DO NOT BRING YOUR VINTAGE GUITARS HERE...or any really!!! Story time! My friend brought in his 1963 Gibson LG1 to get checked out before selling it to me. Mikes jaw dropped and he basically said "dont sell it to him, sell it to me instead" (paraphrasing what my buddy told me but remember this part because it's important). So my buddy tells me to call Mike to get the jist of what's up with it because it needs a bunch of repairs. I call and start the convo by saying "hey I'm calling on behalf of my friend X who has a vintage LG1 there..." and he cuts me off and basically yells at me "X is the only person leaving this store w that guitar"....uuhh...ok. I live on the other side of the country, that's not why I'm calling, let's start over. Maybe he gets people bugging him a lot about this so ok, I won't hold that against him. I explain I'm just calling to get an update on the condition. "Oh well the bridge has come off and needs to be replaced, that's 300$". My buddy warned me of this. It was the cheap plastic one so no problem. I'm a lefty and changing the bridge anyways, nbd. "Oh,oh,oh well uuhh some of the bracings are broken and it's gonna cost 400$ to fix that too". Oh weird, but no problem, I plan on changing it to X bracing (from ladder) anyways so not an issue. "Oh uh uh well the neck is cracked and it's sinking into the body. That's gonna be 700$." ....oh...my buddy didn't mention that but ok I guess, nothing I can't get fixed. "Oh uh uh are you suuuuuuure you want to sink THAAAAT much money into this?" (1500$ after tax). Yah, it's fine I guess. It's a vintage guitar. It is what it is.
Well I get it shipped to me and Mike has stuck his repair receipt to the vintage case with PACKING TAPE. Taking this off pulled a bunch of the top layer of the colour on the case off. Not cool but w.e., those cases aren't great. Use painters tape or leave it IN the case man. Won't cry over the cosmetics of the case I guess but come on. A little respect.
Anyways, I show it to my luthier (I work at a music store) and he looks it up and down and says "this is one of the best condition vintage guitars I've seen in a long time. I can't see a problem w the bracing or neck." Hmm, I think. Well there's no bridge or strings so maybe we can't see the issue till we dig into it and put strings on it. No judgement yet.
Well my music store doesn't really deal with vintage guitars so I brought it instead to one of the most renowned vintage luthiers on the east coast. Check out Halifax Folklore Center. He's a legend here, 50 years of experience. He looks it up and down and says "I can't see a broken brace and I doubt I'm gonna need to touch the neck. Looks fine to me. Even the frets are great, bit of polish as most." Hmmm I think, maybe something will be revealed when we put the bridge and strings back on. No judgement yet I guess.
Well doesn't he build me a new bridge/saddle, take the perfectly fine bracings out, rebrace it, built new nut, and set it up....and what do you know...it plays beautiful. No broken braces, no cracked neck, no sinking into the body. Mike tried to write us up over $1500 in repairs alone. The new bridge/saddle, rebracing, new nut, and set up cost me a total of 850$ and taxes are higher here. So one of two things happened. Either Mike is a complete snake and made up 1500$ in fake issues because he wanted it to seem like an expensive restore and to sell it to him cheap instead of to me (like he tried to do originally) or he is completely incompetent. You be the judge. Either way, HUGE red flags. Do not bring your guitars to this guy. read more