Weird customer stories.....

[Possum]

I thought this might be a fun one to do.

One of my wierdest customers I ever had......
This guy was adamant he wanted a certain set of strat pickups I make. Well, this one set only works well for a very small percentage of players, they aren't typical strat fare at all. He was insistent on buying them and I warned him up front that I'd had two customers before him really dislike them. No, he wanted those pickups, I suggested he listen carefully to ALL the sound clips and to be sure.

So he gets the pickups and HATES them. Not only hates them but is verbally abusive to me about how MUCH he hates them. So I calmly tell him, no sweat you have a rewind/exchange guarantee, send them back and I'll send you what I think you should have got in the first place. NO, he WON'T send them back!!! He tells me he is a "big boy and will live with his choice." Uh, what? This isn't an exercise in self punishment, I'm trying to give you your tone :-) No, he refuses to send them back. OK, send them back and I'll refund your money. NO, he paid a luthier and now he is out the pickup money and the installation money. Then he says he'll sell them on Ebay later and tell everyone how much he hates my pickups. What? I have this thing called "customer service" lets cooperate and get you what you need. No, he won't send them back, doesn't want to pay the luthier to take them out. OK, so I actually offer to PAY his luthier to take them out ship them to me, I'll ship out a set I know he WILL like and PAY his luthier to install them in his guitar. NO, he is a "big boy, blah blah blah". OK, so I go on Paypal and I refund his full purchase price and write it off as lunatic fringe. He then turns around and sends the money BACK to me!!! So then I ask him what can I do to make you happy? Well, he's a "big boy" and going to live with his decision and will remove the pickups later and sell them on Ebay........I quit there, I did tell him if he ever did that to tell the buyer if he doesn't like those pickups he can exchange them with me for free........I think I went down in the dungeon and whipped myself mercilessly with barbed wire for my sins, what an asshole I am......

Anyone ever get someone like this? I have other stories but this guy took the first prize award.....

[pupoholic]

I've had my share at Lace, and swapped stories with the Duncan Staff about things like that... Duncan had the best stories.. especially the tech calls.

But so far here, only one guy bailed out and thats cause he wanted remodel money..

he used my T-set for 7 months then decided to go for the refund and use the money to help fund his 7k bedroom remodel...

I did it no questions asked.. Pay pal refund
... but that was someting I'd never do myself to a botique winder,

Guitar Center yes.. LOL..

[WolfeMacleod]

Got a couple...

Long time ago, when business was slow, I sold several set on Ebay.
I had a P-90 set up, and someone contacted me about them.
At the same time, someone was writing to me off-ebay about having some pickups made for his Aluminium bodies strat. No problem, I told him..can do.
The P-90 set on Ebay sold, and then the guy off-ebay tells me he's bought them for his alu-strat.
Yep, same guy...
Gunna take it to a MACHINE SHOP??

I got this in an email once... a real classic! Notice the completely bi-polar, contradictory descriptions...


==========
Hi, I am searching for pickups for a custom made guitar. Please read my explanation.

I´m Searching: Pickups to suit and make satisfying contribution to my kind of guitar sound, not for versatility. Preferably custom made pups for both bridge and the neck position. Pickups are to be direct mounted in tight fitted cavities through the top and into the neck through, to capture more of the guitar's overall resonance. Pups will actually have physical contact with both top and neck-through which are glued together around the cavity areas. Also a internal pickup system will be used for “reading” the wood, blending with the magnetic pups. (Probably a film transducer type, if you don´t have a better or specific advice for that purpose).

The two main issues of a custom pickup would be:

1. Picking up the guitars´ sound in the truest way.
2. Refining/sculpturing and making their own contribution to the wanted final sound.

Wanted sound explained by treble, mids and low-end:

Silky trebles, rounded but clear.

Burnished, silky and enhanced mids.

Tight and balanced low-end.



The overall tone I want:

Burnished and Glassy. It can`t simply be burnished, glassy, silky and smooth enough.

A dark tone quality. Crystal Clear, but on the silky and darker side.

Silky and b[/b]smooth

Glassy, but not hard or edgy.

Crystal clear and articulate balanced with a “oily” tone

Thick/Fat

Dense but not hard and still open sounding.

