Your repair shop stories

[Catlin]

Explain a story(legend) that happened to you, at the repair shop at some point in your life. In the case you fix your own basses, what have you done wrong to create a larger problem.

 

I will Start:

 

So I need a new blending pot put into my bass, so I take it in, and they ask me what is wrong. I explain to the

"My tone blending pot is toast"

So he takes a little play on it, and says

"ok , I will get the tech to look at it first thing when he comes in. Oh and by the way his daughter came down with a bad sickness so he will be out a few days."

Knowing I have 3 gigs coming on soon, I explain I will need the bass looked at soon, so i can get it out of here. He agrees with me and all is good....Or so I thought.

A few days pass and I receive no phone calls, so like any paranoid customer I call them up. I asked them if the pot had been put in. Actually the pot had not been put in, it had not put even put in a box to be shipped to the repair center. He said no one had looked at the bass yet, but said they would be on it soon enough.

*Time Travel 1 week forward* ...... well yeh i bet you did because I told you the problem a week and a half ago.

They said the pot was on order and it would be here in a day or two. Long story short, this bloody pot still has not arrived. It has been 3 and some weeks. I have since gotten my bass back, because i play unplugged most of the time, when around my house so it is still good to me.

[73 P Bass]

Last time I had someone else work on my bass, he quoted me a week lead time. I called him on the day it was supposed to be ready, and he hadn't started it. He assured me it wouldn't take more than a half hour to do, and he'd get right on it. So I head out to his shop. Of course when I arrived, he hadn't started it yet, which is good because when he did get going he filed the nut down too much, and had to repair it.

I work on my own stuff now.

[JBFLA]

I love my tech/shop. Maybe it takes longer than they promise, but the work is top-notch and they are as honest as can be.

 

I'd rather they get 'er done right, than get 'er done quickly.

 

Bari took my '78 'Ray in for a light fret dressing and setup - when I picked the 'Ray up, she mentioned it would be the last fret dressing that would stand, and that a replacement would be in order next time... in due time...no rush, just a polite reminder/comment that the frets had reached their endpoint.

 

Nobody else touches my basses; Bari builds her own guitars and mandolins, and puts as much effort into her customers' repairs as she puts into her own instruments.

 

Maybe I'm lucky...

 

Jim

[Mr. Phil]

Hmm lets see. I haven't had to repair much, but I have messed up my intstruments many times.

 

On my 5-string:

-crappy sanding job to get the hardest plastic crap finish off of it, and an even crappier job of drilling holes for the LEDs around the pickups. Thats after I fried the preamp somehow and had to buy an OBP-3 and pots for like $180.

 

On my 4-String turned fretless:

-Not too much on this one, besides the chipped wood around the fret markers from yanking out the frets with vice-grips. Oh yea, and I made a side input for this bass from a piece of a paint can lid, but it didn't work right because the preamp I put in it took up too much space in the cavity, so now I have a big hole covered by a piece of metal with another hole in it. And 3 pots have no knobs.

 

On my 4-string kit p-bass that has the messed up neck:

-Aside from the messed up neck that came with it, it isn't too bad. Well, when I put in the string through bridge, I drilled at an angle from the string entry point, because I needed that much more tension on the strings (the neck is that bad) so the wood splintered a little, because I came out right at the edge of the body. Also, I routed a cavity for the stacked J humbucker, and it came out a little wierd.

 

On my acoustic, its all good. I haven't touched it...yet.

 

I don't think that my Whamolas count in this. Its a given that they are messed up.

[musicfiend]

ive got a nice honest guy that works fairly close to my place. last time I came in because my intonation was off and my strap button had come out of it's screwhole..he charged me a dollar for the allen wrenches he gave me unless something came up!

[ATM]

Originally posted by musicfiend:

ive got a nice honest guy that works fairly close to my place.

Me too. After traveling around the world, I rescued my Outlaw from my parents basement (I know! I know!) and found that it didn't agree with the conditions down there. I brought it in to my guy and he couldn't believe he would ever see a bass model like mine. He had worked on an MPC 6 string guitar a couple of weeks prior, but had never seen a bass before.

 

Looking at his resume, he had been a touring tech for several name bands including Satriani. This and his familiarity with my rare bass gave me a good feeling. He even pulled $400 out of his wallet to show that even though he owned about 52 other guitars, his wife might not notice another one. I was even more flattered, but said that it was special to me.

