Just wanted to say........
........Yes it has been a while since I've posted as I became a lurker....which is odd for me.I sincerely like to help people.I figured with my experience that I could.I showed my guitars and studio not to arrogantly brag but to show how some who has \"lost everything\" several times in life persevered and still managed to make a dream come true out of nothing.Sadly I got the feeling that most took it as a slap in the face which is entirely not part of my character. ....I'm sorry if it came across that way.
recently,a member here remembered that I lived in Nashville and inquired whether the catastrophic floods had effected me and the genuine concern made me remember when I felt like part of this forum.
While I did contribute,I sincerely enjoyed interacting with such an intelligent and humorous community and just wanted to say..........................
......Thank You ! 8)
I wish you all well
Jay
recently,a member here remembered that I lived in Nashville and inquired whether the catastrophic floods had effected me and the genuine concern made me remember when I felt like part of this forum.
While I did contribute,I sincerely enjoyed interacting with such an intelligent and humorous community and just wanted to say..........................
......Thank You ! 8)
I wish you all well
Jay
Comments
My only issue is all those weird pointy git'rs you have. Cool as they look, I can't imagine showing up in public to play one of those. My crank ain't big enough, and armadillos are hard to find around here. :P
But still, I'd want to hear all about it.
Aw...the oil rig thing that could never fail! Can anyone say espionage?
Ya I forgot about that getting the limelight. But then again, isn't it the news media's job to cover ALL events? Once again. .... Then again, I rarely watch mainstream or local propaganda anymore :roll: :P
I wonder if any of the wasted gear stored at soundcheck will be offered up for cheap?
I realize its been tough these couple of years for alot of folk.I lost the tip of my finger,lost a month of work,got behind,lost my house/home,got my home back,lost my Aunt/Godmother in Sept and my Father in January the day after getting my dream amp....and then the flood....many of my friends have lost everything( I've done my best to help them in clean up) and insurance co are backing out left and right and fema is in some ways nothing more than a federal loan shark.I canceled my custom guitar orders from MCS due to $$$ and sold over a dozen(15-20) of my guitars but traded into better ones.
RAWB-the finger will never be the same but i can play again....i believe better now....I just don't feel it in that finger.
Manitou-I have a friend whos daughter has always been friends with Miss Swift.Shes a sweet girl and to my knowledge is the only class act to donate $500,000.00 to Nashville flood relief 8)
Shred-I have started my own Handmade neckthrough guitar line and I'm in the process of building 14 beautiful handmades.You will be glad to know that 8 of them are Strat shaped and 2 are teles.I've never thought about shape unless its uncomfortable like a les paul or les paul 2.I customized cars for over 25 years and in the 90's \"dare to be different\" was the craze......studebakers,packards,and other otherwise overlooked cars(unpopular) got pimped up and appreciated and their owners loved the special identity their obscure,out of the norm car gave them.I have always looked at guitars the same way.Most folk don't like weird shaped guitars because they \"stand out\"......I actually gravitate to them because they do.....thats just me.In the end it doesn't matter as long as it looks good,plays great,and inspires its owner.
Also.......because I am a tech/refurb/luthier....I am not,nor have I ever been here to \"pimp my business\".I have other avenues for that........other wise you would have seen this as my banner
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g130/cyclonic_photos/jayshopsig1-1.jpg
I was actually happy to come here and relax and NOT think about business and in truth would've fixed Shreds ailing ibanez for free just to help a brother out
BTW-in the last 3 years I have convinced 7 people to actually purchase GNX4's
Um...ailing 'binez? I have two, both electrics, and they're both up n running...I had some problems back at the start with my RG3, but have since souped it up - it has a bone nut (replaced the crappy stock plastic one); took out the tinny, thin EMG's and put coil-split Di/M PAF Pro's, which sound amazing (you can hear scraps of it on my SoundClick recordings, see sig below...). But I really appreciate the thought...I dig my planks and wouldn't have anyone but a real pro work on 'em...unless I do it myself...
PS killer that you turned people on to the GNX...I still think it's the most killer unit out there. 8)
It is nice to see you posting again. This site has been slow, and I miss the camaraderie we use to enjoy here. Many message boards are slowing down. I think facebook and twitter is where people have migrated to.
Are you a real pro? If not, why do you work on them? wouldn't that place you in the 'anyone' catagory? Just curious.
So what exactly constitute a ' real pro '? What credentials do you look for, in a real pro? ...
Manitou's Guitar Repair Service [ 5 cents - still cheap ]
If I need someone else to work on my planks, I look for someone who's experienced and does quality, caring work. No one cares for my gitr's like I do, but if I let someone work on one, I want them to at least try. I've heard a thousand horror stories about guys who paid some hack hundreds of bux to maim their ax. :evil:
Thanks shredd 8) According to the criteria you listed... I'm a ' A real pro '! That makes me feel good
and then there was......................