Articulate focused attack with piano-like brilliance” as Macassar Ebony does to guitars.


Not - What I don´t want is:

Brittle
Bite
Gritty
Grind
Sharp
Nasal
Crunch
Rattling and buzzing (caused by magnetic pull of the strings)
Breakup sound
Brown Sound
Harsh
Sizzling
Ice-pickey
Twang
Quack
Mush
Mud

Qualities in guitar sound to suite my playing style and fusion music:

A clear singing sustain for legato lines using overdrive.

Dense and articulate/defined tone for very fast picked line phrasings (overdrive and clean tone).

Good string separation for closed voice chords using clean amp sound.

Dynamic for differentiating stronger and softer attacks and different points of striking the string .

Guitar used: I am about to get build a neck-through-body hollow archtop with a flat zero radius fretboard.

The Idea of the instrument is simply the density and sustain of a solidbody given the liveliness, tone amplifying/enhancing body and other qualities of an archtop. Also using the advantages of direct coupling that only neck-throughs can provide.

It’s a 24 frets guitar with a tremolo, probably the Stetsbar using a little wider string spacing than usual(if possible), at least it is wider at the nut.

Pickup placements/distance from saddle and neck is of course adjustable as of yet the guitar is not build. But in general I find bridge pickups placed to close to the bridge making a nasal sound which I don´t like. The neck pickup would probably be placed as close to the 24th fret as possible.

Wood selection:

Neck-through: Brazilian Rosewood for glassy, burnished and reverby sound w smooth highs.

Top, back and sides: Koa for strong sweet midrange, warm, thick clear and open resonant tone with tight low-end and lots of sustain.

Fretboard: Macassar Ebony for an articulate focused attack with piano-like brilliance.

The neck-through is in touch with the top at the fretboard, pickup cavities and tremolo/bridge area only. Pickups are to be mounted directly to the top/neck-through, pressed into very tight pickup cavities.

Would be nice if the pickup mounting screws/bolts/bolt´n´nut could be mounted from the back side of the neck through, the cavities would look nicer made for pickups without the dog-ears.


Tone reference

Ideal would be the 1st string of a Classical Gut string guitar striked with an extremely polished/burnished nail. Added sustain as if the note very bowed(as a violin bow). This might demand a pickup making the strings sound thicker than they really are, but not like the

· Lace Sensors Gold in my Strat Plus have some but nice glassy sound to them using clean sound, though they are lacking in other areas especially used with overdrive.


Amp/sound:

Fusion style improv music, using gain overdrive for sustain and easy going legato lead playing sound). A combination of power amp overdrive and gain would be better. Right now I am using the Soldano Caswell preamp and Fender Concert combos (for clean sound).

I searching for an amp with smooth and not brake-up type of sound, combining preamp overdrive with power amp overdrive sound., hopefully I will have Tony Bruno make a custom one. But first I have to have a guitar with convincing pickups.


Pickups I have tried: Stock Anderson H2+ is to woody and dry. Seymour Duncan Alnico II pro ( It has a nice sweet tone, but it is too small and are not polished enough

The Anderson single coils sounds too crunch and not polished enough using overdrive/distortion.

All Mahogany PRS 87` w stock pickups: Very nice midrange, some burnished qualities but not big or open sounding.

Seems like a I don`t usually care for hot pickups. They make the tones coming on to hard, hardens the attack as spitted out of the amp as opposed to hitting a note putting vibrato to for an almost volume swell, blooming appearance. They often loose tone as well made by an unbalanced amount of string sound vs. the sound resonating through the wood. I have not tried a lot though, and mostly spring mounted ones.



Ending with a few questions:

· To which degree is it possible for a pick up to alter the qualities of sound (ex. more silky, glassy and burnished) independent of the frequencies(quantities)?

· Is it possible for pups to make all the strings sounds more equal (as if they were of similar gauge), the treble strings thicker and the lower ones more slinkier/slimmer, without filtering out a lot of the guitars` own sound?

· The art of building pickups as the art of building guitars are more much more than measuring data /specs, I would appreciate your specs/type advice according to the listed aspects, that is to closer the wanted sound qualities I described above?



