Ron Pace's Guitar Repair- 4 months and still nothing

[Cpt Albatross]

-#UPDATE- REVIEW WITH PICS ON PAGE 2#-

 

So around March I bought a used Carvin DC127 from Guitar Center for $400. Great deal for a custom made guitar. Came to find out that it was a 1995 model, which was a good year for that company. Howevere, being that old, and from the looks of it when I first got, being a gigging guitar, it of course had a few age related problems. real flat frets, dings everywhere, and worst of all, a worn out nut. Even with all these issues, I still loved that guitar. I loved the shape of the neck, the sound of the pickups, and the construction of the whole thing. This thing was an amazing guitar. So like all good girls, I wanted to treat my special lady to fine fine clothes and jewerly.

 

 

 

 

So I go to Pace's guitar repair. Pace carries one hell of a reputation here in Houston. He's thought as one of the best luthiers in all of Houston. He's so good, that not only is he Gibson and Fender certified, he's also contracted to do work for all 5 Guitar Center's around the Houston Area. So it's no wonder why I would want to go to him for what I had in mind for my baby. The order I cooked up was:

 

 

 

-pull out the old nickel frets and replace them with jumbo stainless steel frets, that way I never have to refret this thing ever again.

 

-Install an original floyd rose tremolo system. My guitar originally had a Wilkinson Trem, but I didn't care for it's simpicity felt that it too was wearing down. Because of this replace though, parts of the guitar need to be routed out

 

-refinish the entire guitar in House of Kolor's Kandy Apple Red

 

 

 

Some of these request are not exactly easy to do, I had asked previous shops about refinishing my guitar or routing and they turned me down in fear of screwing something up. Which is why my order ended up costing me $1055.50. That almost a brand new USA guitar. Some would call me crazy and that I'm wasting money, but this thing is something special to me. This is my first guitar that I bought with my own money; and after buying and playing it for several months, I bonded with it . So with all this said, we can all gather that this has some value to me. So I pay Pace half upfront, and bid him a happy day and prepare myself for the supposive 2 month long wait.

 

 

 

And here I sit 4 month later. The guitar is not done, and with the exception of one email two months ago, I yet to hear from luthier master Ron Pace, or anyone for that matter about what the completion date on this thing may be. In fact I had just payed him the other $500 two weeks ago and have yet to still hear anything about. Even when I was there with money in hand, he stilled dodged around the time related question. I remember asking him about a ball park estimate of when it could be done, and after being gone for a bit, he came back and reported that not only could henot tell me when it would be finished, but that he actually had to find it and that when he did, I would get a call from Mr. Pace personally. Of course that hasn't happened either.

 

 

 

Which bring me to why I'm really upset. I'm not mad because this is taking a long time, I want this done right, not fast. I'm not mad because I had to shell out a grand for this. He is the best guitar luthier in town, and his quality should come at a little extra. I'm mad because of this man's lack of communication and inability to maintain and keep to a realistic completion schedule. He gives you a bogus estimate date, and then gets mad and avoids any comunication with you, when you come asking for why your order is on to two months over due. On top of that, what really gets my goad, is that fact that you can pay him to get your order done ahead of other people by paying a rush fee. Now I can understand, if there's time to sneak in a few orders after everything has been completed that day, then by all means, please the customer. But when your knocking back other people's stuff to months over due because you keep accepting rush orders, that's a problem, and bad business ethnicts.

 

 

 

I've talked to a friend of mine whose had some work done by him, and he tell's me that unless I pay the rush fee now, then I probably won't see my stuff for another month.

 

 

 

Problem is, I can't even get ahold of him to ask how much the fee is.

[milosch]

I've heard the name but that's about it. There was another guy I was in touch with awhile back that was doing this sort of work in case you want to try again after getting your money back.

 

Communication is pretty critical here if we wants to maintain his rep. On the other hand, if he's contracted out for Guitar Center, Evans, Rockin' Robin, etc., he's probably too busy for you.

 

If you are so inclined, see http://houstonguitarpro.webs.com/. The guy's name is Chris Schneider. Perhaps he can help.

 

There's also Neil Sargent, but again I have no idea about his reputation. Supposedly good.

