Anyone had a set up from J White Guitars in Ash Vale?

Offset

Testimonial on his website made me grin:

"Just a quick note to say how knocked out I am by the work you've done on my guitars......."

Yes, I bet you were.

TTony

EduardoFalicioni said:

J whites have emailed me with a plan for them to undertake remediative works, having refused to give me fair replacement value for my instruments.

With the caveat that I am not a lawyer (I know this as I don't charge £325/hr), that sounds like it could be an admission of both fault and liability, ie that they accept that there is a problem with their work and it's their obligation to make it good.

If that is so that could be your open goal - ie that you can have whatever necessary remediation work done on those guitars by a competent luthier at J White's cost.  

Your lawyer will advise though, both in terms of whether their offer does constitute that admission - legally - and how you can ensure that they end up with the bill.  And that might be money well spent.

darthed1981

Offset said:

Testimonial on his website made me grin:

"Just a quick note to say how knocked out I am by the work you've done on my guitars......."

Yes, I bet you were.

Reminds me of the old story about the video that vexed a film critic...

Back of the video said "Astonishing..." with the critic's paper next to it.

Actual quote was something like "Astonishing in it's mediocrity..."

EduardoFalicioni

I forgot to tell you an absolute pearler they came out with: “…for the vast majority of our customers, this work would have been acceptable… but you expect a higher standard… and that’s ok”

so again, it wasn’t them and the work conducted, it was my standards and expectations… with the implication that I’m way fussier than the vast majority 

Seziertisch

TTony said:

EduardoFalicioni said:

J whites have emailed me with a plan for them to undertake remediative works, having refused to give me fair replacement value for my instruments.

https://youtu.be/Z4fBbhyzE9A?si=nBQAqrRMB1R1BJ1W

Offset

EduardoFalicioni said:

I forgot to tell you an absolute pearler they came out with: “…for the vast majority of our customers, this work would have been acceptable… but you expect a higher standard… and that’s ok”

so again, it wasn’t them and the work conducted, it was my standards and expectations… with the implication that I’m way fussier than the vast majority 

Good lord!  This is becoming surreal!

How very dare you expect a high standard of work on guitars worth £15k plus... FFS.

TTony

Offset said:

How very dare you expect a high standard of work on guitars worth £15k plus... FFS.

"competent" might be a better word than "high"

Brio

Seziertisch said:

TTony said:

EduardoFalicioni said:

J whites have emailed me with a plan for them to undertake remediative works, having refused to give me fair replacement value for my instruments.

https://youtu.be/Z4fBbhyzE9A?si=nBQAqrRMB1R1BJ1W

I was also thinking of that scene. :-)

darthed1981

EduardoFalicioni said:

I forgot to tell you an absolute pearler they came out with: “…for the vast majority of our customers, this work would have been acceptable… but you expect a higher standard… and that’s ok”

so again, it wasn’t them and the work conducted, it was my standards and expectations… with the implication that I’m way fussier than the vast majority 

The first statement is clearly horse shit.  There is no way the majority of customers would be happy with them drilling holes in the wrong f**king guitar!!  It isn't credible.

My one note of caution in all this is the guy has somehow survived in business so presumably has done some good work at some point - could this be a rare massive mistake he has dealt with (it seems) very badly?

Just trying to add a potential balance to the pile-in - for the admins' sake if nothing else

Offset

^^ Fair point @darthed1981 - but there a few unhappy bunnies on here which would suggest this isn't an isolated incident.

My memory is crap but wasn't it John Birch who similarly ploughed ahead and did his own thang regardless of what the customer wanted?!  Happy to be corrected.

OilCityPickups

darthed1981 said:

EduardoFalicioni said:

I forgot to tell you an absolute pearler they came out with: “…for the vast majority of our customers, this work would have been acceptable… but you expect a higher standard… and that’s ok”

so again, it wasn’t them and the work conducted, it was my standards and expectations… with the implication that I’m way fussier than the vast majority 

The first statement is clearly horse shit.  There is no way the majority of customers would be happy with them drilling holes in the wrong f**king guitar!!  It isn't credible.

