WWYD?

[DocNrock]

What would you do?

I have a Soloist body on order.  It is mahogany with an Ultimate Choice spalted maple top.  Black binding and ordered with a clear gloss finish.  The top has a great spaled pattern in flamed maple.  It was routed for an HSH and a recessed Floyd.

Anyway, I got a call today from Rob.  He said that the spalt chipped off with the routing around the Floyd route and took some of the underlying mahogany with it.  I asked about gluing the piece back on but he said that was not an option.  W is willing to discount me $100.  The defect is not subtle.  I tried to post pics via Photobucket but apparently their server is down right now.  In the event I reject the body, I looked at the remaining spalted maple Ultimate Choice tops and dig none of them.

Kudos to W and Rob for callling me and giving me the option and this is in no way intended to be negative towards W.  I'm just looking for input.

What would you do?

 

[shanejw]

Are you set on the spalt?  Depends on how bad the chip is.  I'd like to see a pic.  That sucks all the same.

 

[dbw]

So is there any way to repair it or are you just gonna have a chip missing?  I'd try to get a refund and watch for a new lamtop... sucks

 

[GoDrex]

Will the bridge cover it and be structurally OK? If so I'd probably take it as is with the discount. But depends how on bad/noticeable it is.

 

[DocNrock]

Here, I was finally able to log on to Photobucket:

Alternatively, ask them to route it by hand to make it symmetrical?  :doh:

 

[RLW]

Tough call. I'll say this, if you hadn't pointed it out, I doubt I would have noticed it. If it was MY guitar, it would probably bug me.

 

[jimh]

Tough call. I'll say this, if you hadn't pointed it out, I doubt I would have noticed it. If it was MY guitar, it would probably bug me.

Agreed.  Probably no-one will ever know, especially if you had it routed to match on the other side.  No-one would know, except you that is.  Could you live with the knowledge that it's not quite 'right'.  It'd irritate me, I think.

Alternatively, suffer the wait and have them do another one for you.  What happens if you get unlucky and the same thing happens on that one?

Hmmmmm......decisions, decisions.......
:icon_thumright:

 

[DocNrock]

BTW, they still have the body; it has not yet been finished.  Those pics are from W.

 

[GoDrex]

OK - now that I see it, I'd be very bummed and probably wouldn't want it, but would be so torn I'd have trouble deciding. I also don't have nearly as many bad ass guitars as you do, so it would make it tougher for me. Sucks that they can't do something to fill that gap. I mean if a guy can have a floyd mounted on bowling ball material, you'd think something could be done about that hole.

 

[DocNrock]

After hearing your replies, and thinking about it some more, if they could route it to make it symmetrical, I'd probably accept it with the $100 discount.  Spalt is a freak of nature, and every pattern is different.  I have seen no new spalt tops since I chose this one, and none of the others do it for me.  This one was the shite, I thought.

Any other thoughts? 

And Gary, I didn't realize I had that many "badass" guitars.  Thanks, I guess!  Doug has more than me!

 

[GoDrex]

Well you have a lot more than I do. I mean you've got like like 3 Warmoths strats... I only have 3 electrics so... my point is that if I had like 10 guitars already I might just let this one go and try something else... but yeah tough decision no matter what.

 

[guitlouie]

Here is what I would do.  Keep it, take the discount, but make up some crazy story about how you did a lot of research and figured out that if you took just a little bit of wood out of the recessed Floyd route, the whole guitar would sound better and sustain for days.  That way when you finally make it big and your guitar genius is recognized by the rest of the world, there will be kids everywhere knocking chunks of wood out of their guitars, and old collectors will be paying 25,000 bucks to have exact replicas built.  JK, doc, but seriously, that looks like something I could live with, given that the spalt is unique enough to be the only one you have wanted.  It doesn't ever hurt to try to get a bigger discount in the process.  :laughing7:

 

[DocNrock]

OK, cool. I have two W Strats, but I do have a "3 1/2" other top-shelf guitars.  I thought you had more than that, Gary.

Anyway, here is my current thought.  Spalt is unique, and every piece is one-off.  This was a cool one-off.  If they can route it symmetrically, then I'll probably accept it, with the discount, of course, as it still is a defect.  If not, then I reckon they'll have to cancel the order.  I can't accept the asymmetry.  Is this unreasonable?

 

[ZackPomerleau]

Not at all, but I'd like it :-D

 

[GoDrex]

OK, cool. I have two W Strats, but I do have a "3 1/2" other top-shelf guitars.  I thought you had more than that, Gary.

I thought you had 2 of those cherry burst maples (the signature series ) and the new F-hole - , plus the WGD, plus whatever other stuff you've got.

I've got an W LP, a Strat and a  low end Parker - and an Ovation acoustic  - oh and a POS basswood star that I recently took apart for the pickups  - body and neck = crap.

 

[DocNrock]

OK, cool. I have two W Strats, but I do have a "3 1/2" other top-shelf guitars.  I thought you had more than that, Gary.

I thought you had 2 of those cherry burst maples (the signature series ) and the new F-hole - , plus the WGD, plus whatever other stuff you've got.


I've got an W LP, a Strat and a  low end Parker - and an Ovation acoustic  - oh and a POS basswood star that I recently took apart for the pickups  - body and neck = crap.

I sent back the most recent cherry burst as I was not going for a "sig series."  :toothy11:  The f-hole strat took the place of that one.

I do have the WGD body, but it will be a couple of months til the neck will be here (ordered along with the Soloist body above).  You are right, though, I do have three more on order, but they are not yet mine.  One of them is this Soloist...anything can go wrong.

Trust me when I say...you deserve more guitars than you have....I've heard your sound clips!

 

[DangerousR6]

ooooooooooh, that's a pisser. I'd say just have thenm even out the route, cause it looks like a spectacular spalt...... :dontknow:

 

[DangerousR6]

And one other thing, that's a thin ass lam top. Mine I bought is like 5/16" thick......That top looks paper thin..... :doh:

 

[DocNrock]

And one other thing, that's a thin ass lam top. Mine I bought is like 5/16" thick......That top looks paper thin..... :doh:

Precisely...I have a hard time imagining a strength defect in the spalt allowing a "chip" to be taken out of the underlying solid mahogany just because it was glued to it.

 

[GoDrex]

Thanks Doc. I don't really have the room for a lot of guitars though. I'd like a couple more and a bass. After that I'd feel like it was a bit excessive and hard to justify (for my wife and for myself - I really don't need that many guitars) And the guitars themselves cause me a lot of frustration and aggravation. I enjoy them and I like having them but damn if don't have terrible luck with them. All of them. The only guitar in my entire life that hasn't given me any grief is my low end Parker. That's why I can't bare to sell it. I can't get rid of the only guitar that's never made me crazy or cost me money on top of it's original price.