I am in awe of the sheer incomptency and rudeness! A warning to my fellow Atlantans.

[mparsons]

So I blacked out the Edwards, as you've all seen I'm sure. This meant getting a new switch, which meant the wiring needed to be re-done... I've had bad luck with a soldering iron and good luck with the local music store, Ponce de Leon. They installed the EMGs to begin with and did a fantastic job. The tech working there was a professional named Terry, and I WISH I knew where he works now. You'll know why soon enough.

 

I take the Edwards in to the shop on Friday, June 27th, at around 2pm. I describe whats up, the wiring scheme, the 18V mod, etc. and that everything was in place, all they needed to do was wire in the pickup selector switch. A VERY easy job for someone competent to do, right? Something like... 4 solder joints? I get a call at around 5pm, telling me its done. Cool! Everything is going great. I go into the store and ask to check it out, make sure everything is fine, etc...

 

They act a little frustrated. A tiny bit of rolling the eyes, sighing... really subtle stuff but I picked up on it. Can't sneak that {censored} past the ol' Parsons. They take me back to the workroom, and plug the guitar into an Epiphone practice amp. I use the switch to select pickups, hey it works! Great! Bridge volume works, push-pull splits the bridge pickup alright... The neck volume doesn't work? What?

 

Apparently they wired it so the bridge volume controlled both the neck and bridge... a universal volume control. Odd... I check to see if they made the neck volume a tone knob. Nope. It doesn't do anything.

 

I bring this up to a tech. It wasn't the guy that wired it up though. I explain the wiring set up again, how it was a bridge/neck volume with push-pull selector switch for splitting the humbuckers. Not to mention that it was already wired up correctly, and all they had to do was solder the leads to the pickup selector switch... In order to wire how they did, they would have had to completely tear out the wiring, and completely redo everything.

 

The tech that I'm talking to makes excuses... "Oh well the other guy probably thought it was supposed to be a volume/tone knob setup."

 

REALLY?!

 

 

This is the guitar in question. The bridge volume is the knob near the edge of the body, and the neck volume is the knob close to the bridge pickup. In a traditional volume/tone set up, the volume knob is the one closest to the bridge pickup, and the tone further away. Even if the tech was confused, he did it backwards.

 

And in order to GET that confused, he would have had to think that a knob with a "V" on it and no capacitor was a tone knob. Brilliant.

 

Now that they know exactly what's wrong with the guitar, they say they'll fix it up right.

 

Fast forward to today.

 

They call me at around 11 AM, and tell me "Hey, your guitar is finished. It sure was a pain in the ass to fix!" Great! I don't really care that it was a pain in the ass, but I'm just happy that its done.

 

I go in to pick it up a few hours later. What happens next is UNBELIEVABLE

[mparsons]

I walk into the store, say, "Hey, I'm here to get my guitar". They jokingly say, "ahh there was a fire, and all the guitars are ash now!" "Well thats ok, that's my favorite tonewood anyway". The joke seems to go over their head. The tech that recognized me went into the back to get it. He opens up the case, and the other guys all laugh and say, "Ahh, that's the guitar that we WANTED to burn! That was such a pain to fix. Whoever did the previous wiring job was horrible, we had to basically re do it completely."

 

Again, I'm just thinking: I already told these guys that they are the only ones to wire it. Why do they insist on repeating this?

 

Anyway, I ask to check it out, make sure its all good, etc. and they give me the roll-eye-frustrated attitude again. I'm pretty sick of their {censored} at this point. I don't need them to tell me how much of a pain my guitar is to work on, they should be glad that I'm too lazy to learn how to solder and do it myself. And they shouldn't act like its unreasonable that I check my guitar to ensure its working before I pay them for a repair job RIGHT AFTER I JUST HAD THEM FIX THEIR OWN {censored} UP.

 

I take it out, and plug into an amp, and hey-- It sounds funny. Not quite right. The highs aren't clear enough, the lows aren't tight enough, and the overall sound is way too compressed. In other words, it sounds like they had wired it for 9V... despite me having it wired for 18V and including two 18V batteries as well as two 18V clips... all previously wired in. I take it back to the counter, and they quote me a price: $40. Hey, thats kind of steep... especially since it doesn't sound right... but if everything is done right I'll pay it just to have it done.

 

I ask to open the back up and check the wiring, just to make sure everything is fine.

 

Them: ":rolleyes::rolleyes: Ok, whatever :rolleyes::rolleyes:"

 

They take me back to the workroom, and the dude puts a screwdriver on the table and leaves. I open up the guitar, and sure enough, its wired for 9V.

 

{censored}ing great! I leave the guitar there for a week and they STILL don't have it done right. I talk to the tech, ask him if he could put it in, and he says, "NO."

 

.... ? What? Why not?

 

"I don't know how to do that. I tried about a million ways and couldn't figure out how to wire it for 18V".

 

..... Really? ( I'm thinking: this is literally an operation thats as simple as 2 + 2 = 4, except its 9 + 9 = 18... how can he not know??? )

 

The dude YELLS, "YES, I don't know, are you trying to insult me or something?!", and walks out front.

 

I think: $40? For this? An incomplete wiring job? Waiting a week for this simple {censored}? And then to be treated like {censored}? Unacceptable. I was going to pay and leave, never do business with them again, etc.

 

Then I hear this jem:

 

They're joking out front, not 10 feet away from me. Laughing and the tech is pissed off. He says to the other guys something along the lines of, "If he wants it done so bad, he should just do it himself!"

 

WOW

 

WOW

 

WOW

 

Holy {censored}! Holy {censored}! Seriously? I take a guitar to a tech to be serviced and he thinks I should just do it myself?! WOW

 

WOW

 

Holy {censored}.

 

Ok. Fine with me!

 

I walk out of the back room with my guitar, put it in the case, and they ask, "Hey, uh, is everything all good with it?"

 

Me- "No. I'm not paying $40 for you guys to take a week to wire in a pickup selector switch, take out the 18V mod, REFUSE to do it when I ask, and treat me like {censored} in the process."

 

Tech- "We had to totally rewire the guitar! It was all {censored}ed up!"

 

Me- "Again, you are the only people that have touched the wiring."

 

Tech- "I don't believe that and I find it insulting"

 

Me- "I don't care. I've decided I'm just going to do it myself, just as you advised."

 

Tech- "Hey, what about the $40?!?!"

 

Me- "Shove it up your ass!"

 

And I walk out.

 

 

Lesson learned: Avoid Ponce de Leon like the plague.

[Brick]

what happens next??!!

[Brick]

, you posted it , that's {censored}ty

[Dewysoss]

Holy {censored}!

[starsnuffer]

You should just do it yourself. My 9 year old daughter knows how to solder. Seriously. WTF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-W

[kinggeoff]

DUDE that's insaaaane

!!~!!!

 

 

I CANT BELIEVE THEY HAD THAT KIND OF NERVE

 

rough dude.

 

props on not giving them the business they clearly dont deserve. Spread the word man.

 

Every site, everywhere you can post. seriously. These guys do not deserve to be in business

[chad_sux]

Wow...I have had a similar experience with a tech that said he couldn't fix the noise problem on my Live wires. He said it was always there (which it was most definitely not). I said {censored} it and took them out. They sounded pretty sweet before the problems though with no noise at all :poke:

[The_J-Train]

 

You should just do it yourself. My 9 year old daughter knows how to solder. Seriously. WTF.

 

 

Well aren't you just Billy Badass:lol:

[mparsons]

Yeah, I know, lesson learned, I need to learn how to solder.

 

But that doesn't make what happened any better.

[Big Hair]

Me- "Shove it up your ass!" And I walk out.

 

good ending

[The_J-Train]

I've been in a situation like this when my amp had to get simply repaired under warranty. When all was said and done it took over a month and I had to pay because the seedy repair place claimed they had since stopped doing Traynor repair work, and honestly I thought they were going to shank me. Here's a nifty little comic describing our plights:

 

[starsnuffer]

BLfXXRfRIzY&feature=related

 

-W

[Brick]

 

-W

 

 

fail

[Sixtonoize]

I went to Kalamazoo Vintage Guitars the other day to have some vintage tubes tested. The owner tried to find the right settings in his tester's manual, but it didn't have them. He said to leave them until Monday, and he'd check them out.

