Eric's Guitar Shop Inc

Eric analyzed the issues with both guitars, offered a couple of options - both which were reasonably priced, and the jobs were completed in a matter of a few days. He gave all guitars a new lease on life. 

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I have taken over 25 guitars in the last 3 years to Eric for either setup or repairs. He is the best without a doubt. Very professional, and always has the work done on time at the exact quoted price. I know for a fact he works with top professional musicians and music stores go to him for their repairs. Great cusomer service from a true professional.

Eric warned me that the pickup manufacturer was relatively slow in delivery and he also suggested that I and quot;mightand quot; save a few dollars purchasing on EBay or some large scale music store. He told me that he'd charge a small markup but as I'd already researched prices, I knew that what he quoted me was only about $10/pickup above what I could get the same items for from several large retailers (Guitar Center and Musicians Friend for instance).
Forewarned, I decided to let him order under the logic that he could then deal with any issues if one of the pickups had a problem. A more important reason for me is that I can only get to his shop on Saturdays, so if I ordered the pickups and they arrived earlier in the week, they'd just sit until I could bring them in. But if your situation is different, you'd have been told up front that you could save money by looking around on your own. In terms of any and quot;attitudeand quot; -- I've never experienced that with Eric. On several prior occasions I did obtain my own parts elsewhere and never had any issues if he was just doing the installation.
As it turns out, the hurricane last year (the manufacturer is located on Long Island) impacted delivery. WHat was supposed to be two - three weeks turned into a 6 week ordeal. Eric did periodically shoot me an email, and one time a call, to let me know that he was still waiting. He also called them once with no luck other than to find out that the company was running way behind and that they were fulfilling orders to big name customers first. Again, forewarned though since I'd been told up front that besides being slow, this manufacturer was prone to prioritizing by the name and size of a customer, not necessarily when the order arrived.
In the end, they arrived and the work was done to complete satisfaction. I've had dozens of setups done by Eric, so no issue there -- and he will always fine tune any setup for you. But I also looked at the quality of the electronics work -- clean solder joints, neat wiring and no loose parts or scratchy sounds from bad/loose wiring. With three pifckups (Stratocaster), I also listen to insure that none of the pickups was wired incorrectly (say out of phase when it shouldn't be) -- as usual for Eric, the wiring was 100% correct.

I've been going to Eric for a long time now and the above session is a representative sample of Eric's work and policy. He's never too busy to talk with you about what you're looking for and he's not done until you're happy with the results. If you're in a hurry, that's okay ... but if you want to hang out and chat, thats okay too. Eric will listen to you to understand how you want your guitar set up and after the initial job, will work with you to fine tune it.
The Telecaster illustrates how he works. He noted that the pickups appeared to be a high end set, but he wasn't sure about the bridge pickup without looking and measuring. He could order the set I wanted ... but he suggested maybe learning about what was in there first. At the same time though, he'd order the set I had in mind so if I wanted to go ahead anyway, there'd be no delay. No up front deposit would be required and if I decided to stick with what it came with anyway, no problem because he could sell the upgrade set to someone else.
Generally, he's going to try to save you money -- if the guitar doesn't need a lot of work, he won't do it unless you insist. Whether doing a routine setup or evaluating something relatively expensive like a refret, he will advise you on the least expensive way to get where you want to go. In my case, the Telecaster ended up getting new strings, neck adjustment, polish the frets and that's about what it needed. The pickups stayed; had he been dishonest, he could have sold me the replacement set I was thinking about and then turned around and sold what he took out for a fair amount.
Eric does general setup and minor luthier work, but not major custom builds or refinishing jobs. However, he can recommend reliable people if you need that type of service and he also has referrals for amp repairs. Finally, Eric does no sales, used or new ... strictly repairs and you can buy pickups, tuners, and that sort of thing and have him install them.
A final anecdote from that day will showcase how Eric works. It happened that there was a big name musician there that day and it clearly wasn't this person's first time. Okay, but everyone has their list of celebs on the Web site. What's impressive is that I and a couple other people were getting attention despite the celeb being there and being moderately picky about their setup. There wasn't a hint of and quot;hey, could you maybe come back some other time because you can see I have a big international name sitting over there.and quot; That's the kind of service you'll always get there, regardless of how many albums your name is on ... or not!