Official Luthiers Forum!

Well now sam...

Yep das about as honest and as simple as you can gets too!

Is just same way me lays the "warrantee" down on me clients... right between their eyeballs. Nice and clear...no problem. Nor has me ever had one in over 50 years...least not one that me couldn't fix.


Umm sam...tell me..you usein that bond-o too? Works great eh!


blessings
?adma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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A successful luthier once told me that a limited lifetime warranty is a very safe bet.

99 times out of 100 the problems occur due to customer neglect, and almost all of that is from lack of humidity, not covered by warranty.

Sorry Filippo I completely neglected to address the L5. Is it a recent instrument? If so I would consider lifting finish in random places to be a manufacturing defect as well. Gibson won't address it under warranty? Nice guitar too!!!

I don't warranty my instruments, but I will fix them if I can and it is reasonable to do so. I haven't had too many issues so far...
Just a grim thought....
Considering the average age of people on the forum building guitars, how much time does a "working life of the luthier" warranty really give you?

Clay that's a great point! Perhaps it's Geezer Luthier where warranties should read "for my working life as a Luthier and before I need a nut bra, still have most of my teeth, have not had my drivers license revoked, and am not mistaken for the individual on the cover of Tull's Aqualung..."

Heck two out of three ain't bad.....

So if I bring you a Kleenex, will that count as an extended warranty?

No but a pic of you and the instrument in question even if it's from 40 years ago has been known to be enough for one guitar producer with a fairly liberal warranty.

We've had a bunch of folks lately who never registered the warranty which is not an issue in some states such as Michigan that has specific laws not requiring warranty registration but you still need to retain documentation and register at the time of the claim.

We don't like taking in the instruments until a warranty is registered even if we are going to do the work one way or another (cash or warranty) because of the liability associated with the bailment that we accept with the instrument. We also have limited space which is aggravated by administrative delays.

So often it's the case that we advise folks how to register a warranty after the fact. It's been surprising to me that one guitar manufacturer very much seems to accept even pictures of a kid and the guitar at times as proof of original ownership. Not the kind of corporate BS that I am used to in the consumer world by any means and something that my hat is off to them for too. It could be said that this companies customers bought themselves a life long relationship with their guitar builder and usually have no clue of this until they need warranty service. They too are often surprised that the warranty is as comprehensive as it is.

A couple of notable guitar producers lost their records over time too.... There are periods of time for some of these companies where even when they did the warranty work at the factory they now have no record of it... And then there are Gibson serial numbers which can take a national code breaking effort at times to translate....

In hindsight at least two of the most responsible companies that I know of when it comes to honoring a warranty are guitar producers. Nice to see.

"In hindsight at least two of the most responsible companies that I know of when it comes to honoring a warranty are guitar producers. Nice to see."
And being "corporate bodies" their "lifetime warranty" can outlast the people who built the instrument.

For my dulcimers, whenever someone asks me about a warranty, I simply tell them "I put the absolute best build quality I can into everything I make, so my work is guaranteed for as long as I feel like foolin' with it."

In other words, I did the best I could building it, so be reasonable, take good care of it, and we'll both be fine.

Yeah, so I'm not exactly flooding the market, but people who shop based on low prices love to tell me how well mine play before putting them down and walking away.

As for extended warranties, I love getting offered them, for one simple reason. The goods in question have been analyzed to death by the corporation, and assigned an amount for the extended warranty that will in all certainty be more than the cost of repairs in the extended period. So, offer me an extended warranty on a new car for X dollars over Y miles, and I can be pretty much guaranteed that normal repair costs will be less than that over that period. I never buy them, but it's not such a bad indicator. If it was, and the repair costs were higher over a significant number of units, the cost of the warranty would be higher so the company wouldn't lose money.

So tell me, it has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread about low cost on early builds. Generally speaking, what price range would that be? $3K? $2500? $1000? Less? Very curious about this, since I would love to sell a few guitars down the road.

_________________
Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

"So tell me, it has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread about low cost on early builds. Generally speaking, what price range would that be? $3K? $2500? $1000? Less? Very curious about this, since I would love to sell a few guitars down the road."

What I consider a low cost build is one where after you take out the cost of materials and overhead, and divide the remainder by the hours of labor you come up at less than minimum wage.

As for guarantees... I bought a pair of (Chinese made) Redwing boots. They were not particularly cheap ($150) but were guaranteed for 1 year against defects. After 6 months of normal walking around, both the soles and uppers were falling apart. They were happy enough to offer 1 time replacement with the same model at no charge. I opted to pay a little more for a slightly better boot but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. They can probably afford to give up 3 or 4 pairs of poorly made boots within a years time and still turn a profit.