Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi,
is anyone here an authorised Gibson repair center?
If so - is it a blessing or does it bring lots of the more stressful jobs to your door?
I think the chance might be coming my way soon, and i'm doing a bit of homework....

if you do get more of the stress jobs i guess you can finally price them to make them less stressful?

i'd be grateful for any help or advice,
all the best,

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com

I believe 'repair center' prices are standardized, so your prices are set by Gibson, not you. So it's good if you need the work, but bad if you could be doing more profitable repairs at -your- prices instead.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

No no no no no........

Finally price them to make them less stressful? If filling out the paperwork, submission for approval, waiting weeks to months to see payment (Gibson's pretty good about this in my experience though), and have to represent the company (in the customer's eye's anyway) when you tell them warranty is denied, then getting paid about half as much as I would normally charge helps the stress, then sure I suppose.

It's not all that bad. With Gibson it's pretty much anything up to 2 hours labor (at their low labor rate) you could do without prior approval, and more than that they will often have shipped back to them. Being a warranty service center can be a good thing for some. You will not make any money off warranty repairs themselves, but it's a sticker on your door, and you would be able to bill much of the non-warranty work that will accompany warranty repairs at fair rates. You take the good with the bad. It's a good customer service to offer as well. For me, I just don't want to deal with any warranty anymore, but that's just me. It works well for others.

If there were ever a reason to start a luthiers union (aside from health insurance of course) warranty labor rates would be a good motivation. Aside from perhaps Taylor, I don't have plans to go back to doing any warranty repairs for quite a while.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

hmm, yep, thats pretty much what i was expecting - thanks for the advice.

i think the sticker on the door will be good - not that i've ever been quiet in the workshop - but Gibson authorised repair shops dont really exist in the UK as far as i know outside the distributor.

"With Gibson it's pretty much anything up to 2 hours labor (at their low labor rate) you could do without prior approval, and more than that they will often have shipped back to them."

Thats the thing, its a fair few $ to ship the guitar back to the U.S so maybe it'll work out ok. My prices arent the highest (no complaints here tho!) but this will be a good reason to nudge them up a bit.
Its getting the work right that i'm possibly more concerned with firstly - getting hold of the gibson paints etc would be great, but the law prohibits them shipping outside the U.S. Making my own hasnt been a problem so far, it'd just be nice to get hold of the right stuff without too much fuss.

At this stage in my career it's hopefully a good move, but i cant help recalling someone (Rick Turner?) saying he spent a few years trying to get a Martin sticker on the door, then many more years trying to get rid of it...

call me dumb, but part of me just wants to get to play a shed-load of tasty Gibbo's!

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com

Not...

Wrong...

That's totally the opposite from what I ever said about doing Martin warranty work...

I was and am still considered authorized to do Martin warranty repairs, and it was always a very good thing for me. There is always work to do on guitars that come in that is not considered warranty work...fret mills, lowering action below spec, you name it. If you're good at the repair game, Martin's fixed prices are well worth the traffic increase that comes in because of the lower hourly rate. Consider it to be very well aimed advertising.

However...as a warranty repair station, you are working for and representing the company. You must be absolutely scrupulous about what is covered and what is not. 7 times out of 10, customers will try to get you to fudge the bill and get the company to pay for stuff that is NOT covered by the warranty policy. That's totally sleazy, and it's something I never stooped to.

I've even run into situations where that kind of dual responsibility thing bit me...I recommended a luthier who will go unnamed to do a D-TAR installation for a well known guitarist who will also go unnamed. The luthier wound up spending all day trying out various pickups with the artist, and the ultimate choice wound up being a different pickup...and the luthier wanted to charge me not only for putting my pickup in, but also taking it out. Meanwhile I had been trusting him to represent my interests in this, not to have him participate in a pickup shootout at my personal expense... I didn't care so much that the choice wound up being another company's product (and one which is no longer available...), but I felt absolutely betrayed by my brother luthier in this whole thing. When I complained to him and told him he'd been had by the "artiste", he responded by sending a copy of that private correspondence to the artiste's manager...a second breach of trust. He's the only luthier I can think of to whom I will not speak...

If you do warranty work or other work for a guitar company, just don't forget who you're working for and keep things clean...

Curtis,
Different manufacturers pay different rates - some are fair, others really aren't. I'd say Gibson falls into the second category. I think their pay scale is $30/hour. And as far as getting paint from them, it doesn't happen, not even in the U.S.. But you can get decals and replacement parts from them, which is very helpful. And it does bring in other work and reaise the profile of your shop.

Other manufacturers pay pretty fairly. Martin and Taylor are pretty close to my shop rates and Fender is somewhere in between.

The biggest reason I pursued and continue to offer manufacturer warranty service is it allows me to offer a valuable service to the retail music stores in my area. I help them with warranty issues on guitars on their walls and I help them keep their customers satified when a guitar under warranty fails. This has allowed me to build a relationship with several retail stores resulting in many referrals. And referrals are the best way to generate business.

Good luck.

That was pretty out of order of me to not look up my source there, hope you can accept my apologies Rick, sorry to offend. Really am. Whoever said it wasn't taking a shot at Martin in anyway at all, he'd just wanted to move away from warranty work - which I can understand in some circumstances, a victim of his own success i guess.

I've been doing warranty work for years for the store where my workshop is based, and had very few problems. I usually find most things are fairly cut and dried - although some customers may try it on I dont have a problem explaining to them the rules. I've always tried to offer the very best customer service and often exceed expectations at my own expense...but i have to put food on the table too of course.

Well, i've got a fair idea from everyone what the craic is, thanks for all your advice. Nothing to surprising (shame about colour tints but no worries there really) and 'dont bite the hand that feeds', even if it doesnt feed all that well at times. I envisage a long term relationship with Gibson hopefully so I fully expect a bit of give and take over the years.
The rate of pay with respect to the exchange rate could be a problem, although I'm sure it'll work out.
The raised profile cant hurt eh?

all the best,

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com