Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

[Tony_H]

Hi folks,
I just wanna share this story that's driving me mad.
I went to my luthier and ordered a body to match a neck that I had lying around. I wanted a body that would resemble PRS Santana, and the neck was a reject (due to a minor visual flaw) from a Spector Blackhawk. I had bought it years ago trying to build a guitar. I ordered the body last October. I said, I'm in no hurry, take your time, just make sure it's good. He said, no problem, it should take a month or six weeks.
At this point I should say that I have a custom guitar made by him and it's just a perfectly good guitar, no problems in almost 4 years that I've had it.

After eight weeks, I called him and asked how the project was. He said, sorry I've been so busy lately, but I should be able to finish it within a month.

This repeated several times. It's August now. Two weeks ago I called him and asked about the project. The same scenario. I said, this has been a tad too long, so now I want to hear a specific date, a deadline that you are sure to meet. He said, you'll have it by August 13, for sure.

So this past Tuesday he called me and asked me for a few details on control placement, and he said the guitar would be ready on Wednesday morning. I said, I can come to pick it up on Thursday. He said, okay, it'll be ready.

Thursday, 10:00 a.m. My luthier calls me and says, there's a problem, I worked on it late last night and I misplaced the bridge, the guitar must be charmed or something. I couldn't believe what I heard. Then he said, I know how to make this good and I'll do it at no charge, and the guitar will be ready the next week.

I was astonished. This is unbelievable. I've known the guy for 4 years and I know he sometimes has problems meeting his deadlines, but it has never been as bad as this. His major job is setups and touch-ups on imported guitars that he does for a major guitar dealer. I can understand if he's busy, but he should be able to tell realistically when a job can be done.

Needless to say, my business relationship with the guy is over. I'll take a look at the guitar when it's finished and decide what to do next. One thing I'm sure about, I'll never order anything from him anymore. This is one lesson learned for me.

Another lesson learned for me is, I always have to set a precise deadline at the very beginning of a project. I didn't do this with this project, and that certainly contributed to the protractions.

What do you think? Can you share any experience similar to this?
Peace
Tony

 

[joelap]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I ordered a guitar from guitar center that was on "special order" for 4 months. I finally got my money back and told them to go f*ck themselves. Yeah, I havent been back to that guitar center since... I go to the other one now.

My friend had a Badass bass bridge on special order for 3 months... same situation, less vulgarity.

 

[nuntius]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

The luthier who built my strat called me after 2 weeks of me ordering it to say it would be 2 weeks later than planned, as he was not satisfied with the quality of the wood he was using for the neck and was starting again.

But I'd call that a good thing..

 

[aleclee]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I'm reluctant to set a hard detail for custom work. I'd rather have it be done right but late than be screwed up 'cause it was a rush job.

If he's willing to do it for no charge, unless you had a pressing reason for having it at a certain point, I dunno that you can demand much more from him.

My $0.02, IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

 

[korinastratkyle]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

The luthier who built my strat called me after 2 weeks of me ordering it to say it would be 2 weeks later than planned, as he was not satisfied with the quality of the wood he was using for the neck and was starting again.

But I'd call that a good thing..

I think you should be glad he was willing to do that!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I tell all of my customers ordering custom wood pieces "12 to 16 weeks" on custom orders. That's the best way to prevent problems...just be honest about how long it's going to take.

I don't lose to many orders...most people love our work and ARE willing to wait.

Lew

 

[nuntius]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I think you should be glad he was willing to do that!

I was very glad he was honest, and even more glad when I got the thing! its awesome

 

[rspst14]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

When you say he "misplaced" the bridge, do you mean he lost it, or that he installed it improperly?

Ryan

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I'm reluctant to set a hard detail for custom work. I'd rather have it be done right but late than be screwed up 'cause it was a rush job.

If he's willing to do it for no charge, unless you had a pressing reason for having it at a certain point, I dunno that you can demand much more from him.

My $0.02, IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc.

I see your point, but maybe I didn't put this clearly: He said repeatedly that it would take a month, and he never fulfilled that promise. I ordered it in late October and he said, by Xmas it'll be done. I called him in mid-January, and he said it would be done by the end of February. So again I called him in mid-March, and he said a month or so. This is what makes me angry. Had he said right from the start, It will take 6 months, I'd be OK with that. And maybe I'd give him an extra month to be sure he gets it right.

I know a guy who works for the distributor that thïs luthier sets guitars up for, and the guy told me that the luthier really is up to his neck in repairs due to rough shipping, setups and other stuff.

