Jivin

I hope you realise that I for one (along with many others here), understand your situation and that of your fellow luthiers why you charge what you do. My comments were related specifically to my experience with that particular shop, and I will defend those comments to the death if need be, becuase that shop is the spawn of the devil - Dan

Good points. I didn't mean to come across like I do not understand the principle of subcontracting though, I understand it perfectly. My point was that in the case of my local shop, when you bring in a job for them, the staff member you have the pleasure of dealing with basically just takes a quick (read: clumsy) look at the job and then goes "ohhh yeaaahh.. i reckon maybe... 150 bucks?" then they give you this look as if "will he fall for it?". Its ridiculous. They quote prices off the top of their head and the only thing they take into consideration is the customer, and how gullable they are. All they seem to know is the rough price that their repairman will charge, and above that the sky is the limit. Since these experiences I have tried to teach myself how to do the simpler repairs.. but now I actually deal directly with Warren (the guy who is subcontracted by the guitar shop), who is a great bloke and is very honest and up-front... so I dont question his quotes. - Dan

Jivin, I undestand that point, but the fact about metallica that made a lot of young guys look up to them, if I'm not wrong was that fast playing and the lightning fast solos, to take them away from their music is like taking the interesting part away from it. ← Oh I agree wholeheartedly... I wish they would get back to the good stuff too, I was just meaning their motiviation for such a change might well just be enjoyment... and who are we to say they cant just do what they enjoy (as much as it may not be appealing to most). Moreover, there isn't really any reason why Kirk should be flaunting his skills just because he has them. Sure he has worked extremely hard to acheive what he has on the guitar, but if I was in his boots (), I would like to think my skills would show through in my songwriting, but I certainly wouldn't think like I HAD to show them off at any given oppurtunity "just because". Don't forget they took away the brutal riffage too - Dan

yeah.in that case what they are doing is called "subbing out " the work(subcontracting) what they do in that case is they charge exactly the same as if they had an in house tech,but then they get this other guy to do it for as little as possible.i think this,although it is very common,is not really a good ,honest way to do business. a good,honest way would be to tell the customer "i am sorry,we don't do that kind of work here.but here is the phone # and address of a guy who does" in this case you are paying for overhead costs that have very little to do with the repair of your guitar ← Precisely what I meant, I am glad you read what I said as I intended it to be read That is all I was driving at with my posts, that some places are horrible like that. - Dan

Maybe he is enjoying what he is doing. I certainly didn't enjoy St. Anger and a lot of their newer stuff, and thats dissapointing because I am a big fan of Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield (although I do agree kirk overdoes the wah ), however if he is enjoying what he is doing then that is what he will keep doing... I guess. If by "demonstrating it every day" you mean pushing his boundaries on the guitar, then I couldn't agree more. Outside of that, he should do whatever he wants to do musically, regardless of his talent. - Dan

Speechless! Awesome stuff David - Dan

no...that is total b.s. to go a quality job on emg actives you must unstring the guitar,dewire the pickups and all components in order to remove them completely(without damaging them or the guitar,by the way),install and correctly wire all of the new active electronics,seal it back up,restring it to pitch,and check to make sure everything works properly. and besides...ever hear of shop overhead?it's the little things like electricity.employee salaries,phone bills...you know...the stuff that most of you don't ever think about....but without that stuff you would have no shop. $100 is SOOO reasonable for a good pro job.i do all of my installations myself...and i know what it takes to do a good professional job on a guitar without causing any burns or scratches. ever see these shops do this work?they lay the guitar down on a soft padded area,cover it with clean protective material,do the work in a careful,professional manner,and return it to you unharmed.how many of you work like that? ← I probably should add, the people at my local guitar shop don't actually do any of the work, they have a relationship with a repairman who gets his business through them. I have used the same repairman before and he just operates out of a workshop in his house. So yeah, its quite obvious from a business perspective that the guitar shop would take a slice, and their overhead costs would probably be a factor in deciding on the size of that slice, however these guys decide the price for the work on the spot there without consultation with the repairman. It should be a question of business, not a question of how much you can rip off joe bloggs who wants new pickups. You could say all of that until you are blue in the face, and I do honestly understand where your coming from (and agree with what you've said i might add), and I understand it all a lot more than you would know, however from my experience with this shop at least, I know when I am being ripped off. I honestly hope that this sort of operation is a 1 in a million sort of thing, but I really doubt it. Your knowledge of the operation of a guitar store may be far greater than mine, and I dont want to generalise, but the fact that businesses need to cover their overheads can only carry so much weight, and a lot of shady operations push it way too far. - Dan

