Kevin Chilcott
Luthier
A Recent Experience.....
AMAZING !
A good example of what you
'may' come across was a recent visit I made to a music shop - that'll
remain nameless..... for obvious reasons !
I actually went in to buy a set of strings, and whilst I was there I thought I'd
try out a couple of guitars..... as an average 'punter'. I had given up
saying
that I was a Guitar Maker
many, many years ago, as some shop managers and
assistants tended to think I was some sort of "crazy person"
and couldn't possibly know more about guitars than 'they' did - after all, all
guitars are mass produced in factories..... aren't they !
( I think you'll
probably understand this particular approach !)
Anyway.....
There were a couple of nice new electric guitars of
Japanese and Korean
origin. Over the years I have come to greatly respect
the uniform
quality of product that comes out of Asia,
which is something we in the West should 'seriously
address'. Their standards
of quality, generally, just keep improving whilst 'ours' seem to have,
generally, stagnated.
Now, the quality of Chinese manufacture is really astounding, and in the
current financial climate the value for money
that if offers is truly astonishing.
On this subject, I'm not going to go into the political debate on the 'rights
and wrongs' of the situation of where the product is made, (other websites deal
with that), as these sections are about design,
construction, quality
of product
and Value for
money.
The Good
I was
very impressed with the overall build quality , finding nothing at all to
criticize - Good quality of finish, neatly put together with a (what I would
call) generally good set-up..... which means, from my point of view, that the
guitars could be played comfortably right up the neck with not too many rattles
'n' buzzes, the "action" was not "too low" so the strings
were not choking out, and not too high so you didn't have that much trouble using
barre chords up to the 10th or 12th fret... Good
Start. The neck
"relief", another topic of conversation that is bound to cause
discussion, even argument in many cases, was fine. Essentially from my
point of view, with a little bit of work..... 'Setting' them both up would not be a major
problem - with a 'tweak' here and there, a 'finger-board job' and a new
set of strings they would be great !
Prices on the wall were : £ 450 and £ 200 ( $ 630 and
$ 280 approx ).
Excellent value for money -
No question about it !
They were ideal for any beginner - so they wouldn't struggle and even good
enough for a spare guitar for a Semi-Pro who's out and about all the time and
who doesn't really want to take out, maybe, another expensive item in case of
potential damage or possibly even theft.
The Bad
On
the other hand, there was another New guitar there on the wall with a
much larger price tag, one that I had recently seen advertised by a 'well
known face' and reviewed in a general guitar magazine, which looked quite
inviting, so I thought - this should be good. However I was in for quite a
shock..... To start with it had a set of .010 gauge strings (see later), the
"action" at the 12th fret 'top E' was more than a 1/4
of an inch
(6mm +)!!!
( Later, I think I said something along the lines of :
- "You could drive a 'bus' under that !")
There was a "kick" in the fingerboard around the 12th/13th fret which
made the action even further up the fingerboard higher still. Adjusting the
truss-rod would not in this case solve the problem. When the 'low E' string was
depressed at the 1st and 22nd frets - the 'initial' method that is used to
determine the "neck relief" - the E string was resting on the
11th to 13th frets so there was in fact no "neck relief" at all, which
essentially means that it would be impossible to reduce the "action"
by lowering the bridge, as notes would choke out when playing in the 7th to 10th
fret area of the neck. As it stood it was difficult to do chord work anywhere
above the 5th fret. Basically I would classify the guitar as being 'unplayable'.
I could see no other option to sort out the problem but to take out the frets,
"re-shoot" the finger-board, re-fret it again and then 'set it up'.
The guitar in my opinion should not have been in the shop at all and should not
have got past quality control at the factory..... It was in
short....."not
very good" !
I decided to bring this matter to the attention of the shop manager - which in hind sight was probably a mistake. I briefly explained what I had found, then said that I had to go and meet someone, but would be back later. He said he'd have a word with the 'guitar tech' who I could discuss it with. It could be said at this point that it was none of my business, but I felt that the problem was so severe that it needed to be mentioned, as any owner of this new guitar would have serious problems with the instrument until they realized that there was actually a manufacturing error.
The Ugly
I
should probably mention at this point - the price was...
£ 850 ( $1200 approx ) which is not cheap ! The Guitar was of 'Western' origin.
On my return I was introduced to the resident "Guitar God"
(with
all the usual accessories), who might also have been the
'guitar tech', who when
I mentioned the problem looked at me like I was some sort of idiot.
"No,
there's nothing wrong with it", he said. "It's just got a high action.
A couple of people like the guitar and think it is brilliant, and the 'guitar
tech' says it's fine."
I suppose I was on 'his territory' and was probably on to a 'loser', but I thought
I would press the matter. The discussion became quite heated, and he finally
came out with the statement -
"Does it really matter ?"
I replied - "Yes, it does, because the guitar is on your wall and you're
trying to sell it".
His final retort was the amazing - "I've got a L** P*** and the action is twice as high"
!
"Yeah, Right !", as 'Bart Simpson' would say, is about all
anybody could say !
Unfortunately, this is the sort of
attitude that does happen sometimes.
Buyer Beware !
This anecdote would probably fit into the humour section if it wasn't so
serious.
The experience I've mentioned above hopefully doesn't happen too frequently, but buyers must always be aware that sometimes there are these sort of occurrences.
Set-up
In my opinion, which others will
probably disagree with, a guitar in a shop should be set-up with an action that
the vast majority of potential buyers would feel comfortable with - not too low
so there are rattles 'n' buzzes all over the place and not too high as too
prevent doing string bending and 'twiddly-bits' higher up the neck and also chords
of course. This should apply to even the cheapest guitars as well.
(
We used to 'nickname' guitars with extremely high actions - 'egg
slicers', as firstly it was painful to attempt to play them and
moreover they were in many cases so appalling that youngsters who had
them would in many cases give up playing completely, whereas if these guitars
had a decent set-up ( if possible ) kids could enjoy the experience and
potentially be future customers buying more expensive gear.)
I also
believe that standard electric guitars in a shop should always be equipped with a set of
.009 gauge strings - which are really a 'bench mark'. I personally would always
look carefully at one with .010s and very carefully at one with anything
heavier, as a 'heavier' set of strings can hide "a multitude of sins".
Yes, obviously there are a lot of players who use heavier or lighter gauges, but
strings can be changed and guitars set up to accommodate that without to much of
a problem, if they are 'sound'
in the first place.
The number of times that I'd had
customers come in over the years and say, "I've just bought this from -
'where ever' - please can you sort it out for me because the 'action' and 'set up'
is awful and the strings are 'naff'."
"Yes, of course, pop back in in a couple of days and it'll be sorted."
- truly amazing !
It is most important to note here
that - the vast majority of guitars can be 'sorted' by one method or
another, depending upon the amount of work required compared to the value of the
instrument.
Most problems are minor and would not necessarily cost "an arm and a
leg" !
There are some great guitars out there - especially second-hand - that are truly amazing value for money.....You've just got to keep "your eyes open".
I
should point out here, that I am not trying to 'tar all shops with
the same brush'.
This is very
important.
There are many great shops out
there too, but
it is the 'odd few' that have an 'attitude' that spoil the reputations of the
many.
It doesn't matter what your guitar has cost..... the important thing is to enjoy the experience and have a good time, be it 'on your own', busking, rehearsing or gigging.
Enjoy It.
Good Luck.