Issues with custom guitar - advise please!

Philly_Q

GoldenEraGuitars said:

These issues, while a tad annoying, are easily sorted with a Stanley blade, various grades of paper and buffing compound. You should contact your local tech to ask if they know a guitar finisher who can sort it locally. It’s certainly not a reason to dislike the guitar to the point of wanting to return it

But why should you have to do that - at your own expense(?) - on a new guitar which has just cost you thousands of pounds?  Shouldn't the manufacturer be taking responsibility (a) for rectifying it and (b) for not sending it out like that in the first place?

CavemanGrogg

elstoof said:

CavemanGrogg said:

Oh yes it is, you want to sell  toys in the UK, by UK laws they must meet UK standards for everything from materials used, paints, chemicals, size of pieces - chocking harzards and shit, right down to the carbon footprint - the amount of pollution, and the treatment of the work force.  The same goes for food, notice we don't see chlorinated chicken on the selves of UK supermarkets, and much to America's disapointment  

You don’t buy these things direct from China or wherever though, you buy them via a U.K. distributor who’s job is to ensure the goods meet U.K. standards. You can buy American meat, chicken, steak etc in the U.K., but whoever distributes it will have to specify no chlorine, growth hormones, steroids and anything else that’s forbidden. If a company chooses to distribute internationally themselves then it’s up to them how they deal with disputes like this, when you widen the net of clients beyond the domestic market they can either be arseholes who won’t back their product up or go the extra mile to keep all customers happy regardless of location

And do you not think the UK distributor employ a ''man on the ground''?  Especially when they are dealing with dozons of suppliers supplying hundreds of products, basically their entire stock and inventory.  And more so when there are not just language barriers but cultural ones as well involved.

GoldenEraGuitars

Philly_Q said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

These issues, while a tad annoying, are easily sorted with a Stanley blade, various grades of paper and buffing compound. You should contact your local tech to ask if they know a guitar finisher who can sort it locally. It’s certainly not a reason to dislike the guitar to the point of wanting to return it

But why should you have to do that - at your own expense(?) - on a new guitar which has just cost you thousands of pounds?  Shouldn't the manufacturer be taking responsibility (a) for rectifying it and (b) for not sending it out like that in the first place?

They should be accepting that they made a mistake. It’s obviously not malicious and certainly not worth sending back or panicking about though.

As a professional guitar painter I can honestly say these mistakes do happen. I’m also saying this as someone who is pro active and pragmatic. Paint runs happen, it’s annoying  what paint and lacquers do sometimes. But it’s very, very easily sorted out to the point where it becomes invisible/non existent.  The other issue can also be minimised very quickly as well. 

I have no horse in this race. I’ve offered my opinion, I hope the OP gets it sorted.

digitalkettle

Offset said:

prlgmnr said:

Would you accept the cake if they took the hair off, would you demand a rebake or would a refinish be acceptable?

I don't think that I can take it, 'cause it took so long to bake it.  And I'll never have that recipe again.  Oh no.

barnstorm said:

prlgmnr said:

Would you accept the cake if they took the hair off, would you demand a rebake or would a refinish be acceptable?

A free iced bun would see me right.

First one is MacArthur Park...second one is an Elbow song ;-?

elstoof

I’d be much more put out by the blasé response than the actual flaw, if they told me that I’d be so annoyed I wouldn’t want it any more. I make bespoke shoes for a living, if a customer noticed a flaw I missed I’d be mortified. My clients are all over the world, wherever they are I’d want it sent back and rectified without question 

swiller

Im in the camp of live with it if it works/feels as expected. Especially in the day and age where cracking on laqcuer on gibson les pauls is normal a few years in and reliced fender strats, costs you custom shop premium, to have it "properly" damaged by professionals.
As someone else says, not a difficult thing to sort out and prob best done if/when you decide to sell. No harm in badgering the manufacturer for payment for a local to sort out i guess. 

Alex2678

I’d agree - I’d be far more annoyed that they were unhelpful than I would about the flaws 

UnclePsychosis

I just did an interesting social experiment, which was to read the comments before looking at the pictures. 

I was expecting some kind of hideous flaws, not the barely noticable imperfections that are actually there. Personally if the guitar was otherwise good I don't think I'd be in the least bit bothered. 

Jtaylor

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone. I too was disappointed with the rather dismissive email from Frank Brothers and have replied following your suggestions asking to either return the guitar for a full refund, to return the guitar for them to fix it and send back to me, or for them to cover the cost of a UK guitar finisher fixing the issues. I will update this thread when I hear back. 

For those that asked, I paid with paypal so I can always raise a dispute with them should Frank Brothers not want to fix this. 

Thanks for the kind words @Philly_Q , if I am honest it has taken away from the experience of getting to order a custom guitar but hopefully it will get sorted and I can then enjoy it

@Boromedic I absolutely love the frets, thanks again for letting me play yours, it really helped make my decision! 