Output (Inductance):

D.C. Resistance determined by:

1. the number of turns of wire:
2. the gauge of the wire:


Capacitance:

· Steel poles are supposed to make a silky top, it that your experience too?

· “Kinman's special Alnico-5 magnets that exert 40% less magnetic pull on the strings actually allow maximum Sustain” sounds interesting. But some characterises the Alnico magnets´ contribution as gritty with no smoothness, some say its warm and sweet and some say type of magnet makes no difference. What is your experience?

· Lower output Humbuckers, p-90s style, Single coil type or Jazz Master style pickups.

· Potted or unpotted?

· Could the pickups be made of Matching Koa wood or just pickups tops made of Koa (picture below for wood tops or possibly wood construction) tops and gold pole pieces ?

· It will probably be better to make the pickup after the guitar is build and stringed up, but in order to avoid waiting time the pickups could be paid in advance for getting a place in your waiting list. The guitar is done about July next year(2007). And another one is coming up a few months later.

· I am pretty shure you are using the very best of quality parts, although I have to ask, as the request may be an upcharge.

If this sounds interesting to you or if there is a stock pickup you would want me to try before an eventually custom pickup is made, please let me know.



Looking forward hearing from you .

Sincerely,
===========



Now normally, I'm always up for a challenge, but this one took the cake.

[Possum]

Wolfe that same guy contacted me
I think I told him I don't do burnished pickups, its too expensive a process :-)

[OFM]

HEHEHEHEHEHE...

I laughed a lot with your stories...

I have a few stories only, since i've been working in pickups just for a few months...



As Possum said, I always offer rewind/refund guarantee for my pickups. I made 2 humbuckers for a Flying V guitar, and the customer was very happy with its tone. He brought the guitar back, only for a small modification. He wanted the "out of phase" sound when both humbuckers are on.

I said: "OK, i'm a bit busy, so come back in 2 days". This customer was obsessed with golden humbucker covers, but I told him in every way possible that i didn't have Tone-clear covers, and the way I designed the pickup was not meant to have cover. It may look great, but the covers I have WILL alter the tone and i don't recomend you.

I told him 3 times, and the third time I gave up... OK I'LL PUT THAT F%$·% COVER!

Ok, put the cover, installed the pickups out of phase. He went home, and the next day, he sent me an email: "The modification worked the way I wanted, but now the bridge pickup sounds too dark". AAAARRGH... I TOLD YOU! IT WILL ALTER THE TONE!! And everything was just an aesthetic obsession...

[Rob Mercure]

Hey Guys,

I don't generally hang around this part of the universe - generally I don't work on pickups, automatic transmissions, and carbeurators. But I had to comment on the "strangely definitive" customer: I love my Martin D 25K and the light koa back and sides make the guitar almost "float" in the air, especially after a rosewood bodied acoustic. So this "expert" is proposing a guitar with a rosewood neck, ebony fretboard and the rest hollow koa? You might be able to play it on your lap but the minute you stood up the neck would dive to the floor head first! I dunno, but I suspect that the whole thing is a "not so subtle' joke.

Rob

[Stan H]

I guess the guy was working the rounds because I got the same email as Wolfe and Possum.

[kevinT]

Maybe its that BD guy looking for an excuse to bad mouth folks

[David Schwab]

A Whooooooo... what nut cases! Dang!

Originally Posted by OFM

Ok, put the cover, installed the pickups out of phase. He went home, and the next day, he sent me an email: "The modification worked the way I wanted, but now the bridge pickup sounds too dark". AAAARRGH... I TOLD YOU! IT WILL ALTER THE TONE!! And everything was just an aesthetic obsession...

I have a customer... been with me like 25 years. He loves the look of covers, and then hates the tone with them. We go through this all the time.

Of course pickups can be designed to work with covers... But he always brings me a Duncan that he likes and wants me to put a cover on it... <groan>

[Ruel]

Originally Posted by Possum

Wolfe that same guy contacted me
I think I told him I don't do burnished pickups, its too expensive a process :-)

Should the guy call you again, route him out to me. I know someone who can do what he wants. He will have to climb Mount Everest though to get to this winder's shop. Problem is, this winder is out of his shop most of the time, running after the Yeti!

