Luthier warranties when starting out

[Marvino]

Hello,
For you Luthiers out there......when you first started out building and selling your instruments, what kind if warrranty did you offer? What was covered and for howl long?

When you first started out did you ever have any warranty issues which made you change construction?

Thank you

[Dobe]

Copy some other co's leagalease and modify the verbiage a bit. Should be fine. Basically you want the right to determine what's covered, but it has to be a warranty on all materials and workmanship for a properly cared for instrument. One of my 1st builds developed a problem just past the 1/2 way point and I've since stopped taking orders. If your just going to hobby build, I'd build for yourself and sell them however they move on.

[testore]

Lifetime guarantee on ALL of your work. I've had 2 issues in 30 years. If you can't gaurantee the quality of your work then you shouldn't sell it. Abuse obviously is another story, but that's usually easy to see. I even gaurantee that my violin, viola and cello bridges won't fold over. I don't know anyone else who does that. I can do that because I know how to make a bridge that won't collapse. I've replaced 1 violin bridge in 30 years. My idea is that a little labor that I give away to keep a client happy AND to keep that client playing one of MY instruments is very inexpensive. The last thing anyone needs is an unhappy owner.

[High Lonesome Valley]

Hello,
For you Luthiers out there......when you first started out building and selling your instruments, what kind if warrranty did you offer? What was covered and for howl long?

When you first started out did you ever have any warranty issues which made you change construction?

Thank you

Testore's dead on.

I dealt in restored vintage instruments for years. Every instrument my early mentor, Tony Marc, sold from The Guitar Store in Southern NJ he gave a lifetime verbal warranty, except for any sort of accidental or intentional abuse. He honored his word. He warrantied el cheapos and priceless collectibles.

I did the same when I had my own shop, and I always honored it. I warrantied every instrument, new or used, that I sold. I also warrantied my repairs and modifications. Yes, I personally warrantied new guitars, knowing that the manufacturer's warranty was often questionable.

A warranty is usually worth no more than the paper it's written on, but if you offer true integrity, it's better than gold. When I and my friends tried to get warranty work done on some valuable instruments, we always got the runaround, and found there was always fine print that would excuse the manufacturer from being good for their word. We somehow ended up paying a premium on the necessary repair.

I've taken occasional net losses over the years honoring such a lifetime warranty, but my customers always came back and usually referred friends.

Some may disagree, but an absolute lifetime warranty, sans accidental or intentional abuse/major (not minor) alterations of the instrument, will end up making you more customers and income in the long run and will end up being a real selling point.

Of course, you should embody terms that would delineate that you, as the manufacturer, have the choice of repair or replacement, as well as deciding whether the warranty is to the buyer or to the instrument. Me, I'd warranty the instrument and make sure your buyers understand the intrinsic value added to the instrument with such a warranty.

When I was young, many of us bought Martin guitars partly based on such a lifetime warranty. One of the big selling points of Martin.

[testore]

High lonesome is right to add every instrument sold by him. My business does the same for items we sell that we didn't make. If it's not worth a FULL warranty then it's not worth selling. I don't sell or build junk and I can stand by it because I know it's a quality item.

[David Newton]

If you are just starting out, the first guitars that you think are good enough to sell, it doesn't matter if you give a written warranty or not.
What matters is, if you sell something, and it later is found defective because of your work, you fix it at no cost to the owner.
A written warranty is worth nothing if you don't stand behind it.

[Stephen Perry]

Yup, full warranty, with some exceptions. I've done things like discount ancient instruments that I didn't entirely trust, but wouldn't rebuild. "As is" but if anything goes wrong, let me see it. Like Testore, I've had just a couple of things really give trouble, the rest were the result of operator error or neglect, but I'll sometimes fix those anyway. I've seen my bridges warp, but only from obvious neglect, and I'll just cut another. A bow I didn't make warps, I'll straighten it.

Now actual written warranties, I'm reasonably careful with. And if a manufacturer has a warranty, I consider that as applying unless I feel like stepping in. Broken mandolin bridges, I'll just replace. Neck on a mandolin warping, that's a negotiation with the manufaturer!

[Marvino]

Thank you for your responses. You all seem to be in agreement on lifetime warranty, and your reasons make good sense.

I went to a good number of small and large mandolin builder websites to see what they offered for warranties, the only 2 that mentioned anything about a warranty was Gibson and Weber.

Thanks Again

[Michael Lewis]

One thing to keep in mind is that ANY work you send out the door is YOUR REPUTATION. Do good work and stand behind it, whether or not you have a written warranty. It takes quite a while to make a good reputation but you can make a bad one seemingly overnight.

[Austin Clark]

Also remember that in a few years your idea of what quality work is will be (ideally) much higher than it is now and you don't want to look back with regret on early instruments. As Michael says, your reputation is your body of work, and that includes your first instruments too.

When I first started making instruments and I had no idea that I was going to be doing this for a living, I built some crazy "folk art". After this became my full time career, I went to great lengths to recover as many of those instruments that I could. Those that the owners didn't want to sell back or trade in, I offered to completely refret and set up properly for free. (After many hundreds of fret jobs, I look back at that early stuff in horror!)

Whether you offer a written warranty or not, you have to stand by your work.

[Rob Zamites]

Luthier Stan Pope (Bigleaf Mandolins) offers a lifetime warranty on all his instruments; one of the reasons I went with him, for sure.

[barney 59]

Of course the "Life Time" warranty that an independent luthier may offer refers to their lifetime!

[David Houchens]

Always lifetime warranty to original owner.

[High Lonesome Valley]

Always lifetime warranty to original owner.

Don't know about the "always" on that.

A way to get your name into the playing public, a selling point, would be to warranty the instrument. You still have the leeway of assessing if damage was due to accidental or intentional reasons or due to an issue intrinsic to the instrument.