Shawn Brock -> RE: repaired crack in new guitar (Aug. 3 2012 18:20:28)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: estebanana Just saying you guys seem to be putting this poor fellow through the ringer for something that is historically business as usual. I would just say to him, hey you did not disclose this is this a problem? And often DEALERS crack or mar guitars and try to put it on the guy who made it. Here's the deal, if you make a guitar and you're at a stage in your process where you can replace a component fine you as a the maker don't think is up to par, fine. But if the guitar is all made and it gets a crack, what do you want the guy to do? Destroy the guitar? Just another perspective to think about. I know other guitar makers wanted to say that, but don't want to get assaulted by the populacho. [:D] Man that's tough... On one hand you have to trust that the maker wants his instrument to be enjoyed and played as much as possible. You have to believe that he wouldn't want to send a guitar out that wasn't the best he thought he could build. That don't mean that a cracked guitar isn't as good of a sounding guitar just because its cracked but... Now here's the other hand, and how I see it. If the maker didn't disclose that he was sending a cracked guitar, then he isn't worth his weight in potatoes! Once I was having a mandolin built from a prominent American builder who now gets $9000 per instrument. We had arranged the date for me to come and pick the instrument up, and 3 days before I was supposed to pick it up he called me and was all up in arms. He said that the finish had cracked in a few spots and that he didn't understand why. As best as he could tell it was a bad batch of lacquer... He offered me 3 options. 1: I could buy this instrument and he would give a discount on the price. 2: He could refinish it and have it for me in a month. 3: He could just start over, push back his list and build me a new mandolin if I had a problem with either of the other 2 options. I chose option 1... After looking at the few small cracks in the finish I decided they were no big deal at all. He also told me, (without me asking), that if the cracking got worse that he would be glad to refinish it and give me a loner instrument while the work was being done. We both walked away happy and have had a good relationship for over 10 years. During this 10 years I have seen his prices go from $3000 to $9000, and now he's semiretired and living well. Just a few weeks ago I called him to see if he would recommend a luthier for a refret, as I know he don't do any setup work except for on the few instruments he builds each year. He said, "Shawn you send it on over and I'll refret and set it up for you. You have always been good to me, and you have helped me sell a lot of mandolins over the years. I'll ship you a loner out tomorrow and when you get it just send yours over. After I'm done with the refret I'll send it back and then you can send the loner back when you want to." I thought that he was being overly kind and told him so. All he said was, "boy I won't have it any other way. You helped me make a living, now send the damn thing out when you get the loner!" So would I buy a cracked guitar? Yeah, maybe I would, but only if I knew about the crack and it was all out in the open. And there's no way that I would pay full price for a new guitar that was cracked. I'll bet you this, I'm having a blanca built now by a foro luthier, and he would never do business that way. If the top cracked he would tell me about it. I don't even know if he would even be willing to sell me a new guitar that had cracked. He could step in at this point and share with us if he would or not, but I trust with all my heart that he wouldn't just repair a crack and send the guitar without a word... That's not the kind of guy he is...
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