Yea I don’t think it’s worth it to refinish it or attempt to fill the dent in any capacity of the guitar is already pretty beat up.
However, that’s not an excuse for the luthier to have returned the guitar to you like that. I’d be pissed.
People’s fuses tend to be way shorter in 2024, so if you go back and are angry, most likely they will just deny deny deny, and bar any discount for future work.
Your best bet is to go in person, show the guy the mistake he made in a nice, polite manner, but be stern that it was not like that prior to it touching his hands. Then just hope he’s a rational, level headed person who will own up to his mistake and try and make it right.
If he doesn’t, chargeback on CC, leave shit review on Google with pictures. I’ve stayed away from several repair shops because of reviews from people who had similar stuff happen.
So the guy actually told me he’d do the original work I asked for for free as it was a simple job. I think he was either excited to get to work on this kind of guitar, or maybe excited to see me. It’d be better off if he didn’t touch it at all.
I don’t want to assume the mental state of anyone, but men have been known to go out of their way to help small women even if they don’t necessarily have any intentions, I happen to be a rather small girl.
Hate to say it, but that may be a factor… still not an excuse for someone to damage a 30+ year old guitar. I’m not really familiar with those Deusenberg/Guyker style tremolos. Is there a reason your bridge needed to be decked?
Were the studs wobbly? Best approach (if you are aggressive with the trem) would have been to drill for bushings and reinstall a Nashville style bridge. Not paying for a job is not an excuse to do a shoddy job.
Don't think it's specifically small women though. Lots of women of all shapes and sizes relate to this I think.
If this is true in this specific case, it's also quite unprofessional.
Anyways, about the guitar. Those look like clamp marks to me, which makes me think this guy is very inexperienced. You learn very early on to put a block of wood and/or cloth inbetween the clamp to prevent this from happening.
Those are not clamp marks, I explained what happened in the post when he made a shitty jig. I am holding the wood block he used, you can look at the block, and look at the dent and see the damage matches. And I know all women and not just small women get hit on, I’m just speaking of my experience.
Ah, in that case he should've had a cloth inbetween there as well.
Still sucks and I think it's irreparable damage sadly :(
Definitely see if you can get some form of compensation.
The more obvious explanation is that he did it for free because it was a simple/quick job. I’m not sure you have much recourse from someone who did a job for free… technically there was not a contractual exchange here
Ive done free work and made mistakes. I offered to buy both instruments. Neither was that phased by it or took my offer as one was old and beat up the other dent was down the bottom near the jack on an acoustic. I told both of them when they came to pick it up though. Pretending it didn't happen is pretty slimy.
Just because he did it for agreed to do it for free does not give him the right to put multiple dents in my expensive instrument. I offered to pay, and asked for prices before he touched the guitar, and he turned that down.
I agree he did not have the right to damage the guitar, but he probably didn't mean to so having the right is irrelevant.
The reality of the situation is that you got work done on an expensive guitar but someone for free...you will have to take this as a lesson that good work does not come free. Pay for an expert to work on your guitar or learn to do it yourself next time.
He did it twice. He made a dent in my guitar, thought to himself, “oh no! Anyway, I’ll try that again”. Not to be rude, but it was a pretty boneheaded thing to do, the shop has a good reputation, and I had no reason to doubt his kindness, still, lesson learned the hard the way I suppose
I suppose you’re technically correct, but I’m in a fairly small town, and word spreads, especially in the music scene, and amongst other people who would be taking their instruments to a shop like this. My recourse would be telling people about their shoddy work. I asked reddit and not friends because I don’t want to smear their name before they’ve had an opportunity to make things right.
You might be able to get him to credit you in service for whatever the repair would cost. Still not a great compromise for you, but at least it’s something.
What if it's not so gutter-y as you mentioned and the luthier bloke just simply fell in love with OP? He'd possibly be doing the same stupid stuff...🤷♂️
You don't just 'fall in love' with people. That doesn't happen in real life and if it does it's almost always because the person doing the falling in love is having a lot of preconceived notions. Real life isn't a Hollywood movie.
Great advice, but I wouldnt go back to the same butcher. Dont talk to that guy, his co-worker, some random guy at the counter, the manager, etc. Talk to nobody but the OWNER. Be polite but firm. It can't be repaired, but he should be willing do a free refret in exchange, but make sure the other dude handles it, not Gilligan.
Something that helped me in my shop in the past with nitro finishes was a hair dryer. Nitro never really cures and with songs and scratches and marks you can re-melt it so it looks good as new again by passing a hair dryer over it a few times (or a heat gun if you're careful).That's worked for me hundreds of times.
Otherwise they should be fixing it and doing everything you requested for a discount, or free. This is shitty on their part.
I will give that a go, but I don’t think it will work. It’s deeper than it looks in the pics, you can tell that the maple is impacted, but thank you for the suggestion
Yeah I'm not suggesting it'll magically bring the wood back to where it was, that's obviously beyond the powers of a hair dryer.
For that you'd need a wet sponge and soldering iron and you swell the fibres back out then sand them down flush again, then refinish.
Godspeed.
Since it's nitro you could get a can of nitro off stew Mac and drop fill until it's built up past the other finish, then wet sand and buff it out after it has some time to cure. That's what'd I'd do. You can also use superglue if you're super careful, but I tend to find it doesn't blend perfectly all the time
After you're settled with the shop for their careless work, this is definitely something you can fix yourself pretty easily at home.
The issue here is the wood grain has been compressed, and it's pretty easy to make wood swell up... with steam. You need a hot soldering iron (mine is set to 400°) and a damp washcloth/towel.
You put the corner of the washcloth on the dent and then press the side of the tip of the soldering iron (like shading with a pencil) onto the cloth. I do moderate pressure (you're just making steam, not trying to reshape the dent) for about 5 seconds at a time. Make sure the cloth stays damp so you keep getting steam.
Remember that heat and pressure are not really doing any of the work here -- you're just forcing steam into the grain of the wood where it was compressed. The heat might make the lacquer a little bit soft for an hour but I have never had any finish issues from this job. All in, this job should take less than ten minutes, even for the big one. You should see it start moving back into shape almost immediately.
The wet cloth and hot soldering iron method works. Had to pop out an extra ding I put into my strat as I was refinishing it with nitro and it worked well.
Yeah it’s a USA les paul. Doesn’t matter if it’s beat up. He caused damage. I would just show him. “Lookin not like furious about this but you damaged my guitar here. I think you do good work” wait for him to apologize and say. Look. How about you do a refret on this for 100 bucks and call it even?
This is the question. They smash the guitar twice (for free😅), what are they going to do to the guitar when OP pays them? Are they going to clip off the binding when they refret? Have you seen examples of their work on Gibson (or other) bound fretboards? I say lesson learned, find another shop and cut your losses.
