govtmule Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Does anyone remember who on this forum mentioned that they did fret jobs for Guitar Center ? I remember reading this post a while back about the crappy fret jobs on new guitars at Guitar Center and someone who worked for them cleaning up the fretwork on new guitars. Any help out there ? Thanks, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 I think that was setups...not fret jobs... Although they do contract out repair work,including fret jobs...but they don't do it on instruments coming in...they sell the crap they get shipped to them...they have no ethics... I once bought a guitar from them that had a crack on the top horn where the strap button was...I bought an amp from them with blown tubes,and another amp in which the reverb never worked,then they tried to claim I must have done something to it.. I ended up returning all of their stuff and now I don't deal with them except for strings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowella Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Gosh I hope I'm lucky with them with what I just ordered (not much, but it will do). Fingers crossed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Ross Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 They have a 30 day no questions asked return policy that I've made use of a few times. In my experience, they don't know half of what they're talking about, but they at least back up what they sell. In my local GC's (Seattle & Kirkland, WA) there are small fix-it shops right inside or next to, which makes it kind of tough for my biz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
govtmule Posted February 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 ...they have no ethics... They do seem to be the Walmart of gutar shops don't they. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foil1more Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Hmm, I must be lucky with my local guitar center then. The people that work there do seem to know what they're talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapbarstrat Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 I sort of remember someone wrote in the 'off-topics' or ' 'announcements' section that they were doing repair work for their local GC. Was quite a while back. Maybe a year ago, or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
govtmule Posted February 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 I sort of remember someone wrote in the 'off-topics' or ' 'announcements' section that they were doing repair work for their local GC. Was quite a while back. Maybe a year ago, or so. Yeah, that sounds like the post that I'm talking about. I dropped by my local GC the other day with a guy that I'm building a strat for. I wanted him to try out some necks with a variety of finishes so he could tell me what finish he wanted on the start that I'm building for him. Now I am by no means a "luthier" and barely qualify as a hobby builder but I was shocked at the piss poor condition of the frets on most of the brand new guitars there. Fender was by far the worst. Fret ends were loose, exposed, sharp, and even lifted in many cases. Anyway, that old post came back to me and I thought I'd give it another read to get an idea of the best way to approach my GC to see if they'd be interested in having me spruce up the fret work on their inventory. I'm not sure if they'd go for it but may be a way for me to get some fret jobs under my belt and some beer money in my pocket. Any advice out there ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Anyway, that old post came back to me and I thought I'd give it another read to get an idea of the best way to approach my GC to see if they'd be interested in having me spruce up the fret work on their inventory. I'm not sure if they'd go for it but may be a way for me to get some fret jobs under my belt and some beer money in my pocket. Any advice out there ? My advice is forget it...they will undoubtedly not want to spend the extra money to provide a better product...honestly...they just don't care. If they did care,they would thoroughly inspect each guitar and amp to insure quality before putting it out for sale,and they would send the crap back...they do not I assure you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJE-Guitars Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Fender was by far the worst. Fret ends were loose, exposed, sharp, and even lifted in many cases. I think this is just Fender and how many come from the factory - I think there quality control is lacking. My friend in the UK a while back bought a Texan Special Strat - and basically it was a nail! Fretbuzz all over the place unless the action was rediculously high! Needed a whole fret job and total setup - very poor and one of the reasons as much as I like Strats I've never have and never will purchase one. Compare to numerous years back when I bought my last guitar the Peavey EVH signature it came from the factory perfect the shop literally fitted strings and setup the intonation and it played (and still does) perfectly. Lets face it no mass produced guitars will be perfect everytime regardless of what 'quality control' they preach - same in mass production shop floor situations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudz Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Guitar center annoys me. I went in about a year ago and said I wanted to try some basic $400-600 strats and one guy helps me well after another trys to sell my $3000 PRS les paul copy and some other $1500 sg copy. I eventually picked out a really nice $400 ash bodied strat copy and when I asked if they could give a set up they said they didn't do that and I would have to pay for the guy that comes in on saturday to do it