[mkat]

Originally Posted by WolfeMacleod

Got a couple...

LOL, sounds like a comedy routine.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by OFM

". AAAARRGH... I TOLD YOU! IT WILL ALTER THE TONE!!

That reminds me of another story...

Back when I was using Alnico 8 in one of my strat models, I had a fantastic set of A8 strat pickups in my strat. My personal pickups. They were great. Glassy, smooth, everything I wanted.

Had a guy come in one day and he wound up trying them out. He wigged out and wanted to buy them, bad. At any cost. He had to have a set, no matter what. "These are the only ones" I explained to him...

Well, he wound up going home with them after I got my asking price.
He called several days later, and complained that they were microphonic. I asked him to come in...
When I got there and opend the case, I told him "It's because of your aluminium pickguard"
He insisted that it wasn't, because he'd just paid $75 for the pickguard. He inistsed that I re-pot the pickups.
Funny...they weren't microphonic in my guitar...
I told him they would change, but he insisted anyways. So, I took them out, potted them, and re-installed them. And didn't charge him for it.
He tried them, and went away happy.
He called a week later, complaining that they were STILL mcrophonic, and that they had changed thier tone and he didn't like them. He wanted me to buy them back.
I told him that I'd wanred him they would change, wanred him about his pickguard, and that I could not buy them back because they were now unsuitable for "ME"

In the end, I wound up making him a second set of Alnico 5 pickups, because he'd threatened to "tell everyone, everywhere" He went away with both sets for the price of one.
I never saw him again, thankfully, but I did see the A8 set in a local store, which was eventually bought by the store's owner and he LOVES them.

[Possum]

This was one that makes me grit my teeth when I remember. A guy called me and wanted a set of P90s, he was playing through a beat to hell old harmony amp, he played some over the phone and sounded pretty good. So while waiting to get his pickups made he starts calling my answering machine at 3 am, "hey Dave just called 'cause I'm sorta lonely, hey listen to this" then plays some awful guitar. I made his pickups in a hurry and got them out to him. He calls and says he loves them, I was hoping that was end of the story.....not. Then I get an answering machine message "hey Dave you know these just aren't doing it for me give me a call." So I call him up and he starts into this rant about how he doesn't think handwound pickups are anything special and can he have his money back, so I say sure thats my guarantee (not anymore it isn't...). He says thanks, he could really use the money 'case his DEALER HAS SOME REALLY GOOD POT JUST IN AND HE NEEDS THE MONEY TO SCORE. Oh, ok, sure dude.......

[pupoholic]

so whos gained that crystal ball 6th sence?
when ya know yer in for it?
just from the way they are asking things?

I got a few guys that call -- that I manage to prolong the topics and not take the order..
one guy called and woke me up Early AM last Sunday.. I like workin 6pm till 2am here.. just seems to work best, and that east coast Vs. west coast time differance... sheeee... it can really jar me up at 6 am here with those poor ol' 9 O-clock, clock punchers who would rather talk tone then do their job...( I know I would too. hehe!) . Great for them... and a little hard on me.. but I take the call.. I try to be here for them all..

[Sock Puppet]

I have a friend who makes bottlenecks, he's had similar trouble with bad feedback because of postal delays (he's very proud of his feedback).

The latest one was a customer who hadn't liked the exchange rate between UKP and USD who returned a bottleneck for replacement because it had been damaged in the post... the largest shard of glass was about a centimeter long but the plastic bag was O.K.

Seven or eight bangs with a hammer I'd reckon.

Pearls before swine Possum, you have my sympathies.

S.

[Zhangliqun]

So far I've been reeeeally blessed by the quality of customers I've had. Everybody's polite, 90% of them know pretty much exactly what they want, most of the rest know enough that when I answer 2 or 3 questions about covers or Alnico grades, etc., I'm able to come up with a formula that will get them what they want.

