Repair policy, setup/repair warranty info, shop rules, strings info, payment info, FAQ:

“Thank you for choosing FS Lutherie. We truly appreciate your business and are grateful for our wonderful community and customers. We try our best to accommodate all of the requests we receive on a daily basis in our busy NYC studio. Please note we are a semi public, appointment based workshop, not a retail store. You will be working directly with an experienced and professional guitar builder/repair person here.

Please carefully review our shop policies as many questions are answered below, thank you.”

-Farhad Soheili, luthier/custom shop owner

All shop visits including instrument drop off and subsequent instrument pick up is always by appointment, no exceptions. We require 24 hours notice for drop off or pick up appointments. We can’t accommodate any same day requests due high scheduling demand. Always contact us ahead for availability. If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment please contact the shop to notify us. Any customers who miss an appointment without notifying the shop will be required to leave a non refundable deposit for any future bookings.

Typical turnaround time for setups and simpler repairs is 7-10 business days. Even the (seemingly) quickest of jobs have their place in line, in order to keep turn around times fair for all customers. We treat all of our customers with the same professionalism, respect, and time frame: from famous musician clients to beginner guitar owners.

Drop off and pick up appointment hours are only available within the specified times below, subject to appointment availability,

Monday-Thursday 11:00am-5:45pm

Friday 11:00am-4:45pm

Saturday 11:30am-2pm

Sunday CLOSED.

Please be sure to arrive right on time, and call us ahead if there’s a change.

Appointment times are firm.

Please don’t arrive early or late, we can only see you at your booked time.

Labor rates are non negotiable, all work and costs will be discussed with and approved by customer before any work begins.

Forms payment accepted for instrument repair work: Credit Card or Cash are accepted (we do not carry change). We’re unable to accept checks, money orders, PayPal, Zelle, Apple Pay etc. as payments, please don’t ask.

FSC does not service or accept instruments which are not an electric or acoustic guitar or a bass guitar. This does rule out amplifiers, effects pedals, mandolins, ukuleles, violins, banjos, all other instruments and accessories, etc. We choose to focus only on Guitars and Bass guitars, because they are our specialty and interest. We do not offer any form of paint/lacquer/finishing/touch up/refinish services.

Guitar Strings: We carry D’Addario brand guitar strings. These are strictly for customer repairs. Many standard sets are in stock or can be ordered. You may also provide your own strings of any brand.

Bass Strings: We do not typically stock any bass guitar strings. These can be ordered by us (D’Addario brand only) for your repair, delivery may delay turn around time. You are encouraged to provide your own bass strings when coming in for an appointment.

We stand by and Warranty our work:

We warranty all repairs against failure for a period of 45 days from initial repair completion date, including all Setups. This includes a FREE adjustment period of 45 days for all fresh setups which may be affected by rapid changes in weather and humidity levels when they leave our shop. If anything changes on your instrument’s playability or the repair work has any issues we will redo the work in that 45 day warranty period. We are not responsible if you didn’t find time to check your guitar for more than 45 days, and it is suddenly buzzing or has issues. A guitar’s playability, action, and setup by nature will drift over time, this can also happen rapidly on fresh setups for numerous reasons (including daily weather changes). We always recommend two yearly setups (generally once in warm/humid months and once in cold/dry months) for any guitar you value, as minor issues with neck bow and action changes can later become bigger repairs if not quickly adjusted. Our warranty covers anything in the first 45 days. We require all customers to inspect and test their instrument upon pick up at our shop.

This warranty DOES NOT cover any additional work the instrument may require due to improper storage, improper humidification, neglect, misuse, or any new damage. For example: We if just setup or rewired your guitar, but you damaged the neck the next day. The neck repair would be a new job and is not covered by our 45 day warranty, which covers only the setup or rewire work we had performed. This warranty also does NOT cover subjective things like Tone, for example: If you bring in a set of pickups for installation. Our warranty covers the quality of our install labor against failure only. If you decide you want a different set of pickups and simply don’t like the tone of your new pickups, that is a new job at full cost, and is not a warranty issue. If your provided parts are faulty for any reason, incompatible, or defective we will notify you, and you will be responsible to contact the manufacturer or seller.

Any instrument not fully paid for or picked up within 60 days of completion will become property of FSC Instruments LLC. We will contact you 3 times via email or phone during this 60 day period to notify you, beginning on the date of repair completion. Please note if a customer is traveling or having an emergency which prevents them from being able to collect their instrument during the 60 day period, it is their responsibility to notify us by email or phone call to arrange a phone or electronic payment. We will in that case extend the pick up policy, after payment is made. Under no circumstance may our shop be used as storage for abandoned gear if customer is unresponsive.

We do not communicate with any 3rd parties at any time (other manufacturers, other repair people, music shops, sellers/buyers, appraisers, etc.) at any time. We will only communicate directly with our customers. Some examples: if a customer brings in another shop’s previous repair. Or a customer brings a mismatched, incorrect, or faulty/defective part for installation. In all cases we will notify the customer of any possible issues, and let the customer communicate with the 3rd party. We will ONLY communicate with parts dealers and suppliers strictly on orders we have placed through our workshop.

We kindly ask our customers to thoroughly read this page before communicating with us or booking an appointment. We do realize this is a long list (and possibly an intimidating list for some) but it will ensure a smooth and professional experience for both our customers and our staff. Breaking any of the above shop rules will lead to termination of any transaction.