Jackson Rhoads RRXMG Issue

[69bronzeT5]

Hey all-
I have a Jackson Rhoads RRXMG and need some help if possible please. 3 years ago, I took my 2006 Gibson Les Paul Classic into Long and McQuade (our big music store in Canada) for their annual "free guitar set up day". You buy 2 sets of strings and get a set up for free. Anyways, I wanted the free set up and wanted to pay to get the 7th fret inlay re-glued as it was raising a little bit. They farm the free set ups out to a guy who owns a local guitar repair shop. Anyways, he called me and told me my guitar was un-playable and had black strings and was more or less a pile of shit. I'm a hobby guitar player. I've played live maybe 8 times back around 2006-2009 and never take my guitars anywhere. They get played a few hours a week at home but otherwise sit on their stands in my heated second bedroom. They are never abused and are well taken care of. So anyways, the guy tells me it needed the set up however wanted $50 to do it (it was supposed to be free!) and it needed a new nut for $100 because according to him, the strings vibrated on open chords (which they never did) and the nut sits too low and the frets needed resurfaced for another $150. Then he tells me if I pay for the new nut and set up (so $300), he would do the inlay fix for free. I was really weirded out so I told him no thank you, I'll just take my guitar back. When I went to get it, he tried to lower the price again and told me it would be cheaper if I went through him rather than to take it back to the music store. I told him again, no thank you and took my guitar home. I later spoke to another location of the same music store and they thought it was fishy.

Anyways, today the Long & McQuade location closest to me (same one I took my Les Paul to) had their annual "free guitar set up day" again so I decided to take my Rhoads RRXMG in. I purchased it from the same store back in early 2014. It was built around 2012 I believe and was previously owned by a guitar teacher at the music store. Apparently he was very OCD about taking good care of his guitars. Since then, I've played it on and off for the past few years but usually play my Les Paul or my PRS. Most of the time, it sits on the stand. I've never really wailed on the Floyd Rose or beat the shit out of it by any means. It was a little out of tune and needs new strings (they are a few years old); otherwise it plays beautifully. Anyways, they sent it to the same guy that tried to up-sell me on my Les Paul a few years back. I get a call from him and he tells me he took the strings off to do the free set up and ran into a "massive problem". According to him, my Floyd is "pulling itself out of the guitar" and it needs to be re-glued and secured better. He then pulls this big sales pitch on how if I pay to get it fixed, he'll do a full proper set up, not a quickie one like they do with the free set ups and it'll be $65 to fix the Floyd and he needs to do it before he can do the free set up and he's giving me a screaming deal blah blah blah. More or less, I have to do it or I'm getting my guitar back without strings. I'm a little baffled on how my guitar needs this repair when it's rarely played and has been pampered most of it's life. Has anybody heard of this happening? I have a 2006 Rhoads RR3 that I've owned since new that I used to play for hours every day (used it when I used to play live too years ago) that has the same Floyd Rose and I used to wail the living crap out of it (think Dimebag Darrell dive bombs and etc) and I just looked and it looks absolutely perfect. It has no signs of anything wrong with the Floyd Rose or mounting or anything so I have this feeling he's trying to scam me for some extra cash.


Thanks for any opinions!

[Zedder]

It is possible that floyd mounting stud inserts are lifting. They can be glued back but I think professionals usually plug the loose hole with a dowel and drill a new one.

I think you should ask the luthier (?) to send you a picture of that "massive problem".
--
RRXMG has Floyd Rose Special and RR3 has a Jackson JT-580LP and they are different. Floyd Rose Special saddles are made of zinc alloy which i softer metal and JT-580 is a low profile trem.

[phragle]

You need to find a better tech that you trust. Where are you in canada, maybe somebody has some suggestions. I know nothing of Canada except for a Killam Alberta, If you are near there I can get you hooked up.

[Mudlark]

I'd suggest a pic, too, but if the guy's a low life he may sabotage it before the photo.
$65 isn't bad if it comes back playing great.

[Nightbat]

Tip #1
Learn to do your own setups

[ejpii]

I would stop taking my guitars for free set up day.

EJ

[phragle]

With the exchange rate, thats only 52 bucks us, so that really isnt bad depending on what he is doing. I just paid 60 for a complete set up, but it was setting up a floyd basically from scratch as I had the floyd completely apart, the neck off etc. The thing here is trust in the guy. My guy builds guitars from scratch, really nice ones, he has dine work for Nugent etc... I trust him completely.

As for "free setup day" nothing is free. Its a chance to upsell plain and simple.

[Number Of The Priest]

This technician sounds like a smarmy mechanic. You bring your vehicle for an oil change and suddenly the diagnosis is that you need servicing on many areas and need a laundry list of new parts that are all perfectly fine.

What city is this? I'd avoid this snake in the future, and learn to diagnose and remedy your own basic guitar setup issues (if there even ARE any).

[Axewielder]

"Free Setup Day" for two packs of strings (!) is a bad idea all around. Find somebody you trust and deal with him directly.

[Number Of The Priest]

During Long & McQuade's annual summer "Monster Days" event, the promotion only requires buying ONE pack of strings to be eligible for a free setup. https://www.long-mcquade.com/MonsterDays

October is typically Long & McQuade's "Yorkville Month", during which you need to buy TWO sets of strings for the free setup. https://www.long-mcquade.com/YorkvilleMonth

Honestly, in either scenario, the prospect is enticing. A typical pack of brand-name, uncoated, nickelplated steel electric guitar strings in Canada will cost between C$6.00 and C$8.00, and the last time I paid for a setup (maybe 15 years ago) it was about C$70.00.

