Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
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...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...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...
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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
- 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...