Official Luthiers Forum!

It’s sad the way some businesses have become these days, they no longer know what the word customer service means.

I wonder if Dan Erlewine is still there? I always enjoy watching his videos but haven't seen anything new from him in awhile.

Dan is a friend and he's been gone about a year. He contacted me last night offering to contact StewMac and ask them to help me. Great guy!

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Exactly and sadly I think that the pandemic is being used as cover for cost cutting efforts....

After 9/11 I had to go somewhere so I was on one of the first flights back in the air a week later. All service had been suspended, no meals, lots of scrutiny, rude flight attendants and crews on a hair trigger to have someone removed.

Understandably of course some of these measures were necessary. But continuing the meal suspension a year later was just BS and the flight attendants continued to be not helpful for frequent flyers.

Or in other words as someone who put several million miles in the air when I was still working the airlines used 9/11 as an excuse to cut their costs and reduce service levels. I see this happening now with Covid, business has discovered that it can be viewed as an opportunity.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

I have noticed that same tendency (cutting services permanently under the guise of Covid) in several situations. For some businesses, it is true that Covid has made it harder to provide the same level of service. For others, I am convinced it is a way to charge the same and provide less. To use a common analogy, the box of cereal is getting smaller, but the price is staying the same.

All you can do is express your displeasure, and as better alternatives present themselves, vote with your feet.

In the same vein, my wise father once told me "vote with your cash".

Glad to hear everything is being resolved Hesh. I have made an effort in the last year to try to find alternative sources to lots of things that SM offers. There is still some stuff they make that is great but alot of it can be sourced from other sellers for alot less.

Maybe we could compile a list of sources for things (tools/wood/etc...) that we have all found helpful in this business and then post it and regularly add to it as time goes on?

I do see a place for airing certain grievances but if the pocketbook of some companies starts getting hit hard then I can wager a few 20s that they'll change their practices to win business back. Plus a "good sources" compendium can be updated and added to and would be of benefit to the newer up and comers in my age range and slightly younger.

Good ideas Dan. We should support OLF sponsors when possible and I have to say that and I actually believe it too.

Our shop just rarely buys any of these things and my own StewMac $2K last two weeks was personal spending for amp building. Dave and I go direct for stuff we need or make it ourselves. It's interesting because when the shingle went out my frequent flier miles at the usual, sponsor suspects went way down. Go figure, this is not what I would have expected. We have not purchased from LMI in several years either.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Good points Don. Voting with one's feet is time tested and effective.

I will openly admit that we have used Covid as an excuse for another problem that we had having to do with our location and it's history. Lutherie work on the valuable personal property of others requires, at least for me a distraction free environment at least some of the time.

We have people showing up wanting to see the John Lennon chair that was here or where Eric Clapton's paisley SG was repaired before the Cobo Hall gig in the 60's. We also still get people asking "where's Herb" RIP. And there are the folks who don't know that the music store left Ann Arbor nearly ten years ago now and we don't and won't sell a thing to anyone, we are service only in a effort to simplify bookkeeping and as push back against a big bad state government who cost us $3K initially defending against claims that we were not paying sales tax. they could not understand that we were and are a different business than the prior music store and we never were affiliated with same either. We won with the state but it left a bad taste with us and we decided to not sell anything including strings and now we pay less than a couple of bills annually in sales tax. Everyone lost, our clients, us, the state all because of government workers who don't have the ability to be dealing with the public or understanding one business model to the next. What resulted is if you are down town and need a string or strings we won't help you.

Anyhow we lock the door and went appointment only and it's great!! I love it now and I can think straight and so can Dave without the constant walk in time wasters who were largely tourists.

During the Hash Bash we were swamped too with smelly, ex-hippies wanting to see where the Lennon chair went too. On University of Michigan big football weekends it's the same too lots of alumni wanting to see where their first Martin came from or show the current husband/wife the John Lennon chair.

It's nice to be able to think now and also know when to expect people. I only have to wear pants half the time now

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Unfortunately the gov't agencies have adopted the same "appointment only" strategy and you can no longer just walk in to the MVA or county office building and wait your turn. You have to make an appointment online, weeks in advance, to do things at these institutions. Like other businesses they have menu driven interfaces you need to navigate to (sometimes) eventually speak to a real live human being.
When I did talk to someone, I asked if it was possible to wait and take a chance on a canceled appointment. The person said that was not possible. Sounds like they get a few extra coffee breaks that way. For awhile the people at the tax office were working from home. You could call in and then wait for them to return your call. Life is good... for them.
Luckily many of the services these agencies provide can be done online now, which is actually more convenient so the impact of these policies is somewhat ameliorated.
Covid is a serious illness. People die from it every day. Our "I WANT IT NOW!" rant is certainly a first world problem. The Vaccine has been out long enough that getting it won't make most of us keel over and die right away. I think even the people who don't believe in vaccines should man-up and get the shot so they don't accidently pass on the disease and kill someone else. YMMV

Then why are 2/3's of the people in the hospital being treated right now for covid double vaxxed? "The jab" is NOT medicine. I prefer to remain pureblooded.