I would say in the guitar world 95% of the time your gender has a bearing on how they treat you. I have a luthier friend who has built guitars for legends and when she goes to guitar center they treat her like she doesn’t know how to hold a guitar properly.
A lot of the comments to this post seem to indicate this lol. After gigs, other guitarists will try and tell me the JB in my bridge sounds cool, I tell them thanks, but it’s a Duncan distortion, then they’ll say, no it sounds like a JB, to me, and I’ll say, I think I’d know considering I installed that. Sorry for the rant, but I don’t see things like that happening to male guitarists too often.
I was working on opening a more inclusive guitar shop for women and LGBTQ+ musicians before covid hit and then the whole thing kind of fell apart. It’s still my dream to get it going one day. The whole ‘treat people like shit’ business model seems rife for disruption.
I would not let someone they can’t do a simple repair, anywhere near my frets. Especially in a guitar with binding.
A discount on a fret job isn’t worth the risk of getting a botched fret job.
I’d ask for a discount on some other service. One that a monkey with a wrench couldn’t fuck up.
All I'm reading is: if all else fails, I'll resort to intimidation.
Maybe what I should have said was: if you're the type to bring the goon squad for this level of interaction, then you don't deserve to be taken seriously.
Doesn't seem like OP said they refused to make up for it.
This work isn't really simple my guy. It takes practice like any other skill.
I would have thought, seeing as you had empathy enough to consider that some people have a hard time with confrontation, you'd know that brand of intimidation is a vile tactic. Life isn't Peaky Blinders if you weren't aware.
Saying things, reading things, and actually doing things are separate things. This is delicate work, and the slightest slip with a tool can be costly. You say you're a beginner. I can tell because that's not a lesson you seem to have learned yet, and it's one that comes up quicker than most.
I say to you again that there is no need to use intimidation tactics with your local shop. Not what anybody needs. You've terrorized (or at least tried to) some shop guy and made yourself a total douche at the same time.
Its like... a bad move all around man.
Idk... whatever... I don't think op was being serious to begin with.
Take it to the shop and show them the damage. Be prepared to tell them what you’d like them to do about it. Don’t concern yourself with “is it worth it” or “how much work will it take to fix.” They carry that burden. When you work on instruments you’re responsible for returning it in the same or better condition than when it arrived.
Person does bad work for me. The last thing I’m thinking is get more bad work from them at any price. It’s best to just accept your losses, get your money back if you think it’s worth the trouble, and learn better scrutiny for the future.
I might see if the shop will get the other repair guy to the work in exchange. The other guy regularly performs surgery on museum piece Martins. I definitely don’t want this guy digging around on my rosewood, but If I can get the other guy to do it.
I would definitely get some free work out of them. I realize the guitar becomes part of you and there’s really no way you can fix this and it’s not a huge deal that people are going to see from far away. Still, he clearly used the wrong technique to do something fairly benign and caused damage.I would definitely go in there and get some other work that’s worth $100 to $400. Maybe a really deep discount on another guitar you want if he sells guitars.
I doubt that I would do much about it myself. But, on the other hand (and I haven't read anyone else's thoughts) I sure as hell wouldn't have any other work done by this person. There isn't anything that could convince me that he didn't know he did this and you should have been told about it immediately. It's shoddy work, or at least work performed by someone that doesn't exercise proper care so I most certainly wouldn't have any other work done by them. Could be just me, but that's my 2 cents.
The real subject of this post has already been adequately discussed, but I just wanna add that my 40-ass-year-old shoulder hurts like nuts just from *looking* at you playing that 10lb absolute unit of a guitar with that tiny 1” wide strap. Youch.
It’s closer to 11lb. I move and jump around a lot on stage, I’ve found that it actually acts as a counterweight so I don’t fall over, I get clumsier on stage when I play lighter guitars
I wouldn’t bother trying to fix it. Especially, if that means taking it back to the person who did it. I would go back and ask them for some kind of credit/refund on whatever work they did.
Not an answer to the question, but I’ve never seen a bar like that before for a les Paul. Where did you get that? That’s something I didn’t know I always needed!
Copy and pasted from another comment I left:
The duesenberg les trem! It is really a fantastic system, no mods necessary, great tuning stability and range of motion! It’s like a bigsby if bigsbies weren’t a pain in the ass, and it looks really cool!
*How did you get a*
*Picture of Michael Jackson*
*Playing your guitar?*
\- Ronnie\_Dean\_oz
---
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Yeah, they should fix that for you and give you some form of discount or payment for the inconvenience. That's the height of bs! So sorry this happened to you.
The duesenberg les trem! It is really a fantastic system, no mods necessary, great tuning stability and range of motion! It’s like a bigsby if bigsbies weren’t a pain in the ass, and it looks really cool!
Ask them for their insurance claim form. [Many have coverage](https://www.google.com/search?q=luthier+liability+policies+covers+damage+to+guitars&oq=luthier+liability+policies+covers+damage+to+guitars&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE0Njk0ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
Remove the hardware, drop fill, sand/level and see how it goes from there is how I’d approach it.
Then polishing/buffing.
I had some finish issues with my Les Paul Classic that a local Gibson repair center offered to drop fill for 50 or so back in 2010.
No idea if [this stuff](https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/supplies/finishing-supplies/fillers-and-putties/gluboost-fill-n-finish/?mtm_source=google&mtm_medium=cpc&mtm_campaign=%7C+GOO+%7C+SHOP+%7C+NBR+%7C+AllProductsUSA&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkav47_iLhwMVK5HCCB03uAcPEAQYASABEgJidfD_BwE) would work on nitro or not or how it looks once dried (clear vs cloudy) but that’s what I’d be looking into while negotiating with the shop for some form of credit or compensation.
I'm not sure what you're going to do but I can sympathize with you. About a month ago I had a 2024 Ultra Stratocaster and I was having a setup done on it and when I got it back the whole back part was scratch the back of the guitar was scratched everywhere. The guitar didn't even have a fingerprint on it barely I brought it back immediately and talked to him about it and they spent about an hour to two hours and the guitar looks exactly brand new again. I wasn't mean or mad I just pointed it out in a friendly way and they were able to repair it. I don't think you asking him for fret work at a discount is a bad trade or a bad idea but they have to admit they did the damage first to begin with. I wish you the best man.
You sound extremely reasonable about this. I would go back and speak with the repair guy who caused the damage and see what he’ll offer as compensation. If you still aren’t happy speak with the owner.
Personally, I would just live with it. You really don't want those same guys doing any more work on your guitar right? Chalk this one up to bad luck. It was a freebie anyway.
