Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

[Genebaby]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

[ QUOTE ]

I agree it isn't cool workmanship and you have every right to be pissed off, I certainly would too but its also not cool calling someone an unethical piece of *&^% on an internet forum....be a man and tell Lee that.

What I don't understand if you had a maple neck why not just have a one piece neck w/o a super glued fretboard? It doesn't make sense to me but I just slap parts together and don't make em

Every GMW I put my hands on was a great instrument, Lee has always been easy to deal with for me.

This is something that needs to be taken care of by Lee on eon one, not bashing a guy on a public forum.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've told Lee, he does not care, he knew why I was having trouble with the frets, but doesn't think the work done is an issue worth wasting his breath on.

Also, in regard to neck construction. It's strange that Wayne guitars have necks that look like they should be one piece, strat style, but they put a fingerboard on top, and install a skunk stripe merely for looks. Just something I've thought is weird.

[Genebaby]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

[ QUOTE ]
Just from hearing how the story played out, it probably played fine when Alex played it as the work was just done and the glue was fresh. But the frets didn't realy have any wood to bite into, it was all glue. Eventually, the glue gave way to the pressure on the neck and the frets started to lift up.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is probably it, there's crap for the frets to dig in to. If it ever played nice, it wouldn't, and didn't last long. Every minute it was in my possession it played like stinky ass, the frets were uneven.

Also, by the time I got the guitar back from Lee the second time, it had had so much fret work done to get it playable that the frets had lost a LOT of their life, with near zero playtime. They were hardly new anymore, and still crap.

[Genebaby]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

[ QUOTE ]
I've never seen anything like this before. Even crap chinese guitars are better built than that. I had always planned to get a guitar from Lee because he was helpful to me in the past, but now I don't think I'll do that. Either way you have put serious doubts into my mind about a company run by a guy who would pull shit like what I'm looking at. Horrible. I hope you get a FULL refund for all this trouble.

[/ QUOTE ]

I won't be getting anything from Lee. A guy actually posted on the Randy Rhoads board an email from Lee, where he basically said I was an ungrateful whiner, and he told me to pound sand. Which he never did, but he told someone else he did. Being macho is best left to Chuck Norris I think.

[Genebaby]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

[ QUOTE ]
Again, isn't it harder to remove frets, plane down a fretboard and apply a veneer to it rather than just replacing the fretboard? It still doesn't make sense to me why he glued on a "faux" fretboard.
MikeE mentioned Ed Roman. I have never heard of Ed doing something like this. I have heard other things regarding him passing off clone guitars as real ones but nothing ever like this. It makes you wonder if the GMW figure tops are veneer too or worse.... photo flame.
I know the pictures are worth a million words but this just doesn't make sense coming from such a reputable company as GMW.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with you, why would you do what they did, when a bit more planing and the old board is off and the fret slots with it. It was all nicely hidden by the binding, so it's all smoke and mirrors, scratch the suface and you'll find the bad stuff.

[sully]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

[ QUOTE ]
Also, in regard to neck construction. It's strange that Wayne guitars have necks that look like they should be one piece, strat style, but they put a fingerboard on top, and install a skunk stripe merely for looks. Just something I've thought is weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, it's just a looks thing. some people think a strathead has to have a skunk stripe on there. i admit that a stripe-free strathead neck is odd to my eyes.

i believe (but am not sure) that even the rosewood board fender strat necks get skunk stripes. the only practical reason for the skunk stripe was so that you could install a truss rod on a one piece neck.

anyway, yeah.

[Venomous]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

i'll admit i havent read this whole thread , but i dont think i'd ever buy anything from them after seeing the pics.

[toejam]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

[ QUOTE ]
i believe (but am not sure) that even the rosewood board fender strat necks get skunk stripes.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, they do. My '01 Double Fat has one.

[Badseed]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

Maybe he put the veneer on there to be a dick? Didnt like having to do more work for you, was pissed off and he vented by putting wood paneling on your neck.

[Chrisb]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

This is really remarkable. I mean there was a awesome tribute guitar from Lee someone got about 5 months ago. And before that I am sure most of you remember that absolute insane archtop beast with the full abalone binding that came from GMW. Its hard to believe the same guy who did those masterpieces planed down a fretboard and laid in a crappy veneer to pose as a replaced board. Even if Lee didn't do it, someone working for him did. I work in customer service and its never acceptable to treat your customers like shit. For every one you treat like shit you lose 10 more potential customers. As the saying goes. The real problem with Lee is he should not be communicating with customers if he is as moody as people say he is. You may not get you're money back Vic but be content in the knowledge that you screwed Lee out of alot of further business from people here on the JCF. There are just way to many options for a custom guitar to put up with that shit. You may not have as much freedom with other guys but you won't get treated like ass.

I had been leaning away from Lee anyways for my next non J/C guitar and now I am pretty positive I am gonna talk to Joe Driskill. A hell of a nice guy who is in love with every guitar he makes, and anal about every detail of the guitar (thats a good thing). Thats the kind of dedication and respect I want from someone building a guitar I am paying several thousand dollars for.

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe he put the veneer on there to be a dick? Didnt like having to do more work for you, was pissed off and he vented by putting wood paneling on your neck

[/ QUOTE ]
To be honest I think thats what happened. If Lee really is as Dr.Jekyl and Mr. Hyde as people say he is, then he may very well have done that. That doesn't make it acceptable (nor do I think you were implying it is) it just proves my point that Lee is a detriment to his own company.

[fett]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *&#%$@

Yep my '96 MIM Strat has the stripe. Seems kinda silly cus it has a rosewood fretboard. Maybe they forgot to front load it. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[charvelguy]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

yuck, he should have replaced the fretboard with a nice slab or shell out for a entire new neck. A new neck would be given if this was an Ibanez. I think I'll stick with one GMW in the stable.

[Genebaby]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

[ QUOTE ]
yuck, he should have replaced the fretboard with a nice slab or shell out for a entire new neck. A new neck would be given if this was an Ibanez. I think I'll stick with one GMW in the stable.

[/ QUOTE ]

People would remember I asked repeatedly for a new neck, and was shot down each time. This was before I knew about this, but Lee would have known. Even now that is not going to happen, he's as stubborn as he was back then.

[hippietim]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

Ya know what. The heck with GMW. There are WAY too many other FANTASTIC custom alternatives - Carvin, Jackson, Charvel, Suhr, Anderson, Zion, USACG, Warmoth, San Dimas Guitars, Grosh, etc.

[charvelguy]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

Nobody in their right mind would fix a problem with a thin veneer if they were to approach this to doing it right.
Take it in the ass and move on man 'cause I really think its over with Lee if he didn't do ya right the first time about. Get another neck with the same pocket dimensions or send the neck to some guy off eBay in Asia who does all that really ornate inlay work and have a real artist lay a new slab on there with ebony inlays. Then have someone slot it and lay new frets locally. Either way, it's gonna cost hundreds more to correct this. I wouldn't be able to look at this for years w/o feeling crappy over it.

[charvelguy]

Re: Lee Garver is an unethical piece of *�%$@

[ QUOTE ]
Ya know what. The heck with GMW. There are WAY too many other FANTASTIC custom alternatives - Carvin, Jackson, Charvel, Suhr, Anderson, Zion, USACG, Warmoth, San Dimas Guitars, Grosh, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

...GMP