Damage caused by guitar techs

Brize

I've just taken one of my guitars out of its case for the fist time since it came back from a tech's workshop and I was pissed off to find a ding on the neck. It's only a small ding but my thumb feels it as I run and up down the neck so it's pretty irritating.

This got me thinking about other damage caused by guitar techs and it's quite a list:

- An AVRI Strat with a gouge on the body from pickup mounting screws (presumably as the pickguard was put back on)

- A CS Strat where the neck plate had been over-tightened, crushing the wood and lacquer beneath it

- A CS Tele that went in for a re-fret and ended up with two blobs of glue on the back of the neck

- The same Tele lost some lacquer on the side of the neck where the frets were pulled and it was touched in with mis-matched lacquer, which was unnecessary on a relic guitar

- A Grover'd CS Les Paul with the old tuner holes filled with light wooden dowels without my permission (which I had to drill out)

- An SG with a burn mark just outside of the control cavity where some solder had dropped on the back of the body

And the pièce de résistance...

An all-original 1964 SG Special in white that just went in for a set-up. The muppets re-fretted it in error and had to touch in a number of spots around the neck where the lacquer came away when they pulled the frets. The frets were absolutely fine - it was the other guitar that I put in at the same time that had frets that were so worn as to be unplayable and they mixed up the paperwork.

All of the offenders were notable and reputable guitar workshops so it's not just a case of being selective with whom you entrust your guitars.

Has anyone had similar experiences or have I just been bloody unlucky?

Lestratcaster

One of my former techs broke the caps on the volume/tone knobs on one of my Les Pauls. Didn't affect the functionality of the guitar obviously and he did replace them with different ones as well. Still, I liked the original ones.

richardhomer

That sounds like a litany of disaster....

I played a guitar at the weekend that @SteveRobinson had refreted that was was beautifully done. Sounds like there are people out there who should be avoided....

ToneControl

Wow, I've only had a couple of mishaps over a long time and many guitars

ICBM

I think you've been a bit unlucky - I don't think it does happen that often, but it does happen. Not to me personally, since I do my own work so I can't complain too much, but...

A friend of mine sent an old Les Paul in for a refret to a recommended luthier, which was done perfectly - or at least the refret was, the luthier took it upon himself to refinish the back of the neck, badly (totally different appearance and feel from the original finish), and asked for an extra £30 for it. I assume he damaged the neck somehow and had to cover it.

I am not perfect and I have very occasionally damaged customers' guitars and amps slightly too. If it's anything more than a tiny mark which can be touched up invisibly I wouldn't even do anything without asking the customer what they want done, with a full apology and an offer of a discount.

Brize

richardhomer said:

That sounds like a litany of disaster....

Yep, although I should note that this has been over several years.

Brize

ICBM said:

I think you've been a bit unlucky - I don't think it does happen that often, but it does happen. Not to me personally, since I do my own work so I can't complain too much, but...

A friend of mine sent an old Les Paul in for a refret to a recommended luthier, which was done perfectly - or at least the refret was, the luthier took it upon himself to refinish the back of the neck, badly (totally different appearance and feel from the original finish), and asked for an extra £30 for it. I assume he damaged the neck somehow and had to cover it.

I am not perfect and I have very occasionally damaged customers' guitars and amps slightly too. If it's anything more than a tiny mark which can be touched up invisibly I wouldn't even do anything without asking the customer what they want done, with a full apology and an offer of a discount.

Good post. I guess it's unavoidable to some degree if you're hovering over guitars with tools. None of the examples in my original post were owned up to, though (other than the '64 SG debacle) - I only discovered the damage when I got home or when the guitar was shipped back to me.

Your example of the Les Paul with the re-finished neck is horrific - what an awful thing to do without the owner's permission.

octatonic

I've never had anything damaged by a tech and as far as I am aware I've never damaged anyone's guitar when repairing it.

Brize

Can anyone recommend someone to drop fill this little ding so my thumb doesn't catch it?

octatonic

Charlie Chandler.

Brize

octatonic said:

Charlie Chandler.

Thanks bud.

skunkwerx

I took an Ltd Kh-202 in for a string change one time (this was when I’d only been playing a couple months so had no idea). 

Was an independant, local music shop which I thought had a good reputation. 

Anyway the bloke popped it on the counter and as I had no idea about string gauges or brands I left him to pick some. Probably slinkys or D’adds of some description. 

The first string he changed kept popping out of the saddle block, and he was struggling with something else too, but I forget which.. this was 12+ years ago.. 

Anyway clearly he wasnt comfortable with floyds so said it would have to stay in with em and I could get it the next day. 

So when I did get it, it was all done ok except for a ding a little distance from one of the saddle screws.. obviously an allen key had been left in whilst the string was taken off, and when the trem went back the allen key dented the body.. 

olafgarten

ICBM said:

I think you've been a bit unlucky - I don't think it does happen that often, but it does happen. Not to me personally, since I do my own work so I can't complain too much, but...

A friend of mine sent an old Les Paul in for a refret to a recommended luthier, which was done perfectly - or at least the refret was, the luthier took it upon himself to refinish the back of the neck, badly (totally different appearance and feel from the original finish), and asked for an extra £30 for it. I assume he damaged the neck somehow and had to cover it.

I am not perfect and I have very occasionally damaged customers' guitars and amps slightly too. If it's anything more than a tiny mark which can be touched up invisibly I wouldn't even do anything without asking the customer what they want done, with a full apology and an offer of a discount.

Of course everybody makes mistakes so damage can happen. It's how you deal with it that counts and your approach seems to be the best (and most obvious) option.

olafgarten

skunkwerx said:

I took an Ltd Kh-202 in for a string change one time (this was when I’d only been playing a couple months so had no idea). 

