Short version:
Best luthier in the Sacramento Area
Link Removed
Long version of my experience at his shop yesterday below:
I live in the Sacramento area and have recently purchased a MIM Fender Active Jazz Deluxe. The setup was a little rough when I bought it (new) but being a player returning from a very long layoff I didn't really notice it untill I had been playing it a little while.
I took it to the store where I bought it a couple weeks later to have thier tech look at it and he found a pretty bad "hump" in the fretboard near the part where it joins the body. In his opinion it needed to be sent back to fender for repair. I was bummed. Then I thought, just a sec, this store has a good return policy and they have an identical model in stock, what about replacing it? The store did this glady, after the tech deemed it a good one, and he then did a full setup, new strings too because I liked the DR lowriders better than the stock fenders.
All was ok for a couple days but something seemed off. I've been reading here since july and decided (stupidly so) to try to adjust out some of the annoyances myself. I got close a couple times, got it way out of wack even more times, and decided to look for a pro to bring it to to fix my mistakes.
I live very near the sacramento Carvin store so I called them to see if they had a onsite tech, which they don't but they recommended I go see Woody Boyd, a long time Sac Lutiher.
He was fantastic. This gentleman has a genuine passion for stringed instruments. His whole business is geared to very, I mean very personal service. I'm a rank amature and he treated me like a long time pro. He invited be into his work area and shot the breeze with me while he worked.
He explained some of the factory faults with my bass and how to remedy them and he set to work. This thing was buzing like a bee hive when I brought it in and didn't have much sustain no matter what I tried. His first step was to clean the fretboard with some steel wool, check fret heights (all ok thankfully) He then shaved some of the height off the nut to stop it from causing the strings to not vibrate freely. That single step has made her sing like an angel.
Then he removed the neck from the body to see why there was such a big gap between them. It was caused by the globbed on excess paint that hadn't been cleaned out at all. Big gobs in the corners. He expertly shaved it off with chisel and made it completely flat. Then he installed the neck, put on new carvin strings (made by GHS I believe he said, nickle rounds, soft and smooth and great sounding) Then trued the neck to the strings so that they are the same distance from the edges of the fretboard (which they weren't from the factory)
Then it was onto neck reliefe, saddles, pickup heights, intonation, de mucking my fingerprints wiping down dusting etc, just really fussing over it like it was the most important bass in the world. All the while, teaching me about what he was doing and explaining everything as he went along.
I was very impressed. Standing there in his shop surrounded by beautiful instruments in various stages of construction/repair soaking this all in.
Then we went into his lounge/studio to give her a run thru. He plugged me into his mixer and out of a 18" sub cabinet. WHOA! The genie was let out of the bottle. The combination of his talented work, and these strings just made it sound awsome. Growl, bottom end, ring, sustain, clarity everything wonderful.
I thanked him a million times for both the work and the great experience, paid him underpaid really, and brought her home.
I played like 5 hours yesterday and almost all day off and on today. It's held tune like a champ, rock solid stable, comfortable to play and sounds amazing.
Any of you norcal guys looking for a Sac area tech, I highly recommend you go see woody. For anything with strings except pianos. He's a class act that strives to give real service and pass on his knowledge to anyone that cares to listen.
For anyone that's actually read all this, sorry about gushing so much about a setup, but I just felt that in this day where real service is a rarity, someone like Woody deserves to be gushed over. He's the real deal.
Here's a link to his site and a bunch of info about him and his shop
Link Removed
Best luthier in the Sacramento Area
Link Removed
Long version of my experience at his shop yesterday below:
I live in the Sacramento area and have recently purchased a MIM Fender Active Jazz Deluxe. The setup was a little rough when I bought it (new) but being a player returning from a very long layoff I didn't really notice it untill I had been playing it a little while.
I took it to the store where I bought it a couple weeks later to have thier tech look at it and he found a pretty bad "hump" in the fretboard near the part where it joins the body. In his opinion it needed to be sent back to fender for repair. I was bummed. Then I thought, just a sec, this store has a good return policy and they have an identical model in stock, what about replacing it? The store did this glady, after the tech deemed it a good one, and he then did a full setup, new strings too because I liked the DR lowriders better than the stock fenders.
All was ok for a couple days but something seemed off. I've been reading here since july and decided (stupidly so) to try to adjust out some of the annoyances myself. I got close a couple times, got it way out of wack even more times, and decided to look for a pro to bring it to to fix my mistakes.
I live very near the sacramento Carvin store so I called them to see if they had a onsite tech, which they don't but they recommended I go see Woody Boyd, a long time Sac Lutiher.
He was fantastic. This gentleman has a genuine passion for stringed instruments. His whole business is geared to very, I mean very personal service. I'm a rank amature and he treated me like a long time pro. He invited be into his work area and shot the breeze with me while he worked.
He explained some of the factory faults with my bass and how to remedy them and he set to work. This thing was buzing like a bee hive when I brought it in and didn't have much sustain no matter what I tried. His first step was to clean the fretboard with some steel wool, check fret heights (all ok thankfully) He then shaved some of the height off the nut to stop it from causing the strings to not vibrate freely. That single step has made her sing like an angel.
Then he removed the neck from the body to see why there was such a big gap between them. It was caused by the globbed on excess paint that hadn't been cleaned out at all. Big gobs in the corners. He expertly shaved it off with chisel and made it completely flat. Then he installed the neck, put on new carvin strings (made by GHS I believe he said, nickle rounds, soft and smooth and great sounding) Then trued the neck to the strings so that they are the same distance from the edges of the fretboard (which they weren't from the factory)
Then it was onto neck reliefe, saddles, pickup heights, intonation, de mucking my fingerprints wiping down dusting etc, just really fussing over it like it was the most important bass in the world. All the while, teaching me about what he was doing and explaining everything as he went along.
I was very impressed. Standing there in his shop surrounded by beautiful instruments in various stages of construction/repair soaking this all in.
Then we went into his lounge/studio to give her a run thru. He plugged me into his mixer and out of a 18" sub cabinet. WHOA! The genie was let out of the bottle. The combination of his talented work, and these strings just made it sound awsome. Growl, bottom end, ring, sustain, clarity everything wonderful.
I thanked him a million times for both the work and the great experience, paid him underpaid really, and brought her home.
I played like 5 hours yesterday and almost all day off and on today. It's held tune like a champ, rock solid stable, comfortable to play and sounds amazing.
Any of you norcal guys looking for a Sac area tech, I highly recommend you go see woody. For anything with strings except pianos. He's a class act that strives to give real service and pass on his knowledge to anyone that cares to listen.
For anyone that's actually read all this, sorry about gushing so much about a setup, but I just felt that in this day where real service is a rarity, someone like Woody deserves to be gushed over. He's the real deal.
Here's a link to his site and a bunch of info about him and his shop
Link Removed
