I'd like to have it taken care of, but the only person who will do it for free (under guarantee) is the tech that screwed it up, and I'm extremely reluctant to bring anything to that tech. So it's either deal with it, entrust it to the person who messed it up in the first place, or spend more money I really don't have and either roll the dice with another new tech or go back to the one that took care of it the time before last. Not really good choices all around - I'm definitely regretting having the work done now.
This sucks.
HomeRec - for what it's worth, from the description you've given us, I don't think that it's fair to say the tech "screwed it up" when he set up your guitar. Rather, he seems to have done the sort of setup job that most of us would consider a good setup - he corrected your intonation (which was almost certainly off if it hadn't been set in 20 years) lowered your action, and straightened some excess bow out of the neck. Most people would pick up the "after" guitar and, comparing it to the "before" guitar, would say that it plays way better and your tech was pretty good.
The problem here though is that while the setup now corresponds to what the MAJORITY of players would consider a good setup, it's not right FOR YOU. Some guys just dig higher action - I can confirm that sometimes a higher setup DOES feel a little "slinkier" under the fingers, and that bending can be tough on lower action than you're used to because it's tough to get your fingers "under" the strings and to get enough leverage.
So, you can do one of two things. One, live with it, wait for your taste in setups to change, and gradually begin to feel comfortable on a neck that will allow you to play faster and smoother than before, or two, take it back to the tech and say, "I appreciate your work, but really I just can't get used to the lower action. Can you raise it a bit?" He can't file back the nut, but he could certainly put some more bow back in the neck and raise the bridge a hair, which would return action across most of the neck to where you like it (the first fret or two would probably still feel a little low to you, but I'm guessing most of your current problem is higher on the neck than this).
So, really, the tech doesn't seem to have "screwed anything up" to me, or really done anything wrong except maybe make
absolutely sure you knew what he meant when he said he wanted to reshape the nut. I suspect the guy's pretty competent, and would be more than happy to add a little more neck relief to raise the action for you, probably free of charge.
EDIT - and +1 to just sucking it up and learning how to set up your own guitars. This is the main reason I learned how to do tech work (or rather, the mainr eason was I'm naturally inquisitive and couldn't resist tinkering, but after the fact this is how I justify it
) - only you know exactly how you want a guitar to play; a tech can set up a guitar just fine, but he won't know what "perfect" is to
you. This is a huge advantage you have over every tech in the world.