and the instructions the guy gave me on how to set it up were completely wrong however I found directions here on project guitar. The only guitar chain I like is the one daddy's junky music in boston the other ones I've been to aint so good. Guitar Center is only good on their occasional good sales. Most of them they put the price up 30% and mark it down 40% so you only save 10% but it seems like you save more. My guitar was marked as $100 off regular price of $500 but the regular price other than that sale was $400 which was still a great deal for how much guitar I got from that thing, tuning stability could be a little better but overall it's great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 They do seem to be the Walmart of gutar shops don't they. Hey - my local Best Buy just got a musical instruments section. Seriously. They seem to cater to all the kids trying to make the leap from Guitar Hero. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
govtmule Posted February 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 They do seem to be the Walmart of gutar shops don't they. Hey - my local Best Buy just got a musical instruments section. Seriously. They seem to cater to all the kids trying to make the leap from Guitar Hero. I heard that was in the works. I haven't been to my local Best Buy lately to see if it's happened here or not. Ironically my Best Buy is across the street from my Guitar Center. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted February 15, 2009 Report Share Posted February 15, 2009 Hmm, interesting, I'll have to check this out as well. I have one right up the street and am there often usually. Its been a bit though since I was there so I'll have to go check it out. Do they just sell a couple guitars, a set of drums, and mic's or do they have accessories and everything else like? Seems strange really, but not an entirely bad idea, believe it or not a bought a fiction book from their store once, couldn't believe it as I found it on the way to the counter and for a great price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postal Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 (edited) Fender was by far the worst. Fret ends were loose, exposed, sharp, and even lifted in many cases. I think this is just Fender and how many come from the factory - I think there quality control is lacking. My friend in the UK a while back bought a Texan Special Strat - and basically it was a nail! Fretbuzz all over the place unless the action was rediculously high! Needed a whole fret job and total setup - very poor and one of the reasons as much as I like Strats I've never have and never will purchase one. Compare to numerous years back when I bought my last guitar the Peavey EVH signature it came from the factory perfect the shop literally fitted strings and setup the intonation and it played (and still does) perfectly. Lets face it no mass produced guitars will be perfect everytime regardless of what 'quality control' they preach - same in mass production shop floor situations. Been to NAMM a few times and inspected many guitars from many brands. Factory fresh best picks to take to the "big show"- most brands did zero fret work. Almost no one takes the time for a cheaper guitar. Find a USA Jackson and feel the neck/fret ends. They do spend the time on them. Very impressive work. Fender fret ends are better than many other brands, but they still suck. One thing to consider though from your post- Assuming we're talking about a USA made- not mim or southeast asian import.... The guitar was built in corona calif which for all practical purposes is a desert. 40-114 degrees with humidity at 7% most of the time. Shipped accross the pond to dank wet cool UK... Think the temp/humidity *MIGHT* play a role? Truss rod adjustments must be a real PITA on that flimsy flatsawm maple fender too because of it. Note that I am NOT defending fender- I hate them with a passion- I worked in that sweatshop full of idiots for over 3 yrs. I know better than anyone how poor the quality is. I only mention this stuff because I live a whopping 12 miles from there also in the "desert" and if I shipped one of my VERY nice neckthrus with a GOOD fretjob and low action to the UK, there would probably be an acclimatizing period, and some adjustments would need to be performed because of the temp/humidity change. I do hate fender, but thought you might like to know that they tend to scrap in the neighborhood of $300,000 worth of materials every year. Necks/bodies with mineral stain, warp, crack, human error. You'd be really surprised digging through the "scrap pile". Heck I have a strat headstock sitting here. It's *THE* fanciest/most dense birdseye maple I've ever seen in my life.... the headstock has a custom shop logo decal on the back.... they sawed the headstock off and scrapped the neck just because they didnt "need" it. Looking at it- maybe the nut slots are spaced wrong, but changing the nut is simple- They cut the head off and threw the neck in the trash- I got the headstock with finish and CS logo sitting here- Like I said- Best piece of birdseye maple I'd EVER seen too- shame really. On the other side of the coin- I think regular F* fenders are junk- I wouldnt own one- You know that in 2007 (last year I worked there) they made over 100,000 units in the corona plant? Cranking them out means quality goes down. I got fed up and called in "sick" enough times to get fired. Now I make *GOOD* guitars at home. Oh- the local best buy in Riverside ( a few blocks from my house) was one of the 3 trial stores for musical instruments. They actually carry midrange to higher end stuff in the stores and strings and a few pickups. Edited February 25, 2009 by postal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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