Had a client bring a Ryan to me complaining of a bit of rattle/buzz when he played.
What's hopefully going to be interesting about this post is the approach that I took to this instrument.
When something comes in there is a routine that I go through, we call it triage as I assess the instrument while also thoughtfully listening to what the client has to say about it. I check the nut slots, neck relief, measure action at the 12th, glance at the saddle, look behind the bridge and maybe whip out my .0015 feeler gauge to check for lifting.
This was a brand new guitar and absolutely beautiful in all respects with coco back and sides, very dark colored coco.
One of the standard fare things that I also do especially with players who are more my own age is mic the strings to determine the gauge if they can't immediately tell me and know what's on it.
These days with players my age, 60 now... it's often the case that some hand strength is being lost and some problems can be attributed to user error with the error being believing that we have the death grip that we once had. Often medium players get the bad news that it just could be that they would be better off with 12's.... That happened to me by the way.
The client is a retired Doc and one hell of a nice guy and we knew some of the same people. We got on famously and also wished each other a belated Happy New Year.
Anyway when dealing with a superbly built, high-end instrument although assuming anything is dicey at times I do tend to error in favor of the idea that what ever the issue is it will be obvious, likely user error since Ryan's QC is superb as well.
The client had 10's on it..... The set-up was 4 and 5 and the relief was acceptable. Nut slots were low but not too low. The only suspect thing was the 10's.
Why are 10's suspect? Physics tells us that the lighter the strings the less inertia that they have to over come when attempting to lash out as far as they can. Or, in other words, the lighter the strings the more problematic lower action can be for some players, not all, depending on their attack.
My new friend had just such an attack with his finger style playing that 10's at 4 and 5 hit the frets. I suggested either custom lights (11's) or lights (12's) and that resolved his issues.
What I hope is most interesting about this little story is the approach and the belief, the faith.... that with better instruments, when you actually encounter one........... the approach can have some faith that obvious things are not going to be an issue.
We frequently work on very high-end stuff but rarely do we see it just after it's been born. And of course the pre-war Martins and Gibsons that we work on are just that, pre-war and the set-ups are usually pretty different from what the maker may have intended.
I know in advance that Kevin Ryan does superb work with no exceptions and could assume that after a very quick check that all the basics would be there, in place, and very well done. I was right.
When I was building I believed that one of the hallmarks of the value add of a Luthier built instrument would be the build AND set-up quality. This is what I see too with the big name builders usually with no exceptions.
So.... the moral of the story is if you do lots of repair work and encounter a $20,000 instrument new and right off the bench you might consider a bit of a different approach where some faith in the builder is very much earned and more focus on the player might be something to consider. It certainly served both my client and I well yesterday to do just that. The client wanted his beef resolved even if the finger pointed to a poor choice of strings....
By the way, I've seen and played them all and this is not my first Ryan guitar either but wow what a builder, what tone even for a new instrument.... Very impressive AND innovative!
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Sorry guys this gentleman never got asked by me for permission to take pics. The diagnosis and fix was made on the spot when he was present. I knew you were going to ask darn it.... sorry!