Where is Kevin Easton?

[Jackson-Charvel]

I recently read in an Ebay auction about a rare Jackson guitar from the 90s and the name Kevin Easton was mentioned as being the guy that was in charge of Marketing and Research at Jackson in the 90s. Was this true? Was this the same Kevin Easton that we dealt with for the DK2LE's? If so it's hard to imagine they hired him at Jackson to have that much input in their company. He always seemed vague and I had to do a lot of second guessing as he never gave me a straight answer on anything on the numerous calls I made to him during the DK2LE order. Perhaps he was fired from Jackson for being incompetant? Who knows the story of his career at Jackson?

[Jack Napalm]

Its probably the same guy. I don't know what his title was but he left Jackson I think at the time Fender bought Jackson and moved all operations to CA. From what I understand he was given an option of moving or at least offered a job in CA but decided to stay here. That's when he opened his shop. He did for a while but ended up getting in over his head.

Extremely knowledgeable and a great tech. I believe he was a 'key' figure at Jackson for many years. What title he had or role I don't know.

[Jackson-Charvel]

That is odd if he was a "key" figure, as he did seem overwhelmed or something as he never was able to give me a direct or a correct answer on anything I asked even down to a proper UPS tracking number. If I could find the original thread I would love to re-read it but it appears to have been removed which was odd as I thought the DK2LE was after the new board / old board purge.

[Jack Napalm]

Well, 'key' is a subjective term. I am not sure what his role was but with talking with him he did a lot. That was confirmed with talking with other employees that worked with him.

His lack of business details was not his strong suit and ultimately his down fall in the business. It wasn't until I ran into the Jackson rep 8-9 months later that I figured out there was a problem with my custom shop order that I had placed with him. After I found out the real deal I posted my story here which alerted quite a few people that also had orders with him. Then it all came crashing down on him.

I never had a problem with his knowledge or tech abilities. He did some nice work on a few of my guitars I have.

[toejam]

He was always extremely helpful in giving me info on a couple guitars I'd owned, even sent me a free part for one of them. I believe he also used to put the Jackson catalogs together. He seemed to get in over his head with his shop and just couldn't keep things going any more and stopped giving a shit or whatever.

[Jackson-Charvel]

Thanks for the info. I hope he has had time to reflect where he went wrong and was able to learn how NOT to treat customers. Karma is a bitch.

[ken]

Kevin's credited for the layout & design of at least one of Jackson's catalogues. The one from 2002.

Here's another bad story from the 2004 period:

http://www.jacksonguitarpalace.com/RR2916/index.htm

[Greg Crowe]

The last few years before the FMIC buyout, there really were not that many employees at Jackson in Ft. Worth. Donnie Wade was the boss. Kevin Easton was in charge of everything from Artist Relations, Catalogs, Product Development, dealing with pissed off dealers, etc. We used to get some really funny phone calls from Kevin back then. The 2 that I remember as being the most funny were:

1. This Vince S.(edited for correctness) guy calling trying to get free equipment posing as Megadeth's equipment tech. He successfully ripped of several companies. Kevin told us to be on the watch for him.

2. Ed Roman calling to complain that we had talked crap about him on the JCF and threatened to sue. We told Kevin to tell ol Ed to stick it up his ass, we weren't removing it from the JCF and Kevin just laughed and didn't even push us to remove the posts. Ahhhhhhh, the good ol days.

Kevin knew his shit and was really good at working on guitars. He just didn't have the mgmt/people/BS skills to juggle a bunch of stuff at once.

[Newc]

I thought it was Vince S., not Vince V :think:

[Greg Crowe]

I thought it was Vince S., not Vince V :think:

Yep, you're right, my bad.......... typo. It was Vince Sansevere. I wonder how ol' Vince is enjoying jailtime?

[Newc]

Yeah. I wonder how many of his infamous sweep kicks he's dished out?

[Jackson-Charvel]

2. Ed Roman calling to complain that we had talked crap about him on the JCF and threatened to sue. We told Kevin to tell ol Ed to stick it up his ass, we weren't removing it from the JCF and Kevin just laughed and didn't even push us to remove the posts. Ahhhhhhh, the good ol days.

Kevin knew his shit and was really good at working on guitars. He just didn't have the mgmt/people/BS skills to juggle a bunch of stuff at once.

Intereesting their lives have crossed paths as I was going to post who is hated more Kevin Easton or Ed Roman. They seem like 2 peas in a pod.

[Tekky]

Intereesting their lives have crossed paths as I was going to post who is hated more Kevin Easton or Ed Roman. They seem like 2 peas in a pod.

There is nothing similar about the two of them.

Kevin got in over his head and made a really bad decision to get himself out of it. (still doesn't make it right) But the Rabid Lecherous Leprechaun is hell-bent on screwing people over.

[Jack Napalm]

Yeah, I have never dealt with Ed outside of talking to him once at a show but to compare the two is off base. Kevin is a good guy he just couldn't run his business. He made some bad decisions and screwed some people over. I was lucky that I could drive over to his store and get my money back. Others weren't so lucky.

[micha]

I don't really care what the reason was but he couldn't payback some people and tried to ignore people when they called about it. Hell, I had to go over there so he would take a call from a member who lived in Europe because he wouldn't take his calls. Scam or bad business is just semantics.

And your help is still apreciated!
Playing my axe, I often think about how lucky I was to get support from you in this case. God know what would have happened if I didn't have some local reinforcement from you back in these days...