Curse of the Five-Toed Dragon

[Etienne Rambert]

In March, I special ordered a cutaway jumbo from a luthier I've never used. I ordered a sunburst jumbo with a Cedar top, Indian Rosewood B&S. I also wanted an ebony ring around the sound hole.

 

What I got was a big blonde with no Ebony ring around the sound hole. It wasn't what I ordered. It was an extremely heavy guitar. And the dragons had 5 toes each. That also concerned me. Five claws or toes were reserved for the ancient emperors. It was punishable by death to create a five-toed dragon image for anybody except the emperor.

 

But I loved playing the guitar, especially after a luthier's apprentice in the shop did a fabulous job setting it up. This is where the Peter Principle kicks in. The young apprentice did such a good job at setting up the guitar to my specs, that he got fired.

 

He did a great job. I gave him a big tip and he got fired. The luthier's son replaced him.

 

A month or so later, the first 5 frets buzzed a little. So I took it back in for a truss rod adjustment. Nothing unusual. That has happened on other guitars I've owned. But this is where the ancient Chinese curse kicked in.

 

For some odd reason, the luthiers son thought he needed to take a steel ball peen hammer to adjust my truss rod. Luthiers, any thoughts on this? Do you normally take a hammer to the fretboard when frets 1-5 are buzzing a little?

 

At any rate, the young man cracked my cedar top while hammering on the fretboard, apparently...split it from where the fret meets the guitar on the UP end, down to the soundhole.

 

OK. So they did not deliver me the guitar I ordered. It wasn't sunburst. It didn't have the Ebony ring around the sound hole. And now, they've cracked the top. But that isn't what got me upset.

 

When I showed up to get the guitar, the luthier and his son looked as if they were sick to their stomachs. My guitar was tucked away in the case. I took it out to see if the frets still buzzed. They did. I had not yet noticed the crack.

 

I told the young man the frets still buzzed. Now he & his pop looked really scared. The young man set feverishly to work adjusting my truss rod. I didn't understand the need for hurrying. I walked around to look at some of their other guitars. When I stood up and turned around from the display case, I could see the crack in the top. It was a big'un.

 

I was pissed at this point. Not only did they crack my top. They tried to hide it from me. They wanted me to just take the guitar home and voila! When I opened the case, the Cedar top would be cracked.

 

The old luthier sheepishly came up to me and asked me to come back in 3 days. I said nothing. I walked out onto the street, leaving the guitar.

[Etienne Rambert]

If you ever want to rattle people over here - say nothing. Don't let them know what you are thinking. Thirty some years of experience has taught me that lesson and it works every time.

 

So now what? I never should have ordered a guitar from these idiots. I went back to my place and thought it over. But I already knew what I had to do, give the guitar to my normal luthier. I'll pay for a new Cedar top. He won't botch the work.

 

So I went back to Luthier Street a couple of hours later. Dad was gone. Son had vanished. Mom was running the shop. When the going gets tough, Vietnamese let their women take the heat. It's a good thing for the rest of Southeast Asia that women don't run this country.

 

"Where's my guitar", I said in Vietnamese. She told me to wait ten minutes. She tried to be courteous. "Please sit down", she said in English.

 

If a Vietnamese store clerk ever asks you to sit down, don't do it. By asking you to sit down, she is actually telling you that she really can't get what you want. But maybe if you sit down for an hour or so, you'll settle for something else.

 

Ten minutes later, the light of her life, her young son drove up with my guitar on his motorcycle. I took it without saying a word.

 

At that moment, two Japanese tourists noticed that a white guy (me) was taking a guitar out of this guitar shop. So one of them decided to go inside and look around. I told his friend out in the street, "Don't buy,".

 

I walked across the street, about 30 meters, to my normal luthier. He felt kind of bad that I'd special-ordered from these chumps and not him. Now I felt bad about it too. The idiots cracked my Cedar top!

 

Can you fix what these idiots have done, I asked. I still didn't know what had happened. I thought maybe it was defective wood. Mr. Binh looked at me and picked up a hammer. Then he told me, someone was hammering around my 15th fret. That's why the top cracked.

