some kind of hobby job, here take this cake for your job, can I look while you do it?? Or show up and thinking that it can be fixed in the next 10 minutes! While asking: Is it really you who do it, or do you have "somebody" doing it for you....thinking that they can "bypass" the "middleman"....
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

Well some guitars are just difficult, only and only if it needed new parts or something did we change price, and before doing anything we called the customer....
Most prefer to pay more if they know why.
But yeah hours and materials sometimes gets written off, then you gain somewhere else...a walk of balance and the long view into the future is a must!
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

Jeff_H said:
This. It's not as easy to find someone skilled enough to cut a great nut even.

San Antonio is in the top 10 largest cities in the US, and I can't even find one here in town. Whenever I ask at local stores or even techs that just do electronics and setup's, I'm always pointed to someone in Austin. I'm fortunate that Austin is only an hour from my house; and there are a dozen or more top quality "luthiers" there. But, an hour drive and still a 3-4 week wait is not great. A local drive would make it seem easier at least.
Click to expand...

Stores have their own inhouse dropouts, many of em making barely over minimum wage...actual techs won't outsource a job they can't or don't wanna do to anyone better who is conveniently local, simply because it is bad for future business.

Ask around, talk to craigslist people and ask trick questions, etc.

Oh also I heard a while back that Gibson had some authorized service something-or-other certificate, which is something many serious guys might have... then again, the one guy I knew who claimed to have one was a pretty decent luthier, but pretty dang conservative and stubbornly uninformed about a bunch of "newer" stuff on the market (= anything post-1987 or so lol)
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

We had a Gibson trained dude at a shop in Pensacola (40 mins away )
They were great. They closed up shop the first of the year
Their selection of guitars just dwindled till they looked like an empty warehouse

He blamed the internet and GC ( although tornado took them out 2 years ago )


Shame
I took all my stuff there
If they were still open i still would
Maybe i can take em to his house
I'll call him
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

Nah, I meant that GIBSON probably ought to have a list of their certified people somewhere... you could probably acquire some numbers of local guys just by calling up their customer support
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

I wouldn't take my guitar to a Gibson tech. Heck, they can't even set up their $4000 guitars properly.
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

GuitarDoc said:
I wouldn't take my guitar to a Gibson tech. Heck, they can't even set up their $4000 guitars properly.
Click to expand...

Factory and service guys are two unrelated entities... it's like saying you wouldn't want an IT guy with Microsoft certifications just cuz windows is so damn unstable and microsoft office has been hideously botched since that UI update around a decade back
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

I wonder if the OP is ever coming back to give is an update?
 
Re: Am I being unreasonable???

An update would be cool regardless of the outcome. It's kinda annoying to me when people start threads just to not follow up on them. I wonder if the techs work turned out to be **** and the original poster is to embarrassed to come back and say so.
 
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Re: Am I being unreasonable???

Well, he hasn't come back, but I have dealt with this sort of thing before. I always just say I have a gig coming up and I need it back by that date (if true or not). Usually they will make it happen. This does seem like a long time, unless parts ordered were backordered.
 
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