Anyone know where to get a guitar body painted?

[ubit]

I have an old Status Eclipse that gigged with me faithfully for years since the mid 90's. It was looking rather tired and sorry for itself with some not very cool bashes and scratches etc. I decided to paint it myself and now regret it. I have tried to remove the paint but all I end up doing is taking everything off. I would like to rub it right down and start again. Trouble is, I have no way of doing this easily as I have no where to do it other than outside and I don't want to do that if I can help it. I would rather send it to someone who could do a professional job of painting and refurbishing. Does anyone know of anyone who does this? If this is in the wrong forum please excuse. I just thought this one would be the most noticed. Obviously I am prepared to pay and would just love the bass back to the lovely black burst that it came in originally.

[anzoid]

I had a bass body refinished by Jack's Instrument Services in Manchester (https://jacksinstrumentservices.com/) a few years back. I'd stripped the body, but it was in kinda rough shape. They sanded and filled the body, prepped it and did an excellent job of a bright yellow nitro sprayed finish. Flawless result and the all comms etc. were excellent. Cost about £200 the, possibly would be more now. Worth dropping them a line as they're still working and the they were very easy to deal with.

[ubit]

7 minutes ago, anzoid said:

I had a bass body refinished by Jack's Instrument Services in Manchester (https://jacksinstrumentservices.com/) a few years back. I'd stripped the body, but it was in kinda rough shape. They sanded and filled the body, prepped it and did an excellent job of a bright yellow nitro sprayed finish. Flawless result and the all comms etc. were excellent. Cost about £200 the, possibly would be more now. Worth dropping them a line as they're still working and the they were very easy to deal with.

Cheers mate, do you know if they can do burst paint schemes? My Status was Blackburst which was black fading into natural wood. Really lovely. If possible I would love to get it redone in original.

[pete.young]

2 hours ago, ubit said:

Cheers mate, do you know if they can do burst paint schemes? My Status was Blackburst which was black fading into natural wood. Really lovely. If possible I would love to get it redone in original.

Have you thought about sending it back to Rob Green?

[ubit]

8 minutes ago, pete.young said:

Have you thought about sending it back to Rob Green?

Rob Green? Is he from Status? If so, I dropped them a mail a few days ago asking about this and have had no reply.

[Owen]

I have used retro169 on facebook several times with excellent results. 

[ubit]

I have dropped e mails to quite a few people now and not one has got back to me as yet. Either they are so busy or they don't care.

[pete.young]

Just now, ubit said:

I have dropped e mails to quite a few people now and not one has got back to me as yet. Either they are so busy or they don't care.

Some people don't respond to emails. Sometimes you're better to just pick up the phone.

[TheGreek]

Try emailing Dawn Green (Rob's wife) Always been super efficient when I contacted her.

[email protected]

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, pete.young said:

Some people don't respond to emails. Sometimes you're better to just pick up the phone.

IMO this is an appealing state of affairs. If your a business and don’t want to deal with your customers by email, then don’t give out an email address. However in this day and age if you can’t deal with email enquiries you probably shouldn’t be in business.

[4000]

57 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Try emailing Dawn Green (Rob's wife) Always been super efficient when I contacted her.

[email protected]

This always amuses me because in all my dealings with her - quite a lot at one time - she was the exact opposite! Maybe I was just unlucky.

[Woodinblack]

28 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

IMO this is an appealing state of affairs. If your a business and don’t want to deal with your customers by email, then don’t give out an email address.

Fully agree with that, I have spent leads of money dealing with people who can answer email, and saved myself quite a bit buy not doing business with people who couldn't. 

[fretmeister]

2 hours ago, ubit said:

I have dropped e mails to quite a few people now and not one has got back to me as yet. Either they are so busy or they don't care.

Or maybe, just maybe, there’s a world event that is getting in the way of regular business at the moment.

 

sure I read about something like that recently.

[Woodinblack]

34 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Or maybe, just maybe, there’s a world event that is getting in the way of regular business at the moment.

 

sure I read about something like that recently.

well, there is an autoreply you can put on an email saying 'sorry, we are closed at the moment due to the pandemic, we will get back to you later'. Or someone could just answer they email, if it is their business and they want it working when they reopen.