THIS^^^^........is actually the reason why i left and became a lurker the last time when the same was basically said...........and here we go with it again from the same Mr \"Shred\".
truth is.........I'm a bit Jaded in that I forget about anonimity :oops:
and Shred doesn't know me from Adam........well,maybe he knows Adam but after 200 posts just thinks of me as the \"annoying pointy guitar guy\" :P
Truth is that I actually am deep in the industry that for 2 years I have been doing custom paint and tech work full time .I have been doing it on the side for 25 years and just kept on getting asked to do it full time but I don't know any rich guitar techs and kinda blew it off until I hit 40 when I realized that even though most aren't rich........they ARE happy
Now i do \"ghost work\" for several stores,high end and low end......Maintain many collections around the USA and Europe.....custom paint for several guitar companies.
Maybe I shouldn't be so cryptic and hidden anymore.....I don't know :?
I know of a couple people here that have shown interest in what i have done/do...............
I gotta say that I talk to alot of people around the world and from Cali to the UK when I have told them this story of \"Shred\" and the \"real pro\" remark.......everyone of them have laughed their a$$e$ off!
I'll leave this on a bit of advise for Mr \"Shred\".If you decide to get into repair work........be prepared .......You CAN\"T be in the industry and have stigmas......if you don't like certain guitars,swallow the compulsion to voice your displeasure because it will get you nowhere but sitting one day wondering why you don't get much repeat business................and no matter what someone brings in......if you think of it as a \"POS\" it will reflect in the end result of your work.So if some 18 year old kid asks you to make his $100 bottom end epiphone goth V play like his dads $4500 Ryan Roxie model GMP V.......you better have the abilities a
.....you better have the abilities and the proper tools to do it and you better smile through the process because his $$$ is no different than a country stars $$$..........I once thought it would spend better but it don't
oh yeah............and be prepared to know all of your delivery guys by first name ......and have part of your shop up to the rafters in popcorn peanuts and other packing materials :P :twisted:
Well, or you could just tell him the truth. :shock:
No tools, no luthier of any kind can perform miracles like he wants to happen. You can say, I can set it up so it plays a little better than a $100 stock Epiphone.
Reminds me of how I checked out our local \"pro\" guitar setup guy. I had recently purchased an inexpensive guitar and it had some real intonation problems. My brother-in-law convinced me to spend some extra money and have the local pro setup the guitar. When I picked up the guitar, the pro went out of his way to tell me that the guitar was a \"lemon\" and he had to work extra on it and charged me more than his usual rate - and more than he quoted me.
I suppose I would have felt better if he had told me up front that the guitar was a \"lemon\" and in his opinion and that I should return the guitar and save the setup fee. But no, he charged me extra and still had to insult the guitar after he worked on it.
I did not really care about the guitar itself. I knew it was an inexpensive guitar and I was not expecting miracles. I just wanted to see if he was someone I would entrust with my expensive guitars for setups. What I learned is that he enjoyed taking my money while at the same time knocking my guitar he just worked on. You know, I thought a true professional could have presented me with the guitar saying something like, \"It needed a bit more work to play right, but I think you will find it alot better now and worth the extra money for the setup.\" Instead, he had to act like an A-hole and lost any future business I would have given him personally and by recommendations.
As I have retold this story to other musicians in the area, they all laugh because they had a similiar experience with him. He is known as a real brand whore, to put it bluntly. He does not get any repeat business because of his poor attitude. What he has managed to do is to drive many of us to learn how to setup our own guitars at home and just bypass him altogether. So maybe he is doing some community service for the local musicians.
It's too bad because the guy has some skills. He took my inexpensive guitar that was totally unplayable and fixed the intonation and action. Now it plays better than my brother-in-law's Chavel Jackson. But I just don't like dealing with the guy and won't even let him touch my more expensive guitars. The only reason he can survive at all is that in a small town of 12,000 people, he works in the only music store in the area. So he gets the first job just for being at the music store, but I have never heard anyone bringing in more than one guitar for setup with him.
And you got to think that the 18 year old kid with a $100 Epi knows it's not going to be a $3000 Gibson after you work on it. But he would like to know that you can improve the guitar if he pays for a setup and that you can treat all guitars respectfully and professionally. For all you know, he may be giving you the $100 Epi to see if he can trust you with the inexpensive guitar before he lets you touch his $3000 Gibson he got from his uncle and has it sitting at home!
To some people the attitude or level of professionalism is not to be compromised. I can have appreciation of that, HOWEVER, not all luthiers are PC or business trained. Most amp techs, guitar techs earn a simple but modest living after expenses. There are no people above them managing their verbal or relation skills. They are basically great at what they do, but can not and often sound like not so nice people.