But having been in the business for years, heck he should be able to tell me realistically how fast or slow he can make something. In addition, by pressing him for a specific date, I didn't demand this specific Friday (Friday the 13, anyway, go figure...). I wanted to give him more time - at first i told him: tell me if it's going to be the end of August or the end of September - but tell me a fixed date and please meet the deadline for once. He said, no no, I can do it by Aug 13. I said again, I don't need it this fast - I've waited for 9 months so I can wait for another 3 if necessary. He said, no, I can really make it by Aug 13. So I said, OK, cool.

I am really curious how this will turn out. He told me he mis-measured the bridge position (putting it too close to the neck), but he quickly found a way to mitigate it. See the neck had been routed for a locking nut, which gives him some extra space to shift the fretboard towards the headstock and make up for the bridge misplacement. He said he'd make a new fretboard and fit it to the maple neck.

And he said, it'll be done next week. I said, that's not necessary because I can't come to pick it up next week anyway. He said, no I want to finally get rid of the job. I said, anyway I'm coming to pick it up on Aug 24.

Sorry, it's a long post. I'm so angry...
Tony

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

The luthier who built my strat called me after 2 weeks of me ordering it to say it would be 2 weeks later than planned, as he was not satisfied with the quality of the wood he was using for the neck and was starting again.

But I'd call that a good thing..

So would I, but this never happened to me. See, he first promised to make the body by Xmas. The next time I came to the shop was late March - I brought a guitar for a fret dress, and it was done promptly, in a week. When I came in for the fret dress job, he showed me the rough body - just a mah/maple sandwich. Then in late June he told me he'd already sprayed it with lacquer but was too busy to assemble the guitar. I had called him twice in the meantime and always got the same answer - a month or so.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I see your point, but maybe I didn't put this clearly: He said repeatedly that it would take a month, and he never fulfilled that promise. I ordered it in late October and he said, by Xmas it'll be done. I called him in mid-January, and he said it would be done by the end of February. So again I called him in mid-March, and he said a month or so. This is what makes me angry. Had he said right from the start, It will take 6 months, I'd be OK with that. And maybe I'd give him an extra month to be sure he gets it right.

I understand your point and, having been in your position, I understand how you feel. I also have to wonder if he would have screwed up the bridge placement if he hadn't been working late at night (presumably to meet this latest Friday deadline).

Another question I have is whether he's a luthier or a tech. If, as you put it, "his major job is setups and touch-ups" he's a tech, not a luthier. There's a big difference between recrowning frets and building a guitar from scratch. Given that, it's easy to understand how things got out of hand (though 8 months is a long time to be late). Have you played any guitars that he'd built himself?

Frankly, I think you're taking a risk letting him relocate your fretboard but it's your guitar. If he's not able to set the bridge in the right place, what makes you confident he'll get the fretboard right?

Just a few thoughts, all IMO of course.

 

[54stratlover]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

i am at a point that i never need anything right away I have more than enough guitars. The way I look at it is perfection takes time. I NEVER RUSH MY LUTHIER. I wouldn't rush a surgeon, and I wouldn't rush my luthier. That works to my advantage at times. When he takes a very long time with a project he usually cuts the rate. I remember when I was younger, I had a project that took this guy forever to complete. That is when I started doing my own electronics. I know how you feel. But one word of advice, awesome guitar techs, amp modders/repairman, and luthiers are RARE. There are many good ones but great ones are rare. They are artists themselves. and sometimes you have to put up with there idiosyncrasies. Hope everything works out.

 

[54stratlover]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

another thing. on a project like this you are setting yourself up for great dissapointment. I'm not a very supersticious person, but I do believe in mojo. I bet when you get this guitar you will be hypercritical/sensative about it due to the surrounding circumstances. It is kind of a jaded situation. Some of that may rub off on your perception of the guitar. I don't know maybe it thats just me. i hope things work out he best they can.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I had a custom dinky strat made and a strat rebuilt by a local luthier. He did a great job on the custom strat, but when it came time to do the strat rebuild, I ran into problems. He did all the standard stuff well: refret, sperzel locking tuners, fralins. He even put on a new transitional logo and fender neckplate. But then he went further: after I expressly told him not to alter the neck profile, he shaved and reshaped the neck.

Now, it's a beautiful job, sort of a shallow c to d carve, but I wanted the neck to remain the same as it was. Since then, I haven't used him. Looking back, I think he used our relationship as friends to do what he wanted on my guitars rather than what I wanted.

I always allowed him a lot of time, but I new he was slow when I met him. Great guy, shame about the not following instructions thing.

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

I understand your point and, having been in your position, I understand how you feel. I also have to wonder if he would have screwed up the bridge placement if he hadn't been working late at night (presumably to meet this latest Friday deadline).

Another question I have is whether he's a luthier or a tech. If, as you put it, "his major job is setups and touch-ups" he's a tech, not a luthier. There's a big difference between recrowning frets and building a guitar from scratch. Given that, it's easy to understand how things got out of hand (though 8 months is a long time to be late). Have you played any guitars that he'd built himself?