 

So, I so in there today, and ask about my tubes. The owner says that one of the tubes is good, and the other one is shot. So, i ask him what numbers to good one gets. The asshole SHOWS ME how to set up a tester, and PERFORMS the tests while I WATCH. THEN, after he tests the tube, I ask him how much.

 

He has the NERVE to tell me to "get outta here" and "don't worry about it".

 

Bull{censored}.

 

So, I hand him a $10 and storm out.

 

Trying to not charge me. Who does he think he is?

[guitarded_1]

I have never heard of Ponce De Leon...the music store. Is it on Ponce De Leon, or is that just the name? In any event, there are some good guitar techs in Atlanta. {censored} those guys.

[thinkpad20]

Holy balls man, that sucks... well at least it'll give you motivation to solder your own stuff. The 18V mod is (by the looks of it) SUPER easy to do, about the easiest soldering job you could ask for and no pots to fry or anything.

[The_J-Train]

 

I went to Kalamazoo Vintage Guitars the other day to have some vintage tubes tested. The owner tried to find the right settings in his tester's manual, but it didn't have them. He said to leave them until Monday, and he'd check them out. So, I so in there today, and ask about my tubes. The owner says that one of the tubes is good, and the other one is shot. So, i ask him what numbers to good one gets. The asshole SHOWS ME how to set up a tester, and PERFORMS the tests while I WATCH. THEN, after he tests the tube, I ask him how much. He has the NERVE to tell me to "get outta here" and "don't worry about it". Bull{censored}. So, I hand him a $10 and storm out. Trying to not charge me. Who does he think he is?

 

 

This story does not make much sense. Are you being serious?

[17 Tubes]

I'ma little confused.

 

You can't solder a pickup slector switch?

 

Are you allowed to drive? Operate the TV remote? Walk and chew gum?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alos...how do you just go from 9v to 18v? What made you decide to do that? I assume a 9v system would work with a 9v battery. And a 18v system would work with 2 9v batteries.

 

 

And...don't you have receipts of the original work? If I had work done, and it wasn;t right, I'd have 3 copies of the receipt down there the next day.

 

Funny...if we really objectively think about our end-of-the-world problems...how much you have no one to blame but yourself.

 

17 tubes the jackass over and out!

[mparsons]

Holy balls man, that sucks... well at least it'll give you motivation to solder your own stuff. The 18V mod is (by the looks of it) SUPER easy to do, about the easiest soldering job you could ask for and no pots to fry or anything.

 

I did it myself a while back but I didn't do a great job... I guess now I'm going to be spending a lot of time watching youtube videos and practicing soldering.

[The_J-Train]

Funny...if we really objectively think about our end-of-the-world problems...how much you have no one to blame but yourself. 17 tubes the jackass over and out!

 

The operative phrase is in bold. Just when I thought I'd seen some epic failures in my time, you go and post this. There is no hope for humanity:cry:

[17 Tubes]

The operative phrase is in bold. Just when I thought I'd seen some epic failures in my time, you go and post this. There is no hope for humanity:cry:

 

Ah well...at least I realize it...that's something innit?

 

 

So why...if there was something wrong with the wiring on the guitar...did the OP not march right down with a receipt and get it fixed?

 

 

 

Even though I am a complete retarded jackass....I stand by my statement. IF you really put in the effort to think things through...there are som many times it's easy, convenient and seemingly logical to blame someone else for you problems. People do it ALL the time. ALL the time.

 

Put it's too much effort. Too much truth. We can;thandle the truth.

 

Now maybe the OP shares NO blame what so ever with the store saying "we didn't do that". Sure. that could happen.

 

WHIPS OUT RECEIPT.

 

Looking in the mirror is hard to do. Try it sometime jtrain.

[NeloAngelo]

man i posted a soldering tutorial recently, come on now. you are being overcharged for a soldering job every time. its a 5 minute operation at the most with emgs. that includes waiting for the iron to heat up.

[Dom1412]

Yeah right. You probably paid the 40 bucks and said "Thanks for the good work guys!"

[fistacuffs]

your story made me cringe.

 

that same thing could happen at almost any shop near me.

 

I am starting to get burned out by guitar shops. and everthing that goes with them.

 

just made a great buy used. and made a quick amp sale as well. time to stay away from music stores all together for a good while.