When a guitar tech ‘relics’ your guitar…

nonesuch

I took my American Standard Telecaster to a local tech to see if he could improve a little bit of fret buzz. He decided it needed some frets reseating.

After a troublesome 3 months, I’ve finally got it back. After the initial 2 or 3 weeks, when I first went to collect it, I noticed a small bit of paint, about 3mm across had been chipped off the front, above the scratchplate. Anyway he was very apologetic and said he’d repair the ding and you wouldn’t be able to see it had happened.

Another few weeks went by, then when I got it back the ‘touch up’ wasn’t great, but then I noticed that the top edge of the fretboard had scratches and superglue around the frets he’d worked on. And glue on the top of the fretboard. He agreed to fix the scratches and improve the finish repair.

So after another few weeks I’ve got it back again. The edge of the fretboard it much improved - I can still see fine scratches from the file, but it’s not the end of the world. The finish repair is still very poor, to be honest I wish he’d just left it, and I could have tried to fix it myself.

Obviously now I’m totally looking over it, looking for marks. I know it’s called a scratchplate, but that doesn’t mean I want scratches off a file on it, and bits that look like they’ve been sand-papered. And I can see a few tiny dings on the back, things like a trail of tiny dents near the backplate, where he’s adjusted the micro-tilt. Things like that.

Basically what I’m trying to say is, alright, if you ding the guitar yourself then that’s annoying, but you get over it. But when someone else does it… That’s different.

Anyway I’ve had enough, I’m just glad to get it back at last. I guess it’s time to say it’s just one of those things eh?

Apologies for the ramble.

grappagreen

That sucks - I totally feel your pain having had a similar but not as bad incident a few years back.

The only positive would be that you name and shame so that other people don't have to suffer the same fate imho.

Si

Modellista

What I always think when I see substandard work from a professional is “I could have cocked it up like that myself, why pay someone to do it?”. 

Methinks he needs to go back to luthiery school.  

gordiji

3 months as well, name & shame !

nonesuch

Modellista said:

What I always think when I see substandard work from a professional is “I could have cocked it up like that myself, why pay someone to do it?”.  

Yeah, that's what I thought exactly!

It put me in an awkward position to be honest - it's not in my nature to start telling people how to do their jobs. Although he definitely knew I wasn't happy with his work.

revsorg

If this happened to me I would be absolutely livid.

It took me exactly 17 years to come to terms with the first ding I made myself on my Hamer Explorer when I realised it was battle damage to be cherished.

prlgmnr

nonesuch said:

 Anyway he was very apologetic and said he’d repair the ding and you wouldn’t be able to see it had happened.

Can you put a circle round it or something, I can't quite make out the area of supposed damage?

Blaendulais

I do fell for you.  nightmare

Teyeplayer

3 months and damaged your guitar -what a cowboy! 

Philly_Q

This bloke shouldn't be working as a guitar tech.

nonesuch

I forgot to say when I got it back the second time, when I noticed the scratches along the edge of the fretboard, the fret buzz was actually worse than ever. That turned out to be the frets that he'd reseated lifting up a bit. I can understand how that can happen, but when you add it to everything else...

Yes 3 months! What can I say. The initial time of 3 weeks to do the fret dress was pushing it to be honest. What's the normal amount of time you would expect someone to take to do that kind of job?

PonchoGreg

Feline did it in like 4 days last time...

springhead

Last guitar I had fret dressed was also Feline.  Collected the week after I dropped it off and a top quality job.

nonesuch

4 days! A week!

Ha ha you're not making me feel any better!

tone1

People pay good money for that sort of relic work....
I would be a bit gutted though 

PonchoGreg

I've had Andy Gibson in London turn it around the same day before too (partial dress, but still). Three weeks really is taking the piss, unless he's the local guru and has dozens of jobs waiting at any given time

StuartMac290

Never in million years should that guy be considered a professional guitar tech.

ICBM

Speaking as a professional tech, we all make mistakes occasionally... but that goes so far beyond that that I really don’t know what to say!

*One* of those problems would be bad enough, but all on the same guitar?! No excuse whatever, and he should not be working on other people’s property if his basic standard of competence and care is so poor.

Did he smell of alcohol or hash?

nonesuch

tone1 said:

People pay good money for that sort of relic work....  

That's what I've been telling myself!

ICBM said:

Speaking as a professional tech, we all make mistakes occasionally... but that goes so far beyond that that I really don’t know what to say!

*One* of those problems would be bad enough, but all on the same guitar?! No excuse whatever, and he should not be working on other people’s property if his basic standard of competence and care is so poor.

Did he smell of alcohol or hash?

Oh yeah, I totally understand that mistakes can be made, that's a fact of life, but I guess it's how you try and fix those mistakes that matters.

He seems to be totally sober! The first time I met him was last year when he fitted some pickups in a Strat for me. That all seemed to go well. (I've never actually had a look under the scratchplate mind you! Might do that next string change.)

I was half expecting people to say - 'oh it's only a couple of bits of wood bolted together - get over it', so I'm pleased to see I'm not overreacting.

boogieman

If the pics are of the “better” repair, what was it like the first time? Shocking standard of work, let alone all the other balls ups he’s made. 

Arjailer

I was half expecting people to say - 'oh it's only a couple of bits of wood bolted together - get over it', so I'm pleased to see I'm not overreacting.

It is "only a couple of bits of wood bolted together", but it's your bits of wood that you paid good money for. He should be ashamed of himself to have treated them that way