The "worst" I've had is a high school kid who at that age obviously doesn't know that much about pu's so he doesn't know what he wants. He's got some obscure vintage guitar body and one day he wants 3 Jazzmaster pu's for it, the next day it's Phat Cat clones, the next Fender Wide Range, then Strat, regular humbuckers, Tele set, etc. He was very polite and not the least bit difficult, but I told him, sure I'd love to take his money, but he needs to really take some time to go to stores week after week and play a million different guitars, play his friends' guitars, play any guitar he can get his hands on, etc., just to develop a base of knowledge about different guitars and different pickup designs -- and then get back to me. I told him this is so he doesn't blow what little bit of money he's able to scrape together on pickups he'll likely end up not liking.

He went away for a while but occasionally contacts me with some new ideas. He seems to be taking my advice but still needs more seasoning.

If that's as bad as it gets for me, life is good. Like I said, I've been super-blessed in customer quality...

[Possum]

There's a weird thing that happens with me and I can't quite put my finger on it yet. I really dislike taking phone calls from customers unless they are serious about ordering pickups; reason is TIME, which I don't have alot of and which they waste tons. Alot of my phone contacts just want to damn talk my ear off about how many guitars they have etc. Then maybe I am shooting myself in the foot by giving them too much information so they get confused and never order. I think alot of them are "impulse" buyers and after talking with me the impulse goes away when they realize they will have to make an intelligent decision on what pickups to order. I'm kinda glad about that, impulse buyers aren't who I want as customers really. I find the guys who email me are better customers in the long run and I put on my website that I prefer email contacts.

Anyway, just wait Zhangq you'll get a weirdie pretty soon, I get about 2 a year and they are usually doozies, though I do take steps to weed those guys out. The ones that really scare me are the "forum" guys, I once had two guys who didn't like my "customer" service and were chatting about me on the tele forum in a very negative way, which really annoyed me because I went way way out of my way to treat those guys right. Someone alerted me to the thread and I jumped in and shamed them by pointing out all the ultra super human things I did to make them happy. They shut up right away because I don't lie. But if I hadn't found that thread alot of damage could have been done; a couple other guys there were customers as well and stood up for me as well. Man, I stay off the guitar forums, except the new LP forum where they don't care if you promote your wares......

[NightWinder]

MAn,,,I wonder what kinda pot? That must have been really good wriffer to give up some guitar equipment. I mean, even I have never traded equipment for pot.....Maybe the pot is getting really goood?

[Mark Hammer]

Boy am I glad I don't run a business!

Sounds to me like some of you need to have signable waivers with your clients, that are every bit as irritable as the client themselves ("Here is a list of the things I will not do if you do not like this purchase..."). Of course, with some of these folks, it sounds like you'd need a waiver on the waiver; "I, the aforementioned, do hereby solemnly swear that I understood what I was signing, and that I understood all the terms and conditions".

All of this serves to remind us that there is no law which prevents persons with anger management or other impulse-control disorders, developmental handicaps and neurological disorders, people who couldn't follow a train of thought or generate one if their lives depended on it, or just complete boneheads, from being interested in music and having money to spend on gear. No law against them walking into a store, or clicking on the link for your website and e-mail either. Without naming names, there is a guy I've seen on a couple forums who I gather has Asperger's Syndrome or some other similar autism spectrum disorder. Pleasant enough, but my god is he draining and relentless, and like most with Asperger's, incapable of picking up a clue/hint. It,s a big old world, and it his his right to be on forums or stroll into a music store, as much as it is your right and mine.

Perhaps more unfortunately, there is no law against guitar magazines and forums popularizing descriptive terms for tone that have NO COHERENT OR PRECISE MEANING WHATSOEVER and any of the aforementioned customer types strolling in and trying to use those terms as a route to some sort of "satisfactory" client/business relationship.

[Ruel]

Just recently, I answered a thread in a local guitar forum who was looking for a used DiMarzio PAF PRO. Must have be a teenager. I sent a PM telling him that I could wind him something better for the kind of money he was willing to pay. He sent me an SMS asking if my pickup will sound like a PAF PRO. I said.." I will wind you one, you try it and if you do not like it, you do not pay for it. Just give it back. I will even do the installation for free." I also invited him to my house so he can try the pickups I have installed in my guitars to help him decide. He just kept on pestering me with a zillion questions. I got tired of the whole thing I decided not to answer his SMS to put a stop to the useless discussion. I mean Jeez, what more could the guy want? I don't know if he understood fully my offer.

