• Ernie Ball
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  • Sterling by MusicMan
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BigMESA

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My BFR has scratch marks too so that's not that big of a deal. A little annoying when you spend so much $$$ on a guitar and the strings scratch trough to the wood, but what can you do :eek:

My other JP6 has a nut issue like yours too except it's only on the high E string (.10 string) and it buzzes cause it lays on the first fret. Unfortunately for me I bought the guitar from a friend about 2 months after he purchased it new back in November of 08 so even though it's still in it's first year, it's a non-transferable warranty so I'm screwed there but don't get me started on that one.....

Anyways I feel your pain, good luck with customer service they really are a great team. If it is still under the first year warranty I'd take it back to my dealer and make them pay all shipping costs to have it fixed right.
 
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Jun 2, 2009
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Okay, I brought my guitar to the music shop and they are sending it out to either an Ernie Ball official report depot (or whatever it's called) or a Music Man factory (or whatever THAT'S called). Hopefully it doesn't take ten years to get back since I live in Canada and it would be a while if it were shipped out to the SoCal location that customer service said it may get sent to.

Oh, funny side note: The store clerk guy said that he has a habit of making snap judgements of people by the gear they own and then said, "...and I LOVE this guitar!"
 
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Well, I phoned up the store and asked what in God's name is happening with my guitar. They told me it was sent all the way to the California MM... place... (That's either a factory or some kinda' repair depot). The thing is they said they didn't send it out until August 11th because they had to wait for an "RA" number! OVER A MONTH wait for an "RA" number? What the hell? I guess I'll be waiting another few weeks to get it back.

As long as it comes back lookin' spankin' I guess it will have all been worth it :)
 

kimonostereo

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Jul 26, 2009
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I have to say that EBMM customer service is top rate. My current Luke II I got sometime in 2002 I believe had some severe fret dressing right out of the case. I tried really hard to like the guitar but could never really enjoy playing it because the high E string would always fall right off the finger board because the frets were dressed so drastically.

At first I thought it was the nut that was the problem but I wasn't sure because I only owned a Luke I previously. I knew that EBMM only turned out top notch instruments so I was puzzled that my guitar had this issue. I ended up not playing it for about a year and a half. Each time I took it out to play I'd get frustrated and put it back in the case. I finally went down to a local shop and tried out a different Luke to see what the difference was. By the time I finally tried a new one, they already had the new compensated nut on it and it played beautifully. I decided to call customer service.

EBMM took care of it. The guy I spoke to, I forget who it was had me ship the guitar to them. According to him, the frets were over dressed and they decided to just get me a whole new neck rather than refretting it. When I got my Luke back, it was good as new AND it had the new compensated nut installed. They were also very cool with setting up the guitar to factory specs for me since it was already there at the factory.

Lesson learned: EBMM makes quality instruments that they stand behind. If in doubt, simply call customer care and ask! I never should have waited so long.
 

emanon

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Sep 2, 2006
Messages
149
Crap, I'm late to the game again. Well, no reason in wasting it, I may as well go ahead and add to the usual pile - Call Customer Service.
 
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Jun 2, 2009
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it takes 5 minutes to gt an ra....Im not covering for a dealer that drops the ball and blames us

Oh, I don't get me wrong. I was specifically calling out the store. I think they have major issues when it comes to being on top of things coming and going from their store. Anytime I've had something ordered from them it takes weeks for the item to come in. My friend purchased a guitar from them that they didn't have in stock at the time and it took over two months to get in. It's ridiculous there.

I like the selection of the store and the prices, and the guitar tech that works for them is really good, but they act like chickens with their heads cut off when it comes to staying on top of paper work, or so it seems.

Luckily I've been building a guitar for the last couple of months, which took up most of my free time anyway, and it's finally finished so I can play that in the mean time :D
 
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Hmmm... Well, I got my guitar back today and oddly, at least aesthetically it's kinda' worse off than it was originally (well, it seems to be). [Mods, if any of these remarks are inappropriate let me know. I'm not trying to rant or anything]

Least importantly the re-finishing around the nut is a little weird (I can feel the ridges of the finish around the neck where they must have had it taped and it looks kinda' weird behind the nut) but if everything else was good than I wouldn't think much of it since that's not a big deal (I'm simply going to use my sanding powers to fix the side ridging so that's no biggy). Unfortunately the reason I sent the guitar out in the first place was because ONE string's nut slot was too low - well now at least three are freakishly low (unless Petrucci specifically wanted the strings to be microscopically close to the first fret). The low E string's slot is SO low, in fact, that on the upper side of the nut (the side closer to the tuners) the string is cutting right into the neck. And, I'm not talking about that little bit of rubbing that we all experience, I mean full out there's 'slotting' in the neck now. It almost looks like it was specifically slotted.

The guitar really plays well (then again it seemed to play fine before too, other that that one string) but when I take my feeler gauge out and press down on the third fret then try to slide any size gauge under the first fret I can't (most setup places say that there should be .005mm of clearance). The string actually touches the first fret, on the low E until I press higher than fret 8 or so.

Something I didn't realize, but is not anyone's fault, is that while the warranty allowed the guitar to be sent to MM for free I still had to pay for the labor and nut cost - which I only mention because it's kinda' weird that I would be recommended to send the guitar all the way to California from my Canadian address when, for the same price, I could have gotten someone here to do the nut swap and small re-finish. But again, that's no one's fault in particular.

Here's a pic of the 'slotting' in the neck now (and the weirdness behind the nut):
p1010463u.jpg



Oh, one thing I should mention is that the setup is friggin' perfect. Who ever set up the guitar before sending it out sure knew what he was doing.
 
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Joined
Jun 2, 2009
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Again, did you contact customer service before posting this?

EB setups are fantastic! I wouldn't worry about the tape line, but if it bothers you it is easy enough to feather out.

Yeah, I edited my post a bit. The side finish edges are easy enough to fix but there isn't really anything that customer service can help with, I was just concluding this threads adventure. I just played the guitar for a good hour and it's playing like a dream (to be expected) so as far as the cutting on the neck behind the nut... well, life goes on. Even if I was a crazy person that sent the guitar back again, which I'm not, it wouldn't be worth the expense.
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
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Oh, cool. I opened up with control cavity to slap in a push/pull tone knob and I noticed that they fixed a wacky wiring problem I had with one of the pickups. So... thanks... guy who did that ;)
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
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^Yeah, weird hu? I'm not sure how they were able to change the nut and do the finishing with the strings on but the only alternative theory would be that they took the strings off then just put them back on when they were done... which seems like more trouble than it's worth. Oh, well they were brand new strings right before I sent the thing out anyway.
 
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