Should I be upset? VIDEOS ADDED

[skullfxr]

Welp, I was only trying to help.

You're going to need backing documentation to reverse the charge. You can't do a partial refund iirc.

Step one talking to other luthiers. You may have to go to small claims court.

Half of his fee was the fret work and new hardware.

Based on how he worded the invoice for it to look aged, he will say it met the contract. You are paying someone for their artistry, subjective result may be difficult to argue is incorrect.

Seems like uphill battle. I'd try to enjoy it and put feelers out to other luthiers for refinish maybe in a couple years.

I wouldn't be happy for 1900 either, but idk what you can do here.

Honestly, the bolded text is probably spot on. Shit like this goes there often. Unfortunately you are not even in the state. That is a pain in the ass.

Artistry is a bitch to fight. I am not a lawyer but have known a few people who have had a hard time fighting with that.

The only 'artistry' claims that I personally know of are in the realm of motorcycles and cars. I have several family members who spend a lot of money on stuff like that and work or are retired from the industry. Those occurred in courts in Minnesota.

It's a shame that the guy is scum like this. You should get some money back IMO absolutely.

If the guy was a decent person/businessman he would make you happy.

The other option (which you can do at the same time) is spread the news of his work. Facebook/Instagram, TGP, Les Paul forums. Just watch your phrases so you don't get slammed with slander or deformation of character.

OP- I feel so bad for you. Seriously I cannot imagine how pissed I would be. Don't think I am trying to say anything against you, but I just have seen a lot of issues like yours that turn into a MASSIVE headache in small claims court.

To the 'luthier' whoever it is. Man up, grow a pair, and make it right.

I live by the standard that I always sleep well at night, because I can rest peacefully knowing that I did not do anybody wrong.

 

[void pig]

The lines on the fretboard binding are all due to age/shrinkage. That cannot be fixed without totally replacing the binding.

The smudges. I think, are from buffing. Don’t know for sure, but my hypothesis is that the tape on the fretboard over the frets wasn’t secured down properly and those black smudges got in those little crevices during buffing. This can be cleaned off. He simply did a quick/lazy job and did not clean my fretboard properly after he did all the work (and damage) to it.

Maybe I should start a luthier repair business. I know two things for sure: I’d never let this work out of my shop, and 2) I’d ask the client questions about exactly what they wanted, maybe even to the point of bugging them. ?

That guitar is a train wreck.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Again, all “artistry”aside, the tool marks on the fretboard along with the high frets, show 1) damage to the product, not included in any kind of aging process, and 2) an incomplete and/or negligent get job. That has zero to do with an aging process or artistic interpretation.

 

[harddriver]

Had bad buzzing on the low E string. Checked the fret leveling. Obvious high frets on 3rd and 9th frets.

While I fully empathize with your situation.......you better stop complaining here, you made your case two pages back, you can no longer wait to see if this guy will capitulate and try to make things right.

Call your Credit card company and see if you can get a full refund on this job, PERIOD!

I would not send this guy the guitar again even if he offered at this point, he may keep your guitar in lieu of payment if you get the charges reversed. You may loose your down payment that covered the parts he installed but you won't know until you contact your C/C company.

Did you pay for this with a Credit Card?

 

[skullfxr]

Again, all “artistry”aside, the tool marks on the fretboard along with the high frets, show 1) damage to the product, not included in any kind of aging process, and 2) an incomplete and/or negligent get job. That has zero to do with an aging process or artistic interpretation.

I agree with you, all I was saying that legal action could be a bitch. It's not likeky that the official who hears the case is so finely tuned in lurhiery. I have seen both sides from the aspect of my family members in high end cars and motorcycles. Not that I know shit anything about law, but I just have seen the situation. I have not been in the room with them either, but I have heard the headaches.

That is a shit job. Period.

I just hope that he makes it right.

Or if you can get the CC/PayPal claim, try your best. I have never been down that alley. So I will let others talk about this.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Had bad buzzing on the low E string. Checked the fret leveling. Obvious high frets on 3rd and 9th frets.

While I fully empathize with your situation.......you better stop complaining here, you made your case two pages back, you can no longer wait to see if this guy will capitulate and try to make things right.

Call your Credit card company and see if you can get a full refund on this job, PERIOD!

I would not send this guy the guitar again even if he offered at this point, he may keep your guitar in lieu of payment if you get the charges reversed. You may loose your down payment that covered the parts he installed but you won't know until you contact your C/C company.

Did you pay for this with a Credit Card?

Just said a few posts up that I’m taking care of it. Did you read that?

Am I complaining about it, or making my case? (Maybe both i suppose.) I’ve seen dudes here say nasty stuff and complain about builders and transactions they never even took part in.

 

[phil b]

That just looks like there was ZERO prep work taken before he sprayed. This guy did the least amount work for the most amount of money. As I said before, the misinterpretation of what OP wanted and what he got falls on the luthier. There is also the argument of was there ANY misinterpretation and this luthier just cut corners? For the price OP paid you dont need to talk to another luthier to KNOW that that price was absurd! I had a luthier friend of mine look at this thread and the pics and his exact reaction was "Wow, he got robbed. I need to charge you more, Phil!"

Going forward I would absolutely get one if not two estimates on how much it will take to make it right and then dispute that amount with the C.C. Have all communications documented of the transaction and as many pics it takes to define the complaint. Even better on the new estimates would be if you can get an explanation to refute this guys claims about why it turned out the way it did. Armed with all that I think it makes a very solid case not only for the C.C. company but also in small claims court if it were to go that route.

 

[harddriver]

I did not read that you had opened a case with your C/C company. I hope you have and you get some kind of recompense for less than competent work performed. I'm sure everyone empathizes here feels that you are in the right and justified in you outing this guy. Hopefully you can claw back some of the money you invested into this guitar with this guy.

I'm sure we all have some type of similar situation sometime in our lives whether related to guitars or not.

 

[Monkey Man]

Indeed. My first custom guitar had a ridiculous number of issues, including the frets' being unevenly spaced, something you could see with a naked eye from a distance.

I took it to the luthier and he threatened to hit me over the head with it. I bowed out gracefully, figuring the dude was unhinged and not worth making enemies with. The saga (he took his time making it) cost me a year and 2 grand, and that was only the first one.

Between guitar disasters and rip-offs concerning other gear I've lost at least 12 grand, which at my pathetic rate of saving translates to about 10 years. Figured the best I could do was look after myself so as to compensate for the additional delay to starting my music career. Hey, if you can use such situations / bad luck in a positive way, I'm all for it.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Here’s the video I took when I inboxed the guitar. My initial pleasure at first glance when I opened the case went quickly downhill the more I examined the guitar.

 

[romanianreaper]

Call your Credit card company and see if you can get a full refund on this job, PERIOD!

I would not send this guy the guitar again even if he offered at this point, he may keep your guitar in lieu of payment if you get the charges reversed. You may loose your down payment that covered the parts he installed but you won't know until you contact your C/C company.

Did you pay for this with a Credit Card?

No way he should ask for a full refund. That is like finishing a whole meal at a restaurant and then getting your money back while picking your teeth. I think a compromise is fair since you have to account for labor, etc.

 

[Mr. Willy]

Call your Credit card company and see if you can get a full refund on this job, PERIOD!

I would not send this guy the guitar again even if he offered at this point, he may keep your guitar in lieu of payment if you get the charges reversed. You may loose your down payment that covered the parts he installed but you won't know until you contact your C/C company.

Did you pay for this with a Credit Card?

No way he should ask for a full refund. That is like finishing a whole meal at a restaurant and then getting your money back while picking your teeth. I think a compromise is fair since you have to account for labor, etc.

For the record I have NEVER SAID I WAS GOING TO SEEK A FULL REFUND.

I paid him over 4 separate payments. I have those four payments that I can dispute - any one, combination, or all. However, he deserves money for some of his work. I will not disagree with that.

If you read this whole thread, you will see that I beseeched him directly for A PORTION of the total bill back. A portion that I think is MORE than fair.

 

[void pig]

Here’s the video I took when I inboxed the guitar. My initial pleasure at first glance when I opened the case went quickly downhill the more I examined the guitar.

