Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Torgoslayer
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Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby Torgoslayer » Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:31 am

So I bought one of the Man or Astroman? model guitar kits (was actually expecting a whole guitar but whatever) and spent about a week putting it together. There were no instructions provided and support was limited so I used pictures on the internet. I'm having trouble with intonation. I'll need more length in the scale to intonate properly. I brought it to a couple of pro luthiers who said I needed a much wider bridge and/or redrilled bridge posts. They went over the kit build and gave it a passing grade. I was shorted a pickguard screw and trem arm washer and they added those but otherwise said my build was fine. I also has some serious flesh ripping burrs on the trem arm and they filed those off. Both shops said that the predrilled bridge post holes are wrong or the included bridge is wrong. But the bridge is the one pictured for sale. On the stock bridge the low E, A & D string saddles are cranked back as far as they can go and the fretted notes are sharp. and the high G,B & E saddles are very far back to correctly intonate. The next suggestion I followed was to try a different bridge so I bought the recommended Staytrem bridge from the UK and it helps a little, but the Low E and A are still way off. So if anybody has any advice before I pony up and have it drilled out, I'd appreciate it. I'm already $1500 into a $1050 guitar and I haven'e even played it yet. The drill job is going to be another $250 and I'm not sure how far I want to go with this before I cut my losses. Thanks, Cheers.

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby GattonFan » Wed Jun 03, 2015 12:03 pm

I had no idea that Hallmark sold kit guitars ...
Dennis
So many guitars; So little time ..

Torgoslayer
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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby Torgoslayer » Wed Jun 03, 2015 12:42 pm

Me either. Maybe its the wrong word for it. I've never bought a brand new guitar from the factory before. It comes in pieces with the wood painted and the holes drilled and a bag of hardware. Like Ikea without the instructions.

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby BRRanger » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:13 pm

Did you buy it directly from Bob @ Hallmark? Doesn't sound right for Hallmark. My Wing-Bat, Stradette, Swept-Wing, Deke, and Custom all were complete and set-up correctly from Hallmark.
Scott

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby MarkyKobane » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:17 pm

Yeah, sounds fishy. A that point you could have gotten any guitar assembled ready to rock!

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby BRRanger » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:19 pm

Oh yeah Marky, my Johnny Ramone I stole from you was assembled too! ;)

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby Torgoslayer » Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:21 pm

BRRanger wrote:Did you buy it directly from Bob @ Hallmark? Doesn't sound right for Hallmark. My Wing-Bat, Stradette, Swept-Wing, Deke, and Custom all were complete and set-up correctly from Hallmark.
Scott

I bought it off the Hallmark website. I contacted Bob and we chatted about it. He suggested a specific brand of strings, and i had a luthier put them on, but no change. Bob said he was stumped about the intonation and offered me a discount on a fuzz pedal. So thats as far as i got there.

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby Bob Shade » Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:09 pm

This is not exactly the way this went. I have never sent a guitar to anyone that was a kit. Body and neck and a bag of hardware like Ikea with no instructions??? I have no idea at all what the customer is referring to. I did offer a discount on any other piece of our gear including a nu-fuzz after the customer had mentioned to me that he had to have a bunch of work done to the guitar. I did this as as a gesture of good faith, not because I felt I had to. I was just trying to be nice.

I have not seen the guitar since it left our bench so I cannot comment on it. I can assure everyone reading this that it was no kit guitar and was ready to play and completely passed every test when it was put in it's alligator case and boxed up for shipment. The guitar was set up with the same care as every other guitars that we offer.

Bob

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby BRRanger » Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:01 pm

Torgoslayer:
Do you have the bill of sale, receipt, or shipping receipt you can show us all, so no one makes the mistake of buying from an unscrupulous person attempting to pass himself off as a Hallmark representative? All of my new purchases were direct from Bob, and I cannot believe that he sold you this guitar. Bob even made a custom R/W/B Hallmark for me and responded with exceptional personal attention to the details that I wanted and I couldn't have been happier with the finished product which arrived complete, assembled, and set-up with absolutely no issues (intonation or otherwise) at all.
Thank you,
Scott

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Re: Hallmark Man or Astroman? model kit intonation advice

Postby Torgoslayer » Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:02 pm

Bob Shade wrote:This is not exactly the way this went. I have never sent a guitar to anyone that was a kit. Body and neck and a bag of hardware like Ikea with no instructions??? I have no idea at all what the customer is referring to. I did offer a discount on any other piece of our gear including a nu-fuzz after the customer had mentioned to me that he had to have a bunch of work done to the guitar. I did this as as a gesture of good faith, not because I felt I had to. I was just trying to be nice.

I have not seen the guitar since it left our bench so I cannot comment on it. I can assure everyone reading this that it was no kit guitar and was ready to play and completely passed every test when it was put in it's alligator case and boxed up for shipment. The guitar was set up with the same care as every other guitars that we offer.

Bob

Hrm, curious. Now we're getting somewhere... ... I think. Thanks for chiming in Bob. This is the first time in our communication that you've mentioned that the guitar should have arrived complete and set up. I asked your guidance in assembling it correctly and stuff like how to orient the bridge, and even lamented the lack of instructions to you. Strange you never said that I should not have needed to build it. Is it possible i was sent an unbuilt one by mistake? Possibly a 2nd or something because of the misdrilled bridge and the other blems I mentioned.
BRRanger wrote:Torgoslayer:
Do you have the bill of sale, receipt, or shipping receipt you can show us all, so no one makes the mistake of buying from an unscrupulous person attempting to pass himself off as a Hallmark representative? All of my new purchases were direct from Bob, and I cannot believe that he sold you this guitar. Bob even made a custom R/W/B Hallmark for me and responded with exceptional personal attention to the details that I wanted and I couldn't have been happier with the finished product which arrived complete, assembled, and set-up with absolutely no issues (intonation or otherwise) at all.
Thank you,
Scott

Come to think of it, I got nothing in the way of paperwork with it at all. I ordered it directly on the website with paypal. I have a paypal record of purchase but that's it. I goo-gone'd the shipping labels off the case when i got it.


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