Some of the best luthiers near my area are like this. They are all shop mouth and even use profanity. My business side always tells me to avoid this, but to be fair, most of these guys are not \"business class ethically trained\"
On the other hand, he should have made you aware of all expense before going above and beyond the typical setup. If he did and you authorized the repairs required, then there is no faulting them for requiring more $ to fix said cheapo guitar.
I do totally agree with you though. I would rather they have been a lot more business about the situation.
In the end regardless of what you overpaid you say the guitar plays wonderfully..... see some of these guys are all business and not so good at their craft, while others work in low end areas, don't care, talk like typical musicians (because they think they are relating to another one) in that fashion but they know their stuff and make things as they say they would.
I have a couple mechanics I know. They sound like not so nice guys... using foul language, business area and work areas are filthy... BUT I never had to take my car back TWICE like I did with the supposed more business pro places.. Otoh, I'm sure there are pro shops that serve in the proper business manner that have great service too.
I mean no disrespect bro ...but...I gotta call \"Bull$hit\" on that.
I set up guitars for years and thought I knew what I was talking about and got \"schooled\"(literally and figuratively) by Neal Moser and learned what a REAL set up is!Its all about understanding deflection and geometry.Quite a few people(reputable techs) CAN do what I said and the story of the kid is actually one of my own and it ends with the Dad liking the set up so much that he brought the GMP over to get it to play as good! 8) The difference in the price between the epi and the gmp became this...............
the GMP of course looked way classier 8)
the quality of the woods in the gmp made the set up last longer
the electronics were better quality so we put emg 89's in the epi and it made a huge difference but we also put a new tusq nut on it .
in the end they BOTH played the same!
I've said it before..........guitars are nothing more than wood-electronic-metal-hardware........its how they are put together that makes them a player and if you don't get those kind of results then you need a better tech
refusing that you can get quality playmanship out of a cheaper instrument is a fallacy created by marketing dept s so you'll pay more!
Look at artist endorsees that actually play their import sig guitars on stage instead of their handmades........its because his tech can make them play just as good! 8)
and lets face another sad fact.........it is our nature to believe that more $$ we spend= the better playing instrument we get..........because we don't want admit failure........its called vanity and pride.....and it stinks when we are wrong
thats just sad
a \"lemon\" guitar is one with a twisted neck and even that is repairable.
a bit of advice...........Stay away from any neck that has figuring in the wood unless it is baseball bat thick.......they are VERY unstable and prone to freaking in climate changes and altitude.
I have yet to see a 2004 or newer import Jackson that was either built right or set up right and all required a fret mill and nut work to play better than poor..........but after doing that they play great!!! There is very little quality control on import guitar playability.As long as the finish is good and the strings are centered down the board...its a seller.They DON\"T want their imports to come off the rack playing or sounding better than their custom shop stuff for good reason
as far as the tech is concerned.........he's probably hit \"burn out\" and thats sad.The truth is that the import low end guitar will take more effort on his part to correct and if he can make more money doing easier stuff....he'll whine until he gets his way.
But also you have to consider the player. I once saw George Lynch at a workshop, where he was playing a cheap Austin through a practice amp for a few demos. It sounded no less impressive than he does on stage with one of his multi-$1000 skull joints.
If he would have told me that in his opinion the guitar was a \"lemon\" and would cost extra $$$ to setup after he first looked at it, I would have opted to return the guitar and got my initial money back. He could have looked like someone who was being both honest and professional with me in the transaction. I would have appreciated his honesty in that manner. Just don't tell me that after you already worked on the guitar it's a lemon, because now I can't return it for a refund, and by the way, you hold it hostage for more money than we agreed upon at the onset.
Oh well, I found out what I needed to know about this guy without investing much time or effort in the big picture of things. He took my unplayable guitar and made it playable. But he charged me more than agreed upon and had to insult the guitar after he worked on it. At that point, I'm wondering if the guitar was really a \"lemon\" or if he was trying to cover his backside because he could not get it to where he wanted.
I talked to a friend who did bring in an expensive guitar to him, that was playable but needed some tweaking, and he did a butcher job on the expensive guitar. It came out of the shop with serious problems. My friend had to take his guitar to someone else in another town to get it fixed right. The first thing that the second guitar tech told him was that the previous setup was a hack job and he would have to get new parts and start all over again. And it would cost more money because he had to correct the mistakes of the previous setup. My friend agreed and when he got the guitar back from this other tech, he was completely satisfied. The difference was night and day in attitude and professionalism of the second tech, and ultimately, he also did a great job on the guitar.
Most of the local gigging musicians I know around here play sub $1000 stage guitars. Good, solid working guitars but not expensive collectibles. We value the working relationships with our bandmates and with the tech probably more than the guitar itself. And this is where our local \"pro\" comes up short and he does not get any repeat business.