 

I told him what I suspected, and asked if he could fix it up and restring it.

 

Two weeks later, I arrived to a bass I didn't know I had. It looked showroom quality (it wasn't that bad to start off with) and he did a very good setup, cleaned the cartridge contact, and who really knows what else to make it look so good.

 

Now, I only bring my stuff to him. Sorry, about a good story, now if you want a horror story, just ask about my truck...

 

ATM

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

I have a dual pot that provides mid range and mid sweep. Someone at UPS obviously ignored the "this side up" arrows and laid it flat and piled crap on top of it. Anyway the range was scratchy and the sweep had a hugh jazz dead spot.

 

Took it to the local musicain and it took 5 weeks to replace. Peavey 1) didn't send the pot because it was backordered, Peavey 2) the pot would be delayed because of the Christmas shipping season, Peavey 3) shipped the wrong pot.

 

The guy at the repair shop (a bass player and a competent repair guy) said it was rather unusual because Peavey was usually easy to work with.

 

Fortunately, I am not currently gigging and would have taken the Squire on the road so I really didn't miss it too much.

 

Then there's that whole driving to 280 miles to Seattle just to buy a set of DL Black Beauties for the 5 string...

[57pbass]

I have been bringing my basses to Sadowsky Guitars for the past 12 years for....

 

set ups ....I always have a pro set up on my basses so I have a reference point when I do the future work on that bass myself

 

refrets...

 

various repairs and upgrades..

 

Plus its always a fun place to visit....

 

I think his new policy is he only repairs Sadowsky Basses..all other brands are referred to an asian guy in Mid Town...I believe he once worked @ Sadowsky Guitars

 

I have also used a guy in Jupiter Florida..

Bob Peterson @ Angel Guitars...

He did a refret on a P Bass... great results...

 

I have a 62 reissue Jazz Bass....

the truss rod is not working properly..

I purchased it used 2 years ago from Guitar Center and they are not being too helpful..

I will call Fender directly and try to get a replacement neck under warranty.. I am not holding my breath...but its a great sounding J Bass...I hope I can resolve this...

[musicfiend]

um...buy strings in bulk, or juststrings.com

[Big Red 67]

I don't let others work on my stuff any more at all. I could not afford it when I was young, so I had to learn to do it myself. Any mistakes I make (and I have made a few) I can fix. I have done several broken headstocks with good enough finish work that you couldn't tell they had been broken. I have refinished several guitars and basses.

Bass: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/thebigred67/Pedulla.jpg

Guitar: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/thebigred67/Frankinstrat.jpg

[Fred TBP]

ABout 30 years ago I realized that no one can accurately predict their workload well enough to tell you something can be fixed at a given date/time, unless you're willing to offer them more than the standard rate to put your work ahead of everybody else's. I have one repair shop in NJ that works by that principle and the extra money isn't really that much compared to whether you need the instrument/amp back today or tomorrow as opposed to a week to three weeks from today. You want better service, you pay the price.

 

The other alternative is backup equipment. I have backups for nearly everything I use, from batteries to amps. If it doesn't work, it goes in the shop and I give the guy as much time as he needs to fix it, as long as it works when I pick it up.

 

DIY is the fallback. Most of us can do on-the-spot repair work, so it's not a bad option. But if you can't, consider the possibility that inexperience and pressure can make the problem worse (and more costly to fix) that it was when you started.

[ChrisOfDoom]

I have had some work done by a small shop by my house. Had some pickups installed and thad them set her up while they were at it. I need to have the saddles on my new Badass2 bridge filed down soon, and it turns out Mike Lull is oneof the cleapest places to do it, so I am due for a trip there in the near future.

[groover]

Can't say I've had any bad experiences. I do my own set ups and repairs with the exception of wood/finish work. I have two friends who are instrument builders who do that kind of stuff for me, and they have never let me down.

[BillWelcome Home Studios]

Originally posted by musicfiend:

ive got a nice honest guy that works fairly close to my place. ...

Me too. Find a reputable guy, and stick with him. Stay away from music stores, as most just farm the work out, or you may have one of the PA guys working on your axe because there are no gigs to mix that day. Ask the local regularly gigging musicians who they use.

 

Bill

[Big Daddy from Motown]

In case nobody knows, in the detroit area there is a fabulous repair guy at Joe's Music in Eastpoint. (586) 777-2333.

He does great work up to and including refrets and re finishes.

He even replaced the fingerboard on my upright and hand carved a new nut in ebony.

Can say enough good things about the service at Joe's.

[Tenstrum]

My Sunn 1200s amp broke one day, so I was forced to take it to the shop for repair. It was out of warranty. The repair gut had it for 8 months and charged me $170 for "fixing" it. It worked for 10 minutes before breaking again. I took it back to him and he kept it for another 3 months. I spent 2 more weeks calling him at his home before I finally got a hold of him and he told me that he couldn't fix it. I asked him to put it back together. I then took it to another repair guy. He had it 2 weeks and called me saying that the first repair guy had not put it back together and left it in such a mess that it was completely unfixable....

Long story short, I now have $800 boat anchor underneath my bed...

The good thing though is that I bought a Fender 1200s Pro which is the exact same amp but with the problems of the Sunn 1200s line supposedly fixed. And I have spare knobs and sliders a plenty if any thing should happen to the ones on my Fender. But I do like the Sunn logo better than the Fender...

Maybe I'll post some pics...

I hate repair shops! They are the Devil!!!!!!!

[jeremy c]

I've had a few bad experiences, but I'd like to concentrate on the good ones.

 

Ralph Novak (inventor of the fanned frets) used to do a lot of work for me. One day he said that he was getting too busy with his new invention and I was spending too much on setups. So instead of setting up my bass, he gave me a lesson in how to do it.

 

Fat Dog (owner of Subway Guitars) has done a lot of inexpensive and fast repairs, and a couple of free ones. Many years ago when a break-in at my home left me with no instrument, I was using a borrowed instrument with a warped neck. I brought it in and Fat Dog fixed it in front of me for nothing saying I shouldn't have to pay for a repair on a borrowed instrument. Another time when I walked into his shop with my hand bandaged up from a soldering accident, He did the solder job for me for nothing....after he stopped laughing and showing me to all his employees.

 

Stephen White has done a lot of great work for me.

 

John Jordan has done great work for me.

 

Repairmen are artists as much as we are.

 

They should be our friends.

[mcbn]

Back in Bloomington, IL I went to Schertz's Music Center, nowhere else. It is a family owned piano shop w/ a guitar shop in the back. Randy is the owner, his son Andy the #1 employee and future owner. Great guys who do great work.

 

Here in Houston I was lucky enough to find a great shop quickly. Jim and Mike do the repair work at Rockin' Robins. Jim did a setup on my new 2000 Am Standard Fender P on Saturday. He did a great job of tweaking and adjusting everything while I waited. He sent me off to play it in the bass room (through an AG500 might I add) and I came back extremely happy. He had dressed the frets and lowered a spot that I barely knew was there.

 

Now I just need to find a place to get my technique worked on.

[Tom Capasso]

Years ago I wanted to juice up my Gibson EB3. I bought a Univox-made RIC pickup and took it to a guy who was supposed to be good. At the time he was working at a local music store. I hoped to watch and learn, but when he took out his power drill and worked on his lap I couldn't watch. Stupidly I left the bass with him. He got the PUP in, but it's poorly mounted. He also put a nice "file line" on my fretboard while filing my frets.

 

I found out later this guy has a long history of great luthier work. 57pbass has an instrument that he built. Whatever time it was in his life, I hit him on the down side.

 

I took my Carvin head to a local guy (small amp shop). He told me it was the transformer. $80. came back more or less when he said it would be done, and it was. $80. I think his shop has since closed.

 

I took the Gibson to a chain store for a setup. When he returned the bass to me, the magnet inside the RIC PUP was loose. He took it downstairs and "resecured" it (probably taped it down, which is about all it needed or deserved). But how could he have tested it like that? And it took 3 weeks! Worst was that when I got it home, I realized it was not intonated. In those days I was just learning about these things, but I still felt like all this guy did was change the strings. Not happy.

 

I took my Kinal to Jimmy at The Bass Boutique. I'm with Fred about these guys and their time estimates. Jimmy gets some pretty famous players who come in, so I know where I stand in the priority line. I had to call a few times before it was finally done. He charged less than he should have, and the work was very well done. That was great!

 

Now I do my own setup work, and I could solder if I had to. Fretwork and serious woodwork I'd bring to someone else (probably Jimmy).

 

Tom

[BenLoy]

I've had Paul Nieto at Guitar Center in Manhattan do both setup and fretwork for me.

 

He's a great guy and totally laid back. He did some good work.