Is this Luthier Trustworthy? Referred from Sam Ash third party

[Newc]

Two things stand out the most to me:

#1: he graduated from musicians institute as the no.1 rank luthier.
#2: He said he's gotten faster with additional help from people and the turn around is only 2 days instead of 7-10 days.

#1 is great. #2 is not. Who are these extra people, and at what luthier rank did they graduate M.I.? Is he doing the work himself? If not, and these other people are not as good as he is, is it any better than taking it to the other guy?
Are these just people he trained, or that learned on their own, or did they go through a real luthier school and not just a weekend luthier camp?

And you should never pay someone else to swap pickups. It's easy enough to do yourself and definitely cheaper than paying someone else. A decent soldering iron is $15 tops (30w), and solder is like $3. You don't need a Weller Professional Soldering Station unless you're doing it for a living. Radio Shack has plenty of pencil-style irons, replacement tips, wire, and solder. You're in and out for $30 at most and you can do as many pickup swaps as you like for that one-time expense.

[Vass]

Two things stand out the most to me:




#1 is great. #2 is not. Who are these extra people, and at what luthier rank did they graduate M.I.? Is he doing the work himself? If not, and these other people are not as good as he is, is it any better than taking it to the other guy?
Are these just people he trained, or that learned on their own, or did they go through a real luthier school and not just a weekend luthier camp?

And you should never pay someone else to swap pickups. It's easy enough to do yourself and definitely cheaper than paying someone else. A decent soldering iron is $15 tops (30w), and solder is like $3. You don't need a Weller Professional Soldering Station unless you're doing it for a living. Radio Shack has plenty of pencil-style irons, replacement tips, wire, and solder. You're in and out for $30 at most and you can do as many pickup swaps as you like for that one-time expense.

+100 on this one. I'm borderline special ed & I took this advice a year or so ago, right down to the Radio Shack part (might have been from Newc in fact). I've probably swapped half a dozen pups since then. Not only do you save $$$, it's not such a big deal if you get the "I wonder what this would sound like in my XXX" thoughts, and if you hate it you can just swap em back.

It sounds like you're only sending the guitars you really care about to professionals and doing the rest yourself. Since that's the case, I think you made the right choice- You bought yourself alot of piece of mind for that $20 or whatever the difference was. That's a good price.

EDIT: Holy shit, "Piece of Mind" wtf? Too much Maiden!!!

[Danzo]

Oh guys I forgot to update you. It did only take 2 days to get my guitar all setup nice and the Luthier told me that my guitar was built quite well and was ready to go. He was impressed with the Jackson craftsmanship! One of the better made guitars he said.
So I just got back to him today and sent him my guitar and my new TB-5 pickup.

Vass:
I don't do a lot of pickup swapping , when I find one pickup set I like it stays for that guitar. I did 6 months of research on pickups and settled on the TB-5. Its costing me only $25 so I suppose thats ok by me. I can see if you're always changing pickups its not worth it at all!

Also I dont' know how to get the bridge back in shape once I take off all the strings. I messed my entire setup when I jus got my guitar when I took off all the strings to change them. Having the pro reset my strings saves me time to figure that.

NewC:
His assistant is actually the second best graduate for M.I. so he said thats why they together formed a Luthier alliance in conjunction with Gear trader and Sound Rehearsal partnership.
So its like a big friendship business. You have a gear shop +music lessons, a rehearsal , and a luthier setup.

One day I'll get some books/videos and learn to do this all myself but I guess for now I'm ok with it.

I like this luthier and figured I picked a good go to person now for anything.

Thanks guys!

[atdguitars]

Glad to hear you had good results with this guy. Building a relationship with your luthier can really save you an ass load of headaches and problems. It's also great you support your local business people.

[Danzo]

Ok guys, my guitar was finished 2 days ago. I left a thread on what I thought about the Tb-5. http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97367

So the guy did an overall good job. I did notice when I came home that my tremelo was no longer flush though, it has a slight maybe a few degree angle of diving towards the neck. I think cause it lost its original placement when he changed the pickup. Is this acceptable? It was perfect when he first set it up, but now diving 2-3 degrees.

I found if I try to do it myself it gets way out of whack, since by simply tightening the screws inside isn't the proper procedure. It requires more than just one step, but I don't know the steps.

Other than that I think this guy does good work.

[warlok]

2-3 degrees? That's hardly noticable. How is the action? Is the string height where you want it? Alot of the setup is personal preference. I like the height as low as possible with no (or very little) buzz and don't care if the bridge is exactly level. But I've always been able to get it level with everything perfect. If it feels good and you're happy, play the holy hell out of it! If it feels too high or just "off" to you, take it back in and I'm sure he wouldn't mind doiong a quick adjustment for you. Should only take a minute or 2 to fix what you explain. If he did the level/recrown, it should be able to be set up exactly how you want..

[Danzo]

2-3 degrees? That's hardly noticable. How is the action? Is the string height where you want it? Alot of the setup is personal preference. I like the height as low as possible with no (or very little) buzz and don't care if the bridge is exactly level. But I've always been able to get it level with everything perfect. If it feels good and you're happy, play the holy hell out of it! If it feels too high or just "off" to you, take it back in and I'm sure he wouldn't mind doiong a quick adjustment for you. Should only take a minute or 2 to fix what you explain. If he did the level/recrown, it should be able to be set up exactly how you want..

Oh good. Actually everything seems to play just fine, that's why I asked to make sure. I didn't want to complain to him since he seems like a good guy.
The action and intonation is dead on actually. Before the action was so high you couldn't hammer tap at all or fret your hand without getting your fingers stuck under the strings

I'd give this luthier a good grade then! Actually he charges less or the same as everyone else and has good turn around time, and keeps asking if I'm happy with everything. He also gave me some free pickup rings since I thought my old ones were ugly when I changed out my pickup. Otherwise it would of costed me about 10 bucks.

5/5 for 13th street guitars