My GMW experience,

[Top Jimmy B]

Re: My GMW experience,

Well, I know Brett had a pretty serious issue with an ebay transaction and a lot of people from the JCF rallied behind him to show their support. The circumstances were different, of course, but it did make a difference and Brett received the item that was rightfully his.

For Lee to hold this guitar hostage is pure BS and reeks of a low class mentality. Who gives a flying fukk how good his work is if he's going to treat his customers the way he has handled Vic? I'm sure the vast distance between these two guys is a huge reason for Lee's not giving a sh1t - out of site, out of mind.

Were I local to GMW I'd gladly go there(with Racer X) and give Lee a serious piece of business about this ordeal. Paddock is doing a great thing by going there to retrieve this guitar.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: My GMW experience,

I agree Bret, I would not have heard about GMW if not for these boards. Perhaps he took on more business than he could chew, I dunno. Nonetheless, customers who shell out the kind of money that Gene has and not rectify the the situation is pretty disturbing if you ask me. Nightmare guitar, not a dream guitar [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I love my GMW but is basically an old school Charvel copy, sure I'd love another but not without knowing what his new headstock is going to look like.

I really hope he realizes the importance of a happy customer and does the right thing here and takes care of the situation. To pay for a custom and have to deal with an attitude and unwillingness to resolve the situation is pretty sad [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[hippietim]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
Who else is knowledgable, trustworthy, and capable of restorations? I'm not talking a scuff and paint job - I'm talking frets, binding, neck straightening, etc. Real luthier work. I have a valuable guitar that needs to go somewhere immediately, and if not Lee, then who???

PM me if you want.

Brett

[/ QUOTE ]

Mike Lull's Guitarworks in Bellevue, WA has a great reputation for this stuff. He works on all the celeb. guitars in that area - Queensryche, Heart, AIC, etc.

He did work for me when I lived there - frets, setups, etc. He also has a line of guitars and basses.

http://www.mikelull.com

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: My GMW experience,

What's the GMW's return policy and gurantee on their new guitars?

[Top Jimmy B]

Re: My GMW experience,

Apparently it's "Fukk you very much and have a nice day."

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
Apparently it's "Fukk you very much and have a nice day."

[/ QUOTE ] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[StukaJU87]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
Apparently it's "Fukk you very much and have a nice day."

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice one Jimmy. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I have only dealt with Lee once. It was a refin and light custom work to my model6. He did a great job, however, this whole scenerio throws a monkey wrench into me ever doing business with him again.

[charvelguy]

Re: My GMW experience,

Norio Imai of Imai Guitars, 20 W. 22nd St. NY, NY. Mr. Imai spent over a decade working with Mr. Sadowsky of Sadowsky Guitars before opening his own shop.
He's listed on the Sadowsky page, if you ever played a Sadowsky I wouldn't hestitate to send it to either.

Of course, another well known name as Luthier/repair that is not just Jackson/Charvel oriented but well respected

http://www.gruhn.com/

More of a list:
http://www.guitarsite.com/database/Makers/

[markD]

Re: My GMW experience,

sadowsky guitars kill. my sister has one. he does fantastic work.

[tmdiamond]

Re: My GMW experience,

I'm strictly playing devil's advocate here so don't jump my sh@t for this post. And I'm not suggesting that Vic is being untruthful about anything at all. But I think it is important to realize that there is more than one side to every story. None of us, other than Vic, are privy to every word of every conversation. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of knowing what Lee's position is or where he's coming from. Now, I'm the first one to usually jump the gun and get all fired up about something without looking past the surface so I'm not calling the kettle black, please understand. Communication between two people is all about perception; what Vic feels is being said and what Lee feels is happening. I know that Lee can be a bit gruff, as Bret and others said, but I wouldn't normally think that he would risk SO much by blatantly burning someone who belongs to this forum. I have a pending order with Lee but that fact does not play into my opinion here.

I also have to think that taking the guitar to another place for repairs was probably not a good idea, but certainly understandable considering the distance involved. I do wonder if Lee was notified by Vic right when the problems were noticed, at which point Vic took it to another luthier. Or did he find the first problem, take it to a local luthier, find more problems, and THEN tell Lee about it for the first time. I read the whole thread but I may have not interpreted that correctly.
If Lee wasn't notified about the problem discoveries until months later after repairs were done by someone else, I'd probably be a bit torqued that I, as the original builder, wasn't told that there were quality issues. Lee probably should have been immediately told of the inlay issues, and if he was informed and I missed it, I apologize. From Lee's position, he may see it as..."I built a custom guitar for a guy, he took it to his tech who said it was messed up. That tech did work to it and now the guy is telling me that the guitar was screwed up from the start." Some have said that the inlays look terrible and maybe they do. I have owned a lot of Soloists with inlays that are uneven and have some kind of opaque filler between the MOP and the ebony. I figured that some of the inlay guys were better than others. On a maple neck w/ ebony inlays, it's bound to be much more noticeable. Not making an excuse for inlay work that isn't up to custom standards.....I'm just saying that maybe Lee doesn't see it the same way as Vic does.