THAT was a great post!!!!
How you handle yourself is a big part of the game 8)
Sadly heres a couple of holes.........
1-the guttermouth might just be a passionate individual that will not give up untill the job is right!!!!...................or just be uneducated and doomed to fail
2-the politically correct guy with a big vocabulary might be knowledgeable to great lengths about the industry and the work performed...............or just be good liar telling you what you want to hear :shock:
in the end it depends on......\"Toilet training\" :shock: :P ......seriously!!!if a tech can make a pos guitar play absolutely incredible then THATS your guy...............if he does it without whining then THATS your guy..........if he can tell you how he did it in a manner that you can understand then THATS your guy
How true. Not to compare myself to George Lynch at all, but as I have gotten better at playing bass guitar, my old Kramer, that I have knocked more than once in my posts here, sounds like a much better guitar today than it did a few years ago when I was first starting to learn how to play bass. I still use my old Kramer bass for practice at home because it is harder to play, physically, compared to my Dean w/active pickups that I use as my current stage bass. I know that if I can play a song on my Kramer, it will be really easy on my Dean. But yeah, my old bass sounds like a different guitar in my hands today compared to what I could get it to do for me just a year or two ago. There's alot of guitar sound in just the fingers and skill of the player. I totally agree.
and this is the reason why I never needed a website or advertisement because it really is that bad out there............I might also add that my home/cars/toys are all payed for and i don't have kids or drink/party so I don't have that $$$ worship trap.
I've been to 9 NAMM conventions and have met all kinds and it truly is a colorful industry to be part of 8)
I sincerely hope someone in your area gets their crap together and start taking care of you guys
When I was checking out new bass guitars, I tried everything from my $50 used Kramer to $800.00 G&L basses. Within that price range, I found little difference in the sound from the guitars out of the same amp. What I found a big difference in was between active and passive pickups in the bass guitars. For my sound, I preferred the active pickups. So I went with a Dean 10A bass for less than $200. I had some initial problems with rough fret edges and cut my hand up a bit before the edges smoothed out, but now it's fine to play. Since I play my bass through my GNX4, and the GNX4 has a direct out to the mixer for the FOH speakers/subs, my bass sound is better than what I could afford with an expensive bass/amp combo.
And, FWIW, I've never considered that a more expensive guitar would significantly improve my playing or necessairly sound better. Especially when you run the guitar/bass through an effects processor such as the GNX4 which makes everything sound better, IMHO. Just give me a playable guitar that has decent intonation and can hold its tuning, and I'm able to make some good music with my GNX4.
agreed! 8)
Every import i get gets full fret mill/dress/recrown/polish just because I know better and it doesn't take me long.I think I did about 200 in the last year and it ALWAYS makes a difference
It's not a biggie usually. I know a lot of these guys have been around a while and they have ego's like most musicians. When some customer brings a guitar back complaining of something that tech did wrong, they are usually offended.
They don't have a Mc D's mgt \"I'll get you another one even though you dropped it on the floor\" guy in mind. No, they question the customer and the reason is the customer TESTS the repairs before they leave and pay for the services. So when a kid brings in a Squier Strat and says the jack is now broken, yeah, there are going to be questions especially if the kids have an attitude. If they are cool about it and admit they damaged it, these guys I know go easy on the kids.
It's usually the parents that tend to get high and mighty with the shop techs. Unfairly most of the time. Then they get in an uproar when they are not treated with the \"customer is always right\" mentality common to dept stores. Like my luthier says... He does not have a price rollback every day like people learned to expect along with I'll take it back no matter what you do to it returns policy of a Dept store.
I don't know all the time either, but from what I had witnessed in these shops are customer expectations sometimes exceeding what can be made possible within reason.
For instance I was at a local store the other day and a kid was buying a Jay Tursor guitar. His mother demanded they GIVE him a hardshell case and not some cloth bag. The guys at the store explained the pricing is already as low as it gets and no JT guitar comes with anything. The lady said I get it.. okay. Then the kid says ohhhh do I get a strap and cable. The sales guy gives them this molded cable and simple strap. The kid starts getting mad and says he wants a leather one (Levy IIRC). WOW !
Finally after 45 more minutes and give aways the owner comes in and said what are you selling and what are you giving away? The sales guy shows him and the owner flipped his lid and said ohhhhh no, we only give away the cords and pics and straps and cases you originally gave them. Sales guy said but they didn't like those. Owner talked to this kids Mom and eventually just said you know what, go online and see if you can do better. I cannot sell you something that costs me $50 in extras.
LMMFAO.... Wish my parents would have bought me a guitar when I was a kid... :shock: :roll: I sure wouldn't have btched about free extras! LoL