[Possum]

It seems that people who know you or live in your area won't give you the respect that others out in the world will. It took a real long time for the local guys to realize I know what I am doing and make good stuff. I guess they figure if they know you how could you be any good at it if they haven't heard that you're "famous." I took my strat for a guy to try out tonite and he totally blew me off, afraid to try it, a bid of "no confidence." I won't bring shit for him again thats for sure. Moral of the story is don't undersell yourself, don't give it away for free unless you're new at this stuff.

And YES you bet on the "contract" idea. I have to add more details to what I will and will not do on my website to cover my ass everytime someone comes up with some other loophole idea to waste my time. I just put up a "no refund" statement after a guy decided he wanted his money back after four months before his pickups are done. His pickups aren't done becuase his email service is so crappy none of my emails get through to him anymore, he has his spam blocker turned on and is too stupid to figure it out. He's getting pickups, no refund, I'm not responsible for his internet problems. Payment for my pickups is a contract for goods, no refunds, you get what you ordered and if you don't like it we do it over again once for free. You wait in line, you don't get it before everybody else unless you want to pay a rush fee and I don't guarantee a delivery date. I lose a shit load of orders because of my restrictions but I also don't have to deal with crybabies who have no patience or guys who ran out of dope and want a refund. Strict business guidelines are a must for me.....

[Mark Hammer]

Of course, for every story about weird customers, there are even more about weird business practices. Many people mistake the snazziness of the website with the number of people working on the other side of it, somehow thinking that because Musician's Friend has a website, and Guitar Center has a website, and you have a website, that somehow everyone with a website has a bunch of staff dedicated to answering e-mail, or shipping out or tracking orders, and that even if someone gets hit by a car or comes down with cancer that there WILL be someone there to answer calls and e-mail, 24/7. The very notion that a website might be the e-presence of one person working a day job and trying to feed a hobby by making a couple of bucks on the side just doesn't seem to register. I find many people have wholly unrealistic expectations of small boutique businesses, and part of the problem is that the websites look TOO snazzy and professional.

I wish more businesses made a point of conveying exactly how many people work there, how much time you might have to wait to get an e-mail reply, what sort of contingency plan does or does not exist (e.g., "if you don't hear from me within 6 working days, it is likely because I am sick or otherwise indisposed"), and also had a backup plan to let people know when the "business" was temporarily down for personal reasons. Personally, I don't have any horror stories since I don't really buy anything on-line (just cheap, folks, not distrustful). But I regularly have to talk people down out of a panic, or unpleasantly escalating confrontation. That situation could be improved upon considerably by much better communication on small-business websites, and forging much more realistic expectations.

Basically, communication gaps are the bane of customer-business relations, in BOTH directions. I certainly won't heap all the blame on the businesses themselves, but planning out one's "corporate image" (even if it's only a one-man business), and having a well thought-out communication plan, is a good first step to avoiding headache and heartache. Sometimes, as Dave/Possum wisely notes, that involves being a hardass and laying out unambiguously exactly what you can and cannot expect as a consumer/customer.

[NightWinder]

FINE! More Local Hero's:
A word to the wise: Locals are the hardest to convince. I've been treating a friend get his tones that he likes.....Which turned out to be about 10 pickups. Moral....you can never please your friends. Seems this guy also tells people he had a hand in my r&d because his pickup was based off a 16k pickup I make,, and his all are at 16.2k, slight modification from the stock version that I make, with a smalleer offset. How is that "having a hand in the r&d of "Most" of the pickups I make? What a crock of shit......I mean, this is the same guy that took 1 1/2 yrs to decide that he wants a cover on one of his pickups......and now He gives it back to me, and I cover it, and he thinks Its for free??? He was surprised to get a bill.....For $10!!!! What a cheapass!!
He also had a great discount on all his pickups, and has sold 2 pickups in like 3yrs for me. I actually don't even like the guys personality at all, but considering that I have known him for 10 yrs, and we can hang out anytime and jam, i FIGURED i'd give him a opertunity to hang out and hear some new pickups at my studio. Totally shot me down, saying " I thought we were going to use my stuff to jam, I really want to hear my stuff." Just never ends
Moral of the story- Never let anyone tell you what to make. Never use anyones equipment but your own. DO accept any critisism anyone has about your tones, and evaluate yourself. Looking for outside help will burn you in the long run. Never, Ever break the friend/business line. You can give your friends discounts, but don't let them in the door to chew you up and spit you out like the flu.