When tempers get heated, things sometimes get said that are not meant. I've been guilty of it. I would hope that in this case, that is what happened.

I sincerely hope that Vic gets his custom guitar exactly as he wants it. I just think that this is a communication problem and that we're only hearing one side of things.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My GMW experience,

I too would agree that not notifying Lee first was a mistake, but he literally screwed up the entire guitar. If it were just the neck, and Vic brought it to someone else first, then i can see Lee having a problem. But he screwed up the frets, the trussrod, the inlays, the body, the case..... Lee has ZERO excuse here.

[Genebaby]

Re: My GMW experience,

tmdiamond, I did not contact Lee about the guitar until I was sure I HAD to send it back. I was unhappy with the case from the start, not getting the one I had originally ordered, the sharkfins looked funny and it played bad, but oweing to the distance and the huge cost of sending it back, I sucked it up and tried to get it playable. Good frets are the most important thing, these weren't good, and with good reason, the way the slots were cut, they were never going to be stable. The sucky nut and everything else came into play to make it worthwhile to take on the monumental task of sending the guitar back. That kind of situation is my worst nightmare with a guitar ordered from the States. You guys open it up, say, Nope, this sucks, and ship it back for $30 or drive over there. To get it Fed Exed back is like $400. I held off on that until the frets were proving themselves a huge problem, so if it had to go back for that, I figured I'd get the neck pocket, the nut, the case and the inlays sorted. This would not be turning out like this if I lived on the same continent I can assure you.

Before I left for a gig last night, I emailed Lee about this and the nut thread, so he could see that other people are of the same opinion regarding the work. I also mentioned that Paddok would be coming around to pick up the guitar. I expected him to blow his top or something but all he said back was that he's have Paddok drop by and pick up the guitar. I'm not sure if he has read the posts. He still owes me return shipping, but I would like the guitar to have a new neck before that happens, though it may not.

When I finally wrote to Lee to express my problems, it was a big long email like my first post here, detailing my troubles and feelings. If this doesn't get resolved, and I have to take back the guitar with the problem neck, I will be building a website for the whole, sao ordeal. You can check out what Lee and I have been saying there.

[j2379]

Re: My GMW experience,

i personally think you should get a NEW guitar, free of charge built the way your CUSTOM ORDER was supposed to be made & paid for. ive had an experience very similar to yours. after a bunch of threats, posts on many guitar BBs, lawyers & a lawsuit, it finally got solved. Due to the lawsuit I can NOT mention the guys name but he is/was a very respected luthier, that used to work at Rudys,in NYC. Vic, POST your problem on every BB, make a big stink about it everywhere. but DO NOT post opinions ONLY facts, do not make any judgements or speak about Lee the person, only the guitar & the issues with the guitar.

BTW Sadowsky guitars were warmoth bodies & necks. or at least they were back in the early 90's. youde be surprised how many big money builders dont actually make thier own stuff. remember if you order warmoth necks with uncut headstocks & NO frets they wont put the turtle logo on it, if you ask them not to.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: My GMW experience,

F*ck Rudy's too. I stopped using them when they charged me $80 plus tax to setup a les paul special and then gave me attitude when I brought it back the next day. It was one of the main reasons that i learned how to do setups. they also sold shit out from under me.

[Genebaby]

Re: My GMW experience,

[ QUOTE ]
hey vic, I'm curious when all is said and done, what did you actually save $-wise in not buying this from jackson in the first place ????

I see lots of guys having c/j look alikes built by gmw and now more than ever cant understand why anyone would do so when you can have "anything you want" on a pointy charvel made by the folks that did them in the first place....
now that gmw cant do s-heads whats the point ?

for a few hundred bucks more I'll take the warranty , workmanship and integrity of a proven company that stands behind their work ,over nominal savings any day...
In thirty years there will still be charvels & jacksons being bought and sold.. will the same be said for lees copies of them ? I am thinking no at this time.

its unfortunate the only way to dan is through lee.

I have had my own share of mishaps with lee, but theres no sense in beating a dead horse...
I hope he makes things right "for you" .

[/ QUOTE ]

When all is said and done I'm not sure I even saved much at all by going to GMW. With a Jackson, the price is high, but the dealer discounts, so we know we don't pay the price the generator tells us, whereas with GMW, the listed price for the options you want, is the price you pay. That's not why I went with Lee though. When I said I was looking at getting a WR1 at first, I meant just a normal USA Select guitar, probably with BGF graphic. Lee was a Jackson dealer and could easily have ordered me a custom Jackson, but I went with Lee to sample the superb quality of a GMW, something I'd been hearing on the JCF since day one on the old board. I have USA Jacksons and Charvels, I did not have a GMW. I thought I'd get an even higher quality guitar with MORE hand made attention to detail. I wanted to experience what others had raved about.