Exploiting Dime's image/name

[Chris]

Note: Please keep this thread civil.

I picked up the latest Guitar One yesterday, and the entire back cover is a big Krank ad with the title "Krank Addicts". Top left corner is a picture of "Dimebag Darrell of Damageplan".

Now, Dimebag doesn't play Kranks. He's dead, and last I knew Damageplan isn't a band anymore since Vinnie is in Hell Yeah. Either way, the following statement is false: "Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell plays Krank amps".

Additionally, it's impossible to walk into a guitar store without seeing Dime cutouts, Dime signatures of all calibers (like those $350 Deans) etc.

I was a big Pantera fan, and like most metalheads definitely was influenced in one way or another by Dime's stellar riff writing. For some reason, seeing his name and face on ads for new gear bothers me. The guy is dead, yet Krank is using his image like stickers on a third grader's lunchbox to sell their amps. He's the first artist on their arsists page:

Krank Amplification-Artists

Also, according to Wikipedia (and my head) he wasn't a Krank user in Pantera, he used Randalls. All of the riffs that *I* remember from Dime are from Pantera, and you can't deny that the majority of the reason he's remembered is his work with Pantera, not his work with Damageplan. So basically everyone remembers Pantera Guitarist Dime, who played Randall amps, while Krank is throwing his name/face around as though everyone going for the tone they remember Dime for should run out and buy a Krank.

It's not right, if you ask me.

Edit: The ad in question:

 

[eaeolian]

Agreed. In fact, I said as much last time around.

I haven't been too fond of Jackson's use of RR in the past few years, either, but Dime's continued exploitation might have another point to it - he left a widow behind, who is presumably getting paid by his estate...

 

[Makelele]

That's one reason why I really dislike Dean and Krank. I've never tried anything by either company, so I can't say anything about quality, but I don't think I'll buy anything by them anytime soon.

 

[Zepp88]

It sickens me as well. I can see like one nice tribute guitar. But not all of this they're doing....

 

[Rick]

Yep.

Another reason why Krank sucks.

I remember E! contacted, I think it was either Rita or his manager, about using the Al Rosa Villa footage for their show about the 25 most deadly Hollywood murders or some shit like that. Whomever it was that responded basically said "Fuck off."

 

[Kagami]

Randalls blow the shit out of kranks.

 

[zimbloth]

Don't have much to add, you covered just about all of it. I'll just say Krank definitely used Dime's good will amongst the metal community to get a ton of bands to want to use their gear. The two guys from Trivium can't even conduct an interview without letting everyone know they're playing "Dime guitars". It is kind of cheesy.

 

[Hellbound]

Well Krank has got to make the worst amps ever so I guess their only hope of selling them is to use Dimebag's name. Alot of people will buy anything regardless of how it sounds just for the cool factor that Dimebag used to play one....well for a short while anyway.

 

[oompa]

this is so fundamentally wrong for so many reasons.

i mailed them about this. lets see if they care to respond.

 

[JPMDan]

we all should petition this IMO.

 

[Regor]

Well, from a corporate business standpoint, Dime helped design, and launch, the Krankenstein amp line. He 'was' an endorser of Krank and Dean when he passed. So, by that line of thinking, he's still a Krank endorser because he never stopped being a Krank endorser. Unless you go by the thoughtline of 'since he's dead, he's no longer able to be an endorser of any type'. But I don't have a problem with that aspect of them using his image for advertising, because he 'was' an endorser at the time of his death.

What I do have an issue with, however, is the Razorback. Even though he designed the guitar, he NEVER played a completed model. Any and all pictures of him holding one are photoshopped. There's only pics of him holding prototype, unfinished, unpainted, body mockups. So, even though he designed them, he never used one while he was alive. That bothers me more.


Fender still sells the SRV strat. Jackson sells the RR-V bodytype. It's really no different. (But I agree with Chris on the damn $350 crap CFH guitar! That pisses me off).

 

[noodles]

I don't have as much of a problem with Dean, since Dimebag played Deans forever, and almost all the custom graphics you see, as well as the Razorback, were conceived by the man himself. In interviews, Vinnie said that his brother was very proud of his signature line of guitars and would want them to carry on after he is gone. It's getting a bit ridiculous at this point, though, since there are about nine billion Dimebag models. It's definitely the Rhoads model of the Dean line.

Krank is just cashing in with the whole Dimebag thing. Seeing him in every fucking ad is a bit sickening, for all the reasons Chris said. We never even heard one single recording with those amps. The first, and only, Damageplan disc feature his Randalls!

 

[Drew]

I don't have as much of a problem with Dean, since Dimebag played Deans forever, and almost all the custom graphics you see, as well as the Razorback, were conceived by the man himself.

noodles beat me to the punch. It's weird, sure, but it doesn't rub me the same way as Krank does.

 

[bulb]

this was yet another thing that sickened me about kranks business practices, i feel like they almost wouldnt have exploded onto the scene the way they did had it not been for his death. i cant help but picture them being like "dude, dimebags dead....WE ARE GONNA BE FUCKING RICHH!!!!", especially after the whole hc fiasco.

anyways im glad you brought it up chris cuz i have been havin a serious problem with this for a while. Its another thing for dean, since as noodles said, he had been using them for his whole career, but krank never had anything to do with his tone or anything like that, and they are completely cashing in on that shit, its misleading and disrespectful and it totally doesnt surprise me that they stooped to that level.

 

[distressed_romeo]

I've got a horrible feeling it's only going to get worse. Think how badly Hendrix's legacy's been mismanaged (there was an ad for some sort of Hendrix energy drink at the back of the last Guitar World).

Honestly, I'm suprised Vinnie and Rita have allowed it to get to this stage, as it's becoming really shameless how his face is getting stuck on absolutely everything, regardless of whether or not he played it.

 

[playstopause]

Well, from a corporate business standpoint, Dime helped design, and launch, the Krankenstein amp line. He 'was' an endorser of Krank and Dean when he passed. So, by that line of thinking, he's still a Krank endorser because he never stopped being a Krank endorser. Unless you go by the thoughtline of 'since he's dead, he's no longer able to be an endorser of any type'. But I don't have a problem with that aspect of them using his image for advertising, because he 'was' an endorser at the time of his death.

He's DEAD. That goes beyond any freakin' endorsement contracts.

(there was an ad for some sort of Hendrix energy drink at the back of the last Guitar World).

WTF?!?

 

[jacksonplayer]

There's a fine line between tribute and exploitation, and unfortunately the Dimebag marketing seems to have gone beyond it on several fronts. One nice thing about the Jackson Rhoads model is that the company has traditionally been pretty subtle about the marketing, for the most part, and the guitars have become a thing unto themselves. Lately I've seen Randy's mug being plastered all over Jackson ads, but that's a new thing to me.

I think both Dean and Krank are overboard with this, personally.

 

[zimbloth]

Dime's USA models wouldn't cost $3700 if he were alive (double what his Washburn USA models cost). Seems like shameless profiteering and exploitation to me.

 

[eaeolian]

One nice thing about the Jackson Rhoads model is that the company has traditionally been pretty subtle about the marketing, for the most part, and the guitars have become a thing unto themselves. Lately I've seen Randy's mug being plastered all over Jackson ads, but that's a new thing to me.

Hmm. I wonder what event might have been a leading cause of that?

 

[Leon]