Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph124C41
Sadly, I think I agree. I have now found a new guy to work on my acoustics. He has a shop and makes his own line of custom guitars.
I just want the other guy to make good on this repair and on the other (the fixed crack) if it reopens.
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No, all you're likely to get if you insist on this guy "making good" on his half-asƒed repairs is more aggravation. You don't want him within ten feet of your guitars. He's repeatedly proven to you what a nimrod he really is.
Years ago in Anchorage the main repairman at our good local music store was a nice guy and a fine musician. But he wasn't a towering intellect, and any repair beyond simple setups and pickup replacements was beyond his (very basic) problem-solving skills. By the time I was using his services I'd been a professional musician for some fifteen years, and I knew a lot of the problems that arose and how my previous guitar repairmen had solved them.
When I'd tell him, he'd nod and look wise, then screw up the repairs. This happened more often than not, until I realized that he was only pretending to understand the issues I was explaining to him, and not actually registering any of it.
In fairness, part of the time I was asking him to work on my mountain dulcimers, which operate somewhat differently than guitars. But he screwed up on my guitars and mandolins as often as not, too. I finally stopped taking any of my instruments to him.
That's the situation you have on your hands, Ralph. Any guitar repair tech who just assumes you want the cheapest possible top repair and doesn't even ASK whether you want the top cleated is not terribly bright.
So walk away and don't look back. Don't give him any more opportunities to screw up further, and forget about getting a refund or your "money's worth." However much cash value you figure he and that store owe you, it isn't worth the aggravation trying to extract it from them. Given their abysmal track record, chances are that all they'll do is mess things up even more.
So walk away, friend, walk away.
Wade Hampton Miller