Intonation

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Why would you mess up your warranty for a botched intonation? The only thing I can think of is if you snap the truss rod or lose some parts. Any guitar company who would void a warranty because you intonated it would be not too trustworthy in my book.

Read any warranty on the planet some time. Any work not done by an authorized service center ALWAYS voids the warranty. It doesn't matter if the person doing the work is great, because if the factory hasn't authorized them, the factory has no way of knowing if the person is competent. If this provision of the warranty was not in place, and if it was not enforced, then the factory would end up being legally responsible for the fuck ups that happen when shitty repair people (or unknowledgeable amateurs) worked on guitars.

I could take a new guitar to the best tech on this planet. Say he goes and adjusts the truss rod and it snaps instantly (has happened), if he is not an "authorized dealer" then the warrantee would be void? Look at the shitty setups that the guitar manuf's do. Sounds like if this is true, we should not accept a new guitar unless the guitar manf's pay for a proper setup.

The factory (or actually, the company’s lawyers) writes up the warranty. They are free to warranty the instrument however they want. If they want to give no warranty, then that is their prerogative. Caveat emptor, pal. The only reason most companies give the really good warranties they give is because Martin does, and in order to compete in the guitar market, you need to have a good warranty. Martin used to cover an initial setup when you bought one of their guitars, but they decided that was normal maintenance, and stopped paying for it. I can't say as that I disagree with them, either. The only setup they would pay for was to "spec", and that is not the right setup for many people. I mean, you don't expect a car manufacturer to pay for routine maintenance, do you? This is the same reason they don't pay for fret work. These things are not defects in materials and workmanship, and so are not their responsibilities.

But the most important point to remember is that companies choose to offer warranties. They could just as easily say, "sold as-is," and never have to deal with it again. They don't. But they also get to choose WHAT they are willing to cover, and what restrictions are going to be on that warranty. Using only authorized warranty centers limits their liability, and also gives an incentive to warranty centers to BE warranty centers, because the major manufacturers do not pay us our full shop rate. As the late (and great) Mike Longworth of the Martin Company used to tell us, "we are not going to pay you what you think your worth, because we are such a big feather in your cap that you need us more than we need you." And he was right. I get a great deal of business out of being a Martin warranty center, and much of it is not warranty work.

Companies choose to give warranties, but if you don't read them, "Caveat Emptor," my friend.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Ed Dixon]

While warrenties do vary by guitar and company, setting intonation is not something usually required to be done by factory authorized personnal. PRS, Gibson, and Fender all include data on both their web sites and in documentation included with their guitars on how the owner can do this if desired.

Truss rod adjustment is usually worded differently, as this is a more significant change and more likely to result in a problem if done by someone with little experience in this procedure. Even then, the wording from the Gibson web site is:

"This adjustment should be performed by qualified repair personnel only - improper adjustment can result in damage! "

Note the term "qualified" as opposed to "authorized factory...".

As a general rule, if you work on your guitar and you mess it up, it's your problem. This is the case for guitars and most other consumer gear.

The question for each guitar owner is to understand what they feel confortable doing themselves and what they wish other techs to do.

Ed