Official Luthiers Forum!

How do you get it? Do they offer a class?

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I've had to turn down martin neck resets which are the easiest to do but I am not certified. I also want to look into insurance and other business related things. I still plan on working out of my basement but I'd like to hang a sign.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I don't know anything about certification, but as I understand it, resets were only covered by Martin if it is still with the original owner, and in some cases I've read that Martin is less inclined to do resets even when the guitar is still with the original owner.
Martin has expanded their production to include the medium and low end markets under the Martin name where compromises on quality are common, and there is no money to pay for warranty repairs.

Ten or fifteen years ago, my son's Martin M36 which was purchased new, had a side crack in the waist apparently from stress during bending. It just popped one day when he was playing it. The local Martin certified service person referred it back to Nazareth for repair--he was primarily a violin repairman, and considered this repair to be out of his element of expertise. He then sent it on to Martin, and my son got it back in a couple of weeks as good as new. No signs of any damage or repair. Martin couldn't have been any better, and kudos to the local repairman for sending it along rather than attempting something he apparently wasn't comfortable doing.

Dave

Call Martin and ask them Sarge. We were awarded our certification because we are very well known in the business. Martin sends people our way.

Martin does not train repair people. There is an expectation with Martin that you are already a pro and very experienced before you approach them for certification. Taylor has a course and milestones and we did it and were certified with them. A few years later we dropped Taylor and only do Martin warranty work.

Now you mentioned neck resets. There has been a change in the Martin warranty which really is not a change but just a tightening up of what always was. Martin would pay us for a neck reset in the past when a client's Martin needed one. Now Martin only gets involved in a warranty neck reset if there is a clear indication of a failure of workmanship or materials.

That's how it should be too all acoustic guitars may need a neck reset in 10 - 30 years, it's expected and that serviceability should be built in to a guitar.

Call Martin and ask them you can ask them and that way you will have the latest info. But I think with Martin it's chops and experience first and then consideration for certification.

it isn't easy to get certified
A get insurance you need that as a business Heritage is what I ue
B No Classes
C call them You do need to be qualified it isn't like the old days
D they like it if you are connected to a Martin dealer

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Wanted to touch a bit more on what our experience has been as a Martin certified warranty center.

of course we receive referrals from Martin who come our way. But the real prize in our experience is that many Martin AND other high-end acoustic guitar owners see the Martin certification as what it is a credential that is earned and to some degree may.... may... translate into confidence in the work of that provider/repair center.

Don't know exactly how often this comes into play with people coming to us but I am sure that we receive more business that is not Martin warranty because we speak and do Martin warranty. All in all a good thing.

A word about Martin. Dave and I have very high standards at times too high to be profitable but that's who we are so we lose money at times going the extra mile. Who resets a Lemon Grove Taylor signed by Bob Taylor for free because they thought the prior work was substandard for a historic guitar so we set it straight. . But I digress.

Martin has very high standards too particularly with how well they want their clients treated. We are all over and all about this. As long as one is not an a...hole we are happy to help. I have turned away Martin warranty work several times because the client lied to me, I caught them in the lie, they admitted the lie and I called Martin and asked that they be sent somewhere else and let them know that the claim is not a valid warranty claim.

We have been told that we are the eyes and ears of Martin in our neck of the wood (community) and they appreciate our due diligence in keeping our mutual clients happy, doing great work and when need be calling out fraud and attempts to get something for nothing.

One guy came in with a D-15 with eight loose braces..... and the bridge peeling off. He wanted it fixed under warranty. I proceeded to notice what looked like a ladies nylon stocking in the sound hole. I tugged on the stocking and it came out and out and out until 4' of it came out of the guitar and in the toe was a sopping wet, dripping sponge that smelled to high heaven. I told the guy he ***** ** his own guitar and there would be no warranty service here. I have a way with people ya know...

He pushed back and I asked him to leave if he was going to be a liar with me. He apologized and we agreed to do the repairs but not under warranty. Stuff happens.

I personally was involved in a man with a D-35 that needed a neck reset. The guitar was 50 years old. He was the original owner and it was a gift to him when he was a little kid, nine IIRC. Of course a kid will not have sale receipts of documentation from when he was nine.

So we worked with the client and Martin to get this repaired AND covered under warranty. The BIG point here is that all three parties wanted to help and all three parties worked together to a common goal, getting it covered under warranty.

In the end Martin accepted a black and white photo of this man who was nine years old and missing a front tooth while holding his beloved D-35. It made all of our days to be a part of this and the guitar and customer are doing great today (I think....it's been a year since we heard from him). Point being that where some companies do not advocate for the client when it comes to covering something under warranty Martin does.

Also Martin staff are wonderful in all respects to work with they are smart, efficient, customer centric and knowledgable. Great company and I could not recommend their products and Martin as a company, organization, group of great folks more.

So here's our certificate that hang's right next to our Linda MacCartney photo of Jimi Hendrix when you climb the stairs to our Ann Arbor shop.

I've tried numerous times to get certified. Martin won't even talk to me, presumably because I'm not a retail store selling Martin guitars. This despite the fact that I am the only shop doing professional quality work in a large area around me. I regularly have customers bringing me warranty work and paying for it because they want me to do the job.

Don't even get me started on Taylor. I dropped them several years ago.

Hesh, I used to own a Lemon Grove Taylor sighed by Bob. Sure wish I had kept it! It was a different animal compared to mass-produced, over-built stuff.

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It will probably be alright.

Hesh wrote:
"That's how it should be too all acoustic guitars may need a neck reset in 10 - 30 years, it's expected and that serviceability should be built in to a guitar."

That statement makes a case for using bolt on necks. Most people don't consider the cost of an eventual neck reset when buying a guitar.

A little off topic but I don't think any company should be held responsible for the inevitable neck reset. But... It should be up front when purchasing a dovetailed neck over a bolt on, that it will cost 10X more to rest the dovetail. I am currently building a dovetailed guitar but it's for me and I plan on building a bolt on next.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Hey Greg! Yes the Lemon Grove Taylors are really what started it all for Bob AND proved that a Taylor can be a great sounding and playing guitar.

If you approach Martin again tell them that your friends Ann Arbor Guitars are not a selling dealer either, we don't sell a thing including strings now, too much of a time suck. That might help them consider you since there are Martin warranty centers who don't sell. I think John Hall is like us in this respect too.

A dissenting opinion: the consensus when I was at Greenridge was that - despite requests for our participation as the population of certified shops drops through retirement here in the NCR - we wanted to see Martin revamp their approach to certifying shops prior to signing on. This was based as much on the scarcity of certified shops we would refer warranty work to locally (FWIW, Mr. Hall's was the closest) as it was opportunity cost (regular work pays more than warranty). In any case, older Martins were seldom going to fall under warranty coverage in most cases, so for our shop, certification was not going to be a barrier to working on the vintage Martins we were interested in servicing.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan