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29/04/2007 12:55 am
Got some bad news about my Hwy One Strat today... :(
The truss rod adjustment socket (that may not be the right term, but it's up by the nut) is stripped out. :(
Several months ago, I had taken it to the guitar shop to have it set up and a set of heavier strings (10's) put on. When I got it back, it had some buzzing going on and the action seemed too high, so I took it back to the shop and asked them if they could remedy those things.
They told me that the action was set to specifications and that some amount of buzzing was probably due to the brand of strings I had chosen (IIRC they are Ernie Ball Super Slinkies). They told me there was nothing more they could do, so I left with the guitar and resolved that I would learn to play it with the higher action as a condition of the meatier strings.
Not enjoying the higher action, I haven't played it much since. I also acquired my PRS Tremonti in the meantime, further reducing my time with the Strat. So I asked my guitar teacher to take a look at the Strat and see what he thought about lowering the action, and he discovered that the threads on the truss rod had been stripped.
I can't believe the guitar shop did this to me! :evil: Of course I have no way of proving anything, and it's been several months ago now anyway.
My teacher, who also does guitar repair, is going to bore it out and attempt fixing it some way. My only other options are playing it the way it is with the too-high action, or replacing the entire neck. :x
I am pretty darn ticked at the guitar shop, to say the least.
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
29/04/2007 1:17 am
It's possible to take a neck apart and replace a truss rod, but not practical (costwise) for something like a Highway 1 Strat. Your realistic choices are as presented. That sucks. It sucks that someone stripped that adjusting nut, hoped you wouldn't notice and kept quiet, so now you'd have a hard time proving anything.
:(
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
29/04/2007 1:17 am
Wow Margaret,
That is the worst!!!!
If you tell me where the shop is, I'll pay them a visit. :twisted:
I'm pretty good at getting things like that taken care of, (Or getting arrested :D).
At the very least, you should try going back before any work has been done to see if they compensate you
after 'fessing up like men.
Or, sounds like a good choice for your slide guitar.
At any rate - I feel that you should make it your mission to learn how to set up all your own guitars from now on.
There's no Voodoo to it.
It's not that difficult at all, and gives a great deal of satisfaction. :wink:
I hope your teacher can fix it for you :D
Ken
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
29/04/2007 2:10 am
That does suck!
Of course I'm relieved ... when I saw the thread title I thought something had happened to the Mustang! :D
But yeah, I hope your teacher can fix it!
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
29/04/2007 2:31 am
Man that is some serious BS!
reguardless of whether or not they would make good on it i would deffinatly talk to the manager or owner and give them a piece of my mind.
having owned a small business i know well that word of mouth can make or break your business.
the rule of thumb is~
"treat your customers well and they will tell a few people and your business will eventually prosper, treat your customers poorly and they will tell everyone they know and your business will die.
if you can convince the guy that his shop is the only place that this could have happened , maybe they would meet you halfway on fixing it.
on the other hand, i don't know if you would want to even give them a second chance at this point...
#4491....
29/04/2007 3:07 am
I am seriously PO'd! That shop broke your guitar and then lied to you. I wish you the best Margaret. I do all my own work and buy some cheap instruments. I have had rods that were stuck in the glue from when the neck was assembled. I've had to horse pretty hard and have never broken or stripped a rod. I'd like to know how they managed this on a quality instrument? This is just not right at all. Somebody owes you a new guitar.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
29/04/2007 3:47 am
That is BS. I wish you the best in straightening things out.
Topic starter
29/04/2007 4:49 am
Thanks, everybody. I appreciate the support and sympathy. My experiences with this shop had been good, and it was preferable to the big box place, IMO. This is a large-enough shop to have several technicians, and I doubt this is a reflection on all of them. But it's going to be hard to trust anybody now.
After talking it over I think I'll call my teacher tomorrow, and if he hasn't already started on the project, I'll take it back to the shop and at least try for some compromise on the cost of the repair/neck replacement.
Just checked my records, and it was all the way back in September, which hurts my case a lot. :?
Maybe replacing the neck is the better option, if I can get a gen-u-wine Fender neck of the same specs. I really don't want to replace it with something less. My teacher thought replacing the neck would be cheaper than putting in the labor to repair it, but I'm not sure if he was thinking about a Fender neck.
At the time I took the strat to the shop for the string change and set-up, my teacher had not yet started doing repairs for hire, or I would have just had him do the set-up. But he was doing work for people gratis and I didn't feel right about taking advantage of his free time, so I took it to the shop.
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
29/04/2007 5:13 am
I think going back there is the right thing to do.
Now Margaret, please don't take this the wrong way....
I would recommend bringing along a male with you that is versed in guitars, (perhaps your teacher, who also discovered the problem).
It has been my experience that Guys tend to do nothing for women. (Girls; take that line any way you like :D )
I have had to 'take care' of more than a few guys that gave my ex-wife the run around. :evil:
Although my girlfriend is quite good at handling those cheap cheuvenistic attitudes in the market place.
I feel so sorry for anyone who tries to give her the run around. (She's a Scorpio of Irish descent from the Southside of
Chicago, just like me :D )
As petty as it may be, I think you'll be a lot less frustrated in the end.
I'm sorry things are like that.....
Good luck,
Ken :)
"The man who has begun to live more seriously within
begins to live more simply without"
-Ernest Hemingway
"A genuine individual is an outright nuisance in a factory"
-Orson Welles
29/04/2007 7:55 am
As it goes back to last September, the chances are that the shop will "not be able to remember" that far back or claim that the damage was done by someone else. They're not going to own up to damage costing a new neck.
As for taking a male along, I fully agree. As it happens, I saw a piece on TV only a couple of weeks ago about the raw deal women get. They sent a man into a garage, with a problem on his car, that had been set-up by a motor mechanic. He got an adjustment (the correct solution) and a bill for €15 or something. They sent a woman to the same garage, with the same problem - she had the part replaced and the mechanic "found" another problem that "needed fixing" - total €150.
At an electrical store, their man asked about a flat-screen TV. Without any problem, the salesman offered 10% discount. When the woman tried the same thing, the same salesman refused any form of discount, because the price was "already down to the bone".
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
29/04/2007 8:32 am
That sucks, Margaret. Hope you get something sorted out one way or another.
8)
I've had a lot of sobering thoughts in my time.
It was them that turned me to drink.
29/04/2007 12:27 pm
I hope you get it taken care of by the shop that ruined it. I would hope that most shops are not that sleazy, maybe they just had one basd aple working there.
Topic starter
29/04/2007 1:55 pm
Though I hate to admit it, I've already wished I had the right man to go to the shop with me on this one. I'm no shrinking violet, but I know from experience that in this case I would very likely get better results out of the shop if a man were standing there with me even if I did the majority of the talking. It sucks, but it's reality.
The shop is 40 minutes' drive from here, so I wouldn't ask my teacher to go there with me and my husband is not the right one to take along as he knows nothing about guitars and we might not agree on tactical matters. :wink:
If I had a stronger case to take to the shop I'd be the first to say, "I don't need no steenkin' man to back me up," but.....since I can't prove anything and it happened so far in the past, my case is weak. Having gone through a couple of protracted battles on a couple other fronts lately (a set of headphones that had to be shipped in THREE times to get repaired under warranty, for one!), I feel rather burnt out at the moment--I probably don't have the spitfire to do this one justice.
Further, even if I don't do guitar business with this shop in the future, I still need to be able to go there for sheet music, piano tuning, special orders, and my kids' band instrument needs, so I don't want to totally burn the bridges.
Even if I don't go after the shop for help with the repair bill, I will at least let them know what happened, in no uncertain terms. Maybe it would result in a training upgrade for some technician, and hopefully prevent this from happening to someone else's guitar. In the final analysis I may end up just eating this one. Live and learn. :(
Margaret
When my mind is free, you know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue, the guitar's comin' through to soothe me ~
29/04/2007 2:05 pm
Margaret,
Sorry to hear about your guitar. I hope your teacher can fix it for you. I probably wouldn't have caught it either, but when they told you that you had to "live with the buzzing, and there is nothing else they can do", that probably was an indication that they screwed something up. I've never had a guitar tech say that - they usually have tons of ideas on how to fix things. Since I've been in this area, I've only used two techs - someone at that big guitar store in Beloit, (don't know if I should mention names), they did ok, and a guy here in Janesville who does guitar and amp work on the southside of town, and he is awesome! It sounds like your teacher may be able to do your repairs from now on, but if you ever need another tech, PM me & I'll give you the info on the guy I use. Good luck.
Dan
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
29/04/2007 4:10 pm
margaret. do go back to that shop. they should own up to the mistake they made, regardless which tech made it. it is simply good business.
perhaps Fender put in a faulty piece and the shop merely exasperated the already bad guitar.
the shop can return it and get another one. no loss to them and good faith and respect towards you.
print this thread and show the store:
HERE IS A LIST OF PEOPLE THAT WILL NOT SPEND MONEY IN YOUR STORE
times several hundred each...you should have your guitar replaced or mended promptly.
best of results, randy
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