[Cpt Albatross]

As ridiculous as that notion may be, it's probably true. But you know, if he's too busy to maintain a business relationship between walkins like myself, then he shouldn't have taken the order.

 

If you can't do the work, don't accept it.

[PunkKitty]

The Pace guy sounds like a total scammer. Go down to his place, demand your guitar and the return of your money. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Contact the State's Attorney office.

 

FWIW, the local place that contracts with the local Guitar Centers has a team of about 8 repairmen. Even though their work is good, they wouldn't be my first choice because I can't deal directly with the person doing the work. Everything gets written up on a sales order. There is little personal interaction. I only go there for warranty repair.

[Cpt Albatross]

So I finally got a hold of him, and from what I gathered, the paint job has either A.) not been started, or B.) is barely started. So it looks like I'm going to be waiting past christmas (and my birthday, the 7th). He assured me though that much attention was being put into finishing it up. Right.

 

Based from what Katana has showed me, this guy does some pretty good work. Which is a shame, because I'm never going to use him gain after this little experience. Customer service is just that damn important to me.

[pak066]

maybe he is swamped from the floods in Nashville (no pun intended) and has been doing repair work for some major people. if you say that he is that know. just a though.

[crashclc]

If you have been in his shop you probably have an idea how swamped he is. My Martin D35 is still hiding somewhere in that pile too. The "slow pace" is a little frustrating but he's done work on a bunch of my guitars over the years and I've never been anything but happy with the results.

[scud133]

the guy has so many guitars in his shop that they're spilling into his living room. you can barely walk around he's so backed up.

 

He should definitely be more forthcoming about the expected wait time, but I hate to see someone on here bashing his work. I use him for all of my guitar stuff and every time he's done a phenomenal job.

 

He used to work for Billy Gibbons, for chrissakes.

 

If it was me, I would: Call him and explain my situation in detail. Name drop some of the other guitar techs in town and mention how I'm tempted to pick up the guitar and take it to them instead. Stroke his ego a bit and tell him how much I would rather let him get the business, but at this point the wait is getting excessive.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

 

At any rate, this is not the kind of thing you report to the state attorney general (wtf was that about anyway??)

[mrbrown49]

 

As ridiculous as that notion may be, it's probably true. But you know, if he's too busy to maintain a business relationship between walkins like myself, then he shouldn't have taken the order. If you can't do the work, don't accept it.

 

 

You are exactly right. I work at an engineering consulting company, so we take orders for work and work with vendors all the time. If I conducted myself that way, promising work by a date and not delivering, I'd be out of a job pretty quick. Conversely if any of our vendors treated us that way for work we order we'd stop doing business with them.

[harold heckuba]

Customer service is just that damn important to me.

Evidently not, based on how you have let him treat you so far.

[sylvesterlowery]

This is not the first time I've heard about Ron Pace taking a long time and having poor communication. You would think with as much business he's getting, he could hire a competent assistant or at least someone to handle calls.

I will say, you are basically asking him to more or less restore the guitar (new paint, frets, locking bridge). That is a tall order. That being said, he should have given you a realistic estimate of how long it's going to take to have your guitar ready, taking into consideration his current workload.

[Arr0wHead]

You spent over a grand to refret, route, and repaint a thoroughly used and gigged 15 year old $500 carvin when you could have spent the same and had a brand new one built to your exact specifications?

[tiltsta]

I'd get the guitar and money back ASAP. I'd then store the guitar with 'sentimental value' in the case and take it out when feeling nostalgic and such, and spend the grand you gave the repair guy on a brand new carvin with the stuff you want. So, more or less what Arrowhead said.

[humbuckerstrat]

Yeah, I've always taken my stuff to Ron Pace. I haven't done it in a long time, tho, because I don't like the long wait times. I've never had anything that extensive done to any of my guitars either, just pickup installations, setups and at the most a fret job. But I've always had to wait at least a couple of months.

 

[EDIT] But the work has always been very good.

[Cpt Albatross]

I had a little occurance tonight that made me think about this thread and what has been said. Because of this, I am now going to use this thread three weeks from now as my NGD reveiw.

 

In the future post, I'll give a through inspection of the guitar and pace's work, which will included many pics and maybe a youtube clip if I don't suck that night. I'll also give my final statement on this whole experience in general. See you in several weeks, Pace.