The value seems obvious at first glance.

Thus, out of curiosity, a few years ago I inquired about the sophistication of the free setups performed at my local Long & McQuade branch. I vaguely recall it comprised just a string change, basic wipedown, basic adjustment, and maybe a truss rod tweak. The obvious reason for this surface-level setup was expedience; the technician(s) cannot afford the time to spend to tinker with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of clients' instruments to achieve perfection to each player's individual needs, and thus focused on the "broad strokes" of guitar setup instead of the really nuanced micro-adjustments (radius, nut slot filing, fret leveling, individual saddle heights, etc.) and deep cleaning (swirl removal, fretboard cleaning/conditioning, fret/metal polishing, rust removal, etc.).

The "broad stroke" adjustments are things I was easily capable of doing for myself within the first few months of learning guitar. So the value was not present for me. But for the budding guitar student who is afraid of "messing up" their instrument, and has no one else to show him/her how to do setups, I can see why the promotion is enticing.

(Ironically, I feel like the budding guitarist is the player who would MOST BENEFIT from a KILLER SETUP. That amazing setup with attention to detail could be inspiring, since the ease of playing could make learning easier and less discouraging than a guitar that is set up poorly or a guitar that looks like crap.)

Even though most of my setup experience is in setting up Floyds and I feel "speedy" at it, I will never be able to match the speed at which I can set up a guitar equipped with a fixed bridge (acoustic, hardtail, tunomatic). When I buy a dirty/neglected Floyd-equipped used guitar, it still takes me the better part of a day to disassemble the entire guitar, clean everything, reassemble it, and set it up to my exact preferences. Fortunately, I enjoy the process and the end result, and am proud of my work. I can't imagine the technician responsible for free setups at Long & McQuade can spend as many loving hours as I do on each individual trem-equipped guitar. It's just not efficient for the purposes of a free setup.

[CaptNasty]

They are outsourcing the setup? Think about it. Why would the store pay a guitar tech for a setup for $14 sale? That is a loss for the store. The answer is they do not. The racket is that the guitar tech gets nothing from the store but can charge customers for services above and beyond the basic setup. The promotion is a loss leader. No one can work for free, including this guy. If he wants to make any money from this racket, he has to convince the people whose guitars he gets that there is additional work that they need done. This “promotion” requires the guy to twist arms to get money unless he wants to work for free. It essentially incentivizes him to stick it people. I would avoid that promo like the plague.

If it were me, I would buy a brand spanking new guitar for $300-400 then take it in directly for this free setup promotion without telling them it is a brand new guitar. See if this guy claims there is some catastrophic issue. If he does, you have unveiled this guy as a Scheister and I would drive him out of town (Very loudly and openly discuss with the store manager why the store would expose their customers to a fraudster, tell anyone who will listen about your experience, report to the BBB and chamber of commerce, perhaps even report the incident to police since this would be fraudulent conduct). Alternatively you could catch him “in a dark alley” and bust his damn knee caps and tell him if he reports the incident or ever tries to rip someone off again the police will get a tip about his little racket.

[Number Of The Priest]

If it were me, I would buy a brand spanking new guitar for $300-400 then take it in directly for this free setup promotion without telling them it is a brand new guitar. See if this guy claims there is some catastrophic issue.

Even brand new guitars out of the box are not immune to being poorly set up or even be free of defects. You always hear stories from guitarists who enter a store, try out some guitars, and bemoan how terribly the guitars are set up (either by the factory or by the in-store technicians), they're not in tune, the Floyd isn't level, the action is very high, the strings are old, etc.

When I buy a guitar, regardless of its origin, I'm always assume I need to invest at least some of my personal time to get the guitar looking and playing the way I want. It's like moving in to a fully-furnished home but not adjusting the furniture and decor to suit your personal tastes or ergonomics. It may be fine for the majority of people, but I want to personalize it for me.

[phragle]

I swear Guitar center takes a new guitar out of the box, unsets it up then sticks it on the wall

[CaptNasty]

Even brand new guitars out of the box are not immune to being poorly set up or even be free of defects. You always hear stories from guitarists who enter a store, try out some guitars, and bemoan how terribly the guitars are set up (either by the factory or by the in-store technicians), they're not in tune, the Floyd isn't level, the action is very high, the strings are old, etc.

When I buy a guitar, regardless of its origin, I'm always assume I need to invest at least some of my personal time to get the guitar looking and playing the way I want. It's like moving in to a fully-furnished home but not adjusting the furniture and decor to suit your personal tastes or ergonomics. It may be fine for the majority of people, but I want to personalize it for me.

I agree out of the box guitars can have setup issues and defects. The likelihood of a catastrophic issue is very unlikely. Though to eliminate that variable, one could take a guitar to a trusted luthier then send it to this guy.

As for assuming the need for a setup, I agree. When my Jackson Custom Shops come in even they immediately get new half round strings, intonated with a strobe tuner, neck gets checked and adjusted if needed, pickup height gets reset, floyd gets rebuilt with a tunsten sustain block, hollow points, noiseless springs and a brass claw then leveled. Finally I replace the output jack with a planet waves output jack.