[Hot Vibrato]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

I feel I have to post up this video here, without comment.

Thanks for posting this, by the way. It cleared up some questions about the subject. The most important thing I learned is that in the method presented, the board is planed. It's planed with zero relief without string tension, and the fret compression is merely to induce a slight back-bow so that the neck has the proper amount of relief under string tension. My impression of the process was that no effort is made to correct the irregularities in the plane of the neck, and you are relying solely on compression for this, which would indeed be imprecise and crude. This changes everything about my perception of the process. It also changes everything regarding the opinions of those who object to my methods: Luthiers who do compression fretting plane their boards. They leave theirs flat, and use compression to induce the .007"-009" amount of back-bow which is the typical measurement of a rod-less Martin with no string tension. I dress the back-bow into the board by planing under simulated string tension. The difference in the amount of material they remove vs. the amount of material I remove is just a few thousandths of an inch - significantly less than the thickness of a high E string. Anyone who would complain about that, I would not want for a customer.

Originally Posted by 00-28

OK, agree, at least until the guitar goes up for resale.

Read my above post. There's about a .007"-.009" difference in material removed between what you deem is the proper way, and the way I do it. Is that really a deal breaker for anyone in the market for a vintage guitar, when the work is otherwise clean and precise? Without pulling the frets, I contend that nobody could possibly even distinguish whether one of my refrets is a compression job or not.

Originally Posted by 00-28

There are more questionable Luthiers out there than ones that I trust. How do I know this? Unfortunately, experience

Unfortunately this is true. At least in this region, the majority of repairmen are grossly unqualified to work on valuable instruments, and the good repairmen spend a fair amount of time fixing botched repairs.

Originally Posted by mirwa

The problem Mike, is some people think they can buy some tools from Stewmac or some other online supplier of tools and hang a shingle over there shed in there back yard and call themselves a luthier. Calling yourself a luthier is one thing, offering that service on a commercial scale is an entirely different thing.

If a customer was silly enough to use someone like this, then they are matched for each other.

We are in a society where social media rules, it takes almost no effort to look up the person you are going to use and read reviews on them

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Sadly, my business is not far off from your above description, but add ten years of training under a master repaiman prior to going into business for myself. I'm not in a shack, but my shop is modest.

I don't advertise my business, I'm not listed in the phone book, and I have no website. I don't do warranty work, and I don't do work for stores anymore (although several stores often refer customers to me without taking a commission). You won't find any information about me or my work on the web. ALL of my business is through word of mouth referrals from other happy customers, and they are all people I know, and their friends and acquaintances. This has many advantages. The first and most obvious is that since I work at my home, the customers are pre-screened by my own clientele. And they all seem to have nice guitars. I spend my days at my shop in my home working on Gibsons, Martins, Taylors, Fenders, Guilds, etc., and I hardly ever have to work on crappy guitars.

Originally Posted by mirwa

To this end, a wary customer will look at who endorses that luthier, are they endorsed from a manufacturer, do they work for multiple guitar stores (not one), there are lots of questions that should be asked before taking it to be repaired.

This is the saving grace of my business. Because of my word of mouth business model, virtually every new customer I have has already seen my work, or they've spoken to someone who was satisfied enough to recommend me. IME, good repairmen are in such demand, all a repairman needs to do to get business is to do exceptional work, and word catches on.