My New Chrome Guitar (Yamaha Pacifica)
I read a couple of posts of people looking for a source to get their guitar chromed. I kept reading bad reviews of Guns, Guitars, Girls. Well, by the time I had read these reviews, I had already sent my guitar to them. So, here is my (in my opinion fair and honest) review of their services. It started on Oct 18th, 2003 when they got my guitar body. Originally I was told that it would take 2 to 3 weeks. My biggest gripe was that there wasn't any communcation initiated by the company as to the progress of my guitar. I would have to continually email to find out what was going on with the guitar and how much longer it would take. I was repeatedly told 2 to 3 more weeks. Well, when I finally put a deadline on it as to when I had to have the guitar back, things started moving. I did get the guitar back close to the deadline, but not on time. It showed up about 4 days too late. I was a little peeved thinking that since it took 3 months and not 2 to 3 weeks, the guy should spring the extra couple of bucks for 2 day air shipping to get it here on time. But of course no luck.
Now, by this point, I'm sure you're probably thinking I'm dissatisfied. Well, I can't say I was happy with the delay, but I do understand a portion of it. As it turns out, the body I sent to have done had an unsual bolt on neck. Rather than the bolt plate that most guitars have, it had 2 routed cavities that had plate inserts which bolt the neck on. If they would have just dunked the guitar in the copper and chrome bath, it would have filled up these holes too much to get the bolt plates back in. So, they had to take some time re routing these holes. They also worked on a chip in the paint and filled that in, sanded it out so that it was a smooth finish in the end. So, I can't say that there weren't any reasons for the delay, but in all honesty, I still think it took longer than it should have.
As for quality... I'm happy, but still a bit bummed. What I didn't realize when I sent the guitar was that every tiny imperfection in the original paint job / finish will show up in the chrome. The surface has to be glass smooth for the chrome to be smooth. So, since my body had dings and dents in it from years of playing, the final job came out with those same dings and dents. Not a big deal when I'm on stage playing, but upon viewing the guitar close up, I think it could have looked better. I could say that since he's done these guitars before, he should be aware of that possibility... but in the end, is it his responsibility? It would have been nice to receive an email letting me know that the condition of the body would be reflected so much in the chrome job. The one thing about the job that I'm not sure about was that there were areas where there seemed to be a fish eyes type of appearance. I'm not sure if this was due to the original finish or not. It's not a big deal, but it is a little disappointing.
In the end, I can definitely say I'm happy to have this chrome guitar and it's awesome to finally play my baby again.... but if I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't have done it due to the length of the wait and the lack of customer support/relations. I do think it was a decent/good chrome job... just not a great experience all things considered.
Just my 2 cents.