My GMW experience,

[Badseed]

Re: My GMW experience,

Hey tommy, i thought all you needed was the 20 yr olds?
Maybe listening to girls that age has driven you to xanex.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
Lee Garver = guitar shipper, THAT'S IT!
This clown doesn't build anything.. He outsourses everything.. I don't think that guy knows how to install a pickup!

That guy is a pompous prick anyway.. Maybe he and that Ed Roman guy are evil twins!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey hey, wait a minute.
He knows how to install pickups as he has done that more than 30times on my guitars.
And your post is way off the topic other than bashing Lee.
You just joined the forum yesterday and this is what you have to say?
[img]/images/graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

[sully]

Re: My GMW experience,

well, it's kinda based in fact, so he's not that far off from reality.

anyway...

vic, i feel for ya. it's a bad situation for sure. i personally wouldn't consider the inlays or the shim an issue, but unseated frets certainly are. there is the possibility that it left the shop with frets that are fine, and the climate change in shipping may have had something to do with the frets coming unseated. granted, i'm reaching at straws, but curt's right in that neal moser does the fretwork there, and saying that he's a master is like saying that van gogh likes to paint. either way though, if the frets are unseated, lee will be able to see that. i can't imagine why he wouldn't fix that; it's not too tough, and certainly doesn't require a new fretboard. the floyd nut issue bites, and while i know how lee can be, i'm surprised that he isn't dealing with the fret issues.

i hope it can get resolved a little more amicably.

sully

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: My GMW experience,

where's the dead horse icon when ya need it.

[Genebaby]

Re: My GMW experience,

Sully, I've been talking to Neal, he doesn't do any fretwork other than milling for GMW. He is a master, and he might do them on MCS guitars, but not for GMW.

To me the nut is a huge issue. That's nowhere near what I expected from any manufacturer. It's a hack job that shouldn't be on a brand new guitar.

If it comes to it, I'll get a comepletely new fretboard from Custom Inlay with ebony sharkfins and get it installed here. The nut will annoy me till the day I die, but at least the guitar should play well.

It does need a new fretboard to fix the frets as nothing can be done to keep them moving in the slots they are in, they are too wide and the glue isn't holding them in, it never will.

[Jim Shine]

Re: My GMW experience,

Can Lee do compression refrets? A compression refret will save the fretboard.

[j2379]

Re: My GMW experience,

im pretty sure you cant do a compression refret on a board where the fret slots are wider than the fret tangs.

Vic what side is the nut towards the bass or treble.
its funny the only guitar ive ever owned with any issues even close to this is a WAYNE.

As for people bashing mexican guitar makers, anyone whos owned a USA BCRich made after CLASSAXE.....sorry you got a mexican made guitar yep hand made in mexico. Yes Toru your explorer was made in mexico, Xenos old warlock mexico as well, EVERY ONE OF THEM. BCR's hesperia CA shop finished them but didnt build em. THERE WAS NO WOOD SHOP in Hesperia. oh well maybe it all makes sense now.....never mind

[SEEGERMANY]

Re: My GMW experience,

Are you sure you didn't have your guitar built by Gibson Custom Shop by mistake? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Jim Shine]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
im pretty sure you cant do a compression refret on a board where the fret slots are wider than the fret tangs.


[/ QUOTE ]

Huh? The whole compression fretting system is based on using various width fret tangs to control the relief in the neck. One would just have to use a larger fret tang that fits the slot (there are dozens of widths available). We used to use them on guitars that were refretted several times and the owners refused to have an epoxy fret job.

[pro-fusion]

Re: My GMW experience,

My $.02: The sharkies and the shim are relatively minor annoyances. If the frets are really screwed that bad, that's crap--something like that would never pass quality control even on the cheapest Samick. That thing with the nut looks pretty nasty, to me--I can't imagine that the nut would be at all stable, having one screw that isn't firmly anchored down. You might get something like that on a Hondo, but you certainly shouldn't on a $1700 guitar. There is simply no excuse--I don't care if GMW is having its necks made by African pygmies, the reason someone pays a custom shop price is to avoid getting such a shoddy product.

[ranalli]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]


The fret buzzing: it's a birdsye neck, correct? It's common for figured necks to move around quite a bit. This, along with the climate changes of southern Cali vs. Australia, might've been the culprit. Or, at least, a contributing factor. Perhaps it wasn't poor fretwork at all. I immediately thought of this when you mentioned getting fretwork in the buzzing area, only to have the buzzing "move" to a different part of the neck.



[/ QUOTE ]

Birdseye necks are no less stable than regular necks. I know this from owning a few guitars with birdseye necks and this is a sentiment also stated by Melvin Hiscock:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plans/Building_and_repair:_Guitar,_electric/1/Make_Your_Own_Electric_Guitar.html#details

and backed up by Ken Warmoth.