[Possum]

I personally don't do discounts to friends, they save on shipping is all since they are here. they all expect me to give them the "buddy deal" but thats a big mistake because then they'll want it all the time and want more pickups :-) Another thing I stay away from which Nitewinder hints at is don't compare yourself to other pickup makers, you can fall into the trap of thinking everyone else is better than you :-) When I listen to tones to shoot for its always on old records, not off someone's sound samples on their website. Someone pointed me to a youtube video of a guy playing some Hamel PAFs, so I gritted my teeth and listened and started thinking wow those sounded pretty good. Well then I was afraid to play my own guitar with my own pickups, stayed away from it for 3 days. Then when I did I realized that to me mine sound alot better, have more character. The topper that made me feel better was Spence said yeah he saw that video and they sound like Duncans, ha. I felt better. Won't do that bullshit again....

[NightWinder]

Originally Posted by Possum

I personally don't do discounts to friends, they save on shipping is all since they are here. they all expect me to give them the "buddy deal" but thats a big mistake because then they'll want it all the time and want more pickups :-) Another thing I stay away from which Nitewinder hints at is don't compare yourself to other pickup makers, you can fall into the trap of thinking everyone else is better than you :-) When I listen to tones to shoot for its always on old records, not off someone's sound samples on their website. Someone pointed me to a youtube video of a guy playing some Hamel PAFs, so I gritted my teeth and listened and started thinking wow those sounded pretty good. Well then I was afraid to play my own guitar with my own pickups, stayed away from it for 3 days. Then when I did I realized that to me mine sound alot better, have more character. The topper that made me feel better was Spence said yeah he saw that video and they sound like Duncans, ha. I felt better. Won't do that bullshit again....

Dude, Possum, your a smart young man!! Thats exactly what I'm trying to get at. I have a friend that has some other custom pickups. He continuously judges mine to them? Thats ok, but you should also compare to like models, not paf against 16k demons? Thats not going to cut it. WHen compared to a like model, he always chooses mine, but it is just senseless really. Comparing your work to others is a humble experience.......For awile, I was looking to just wipe the floor with the other pickups, but after awhile i started thinking what I liked about them, and how I could Improve the design. No longer was I on A quest to be the best, as I realized that no matter what I did, my product was mine. Don't fall victum to comparisoins........Its like arpeggios, they are cool, but practicing them to much will ruin You!!
Comparing yours to theirs......Its a never winning situation. You will always like yours more. Bias.

[Steve Conner]

You guys know about the compression algorithms YouTube put the audio through, right? It's the digital equivalent of the guys at the UPS depot playing football with your fragile important parcel. Roughly speaking, they smush it to pieces, throw 90% of the pieces away and then the player software crudely glues it back together.

Trying to evaluate pickups from a YouTube video strikes me as being pretty difficult, kind of like guessing what was actually in the package before UPS annihilated it. So I wouldn't worry if you heard something on YouTube that seemed to sound better than something you made.

[soundmasterg]

Dude, Possum, your a smart young man!!

Possum's smart, but he sure ain't a young man! He's so old he's falling apart. He's so old he saw Hendrix in person. He's so old he can't ever remember anything. He's so old his mom was born in the 1900's. He's so old he..............."watch while Greg gets smacked in the head on the way to the jam next week by someone resembling Possum..........."

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by soundmasterg

He's so old his mom was born in the 1900's.

Geeze, I'm old as dirt then! My dad was born in 1900, and my mom was born in 1912.

Of course my dad was 57 when I was born...

[Zhangliqun]

Originally Posted by Possum

Anyway, just wait Zhangq you'll get a weirdie pretty soon

Just a matter of time, and quite possibly a bunch of them at once to even out the current winning streak.

[kevinT]

I get a number of inquiries about my endorsement program every week from bands and individual artists. These folks generally have aspirations to make it big....they tell me all these wonderful things like they have a new CD coming out, or they're doing a national tour with so and so. ..and because of this they want to be hooked-up with discounts and free stuff.