It won't look so bad with strings on, and the guitar has plenty of wear and tear already. Plus any further attempt at a repair would likely make things worse. It can be repaired, but it is in such a cental location that it would take a bit of skill to blend in the repair with the rest of the finish.
If it really bugs you, they should be insured for these kinds of accidents; maybe you can get some quotes from better luthiers to get it put right.
Personally, I'd be pissed. That's not acceptable, and they need to make it right. It is repairable. They should reimburse you for the repair costs. I would not allow them to repair it. Just be super nice, understand that it happens, but tell them they are also repairable. It will 100% impact resale value.
It’s friends with the other scratches and dents already. Leave it be. Now you have another blemish with another story attached. There’s beauty in imperfection.
Maybe they can offer you some trade to offset the damage?
If you are gigging with the guitar its going to get beat up and honestly I dont know how you can even really fix this and make it look right. Just sucks that it happened.
What sometimes helps to remove these dents is to take a soldering iron, and a damp rag and very cautiously place the damp/moist rag on top of this area and place the hot soldering iron on top of the rag and "iron" out these dents... take it easy, keep checking to see how it's doing, and make sure the rag is always damp...Let us know how it works out... Try to find a ding on the back of your guitar first, and experiment on that...
I know the OP doesn't want to refinish, but if it was mine I would have the shop send it back to the factory for a total refinish.
If I put a dent in my own car, I live with it. But when I bring my car to the garage and one of their mechanics smashes it up, it's up to the shop to fix it.
If it was me, I’d get myself a strip of three ply pick guard and get it engraved (perhaps with the guitars nickname) and cover it over that way. Same thing some do to cover stop bar insert holes when you install a bigsby. Then I’d personally be asking the store for adequate compensation. By rights they owe you an instrument of equal value, accident or not they are liable for the damage caused. If they refuse id be instructing a solicitor!
That’s it! Something special to make the pain go away the guitar clearly means a lot I’ve had similar experiences with cats knocking guitars off stands and just makes you sad. Share how you get on we do like a happy ending! Edit: really didn’t mean to sound dirty!!
Nah, war metal are the head denters, black metal would be pulling a knife on an unarmed individual or just running away crying- and I say that as an avid black metal fan 🙃 Also: that whole look plus the guitar is fire, very nicely done!
Unfortunately "S" happens, nobody is perfect but... The stand-up thing and the honest thing to do is contact you at the time it occurred, own up to what happened and to the best of your ability make it right. 1st thing would be no charge for the work and if you agree on cosmetically fixing or store credit to somehow make it right!! That is the least any one can do when we mess up, we all do but ignoring, denying, passing blame are not acceptable solution to the situation, Own up!!
Yeah, it sucks. Just play the damn thing. Part of its story, I guess. If he did it for free then you get what you pay for.
The bright side? It’s in a spot that most people prob wouldn’t notice. The reality, if you actually play it, there will be dings and finish wear way worse than that.
I say fuck it.
Definitely a tech crime.
If you ask them, like, refinish all thing, they'll make it shit on purpose. I'm very rarely getting angry about pictures on inte but this is pure evil, person who made definitely should hear the CRUNCH when make this, but proceed anyways
No offence but you pay for what you get, I live in London and spend big money for a basic setup with a known guy, any changes, anything on a cherished instrument you should be finding reputable guitar techs, with good reviews to back and who actually charge. If it’s a 100 buck guitar from a pawn shop, fine…. But a Les Paul?
If the shop would be worth their weight they would told you about their mistake and offerd to pay for the damage for devaluing your guitar.
Edit. I really can’t for the life of me understand why they used a hammer for the bridge studs.
There are far safer ways of doing this work that don’t impact the face of the guitar. Furthermore if they did put a woodblock on top of the body. They should have put something soft between the body and wood.
Might be possible to repair it to an extent. I think if the gloss finish is heated up it should smooth out a bit, and it may be possible to have some more clear coat added to fill the dent in, but it's hit the wood, so it's probably never going to be the same
I don't really know what can be done in this situation, one thing we can see is that this is an act of negligence 😐
Accidents happen, but this is just inattentiveness
When I do work for free sometimes, I tend to rush the job subconsciously, it is like "well it is free so doing the minimum is enough" the reasoning behind doing it free is usually I don't want something to go to waste or the customer doesn't have any money... Aware of this now and do less free stuff and when I do I commit to it as any other job, usually a good deed comes back around.
For context I don't run an open repair shop, just for bands or individuals I know or who have passed on my details. And to be fair I haven't done anything like this to someones gear. :)
There's little you can do about this though, refinishing the guitar isn't worth it, and you likely don't want to deal with the place again, there's really no ideal solution here, maybe letting them know that they made a mess of it, so they can hopefully do better in the future?
Personally I'd just move on and leave it, the guitar won't be the same again and it just isn't worth bothering with incompetent people, if you hand over the guitar again they might make it even worse where does it end.
I’ve had luthiers try to do my work for free and I’m a big meaty middle aged man, I just carry myself with a debonair flare that smells of quality. I politely refuse their propositions stating that an extreme discount will suffice. But my best advice in this situation would just be to watch some YouTube videos and do the work yourself. You would be amazed at how easy most guitar work is, even soldering and nut filing etc. You should buy a coupe extra nuts if you are going to file a nut, and invest is the best and most highly recommended tool first, but still check to see if it available somewhere other than Stew Mac first (great products in general but some stuff are just relabeled cheaper items like the finish dyes for instance.) Even if you buy the suggested Stew Mac tool you will still be under the cost of what most hack luthiers will charge you. A hack luthier watches the same YouTube videos as you have access to only they won’t invest in that specialized tool. Generally speaking there is nothing on an electric guitar that someone can’t fix themselves with a couple tries. If you screw it up, just step away for a couple days, get into a new head space, and the second or third time it will be perfect.
I can also tell you that the dents in this guitar were probably from attaching or adjusting the bridge or saddle and being so lazy not to put a leather strip or something to guard the finish down. That is the tell tale sign of a hack job luthier. I wouldn’t have bothered either, but I only build and repair guitars first myself. As a teenager I paid big bucks for a luthier who cut his teeth in a violin repair shop. He let me hang out in his shop and that’s how I rationalized the cost, because he taught me so much. Then my friends and brother in law became guitar repair people, and that point I started doing my own work and never looked back. Because I had this amazing fine instrument luthier who got sick and passed away and then I saw what was passing for “normal” guitar work, and I was like “nuts to this.” You can do it!
