pickups and nut work, northern NJ

modavis99

modavis99

Gold Supporting Member
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1,465
I normally do a lot of my own tech work but I do not have the skill/patience to replace the pickups in my new 335. Can someone recommend a good, reasonably priced tech in northern NJ to replace the pickups in my 335 and maybe to fine tune the nut? Thanks in advance.
 
W

wscottarmstrong

Silver Supporting Member
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511
I had the exact same work done (rewire 335 and new nut) by Mike Virok at Bordentown Guitar Rescue. Bit of a drive for you (Exit 7 of Turnpike), but he does a nice job and turnaround is usually a day.
 
bobmc

bobmc

Silver Supporting Member
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2,504
I don't know of Vella, but +1 on Rob DiStefano and Mike at Bordentown (I work near there). Please do add the amazing Bill Baker of Dave's Sound Repair to your resource list.
 
jmoose

jmoose

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4,726
bobmc said:
Please do add the amazing Bill Baker of Dave's Sound Repair to your resource list.
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I'll burn my guitars before Bill ever touches another thing again.

Last time I brought him a guitar was for a Tele that needed a new nut... quoted me $50-60 I said sounds great!

Couple weeks later I picked it and he hit me with a bill for $180!!!!

He decided to, without asking me when I dropped it off or even a phone call to ask permission give it a partial fret dressing, shim the neck and rewire pickups that had purposely been wired out phase among other things.

I paid it under severe protest and said if you take my money I'm gonna tell everyone I know about this.

He took my money and I'm telling everyone I know.

Guys like him are why I learned how to do this stuff myself.

Its not like that Tele was the first thing he screwed me on either but it was certainly the very last.

Don't get me started on the PRS rewire from hell but I'll GLADLY tell that story too if you want to hear it.
 
lifeson1

lifeson1

Silver Supporting Member
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2,851
Yeah, Bill has always been straight with me. In fact, he actually called me before asking permission to do any additional work to my guitar, and this as eight years ago.

Personalities aside, they do great work up there.
 
tjontheroad

tjontheroad

Just Wanna Be Misunderstood
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8,521
More props for Mike Virok at Bordentown Guitar Rescue :aok

If you call and make an appointment, he probably could do the job while you wait.
 
bobmc

bobmc

Silver Supporting Member
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@jmoose : there is always a first for everything, so, sorry to hear you're the only guy who was unhappy with Bill. Full disclosure of work, called with add-ons, on time, and the work was stellar. He has always been a total pro with me. Dave (who I do use occasionally) is well, Dave and he will never win a prize for his people skills.
 
jmoose

jmoose

Member
Messages
4,726
bobmc said:
@jmoose : there is always a first for everything, so, sorry to hear you're the only guy who was unhappy with Bill.
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I'm pretty far from the only guy who's been unhappy. Actually I know someone who had to get the police involved when items went missing and heard a similar story just a few weeks ago.

Glad he's done good work for you. Those guys did good work for me too at one point but I, and some other good friends have been burned too many times.

Feel free to ask details if you want. I have nothing to hide.

And again, they gladly took my money for subpar work knowing full well that I'll tell my stories.

There are just far too many other people in the area doing great work to deal with the stoned out shennagains of Dave and Bill.
 
bobmc

bobmc

Silver Supporting Member
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2,504
jmoose said:
I'm pretty far from the only guy who's been unhappy. Actually I know someone who had to get the police involved when items went missing and heard a similar story just a few weeks ago.

Glad he's done good work for you. Those guys did good work for me too at one point but I, and some other good friends have been burned too many times.

Feel free to ask details if you want. I have nothing to hide.

And again, they gladly took my money for subpar work knowing full well that I'll tell my stories.

There are just far too many other people in the area doing great work to deal with the stoned out shennagains of Dave and Bill.
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Please excuse the phrase 'the only guy'; that sounds contentious and that was not my point.
 
jmoose

jmoose

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4,726
MikeMcK said:
I'm surprised to hear that about Bill and sorry that happened. I haven't been to Dave's in a long time (moved out of that area), but Bill was my #1 guy for a long time.
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Like I said, I used 'em for a long time too and dropped off anything I couldn't do or didn't have time to do myself...

Everyone can have a bad day and/or a "problem" piece that needs rework but its all in how things are handled and both of those guys handled rework on guitars and amps very poorly to be nice about it.

The Tele wasn't an isolated incident. Overall it was probably the 4th or 5th of that many guitars in a row to have problems and need a return visit like the aforementioned PRS rewire from hell. Dropped off for a simple, one pickup swap. Grabbed it on the way to rehearsal and it was shorting/cutting out. Called Bill immediately, within the hour and said its coming back. Ended up going back a few times, still wasn't right and kept charging me each time... ended up having someone else rewire the whole thing from scratch. That's the short, short version.

About a month ago I discovered Dave had also completely lied to me about some work he did on my '61 Bandmaster. When I got the amp it had a couple issues and dropped it off, said he did a full recap among other things. Got it back working, never questioned it because he had always done me right and maybe... like an idiot I never checked inside either.

Earlier this year the amp stopped working. Didn't blow up, just quit. Opened it up myself to check for something obviously blown and there were no changed caps... it was 95% original. So why I did get charged for a full recapping??? When I got the amp back from Fuchs, holy guacamole I had no idea how sick that thing had been. It was twice as loud and way way juicer.

Dave built his whole business around those red stickers. Now I see them as warning labels.

Like I said, I gave up on those guys long ago.

After several bad experiences in a row I used Jimmy at Sommatone until he moved to Austin. One of my friends still brings guitars to his guy in NJ and is way happy. I haven't given him anything myself but I can say everything plays great. At the same time I'm not sure my buddies had anything more then wiring and setups done. Certainly nothing that needed a refret or major work.

For amps I'm sold on Fuchs.

Guitars go to Geoff Vella, usually through the Music Den because they're about 10 minutes up the road from me.

He's a real luthier... the kind of of guy you can hand a pile of raw lumber and he'll hand you back a finished instrument.

If people are happy with Dave & Bill that's great. I truly wish them well and have no ill feelings but they lost my business and had many chances to win it back.

If anything I should thank them, because if they hadn't done such crappy jobs for me and a couple of close friends I never would've discovered people who are better and often, less expensive.

Peace.
 
bobmc

bobmc

Silver Supporting Member
Messages
2,504
tjontheroad said:
More props for Mike Virok at Bordentown Guitar Rescue :aok

If you call and make an appointment, he probably could do the job while you wait.
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Just got back from picking up my amp from Bordentown/Jaded Faith; those are two very nice, very professional guys (nowhere near Morris county).
 
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