sloppy neck reset?

[Ulf_Lindholm]

Here's a question for all of you who are knowledgeable about neck resets. I recently left my beloved mahogany-topped Guild D25 from -71 for a neck reset at a guitar shop here in Stockholm, Sweden. Went to pick it up last Friday, just to find out that they managed to crack the neck heel during the operation and also damaging the surface area on the body around the joint, making it look far from great. Neck heel is reglued of course and they say that it's as strong as ever and I believe this but still I'm not at all happy. It just looks very sloppy and I'm afraid that in the end, this was an investment resulting in a devaluation of my guitar, rather than the other way around - guitar was fully playable as it was, it's just that there was almost nothing left of the bridgebone.
What can you demand/expect from a professional luthier in a case like this? Am I unreasonable expecting the guitar to look as mint (which it was) as before, but with a perfect neck angle?
Guitar is still at the shop, so I can't post any pictures at this point, I' afraid.

[ship of fools]

I am afraid I can not tell you what to expet for compansation, except to say that stuff happens when working with wood sometimes.
Its really up to the both of you to find some middle ground for this to be resolved.I am sure that no matter what happens neither one of you will be totally happy but you must also remember that it was( in all likley hood) an accident as I am almost 100% sure it was not done intentionally as this would only hurt his shops bussines.
So work something out with him that you can live with and if he is worth his salt at all, he should be able to clean up almost all of his mistakes so that it is barely noticable, I seem to recall some pictures a while back on this forum of a acoustic that was almost in total pieces and yet was restore to as near as could be to the original shape and structure,so have hope.Ship

[12 string]

Ulf, can you show us a picture when you get it back? Any neck set will leave a scar, but a talented luthier usually can do it so that most people (or at least non-guitarists) would not notice unless it was pointed out to them. What a shame this happened. I don't know what recourse you have, but my guess is not much. Sorry.

David

[Taylor814]

My neck reset experience is limited to a '73 Martin D18 that I had reset about 5 years ago under warranty by a Martin-certified luthier. Although it certainly didn't have the cosmetic and structural problems you describe, the result wasn't flawless, and more importantly it didn't play as well afterward (not that it played well before hand...). It had a lot of annoying fret buzz high up on the neck and I couldn't be bothered with a set-up so I sold it. Both my Taylors have the NT neck, so a reset should be painless there if ever needed, and at my age my Paragon shouldn't need one in my lifetime. Although it doesn't help you now, I think if I had a guitar that needed a reset I'd just get rid of it and get something newer. Was this done under any warranty from Guild?

[Matt Mustapick]

A friend of mine took his Guild to a local repair person here and the exact same thing happened, a cracked heel and a scuffed up finish. But, the new neck angle was textbook perfect, the new frets were a gleaming testament to absolute perfection, and the guitar played like and sounded like an absolute dream. My friend showed me the damage and asked me what I thought he should say about it. I advised him to say "Wow, this is really excellent...thanks!". In this case, given the obvious care taken in getting the result perfect in every controllable respect, I didn't think it made sense to hold the repair person responsible for what can happen when forcibly pulling old joints apart. There was nothing sloppy about it, I'm quite sure that guitar was never such a pleasure to play, even when it was brand new.

I don't know if I would have the same feeling about your guitar though...best of luck.

[electramone]

I worked for an EXPERT luthier for many years. Besides the best fretwork I've ever seen, his neck sets were amazing. He always said that all luthiers can make errors during a job but only the good ones cover them up well for presentation. In the 10 years I worked with him I saw many resets. Guild and Gibson were always tough ones 'cause of how they paint them. I remember lots of struggles, scars, and mistakes. Sh*t happens when you're steaming off a neck but when the scars were deep we always did as much cosmetic work as we could on the house. If the angles good and it's playing well don't be too harsh to judge. It might have been a tough one.

[jlkitch]

Maybe I'm just lucky; but, the neck reset I had on my 69 D-18 did not leave any evidence of it being done. Plus that the set-up, which should be a part of any reset, left the guitar very playable. The reset on the J-45 was done by the same luthier with similar results. Obviously, accidents can happen when disassembling a guitar, considering age, condition, and pre-existing conditions.

Sometimes it takes a problem to get us to really look at our instruments. Recently, I noticed a problem with a Larrivee that I just got back from having warranty work done on the neck. When I opened it up, I noticed that the top wood had a flaw, one that is very hard to see, that I had not noticed before. It is under the finish and, evidently, was there the entire life of the instrument. I consider it to be a mark of character like the flaw in a Persian rug.

[ljguitar]

Hi Ulf...
Welcome to the group. I hope you find some answers and friends to share with about guitars here.

We are glad to have you aboard.

[psaladis]

I had a neck reset done on my 1977 Martin D-28. I took it to a local Martin authorized dealer. They had the guitar for about 6 months. When I went to pick it up, it looked like someones first attempt at a neck reste. The angle was terrible, there were screw driver pry marks on the heel and cracks in the top. After a shouting match in the store I sent the guitar to Martin for evaluation. They did another reset. It came back perfect. I guess it depends on who is doing the work. If you ain't happy with the repair, look for some kind of compensation. There is no excuse for poor work.

[DenverSteve]

I too am sorry for your frustration. I would pack it up and send it to Guild for an evaluation of the work and to have them redo it if necessary. If I was sending in a 1971 Guild for repair, I would send it to the factory or a Guild specialist to do the work.

[Stuart]

What a shame. I guess that's why Taylor came out with the NT neck. Not a bad idea.