Brian Howard Guitars - NEVER AGAIN

[pianoguyy]

My experience was so horrible that I am willing to post his name!
Brian Howard Guitars
Hummelstown Pennsylvania **update - as of 2018, he has is in Magnolia, Delaware ***and now, in 2022, he is retired.
Master Luthier and authorized Taylor repair man
Once upon a time, from the limited time I have been able to play them, I thought he made decent guitars. But if his manufacturing is anything like his 'repair' work...

BUYER BEWARE

My guitars are so fucked up that I am not even sure if I am taking them back to him to give him a chance to correct his mistakes.

I took TWO guitars in to him. First time using him. First time either guitar has had a setup (recently purchased).
BOTH guitars need to go back. And not for the same reason. If it was the same reason, I could brush it off as his method vs my expectations. But no, two guitars with two different reasons to go back.
One of the errors on one of the guitars, as a luthier, making such an error is... the equivalent of a doctor amputating the wrong leg.

Guitar strike one. Guitar strike two. This isn't baseball, he doesn't get a third strike. Besides, each one has multiple issues. He struck out on guitar one.



I will give a detailed account at a future date after I calm down and inspect each one with a fine tooth comb. But right now, I think the warning to avoid him was most important to get out there.

[leftykingv2]

A friend of mine lives up that way and had some problems with him as well. Very shotty repair work at best he told me. It got to the point that my friend wanted to and I quote "Take a shit on his stupid beard."

[straycat]

Thanks for the heads up.

[vector]

Hummelstown? Then you're nearby Lamoyne. Drive the 6 or 7 miles west on 322/83 and go see Greg Platzer at BCR Music & Sound. Seriously. Greg's work is top notch and he's done repairs on guitars that most people wouldn't let anyone breath on, let alone touch. He's got some serious skills.

[pianoguyy]

Vector, we recently had this conversation.
I used Randy Rockstar (from Wray's Music and then Triple R Guitar) before he retired. Now I use his apprentice, Chris DellaPorta from Woodshed Guitar Works in Carlisle.


Greg's guitars have always seemed sterile to me. Sterile isn't always bad. Good for everything, great at nothing, no highs, no lows. But why buy a flaming pink BC Rich Warlock with silver sparkles and not have it set to rock? It doesn't need to be sterile, it isn't going to spend half of its time playing Merle Haggard.
If you have good luck with him, more power to ya. I am just giving my opinion.
Perhaps Randy is SO GOOD, that work like Greg's seems average to me? Dunno
Maybe I've dealt with them for so long that they know me and my personality? Maybe I've dealt with them so long that their work formed my personality? Who knows.
Taste great vs Less filling. Ford vs Chevy. Who vs Zeppelin. Tiffany vs Debbie Gibson. Right?


Randy was in Lemoyne, not too bad. But Chris is in Carlisle. Its a hike, and the store is right in the center of town which means traffic and parking can be a nightmare. Plus, Chris plays. Sometimes he is gone for a week doing gigs.
So, I thought I would find someone more local for minor stuff.
This brings me to Brian incompetent Howard.


I have seen him and his guitars (he makes guitars) for years. At some of the trade shows, and other various events. For the little time that one can play in a situation like that, they seem very well built.
And he talks like he knows his stuff. I just didn't realize he had a shop and did repairs until recently.


Unfortunately, and I haven't forgotten about my inspection list, when I play a guitar and get a cramp that lasts for twenty minutes from wrist to elbow after just a few notes... He did something horribly wrong.




At least I was smart about it.
I was testing out a new guy. I did not take the nice ones.

[pianoguyy]

GUITAR 1
The one that he did the least amount wrong to.

Bought it used, but in very good playing condition. However, I had an accident and it sustained damage to ONE fret. I do not mean that the neck started to twist causing every fret to pop out but only one buzzed. I mean that damage was done to one fret.

*I wanted a setup, with a different gauge of strings than what I bought it with. It does not have a trem. Les Paul style. so we aren't talking rocket science.
*I wanted the ONE fret fixed. Not sure what the best option would be, but I needed ONE fret.
*And I had some general questions/inspection items because I had not bought it new, most of which were answered before I even left. All simple things. Most of which would normally be covered by a setup by my regular guy.


Two weeks later, I get a call. I expected it to be done. NO, he wanted to discuss all of the work he found that it needs.
*He thought the fret damage was too severe and that I needed to replace all 24. - Not happening. It sustained damage to one, you can replace one or sand it down. But we aren't touching all 24 on an otherwise perfectly functioning neck. - Again, he thought all 24 would be the best way to get the new fret to match up with the others. I declined.
*He found that the pickups weren't original (which I knew), and claimed it was a poor replacement job. The pickup [garbled 2nd word] was broken and needed replaced. Its only $8. - Fine, I can do that. But, I saw the pickup sits on an angle, will this make the neck pickup level? - It should.
*and then, like me, he had some general maintenance items like replacing screws.


