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I build and sell Gourd Banjos and Ukes. www.gourdbanjosbybarry.com.I Have made over 140 instruments. My question is this ,and I think it applies to anyone that makes fine musical instruments. Warranties. Does anyone have a generic sort of warranty that they would allow a builder to modify. I have had only 3-4 major issues that were taken care of, I feel like I need something to go with my instruments to keep me from fixing every issue that comes along at no charge. In my guide that I include with my instruments I explain certain things and why I do them and also explain to treat the instrument like you would any fine instrument. Good example, a split Oak fingerboard. Cracked gourd. I purposely leave just a little loosness in the gourd fit to allow for swelling of the neck and the gourd. The gourds are fiberglassed on the interior. I recall seeing a great warranty years ago but couldn't put my hand on it right now. Any help or do you think I should just not worry about it

Generic sort of warranty eh...ya sure, use mine.



............... No guarantees in life.
.....................$hit happens.
..............WARRANTY
............on this instrument
.................stops at the door.

...................



However the truth be known...
me do offer verbal babble to deal with $hit if and when it happens.

As a two legged chicken foraging on dis here planet along with all me brothers and sisters,
this "WARRANTY" is nice and simple and from the heart unlike the 33 pgs of tiny printed legaleez used by the Corporations.

Me suggestion is to keep it simple.

Real simple!


blessings
?adma

_________________
.

Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


.

you are probably right. 3 complaints out of 140 instruments

I recall a thread a while back talking about this same topic. In it, someone mentioned these little stickers that change color at a certain temperature. Buy the stickers that change at say, 120*F and then you could stick them inside of the gourd and you will know if the instrument was left in a hot car. If that is the case, you can tell the owner they abused the instrument by leaving it in a hot place, which caused the damage, thus is not a warranty repair. I tell people to treat the instrument like you would treat a new born baby. You would never leave a new born in a car on a hot summer day, don't do it with the guitar. Ditto placing the case next to a heater, leaving it on the porch in the cold, etc. You are welcome to check the warranty section of my website and modify as you please. http://www.CostaGuitars.com

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

A sticker or something like, indicating prolonged exposure to low humidity would be a wonderful thing.

I've come across quite a few luthiers who offer a 'lifetime warranty'.
It's meaningless.

That would be me. I found these: http://paperthermometer.com/default/pro ... eries.html

And also these: http://www.agmcontainer.com/50-90-maxim ... -card.html

But I haven't found anything for low humidity but, I also haven't looked very hard since then.

_________________
http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I also kind of agree with this statement. As small luthiers, we really don't know what our ability to honor a lifetime warranty will be down the road. I doubt that luthiers offering a lifetime warranty are being disingenuous or intentionally deceptive though. What it does do though is open the small luthier up to a lot of potential liability.

In another thread, someone mentioned about a larger independent shop that had to re-finish over a hundred guitars or something like that because of a bad formulation of some lacquer. If I'm remembering the story correctly the luthier had to sue the lacquer company to recover the damages. Now imagine if something like that were to happen all at once and you simply don't have the resources to get legal help? The point is that as the little guy, I don't think we can truly guarantee that we will be able to honor a lifetime warranty.

I think a much better rout would be to offer a warranty that you're 90% sure you can cover - e.g. 2 years or 5 years or something like that and if a guitar comes back after the warranty period, you can always do the work for free if you feel obliged to. You can even put language in the terms that repairs beyond the warranty period will be performed at the luthier's discretion.

