Its official KV2+Kahler=Artist Similar

[pro-fusion]

Good to hear that they'll do the Kahler, but this situation just highlights the oddity of the "artist similar" policy. A lot of artists have tricked-out and highly recognizable guitars, but Dave's guitars were very, very plain by the standards of artist signature models. Extending the policy to cover such plain guitars is self-defeating, IMHO. It's their company, they can do whatever they want. But people can choose to go elsewhere with their business, too.

[UFORocks]

Good to hear that they'll do the Kahler, but this situation just highlights the oddity of the "artist similar" policy. A lot of artists have tricked-out and highly recognizable guitars, but Dave's guitars were very, very plain by the standards of artist signature models. Extending the policy to cover such plain guitars is self-defeating, IMHO. It's their company, they can do whatever they want. But people can choose to go elsewhere with their business, too.

Exactly. They're either afraid to get sued, or they're just trying to make a buck by forcing customers to pay custom shop prices. My bet is on the latter.

-Steve

[Venomboy]

AK, try Pat Wilkins. He refinishes guitars. I like his work better than Lees.

[pro-fusion]

Exactly. They're either afraid to get sued, or they're just trying to make a buck by forcing customers to pay custom shop prices. My bet is on the latter.

That's the problem, though. Under the "artist similar" policy, you can't even get such restricted designs from the custom shop. Jackson won't make it for you, period.

AFAIK, they're just trying to preserve the possibility of doing stupidly expensive limited runs, ala the Frankenstrat replicas, as well as to protect the value of the ones they've already done. Another unfortunate step toward becoming a maker of collectibles, rather than guitars, IMHO.

Mustaine couldn't sue over a guitar built to KV1 specs unless they put his signature on the HS or something like that. There has to be some kind of recognizable design element (and NOT a functional feature like a Kahler or LSRs), before an artist's copyright or trademark rights would become an issue.

[toejam]

Mustaine liked his guitars with medium jumbo frets and the "speed neck" profile. Strange how they make the KV2 with the medium frets and speed neck, yet he never played that model. Wouldn't fret and neck size also be artist similar? :ROTF:

[DevRock]

What a bunch of horseshit. Make what your CUSTOMERS want. Period.