After 2 weeks and 4 days, this is what I was billed for: $88.25
A setup. Spot crown of 3 frets.
Two pickup rings.
Miscellaneous screws.
Shop time at $50hr = 37.50 (48 minutes to replace pickup rings?)


Here's the problem:
*my knobs are still stiff. I asked to lube them or something, to loosen them up.
*Guitar wasn't in tune. Not to concert pitch. Not to itself. Strings weren't stretched, so they keep going out of tune.
He put the E and B strings on backwards. My E is an 11, and my B is a 9. Intonation is off. Not just on the the misplaced ones.
*Fret board wasn't cleaned or lubed. All of the frets weren't leveled, crowned, or polished.
He did work on the bad one. But not enough. I can still see the indent, and it gets caught when I bend the string. ALSO, there is now a new indent on the next fret, but in a different spot (not in a straight line from the first).
*The pickup rings, which were not broken, are not the same color as the ones he took off. Its actually fairly tacky looking. Why did I need two if only one was broken as he claimed?
The pickup rings do not sit flush on the body. I can drive a truck through the space that sits between the body and the high end of the bridge ring. And the neck pickup looks like you can see the route coming out of its border.
The neck pickup still does not sit level.
And now, I don't know how or why... My neck pickup is distorted, like a loss of signal type of crackle distortion, not \\nn// distortion. The pickup selector gives some weird morphing sound when I try to switch. And there is sound bleeding. When I turn down the volume all the way, it still makes a light noise.

Quite frankly, if the string tension is messed up, I can't tell how it plays. If the pickups are screwed up, I can't hear how it sounds. If I have a bad fret, I can't bend. If he doesn't spray the pots, I can't do volume swells.
What exactly did this guy do?


And this was the cheap job, and one that he screwed up the least!

[Larz]

Maybe he has some other dude come in after school to do the set up and stringing etc. and never checked it himself.

[veemagic]

Have you spoken to him about this? About the problems you have with either guitar?

[pianoguyy]

Not yet. I need to finish inspecting the other one before taking it anywhere.
Its hard to do with a 3 note limit before the cramp starts.

[Brandenburg]

Maybe he has some other dude come in after school to do the set up and stringing etc. and never checked it himself.

that would still be incompetence on his part IMO..He should atleast quickly double check the work if it is done by another


My god I could of done all the repair besides the fret work..
and how in the fuck does one mess up on changing strings.. in all my years of changing them.. never experienced that goof and several times i was pretty lit.. and seriously.. out of tune too.. so much face palm

[veemagic]

While I agree those mistakes are horrible. I don't think it's right to bash someone before you've even spoken to them about it. I mean give the guy a chance to make it right. Correct the issue, refund the money, whatever. If you don't get any satisfaction, then by all means do what you need to do, but this seems a bit premature. Just my opinion.

[pianoguyy]

Bash? I didn't even tell you about the 2nd guitar yet.
If I allow him to attempt to correct the errors, it doesn't erase the errors in the first place.


I am well aware that this post shows up when you google his name. GOOD. I hope people see it before they decide to go to him.
I said in my first post, if both guitars had the same issues, I could assume it was his method vs what I was used to. If its a matter of him not including a service that others do, that's not a big deal.
But, come on, he put color coded ball-end strings on in the wrong position.

Its one thing not to include fret polishing with a setup. Its another thing to not include tuning or intonation in a setup.

[j2379]

Fret polishing usually is not part of a setup, intonation is and normally that's done with the guitar tuned with the correct strings. Hahaha. That guy must be really good.

[toejam]

Fret polishing usually is not part of a setup

But it should be if you're getting a refret or at least partial refret.

[pianoguyy]

GUITAR 2
The one that gives me arm cramps.


I am so over this shit. I am not going to do a big long detailed story like I did the other. I will just leave it at this. I think this one says it all.

THIS IS AN ABOMINATION. There is no excuse for this error:
There is a gap between the body and the neck. I can stick a 16gauge string through it. Did he forget to tighten the screws or something?




Regardless of how it plays and the series of 'oops' that have been made. $287.68!!!

What pisses me off is the fact that I thought it was going to be $170. As I look at the bill, he kept quoting me prices for work needed. The price kept going higher, I thought he was adding the prices up. NO, he was giving them to me individually from cheapest to most expensive.
I never would have spent that much on this guitar. I was not even sure I wanted to do $170, but I went for it. I certainly wouldn't have done 300.


And I figured out why the first guitar still has stiff knobs. He sprayed the wrong guitar. Perfect knobs sprayed, now so loose that they spin on their own. Tight knobs ignored.