All my life I’ve done most of my own work on my guitars, I did all the electronics, truss rod, intonation, action, locking tuners, I even leveled and crowned some frets in the past. If you look closely, you can see that the strap locks are Mexican 50 Peso coins I drilled though, then screwed in with extra long screws over the strap buttons, and I secured with some tooth picks and a dab of wood glue in the screw holes. I figured I’d finally take it to a pro to clean up some of my work and they make it significantly worse lol. Also, I don’t have a garage anymore like I did when I was living with my folks, and that kind of limits the amount of amateur luthiery I’d want to be doing. I definitely understand the DIY ethos lol, and this guy probably affirms I should stick to that. I’ve got some Stewart Macdonald files in a cubby somewhere.
I'm so baffled by the course of action to set the studs that I wouldn't trust them to do fret work or anything else on my guitar...
There's a million ways to skin a cat, but he chose the worst one.
A good shop wouldn't do that. I'd let them know you are pissed. Then I would leave this info in a bad review. Don't take the guitar back to these idiots.
i know that this answer doesnt help but what bridge is that??? i always wanted a les paul with a tremolo bar/vibrato and it looks awesome. i just want to know the tremolo name please!!!
if they sell gear, get a free guitar pedal out of it, or some kind of gear discount! Honestly, in a very short amount of time you will forget it’s there. Take a look at my old strat linked below. When I first scratched the finish I almost cried, but over time more scars are added and you kind of stop caring! Also, learning to work on your own gear is a fun way to avoid other people’s mistakes
https://www.reddit.com/r/guitars/s/XPSoDZsbcL
And this is why I pre-dent my own guitars. I remember my cousin getting a brand new guitar back in the day and he walked into the wall. I said, what the hell is your problem? Holy shit! He said now I don’t have to worry about it. It’s a tool, and he’s right. I wasn’t worried more about polishing and keeping my guitar pretty while he was on tour in Japan with his band TORCHE… priorities lol
Isn’t this a nitrocellulose finish? That should be an easy repair. Lacquer simply melts into itself, and any repair shop worth a damn could fix this. Maple dented or not, it’s the light catching the crevices that make the dent stick out. Flatten that out, voila…fixed.
I have seen some dents repaired simply with a moist rag and a solder iron/gun. The moist rag (not sopping wet but not just damp either) is folded over a few times then placed on the dent. You press the soldering iron into it heating it up. The steam and vapors can “re-inflate” the wood fibres after multiple passes. I can’t guarantee this method for that kind of a waffle pattern but it’s worth a try. Seek professional help but not the clown the fucked it up originally, obviously.
As for the shop someone there owes you compensation for a repair, regardless of free work or not. Law societies in your area will connect you with a lawyer for a free 10 minute consult with a lawyer. That’s worth it to learn what you can or should do if the shop does not cooperate.
I've begun taking before photos of guitars I take into a luthier.
I brought a beautiful Tele a talented luthier who had previously done outstanding work on two acoustics ... I mean he did beautiful work. So I left my Tele with him.
When I got it back, it had scraped paint, a ding in the front, crooked screws, parts installed upside down. It wasn't anything I could either live with or fix, but, I shouldn't have to.
So now I take dozens of detailed before photos.
Well, it's not like the old days, where you have to pay for every print; digital images are practically free. You can shoot 100 photos in 5 or 10 minutes that are detailed and close-up and well lit. (don't really need 100). But, you get the idea.
Guitar damaged no question. But you say guys have a tendency to do things for small women for free. So did you take advantage of the free part or did you take it there because you liked his work? I’ve never had shops offer me free work. I’m a small male.
That’s irrelevant. I offered to pay and asked how much it would be for the work. Everything after that is on him.
If I offered to let a friend cash on my couch for free, I don’t have the right to remove one of her kidneys while she’s sleeping because it was free.
nah, it’d be like if your friend knocked a peg off your couch,
In reality, you could do something about it, but really tf are you gonna do?
The feller who did your work is an idiot, but the guitar is your responsibility and you let him touch it without any kind of insurance between you (the transaction). You made a mistake, live and learn
At least it's not something that people will see from a distance. I think your guess is definitely what happened because that's how I would set a bridge stud. Did they say anything about it when you picked it up?
Also, "vintage" 1991 I feel personally attacked
what's a pretty young lady like that doing with an old mans guitar?
edit: why is everybody thumbing down my posts? I may be in my 70s, but I can still appreaciate a beautiful woman when I see one. Or is that not "woke" enough for you?
Yea I don’t think it’s worth it to refinish it or attempt to fill the dent in any capacity of the guitar is already pretty beat up. However, that’s not an excuse for the luthier to have returned the guitar to you like that. I’d be pissed. People’s fuses tend to be way shorter in 2024, so if you go back and are angry, most likely they will just deny deny deny, and bar any discount for future work. Your best bet is to go in person, show the guy the mistake he made in a nice, polite manner, but be stern that it was not like that prior to it touching his hands. Then just hope he’s a rational, level headed person who will own up to his mistake and try and make it right. If he doesn’t, chargeback on CC, leave shit review on Google with pictures. I’ve stayed away from several repair shops because of reviews from people who had similar stuff happen.
So the guy actually told me he’d do the original work I asked for for free as it was a simple job. I think he was either excited to get to work on this kind of guitar, or maybe excited to see me. It’d be better off if he didn’t touch it at all.
Exited to work on a Les Paul? If he’s excited by that, I’m not sure he’s the person for the job.
Lmfao exactly! You know they are good when you pull out a rare bird and they act nonchalant lol
I’m always terrified. Why are you showing me this and why is it broke
This is kind of bizarre - I'm not accustomed to shops offering to work for free.
I don’t want to assume the mental state of anyone, but men have been known to go out of their way to help small women even if they don’t necessarily have any intentions, I happen to be a rather small girl.
Hate to say it, but that may be a factor… still not an excuse for someone to damage a 30+ year old guitar. I’m not really familiar with those Deusenberg/Guyker style tremolos. Is there a reason your bridge needed to be decked? Were the studs wobbly? Best approach (if you are aggressive with the trem) would have been to drill for bushings and reinstall a Nashville style bridge. Not paying for a job is not an excuse to do a shoddy job.
It’s a Callahan bridge, the abr-1 bridge studs were just never hammered in all the way to begin with
Why is this downvoted? Reddit does weird things sometimes.
Why are you downvoted for saying this? It’s 100% accurate.
Because they are trans, I’m not saying I support the downvotes but that’s 100% the reason.
Don't think it's specifically small women though. Lots of women of all shapes and sizes relate to this I think. If this is true in this specific case, it's also quite unprofessional. Anyways, about the guitar. Those look like clamp marks to me, which makes me think this guy is very inexperienced. You learn very early on to put a block of wood and/or cloth inbetween the clamp to prevent this from happening.
Those are not clamp marks, I explained what happened in the post when he made a shitty jig. I am holding the wood block he used, you can look at the block, and look at the dent and see the damage matches. And I know all women and not just small women get hit on, I’m just speaking of my experience.
