How hard did I get played?
 

So I bought a used electric and the neck needed a little adjustment and the truss rod nut was a little stripped. So I found a local guy to have it handled professionally. I let him know I had a lot of open buzz on the D string and needed a truss rod adjustment. He then convinced me about his "oil neck soak" that makes playing "silky smooth" and enhances the look of the wood on the neck. Whatever, only $35 + $65 for the setup.

So I pick up the guitar today and the D string is buzzing more than before, he tells me that it hasn't buzzed for him all day and I should give a about weeks to "settle in". I can tell he adjusted the neck and there is only a slight curve to it, but I don't really notice that anything else was done. He also claims he filled in some open "neck pockets" that I had.

He charged me $144 total for this. I want to know how much BS I was fed with all this...

I have no idea what the oil neck soak is but it might just be a few drops of some lemon oil or something like that. I can't see ever paying $35 for an oil soak treatment. Hopefully someone here knows what that might be.

$65 for the setup doesn't sound out of whack depending what was done. I wouldn't expect your D string to still buzz though. Yes, it may take a few days for the guitar to settle but the buzz should be gone. I wonder if you have a high fret. A simple fret level/crown may help.

Did he change the strings? Perhaps you have a bad D string. Does it buzz on every fret?

For the oil soak he said he took the neck off and let it soak in the oil for 5 days.

He did change the strings, the buzz is only present when played open. No frets have the buzz, so I assume it's something with the nut. Which I was assuming he would be able to fix.

If the neck has a rosewood or ebony fretboard, my guess is the tech may have deeply oiled the fingerboard in an effort to make it more pliable, and thus allow the rod to more easily adjust the neck (assuming the "stripped" nut could allow this).

I have never heard this term either, but over the years I have had to oil fingerboards (especially slab boards) to help truss rods overcome their resistance. At no time do I recall ever having to bathe them in oil.

If the neck is very straight, you usually have to raise the action a bit to allow string clearance.

Good luck!

Forgive me, you replied as to the oil bath before I posted.

If you paid by credit card I'd challenge that - the buzz should have been fixed and I don't know what the soak in oil was about - I don't know if that's ever recommended at all if he actually did that - I wouldn't let anyone do that to any of my guitars.

A banquet's worth IMO:

• Soaking a neck in oil can have some nasty effects - and if he in fact did it for five days as he claims you're headed for problems down the road, whether finish (many common wood finishes are oil-based and/or oil-soluble), handling (that quantity of oil will slowly leach out of the wood over the course of months/years - you could rub Vaseline on the neck and get the same "silky smooth" results), or structural (soaking wood in oil for an extended period makes it more flexible - this exact procedure is used by a number of Asian/Middle Eastern governments to prepare their judicial canes :eek: - and that's the one thing you don't need in a guitar neck); FYI even tung-oil-finished necks/bodies are never soaked, and fingerboard oil is always applied in minimal amounts...
• A high fret or two is relatively easy to fix - the more egregious jobs require a grind-&-polish and/or a partial refret (usually the case only with heavily-played or poorly-maintained/constructed instruments), some a couple taps with a hammer, with most falling somewhere in between; any good tech should know how to do this routine job properly and, unless you requested extremely-low action (in the 1/64" range on the high E) you shouldn't have any buzzes - especially on the fret that brought you to him in the first place...
• The only "neck pocket" on a bolt-neck guitar is the one into which the neck is fastened at the body - and the only time there's more than one is when you're looking at a double-neck instrument; at best, if he refitted the neck using the shave-&/or-shim method he's using the wrong terminology to explain the procedure - if not (as I strongly suspect) it's world-class double-talk...

Give these guys a call, tell them the whole story, and see what they have to say - I think you'll find a big difference when you're dealing with real pros:

http://repairguitar.com/

I'd also take notes during the conversation - IMO you've got grounds for getting at least a partial refund in the immediate, and if any consequential damages arise down the line you'll bolster your case when/if you pursue things through legal channels...

This page explains the various causes of buzzing. He seems to have acoustic guitars in mind but most of it also applies to electrics.

Knowledge is power. This might help to make you a more aware customer.

Surely, he didn't do that. That doesn't make any sense. Ask him again.

Steve DeRosa (^^) made some great points.

Thank you for the detailed reply! I'm starting to think he didn't even who half the things he said he did... he probably just scammed me. I will definitely be giving him a call and telling him all this. He claims he did all these different things, yet didn't fix the one issue I came to him for. I should not have paid him in the first place...

Total BS right there. :rolleyes:

Hope you can get your money back. FEH!!

I'm guessing that when he mentioned the 5 days in oil he was just joking around, thinking you knew he was joking. Let's hope so. Still doesn't make up for the buzzing though.

Let us know what you find out. Most techs are more than happy to look at a guitar again if there are issues just so that negative word of mouth doesn't spread.

At the very least, I'd get a detailed inventory of what he claims he did to your guitar...in writing. If he failed to produce the results he charged you for, debate the charge with your credit card company and/or file a claim with the Better Business Bureau.

Sounds like he did nothing for $144.

Nothing on a guitar gets soaked in any liquid ever!