_________________
http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

http://www.agmcontainer.com/50-90-maxim ... -card.html
Very cool site thanks

Well as long as they stick by that I guess it could be considered arrogant. But why have you stated that 'it's a noble if slightly romantic'? That suggests to me that you are suspicious of the 'lifetime warranty' as well. Why make such statement?
I suspect that not many Luthiers would cover a crack in the soundboard 20 years down the line. I certainly would not. Do they cover a Neck reset as well? When you remove 'normal wear' issues there isn't a lot left to cover and 99%+ of 'issues' will be apparent within the first 6 months anyway. The point is that 10 or 20 years down the line it's virtually impossible to prove if a crack or a loose brace is the result of owner neglect or poor workmanship. It's quite obvious that no one is going to cover fret wear, tuner wear, finish wear and a hole host of 'normal wear'. There's not a lot left to cover and what is left to cover might just lead to false expectations and disgruntled customers when you refuse to refinish their Guitar when it's showing slight signs of craquelure etc. The whole thing could be a nightmare. If they really want to give a lifetime warranty (and really stand by it) I hope they clearly list all of the get out clauses. I strongly suspect that the list will be pretty extensive. IMO a lifetime warranty is more of a marketing strategy. When you strip it all down what does it really mean?
I'm certain that I couldn't possibly cover a series of instruments that had the issues that Andy Birko pointed out. I simply haven't got the resources to cover such an event. I doubt that many one man Guitar makers have. It would result in bankruptcy (or starvation) and in that event the customers would get nada anyway. At least if I give a 1 or 2 year warranty I have a fair chance that I'll be able to rectify such a situation (given time). But 10 or 20 years of Guitars with such a problem? I haven't got a hope. Martin might, Taylor might but lone luthiers? Fingers of one hand.

Surfacing every possibility that can go wrong misses the point? Really? I thought that's what a lifetime warranty would address, all the eventualities. Perhaps looking at all the possibilities is just another noble but romantic statement.
Your example of a loose brace. Sure, you knew exactly the humidity it had been kept in. Not something you can apply to every Guitar that you sell. In fact hardly any.
The 6 month figure was not an assumption. I've been making Guitars for a long time, a lot longer than 20 years. I stated that 99% of issues would surface within the first 6 months. That's going by the experience of my own Guitars and the few returns that I've had. Two of them have been quickly worn French Polish (not uncommon), the other few very minor silly mistakes by myself. If someone builds Guitars that have braces that are too low all bets are off. Anything can happen then.
'The luthier puts his reputation behind the instrument'. Don't we all do that, whether the warranty is 2, 5, 10 or 20 years? The real question is what exactly is covered in these lifetime warranties and for how long. Might be better to call them lifetime as a luthier warranties.

Did I say that fret wear would be covered by a lifetime warranty? Let me inform you Mr Morelli of what I stated precisely on this issue, then we can do away with your 'ridiculous' accusation.

I quote:

'I suspect that not many Luthiers would cover a crack in the soundboard 20 years down the line. I certainly would not. Do they cover a Neck reset as well? When you remove 'normal wear' issues there isn't a lot left to cover and 99%+ of 'issues' will be apparent within the first 6 months anyway. The point is that 10 or 20 years down the line it's virtually impossible to prove if a crack or a loose brace is the result of owner neglect or poor workmanship. It's quite obvious that no one is going to cover fret wear, tuner wear, finish wear and a hole host of 'normal wear'.

Now will you please kindly tell us all where I stated that fret wear etc. (Normal wear) would be included in a lifetime warranty? In fact it is quite obvious from my post that 'normal wear' issues would not be included.
I think that makes it quite clear. in future please represent my posts in a more faithful manner.
What about the crack in the soundboard Mr. Morelli? Is that covered 20 years down the line. The Neck angle? I guessed that floating it down the river wouldn't be covered. Or is the crack in the soundboard or the Neck angle another ridiculous scenario? Might not seem that ridiculous to the customer.
Actually I've tried to think of one product that I have bought that comes with a warranty greater than 2 years (nearly all of them have just been 1 year). I haven't been able to come up with one single example. Not even my Rolex watch.
Perhaps it's my cynicism. Maybe I've been subject to too many sharp modern business practices and false promises.

'

Emphasis added for…er..um…emphasis.

That's the point I was trying to make. I really like the re-finish example I brought up previously because it's an actual example of a catastrophic failure that could sink an individual luthier. I was actually thinking about the "out" clauses that I've seen luthiers put into their contracts when I was writing my post and from what I've seen, there's a lot of gray area there.