My one note of caution in all this is the guy has somehow survived in business so presumably has done some good work at some point - could this be a rare massive mistake he has dealt with (it seems) very badly?

Just trying to add a potential balance to the pile-in - for the admins' sake if nothing else

In business we all foul up from time to time, we're human, but it's how you deal with these situations that decides if you were cut out to provide services to the public or not. 

I agree, clearly the chap has done good work in the past ... others have indicated that much with the quality of his fretwork and setups. There are also many things that impact on a small businessman's ability to do a good job ... physical and mental health being two. It;'s clearly a family business, and we are losing more and more of these countrywide. It's sad on all counts, for @EduardoFalicioni and his instruments and for a family run small business. 

If there is a J White Guitars 'side' of the argument it would be good to hear it, The visual evidence is pretty compelling that no 'normal' customer would be happy with the standard of work shown on the guitars illustrated so far - let's hope some amicable solution is found to this as soon as possible.  

WezV

Offset said:

My memory is crap but wasn't it John Birch who similarly ploughed ahead and did his own thang regardless of what the customer wanted?!  Happy to be corrected.

He did.  His whole  thing was how much better he was than Fender and Gibson, so he didn't treat those instruments with any respect.  

darthed1981 said:

My one note of caution in all this is the guy has somehow survived in business so presumably has done some good work at some point - could this be a rare massive mistake he has dealt with (it seems) very badly?

It could be.  Mistakes and misinterpretations do happen to everyone, but can be dealt with so much better  


....

There are pitfalls with this kind of work that become obvious once you've fitted some.  There is a big risk of chipping wood or finish that a customer needs to be prepared for, but the luthier should do everything to avoid.

When I first fitted some  I took an old neck from a scrap pile and did a few tests before proceeding on anything with any value.

EduardoFalicioni

OilCityPickups said:

darthed1981 said:

EduardoFalicioni said:

I forgot to tell you an absolute pearler they came out with: “…for the vast majority of our customers, this work would have been acceptable… but you expect a higher standard… and that’s ok”

so again, it wasn’t them and the work conducted, it was my standards and expectations… with the implication that I’m way fussier than the vast majority 

The first statement is clearly horse shit.  There is no way the majority of customers would be happy with them drilling holes in the wrong f**king guitar!!  It isn't credible.

My one note of caution in all this is the guy has somehow survived in business so presumably has done some good work at some point - could this be a rare massive mistake he has dealt with (it seems) very badly?

Just trying to add a potential balance to the pile-in - for the admins' sake if nothing else

In business we all foul up from time to time, we're human, but it's how you deal with these situations that decides if you were cut out to provide services to the public or not. 

I agree, clearly the chap has done good work in the past ... others have indicated that much with the quality of his fretwork and setups. There are also many things that impact on a small businessman's ability to do a good job ... physical and mental health being two. It;'s clearly a family business, and we are losing more and more of these countrywide. It's sad on all counts, for @EduardoFalicioni and his instruments and for a family run small business. 

If there is a J White Guitars 'side' of the argument it would be good to hear it, The visual evidence is pretty compelling that no 'normal' customer would be happy with the standard of work shown on the guitars illustrated so far - let's hope some amicable solution is found to this as soon as possible.  

I can only present the evidence before me 

simonhpieman

Offset said:

^^ Fair point @darthed1981 - but there a few unhappy bunnies on here which would suggest this isn't an isolated incident.

My memory is crap but wasn't it John Birch who similarly ploughed ahead and did his own thang regardless of what the customer wanted?!  Happy to be corrected.

John Birch was nothing more than a butcher who did whatever the hell he wanted before giving a guitar back in a VERY different state, possibly with different parts (not limited to small parts but necks and bodies, too!). He'd have been long out of business if the Fretboard had been a thing back then! Absolute madman and egotist.

My mind is going blank now but I'm sure I've met someone who had a guitar looked at by him that didn't end well...

J White is certainly surrounded by echoes of J Birch, that's for sure.