Frankly, I think you're taking a risk letting him relocate your fretboard but it's your guitar. If he's not able to set the bridge in the right place, what makes you confident he'll get the fretboard right?

Just a few thoughts, all IMO of course.

1. Good point. I may have made him feel too much pressure, so he probably screwed up. As I said, I did not request the guitar to be ready today - I just wanted a clear answer after 8 months. Maybe this was too much pressure on him.

2. He is both a luthier and a tech. Aside from setups, he builds his own instruments from scratch. The one guitar he built for me 4 years ago is built completely from scratch, and on occasional visits to his shop, I saw and played various instruments he had built on custom order. As far as I could tell, his other instruments are top quality - as good as any good Gibson. I played one or two of his PRS clones and two SG clones, and they were all just beautiful guitars - they looked, played and were made just as fine as anything I might ever want to own.

3. As for the fretboard, I still do have confidence in him in this regard. And besides I don't have any choice anyway. I'll see what happens. I've got two weeks to calm down and gain a different perspective

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

i am at a point that i never need anything right away I have more than enough guitars. The way I look at it is perfection takes time. I NEVER RUSH MY LUTHIER. I wouldn't rush a surgeon, and I wouldn't rush my luthier. That works to my advantage at times. When he takes a very long time with a project he usually cuts the rate. I remember when I was younger, I had a project that took this guy forever to complete. That is when I started doing my own electronics. I know how you feel. But one word of advice, awesome guitar techs, amp modders/repairman, and luthiers are RARE. There are many good ones but great ones are rare. They are artists themselves. and sometimes you have to put up with there idiosyncrasies. Hope everything works out.

I see what you mean. But when he initially told me it would be a month, and it has now been 8 months and still not finished, I am disappointed.

OK, I guess I'll really have to calm down and see what happens. I still want that guitar although my perception of it will definitely be affected. That superstition thing you talk about in your second post is something I thought of too. Oh well.

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

OK, tomorrow is the D Day. I'll have my new guitar in 24 hours from now, and be sure I'll let you know how things have turned out. I have thought about the whole thing and I have also calmed down a bit, and of course I'm curious. So see y'all later.
Tony

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

Crossing our fingers, bro.

 

[Tony_H]

Re: Angry with my luthier: A rant post.

Sooo...

THE GUITAR IS GOOD!!! DEFINITELY A KEEPER!!! DUH... But read on, if you care:

It's not dead perfect though. So first the niggles:
1. The bridge is not positioned its best - the high e string saddle had to be set so far towards the neck that the hole where the string comes out of the trem block is almost covered by the saddle. The intonation is still not the best (the octave harmonic is a tad higher than the fretted note). At any rate, I played the guitar in rehearsal right after I got it and there were no problems with tuning except from the new strings that were not broken in yet. I have yet to see how this will affect changing the strings. It might be quite a hassle.

2. The finish: there is some lacquer sinkage on the back. But honestly, I am mentioning this only because reviews in Guitar Player do, and in fact I don't care in the least. The front is good - a nice rich yellow opaque lacquer. (My cheeky drummer commented on it like, "Nice looking. Looks like plastic faking the wood. No, in fact it looks like wood faking the plastic that fakes wood. That's progress you know - faking plastic with wood!" The cheeky b..tard!!)

3. Tremolo setup. The trem is too tough to work. I'll try loosening the springs a tad. But this is not a real problem - just a matter of taste I guess.

4. Volume pots. They don't work the way I'd like them to - the sound gets too muddy when turned down just a bit. But this is my problem - I gave the guy my own pots that I wanted installed in the guitar.

5. Control placement. The pots are laid out as on a PRS singlecut and the pickup selector is located about where the jack is on an SG. All five controls look a bit like the Olympic circles. And the problem is that when I reach for the pup selector, the trem arm gets in the way. Oh well. I should have been more clever when designing the control layout.

Now the good things:
1. The fretboard: the luthier ground the old fretboard away and put up a new one. As the bridge is located too close to the neck, he shortened the string scale (the neck was originally a 25.5") and, as a bonus, added the 23rd and 24th frets. Woohoo! The fretwork is immaculate and the fretboard is ruler straight. A tone bender's dream! So this is definitely an improvement over my original plans, and this alone overrules any niggles.

2. The pickups: There is a '59 in the neck and a Gibby 498T in the bridge. The '59 smokes and the 498 has all the grit and dirt I could ever ask for. I plan on some experimenting with the pups, but for the time being, I will keep the guitar as is and live with it for some time.

All in all, I like the guitar, although I am mentioning more flaws than good things here. It feels great overall, and that's what matters. And I'm borrowing a digital camera this week so I'll post pics for you to judge.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I am glad that this has ended this way.
Peace
Tony