If a guy had 10 or 20 or 30 or whatever guitars with the exampled finish issue show up at once, it's something that could sink them. One could argue that means that the luthier no longer has the reasonable ability to stand behind their product simply because it would be too expensive to fix them all. Which would mean that it's not really a lifetime warranty - it's an "at my pleasure" warranty. Which is why I think that a luthier that's really thinking this through should offer something they can truly stand behind.

If you offer a 2 year warranty and a loose brace shows up 3 years after your customer takes delivery, there's nothing to stop you from performing the repair and explaining that it's beyond the warranty but you'll fix it because you stand behind your product. If on the other hand you offer a lifetime warranty and your instruments have a fatal flaw that you're obliged to repair that only shows up 5 or 10 years down the road, you're pretty much on the hook to fix it. Which depending on one's financial status, might or might not be possible.

As Hesh has pointed out before, large corporations are required to not recognize a certain percentage of their profits because of potential claims on warranty. When I worked at DaimlerChrysler, it was a big deal that the best Mercedes (C-class) had way more than double the electrical warranty expense compared to the worst Chrysler (big Ram-Truck) because the company couldn't recognize that revenue until the vehicle was outside of warranty. In fact, the company had to keep the money they anticipated in spending on warranty in the bank. As small business men and women, we're not under the scrutiny of the big corporations but I seriously doubt that craft luthiers such as us are putting aside some of the money we make on these things for when or if they come back.

So if you're not prepared financially to replace every guitar you've built and sold, are you really offering a lifetime warranty?

_________________
http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Actually that reminds me. I do have a product that has a 15 year guarantee. My house windows. Not the double glazed sealed units or the catches (they were 2 years) but the actual UPVC frames. I doubt much can go wrong with them. Perhaps crack with years of UV light but if that happens then I guess that it will happen to all the windows that the particular company made. No guarantee there then.
I've also repaired (without charge) Guitars outside of my guarantee. Not many but I've also repolished 4 years after they were sent out. Only because I felt obliged to. I've stopped doing it simply because not getting paid wasn't a very good business model. I fast came to the conclusion that it was hard enough without giving out free labour and it's my only source of (meagre) income.
I almost certainly would rectify problems or issues that were a result of my inadequate skill/knowledge long after the warranty run out. If a batch happened to come in with major structural problems I probably wouldn't last very long. I think that scenario highly unlikely but if you build on the edge. . . there's a greater chance it will happen. I wouldn't want to build too many following Torres thickness. I stay away from relatively recent or new finishes. I think we've all heard about early versions of hard shellac. I wouldn't want something like that to manifest itself after 5 years or more. You might be able to go to litigation but you'll probably need money to do so. You will also need the other party to be solvent.
Again. It's very unlikely to happen but just be mindful that these things can.
The Grey area are things like cracks. I simply don't know how you can prove one way or the other who is at fault. I guess you have to take the hit because you can hardly accuse the customer of lying. Not so bad if it happens to be a closed crack. If it's open things get much more involved and time consuming - splint, colour, finish. Even structural issues can throw up a problem: was the string tension too high? Did it sit in a sunlit window too long? Was it humidified when RH seriously dropped? Of course all these issues can still happen within 2 years but they are more likely to crop up the older the instrument is. Some of us take our chances. Most of us probably don't factor in our price a 'bad case scenario'.
So you are no doubt correct Filippo. A lifetime warranty probably isn't meaningless but it might be in certain circumstances.
Tomorrow I'm having a change of career. All warranties are void.

I am a small builder that produced about 50 pieces over the last 7 years. Mostly from word of mouth to keep me busy during the initial stages of partial retirement. But it got me thinking as since i going to be fully retired from my federal job I am considering taking on more commission jobs. Previously most of my work stayed within the West Coast but if I do move ahead I will open myself up to a more diverse conditions.

As Michael stated though the grey area is cracking issues. I am just curious to know how a luthier/builder determines whether a crack is caused by lack of humidity or a defect in the build process. Around 1991 my Martin developed a crack below the bridge on the right side. The first authorized Martin shop I took it to said that the cracks were due to low humidity and the warranty would not cover. About 2 days later I went to another authorized shop and he said that it was covered as he did not view it as a humidity issue.

