I rarely take up repair jobs nowadays but when I do, it has to be a good one. A doosy...
And this one takes the cake. I got in touch with someone from another forum and he had issues with his guitar so I contacted him to offer my views and perhaps repair the issues. I saw the guitar this Saturday and I took right to work. This guitar is a MESS. This is a 5000 dollar guitar and these are the things that I noticed that wouldn't fly with me.
- The nut. It's a PLASTIC nut. Not graphtech, mind you. I work a lot with Graphtech and this nut is just plain ABS plastic or something like it. It's also glued in place incorrectly. With that I mean, the glue is on the bottom of the nut instead of on the face of the fretboard. Getting this nut out without damaging anything took me an hour hahaha. Also, the finish... WOW. It's 0.5mm thick 2K, acrylic based. It's NOT a polyurethane or even polyester. This material should be sprayed thinly and should serve as a leveling basecoat, not as a polished topcoat. Gosh, this finish gums up like crazy and is still gooyie. It was sprayed way, way too fast as clearly evidenced by all the cokes bubbles. Cokes bubbles are air bubbles in the final product and they're the result of spraying too fast between coats so air bubbles get trapped and can't diffuse out of the material. What you're seeing isn't dust. Oh no. Those are air bubbles.
- the body/neck connection on the front face of the guitar. This is how NOT to do it. It's very difficult, granted, to get that clean and precise but this is really a textbook example how not to approach this part.
- the electronics weren't working NOt 'hooked up improperly', they just weren't working. AT all.
- The trussrod was glued in place. I had to use a hammer to tap the glue loose.
- The fretwork is abysmal. The neck can't be set to a proper relief.
- The pickups: I have a strong feeling these aren't made in the USA. Why I say that? Because they don't have normal specs. They're not regular humbucker specs, they're wider and longer. Plus a few marks at the bottom. I don't have proof for that, it's only a strong feeling.
- the measurements of the neck are all over the place. For starters: why, WHY would you make a neck that's 45mm wide at the nut, when the customer asks for 42? WHY make the end width 59mm when the customer asks for 57?! Really, man... this is bad. Oh, not to mention the radius. 10 inch radius was asked. This is a 7.25" - 12" compound. I can't understand that. why would you ever opt to go so badly against the customer's wishes and then finish it like this?
If the owner sees this, I don't think he'd mind these photo's. I have kept him anonymous and I did not say who made this guitar but it can be inferred.
I have posted PLENTY guitars of my own to show how I do business and what my guitars look like.
_____________________________________
This is how NOT to make an electric guitar. I am not one to say bad things about colleagues in the field, I know how hard it is to make a good guitar, but stuff this bad, for this amount of money has to be called out.
And this one takes the cake. I got in touch with someone from another forum and he had issues with his guitar so I contacted him to offer my views and perhaps repair the issues. I saw the guitar this Saturday and I took right to work. This guitar is a MESS. This is a 5000 dollar guitar and these are the things that I noticed that wouldn't fly with me.
- The nut. It's a PLASTIC nut. Not graphtech, mind you. I work a lot with Graphtech and this nut is just plain ABS plastic or something like it. It's also glued in place incorrectly. With that I mean, the glue is on the bottom of the nut instead of on the face of the fretboard. Getting this nut out without damaging anything took me an hour hahaha. Also, the finish... WOW. It's 0.5mm thick 2K, acrylic based. It's NOT a polyurethane or even polyester. This material should be sprayed thinly and should serve as a leveling basecoat, not as a polished topcoat. Gosh, this finish gums up like crazy and is still gooyie. It was sprayed way, way too fast as clearly evidenced by all the cokes bubbles. Cokes bubbles are air bubbles in the final product and they're the result of spraying too fast between coats so air bubbles get trapped and can't diffuse out of the material. What you're seeing isn't dust. Oh no. Those are air bubbles.
- the body/neck connection on the front face of the guitar. This is how NOT to do it. It's very difficult, granted, to get that clean and precise but this is really a textbook example how not to approach this part.
- the electronics weren't working NOt 'hooked up improperly', they just weren't working. AT all.
- The trussrod was glued in place. I had to use a hammer to tap the glue loose.
- The fretwork is abysmal. The neck can't be set to a proper relief.
- The pickups: I have a strong feeling these aren't made in the USA. Why I say that? Because they don't have normal specs. They're not regular humbucker specs, they're wider and longer. Plus a few marks at the bottom. I don't have proof for that, it's only a strong feeling.
- the measurements of the neck are all over the place. For starters: why, WHY would you make a neck that's 45mm wide at the nut, when the customer asks for 42? WHY make the end width 59mm when the customer asks for 57?! Really, man... this is bad. Oh, not to mention the radius. 10 inch radius was asked. This is a 7.25" - 12" compound. I can't understand that. why would you ever opt to go so badly against the customer's wishes and then finish it like this?
If the owner sees this, I don't think he'd mind these photo's. I have kept him anonymous and I did not say who made this guitar but it can be inferred.
I have posted PLENTY guitars of my own to show how I do business and what my guitars look like.
_____________________________________
This is how NOT to make an electric guitar. I am not one to say bad things about colleagues in the field, I know how hard it is to make a good guitar, but stuff this bad, for this amount of money has to be called out.
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