Where is Kevin Easton?

[Jackson-Charvel]

I haven't heard his name since I purchased my DK2LE. Where has he been?

[neilli]

Now there's a story! Basically he ripped a few people off and his business failed....

[shadowcat]

Do a search in the feedback section. And bring enough time to read the thread you'll find.

[sully]

i tried getting in touch with him a few months ago, and it seems that the store is closed, and he never returned the message i left him.

[mattsmusiccenter]

That's too bad, I hate seeing someone go under. I know he owed FMIC alot of money.

[RacerX]

Doing the search, you can almost pinpoint the time his deals fell off the cliff: Late 2004. Before that, it's all positive...after that, yeesh.

[Hossman]

Before that, it's all positive...after that, yeesh.

Perfect

[slash]

i tried getting in touch with him a few months ago, and it seems that the store is closed, and he never returned the message i left him.

I googled his store about a month ago to get his phone number. When I called it I got a recording and it wasn't his phone number any more.

[sully]

yeah, i had his home number as well, called it, talked to his daughter who gave me a new cell, left him a vm, and never heard back.

[hippietim]

I think you have to find Waldo to get to Kevin.

[OnlineStageGear]

Finda da pope in da pizza ??

[Jack Napalm]

He only tried to rip off 1/2 a dozen people or so, that we know of. We can only hope he won't resurface to scam more people. I was lucky that I was able to get my money back from him. Others I don't think were that lucky.

Good riddance.

[Flatpicker]

How much of it was an actual scam and how much was just really bad business decisions? Seemed like he created a borrow from peter to pay paul situation when he opened the store and it overtook him.

Not defending the situation, but the person himself seemed to want to do good for the customer.
I bought 3 guitars from him w/o issues. Incl a dk2le.

[Jack Napalm]

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.

I bought two guitars from him with no problem. I had him mod one of my guitars as well. He does great work and is very knowledgeable, I'll give hime that.

[Inazone]

I never did business with Kevin, outside of asking him a couple of parts-related questions during and after his time with Jackson. However, the impression I got of him is that he was the kind of guy who really knows his products but either 1) doesn't have a good grasp on finances or 2) experienced a downturn in business that he thought he could ride out by some creative shuffling of funds. Honestly, there are a lot of shops that seem to barely scrape by, that I can only assume are staying in business at all because of a good reputation among a core customer base. Once that reputation takes a hit, justified or not, there's not much left.

My introduction to the JCF came after a local shop took on a repair job for me (dead frets on a Dinky Concept) and gave it back to me in worse shape than it started out in. I chalked that up to shoddy workmanship from the tech they sent it out to. Some time later, I asked for them to order a Dean EVO for me. It wasn't a model that they normally stocked, and they were very hesitant to do so since I wouldn't have a chance to try it out in advance. When the guitar did arrive, they sold it out from under me. I didn't lose any money due to it, but that was "strike two" in my eyes. Had they been an online dealer, I wouldn't do any more business with them, but they are convenient when I just need minor accessories.

Blah, I'm rambling. It's unfortunate that Easton let things get out of hand, because he was a great resource for the J/C community for a long time. As much as I would rather deal with the "little guys" than with Guitar Center or Musician's Friend, I find myself always being wary of potential problems like what folks experienced with Kevin.