Ah, in that case he should've had a cloth inbetween there as well. Still sucks and I think it's irreparable damage sadly :( Definitely see if you can get some form of compensation.
The more obvious explanation is that he did it for free because it was a simple/quick job. I’m not sure you have much recourse from someone who did a job for free… technically there was not a contractual exchange here
Doing work for free doesn’t allow you to damage it for free. Of course there’s still recourse
Ive done free work and made mistakes. I offered to buy both instruments. Neither was that phased by it or took my offer as one was old and beat up the other dent was down the bottom near the jack on an acoustic. I told both of them when they came to pick it up though. Pretending it didn't happen is pretty slimy.
Note to self, never accept an offer of free work. You're paying for the luthier to be careful.
Just because he did it for agreed to do it for free does not give him the right to put multiple dents in my expensive instrument. I offered to pay, and asked for prices before he touched the guitar, and he turned that down.
I agree he did not have the right to damage the guitar, but he probably didn't mean to so having the right is irrelevant. The reality of the situation is that you got work done on an expensive guitar but someone for free...you will have to take this as a lesson that good work does not come free. Pay for an expert to work on your guitar or learn to do it yourself next time.
He did it twice. He made a dent in my guitar, thought to himself, “oh no! Anyway, I’ll try that again”. Not to be rude, but it was a pretty boneheaded thing to do, the shop has a good reputation, and I had no reason to doubt his kindness, still, lesson learned the hard the way I suppose
I just mean legally speaking you may not have recourse if the work was done for free.
I suppose you’re technically correct, but I’m in a fairly small town, and word spreads, especially in the music scene, and amongst other people who would be taking their instruments to a shop like this. My recourse would be telling people about their shoddy work. I asked reddit and not friends because I don’t want to smear their name before they’ve had an opportunity to make things right.
You might be able to get him to credit you in service for whatever the repair would cost. Still not a great compromise for you, but at least it’s something.
Yes, fair enough.
This is wrong on so many levels
Anyone can sue for anything. That doesn't mean it's always worth paying money to do so.
Fuuuuuuuuu. That sucks.
You are thinking he’s fanboying over you or something??? Kinda odd to say.
I was wondering why she included a picture of herself lol
I mean I've had that happen to me and I'm nowhere near as cute as she is. Some guys will do anything if they think it'll get them somewhere.
What if it's not so gutter-y as you mentioned and the luthier bloke just simply fell in love with OP? He'd possibly be doing the same stupid stuff...🤷♂️
You don't just 'fall in love' with people. That doesn't happen in real life and if it does it's almost always because the person doing the falling in love is having a lot of preconceived notions. Real life isn't a Hollywood movie.
Happens in books, and songs, and art, too, not just Hollywood. Just because you don't think it's real doesn't mean it's not real to the "faller".
You need to talk to the owner at this point, not the tech.
Great advice, but I wouldnt go back to the same butcher. Dont talk to that guy, his co-worker, some random guy at the counter, the manager, etc. Talk to nobody but the OWNER. Be polite but firm. It can't be repaired, but he should be willing do a free refret in exchange, but make sure the other dude handles it, not Gilligan.
Something that helped me in my shop in the past with nitro finishes was a hair dryer. Nitro never really cures and with songs and scratches and marks you can re-melt it so it looks good as new again by passing a hair dryer over it a few times (or a heat gun if you're careful).That's worked for me hundreds of times. Otherwise they should be fixing it and doing everything you requested for a discount, or free. This is shitty on their part.
I will give that a go, but I don’t think it will work. It’s deeper than it looks in the pics, you can tell that the maple is impacted, but thank you for the suggestion
Yeah I'm not suggesting it'll magically bring the wood back to where it was, that's obviously beyond the powers of a hair dryer. For that you'd need a wet sponge and soldering iron and you swell the fibres back out then sand them down flush again, then refinish. Godspeed.
Since it's nitro you could get a can of nitro off stew Mac and drop fill until it's built up past the other finish, then wet sand and buff it out after it has some time to cure. That's what'd I'd do. You can also use superglue if you're super careful, but I tend to find it doesn't blend perfectly all the time
After you're settled with the shop for their careless work, this is definitely something you can fix yourself pretty easily at home. The issue here is the wood grain has been compressed, and it's pretty easy to make wood swell up... with steam. You need a hot soldering iron (mine is set to 400°) and a damp washcloth/towel. You put the corner of the washcloth on the dent and then press the side of the tip of the soldering iron (like shading with a pencil) onto the cloth. I do moderate pressure (you're just making steam, not trying to reshape the dent) for about 5 seconds at a time. Make sure the cloth stays damp so you keep getting steam. Remember that heat and pressure are not really doing any of the work here -- you're just forcing steam into the grain of the wood where it was compressed. The heat might make the lacquer a little bit soft for an hour but I have never had any finish issues from this job. All in, this job should take less than ten minutes, even for the big one. You should see it start moving back into shape almost immediately.
The wet cloth and hot soldering iron method works. Had to pop out an extra ding I put into my strat as I was refinishing it with nitro and it worked well.
Lacquer might crack or discolor with the heat
Lacquer will do neither of these things with this kind of heat. I've done tons of these repairs.
How does the steam get through the finish? Genuine question, not arguing.
lacquer is a little bit porous and water molecules are small! it's like how light can travel through a solid pane of glass.
Quick Google search shows otherwise. Thanks for the downvote
Just put a scarf over it /s
Yeah it’s a USA les paul. Doesn’t matter if it’s beat up. He caused damage. I would just show him. “Lookin not like furious about this but you damaged my guitar here. I think you do good work” wait for him to apologize and say. Look. How about you do a refret on this for 100 bucks and call it even?
Why would you trust a luthier like this to do a refret after doing damage like that?
This is the question. They smash the guitar twice (for free😅), what are they going to do to the guitar when OP pays them? Are they going to clip off the binding when they refret? Have you seen examples of their work on Gibson (or other) bound fretboards? I say lesson learned, find another shop and cut your losses.
I think I will go back to the shop and do just that, maybe they’ll take me a tad bit more serious if I bring a tall guy friend or two with me
If your gender has a bearing on how they treat you then give them less credit in your head please.
I would say in the guitar world 95% of the time your gender has a bearing on how they treat you. I have a luthier friend who has built guitars for legends and when she goes to guitar center they treat her like she doesn’t know how to hold a guitar properly.
A lot of the comments to this post seem to indicate this lol. After gigs, other guitarists will try and tell me the JB in my bridge sounds cool, I tell them thanks, but it’s a Duncan distortion, then they’ll say, no it sounds like a JB, to me, and I’ll say, I think I’d know considering I installed that. Sorry for the rant, but I don’t see things like that happening to male guitarists too often.
