Do you let others work on your guitar?

There wasn't a choice for me. I have changed the pick up myself but I wouldn't have a problem if someone else did it...actually I'd prefer someone else do it..save me the time.

I know some people enjoy tinkering around with their gear, one of the guys in the band makes his own pedals and is constantly fiddling with his gear modifying it etc.

I don't have any real desire to do that. I changed my pick up out of necessity only because I couldn't hook up with my buddy to do it. Changing the pick up took all of about 15 - 20 mins. total, extremely easy but quite boring to actually do.

I voted for the kneecap option.

But I WOULD have let other people work on them. When I got my first electric, almost 2 years ago, I WANTED somebody else to change the pickup selector switch, the nut, and one of the tone pots. Also could have done with them setting up the neck, as I was terrified to touch the truss rod.

I took it to the only electric guitar shop in town, and they totally screwed it up. Forgot the nut. Cleaned, but did not change, the switch. Charged me as if they had changed it. Resoldered the tone pot and charged me for a new one. adjusted the pickups to touch the strings.

Terrible work. And I looked for another shop. WHere I live, there is no other shop. So I started learning.

I can cut, and change, a nut. Bridge, intonation, pickup height and action adjustments are actually no big deal.

Can solder, if I have to.

Have shimmed one neck, though my "go to" guitar is a neck-thru, so that won't happen again.

Truss rod adjustments, with caution, brains, and an understanding of what you're doing, are also no big deal.

I can now do enough that, unless something catastrophic happens, I won't need anyone else to work on it.

And unless it's unavoidable, NOBODY touches my baby.

Best,
Ande

yes i let others i trust work on my guitars.
mostly because of the lack of a dedicated space where i feel safe leaving projects over extended periods.
that is all changing though. soon i will be working on several of my own projects.

Short answer: I let one person dress and level my frets. He can do almost anything, but that's all I need him for. And he needs about $125 each time, which is the price of some guitars, I guess? :?

I would like to know more than just how to change strings, but I won't touch anything else. Letting someone else do it saves my time. So far I've only needed a pickup changed. Granted it cost $80, but It was worth it to me.

I don't work on mine at all. I have a friend who builds guitars as a hobby, so whenever something needs to be done to one of my guitars I take it to him. Not only does he fix it, but he only charges me for parts!

:D

Depends on which guitar... I have too much respect for my nice guitars to risk screwing it up myself, :| but I had a lot of fun modding my Squier '51. Changed pu's, pots, pretty much all the hardware and didn't worry too much about ruining something expensive... but I'd leave that to a pro on my other guitars.

Dave "Who" Else

I don't really know what to say, I guess where I work and everybody I talk to, pretty much anybody I know has the mindset of "Lets do it and do it ourselves because anybody else will probably just screw it up and overcharge us anyway." I'm not trying to bash on anybody, I just figured if it's something you love, it's something you take care of yourself.

You're all a bunch of strange, strange birds :D

I'm fairly confident I can do most mods and repairs to any of my guitars. but when it comes to personal time constraints and warranty claims, I will hand them over if I have some confidence in the tech. OTOH, there are cases where I've decided to correct serious problems that are claimable under warranty. I repaired a serious body gouge (missing wood when received via web order) and rerouted and moved the trem assembly on my Eastwood Ichiban rather than return it. I really liked the guitar, and felt the chances were low of receiving a replacement with a properly placed trem (to my standards). but I would never recommend that course of action to someone else.

I'll do switches, pickups, tuners and such. I do pretty much all my set ups. I have filed a couple grooves in a nut and I shaved the saddle on my Taylor....all with success. I did have a touchy moment with this braided wire last weekend, but some google searches showed me how it was supposed to behave. My neck replacement fit in dead perfect.

I have yet to do any fret work, any real work on my acoustic or replaced a nut. I do have a neck witha broken truss rod in it. I guess if I had more money than sense, I'd set everything up and try to replace a truss rod. I'm only saving the neck for practice in replacing a nut in the event that I ever need to do it on a real live guitar. Same for frets, too.

I guess the only time I would really do any of this myself if it were broken and I needed to fix it like immediately, then I'd do it.

I'm pretty mechanically inclined and don't have any problems from a technical side...I just hate to do it..it's like work..no it is work and I'd rather let other people do that.

I don't have any real expensive guitars. None over $1000 so I'm not too worried about something happening and they are only pieces of wood and metal and can be replaced.

Now making my own pedals liek my buddy does that does picque my interest somewhat. i might be interested in doing something like that but again my buddy is so into it and has made so many, that I'd probably let him do it since he has the know how.

I only trust my babies to my care.

I voted for the kneecap option... I disslike anyone touching my girls after my brother pulled a townshend on one of my guitars. Granted it was only 50 from a pawn shop, but still. it was a nice hollowbody (jay turser ES355 copy). I know there are people who respect the instrument, but I dont want to take the chance of leaving one of my instruments with someone who doesnt. My thought on changing pickups/adjusting truss rod ect., is youtube is a godsend, and if you understand how the parts of the guitar work, you can fix/change them out.

Once you understand how to do the adjustments, you put alot more TLC into it and end up with a better setup IMHO