[ QUOTE ]

- The sharkies: Those look pretty acceptable to me. Damn cool looking, too. ...Could've been better? Perhaps. But show pics of 100 different inlays that close up, and some are bound to show minor gaps and glue. As to the size being slightly off vs. Jackson's, sorry but IMHO that's nitpicking.



[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think that's acceptable at all on a custom guitar. None of my regular production Jacksons even looked like that.

[ QUOTE ]


Neck angle: It is perfectly acceptable for OE manufacturers to shim necks, nuts, etc. I once found business card-material shimming the nut of my then-new PC1. Would it have been better to have an angled neck pocket? Yep. Could GMW have used a better material than a piece of plastic? Sure. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (BTW, my own non-recessed GMW has a visable gap in the neck pocket that's probably caused by a shim. I don't care what's in there, as the guitar plays great and sustains killer.) And it sounds like Lee went the extra mile here, by recessing the trem, etc. for you.



[/ QUOTE ]

A neck shim is NOT acceptable on a custom guitar like that...period IMO. This isn't some mass produced guitar where 1000's are made at a time(or is it??). I mean that's a joke...using plastic as a shim when there shouldn't even be a shim....it's insulting basically to the buyer who spent their hard earned money on a custom guitar from a luthier that everyone raves about.



With all that being said, I hope you are able to work this out with Lee...I hate when people get screwed out of their hard earned money.

There are some folks over on HC that have some spectacular GMWs that are similar to this one but they have had no complaints and love their guitars and I truly believe they are great...maybe this one slipped through the cracks.

In addition though, there is no excuse for this kind of garbage and if it's true that Lee only builds guitars from parts then that's lame IMO. Hell....putting together a Warmoth job is not being a luthier. I really thought he built every piece from scratch...or at his own shop at least....hence being a true custom shop. If I were him and this was true, I'd be kind of embarrassed to say the least.

[ranalli]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
Thank yourself chief. I didn't put you in the place you are now. You did. You are the one that also decided to post your whine. Did you think every single person would line up against GMW because they saw it your way? I don't take pictures of guitar nut areas. As long as the neck adjusts I'm not particularly concerned with their appearance. Humans aren't perfect. Thus the reason guitars made by them aren't either. I hope you don't hold everything to such a high standard in life, because your going to shorten yours by worrying about it to much. My point is Lee should have been contacted first. Regardless of whether you sent it back or not. You didn't even see what he thought you should do about the problem. But like a lot of people on this planet your not willing to accept responsibility for the mistakes you made during this fiasco.

[/ QUOTE ]


Are you joking??


If he wanted a guitar with mistakes and foulups he could have gone to someone with a lesser reputation.

There's a reason that people go to Lee and that's because you hear all over that his workmanship is the best....i.e. no mistakes.

If you are a master at your craft, yes, mistakes happen from time to time...but a serious businessman would not let those mistakes out the door.


I don't see how you can defend that....some of you guys are unreal.

[Jim Shine]

Re: My GMW experience,

[quoteIn addition though, there is no excuse for this kind of garbage and if it's true that Lee only builds guitars from parts then that's lame IMO. Hell....putting together a Warmoth job is not being a luthier. I really thought he built every piece from scratch...or at his own shop at least....hence being a true custom shop. If I were him and this was true, I'd be kind of embarrassed to say the least.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know the history of Charvel? Ever hear of Pensa-Suhr? How about Valley Arts? Brian Moore? Reverend? I agree, building guitars from outsourced components is really lame, but it has been going on for years and some big names have done it and continue to do it.

[ranalli]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
[quoteIn addition though, there is no excuse for this kind of garbage and if it's true that Lee only builds guitars from parts then that's lame IMO. Hell....putting together a Warmoth job is not being a luthier. I really thought he built every piece from scratch...or at his own shop at least....hence being a true custom shop. If I were him and this was true, I'd be kind of embarrassed to say the least.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you know the history of Charvel? Ever hear of Pensa-Suhr? How about Valley Arts? Brian Moore? I agree, building guitars from outsourced components is really lame, but it has been going on for years and some big names have done it and continue to do it.

[/ QUOTE ]


I am completely aware of their history, however, when Charvel came on the scene it was well known that he was a guitar hot-rodder rather than a straight up luthier...I don't believe anyone was duped into believing he was making guitars from scratch when he was really just putting better parts on them.


The bottom line is don't advertise as a complete custom guitar shop if you really aren't. If you look at this page:

http://www.gmwguitars.com/introduction.html


you would think that they did everything at their shop.


But I don't know what GMW does for all their guitars but I'm curious now. If they are merely a Warmoth put-up shop then that would shoot down any chance I would have of ordering from them....and I would wonder who made their neck-thru stuff???

[Guest]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
I don't care if GMW is having its necks made by African pygmies

[/ QUOTE ]

Oops... and I thought it was Mexican Azteks... [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]