[Owen]

https://www.facebook.com/Retro169/

 

[anzoid]

14 hours ago, ubit said:

Cheers mate, do you know if they can do burst paint schemes? My Status was Blackburst which was black fading into natural wood. Really lovely. If possible I would love to get it redone in original.

Mine was a solid colour, but they do their spraying in house (at least they did then...) and seem able to turn their hand to anything.

[Cuzzie]

Rob and Dawn have always been good with me too - sometimes it takes a couple days, but they are good to deal with and good people.

I have had occasions where Rob and Dawn have replied to an email practically at the same time, probably from different rooms in their house!

I am sure there is a lot of work behind the scenes with getting back to work, furlough/unfurlough etc. 
 

Whatever you decide, hope you get a job done to your satisfaction

[BigRedX]

12 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

well, there is an autoreply you can put on an email saying 'sorry, we are closed at the moment due to the pandemic, we will get back to you later'. Or someone could just answer they email, if it is their business and they want it working when they reopen.

Very much this. Even if you're not tech savvy enough to work out how to create an auto reply, it takes less than a minute to copy and paste a standard we’re closed or too busy to take on new work at the moment into an email and hit send. I very much doubt that any of these businesses are getting so many emails every day that they cannot keep up. 

[ubit]

Even if a business is closed from the lockdown they would still have access to e mail. Thats a poor excuse and as said, if you want your business to continue after lockdown then you should treat customers appropriately.

[ubit]

On 08/05/2020 at 21:48, owen said:

https://www.facebook.com/Retro169/

 

Messaged him and am still waiting on a reply two days later.

[fretmeister]

53 minutes ago, ubit said:

Messaged him and am still waiting on a reply two days later.

National Holiday for VE Day and a weekend?

 

Are you available to work emails 24 hours a day?

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

National Holiday for VE Day and a weekend?

 

Are you available to work emails 24 hours a day?

I'm self employed, and while I don't respond to work emails 24 hours a day, I would take the time to reply (especially to a new customer enquiry) ASAP even if it was only to say that I had seen the email and will give a more comprehensive answer on my next working day, and let them know when that will be.

I suppose it might be down to how many of these "refinishers" do it as a hobby rather than making a full time living out of it, but if you are offering a paid-for service then it is poor business practice IMO not to reply reasonably promptly. Maybe they are best avoided - after all if they can't find the time to answer a simple email, who knows how long they will take to refinish your instrument, and how easy it is going to be finding out how things are progressing while they do?

[fretmeister]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

I'm self employed, and while I don't respond to work emails 24 hours a day, I would take the time to reply (especially to a new customer enquiry) ASAP even if it was only to say that I had seen the email and will give a more comprehensive answer on my next working day, and let them know when that will be.

I suppose it might be down to how many of these "refinishers" do it as a hobby rather than making a full time living out of it, but if you are offering a paid-for service then it is poor business practice IMO not to reply reasonably promptly. Maybe they are best avoided - after all if they can't find the time to answer a simple email, who knows how long they will take to refinish your instrument, and how easy it is going to be finding out how things are progressing while they do?

I’m self employed too.

Emails are reviewed in working hours. Bank holidays and weekends are not working hours.

 

Separation between work and home life is important. 

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

I’m self employed too.

Emails are reviewed in working hours. Bank holidays and weekends are not working hours.

Separation between work and home life is important. 

I think my attitude is slightly different. Being self employed allows me to work when I want as long as I deliver on time.

Even when I am having time off from work, I always have time for a quick email to acknowledge the receipt of anything that has been sent.

Edit: Also I work in a "creative" industry (as I would count someone who does guitar finishing) designing packaging for other small businesses, and often my customers/clients are busy creating/producing what they do during the day and only have time to look at what I have done for them afterwards (evening and days off), when they will reply with comments. IMO it is good business practice to send them a quick acknowledgement that I have seen what they have sent me and will be attending to it during my next work period.

Edited May 10, 2020 by BigRedX

[Owen]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

Messaged him and am still waiting on a reply two days later.

Paul responds to me (and I am 5 resprays in to this relationship) in what the vast majority of us would consider "work" hours.