WezV

simonhpieman said:

Offset said:

^^ Fair point @darthed1981 - but there a few unhappy bunnies on here which would suggest this isn't an isolated incident.

My memory is crap but wasn't it John Birch who similarly ploughed ahead and did his own thang regardless of what the customer wanted?!  Happy to be corrected.

John Birch was nothing more than a butcher who did whatever the hell he wanted before giving a guitar back in a VERY different state, possibly with different parts (not limited to small parts but necks and bodies, too!). He'd have been long out of business if the Fretboard had been a thing back then! Absolute madman and egotist.

My mind is going blank now but I'm sure I've met someone who had a guitar looked at by him that didn't end well...

J White is certainly surrounded by echoes of J Birch, that's for sure.

I have a soft spot for JB because of his place in British Guitar history.  His mods are usually bad, his factory guitars are usually pretty good apart from a few additions of body filler hiding under paint.  His custom builds are all over the place.


It's easy to get blinkered when working on guitars - the ones you see are heavily skewed towards the examples with problems, and it's easy to forget there are still a lot of good examples out there.  Many lean into this to say how much better they are than the big factories.  I'm fairly sure JB saw himself as fixing all those issues. We now see it differently, but almost all of his ideas are based on the issues he saw musicians as having at the time.

OilCityPickups

WezV said:

simonhpieman said:

Offset said:

^^ Fair point @darthed1981 - but there a few unhappy bunnies on here which would suggest this isn't an isolated incident.

My memory is crap but wasn't it John Birch who similarly ploughed ahead and did his own thang regardless of what the customer wanted?!  Happy to be corrected.

John Birch was nothing more than a butcher who did whatever the hell he wanted before giving a guitar back in a VERY different state, possibly with different parts (not limited to small parts but necks and bodies, too!). He'd have been long out of business if the Fretboard had been a thing back then! Absolute madman and egotist.

My mind is going blank now but I'm sure I've met someone who had a guitar looked at by him that didn't end well...

J White is certainly surrounded by echoes of J Birch, that's for sure.

I have a soft spot for JB because of his place in British Guitar history.  His mods are usually bad, his factory guitars are usually pretty good apart from a few additions of body filler hiding under paint.  His custom builds are all over the place.


It's easy to get blinkered when working on guitars - the ones you see are heavily skewed towards the examples with problems, and it's easy to forget there are still a lot of good examples out there.  Many lean into this to say how much better they are than the big factories.  I'm fairly sure JB saw himself as fixing all those issues. We now see it differently, but almost all of his ideas are based on the issues he saw musicians as having at the time.

I too have a soft spot for JB ... I've played quite a few of his own guitars and always quite enjoyed the experience. People now see him as butchering f'ine, old vintage guitars' - but at the time they were just ratty old guitars that didn't do what the customer wanted.   

Jaycerose

Thats an absolute nightmare situation there. I don't know the person who did the work but based on what can gather their an older fella who has been in the business a long time and seems to have done some good work in the past. Looking at the work they've done tho it's absolutely horrid.. The mix up with putting the inserts for the neck in the body can only make me think senility has kicked in..

As for suggestions of resolutions, I know you've tried asking Fender to send you a replacement neck from the custom shop and know they won't do this under any circumstance. However what I think they might do and could be the best recourse is for the guitars to be sent back to the custom shop for the remedial work. While they won't post you a neck I would imagine they would build and install new necks for you in the custom shop. Then the bill can be paid for by J White guitars. 

crunchman

Given that Guitar Village have been recommending him, and how long he has survived in the industry, he can't always have been like this.

I met him and tried some of his guitars at a guitar show quite a while ago - would have been around 2000ish.  I didn't notice anything amiss with them, and they sounded good, played well, and had one or two quite well thought out features.

From memory, he wasn't a young man then, and that was well over 20 years ago.  It may be that his work has declined in recent times and he ought to think about retiring.

EduardoFalicioni

In my profession; we always say that you’re only as good as your last job 

Philly_Q

EduardoFalicioni said:

In my profession; we always say that you’re only as good as your last job 

Hitman?