Mithansguitars Reviews 6

I now own 3 Mithans Guitars along with 14 other high end guitars. The ones I bought are T'leafes, Valira Birch Burl and Kyoto Confusion.

These guitars are spectacular to say at least. They feel and play amazing, they all sound very good and the craftsmanship is incredible. Action is very low, fretwork is flawless and they always stay in tune.

They're easily better then double or triple priced guitars I own.

Communication with Mitja Mithans throughout the entire process was super easy. He is such a nice guy.

Couldn't be happier about Mithans Guitars. Will purchase again!

Got my matt red Berlin about a year ago,looks like a dream,works like one too...
Easily better than double priced Gibsons!
Cant go wrong with these ones!

I've bought two of these, and they're both terrific guitars. The fretwork is particularly excellent. You're getting a lot of guitar for your money. Also, the customer service was terrific.

I ordered Berlin Green from Mithans Guitars and have to say it's the best guitar I have ever played!
I own multiple high end guitars and this one is on top.
Also Incredible customer service with very quick responses.

Misrepresentation of fake wood as real, kept deposit after failing to follow specs

I placed an order for a VALIRA Birch Burl guitar and paid a 20% deposit that included shipping, a sum of 559.4 euro. This model has a unique figured top that is unseen on any other guitar.

Later on, through thorough research and a photograph that Mr Mithans sent me of the wood blank, I determined that this so-called birch burl was not a natural wood, but an engineered wood from the brand SaRaiFo, made from dyed and pressed wood veneers. This was corroborated by several other experienced luthiers. Indeed, searching the internet for photos of this figured wood yields only product shots of this engineered wood; the actual Karelian Birch it emulates is not so white, the contrast not so high and the pattern not so consistent.

I challenged Mr Mithans on the nature of the wood and he expressed confusion at the notion of engineered wood, which was highly suspicious of a self-proclaimed masterbuilder. He insisted it’s a natural wood, though very heavy, a trait consistent with pressed reconstituted material. Moreover, he previously made a VALIRA model with a SaRaiFo Makassar engineered wood top, which he correctly labeled as such on his website.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt and switched my order to a custom-coloured Berlin model, with the explicit instruction of “the Cobalt Blue model but in turquoise”. I specified it as such because he has other Berlin models but only the Cobalt Blue one has a walnut body. As the one who determined the specs for each model, it was reasonable to assume he knew them well and saw the obvious reason for me to not simply say “Berlin model in turquoise”.

Mr Mithans also agreed to add purfling to the fretboard.

I only ever received one photo of the work in progress: a shot of the body top. I found that puzzling, and was shocked to one day wake up to an email of the guitar fully built, but with an ash body. The walnut back against a turquoise top was what I was looking forward to all these months and frankly I really detest the look of uncoloured ash. I also noted the fretboard purfling was missing.

Mr Mithans took responsibility for the purfling but denied wrongdoing with the body wood. He decided for himself that Berlin must mean ash body even though he did a Cobalt Blue model with a walnut body which I specified. He blamed me for not spotting the body wood in the one photo he sent where the body wood was barely visible. And he said he didn’t send any more photos because I didn’t respond to the photo, even though he asked about the pickup rings colour in that same email and I had to respond to that. That’s right, he asked questions about specific colour/materials for other specs but decided that the huge body wood wasn’t worth confirming about and it’s my fault.

I offered to let Mr Mithans keep 7.5% of the price of the guitar I ordered, half of his restocking fee, and return me the rest plus the shipping portion. He rejected this, even though the missing purfling already meant the guitar was not up to agreed upon specs, and I wasn’t responsible for paying a cent. He offered an arbitrary 250 euro back, thereby pocketing the shipping deposit for shipping that never happened, and held that amount ransom until someone bought the guitar. To add salt to the wound, I was unable to file a chargeback because I transferred the money directly to him so he would save on transfer fees, but when he returned me the 250, he insisted on using PayPal, which everyone knows takes huge fees.

The single photo Mr Mithans sent and lack of communication is a far cry from other luthiers I’ve worked with, yet he calls it a custom instrument to justify taking my money. The missing purfling shows that he doesn’t bother to track specs. After I said his restocking fee is 15%, he told me it’s 10% and gave me a link to the same FAQ page I referenced. As of this writing, it still says 15%. This further supports the notion that Mr Mithans doesn’t stay on top of things. It’s regrettable that despite being disorganised and not managing the project properly, he’s decided to keep my deposit for a product not up to specs.