Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm livid at Stew Mac and very sorry that I recommended them all of these years.

Something has changed there and it does indeed smell to high heaven as well.

Ordered my second amp kit in two weeks, that's $2K from me in two weeks and there is a defective part.

Now get this you can no longer call StewMac, it's impossible they won't list a number and claim to be all virtual now. When you use the contact us feature on their site it does not work half the time and will get locked up. I have had a request into them to help me for over a day now and no reply except for the original automatic email that they send when they receive an email.

If you have already emailed them their software will not permit you to email them again unless you work around their BS and use a second email address..... What kind of crap is that???

Nonetheless they have spammed me everyday as well since my initial order two weeks ago for the 57 Tweed. Sunday I ordered the 59 Tweed and the grill panel is defective in that the bolts are out of alignment with the speaker. If you read the reviews, and I didn't.... thinking that I could trust StewMac they have known about this defect for years and ship the defective parts to people anyway.... and then they, we struggle.

With all this said I don't do business with people who treat me like this and that's my plan for StewMac from now on too. Avoid them they suck.

This is also the very first time ever that I expressed displeasure with a business AND sponsor in my 17 years on this forum.... very sad.

Did you not read the other thread on this topic?

Guess I'll start throwing more business to LMI. I had a defective set of Schaller tuners and emailed them, they emailed back in a few hours. After a few questions back and forth they sent a prepaid FedEx tag so I could send them back for a refund. Good for LMI.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I did indeed read part of it and I also contributed, did you not read my contributions......

Reviews of StewMac from Trust Pilot, not good, nearly 40% of customers rated then poor to bad.....

Of course I have culpability here too. I went on my knowledge of StewMac from a decade ago. I should have checked them out these days.

Hey Hesh that's sad to hear. Sounds like a trend. I've not purchased anything from them in a while frankly because there are other options out there now that often are significantly less expensive.

Check out Mojo Tone for amp kits. That's what I built a Marshall clone from and their customer service is excellent.

Thanks JF I appreciate this and you, thank you. I will check them out, good customer service is everything to me.

Was just contacted by Brock after leaving a negative review on trust pilot. Hopefully going on the nut is helping. We shall see what results and of course I will update for better or worse.

The decision to slow down their customer service response times and reduce the channels they can be contacted on is clearly a deliberate one. In effect they are gradually taking themselves out of the market as a viable source for anyone doing luthiery on a commercial basis, as a business relying on a supplier cannot accept 48hr+ response times to simple queries.

Looking at their catalogue now vs years gone by, it’s clear their focus is increasingly on the hobbiest market - pedal kids, a plethora of parts for hot rodding cheaper import guitars etc. Even tool-wise a lot of their newer designs seem more about helping the semi-skilled do simple work on their own axes vs any kind of innovation.

One of the most noticeable changes is that they no longer offer price breaks for ordering bulk quantities of some small parts (electronics components, bindings, bridge pins etc)

This all might make sense for their bottom line as a business but it feels like the end of an era to me. They have a lot of accumulated good will among their customers. I wonder how long it will last.

At least they bothered to get back to you, they never even bothered to get back to me.
Although they send me a marketing email every day.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I just went to look at their site and they don't even have any acoustic guitar tops for sale. That's crazy. Last year I bought some really nice torrified red spruce tops. Expensive but excellent quality.

Hope they're not going the direction of G**son...

I still haven't experienced any of the problems that are apparently coming up now days--but I haven't ordered anything from them for a couple of months. Their service has always been top notch in my experience.

I really hate to hear of another company apparently bought out by investors of some description abandoning their long term customers and going down the tubes due to corporate greed. Very sad. I have some things I need to order and will hope for the best. But it's not sounding good.

I get their daily emails too. They're definitely geared towards DIY kids trying to improve their electric guitars. I've built tube amps for decades, but I'm really not interested in building my own cool effects from an expensive kit.

Dave

It also appears they have done away with their volume pricing - I only purchased a few supplies from them anyway. I’m only bummed that I just renewed my StewMax membership.

M

Actually, they do. But they now categorize tops in a way that is counterintuitive. "Woodstax" doesn't include tops, for some dumb*** reason. Here is a link:

https://www.stewmac.com/tonewoods/shop- ... ht-guitar/

I hate seeing any business throw away its superpower, but this business seems hell-bent to do just that.

More detailed navigation to StewMac acoustic guitar tops:

Go to Tonewoods
DON'T pick Woodstax; instead, go to Shop By Instrument, and Acoustic Guitar
There will be a dropdown list that includes acoustic guitar tops
They have inventory in there

Now, why they choose to not include acoustic guitar tops in the Woodstax section is a decision that someone will have to explain to me. I guess they only do Woodstax for pieces that they individually photograph.
As if that's hard to do for the rest of their inventory, such that they want to give the impression that they have no tops. Sheesh.