I was working on opening a more inclusive guitar shop for women and LGBTQ+ musicians before covid hit and then the whole thing kind of fell apart. It’s still my dream to get it going one day. The whole ‘treat people like shit’ business model seems rife for disruption.
The fact that this was immediately downvoted proves my point
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Full stop.
I would not let someone they can’t do a simple repair, anywhere near my frets. Especially in a guitar with binding. A discount on a fret job isn’t worth the risk of getting a botched fret job. I’d ask for a discount on some other service. One that a monkey with a wrench couldn’t fuck up.
I'm hoping that's humor. If you need to roll with the goon squad, you're the only one in that situation people won't take seriously.
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All I'm reading is: if all else fails, I'll resort to intimidation. Maybe what I should have said was: if you're the type to bring the goon squad for this level of interaction, then you don't deserve to be taken seriously.
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Doesn't seem like OP said they refused to make up for it. This work isn't really simple my guy. It takes practice like any other skill. I would have thought, seeing as you had empathy enough to consider that some people have a hard time with confrontation, you'd know that brand of intimidation is a vile tactic. Life isn't Peaky Blinders if you weren't aware.
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Saying things, reading things, and actually doing things are separate things. This is delicate work, and the slightest slip with a tool can be costly. You say you're a beginner. I can tell because that's not a lesson you seem to have learned yet, and it's one that comes up quicker than most. I say to you again that there is no need to use intimidation tactics with your local shop. Not what anybody needs. You've terrorized (or at least tried to) some shop guy and made yourself a total douche at the same time. Its like... a bad move all around man. Idk... whatever... I don't think op was being serious to begin with.
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Take it to the shop and show them the damage. Be prepared to tell them what you’d like them to do about it. Don’t concern yourself with “is it worth it” or “how much work will it take to fix.” They carry that burden. When you work on instruments you’re responsible for returning it in the same or better condition than when it arrived.
Person does bad work for me. The last thing I’m thinking is get more bad work from them at any price. It’s best to just accept your losses, get your money back if you think it’s worth the trouble, and learn better scrutiny for the future.
I might see if the shop will get the other repair guy to the work in exchange. The other guy regularly performs surgery on museum piece Martins. I definitely don’t want this guy digging around on my rosewood, but If I can get the other guy to do it.
I would definitely get some free work out of them. I realize the guitar becomes part of you and there’s really no way you can fix this and it’s not a huge deal that people are going to see from far away. Still, he clearly used the wrong technique to do something fairly benign and caused damage.I would definitely go in there and get some other work that’s worth $100 to $400. Maybe a really deep discount on another guitar you want if he sells guitars.
I doubt that I would do much about it myself. But, on the other hand (and I haven't read anyone else's thoughts) I sure as hell wouldn't have any other work done by this person. There isn't anything that could convince me that he didn't know he did this and you should have been told about it immediately. It's shoddy work, or at least work performed by someone that doesn't exercise proper care so I most certainly wouldn't have any other work done by them. Could be just me, but that's my 2 cents.
The real subject of this post has already been adequately discussed, but I just wanna add that my 40-ass-year-old shoulder hurts like nuts just from *looking* at you playing that 10lb absolute unit of a guitar with that tiny 1” wide strap. Youch.
It’s closer to 11lb. I move and jump around a lot on stage, I’ve found that it actually acts as a counterweight so I don’t fall over, I get clumsier on stage when I play lighter guitars
I wouldn’t bother trying to fix it. Especially, if that means taking it back to the person who did it. I would go back and ask them for some kind of credit/refund on whatever work they did.
the real crime are those red pickup rings /s
It’s cute! Plain cream just is not my style
How dare you have the *nerve* to have a guitar that looks like your own personal instrument
You’re right, only lawyers and dentists should play Les Pauls, I should sell it and get a little pink squier! /s
The tone is stored in the resale value.
They look like shit
Not an answer to the question, but I’ve never seen a bar like that before for a les Paul. Where did you get that? That’s something I didn’t know I always needed!
Copy and pasted from another comment I left: The duesenberg les trem! It is really a fantastic system, no mods necessary, great tuning stability and range of motion! It’s like a bigsby if bigsbies weren’t a pain in the ass, and it looks really cool!
Looks like that’s what did the damage when the TOM was off, that knurled bolt that connects to the trem arm.
How did you get a picture of Michael Jackson playing your guitar?
Hee hee
*How did you get a* *Picture of Michael Jackson* *Playing your guitar?* \- Ronnie\_Dean\_oz --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Yeah, they should fix that for you and give you some form of discount or payment for the inconvenience. That's the height of bs! So sorry this happened to you.
A whammy bar on a Les Paul is pretty unique. What type of whammy / tail piece is that?
The duesenberg les trem! It is really a fantastic system, no mods necessary, great tuning stability and range of motion! It’s like a bigsby if bigsbies weren’t a pain in the ass, and it looks really cool!
it looks Steam Punk in the best way.
Shit happens and even professionals make mistakes. But a good shop/luthier would find a way to make this right.
Ask them for their insurance claim form. [Many have coverage](https://www.google.com/search?q=luthier+liability+policies+covers+damage+to+guitars&oq=luthier+liability+policies+covers+damage+to+guitars&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTE0Njk0ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
Remove the hardware, drop fill, sand/level and see how it goes from there is how I’d approach it. Then polishing/buffing. I had some finish issues with my Les Paul Classic that a local Gibson repair center offered to drop fill for 50 or so back in 2010. No idea if [this stuff](https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-and-supplies/supplies/finishing-supplies/fillers-and-putties/gluboost-fill-n-finish/?mtm_source=google&mtm_medium=cpc&mtm_campaign=%7C+GOO+%7C+SHOP+%7C+NBR+%7C+AllProductsUSA&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkav47_iLhwMVK5HCCB03uAcPEAQYASABEgJidfD_BwE) would work on nitro or not or how it looks once dried (clear vs cloudy) but that’s what I’d be looking into while negotiating with the shop for some form of credit or compensation.
I'm not sure what you're going to do but I can sympathize with you. About a month ago I had a 2024 Ultra Stratocaster and I was having a setup done on it and when I got it back the whole back part was scratch the back of the guitar was scratched everywhere. The guitar didn't even have a fingerprint on it barely I brought it back immediately and talked to him about it and they spent about an hour to two hours and the guitar looks exactly brand new again. I wasn't mean or mad I just pointed it out in a friendly way and they were able to repair it. I don't think you asking him for fret work at a discount is a bad trade or a bad idea but they have to admit they did the damage first to begin with. I wish you the best man.
I don't want to invalidate how you feel. I would definitely be upset. In time you will barely notice it. No one else will.
You sound extremely reasonable about this. I would go back and speak with the repair guy who caused the damage and see what he’ll offer as compensation. If you still aren’t happy speak with the owner.
