Recent experience with Zon Guitars (do your research before buying)

[TFunkadelic]

This was clearly a case of a builder not doing the job correctly and then not having the professionalism to adequately evaluated it (and take care of his customer). I personally believe that you handled it with a great deal of patience and class. Most of us probably would have just exploded (especially after the problem worsened over time). I suspect that I would have just blown the bass out and let someone else handle repairing it (because I just don't like dealing with situations like that).

So glad to hear the you got the major part of the repair done and the bass is playable. But, shame on Zon for the way that they handled it!

Thanks. While the bass is not as clean as the day it left the shop, it plays and sounds the same and you'd only ever see the defect if you looked for it.



I used it for this little recording session recently if you'd like to hear it.

 

[mtdkingstonheir]

Thankfully, another boutique bass builder that I will definitely stay away from. They should have adddressed the problem right from the beginning. You've been incredibly patient. Fortunately, I'm dirt poor and couldn't afford one, anyhow. Sorry about all your trouble, OP. Hang in there!

 

[Thir13teen]

Do you have pictures of the initial hairline crack?

The reason why I ask is that that is a very common thing to happen (on both carbon fiber necked instruments like Zon, Modulus, Status, etc) or even painted wood-necked basses, and the vast majority of the time it is cosmetic. It settles, stays where it is, and nothing happens. Even without seeing the pictures from 2010, my suspicion is that that they genuinely did think it was cosmetic, because the vast majority of the time it is. Seeing the pictures from 2010 (or whenever the early pictures were) and 2019 would help.

But I wouldn't jump to misrepresentation or that they were trying to get out of making repairs. It is usually cosmetic and they did offer to repair it when it first happened. Besides, they didn't really get to assess it because all they had was a picture, so harder to hold them to that assessment. Maybe they would've felt differently if they had the instrument in their hands.

The other thing I'll say, and this can be frustrating to hear, is that the bass is 13 years old. It's going to need some maintenance from time to time, no different than a car. Usually that maintenance is minor, but every once in a while for some instruments it requires more extensive service. It's the nature of the beast. If you took your car under warranty to the dealership because you thought it was developing an issue, they offered to address it and you said no because of inconvenience, and then 12 years later that problem became worse, I think the service facility would be justified charge you for repairs to an out of warranty vehicle. They did offer initially.

Don't get me wrong- it sucks. I've had to completely refret two basses (not Zons) about a year after I got them and they were out of warranty. Been there and it was frustrating. Just trying to be objective to the situation.

Reasonable way to put it. After owning two Zon's I can say for sure that Joe Zon is one of the nicest & most accomodating bass company owners/reps that I've ever spoken two (talked at length probably 6 or 7 times over the years).

 

[MikeSpector]

They asked you to send it to them. More than once.

 

[Thir13teen]

I'll try to dig up the old pictures later on when I'm back home.

But I disagree with your take on the situation for a few reasons;

First, and perhaps I wasn't clear on this in my initial post (apologies if that's the case), Zon never offered to repair the crack FOR FREE even when the bass was under warranty. They claimed from the very beginning that it was a cosmetic issue and as such was not covered by the warranty, but that I could send it to them for refinishing. Furthermore, Joe Zon claimed (via an email I still have) that he had never seen this issue on his basses. If it makes a difference, I'm happy to provide a screen capture of that email. As the crack progressed over time (and after I sent updated pictures of the developing problem), they maintained that it was entirely cosmetic.

Second, to your point about maintenance and the automotive analogy...I have several basses, some older, some newer than the Zon, including a 1991 Modulus Quantum. All of them have required maintenance, as you mentioned, but none of them due to what is clearly a manufacturing defect like my Zon had.

Lets take a closer look at the automotive analogy. When I initially contacted Zon with my concerns about the finish crack (and I was concerned mostly because it made me question the long term stability of the neck) they told me that there was no problem with the bass that would be covered by warranty. They told me that the problem was cosmetic and that I would have to pay for it if I wanted it corrected. They maintained that position even as I provided them with pictures of the crack worsening over time.

Say I buy a brand new car from Toyota and when I'm driving off the lot I notice a small crack in the paint on the A-pillar. I go right back to the service department and point it out to them, and they tell me "oh that's a cosmetic flaw. it happens all the time on the A-pillar. it's a little annoying but it's not structural, and it's not covered by warranty." The crack continues to spread so I bring it back again and they tell me, once again, that it's cosmetic and not structural, not covered by the warranty. So I keep driving the car and one day as I'm on the road doing 30mph the car suffers chassis failure causing an accident and is a total loss due to the damage. If I have documentation of the worsening problem as well as Toyota's persistent denial that it's a problem at all, isn't it clear why I'd take issue with Toyota's handling of the situation? In fact, I think there'd be a pretty strong case for negligence on Toyota's part, especially if anyone was hurt.

It's worth pointing out, when car manufacturers have problems like this (especially involving safety of vehicles), there are often class action lawsuits that allow affected customers to claim damages even if the vehicles in question are now out of warranty.

I would think that Zon would do the easy thing; just replace the neck. On his end giving away a new neck is peanuts. One time I ordered a Modulus neck (back when you could do that in around 2010 or so) and the dealer (Bass Northwest) charged me $550. So that means that Bass NW probably pay around $300-$400 for the neck which means the neck probably cost Modulus $100 to make. So similarily, these numbers have to be close to Zon's. So at worst Zon would be fixing the problem for a couple hundred dollars which isn't anything especially when their instruments costs $4k-8k.

I could be completely wrong with his figures but say even if the neck cost him $1k, what's that to keep a customer happy when the neck is clearly flawed?