The child said, "Is that a new one?"

 

[phil b]

Here’s the video I took when I inboxed the guitar. My initial pleasure at first glance when I opened the case went quickly downhill the more I examined the guitar.

The child said, "Is that a new one?"

Man.. that was tough to watch. I can hear a narrate under that going something like "So Mr. Willy, there is no Santa, the Easter Bunny is dead and there is no Tooth Fairy".. spoken very slowly as your looking it over. Not to make light of it but seriously what should have been a kick ass unboxing was a complete fail. Sorry....

 

[Goat]

Most people would want to put the guitar as close to stock as possible, but you chose to make it an intrument of destruction!

 

[void pig]

I'm going back to the side of the luthier on this. What I'm seeing here is starting to look like extortion. I went back over this thread and found the inconsistencies that were bothering me. And read between the lines.

When did I ever say it sounded good? I haven’t even plugged it in yet. Haven’t had the stomach to.

Here’s what she looks like now. The frets feel good, and she plays good. Set up is good. And she looks good, if you don’t look too close. .

In another of your posts, you mentioned that you had received the guitar a couple weeks prior to starting the thread. So you had the guitar for a while, and said it plays good. You would be able to hear if it sounds the same even without plugging it in, so there was confirmation that his work did not adversely affect the tone.

When I talked to him a few days later, he requested $700 for hardware and to get the ball rolling. I thought that would be off the top of the guestimate above. I was wrong.

Apparently this was a very budget conscious build. He quoted you 1100 and then asked 700 for hardware, so the build came out on budget.

Think about it, if he quotes you 1100 and 700 of that is hardware, that means that a complete refret, conversion to jumbo, new nut, repairs and refinish would only cost 400? No fucking way man, no fucking way.

Later in the thread you mentioned that you had to "save up the money to get the guitar back", so he knew your money was tight and in one of his responses said something to the effect "this was finished within the constraints of the budget we discussed".


And the "unboxing video" was fake AF. Don't take up acting. Your kid even gave it away when he said "did you get a new one?" Meaning the child already knew you were unhappy with a guitar you received and asked if you got a new one. Thats not a question a child asks unless another guitar had come into the home recently.

If that was a real unboxing you would have showed some positive emotion and it would have taken you much longer to find the issues. What happened in the video, you didn't try to feign any excitement, and then zeroed in on the imperfections with laser accuracy, like you were reading them from a bulleted list. You didn't even strum the damn thing. Staged.


You keep asking "is this worth 1900!?!". The restoration, repairs and refret only cost about 1000. You had visions of sugar plum fairies for your 1900, but this was a 1000 budget restoration that you ended up being unhappy with. He said he didn't re radius the fret board and the marks were there from before, AND that he has the pics to prove it. I haven't seen any close up pics of the fretboard from you, no before and afters, so I assume that doesn't fit your narrative.


I will say one thing. Absolutely no luthier will want to do work for you in the future. While you burned down the luthiers business, you also showed a completely irrational and unprofessional response in this thread. This thread is an attempt at extortion. The amount of money you want refunded would basically be asking him to do the work for free.

You sent him a guitar with alot of problems, he was working under a budget that you had set with him. He did a good job refinishing the top, he didnt fill the back because its a budget restoration. You were initially happy with the fretwork (above). He says he wasn't able to re radius because of the MOP and that he has pics of the condition of the guitar from before. You wanted him to completely clean up the damage you had done to the fretboard, but he was unable to do it because he needed to preserve the MOP.

You haven't showed any pics of the fingerboard prior (to show that the damage wasnt already there). And you didn't follow repeated suggestions to contact another luthier to get confirmation on how much a restoration of the caliber you desire would cost. My guess is that it would be much more than 1000 in labor. Probably a reason you selected this luthier in the first place because he was willing to do a budget repair/refinish. I'm sure you called around other luthiers before sending it to him because you are so anal and particular. You know how much the other guys asked so you sent it to him instead.

I got sucked into this thread and your victim act and now im 99.999% sure its an attempt at extortion.

