Heres the story.
Ive been using this guitar (Gibson LP Traditional Pro) for 6 months. I didnt realise that the action on this guitar was considered a bit high until a buddy of mine told me so the other day. (Pls dont question me why I bought this guitar without a good setup in the 1st place). The action is the only problem that existed for me, there were no fret buzzes or what not. Anyways he suggested that I go to a luthier to get it setup properly ie lowering the action. I understand that a good setup will help me improve my playing and speed tremendously and enable me to execute difficult techniques more effortlessly, so without hesitation I went to research on guitar setup in Singapore and found Guitar Workshop Bras Basah.
From their website, you can see pages of testimonials written for their excellent service provided. And one section even included "All final products will go through the thorough scrutiny of owner, Mr Francis Poh to ensure the products and repair work are high in quality and that customers will be satisfied" Atlas, as an average consumer blinded by the overwheming testis, I decided that this was the shop Im going to, without even researching on market price for a guitar setup.
So the next day, I knocked on their doors with my guitar and requested for help. One of the apprentice immedietly served me with much enthusiam, noticing that this was a pretty expensive guitar. He went on affirm that the action was indeed high for fast playing, and that it that it would take a day to get this setup, ending his quotation by saying that this is just a minor setup and will cost only $70.
Without much hesitation, I allowed him safe-keep my guitar for the weekend, looking forward to playing a nicely setup guitar after 48hrs. Hooray! Thats what I thought.
So today after class (im a teacher), I immedietly teleported myself to the shop. Anticipating my nicely setup LP. To my horror, within 10 secs of playing, I could hear the unbearable fret buzz on the 9th-11th frets on all 6 strings. What is this?! The luthier apprentice (not the boss) who took the guitar out for me to test even adressed me "Sir this is your guitar its already setup, you can try it." Do you mean you dont check for playability before you even consider the job done? Yes all I asked for was lowering of action as much as possible, and indeed the action is lowered and frets are nicer to touch now, but that was bullshit, it wasent a complete job, there were obvious fret buzzes, it was simply unacceptable! Wasnt checking for playability part of the Post-Work check for every luthier?
SO where is the part where they say "All final products will go through the thorough scrutiny of owner, Mr Francis Poh to ensure the products and repair work are high in quality and that customers will be satisfied"???? Can I safely say that they were waiting for me to spot their flawed craftmenship? If I were a green horn & didnt manage to find out that there were fret buzzes after the setup and happily bring the guitar home thinking that my guitar is now in PERFECT playability, I would be wasting $70 bucks and probably incurring more for the fret buzz correction afterwards!
Anyways here comes the exciting part. Now that the apprentice realised that there were indeed fret buzzes, he went on to comment that the seller who sold this guitar to me did not do a proper setup and thus the fret buzzes occured. And later quoted that in order to get this fixed, it would be considered a major setup and would cost me $150. You cannot imagine how furious I was. If that guitar was a $200 Made In China LP, I ll probably smash it on their door and walk away. I couldnt really recall what he said after, but it all made no sense to me anymore, considering the fact that I had to surface a fret buzz problem by myself on a "Fully Setup Guitar" by a renowned Luthiering shop in Singapore with pages of testimonials.
In the end, I agreed to let him finish all that needs to be done on that guitar for the price of $150. I figured if I go off paying $70 to him, I would still have to pay someone else to level/fix my fret buzz problem, it would be too much a hassle and probably more costly in the end. Im not a big fan of running here and there. So I succumbed.
Well I certainly hope the shop owner or the apprenctice doesnt see this and go on to hate me and go screw my guitar up (Guitar is there now). I was just really angry. But right now all I want is that they can do a good job to let me change my impression of their shop. If you were me, what would you do. If anyone has encountered this kinda problem before, please advise. Or maybe it doesnt matter, since Im already committed to paying the $150.
Ive been using this guitar (Gibson LP Traditional Pro) for 6 months. I didnt realise that the action on this guitar was considered a bit high until a buddy of mine told me so the other day. (Pls dont question me why I bought this guitar without a good setup in the 1st place). The action is the only problem that existed for me, there were no fret buzzes or what not. Anyways he suggested that I go to a luthier to get it setup properly ie lowering the action. I understand that a good setup will help me improve my playing and speed tremendously and enable me to execute difficult techniques more effortlessly, so without hesitation I went to research on guitar setup in Singapore and found Guitar Workshop Bras Basah.
From their website, you can see pages of testimonials written for their excellent service provided. And one section even included "All final products will go through the thorough scrutiny of owner, Mr Francis Poh to ensure the products and repair work are high in quality and that customers will be satisfied" Atlas, as an average consumer blinded by the overwheming testis, I decided that this was the shop Im going to, without even researching on market price for a guitar setup.
So the next day, I knocked on their doors with my guitar and requested for help. One of the apprentice immedietly served me with much enthusiam, noticing that this was a pretty expensive guitar. He went on affirm that the action was indeed high for fast playing, and that it that it would take a day to get this setup, ending his quotation by saying that this is just a minor setup and will cost only $70.
Without much hesitation, I allowed him safe-keep my guitar for the weekend, looking forward to playing a nicely setup guitar after 48hrs. Hooray! Thats what I thought.
So today after class (im a teacher), I immedietly teleported myself to the shop. Anticipating my nicely setup LP. To my horror, within 10 secs of playing, I could hear the unbearable fret buzz on the 9th-11th frets on all 6 strings. What is this?! The luthier apprentice (not the boss) who took the guitar out for me to test even adressed me "Sir this is your guitar its already setup, you can try it." Do you mean you dont check for playability before you even consider the job done? Yes all I asked for was lowering of action as much as possible, and indeed the action is lowered and frets are nicer to touch now, but that was bullshit, it wasent a complete job, there were obvious fret buzzes, it was simply unacceptable! Wasnt checking for playability part of the Post-Work check for every luthier?
SO where is the part where they say "All final products will go through the thorough scrutiny of owner, Mr Francis Poh to ensure the products and repair work are high in quality and that customers will be satisfied"???? Can I safely say that they were waiting for me to spot their flawed craftmenship? If I were a green horn & didnt manage to find out that there were fret buzzes after the setup and happily bring the guitar home thinking that my guitar is now in PERFECT playability, I would be wasting $70 bucks and probably incurring more for the fret buzz correction afterwards!
Anyways here comes the exciting part. Now that the apprentice realised that there were indeed fret buzzes, he went on to comment that the seller who sold this guitar to me did not do a proper setup and thus the fret buzzes occured. And later quoted that in order to get this fixed, it would be considered a major setup and would cost me $150. You cannot imagine how furious I was. If that guitar was a $200 Made In China LP, I ll probably smash it on their door and walk away. I couldnt really recall what he said after, but it all made no sense to me anymore, considering the fact that I had to surface a fret buzz problem by myself on a "Fully Setup Guitar" by a renowned Luthiering shop in Singapore with pages of testimonials.
In the end, I agreed to let him finish all that needs to be done on that guitar for the price of $150. I figured if I go off paying $70 to him, I would still have to pay someone else to level/fix my fret buzz problem, it would be too much a hassle and probably more costly in the end. Im not a big fan of running here and there. So I succumbed.
Well I certainly hope the shop owner or the apprenctice doesnt see this and go on to hate me and go screw my guitar up (Guitar is there now). I was just really angry. But right now all I want is that they can do a good job to let me change my impression of their shop. If you were me, what would you do. If anyone has encountered this kinda problem before, please advise. Or maybe it doesnt matter, since Im already committed to paying the $150.