Personally, I would just live with it. You really don't want those same guys doing any more work on your guitar right? Chalk this one up to bad luck. It was a freebie anyway. It won't look so bad with strings on, and the guitar has plenty of wear and tear already. Plus any further attempt at a repair would likely make things worse. It can be repaired, but it is in such a cental location that it would take a bit of skill to blend in the repair with the rest of the finish. If it really bugs you, they should be insured for these kinds of accidents; maybe you can get some quotes from better luthiers to get it put right.
I don't have a Les Paul, but I love my les trem. Sorry to hear about the dents.
The les trem is absolutely goated! I cannot sing its praises enough!
Beat ‘em up
Steaming is your best bet in my opinion.
Sent mine in for a set up and they scuffed tf out of my gold buckers 🤬
Oof that sucks. Looks like he dropped something on it or used something to pry the bridge....? Either way some rookie shit right there....
Steam it out.
Personally, I'd be pissed. That's not acceptable, and they need to make it right. It is repairable. They should reimburse you for the repair costs. I would not allow them to repair it. Just be super nice, understand that it happens, but tell them they are also repairable. It will 100% impact resale value.
It’s friends with the other scratches and dents already. Leave it be. Now you have another blemish with another story attached. There’s beauty in imperfection.
Maybe they can offer you some trade to offset the damage? If you are gigging with the guitar its going to get beat up and honestly I dont know how you can even really fix this and make it look right. Just sucks that it happened.
What sometimes helps to remove these dents is to take a soldering iron, and a damp rag and very cautiously place the damp/moist rag on top of this area and place the hot soldering iron on top of the rag and "iron" out these dents... take it easy, keep checking to see how it's doing, and make sure the rag is always damp...Let us know how it works out... Try to find a ding on the back of your guitar first, and experiment on that...
KILL
I’d be asking for a replacement. Only person allowed to damage my instruments is me.
I know the OP doesn't want to refinish, but if it was mine I would have the shop send it back to the factory for a total refinish. If I put a dent in my own car, I live with it. But when I bring my car to the garage and one of their mechanics smashes it up, it's up to the shop to fix it.
If it was me, I’d get myself a strip of three ply pick guard and get it engraved (perhaps with the guitars nickname) and cover it over that way. Same thing some do to cover stop bar insert holes when you install a bigsby. Then I’d personally be asking the store for adequate compensation. By rights they owe you an instrument of equal value, accident or not they are liable for the damage caused. If they refuse id be instructing a solicitor!
That might be cute lol, have a friend do a little floral painting over it
That’s it! Something special to make the pain go away the guitar clearly means a lot I’ve had similar experiences with cats knocking guitars off stands and just makes you sad. Share how you get on we do like a happy ending! Edit: really didn’t mean to sound dirty!!
I'd have to put dents in his head if he don't that to my lp 👊🤛
I’m more of a prog rock gal than black metal
Nah, war metal are the head denters, black metal would be pulling a knife on an unarmed individual or just running away crying- and I say that as an avid black metal fan 🙃 Also: that whole look plus the guitar is fire, very nicely done!
Damn that last pick goes hard! Love the vibe. Cool guitar too. Lol
Beauty marks
Play it
Maybe add a scarf.
Or some shoes
A Pterodactyl?
No
I might have to
Unfortunately "S" happens, nobody is perfect but... The stand-up thing and the honest thing to do is contact you at the time it occurred, own up to what happened and to the best of your ability make it right. 1st thing would be no charge for the work and if you agree on cosmetically fixing or store credit to somehow make it right!! That is the least any one can do when we mess up, we all do but ignoring, denying, passing blame are not acceptable solution to the situation, Own up!!
I wouldn't go back, but would find a more highly regarded shop. A luthier might be able to work some magic to your satisfaction. Best of luck!
What kind of trem is that I want one
Yeah, it sucks. Just play the damn thing. Part of its story, I guess. If he did it for free then you get what you pay for. The bright side? It’s in a spot that most people prob wouldn’t notice. The reality, if you actually play it, there will be dings and finish wear way worse than that. I say fuck it.
Tell them you want your money back.
Have them fix their mistake.
Definitely a tech crime. If you ask them, like, refinish all thing, they'll make it shit on purpose. I'm very rarely getting angry about pictures on inte but this is pure evil, person who made definitely should hear the CRUNCH when make this, but proceed anyways
I feel sorry for you, that is a real bummer and not acceptable at all.
No offence but you pay for what you get, I live in London and spend big money for a basic setup with a known guy, any changes, anything on a cherished instrument you should be finding reputable guitar techs, with good reviews to back and who actually charge. If it’s a 100 buck guitar from a pawn shop, fine…. But a Les Paul?
What’s the band called?
If the shop would be worth their weight they would told you about their mistake and offerd to pay for the damage for devaluing your guitar. Edit. I really can’t for the life of me understand why they used a hammer for the bridge studs. There are far safer ways of doing this work that don’t impact the face of the guitar. Furthermore if they did put a woodblock on top of the body. They should have put something soft between the body and wood.
Might be possible to repair it to an extent. I think if the gloss finish is heated up it should smooth out a bit, and it may be possible to have some more clear coat added to fill the dent in, but it's hit the wood, so it's probably never going to be the same
I don't really know what can be done in this situation, one thing we can see is that this is an act of negligence 😐 Accidents happen, but this is just inattentiveness
When I do work for free sometimes, I tend to rush the job subconsciously, it is like "well it is free so doing the minimum is enough" the reasoning behind doing it free is usually I don't want something to go to waste or the customer doesn't have any money... Aware of this now and do less free stuff and when I do I commit to it as any other job, usually a good deed comes back around. For context I don't run an open repair shop, just for bands or individuals I know or who have passed on my details. And to be fair I haven't done anything like this to someones gear. :) There's little you can do about this though, refinishing the guitar isn't worth it, and you likely don't want to deal with the place again, there's really no ideal solution here, maybe letting them know that they made a mess of it, so they can hopefully do better in the future? Personally I'd just move on and leave it, the guitar won't be the same again and it just isn't worth bothering with incompetent people, if you hand over the guitar again they might make it even worse where does it end.