Also, "Let's Go, Brandon".

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

This may explain it better than I can:
"As more people get shots, the percentage of hospitalizations and deaths among fully vaccinated people should rise. This may seem counterintuitive, so it’s important to understand why.

In a state with a high vaccination rate, a higher percentage of breakthroughs may simply reflect that fully vaccinated people are a bigger chunk of the population, or that there are few hospitalizations and deaths overall. Imagine a state where just two people are hospitalized but both are vaccinated — breakthroughs would account for 100 percent of the hospitalizations in that state, even though these cases were very rare."

The full article:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... cines.html

As I said - YMMV. I am pro-choice and support your _Right_ to go unvaccinated, just the same as I supported Dr. Kevorkian's right to help those who needed his services.

Hesh I was the other thread about Stewmac. they kind of resolved my issue as well that I was referring to in my original thread. I had to IM them thru Instagram messenger to get an answer. Another issue I have is I get about 3-5 boxes a week from Stewmac. In every single order is a three page color advertisement for Waverly tuners. How about instead of a three page advertisement for Waverly tuners and other assorted items I'm well aware of, open up another call center person which could be done remotely.They can't use the covid excuse for phone calls. .......There is no excuse to not have an actual working phone number to be able to speak to someone.

_________________
https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

Would you cite your source for that statistic, please?

I would prefer that we all just talk about guitar-related stuff, but if this topic comes up, and someone starts saying things that are inconsistent with the information available from authoritative sources (as this statement is), I'm going to ask for a cite to the source material.

forum rules say 'all topics related to building acoustic guitars'. Let's please do that.

_________________
Peter Havriluk

I would love to limit the content of these discussions to guitars. Chris, you can send me that citation via a PM, please. Thanks.

I'd like to thank my fellow OLF'rs for running to Lance like whining little children.

I'll say it again - I didn't start this. Clay did. So talk to him about getting off the subject, okay?

And, Don? SOON. Some of us have lives.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I think the point that shop policies and the broader question of efficacy of vaccines and/or therapeutics does not belong in this thread is on point. That said, there are a number of questions which touch on the most recent pandemic threat and are suitable topics for discussion within this commuity, so perhaps another thread.

To that point, we might strive to stay away from edicts, dictates, jingoism,and cooked stats in favor of the more practical aspects of business impacts of this new, apparently here-for-the-long-haul disease. Policy and procedures for in-shop visits, pick-up/drop-off, employer vax policy for small shops, and what the fine print on N95 and other masks says about how often to change them to ensure some level of protection all sound like perfectly fine topics for a luthiery forum.

So just because I recently celebrated the (redacted) anniversary of my 30th birthday and feel filled to the brim with another year's accumulation of wisdom, Mr. Pile's post begs a peppery response. Those offended by straight shooting and 'them's the facts' exposition can do what we all - at least for now - have the freedom of doing...DON'T KEEP READING.

Dear Mr. Piles:

We know from a multitude of studies performed on the current crop of vaccines that they in-aggregate provide about a 20-fold reduction in chance of death due to exposure to the now-dominate Delta variant. We also know that the risk of dying from COVID doubles roughly every seven years of added age for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. This suggests that a 70 year old will have about a 32-times greater chance of dying from COVID than a 35 year old, all other things being equal (relative health, vax status, etc).

The point here is that even vaccines which are fairly effective for their approved use (i.e., age and health limitations) will not reduce the risk of death for a vaccinated 70 year old to below the risk of death for an unvaccinated 35 year old. In other words, even vaccines, boosters, clean living, and dirty martinis will not level the playing field for the elderly, even when the opposing team on that field are made up of those crazy, carefree thirty-something youngsters that cannot be bothered with the jab(s) or showing up on time for work. We should and indeed must absolutely expect that as more of the population are vaccinated, the majority of COVID deaths will be among the vaccinated, and that is exactly what we see in reportage from highly vaccinated populations like the UK and Israel.

If you find that unreasonable, imagine that we reach 100% vaccination rate through some combination of incentives (free ice cream?) or dire disincentives (forced foster parenting of teenagers?). Will COVID still kill people? Sure... just fewer. But ALL of them will have been vaccinated. And we will just as assuredly see some ridiculous headline proclaiming the new fact that 100% of all COVID deaths in the Republic of Vaxxylvania (where EVERYONE is vax'd by decree) were among the vaccinated population. That's not some diabolical scheme or the Branch Covidian cabal at work, but rather just middle school-level statistics about a disease that appears likely to be with us for a very, very long time.

Indeed, in the UK - one of the highest vax-rate countries in the world (but not the EU) - recent NHS reportage shows about 70% of the most recent group of deaths were vaccinated persons. For those pulling a calculator out to work the 20/80 unvaxed/vaxed rate and 30/70 unvaxed/vaxed death ratio, keep in mind that the unvax'd appear to skew both younger and healthier than the vaxed, and those numbers include those for which a vaccine does not yet exist (younger children/infants) but have an extraordinarily low risk of dying from COVID (something like a 1:75,000 chance ... or about 1/4 the current rate of death due to vax reactions ).

_________________
We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

And another member breaks the rules. Way to own yourself.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

We all have agency... coupling it to intellect will always be the challenge. Now where is my meme of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup? Darn...had it here just a few minutes ago.

_________________
We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

My apologies,
Actually Hesh brought up covid and the excuse it provided for companies to limit customer service. Don piled on, and I added the gov't into the mix - and - my unasked for opinion.
I'm blaming the thread drift on Covid. Everything else gets blamed on it.

Again, my apologies

Or that level of personal connection. What about the guys that can’t just call Dan or get noticed by Brock? I don’t think the issue was resolved so much as Hesh was placated thanks to his industry ties.

I’m stunned by the turn Stew-Mac’s taken, and until any ordinary person can get in touch with them or get their issues resolved, nothing has been addressed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh my what has my amp turned into....

My apologies for blaming covid as I did indeed do and Clay is right about that.

My dear friends we are living though history here in a deadly global pandemic. We are a community of sorts, like it or not and for the most part we combine here to add value to most. Please et's cut each other some slack and be tolerant.

It's a beautiful thing that so many of us who likely would not get along on a number of levels can participate here and be decent to each other and even better, kind and caring.

It's my birthday the day after tomorrow and I am going to be 65. Please help me celebrate my milestone birthday by letting me believe that I did not cause a big dust up here and that maybe, maybe we all can either get back on topic of go build a guitar or amp or both?

I appreciate you very fine folks, thank you.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

This is a good point James and what I can say is that this thread is being read at StewMac, I know this personally. And they are aware and even better keen to always improve as any quality organization will be.

My experience with them may be not unlike cross country skiing. I went first breaking the trail and it's a tough slog but there will be a groomed trail in my wake, hopefully for others who experience issues. That's my hope and how's that for a positive spin James?

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

I hope to hear again, email from Tommy at StewMac today. Tommy is the cool guy in the many amp building videos that they have on YouTube and he's great. A natural teacher and very knowledgeable of tube amps. He's also not into BS and is a straight shooter which is always appreciated here.

Spent a lot of time this weekend on the chassis installing pots and sockets and point to point wiring them. This is a lot of fun and I have not had this much fun in the shop since I started and was still excited about guitar building.

My two kits are superbly documented with instructions so good that even a Hesh can succeed. . As mentioned the 57 5 watt Tweed that I finished last week fired up at once and has performed flawlessly for about 4 hours now. It's also the best amp for tone I have ever used.

Pivoting here for civilities sake you all might want to take a break from guitar building and making sawdust and get lead poisoning instead and solder one of these puppies all up over this winter, it's a very good time.

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

You might consider the Bassman Micro plans-built amplifier from Rob Robinette for your next, thus avoiding dependence on the support chain from the kit manufacturer or distributor. Mr. Robinette has a huge builder base for his low-power and full-power interpretations of classic amps like the 59 Bassman/Marshall JTM45 and excellent support on the Shock Brothers forum on TDPRI. I have the cabinet (sans the pink and brown Tolex) and the BOM for Mr. Robinette's 1963 AB763 SRV-inspired Blackvibe (a single channel reverb-less/trem-less blackface Vibroverb) that sits waiting for time and attention... a Strymon Flint will handle the vibrato channel duties should I become a much, much more accomplished player as a result of freak COVID booster vaccine modifications to my DNA (nothing is impossible, right?) or (more likely) time to practice.

The Bassman Micro in particular is a near-ideal small repair shop amp...enough power to get obnoxious and quite gig-able volume levels, a master volume to allow both clean and tweed distortion at reasonable bedroom or basement volumes, and two different power levels just from swapping out the single power tube. We built a total of four micro-Bassman at Greenridge, including my own (pink turret board material was almost impossible to find!), and all used lighter-weight white pine dovetailed cabinets and the higher output 12BH7A power tube in push-pull configuration. I later converted mine to the EZ81 tube rectifier configuration, but the other shop amps are all still diode rectified amps in keeping with their dedicated shop amp role.

https://robrobinette.com/Bassman_Micro.htm

_________________
We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)