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- or the Charvel San Dimas Standard that would never be...
OK, here's the big bombshell that everyone is waiting for. In regards to the Charvel that I ordered through Matt's Music...
I cancelled the order. The guitar was a single-humbucker (Duncan Distortion), Floyded , maple-boarded, Ferarri Red Charvel San Dimas Standard. I was stoked about it and couldn't wait to have it.
Why did you cancel it then, you ask? Well, I placed the order in February of this year. Then paid it off in the next couple of months. In July I went to NAMM and saw them unveil the EVH Art Series guitars. In early September Kevin M. posted the pic of the 3D plates and I got excited about the guitar again. Every so often I would e-mail Matt for an update. The last estimated date came back as October 5th. Well, that day came and went and I never received the guitar.
Then on October 17th someone posted about Wild West Guitars getting a bunch of brand new Charvels. This had my heart racing but also had me confused. At one point it was told to Matt that my guitar was one of the first orders placed. I was a bit baffled. Here I was, under the impression that my guitar would be one of the first rolling out of the shop, then I see that WWG had a whole bunch of them with graphics and everything. So I contacted Matt again. He said that JCMI wasn't giving him much information to come back with. So I suggested to him that I contact John Walker at FMIC myself to see if any info could be given. Well, all I got from him was that the WWG order was in fact the first order placed. Nothing too fancy or frilly. I started to talk myself out of getting real mad by trying to speculate that the hold up was the 3D plate. It worked to a point. As some of you have seen I started posting things out of frustration.
Then on November 23rd the proverbial sh*t hit the fan. This is when someone posted about receiving their EVH Art Series guitar. Honestly, I was livid. I couldn't believe it. Here I was with an order placed months before the EVH Series was even announced or even available for public orders and then folks were getting them before I had my guitar. In many ways it was the same damn guitar that I ordered. The differences were that it was a strat-head, it had a different pickup, and an EVH paint job.
So I asked Matt what was up. He was just as baffled as I was, he started a hard press on his reps at JCMI and came back to me telling me that they told him that because of NAMM and the EVH series that the delivery date for my guitar was sometime in May 2005. I was blown away. It was at this point where I was sure that I was canceling the order. God bless Matt because he tried to get the guitar in my hands. He got folks involved, he mentioned my involvement with the JCF and again John Walker enters the picture. Through Matt, JCMI came back to him (Tim Wilson directly e-mailed him) and put the delivery date at the end of January. On December 2nd I cancelled the order.
<center>With that said I want to make a comment about Easton Guitars and Matt's Music Center. </center>
I know I said elsewhere that I was just going to leave well enough alone, but I think that it's appropriate to discuss this here. First and foremost, I see the kind of BS that Kevin went through to get not just one guitar, but two different large multi-guitar orders done. My take on Easton Guitars is that he was overwhelmed. Here he was in his first few years of being a dealer and he's got a lot of business to deal with. Many bashed him over things that weren't his fault. Was he completely blameless? No, from what I read, communication and follow-through could have been a lot better. But despite the hit that he took with both series I feel that if he looked to re-organize himself and his business he could overcome this setback.
Matt has been great through my own personal ordeal. I will definitely not hesitate to do business with him again. However I will probably only do business over something that he has in stock. Be it Jackson/Charvel, Mesa/Boogie, Lexicon, Marshall, BBE, Fostex, Tascam, or the other brands he offers I'm gonna have to check to see if he has it in. I congratulate him on his sponsorship of the JCF and hope that this gives his business a tremendous boost.
<center>Now my thoughts on JCMI. </center>
Now... My complaint lies with JCMI who needs to take a good look at their dealer relations and their custom shop workload. There seems to be a major disconnect between the reps who deal with the dealers and the custom shop. Sometimes I think they just give out fictitious dates just to get the dealers off the phones. If they have an influx of orders like the EVH Art Series those orders should be completed in the order that they came in, along with the people who buy Charvels to play, not to appreciate and sell for profit.
Bottom line for me is that in principal, the favoritism that they have shown towards the EVH models is extremely offputting. I agree that the EVH models are a good thing for the company and the EVH endorsement is a great vehicle for the future. But it seems that they have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Charvel has always been so much more than EVH, and unfortunately JCMI has forgotten that. Props to their marketing department, but to those who make the decisions on what orders go first I give my biggest middle finger to. I was really looking forward to this guitar. Sadly, the company that I've worked to promote in private circles has let me down.
Now I'm probably seeking to buy a couple of imports from either the classifieds or eBay. At least there, I know I'm not going to get pushed off to commemorate some guy who's drinking himself into obscurity.