Philly_Q

@Jtaylor Finish issues aside, I'd be very interested to see pictures of the completed guitar.  Let's look on the bright side.

Jtaylor

Happy to oblige with some photos @Philly_Q ;;: 

https://imgur.com/a/eAZUANA

Finish issues aside, it plays, sounds and looks killer

Philly_Q

Jtaylor said:

Happy to oblige with some photos @Philly_Q ;;: 

https://imgur.com/a/eAZUANA

Finish issues aside, it plays, sounds and looks killer

Wow, that really does look great, I have to say.

Boromedic

Jtaylor said:

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone. I too was disappointed with the rather dismissive email from Frank Brothers and have replied following your suggestions asking to either return the guitar for a full refund, to return the guitar for them to fix it and send back to me, or for them to cover the cost of a UK guitar finisher fixing the issues. I will update this thread when I hear back. 

For those that asked, I paid with paypal so I can always raise a dispute with them should Frank Brothers not want to fix this. 

Thanks for the kind words @Philly_Q , if I am honest it has taken away from the experience of getting to order a custom guitar but hopefully it will get sorted and I can then enjoy it

@Boromedic I absolutely love the frets, thanks again for letting me play yours, it really helped make my decision! 

No worries at all, guitar looks great issues aside

Teyeplayer

Jtaylor said:

Happy to oblige with some photos @Philly_Q ;;: 

https://imgur.com/a/eAZUANA

Finish issues aside, it plays, sounds and looks killer

That oozes class and looks so cool. 

joeW

Jtaylor said:

Happy to oblige with some photos @Philly_Q ;;: 

https://imgur.com/a/eAZUANA

Finish issues aside, it plays, sounds and looks killer

Looks awesome - love the shape - and if it plays and sounds great too, makes sense to just fix the flaws as @GoldenEraGuitars suggests. 

I would just ask them directly to pay for the work to be done as it is their responsibility to deliver a properly finished instrument.  

I have had 3 guitars made from smaller builders and they have all been perfect - you expect that in the price range - and their initial response isn’t great but I’d give them another chance to sort it out and then you’ll have a monster guitar that you feel really happy about 

Winny_Pooh

@UnclePsychosis said:

I just did an interesting social experiment, which was to read the comments before looking at the pictures. 

I was expecting some kind of hideous flaws, not the barely noticable imperfections that are actually there. Personally if the guitar was otherwise good I don't think I'd be in the least bit bothered. 

Flippant. For upwards of £3000? Please decribe a similar value purchase you made and were happy to accept with cosmetic flaws. 

UnclePsychosis

Winny_Pooh said:

@UnclePsychosis said:

I just did an interesting social experiment, which was to read the comments before looking at the pictures. 

I was expecting some kind of hideous flaws, not the barely noticable imperfections that are actually there. Personally if the guitar was otherwise good I don't think I'd be in the least bit bothered. 

Flippant. For upwards of £3000? Please decribe a similar value purchase you made and were happy to accept with cosmetic flaws. 

You seem to be mistaking honesty for flippancy.

Those flaws wouldn't bother me for more than a few minutes. 

Jonathangus

If that were a £1,500 Gibson, we'd be having the usual conversation about shoddy QC, etc.  On a £3k guitar?  Not good enough.  Pretty sure Feline wouldn't let it out of the door like that.

Hope the OP can get it sorted.

WezV

It is a shame about their response, but that looks to be a lovely guitar.

I am going to present a different view

I do believe truly hand made products should show  "the hand of the maker" in some elements.  This used to be true of guitars.   Have something made by Zemaitis and it would be very clear it was  a handmade item with irregularities, even some sanding scratches and finish imperfections.   When the MIJ Zemaitis guitars came out I remember one review saying they lacked the magic of the originals as they were almost too perfect.    You couldn't see the work of the master luthier in the final item

Small flaws can be a sign of the human touch, some would even claim the beauty of handmade items lies in the imperfections.   This seems to be the view many will have of some known Gibson aesthetic issues, some of the things purposely recreated in vintage replicas.

Mass production has taken away from this view, to the point many expect less flaws on a handmade item than a CNC factory item

A bit of Wabi-Sabi is a good thing in my eyes, as long as it does not affect performance or tone.


With that in mind I would likely accept the flaw on the side as a slight wood imperfection that has shown itself through a thin Nitro finish, but the run does seem a bit lazy.   Either way, if the customer is not happy witht he final product, a solution should be offered.

having said all that, I have no idea how much FB do by hand, but a quick look at their insta shows the bulk being done by CNC.  Not that i believe one is better than the other, but it might affect some peoples view on the wabi-sabi concept discussed above 
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgKPE_ajWQS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

bertie

Blaendulais said:

You know what. It plays and sounds great.  I'd be running with that.  

for a guitar minimum north of £3k (based on their website) with that finish ? -  I wouldnt