But my move towards building more has brought back memories of my personal experiences as an owner of a brand and how I in the opposite side deal with these issues. Is their a generalized idea of whether a crack is humidity related such as very sharp fret ends, or reverse radius on top/back plates?

Warranties can be meaningless and often are.... and I am specifically speaking of warranties offered by small builders.

Here is the scenario: A builder learns to build guitars and starts selling them early on. I call this going ugly early.... ( and yes I can hear that stupid tune "Closing Time" going through my head....

He/she sells these early instruments and in a few years determines for what ever reason that working for approx. 99 cents an hour building guitars that take 150 - 200 hours each to complete and sell for "X" will not get them where they wish to go.... So they back-burner the Lutherie and concentrate on the day job relegating Lutherie to a less prominent role in their fiscal planing.

This qualification in many of these warranties, including mine, "for my working life as Luthier" is indeed not only an exit strategy from potential liability but it also represents a SOL situation for the customers who have bought in to the wares of the Luthier.

People also die, get sick, run away with Miley Cyrus, etc. and may not be able, like it or not, to continue the pursuit of happiness and economic gain gleaned though the pursuit of Lutherie. Right....

We see thousands of guitars a year in our very busy repair business and it's often the case that we see instruments built by small, one-person-shop Luthiers/builders. Once in a while what we see is very well done, more often than not what we see is pretty sophomoric and not something that was ever ready for prime time.... This can also catch up to a builder again when they go ugly early and produce less-than-suitable instruments while attempting to command real money for same.

I can't tell you how many times we see instruments that were produced by individuals who are now either no longer building, dead, off with Miley, etc. but the point is that the warranty that perhaps never really was anyway.... is now really nothing more than a vapor-warranty since there is no one left willing or able to honor it.

It is possible to have a warranty extend beyond the working life of the builder and some do this as well. Setting aside some portion of the revenue gleaned and placing it in escrow for eventual warranty repairs that may have to be out-sourced in the event that the original builder is no longer active or alive is one way to do this provided that all clients are perpetually appraised of how to access warranty assistance, make a claim, etc.

Determining what is a crack resulting from abuse is not difficult... Dry guitars feel, well..... dry. Fret ends are proud, in front of the bridge can be sinking, the top dome may go flat or worse.... etc. A trained eye really has no trouble spotting a dry instrument.

Some cracks are covered under some warranties. For example Martin will cover cracks resulting from the infamous shrinking pick g*ards. It's done all the time. Neck resets are also covered which personally blows my mind since the need for a neck reset is something that even a very fine instrument built with the utmost skill and care will eventually need a neck reset more than likely someday.

With anything a warranty is only as good as the individual(s) or organization(s) that stand behind them. Interpretation of what is a warranty claim or not is also something that is done every day with those who do warranty service for the larger producers. One shop may have a view that differs with another shop's view but ultimately your contacts at say Martin, Taylor, etc. will also be weighing in on how they view the matter as well.

Personally and having been specifically trained for decades about corporate liability I think that some of the warranties such as Martins are absolutely nuts.... Don't get me wrong the warranties are very much of value to the purchaser of the products but from a liability stand point who would ever in their right mind warranty a neck reset on an acoustic guitar? By the very nature of these instruments they are often built on the edge so-to-speak and as such a fine line away from being more likely to be damaged by less than perfect care.

There is also the issue of "recognizable revenue" in which anyone who warranties an instrument for any term would need to set aside a percentage of revenue earned to fund possible warranty claims down the road. How does one determine what this percentage needs to be? When are the funds set aside for say an instrument produced 20 years ago eventually recognizable? It's an accounting nightmare I tell ya and since I have never got along well with bean counters I tend to smile just thinking about it....

We all know that everyone will always take the very best care of their instruments, right? We also all know that everyone will spend some time learning about the care and feeding of a fine instrument too, right? And we also know that no one would ever be capable of leaving their hand-built what-ever in the trunk of their black Lexus in the long term at LAX either, right?