 

[RaceU4her]

 

[Mr. Willy]

Most people would want to put the guitar as close to stock as possible, but you chose to make it an intrument of destruction!

I really struggled with which look I wanted. Almost went traditional. Almost went with the yellow Randy Rhoads look as well. I settle on a very 70’s style because I don’t see it that often. Thought it make her stand out for the crowd a bit. I will say that he nailed the look I was going for. I’ll find someone to straighten this out. 90% sure I’m gonna try and get Glaser to fix it.

 

[Mr. Willy]

I'm going back to the side of the luthier on this. What I'm seeing here is starting to look like extortion. I went back over this thread and found the inconsistencies that were bothering me. And read between the lines.

When did I ever say it sounded good? I haven’t even plugged it in yet. Haven’t had the stomach to.

Here’s what she looks like now. The frets feel good, and she plays good. Set up is good. And she looks good, if you don’t look too close. .

In another of your posts, you mentioned that you had received the guitar a couple weeks prior to starting the thread. So you had the guitar for a while, and said it plays good. You would be able to hear if it sounds the same even without plugging it in, so there was confirmation that his work did not adversely affect the tone.

When I talked to him a few days later, he requested $700 for hardware and to get the ball rolling. I thought that would be off the top of the guestimate above. I was wrong.

Apparently this was a very budget conscious build. He quoted you 1100 and then asked 700 for hardware, so the build came out on budget.

Think about it, if he quotes you 1100 and 700 of that is hardware, that means that a complete refret, conversion to jumbo, new nut, repairs and refinish would only cost 400? No fucking way man, no fucking way.

Later in the thread you mentioned that you had to "save up the money to get the guitar back", so he knew your money was tight and in one of his responses said something to the effect "this was finished within the constraints of the budget we discussed".


And the "unboxing video" was fake AF. Don't take up acting. Your kid even gave it away when he said "did you get a new one?" Meaning the child already knew you were unhappy with a guitar you received and asked if you got a new one. Thats not a question a child asks unless another guitar had come into the home recently.

If that was a real unboxing you would have showed some positive emotion and it would have taken you much longer to find the issues. What happened in the video, you didn't try to feign any excitement, and then zeroed in on the imperfections with laser accuracy, like you were reading them from a bulleted list. You didn't even strum the damn thing. Staged.


You keep asking "is this worth 1900!?!". The restoration, repairs and refret only cost about 1000. You had visions of sugar plum fairies for your 1900, but this was a 1000 budget restoration that you ended up being unhappy with. He said he didn't re radius the fret board and the marks were there from before, AND that he has the pics to prove it. I haven't seen any close up pics of the fretboard from you, no before and afters, so I assume that doesn't fit your narrative.


I will say one thing. Absolutely no luthier will want to do work for you in the future. While you burned down the luthiers business, you also showed a completely irrational and unprofessional response in this thread. This thread is an attempt at extortion. The amount of money you want refunded would basically be asking him to do the work for free.

You sent him a guitar with alot of problems, he was working under a budget that you had set with him. He did a good job refinishing the top, he didnt fill the back because its a budget restoration. You were initially happy with the fretwork (above). He says he wasn't able to re radius because of the MOP and that he has pics of the condition of the guitar from before. You wanted him to completely clean up the damage you had done to the fretboard, but he was unable to do it because he needed to preserve the MOP.

You haven't showed any pics of the fingerboard prior (to show that the damage wasnt already there). And you didn't follow repeated suggestions to contact another luthier to get confirmation on how much a restoration of the caliber you desire would cost. My guess is that it would be much more than 1000 in labor. Probably a reason you selected this luthier in the first place because he was willing to do a budget repair/refinish. I'm sure you called around other luthiers before sending it to him because you are so anal and particular. You know how much the other guys asked so you sent it to him instead.

I got sucked into this thread and your victim act and now im 99.999% sure its an attempt at extortion.

You’re wrong on so many levels buddy. I filmed that to make sure it wasn’t damaged when it came back. Bringing my kids into it is beyond low. I got this guitar back this past Tuesday.

 

[Goat]

void pig = NTL