A repair nightmare.
Joebuddha
Posts: 2,143
Hey Guys,
So most of you guys that I have met know that I play a really beat to shit looking Strat that started life as a Mary Kaye Custom Shop Relic. When I got it, it had a beautiful curly maple one piece neck that was never right. I had that neck on it for 11 years and I would say that in that time I probably got about a months worth of playing time on it. There was one occasion in particular back in 98 were I was playing it onstage in mid July and during the second song of our set the neck bowed mid song!
So anyway about 12 years ago I had my then repair guy who I loved and trusted replace the neck with an Allparts Baseball bat neck that I absolutely adore. That guitar replaced my PRS and every other guitar I own as my main instrument, I almost never play any of my other guitars except for my Tele and that doesn't even get the love that it should.
Over the years I have tried many pickups but for the last few years I have had Duncan Little 59's in both the neck and bridge and recently decided that I wanted to change out the neck pickup. So after looking around at my options I decided to switch to a YJM Fury.
My current repair guy Evan Gluck who has been voted best repair guy in the country a few times and does product reviews for Stew Mac was backed up and going out of town. So a buddy of mine who owns a small guitar shop in Brooklyn convinced me to let his guy work on my baby. So I drop off the guitar with the pickup and a set of strings in the gig bag to my buddy on a Tuesday expecting to get it back in a couple of days. By Friday I started to get a little antsy without my main squeeze and I reach out to my buddy to get an ETA on its return. He informs me that his repair guy was almost done with the fretwork and that he should have it back to me by Monday. My response was "FRET WORK? I only wanted the pickup swapped out!" My buddy explained that his guy would do that but that the frets were really worn and that they needed a grind and polish. My stomach turned I was literally sick at the thought of someone grinding my frets, I love big frets, I grew up playing scalloped fingerboards and I hate low or small frets. My buddy tells me not to worry his guy is "The Best" and that I'll love it when I get it back.
So Monday comes and I call my friend to ask about the guitar, he tells me that his guy hadn't realized that I needed the pickup changed and that he was swapping it out now. I was able to control my temper with him on the phone but when I picked up the guitar the next day I went through the fucking roof.
The dude had set the guitar up and then had to pull off the strings to switch the pickup and instead of using a new set of strings he put the ones that were on there back on sloppily, then he set the bridge pup to high so that my high E didn't ring at all, also the 3 middle pup positions were noisy and intermittent, Once I took off the strings adjusted the pickup height and restrung it the set up sucked and I couldn't bend above the 10th fret without it fretting out. I tried to adjust the neck and do my own set up but to no avail.
The worst part is that this guy who I've never met decided without asking that my guitar was too dirty and cleaned off the 12 years of dirt and grime that I had never touched!! I was so pissed off I couldn't see straight.
So I emailed Evan with the heading "Dude, I'm sorry but" and I dropped it off with him this past Monday and I am about to go and pick it up.
Evan's response after seeing it was that they had "Fucked your guitar up dude"
So anyway I am now heading out to pick up my baby and I have once again learned my lesson about repair guys once and for all.
So most of you guys that I have met know that I play a really beat to shit looking Strat that started life as a Mary Kaye Custom Shop Relic. When I got it, it had a beautiful curly maple one piece neck that was never right. I had that neck on it for 11 years and I would say that in that time I probably got about a months worth of playing time on it. There was one occasion in particular back in 98 were I was playing it onstage in mid July and during the second song of our set the neck bowed mid song!
So anyway about 12 years ago I had my then repair guy who I loved and trusted replace the neck with an Allparts Baseball bat neck that I absolutely adore. That guitar replaced my PRS and every other guitar I own as my main instrument, I almost never play any of my other guitars except for my Tele and that doesn't even get the love that it should.
Over the years I have tried many pickups but for the last few years I have had Duncan Little 59's in both the neck and bridge and recently decided that I wanted to change out the neck pickup. So after looking around at my options I decided to switch to a YJM Fury.
My current repair guy Evan Gluck who has been voted best repair guy in the country a few times and does product reviews for Stew Mac was backed up and going out of town. So a buddy of mine who owns a small guitar shop in Brooklyn convinced me to let his guy work on my baby. So I drop off the guitar with the pickup and a set of strings in the gig bag to my buddy on a Tuesday expecting to get it back in a couple of days. By Friday I started to get a little antsy without my main squeeze and I reach out to my buddy to get an ETA on its return. He informs me that his repair guy was almost done with the fretwork and that he should have it back to me by Monday. My response was "FRET WORK? I only wanted the pickup swapped out!" My buddy explained that his guy would do that but that the frets were really worn and that they needed a grind and polish. My stomach turned I was literally sick at the thought of someone grinding my frets, I love big frets, I grew up playing scalloped fingerboards and I hate low or small frets. My buddy tells me not to worry his guy is "The Best" and that I'll love it when I get it back.
So Monday comes and I call my friend to ask about the guitar, he tells me that his guy hadn't realized that I needed the pickup changed and that he was swapping it out now. I was able to control my temper with him on the phone but when I picked up the guitar the next day I went through the fucking roof.
The dude had set the guitar up and then had to pull off the strings to switch the pickup and instead of using a new set of strings he put the ones that were on there back on sloppily, then he set the bridge pup to high so that my high E didn't ring at all, also the 3 middle pup positions were noisy and intermittent, Once I took off the strings adjusted the pickup height and restrung it the set up sucked and I couldn't bend above the 10th fret without it fretting out. I tried to adjust the neck and do my own set up but to no avail.
The worst part is that this guy who I've never met decided without asking that my guitar was too dirty and cleaned off the 12 years of dirt and grime that I had never touched!! I was so pissed off I couldn't see straight.
So I emailed Evan with the heading "Dude, I'm sorry but" and I dropped it off with him this past Monday and I am about to go and pick it up.
Evan's response after seeing it was that they had "Fucked your guitar up dude"
So anyway I am now heading out to pick up my baby and I have once again learned my lesson about repair guys once and for all.
Comments
What's with these idiots? JUST DO THE JOB YOU WERE ASKED TO DO -- NOTHING MORE. If you find something else that seems wrong, PHONE ME and ASK.
-- David St. Hubbins.
BDR-529
Member:
Squier Army
Schecter Society
It's a nightmare.
Jury is still out on the new pickup though.
I hate the 60 cicle hum.
-- David St. Hubbins.
-- David St. Hubbins.
As far as the pickup goes I don't think I like it. I haven't had the chance to play it through anything other than my little Vox practice amp but I expected more. It's very dark sounding and not quite single coil enough.
But I'll live with it for a bit and make a decision in a while.
I am picking up my 540S on Wednesday so I'll have that to play with for a while and I ordered a new Floyd from FU-Tone and a Zebra Coil F spaced Screaming Demon to put into my ESP M1 Deluxe one of my buddies is recommending I try The Chopper in the neck position of that one.
Where is Evan's shop located? I found the website, but it just says "upper Manhattan."
-- David St. Hubbins.