I have a useless $2700 custom plus had to pay 78 dollars for FMIC to tell me.. w/pics

[vondran]

Charvel will be contacting me later to ship the guitar. It appears guitar center in San Jose was trying to screw me around. FMIC claims to have never received the guitar which I can beleive since it was exactley how I dropped it off.

I am going to get a hold of the GC manager once and for all today even if I have to go down there to wait for him. I want to know what I paid that money for.

Thanks to Bionic for looking into this situation for me.

It's not just GC. I had the rotary switch go out on a PRS and the company support told me I had to order a replacement through a dealer. Two months after paying $50, still no switch. I call PRS and asked for Paul Smith and left a detailed and angry message. Things seemed to happen a little quicker after that.

[AK47]

Who was the salesperson that you dealt with in Santa Clara?

-Nate

I dealt with the manager since it was a warranty repair issue. I beleive his name is Mike or at least that is who I kept getting refered to recently. Everyone is aware of my guitar but no one can give me any answers, as soon as I say Charvel I dropped off they go "Oh yeah the awesome one with the flames". I will try to call again tommorow since today I had to work and could not spend all day on hold.

[AK47]

Small update. I dropped it off at C B Perkins and its a family owned business good people over there. They got the guitar boxed up and sent to Charvel this week. I was told it looks like I will most likely get a new neck.

[gitfiddler]

Small update. I dropped it off at C B Perkins and its a family owned business good people over there. They got the guitar boxed up and sent to Charvel this week. I was told it looks like I will most likely get a new neck.

as you should!! This is absolutely ridiculous. Customer service be damned these days.

When I started playing the guitar as a kid in the 80's, I got a brand new fender squier strat. I thought it was the end all be all of guitars, but it wouldn't intonate. The local shop told me I was out of luck. I got the number for Fender in Brea, CA and called them to tell them about my "problem." I was a kid and this was such a minor issue (dollar wise), but the guy at fender didn't laugh, tell me to go to a shop, or give me any problems. He said "it won't intonate"? I said "it won't intonate." So, he told me to ship him the guitar. I sent it to his attention and he sent it back with a brand new bridge. He also paid for shipping.

Looking back, that was a pretty cool thing for that guy to do considering it wasn't a $2700 guitar. It was merely a $250 guitar.

I think FMIC will do you right. F guitar center

[Slik_Karl]

How long did it take to get some sort of satisfaction? Years? I was gonna order a custom thru GC, now I think not.
Hope it all works out for ya.

[Jack Napalm]

How long did it take to get some sort of satisfaction? Years? I was gonna order a custom thru GC, now I think not.
Hope it all works out for ya.

I would never order a custom shop guitar through GC.

[j4vice]

I have dealt with Torres electronics in San Mateo recently and they are A+
I got parts for an amp.

[madcap]

yea if your going to spend that kind of coin you mise well fill up ur tank of gas and go visit the guitar in person.

[Leftyzrule580]

Jeez man, that thing really was a looker. Hope things clear up for ya!

[AK47]

Just wanted to give you guys an update.

I just picked up the guitar and a 30 dollar bill for freight.

It was at FMIC and they did some adjustments to the neck, not sure what specifically as the FMIC people were unavailable due to NAMM.

It went from CB Perkins to FMIC back to CB Perkins and they gave it directly to me, so we all are clear that CB Perkins never touched the actual guitar.

When I picked it up the first thing I noticed right away was the action was still high and CB Perkins said if I need any adjustments they will take care of me.

I insisted to take the guitar home first so I can fiddle with it and come back with my honest assessment.

First thing is the Good News. The guitar sounds great, in fact unplugged it sounds just as good the acoustic properties of the wood in this guitar are amazing. I played a few simple chords and they ring out very nicely with no buzz at all which leads me to the bad news...

The action is high. When I think of Jackson guitars I think of guitars with super low action and all you have to do is think about fretting a note and it happens because that is how low the action is. Maybe Charvels are known for their high action?

