Weird customer stories.....

[Possum]

endorsements....

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]

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]

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.

[NightWinder]

Holy shit, that makes for alot of "Just For Men" in that picture there Schwabby!! Lucky you don't have a full beard........

[soundmasterg]

I just use his amp and wear his tubes out instead of mine. Besides, my Vox AC30 is a little too loud for that gig, and his Deluxe Reverb is the perfect volume. One of these days I'll get some of my project amps done so I can bring them. Possum cringes every time I bring my Rickenbackers instead of my Dot or Strat. Its like he feels his amp has to recover from the abuse or something. Little does he know that Rickenbackers actually extend tube life....hehe.

[erikbojerik]

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

Boy, was that guy drinking the tone-description Cool-Aid!

Someone please give me a frequency breakdown between "burnished" and "glassy"....

And I'm going out into the shop RIGHT NOW to make me a guitar out of Mac ebony that sounds like a piano.

[David Schwab]

Holy shit, that makes for alot of "Just For Men" in that picture there Schwabby!! Lucky you don't have a full beard........

Oh I have plenty of gray hair though! But at least I have it all.

[Possum]

*****

Look at it this way, if I was a guitar, at my age I'd be worth a couple hundred thousand grand, whereas you guys would be covered in polyurethane finishes, (versus my skin thin nitro), and hanging in a pawn shop window marked down 50% from $200. I'm an authentic vintage human being and highly valuable; I never thought I'd get to be this old, I'm 57 which really ain't that old. The good thing is that all of you are going to get old too and it happens when you're not looking :-) I make Greg carry my amp to humiliate him for being Greg :-) Actually since my four month illness I don't have all my strength back and those fucking little Deluxe Reverbs aren't lightweights....

[NightWinder]

Ahhhh, Thats Funny!! Your a good chap..

[cryptozoo]

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but these stories are pretty damned hilarious

[RedHouse]

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.
...

Same here.

Not a single moneyback and only two dont sound like I want rewinds since I started winding in 2003.

I think it might have something to do with my initial communications process before a job. I like to ask them things like what kind instrument (make/model) are they going in, and what kind of musician are they (do you gig? have a website? been on any records/CDs?)

It's pretty easy to tell if they know anything about sound, I'm busy with a lot of things, can't afford the time catering to those trying to make an Epiphone sound like an R9 Les Paul and their Squires sound like a custom shop Blackie. That probably sounds bad, but it's working for me so far.

(yes I know it's an old thread)

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Since we're bringing back an old thread, I'll share a story.....

I had a customer come into the shop just to buy pots a while ago. He'd come in, talk about how horrible old Gibson pots were, ask me the same questions again and again about audio taper and linear taper, etc. etc.... then he'd start talking about how it is "impossible" to solder to the backs of pots because you just burn up the pots. This undoubtedly is why he kept coming back to buy MORE pots. He'd tell me about a wiring harness he'd invented to solve this problem once and for all (how he thinks the guitar world survived until now without his invention, I don't know), I'd briefly try to explain to him that if he let ME work on his guitar he'd save himself all these troubles, but he wouldn't listen and just cut me off.

START RANT HERE

I have this horrible problem that old men always assume they know more than I do, and if I try to offer any kind of advice it couldn't possibly be right. I don't take my car into the mechanic and puff out my chest trying to show off how much I know about cars, why do people do this with guitars? Why is it so dangerous to one's ego to ask questions that you don't already have answers for?

END RANT HERE

The guy disappeared for a couple months. He came back with case in hand. He said he since sold the guitar, and the guy he sold it to is complaining that it isn't working, and insists a tech looks at it, so here it is in my shop. I plug it in, nothing really sounds quite right. The guitar is gorgeous, it is a late '57 ES-175 all original..... well, all original except for the wiring. He had dimarzio pots in there, (so he wasn't just buying and destroying the pots that I sold him) not soldered, not hooked to a fancy homemade harness, but attached with nail polish. A dark red if I remember right. He had cut the pickup leads very short in order to attach his own wire (so much better than that original one I'm sure)... The most horrible part? Not only did this instrument have PAFs, but they were the very, very early ones with stainless steel covers with the sharper corners. I've looked around to find a set of these for sale to get an idea of how much they are worth, I can't even find a set to compare to. I've seen folks on this message board say they think those pickups are a myth because they've never seen them. And he cut them up and put nail polish on them. I pulled the pickups apart (trying hard not to crap myself) and replaced the leads and wired it up (with solder) and it worked once more. But really, I just wanted to strangle the guy. I did pretty well, I was nice enough to him, but I did tell him that the problem was the nail polish and that if the pots had simply been CLEANED to begin with he probably could have avoided all this. He was immediately dismissive of my opinions.

Okay, so this isn't a pickup making or rewind story, but I'm in a ranting mood.

[RedHouse]

...I have this horrible problem that old men always assume they know more than I do...

Hey now!