Was an independant, local music shop which I thought had a good reputation. 

Anyway the bloke popped it on the counter and as I had no idea about string gauges or brands I left him to pick some. Probably slinkys or D’adds of some description. 

The first string he changed kept popping out of the saddle block, and he was struggling with something else too, but I forget which.. this was 12+ years ago.. 

Anyway clearly he wasnt comfortable with floyds so said it would have to stay in with em and I could get it the next day. 

So when I did get it, it was all done ok except for a ding a little distance from one of the saddle screws.. obviously an allen key had been left in whilst the string was taken off, and when the trem went back the allen key dented the body.. 

In this case they should've admitted they didn't know how to restring a floyd and recommend somebody who could. It would have avoided the damage and probably also improved your opinion of him.

skunkwerx

olafgarten said:

skunkwerx said:

I took an Ltd Kh-202 in for a string change one time (this was when I’d only been playing a couple months so had no idea). 

Was an independant, local music shop which I thought had a good reputation. 

Anyway the bloke popped it on the counter and as I had no idea about string gauges or brands I left him to pick some. Probably slinkys or D’adds of some description. 

The first string he changed kept popping out of the saddle block, and he was struggling with something else too, but I forget which.. this was 12+ years ago.. 

Anyway clearly he wasnt comfortable with floyds so said it would have to stay in with em and I could get it the next day. 

So when I did get it, it was all done ok except for a ding a little distance from one of the saddle screws.. obviously an allen key had been left in whilst the string was taken off, and when the trem went back the allen key dented the body.. 

In this case they should've admitted they didn't know how to restring a floyd and recommend somebody who could. It would have avoided the damage and probably also improved your opinion of him.

True that. Funny how I look back and think shiiiit, I actually paid someone to change me strings haha. But hell, we all start somewhere. 

Only sold that guitar a year ago actually, and I miss it! 

fretfinder

Mmm... I had a Braz board put on my R9. When I got it back there was a lip where the board met the neck by the cutaway, the binding was a different thickness on either side of the neck, there was a large blob of glue behind the nut, some of the inlays were slightly wonky and there were tooling marks on the board. I sent it straight back and all were rectified, apart from the wonky inlays - I console myself that that probably means it’s just like a real one!

thegummy

I was chatting with a repair man a while ago who was working on loads of antique instruments and I asked if he gets nervous doing them and he said he generally gets more nervous when someone brings an instrument straight from the shop cause they expect all the mods done and it to still be in brand new perfect condition but in the real world it's not always possible to do serious work on wood and leave everything 100% perfect. Incidentally, he did that job for me completely flawlessly which was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting the possibility of some slight imperfections (not like the OP picture, I feel for you with that one man).

Worst I've had from techs is really being ripped off by being charged a fortune for setups that must have been done by the unknown apprentice or helper because they were worse (beyond anything that's just preference) than even the first setup I did by myself and omitted some of the things I asked for.  Basically paid them 70 quid or however much setups cost for the apprentice to mess everything up and for me to have to adjust everything back to how it was before I took it in. Certainly haven't been back to that one!

On the plus side, it forced me to find a new place that seems to be very high quality so far.

John_A

Took a very high end Fernandes superstrat, ex iron maiden, and hardly played, but had one damaged fret, in to a local got to get the fret replaced.  When I picked the guitar up, he'd replaced one super jumbo Dunlop 6000 fret with a medium fret and stoned the other 21 down to the same level!  I was livid!!

mistercharlie

This is why I do as much work as I can myself. I’m dreading future refrets, because I’ll need to find a trustworthy tech to do that. Then again, I play with a light hand and have stainless steel frets, so I might get away with it. 

StuartMac290

I took a Gretsch into a well-known repair man up here to have one fret taken down a fraction - the frets were already about as low as I'd ever want them and the problem was minimal, so I made it really clear I didn't want the rest touched, because the guitar played perfectly. I also explained I neither want nor need a low action.

When I got home I noticed the job sheet stated "full fret dress" so I called them back and explained again that I didn't want that at all.

When I picked it up it had inevitably had every fret dressed. I was seriously pissed off. "But look how low we can get the action now!!" What is this fucking obsession with low action?!?

The guitar was never the same again and ultimately I ended up moving it on.

Another classic was many years ago when we were heading out on a 9-week tour so in the week between rehearsals and setting off we took 12 guitars into another well-known Scottish repair guy for general set up work. It wasn't until we got to London for the first show that we realised we'd shelled out well over a grand to have two guitars re-strung - nothing more - and the rest hadn't been touched at all.

Lessons learned.

ICBM

StuartMac290 said:

I took a Gretsch into a well-known repair man up here to have one fret taken down a fraction - the frets were already about as low as I'd ever want them and the problem was minimal, so I made it really clear I didn't want the rest touched, because the guitar played perfectly. I also explained I neither want nor need a low action.

When I got home I noticed the job sheet stated "full fret dress" so I called them back and explained again that I didn't want that at all.

When I picked it up it had inevitably had every fret dressed. I was seriously pissed off. "But look how low we can get the action now!!" What is this fucking obsession with low action?!?

I may know who that was, from your description...

StuartMac290 said:

Another classic was many years ago when we were heading out on a 9-week tour so in the week between rehearsals and setting off we took 12 guitars into another well-known Scottish repair guy for general set up work. It wasn't until we got to London for the first show that we realised we'd shelled out well over a grand to have two guitars re-strung - nothing more - and the rest hadn't been touched at all.

That's not incompetence, it's basic dishonesty... even if a set-up should cost £100, which it shouldn't.