OK, here's the big bombshell that everyone is waiting for. In regards to the Charvel that I ordered through Matt's Music...
I cancelled the order. The guitar was a single-humbucker (Duncan Distortion), Floyded , maple-boarded, Ferarri Red Charvel San Dimas Standard. I was stoked about it and couldn't wait to have it.
Why did you cancel it then, you ask? Well, I placed the order in February of this year. Then paid it off in the next couple of months. In July I went to NAMM and saw them unveil the EVH Art Series guitars. In early September Kevin M. posted the pic of the 3D plates and I got excited about the guitar again. Every so often I would e-mail Matt for an update. The last estimated date came back as October 5th. Well, that day came and went and I never received the guitar.
Then on October 17th someone posted about Wild West Guitars getting a bunch of brand new Charvels. This had my heart racing but also had me confused. At one point it was told to Matt that my guitar was one of the first orders placed. I was a bit baffled. Here I was, under the impression that my guitar would be one of the first rolling out of the shop, then I see that WWG had a whole bunch of them with graphics and everything. So I contacted Matt again. He said that JCMI wasn't giving him much information to come back with. So I suggested to him that I contact John Walker at FMIC myself to see if any info could be given. Well, all I got from him was that the WWG order was in fact the first order placed. Nothing too fancy or frilly. I started to talk myself out of getting real mad by trying to speculate that the hold up was the 3D plate. It worked to a point. As some of you have seen I started posting things out of frustration.
Then on November 23rd the proverbial sh*t hit the fan. This is when someone posted about receiving their EVH Art Series guitar. Honestly, I was livid. I couldn't believe it. Here I was with an order placed months before the EVH Series was even announced or even available for public orders and then folks were getting them before I had my guitar. In many ways it was the same damn guitar that I ordered. The differences were that it was a strat-head, it had a different pickup, and an EVH paint job.
So I asked Matt what was up. He was just as baffled as I was, he started a hard press on his reps at JCMI and came back to me telling me that they told him that because of NAMM and the EVH series that the delivery date for my guitar was sometime in May 2005. I was blown away. It was at this point where I was sure that I was canceling the order. God bless Matt because he tried to get the guitar in my hands. He got folks involved, he mentioned my involvement with the JCF and again John Walker enters the picture. Through Matt, JCMI came back to him (Tim Wilson directly e-mailed him) and put the delivery date at the end of January. On December 2nd I cancelled the order.
<center>With that said I want to make a comment about Easton Guitars and Matt's Music Center. </center>
I know I said elsewhere that I was just going to leave well enough alone, but I think that it's appropriate to discuss this here. First and foremost, I see the kind of BS that Kevin went through to get not just one guitar, but two different large multi-guitar orders done. My take on Easton Guitars is that he was overwhelmed. Here he was in his first few years of being a dealer and he's got a lot of business to deal with. Many bashed him over things that weren't his fault. Was he completely blameless? No, from what I read, communication and follow-through could have been a lot better. But despite the hit that he took with both series I feel that if he looked to re-organize himself and his business he could overcome this setback.
Matt has been great through my own personal ordeal. I will definitely not hesitate to do business with him again. However I will probably only do business over something that he has in stock. Be it Jackson/Charvel, Mesa/Boogie, Lexicon, Marshall, BBE, Fostex, Tascam, or the other brands he offers I'm gonna have to check to see if he has it in. I congratulate him on his sponsorship of the JCF and hope that this gives his business a tremendous boost.
<center>Now my thoughts on JCMI. </center>
Now... My complaint lies with JCMI who needs to take a good look at their dealer relations and their custom shop workload. There seems to be a major disconnect between the reps who deal with the dealers and the custom shop. Sometimes I think they just give out fictitious dates just to get the dealers off the phones. If they have an influx of orders like the EVH Art Series those orders should be completed in the order that they came in, along with the people who buy Charvels to play, not to appreciate and sell for profit.
Bottom line for me is that in principal, the favoritism that they have shown towards the EVH models is extremely offputting. I agree that the EVH models are a good thing for the company and the EVH endorsement is a great vehicle for the future. But it seems that they have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Charvel has always been so much more than EVH, and unfortunately JCMI has forgotten that. Props to their marketing department, but to those who make the decisions on what orders go first I give my biggest middle finger to. I was really looking forward to this guitar. Sadly, the company that I've worked to promote in private circles has let me down.
Now I'm probably seeking to buy a couple of imports from either the classifieds or eBay. At least there, I know I'm not going to get pushed off to commemorate some guy who's drinking himself into obscurity.
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