So the way its set up with all the strings high, this is hard to photograph because of the compound radius fretboard but so you guys know or have something to go on. If I take a Medium Guitar pick stick it under the low E string and 3 fret wire and it will fall through. I can take a Extra Heavy guitar pick and drop it under the strings at the 12th fret and it will fall through. I am using this as a refrence since some people stick picks under there strings.

Strings seam to be a heavier guage with the high E being a 10 I know it had a lighter guage of .09s before.

So I will have the action adjusted this week at CB Perkins and if I am still not happy the Charvel will be off to Ebay.

I am with holding any judgement till I can have the action set for me.

I just figured they would have done that from the factory and I hope the thicker guage strings were not put on this guitar to compensate for anything.

So once again I am not saying anything till I have it adjusted and restrung with 9s.

[Ben...]

What a nightmare.

It looks nice but it's given you nothing but trouble. Hopefully things will turn out better.

[MetalHeadMat]

So... Not order from Matt?
*Awaits ban*

[Tommie]

Out of all the issues you described, the only thing that is un-fixable is if the neck has a backbow, which was the problem highlighted early on. That's really easy to check - press the top E string lightly at the 1st and highest frets, and see if the string touches the frets towards the middle of the neck or not. You're using the string as a straight edge, no need for a fancy tool to do this. There should be a very slight gap, i.e. the neck should have a very slight concave bow. If the neck is dead straight or convex bowed, the action will be high at the upper frets yet buzz at the first few. Check the 6th string too, and if you get a way different "reading" to the 1st string, the neck may be slightly twisted. NB it's OK (in fact normally it's good) for the neck to have a slight twist, i.e. the concave bow is very slightly more pronounced at the bass side of the neck, as the tension on the bass side is higher and the strings need more fret clearance anyway to sound clean.

Go and check that and report back if you can - put your .009's on first (putting heavier strings on is a way of putting more tension on the neck and hence helping get somne relief into it). If you have no clearance at all between strings and frets during these tests, loosen the trussrod a quarter turn at a time and see if you can get the neck into a place where there is some slight space showing. If the trussrod nut goes slack and you're still not getting there, then the guitar is "knackered" as we Brits say.

Everything else is adjustable in one way or another, e.g. bridge height, fret dressing, nut height, neck angle.

TP

PS. If you don't have the tools to do this, get some! If you're scared to make these kind of adjustments, don't be! It's a major advantage to be able to set your own guitars up, saves you a fortune and means you can get them done just the way you want them.

[Tommie]

Out of all the issues you described, the only thing that is un-fixable is if the neck has a backbow, which was the problem highlighted early on. That's really easy to check - press the top E string lightly at the 1st and highest frets, and see if the string touches the frets towards the middle of the neck or not. You're using the sttring as a straight edge - no need for a fancy tool to do this. There should be a very slight gap, i.e. the neck should have a very slight concave bow. If the neck is dead straight or convex bowed, the action will be high at the upper frets yet buzz at the first few. Check the 6th string too, and if you get a way different "reading" to the 1st string, the neck may be slightly twisted. NB it's OK (in fact normally it's good) for the neck to have a slight twist, i.e. the concave bow is very slightly more pronounced at the bass side of the neck, as the tension on the bass side is higher and the strings need more fret clearance anyway to sound clean.

Go and check that and report back if you can - put your .009's on first (putting heavier strings on is a way of putting more tension on the neck and hence helping get somne relief into it). If you have no clearance at all between strings and frets during these tests, loosen the trussrod a quarter turn at a time and see if you can get the neck into a place where there is some slight space showing. If the trussrod nut goes slack and you're still not getting there, then the guitar is "knackered" as we Brits say.

Everything else is adjustable in one way or another, e.g. bridge height, fret dressing, nut height, neck angle.

TP

PS. If you don't have the tools to do this, get some! If you're scared to make these kind of adjustments, don't be! It's a major advantage to be able to set your own guitars up, saves you a fortune and means you can get them done just the way you want them.

Edited.

[ozzuk1]

Any updates on the guitar?

Hope it's been sorted, looks pretty damm nice would be a shame if they cant get the action/playabillity to suit..