[SGRocker30]

No matter how good the quality of his work, it sounds like his greed has lowered the quality of the business he conducts. You may be in business to make money, but never forget your business only exists to serve a need. If you cannot do the work in a quality manner in a reasonable time while maintaining a good relationship with your customer, it is time to scale back your operation. BTW, i'm currently waiting on a luthier to finish my all maple tele with ebony board and maple block inlays that I ordered in February. It was supposed to be done by June. The guy building it is uncommunicative and full of excuses, so in a very real way I feel your pain. I'm out $600 if he decides to {censored} me, which sucks because it's not worth going to small claims court. Maybe I'll just break his left hand.

[meandi]

 

the guy has so many guitars in his shop that they're spilling into his living room. you can barely walk around he's so backed up . He should definitely be more forthcoming about the expected wait time, but I hate to see someone on here bashing his work. I use him for all of my guitar stuff and every time he's done a phenomenal job. He used to work for Billy Gibbons, for chrissakes. If it was me, I would: Call him and explain my situation in detail. Name drop some of the other guitar techs in town and mention how I'm tempted to pick up the guitar and take it to them instead. Stroke his ego a bit and tell him how much I would rather let him get the business, but at this point the wait is getting excessive. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. At any rate, this is not the kind of thing you report to the state attorney general (wtf was that about anyway??)

 

 

This, to me, is the best credential of the quality of his work.

If you want the best, sometimes ya just gotta get in line & wait your turn.

[dudeman1967]

Why would you give him the second $500 payment after 4 months of minimal communication and no apparent progress on your work order?

 

He seems to work at a very slow Pace.

[humbuckerstrat]

I wish there were more (and good) guitar techs in this area.

[gibsonaddict]

I was looking for a decent repair guy in Houston and found this thread.

 

I refuse to have anything to do with Ron Pace. Yes, he has a great reputation for good work, and the guitars he has setup for me have been fine. The problem is he is slow as hell because he takes on more work than he can handle, and he treats you like s^&t.

 

When I was a teen (about 14 years ago) he absolutely chewed my butt out on the phone because I had called him inquiring about my guitar. I only called when he told me the guitar was going to be ready. He kept stringing me along, lied to me about being 'almost done', and it took him about a month for a simple setup and installing a kill-switch (in the already drilled tone pot hole). During his tirade on the phone he told me to get a backup guitar, and 'if I stopped calling him maybe he'd have time to finish my guitar'. Keep in mind I ONLY called him when he said it was going to be done.

 

As a result, I refuse to have anything to do with him. Even after all this time I still remember his attitude, and I warn others about his customer service. Sure he does good work, but the guy is a prick.

[milosch]

I'm sure I couldn't make enough in this line of work from his castoffs to sustain me and the wife. But it might be fun trying.

[harold heckuba]

He no longer works on guitars as he started a salsa company.

[schoolie1]

I prefer the salsa made in New York City

[-Assy-]

Had a similiar experience with Music Technology Incorporated.

 

Dropped off Mesa Tremoverb, told me he would call me in 3 days to give me the status of it, as far as whats wrong with it, tiem to fix it and cost. I call him 5 days later, he hasn't gotten to it yet. He calls me 2 weeks later to tell me that it needs the new LDR servicing done... a common repair for these amps... LDR's are 7 dollars each and there is 20~ that need replaced, bringing my total, with labor and other small parts, to over 300 dollars. I tell him, I will call him back as I want to call Mesa and ask about this. He gets pissy and hangs up the phone, and tells me something along the lines of "well try to get back to me today, I dont want this on my bench if its not making me money".

 

Mesa says the LDRs are FREE because they are defective, And Mesa also states they will do the LDR servicing as well as any other standard maintenance for 125 dollars.

 

I call him back, inform him of this, he doesn't defend himself at all, just says "come pick up your amp because you are clearly wasting my time".

[madcogy]

huh, If you have been in his shop you probably have an idea how swamped he is. My Martin D35 is still hiding somewhere in that pile too. The "slow pace" is a little frustrating but he's done work on a bunch of my guitars over the years and I've never been anything but happy with the results.