Another Guitar Center butch job

Chris Pile

Well-known member
This is the quality of "repair work" Guitar Center does.... The guy mixed his epoxy wrong and it never cured. For his "finish touch-up", he mixed black enamel with more epoxy and poured it on. He even attempted inserting splines made from viola nuts - which were too small for the job, and squished out when string tension was applied. He then applied friction tape to try to hold it together while it cured..... FAIL. BIGTIME.

I was asked to bid on repairing this. I went ahead and finished breaking off the peghead to assess the mess. I took 52 pictures to document it. The client wanted it fixed fast. I told him it would be 2 months minimum for the repair and touch-up, with a charge of $500, and I still might not even do it once I got into the project. Tonight, I sat down at the bench with this to really do a deep dive on it. The epoxy is still rubbery in spots.

I decided this was more trouble than it was worth, so I will recommend that the client salvage whatever parts he wants, and sell the husk on Squeebay. There is another EC-1000 for sale locally in good shape, for a decent price. I will tell him to buy it, and I'd be happy to set it up for him.

Broken Heads 012.jpg

Broken Heads 029.jpg

Broken Heads 033.jpg

Broken Heads 032.jpg
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

Might as well have used macadamia nuts. I hope the owner wasn't charged for that idiot's butchery.
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

Really bad break to begin with. I have three Gibsons with headstock breaks (bought new from GC with the breaks repaired by them), but I won't buy one when the break goes through the faceplate. Too much work; too expensive to repair.

Bill
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

Here's one I got to first... Guy broke the peghead on his 335. I had it glued up in an hour, and the touch-up took a week with toner and TruOil.

Pix are before and after: The flash makes the color match look bad, but in normal light it looks nice.

Broken Heads 007.jpg

Fixed 335 008.jpg
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

Uglyfix / debrand it

It's still an okay guitar without original headstock overlay... or with a new headstock entirely
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

Wasn’t someone here recently going on about how GC tech’s get a bad rep?

Well, here’s why.
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

That is a nasty break there, any idea how it happened?

The client hung it on the wall..... His guitar hook wasn't screwed into the studs. He found out drywall has very little holding strength.
 
Re: Another Guitar Center butch job

The client hung it on the wall..... His guitar hook wasn't screwed into the studs. He found out drywall has very little holding strength.

Cant fix stupid.....
 
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