Vig Guitars — Local services in Saint Paul

I've gone to Vig's for almost a decade, but recently i had a string of bad experiences. I can't give them a 1 or 2 star because they're great people, so i feel 3 is appropriate.

First, i brought two basses into the shop. The first one was a higher-end ebay purchase. The listing noted that the truss rod was maxed out. I brought this in for the shop to check over, and if everything was good, i would go through with the purchase and a setup. After having the bass for a few days, the shop informed me everything checks out well, they set it up, and i paid. A few things:

The bass pre-amp electronics had been swapped out with the cheapest options available. I had no idea, i had forgotten to check this upon receipt. This is partially my fault but i did specify help with this from the shop.

The setup took place. The neck was straight, but the bridge was completely bottomed out, there's no further room for adjustments on it. This means the string choices would be "fixed" so to speak if it stayed there. I later got a second opinion on this and it turns out the setup is partially to blame for the this. It turns out the brass saddle could've been slightly altered to ensure a proper setup. Had i known there were options for this, or even had been told about it, i would pay anything to fix the problem.

My second bass i brought in for several reasons, most of which haven't ended up the best. I'm not going to mention the small stuff, rather the large stuff. The neck ended up with a slight bow, but the action was fine. This ended up getting worse over time, and come to find out there isn't much room on the truss. Had i known about the neck/truss i would've asked further about fixes, but it just wasn't mentioned. I asked for the bass to be cleaned as much as it could be prior to being setup and it wasn't. I asked for a pickup replacement, and the new one came out scratched.

Overall to sum up, here are the things that i asked for: help making sure the bass was in good enough condition to accept the sale, a setup on that bass, a cleaning of my second bass, a new setup on that. I ended up not getting any of this to a satisfactory level.

So i had been a solid customer (imo) for 10 years, but i can't justify it any more. I imagine Vig's is tailored more to guitars rather than basses, i think that has something to do with it. I have no hard feelings. Best of luck...

Wanted to post a few before and after pics of a guitar that Vig Guitars just got done saving for me. Could NOT be any happier ( there may have been a few tears ) with how this repair came out!!! 😆 Quick backstory : Purchased this gorgeous Ibanez acoustic/electric online through REVERB and the shipper CRUSHED it. Took it to Vig Guitars to see if it could be saved and Ted assured me it could. When asked if the tone would suffer he looked at me over his glasses and very confidently and bluntly stated, “ Not if WE do the repair “. Cut to a little over a month later ( GOOD luthiers are busy luthiers ) and I am picking it up. Holy HECK does this thing sound amazing! ( I wasn’t able to play it before it was damaged but it sounds as good as my beloved Alvarez ). Also it’s such a beautiful looking guitar still too. If you EVER need a guitar repaired, set up, cleaned, pickups swapped, ANYTHING, get it to the folks at Vig Guitars! Master craftsman, nuff said! ( UNPAID nor in any way was I compensated for this post I truly am this damn happy with this shop! ) 1st 4 pictures are before, last...

Vig guitars is one of the best guitar shops in the city. I started going because of the numerous recommendations for Ted’s setup work, and the level of quality and care that he takes with each instrument is second to none. What I really appreciate about the shop (and I don’t find at a lot of guitar shops) is that you could bring in a vintage ’72 Gibson SG or a 2017 Squier affinity strat and he’ll treat that guitar with respect either way. Even if it’s a bass guitar. I think that it’s the kind of thing that shows a passion for the craft, and I appreciate it. On the retail side, he does a great job finding quality instruments to sell, rather than just the standard guitars and basses that you can find everywhere. I don’t know how he finds them, but he does, and it’s always fun to pop in and see what new piece of gear he got in. Ted and the gang are also big supporters of the local scene too, so all in all, I see a shop that is filling with passionate, caring people who work tirelessly bringing the best out of your instrument...