Warranties for Luthier built instruments are indeed very risky from a liability perspective and you could even view them as attempting to warranty the behavior of the public in general instead of simply providing a warranty for a tangible, an instrument.

Lastly, for now..., there are folks who make their living building and can be pretty well known and respected. These days with the wealth of information, for better or worse..., available on forums, DVDs, books, etc. everyone and their sister are now Luthiers.... Some of the stuff produced and sold is clearly pretty awful and we see it when it becomes problematic for the current steward of the instrument. A typical scenario is that the instrument had a meaningless warranty, the original builder is now dead, gone, not building, etc. so the client is faced with a $1,200 estimate to do a neck reset, refret, bridge reglue, brace regkue, new bone nut and saddle, etc. It's too much for them and they may not have ever been very keen about the stinkin instrument anyway.

So they put it on eBay and some unknowing individual becomes the next mark. Once they get over the elation of having "won............" it on ebay and visit their local Luthier because the thing is unplayable.... they learn that the instrument needs twice what they purchased for it further invested to make it close to a decent playing, sounding instrument. Off it goes again to Craigslist or eBay and the cycle repeats. And yes as a service provider we do tend to see the very same instruments with issues but in different hands down the road....

At the end of the day though there are plenty of quality builders who offer what they believe to be a quality, competitive, and inclusive warranty with the best of intentions. Let's hope that these folks are not at some point the unwilling victims of horror stories about ugly early builders who also offered similar warranties but then were not in a position, for what ever reason, to honor the warranty down the road.

Moral of the story for me is to always seek out the highest quality what ever that I can find and afford and NOT have any dependencies on any warranty no matter how liberal, well thought out, funded into the perpetuity, etc.

There is no substitute for quality.

Hi Filippo - complete agreement with ya here too! Mark this day on our calendars.... Said of course in good spirit!

Don't get me going about Gibson and Henry.... But since you did... to folks from Michigan Gibson will always have a warm place in our hearts for the old Gibson that was on Parsons Street and the men AND women who made some of the most iconic and valuable instruments ever. Back in the day Gibson targeted the working folks and their instruments were generally not very expensive. They were also WAY better made than they are today.... and played better, sounded better, regardless of what a hot-button the "better" work can be on Internet forums.

The recent thread here on the OLF about "sticking it in....." and Gibson was interesting on a number of levels but also lacking in the perspective that Henry and his penchant for being a cry baby using op-ed pieces in the WSJ to claim that he was being singled out for his criminal actions purchasing embargoed wood reminded me of Tony Soprano's Mom and her penchant to exclaim "Oh poor you....." Henry did Gibson a huge disservice by invoking politics claiming that his political leanings were responsible for being targeted by the feds.

Interestingly enough as I read the perspectives shared in that thread that mostly tended to agree with Henry's sour-grapes claims.... I had to wonder if anyone else saw this as pretty cut and dried. Lots of folks break the law and lots of folks don't get caught and rarely when one does does the singling-out argument get them much more than some press and a new group of folks who will never again purchase Gibson products as a result of Henry's inability to keep politics out of it.... He, they broke the law - period. Agree with the law or not they still broke the law and got busted for it too. And as much as I might sympathize with those expressing an affinity for the poor employees that were confronted by federal agents with weapons drawn I personally wondered what came first here the chicken or the egg, attempting to illegally break an embargo or perhaps the over reaction of federal agents? The point is that if you sympathize with the employees had Henry not sought to illegally import restricted materials none of this would have ever happened....

These days Gibson is not our Father's Gibson, their quality sucks, their business ethics leave a lot to be desired as well. Have you tried to get genuine Gibson parts recently? Unless you are some of the Henry-anointed few or Bain Capital owned Guitar Center good luck. Gibson is roping in the brand, controlling every aspect of how one may do business with them and in doing so getting a very bad reputation in the biz as a bunch of pricks.... Pardon me please....