The 'Trade Secrets' found in Stew-Mac's nice old print catalogs were a help to me, and I saved a bunch of them. Just pulled them out of my file to review, in fact. Things like that and the quick customer service responses made it a pleasure to deal with them then.

Actually, in case someone from StewMac ever reads this, here is something other than "you guys suck now" feedback:

Upon digging, it becomes clear that the concept of Woodstax is to allow the buyer to pick, using photos, the actual pieces of wood they will be buying. The other section of the website, Shop by Instrument, does not allow the buyer to pick out, using photos, the actual pieces of wood they are buying. The buyer gets something from the inventory for that description (4A Sitka Spruce unsanded, dreadnought, etc.).

OK, fair enough. But don't you think that distinction is worth explaining somewhere on the website? I do. I'm a reasonably intelligent person, and it took me a while to ferret out the fact that you do, in fact, still sell acoustic guitar tops. You just don't have any right now that you have individually photographed, other than in the kits.

I'm not hostile to the idea of offering these two different ways of buying wood; but I do bristle at the idea that you don't bother to explain the difference to your customers.

And yeah, the change in customer service is a s**tshow. Fair warning, you will lose your most loyal customers over it.

Apropos to the subject at hand, I posted about a mediocre transaction with StewMac on the other thread. But when it came time to source parts to get back on a PJ Bass build I started a few years ago, I ended up shopping around and sourced the rest of the parts from LMII and bestbassgear.com - the LMII order was delivered on a Sunday (!), and the bbg order had one bit backordered. I was notified right away, and the complete order was shipped well before their estimate.

Related to the side topic of amp building, I've built three so far, and am working on a fourth. Didn't use kits, though, instead sourced the parts on my own. If you haven't already, check out the Shock Brothers https://www.tdpri.com/forums/shock-brothers-diy-amps.49/ over at TDPRI.

I am sure that some will not consider this kosher, but here is a PM Hesh sent to me after my question, "Did you not read the other thread on this topic?":

"Please do not attempt to interfere with my sharing on this site, I won't have it. If you don't like what I post don't read it. Your reply to me sucked, lacked empathy and was critical. That's crap...

Hesh"

I would admit that my question was a bit passive/aggressive, but I think it was fair. Why would you spend several thousand dollars at a site that is obviously having serious customer service problems as described here on this forum?

The only reason I posted his PM on the open forum is the semi-threatening nature of it.

There have been obvious changes in what StuMac offers, delivery, and support -- no question there.

I did a little digging and couldn't find anything indicating a change in ownership or management but it isn't always easy to find info on privately held companies.

But I'm not ready to throw them under the bus.

We are ALL seeing major supply chain disruptions, shortages across the board and price inflation in everything from nuts to bridges of ALL kinds.

Help wanted signs are in the windows of nearly every business and people willing to work are hard to come by.

Maybe StuMac is doing the best they can under the circumstances. Lack of products on their web site could be sitting offshore in the container ships that can't get into port backed up by the lack of truck drivers to deliver.

What's a company to do? Is it more important for employees to answer the phone or fill orders putting products in boxes?

We will see what happens but I'm not trashing them till I know more. These are not normal times in business that's for sure.

Heck, I've been paying $10 for 2x4's and it cost me $12 to get enough burger to make a meatloaf. A year ago I could get 2 steaks for that either way!

I know others have mentioned some of these points in the current StuMac chronicles but I've had major issues with ordering and shipping for the past year of all kinds and second to none in the prior 50+.

Just sayin'

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

I've certainly "known" you for many years Barry. A lot of good, some verging on condescending and some bad. Take a deep look at yourself before claiming purity status. Just my 20 years of seeing your posts and opinions of course. Posting the PM you did, which isn't even close to threatening is pretty low. Peace.

At least I keep things in the open instead of sending PMs like the above.
And where did I claim purity? I would readily admit that I can be a grumpy old fart, but I try to helpful and provide advice for those seeking answers. If the consensus here is that I am in the wrong, I will gladly exit.

Purity may be the wrong term and was never something that was front and center but was implicated for lack of a better term. I'd say stick to the things you do well, which are many and not overthink things from people like Hesh who are there to genuinely help. We all have our shortcomings including you. Don't make it about others. I'm no protector but still get pissed off when individuals try to out others that are 99.9% helpful.

By the way, don't leave on my account. I haven't participated for a long time for many reasons. Keep on opinionating and adding a lot of very good info for the most part. I'm getting old and miserable at times but appreciate the majority of comments and experience gained through forums like this.

Barry. DUDE.
If you think anyone will miss your input here, you might be surprised.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince