opinions on luthier work, help please

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Axxion24

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i had my guitar taken into a luthier for some work, his name is ron pace and hes been pretty big in my area for a long time, just google his name. hes supposed to be really good and i had taken him for a professional.

i had him install sperzel locking tuners, level and crown all of my frets, install a earvana nut, and a tonepros bridge. this all cost me 250. i supplied all the parts except the nut, which he said he had in stock in black.

well 20 days or so into it, i call a few times after getting very anxious on the progress of my guitar, he says about a week ago he ordered the nut he had originally claimed to be in stock, the black earvana, and says it hasnt come it yet and all he has is white. i say ok well my frets inlays are white, and my neck binding is white so it will go together well.

i get the guitar back finally and im horrified by what i see, the nut is ivory, or more greyish, but thats not even the issue. the nut is as fugly as can be, nothing liked all the pics of earvana nuts i have ever seen, not only that but as you can see in pic 2, the nuts isnt even flush with the neck or fretboard, it sticks out on the sides and is very uncomfortable and looks like garbage.

observe picture 3, there is a huge gap left from installing this new nut, i would like to have been made aware of this even if it is not fixable, maybe i would have chose not to change the nut at all.

picture 5, he had to fill the holes from the stock tuning pegs, it looks like the old ones indented their shape into the guitar, im just looking for opinions on how to correct the issue.

now the frets are level, and it plays well, some slight string vibrations when playing hard but not enough to be considered fret buzz, the action is about 1.5mm at the 12th fret on both e strings. im happy with how it feels and plays, neck is as straight as an arrow.

what do you guys think? can i get a black earvana that actually fits and install it myself or have someone that specializes in this do it for me? will the right size nut fill in that gap? any help at all or opinions are welcome and appreciated. thanks.

also is this as bad as it seems or is it just me? i think if its left like this it will negatively effect the resale value of my guitar.













 
Nothing to do with you,but that nut sticking out the sides like that is ridiculous.As far as the indents where the old tuners were,theres not much you can do about it besides refinishing the whole back of the neck and taking quite a bit off.I did the same thing and just live with it,rather than taking the original finish off and destroying my SN.You can find the right size and color nut,probably sloped off at the back if the old one was wide.I can't believe ANYBODY would give you a guitar back like that,nevermind a pro.At least he did'nt trash your frets.$250 and you providing the parts is a lotta money.I'd try and get some money back but don't count on it.If it was me,I would'nt let anybody who did work like that touch my guitars again.Good luck,man.I hope you find somebody in your area who does good work.Even GC could do a better job,and I don't have too high of an opinion of their techs.
 
from Earvana's website:

http://www.earvana.com/installation.htm

it looks like he didn't file the top section at all, and from the pics on their site this install looks incomplete. I don't know what recourse you have other than to take it back with pics of a properly installed nut and ask him to fix it. It honestly looks like it's the wrong size nut for your guitar in width (from the tuner side to the fret side), and the website shows a nice closeup of an esp sized nut that fits perfectly. It doesn't look adjustable like this one but it's compensated and should work fine. If I were you I'd print out some photos, tell him you want it to be corrected and you expect him to do this work for free to honor your original contract.

Looking at your pics it looks like he really half-assed this install. I don't know if the best thing to do though is to actually put his name in your post before you've tried to resolve the problem directly with him. I think in general this could make it harder for you to get him to fix it, if he were to find out. Sometimes stuff happens, and sometimes people drop the ball. It's a pain in the butt as a customer having to confront somebody about this, but generally most professionals when faced with an obvious issue like this will try and correct it. If he, faced with evidence and your unhappiness with the work you paid him to do refuses to correct it, then I'd certainly say you have every right to voice your concern about his work in whatever way you see fit.
 
I would take that guitar & the Earvana installation instructions to the "luthier" and demand he finish the job correctly.

Not only did he not finish shaping the nut, he didn't fill the space behind the nut.

Very poor workmanship.

Sorry for your troubles.

Dom
 
I've always heard that Ron did good work, but I've also heard some real horror stories. Next time you need work in the Houston area, I would suggest taking it to Mike Nedd. He's done a fair amount of work for me and his work is top notch. And you won't have to wait a month to get your gear back.
 
MesaGod666 said:
Just file the nut to fit the fretboard flush yourself. Other than that, it looks like an earvana nut.

It looks like crap actually, although i can see how it might resemble a earvana. Ive ordered a drop in nut for esps, in black. I will not be taking it back to ron because for one he is crap, two he takes forever, and he is just rude on all occasions. My frets are more level now but still buzz quite a bit, and i have dead notes all over. Not impressed with ron at all, so theres no way i can even let him attempt to screw up my guitar even more. I have to decide whether or not ill let another tech fix my issues or just do it myself.
 
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