It cracks me up because many of them seem to expect a discount and that i must give it to them. Many of the folks are nobodys .... and after hearing their stuff, some don't have a snowballs chance in hell in making it.

But some are cool and are really good and have much potential....and i obviously get these folks on board.

Most of the time the people that i talk to just don't realize that the stuff i offer costs money and it comes out of my pocket. For some reason....they think that i get it for free or it grows on trees and that they are entitled to it. Once i tell them that they must send a media kit to be considered for the program....that ends it there for most...because many folks don't have a clue about what one is or they just don't have one put together.

My point (and what Mark Hammer touched on earlier) is you have to make it clear up front to folks what your endorsement program (or any other business policy e.g., return policy) does and doesn't do and communicate clearly the criteria for getting into the program....no ands, ifs, or butts. I'm actually in the process of revamping my endorsement program now and communicating the requirements better....but....I'll still probably get folks that don't or won't read the requirements and want their hand held....which chews up a lot of my time.

Yeah, I offer stuff for free... but those are for the bigger names who can get my name out there. Lesser known folks get a discount....but they got to get into the program first. And the good thing about it is..... I get to make the decision about who gets in...and who doesn't.

[Possum]

I had a guy I did free pickups for a band called Oppera, some weird spelling like that. They sent me a media kit and some tshirts, seemed like they had potential. The guy was real nice and I did a custom vintage type strat set for him. He had a really cool strat that would have made a great Fender "artist" guitar if they ever made it famous. Well then Parker Fly gave him a free guitar and that ended that mostly, also I made the mistake of pointing out that on one cut on his CD he was trying to sing in a key too high for his voice, it didn't sound good, he never talked to me again after that. I've had some semi-famous guys contact me, who used to be famous in the 70s, in some sorta famous bands, expecting to get free pickups......NOT. I don't give away free pickups anymore, if they're famous they can afford to PAY. I'll work with them to get what tone they want more than most. Endorsement deals are a real shaky thing, artists will use your stuff and then move onto the next "free" thing someone gives them. I'm sure DiMarzio is smart about that and has strict contracts that the artist can't be seen playing someone else's products....a good idea in my opinion.....

[kevinT]

Endorsements are funny that way. There are what I call "gear whores" who'll use whatever comes their way for free. No brand loyalty what-so-ever.

Endorsement agreements can be informal or formal. Informal is the way i like to go. Nothing in writing and No Payment, they either get a discount or free stuff depending on who they are. I don't pay anyone to use my products.

DiMarzio I'm sure has written contracts with Via, Malmsteen, Patrucci, (pardon my spelling) etc... because they are probably paying them to use their name exclusively with their pickups.

I pretty sure EMG has an agreement with Zakk Wylde. From talking with one of EMG's reps, he sells one hell-of-a-lot of pickups for them. Also, from what i hear, Zakk gets paid in the neighborhood of $20 million a year for all his endorsements.

[NightWinder]

Originally Posted by soundmasterg

Possum's smart, but he sure ain't a young man! He's so old he's falling apart. He's so old he saw Hendrix in person. He's so old he can't ever remember anything. He's so old his mom was born in the 1900's. He's so old he..............."watch while Greg gets smacked in the head on the way to the jam next week by someone resembling Possum..........."

Well, at least you did'nt say he's so old his smacks don't hurt anymore! He's young in spirit....makes good company. Enjoy that ride.....LOL

[soundmasterg]

Well he does make me carry his amp into the jam for him, so maybe his smacks don't hurt too much anymore at his anchient age?

[NightWinder]

Originally Posted by soundmasterg

Well he does make me carry his amp into the jam for him, so maybe his smacks don't hurt too much anymore at his anchient age?

Ouch!! Does he have you hold the door too? Better watch it, he may slip some old tubes in your amp.The "Man, your guitar sounds great through my amp......" Them oldtimers have too many tricks........Can't outwit them. Hell, if I ever come out with you guys, shit I'd be fetchin the beers, shots, changing strings, getting Ice from the shed in dark hill ass mountain land........Good times.