Sometimes there are days...

Hang in there Doug.... there are good days and bad days in your field just like there are good gigs and bad gigs. The ones where we say "why the fuck do we slog our gear up these flights of stairs for $100?" and then a few weeks later we have the one where we feel like rock stars on top of the world.

You've got some great people playing your guitars, so don't let one butthurt client get you down.
 
I know I'm just being moody and tired but I'm very close to just no longer taking orders, winding down whats on the books and deciding if this is really worth doing or not any longer. 7+ years of being a "starving artist" and that no matter how good the next guitar is, seems like it's never good enough gets very, VERY old.


Sadly I understand exactly how this feels.
 
Hang in there Doug.... there are good days and bad days in your field just like there are good gigs and bad gigs. The ones where we say "why the fuck do we slog our gear up these flights of stairs for $100?" and then a few weeks later we have the one where we feel like rock stars on top of the world.

You've got some great people playing your guitars, so don't let one butthurt client get you down.

There is a lot of truth to this. The upside is I get to hang out with Scott Holiday / Rival Sons thursday night and Blondie on Sunday. Much needed reprieve.
 
Check FS :wink:

There are a couple of extremely minor imperfections and one finish sink that could easily be remedied. Because we don't give refunds to "I don't like how it sounds- even though you built it as I ordered it" it always ends up "well there are all these million flaws so I want my money back". Offered to fix the problems and replace the body with a Spanish Cedar body on my dime and time to see if it was more to his liking. The response was so rude and upsetting we're just issuing a refund (even if it's against the terms and conditions he signed off on to place the order) just to get him out of my hair.

I know I'm just being moody and tired but I'm very close to just no longer taking orders, winding down whats on the books and deciding if this is really worth doing or not any longer. 7+ years of being a "starving artist" and that no matter how good the next guitar is, seems like it's never good enough gets very, VERY old.


That's tough.
When I was I high school, I worked at a place that sold TV sets, stereo equipment and appliances.
Everything from the cheap stuff to boutique.
Man, I absolutely hated working with the boutique shoppers. They could be spending big bucks on the top of the line stuff but there was always a problem and they wanted a discount.
Give me the janitor who's excited about his new flat screen any day over the jackass with enough money to convince himself his shit doesn't stink.
 
Kauer guitars are made for Players.... not cork sniffers.

Doug... If you end up keeping that one as a ship-out demo, you should put a quick connector between the pickups and the controls so the person trying out an Arcturus could choose between P90's and Humbuckers before you ship it for the trial run.
 
That's tough.
When I was I high school, I worked at a place that sold TV sets, stereo equipment and appliances.
Everything from the cheap stuff to boutique.
Man, I absolutely hated working with the boutique shoppers. They could be spending big bucks on the top of the line stuff but there was always a problem and they wanted a discount.
Give me the janitor who's excited about his new flat screen any day over the jackass with enough money to convince himself his shit doesn't stink.

You've got it. Something about guitars in the 2-3k price range that have always made my life miserable.

Kauer guitars are made for Players.... not cork sniffers.

Doug... If you end up keeping that one as a ship-out demo, you should put a quick connector between the pickups and the controls so the person trying out an Arcturus could choose between P90's and Humbuckers before you ship it for the trial run.

Not a terrible idea. I've actually thought about just putting a terminal strip in the cavity, you can just use a screw driver to change out the pickups.
 
image.jpg
 
ya 'cept if I built that I'd have the customer who bitches that the strap pin is off center (intentionally so). rotflmaorotflmaorotflmao

Believe me, man, we all have those customers.
I could tell you some stories but I'd be in violation of medical privacy laws. :grin:

But I can say one of the toughest customers I ever had was the lady who needed a 26" wide seat on her chair and complained it wouldn't go through a 24" bathroom door.
What kind of idiot am I to give her a chair that won't fit through the bathroom door?(even though you had it at her house already and showed her it won't fit through the bathroom door...)

???



Say, Maybe we should all chip in, though, and buy poor Ken a decent caliper.
 
Believe me, man, we all have those customers.
I could tell you some stories but I'd be in violation of medical privacy laws. :grin:

But I can say one of the toughest customers I ever had was the lady who needed a 26" wide seat on her chair and complained it wouldn't go through a 24" bathroom door.
What kind of idiot am I to give her a chair that won't fit through the bathroom door?(even though you had it at her house already and showed her it won't fit through the bathroom door...)

???



Say, Maybe we should all chip in, though, and buy poor Ken a decent caliper.

LOL. Don't even get me started, in my past life as a cabinet builder I can't tell you how often architects would complain to us how at 36" wide fridge wouldn't fit in a 30" opening. "Well I drew it on paper!" . Hmm, let me bend rules of physics here...

God I can relate to that.

I wish we could find the thread on HC about the crooked pickup rings for Doug. :embarrassed:

LOL
 
LOL. Don't even get me started, in my past life as a cabinet builder I can't tell you how often architects would complain to us how at 36" wide fridge wouldn't fit in a 30" opening. "Well I drew it on paper!" . Hmm, let me bend rules of physics here...

God I can relate to that.



LOL

Exactly.
All I'm sayin is don't take it too hard. Money reveals assholes like nothing else no matter what you're doing.

I always imagined that a guitar builder would be in an easier spot if he offered stock models. There it is. My design. Take it or leave it. Sure, QC issues are always there but it eliminates the "I asked for Sonic Blue. This is clearly three shades darker than Sonic Blue. I demand justice!" crowd.
 
Man, I get that and I don't even make anything... I just work in self storage. I got screamed at yesterday that we are locking the bathrooms at night. We're not. She insisted that we are and that she even talked to my boss about it previously and he said we could do her a favor and leave them unlocked for her, which is complete BS because it's just policy to leave them unlocked anyway. She's probably pissed off that somebody was dropping a deuce and there's only one bathroom, so it's our fault.
Heh heh heh heh, he said "dropping a deuce."
 
There's two kinds of customers who buy the $2000-$3000 guitars.

1) The guitarist who wants a custom spec'd guitar that fits a certain need and it costs that much. This buyer talks about the guitar first and never brings up money.

2) The person who has money and wants to tell people he spent a particular dollar amount. Doesn't matter what it is, but it cost a buttload, and that's the qualification of the bragging.

I went to high school with a guy who always bragged about how much he spent on stuff. I liked taking the wind out of his sails buy telling him that he got ripped off and could've gotten the same exact thing for less elsewhere. He would actually respond sometimes with "But, I spent this much. Isn't that cool?"


Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top