The Hub

I had lunch with a friend and client this week and we got on the topic of 'who did what and where' in the area, in terms of guitar repair. They brought up something that really felt like an object lesson in how rumors are propagated by people that don't understand the work that we do and I felt compelled to share.

This was repeated person to person and originated from the shop it happened at: a certain someone at a certain music store took a brand new MARTIN guitar off the shelf, and as it was mimed to me, drove a significantly large drill bit at high speed through the heel of the guitar into the neck block and blasted out through the top....

The back story is that an overworked and eager employee was expected to do something they had no experience with who is learning the trade and that the others wont do. But I remember that one. I fixed it. They were adding a strap button to the heel of an acoustic, made a mistake and drilled the wrong side with too large a drill bit and then blew out some finish attempting the other side.

Yes, they could have refused, but I think it was the day before tomorrow that I did the same thing and learned the consequences. I still do that sometimes. I shared that with them and a lesson was learned. They were upset and we talked it out, and I fixed the guitar and the customer was happy in the end.

This person works so hard at that store, and disproportionally to the others there, and they want to learn. I'm going to ask them to join me in my shop when they can.