Out of the hundreds of recently made Gibsons that we have seen in perhaps the last 6 months only one stood out as a decent instrument but it was a 4 -5K custom-shop LP. One ought to be able to get a decent instrument for 4 - 5K eh?....

Back to the "sticking it in...." thread.... I clicked on the link to the government issue LP and read the description. Not once did Gibson indicate that they were levied a $300,000.00 fine AND paid same nor did they admit that in the case of the Madrose Gibson had indeed engaged in an attempt to import an embargoed commodity.... Instead it's marketing hype, something I know something about.... and a continuing effort to appear as a victim, not what in reality Gibson really was - they were the perpetrator of a crime....

Anyway after reading about the mil-spec LP... I decided to check out the link for the ES series curious to see what a 335 goes for these days. In doing so I also scrolled down to the comments. Have you read any of these comments? There is one after another complaining about the very poor build quality of Gibson today and having experience here myself I completely agree.

I will always love older Gibsons and always be intent to be the current steward of some of these very fine musical instruments. But purchase a new, under Henry's reign of oh-poor-me Gibson - not on your life.... mine either....

Rant aside.... Great points on corporate America but I would add a potential difference between the small builder warranty and a typical corporate warranty. My belief is that most of the time small builders actually have the intent of providing real value in both their offerings and their warranty. Conversely often it's the case that corporate warranties are indeed cryptic exercises engineered to make one jump through their own sphincter just to get any consideration at all let alone an acceptable resolution. Did I ever post about my John Deere tractor that blew a head gasket 132 hour into a 130 hour warranty. $600 later out of pocket JD did not come through for me.... So these days I am happy to tell people that "Nothing runs from a warranty claim like a Deere...."

The fastest way to piss me off in a consumer situation is to attempt to sell me an extended warranty.... Again it's my belief that even the best of organizations may not be there for us/me down the road so I try to only purchase things that for better or worse if the company behind them tanks my value received remains intact. Guess this makes me a bit picky but I do my research independently and usually am not one to ever shop for anything. I know what I want, what I want to pay for it, where I want to buy it, what stinkin color, etc. and all that's left is for me to make it happen. If I can get out of the store without wanting to throttle some grease ball who tries to do the FUD thing (IBM strategy invoking fear, uncertainty, and doubt....) attempting to sell me an equally worthless "extended warranty" it's a good day.

More back to the point - we examined doing warranty work and decided to forgo any formal association with Gibson. We didn't like what we saw, we didn't like the now predatory practices of Gibson when it comes to the treatment of small Mom and Pop shops, we didn't and don't like cry-baby Henry, and we basically decided to leave Gibson warranty work to Guitar center - let them lose their soul on it....

I also wanted to add that both Taylor and Martin have very good warranties that actually do provide great value in my view and for countless numbers of our mutual clients. Although very liberal in scope and very much client-centric these warranties do deliver when the going gets rough.

Back to "sticking it in..." Gibson today is riding on their laurels and doing a great disservice to the countless famous musicians who with their skill and creativity essentially defined the tone of the music we love. In my now professional opinion Gibson has taken great designs, a great heritage, a very willing market, countless supporters, and thrown it all away in favor of significant economic gain not through producing high-quality products but through predatory business practices, lousy quality, and again this penchant to cry like a baby foul when they get caught breaking the law.

As such there are lots of other choices including boutique shops that in my view produce instruments more faithfully to the Gibson icons of days gone by than Gibson produces today.

Lastly on a related subject Rick Turner is posting on other forums about the state of nitrocellulose lacquer that can be 80 or more years old now and is basically disintegrating. Is this a warranty claim? Might be a good discussion to have?

Thanks for your thoughts Filippo!

Aside from a poorly made guitar with wood that is not seasoned or bad glue etc. a guitar should not need warrantee work. Most companies do not warrantee finishes, humidity damage, wear and tear and the like. This means a warrantee doesn't really cover much. To quote Chris Farley from tommy boy:

Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?
Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of sh*t. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.

My word is my bond. I am a professional luthier and I know when I screw up. If it's my fault I will fix it as long as you bring it to me. That's about as good as you can get

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

_________________
.

Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


.

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.