I agree he seems like a pretty decent bloke and has some pretty killer chops from going from those videos, but I have to agree with Devon... GOOD GOD the amount of noise there would drive me banannas. - Dan

If it really does only take 20 minutes then in my opinion 100USD is a little on the steep side. I know labour is a real kicker, but $300USD an hour for someone to install a set of EMG's? I've never been in business doing that sort of thing so I dont want to tread on anyones toes... but from what I have seen the only guitar repairman ive ever sent my guitar to (for something non-related) charged $75AU for a normal pickup replacement, and I imagine if there was more work involved (eg: active emg's) he would notify me of a bit of extra cost. At the end of the day really, I know these people have to make a living, so I dont mind paying a bit more, but I just -hate- it when they are all shifty about it. I don't think I would -ever- pay my local music shop a cent to do something like this because the guys down there are shady and I dont trust them a bit, however going to a repairment you trust is a different matter, so I guess that puts a bit of a different spin on things. - Dan

In Australia we pay the equivilent of around $160-190USD per pickup for EMG's. I think thats a ripoff, but I dont really think paying $99US for an EMG is that bad, seeing as you get a couple of pots and the output jack with it as well. Even if you factor that in it still comes to more than your average Seymour Duncan humbucker... but the difference isnt that much. - Dan

Loving it dude Keep the progress comin! - Dan

Great minds....

Looks cool! Maybe I am missing something... but what happened to the first batch? You finished them up already? - Dan

I had been meaning to ask a similar question (that may help you as well..). On the Floyd Rose Website it says the Low Profile version has a smaller string spacing... why is that? I have a Warmoth guitar that was created with the required routing for a recessed OFR and an R4 locking nut... does this mean that one or the other is more suited to my guitar? I mean I dont have much experienced with either the original or the lowpro version, so I don't mind which one I go with in the end, but it would be nice to know if I even have a choice - Dan

Oiiii Touche - Dan

Whoaaaa sensory overload On the whole I would have to say that although I didnt dislike it, I didn't really love it either It had a bit of chug in there, but I thought there was just too much "noise"... if you get me at all. I might be a bit biased though, because in general I like my metal right to the point... no dilly dallying, just straight to the chug... straight to the killer riffs At the beginning it felt like it was building up to something awsome that was just going to blow me off my seat.. but it never came, and the "ambience" sort of just kept going Maybe thats what you were going for... and I guess it did have a pretty cool feel to it... just not my cup of tea is all. Sorry if I sound like a ****... im just doing my best to give an opinion even though im really tired - Dan

Is it just me or is that floyd weird and possibly quite old? $8.50 is still cheap though.... too bad - Dan

GuitarPartsDepot seem to have pretty good prices on original floyd rose trems... http://www.guitarpartsdepot.com

Yeah, I had a really tough time deciding between the 70 and 75, and in an email from Ron he basically said both were great lol (which is probably very true). I beleive you may have just changed my mind 80 & 70 it is. I want a fairly versatile rock sound which can do an admirable job of both heavy metal and joe satriani style melodic instrumental stuff... - Dan PS: I just realised, sorry for the hijack.

Sorry to insist... but you wouldn't happen to know any of these "good copies" would you? (aside from the schaller one) Thanks, - Dan PS: I had seen those ZR Ibanez tremolo's one the S series guitars at my local shop and I was pretty impressed... but I just assumed there were only available on Ibanez guitars? I remember a thread about them a while back Where's the Beef, so try a search.. might come up with something?

Are there any licensed copies besides the Schaller that aren't die cast? - Dan

I am about to try a Bartolini set comprising of a ZBS-80 in the bridge and a ZBS-75 in the neck... I found an online retailer that sells them for roughly Seymour Duncan prices, so I can't wait to get my set and try them out. The pitch I read on Stars Pickups sold me... Check them out at: http://www.starspickups.com/ZBSelectric.php and this is the place I am ordering them from: http://store.pickupcentral.com/bartolini.html - Dan

Just quickly... maybe try: http://www.stringitup.com/f-3350r.html or http://www.stringitup.com/ghsbnlligrou.html ? - Dan

Great of you to post like this and let everyone know up front Jeremy It doesn't affect me at all, but I am sure to your (potential) customers it means a great deal. - Dan

Funny, sounds like all the IT managers I have ever worked with () By the way, that is so awesome you are getting some actual peices cut with that Jeremy... I remember reading th beginning of this thread (or wherever you first posted about it) quite some time ago, and I had always wondered what came of it I think it looks great, but I have to ask... how closely is it modelled from a "real" les paul carve? I mean it looks nice, but from the pics there the to main carved out areas on the sides sort of make it look a bit diferent from your usual LP carve? Great work though! - Dan