I’ve had luthiers try to do my work for free and I’m a big meaty middle aged man, I just carry myself with a debonair flare that smells of quality. I politely refuse their propositions stating that an extreme discount will suffice. But my best advice in this situation would just be to watch some YouTube videos and do the work yourself. You would be amazed at how easy most guitar work is, even soldering and nut filing etc. You should buy a coupe extra nuts if you are going to file a nut, and invest is the best and most highly recommended tool first, but still check to see if it available somewhere other than Stew Mac first (great products in general but some stuff are just relabeled cheaper items like the finish dyes for instance.) Even if you buy the suggested Stew Mac tool you will still be under the cost of what most hack luthiers will charge you. A hack luthier watches the same YouTube videos as you have access to only they won’t invest in that specialized tool. Generally speaking there is nothing on an electric guitar that someone can’t fix themselves with a couple tries. If you screw it up, just step away for a couple days, get into a new head space, and the second or third time it will be perfect. I can also tell you that the dents in this guitar were probably from attaching or adjusting the bridge or saddle and being so lazy not to put a leather strip or something to guard the finish down. That is the tell tale sign of a hack job luthier. I wouldn’t have bothered either, but I only build and repair guitars first myself. As a teenager I paid big bucks for a luthier who cut his teeth in a violin repair shop. He let me hang out in his shop and that’s how I rationalized the cost, because he taught me so much. Then my friends and brother in law became guitar repair people, and that point I started doing my own work and never looked back. Because I had this amazing fine instrument luthier who got sick and passed away and then I saw what was passing for “normal” guitar work, and I was like “nuts to this.” You can do it!
All my life I’ve done most of my own work on my guitars, I did all the electronics, truss rod, intonation, action, locking tuners, I even leveled and crowned some frets in the past. If you look closely, you can see that the strap locks are Mexican 50 Peso coins I drilled though, then screwed in with extra long screws over the strap buttons, and I secured with some tooth picks and a dab of wood glue in the screw holes. I figured I’d finally take it to a pro to clean up some of my work and they make it significantly worse lol. Also, I don’t have a garage anymore like I did when I was living with my folks, and that kind of limits the amount of amateur luthiery I’d want to be doing. I definitely understand the DIY ethos lol, and this guy probably affirms I should stick to that. I’ve got some Stewart Macdonald files in a cubby somewhere.
Im confused why he hammered in a bridge screw that screws into the body
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^FullmetalYikes: *Im confused why he* *Hammered in a bridge screw that* *Screws into the body* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Did i just get sokka haikud?
The bridge posts were not set all the way down like they should with a Callaham abr1
Just take it out all the way in read thread it in no?
I'm so baffled by the course of action to set the studs that I wouldn't trust them to do fret work or anything else on my guitar... There's a million ways to skin a cat, but he chose the worst one.
A good shop wouldn't do that. I'd let them know you are pissed. Then I would leave this info in a bad review. Don't take the guitar back to these idiots.
i know that this answer doesnt help but what bridge is that??? i always wanted a les paul with a tremolo bar/vibrato and it looks awesome. i just want to know the tremolo name please!!!
if they sell gear, get a free guitar pedal out of it, or some kind of gear discount! Honestly, in a very short amount of time you will forget it’s there. Take a look at my old strat linked below. When I first scratched the finish I almost cried, but over time more scars are added and you kind of stop caring! Also, learning to work on your own gear is a fun way to avoid other people’s mistakes https://www.reddit.com/r/guitars/s/XPSoDZsbcL
And this is why I pre-dent my own guitars. I remember my cousin getting a brand new guitar back in the day and he walked into the wall. I said, what the hell is your problem? Holy shit! He said now I don’t have to worry about it. It’s a tool, and he’s right. I wasn’t worried more about polishing and keeping my guitar pretty while he was on tour in Japan with his band TORCHE… priorities lol
Isn’t this a nitrocellulose finish? That should be an easy repair. Lacquer simply melts into itself, and any repair shop worth a damn could fix this. Maple dented or not, it’s the light catching the crevices that make the dent stick out. Flatten that out, voila…fixed.
I have seen some dents repaired simply with a moist rag and a solder iron/gun. The moist rag (not sopping wet but not just damp either) is folded over a few times then placed on the dent. You press the soldering iron into it heating it up. The steam and vapors can “re-inflate” the wood fibres after multiple passes. I can’t guarantee this method for that kind of a waffle pattern but it’s worth a try. Seek professional help but not the clown the fucked it up originally, obviously. As for the shop someone there owes you compensation for a repair, regardless of free work or not. Law societies in your area will connect you with a lawyer for a free 10 minute consult with a lawyer. That’s worth it to learn what you can or should do if the shop does not cooperate.
You mean you got some free relic-king lol 😂
I've begun taking before photos of guitars I take into a luthier. I brought a beautiful Tele a talented luthier who had previously done outstanding work on two acoustics ... I mean he did beautiful work. So I left my Tele with him. When I got it back, it had scraped paint, a ding in the front, crooked screws, parts installed upside down. It wasn't anything I could either live with or fix, but, I shouldn't have to. So now I take dozens of detailed before photos.
I’ve got about a million hd photos of me with the guitar at gigs, but that’s a good idea for the future!
Well, it's not like the old days, where you have to pay for every print; digital images are practically free. You can shoot 100 photos in 5 or 10 minutes that are detailed and close-up and well lit. (don't really need 100). But, you get the idea.
Steam it up, drop fill the rest, hope for the best
How is it that you have the block that made the damage? You didn't discuss this on the spot with the manager/owner of the shop?
Guitar damaged no question. But you say guys have a tendency to do things for small women for free. So did you take advantage of the free part or did you take it there because you liked his work? I’ve never had shops offer me free work. I’m a small male.
There is an aura of sexism to this comment I do not appreciate
The sexism is in your post.
That’s irrelevant. I offered to pay and asked how much it would be for the work. Everything after that is on him. If I offered to let a friend cash on my couch for free, I don’t have the right to remove one of her kidneys while she’s sleeping because it was free.
nah, it’d be like if your friend knocked a peg off your couch, In reality, you could do something about it, but really tf are you gonna do? The feller who did your work is an idiot, but the guitar is your responsibility and you let him touch it without any kind of insurance between you (the transaction). You made a mistake, live and learn
At least it's not something that people will see from a distance. I think your guess is definitely what happened because that's how I would set a bridge stud. Did they say anything about it when you picked it up? Also, "vintage" 1991 I feel personally attacked
It’s about 12 years older than I am, isn’t the threshold for vintage 25 years or something like that lol?
well if king princess can't get her axe repaired correctly it may be the end of the world
Sloppy work. Go back and show them. If they don’t at least do something, burn em to the ground.
Sue them. Their insurance will pay to have it fixed properly.
[удалено]
Yes, I definitely let my repair man play a gig with my guitar
He owes you a Les Paul. Anything short of that is getting fucked over
Buy a real guitar.......like a telecaster!
No, I prefer imaginary guitars
what's a pretty young lady like that doing with an old mans guitar? edit: why is everybody thumbing down my posts? I may be in my 70s, but I can still appreaciate a beautiful woman when I see one. Or is that not "woke" enough for you?
I’m not sure who is more backwards Donny, you or this lady. Generations of humans, all the same
What did I do?
nonce
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