 

I told Mr. Binh that I wanted a new Cedar top. And I wanted it sunburst this time. I picked it up yesterday. Here it is.

[Etienne Rambert]

Mr. Binh refinished the entire guitar. He didn't just put in a new top. The neck , back & sides all have new finishes.

 

 

The guitar was not nearly as heavy as I remember either. Maybe the previous luthier had used a very thick sheet of Cedar for the top. I don't know.

 

He got the sunburst EXACTLY right too. Wow! It's the prettiest instrument I've ever owned. It's light to hold too.

 

[Etienne Rambert]

I had not told him about the five-toes on the dragon. When Mr. Binh told me that he had refinished the back, I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the dueling dragons are back on. And each one has five-toes.

 

So I hope this isn't just part I of the Curse of the Five-Toed Dragon.

 

[simplygoodmusic]

Curse or no curse, glad its worked out so far.

[Etienne Rambert]

I learned quite a few things in this episode. I ain't shopping around luthiers anymore. There are only two on this street whose work I trust. But I think I'll stick with Mr. Binh for the foreseeable future.

 

 

[babablowfish]

Wow, compelling read. It must be great to be able to just walk in to a luthier's and order some work and have it done in short order. Glad it all worked out for you. I would have been apoplectic.

 

How does the first luthier you mentioned survive doing that kind of work? Is there such a large demand that he can afford to burn customers like that? Does he wear all black with sunglasses and a funny hat?

[Etienne Rambert]

There is quite a demand. But I don't think there is much money to be made. Foreigners really only shop at two places on that street. Most of the other shops cater exclusively to Vietnamese at very low prices. They sell a lot of scalloped fret guitars. Like most other small businesses here, luthiers here barely survive. Rents are rising in Saigon. Competition is intense.

 

BTW, this luthier's apprentice did a great job setting up the original jumbo cutaway.

 

It was a Western World setup. 2 business cards at the 12th fret. Perfect.

His reward for doing such a good job, was to get fired & replaced by the luthier's son.

 

I hope he's found work elsewhere.

[babablowfish]

So, I forgot to ask - How does it sound?

[Etienne Rambert]

It sounds super to me - when I play it. If anything, this time around it's a bit brighter than its predecessor. Its predecessor did not record as well as my son's old Guild or my Maple dread. It was guitar #2 in this test. But it's my favorite playing guitar. It has been since the day I picked it up from the first luthier shop. The tone has a real sweet depth that I didn't have in the Guild Mahogany or the Maple dread. But it's more bright than dark. It ain't a "dark and gloomy" Indian Rosewood.

 

I'll make a clip & post it in the next few days. Action is a little high yet. Mr. Binh put a new nut on it.

 

It looks like the saddle is sloped. Action is perfect on 1st string. Near perfect on 2nd string. It gets higher on the 3rd, 4th, 5th strings. I don't know if it's the nut or saddle that needs adjusting.

 

Action is perfect on the headstock end of the neck, down 7th fret or so. But when you get to frets 10, 11, 12 & up, the 3rd, 4th & 5th strings are a little too high for me.

[Terry Allan Hall]

Hope that's the end of the Curse!

And, have you suggested to Mr. Binh that he consider hiring the fired apprentice?

Seems odd to fire someone for doing a good job!

BTW, how does it sound plugged in?

[Etienne Rambert]

TAH:

"Seems odd to fire someone for doing a good job! BTW, how does it sound plugged in?"

 

 

I'm not really sure why he was fired. I just put 1+1 together. The kid set it up. I tipped the kid thirty-dollars. Next thing I see, he's gone - replaced by the luthier's son. Maybe I'm their first foreign customer. Maybe they thought they could make the big bucks with customers like me.

--

It's a Fishman Prefix pickup. Honestly, I prefer a D'Marzio soundhole pickup. But you can't buy 'em over here. Fishman Prefix is top of the line for Vietnam.

 

A D'Marzio on a Mahogany Guild run through a JoeMeek/pre-amp compressor is a pretty good performance set-up. Fishman sounds good ok. I don't use it much.