Pilgrim of the Dark
Well-Known Member
So, back in September of 2013, I decided I was sick of buying 7 string guitars that needed fretwork and mods right out of the box. I considered many different options, but at the time, Strictly 7 seemed to be a major up-and-coming player in the custom/semi-custom world with an impressive, fast-growing artist roster. For the price, it seemed they couldn't be beat.
I contacted the owner to start hashing out the specs and pricing on a UK Production Cobra 7 bolt-on (pretty much a semi-custom since they let you choose whatever you want on it). After discussing my initial quality concerns, which were based mostly of]n the Strandberg* debacles and Keith Merrow's fret issues, my worries were put to rest and I sent off a money order for the full amount up front with a quoted build time of 4-6 weeks.
Around the 3 month mark, I kept being told everything is being cut and the guitar would be done "next month". Whatever, no worries; I am patient and didn't need it right away. Hell, I figured I'd rather wait for quality rather than get something rushed and imperfect.... am I right?
During this time, I informed the owner that I'd like different pickup covers since he had yet to even place the order and I had already paid up front. No problem, he says. I also sent him more money to put Luminlay side dots in. Again, no problem. I had asked him to flush mount Dunlop strap locks as well. I was told to purchase them and have them shipped to him. Done deal. I also sent 2 sets of $10 strings to be installed (an extra set in case a string broke on the first set during setup).
Fast forward to around February 2014; the neck and body are done and almost ready for assembly. One of the builders contacts me and says they don't have the pickups I wanted, so I could choose from a couple sets they had on-hand. After mulling it over, I told the owner to order the ones we agreed upon before they even started building my guitar. I was informed that prices had gone up, so I would need to send $35 more to cover the increase. Fine, I sent it along with $250 extra for him to re-cut a new body since the stain came out really bad on the first one.
Then, the whole crew pretty much quits after 2 months of not getting paid and it comes out that the company is pretty much bankrupt, but the owner will still fulfill all obligations to customers. Fine, at least he was still going to deliver on my now $1940 investment.
Another month goes by with "I'm working on it" being about the only response I can get... then, I'm informed that the new neck pocket won't work for the old neck (everything is CNC cut...?!), so he basically has to rebuild the entire guitar.
Little to nothing in the way of pics on the FB page, etc. etc. etc... over the next few months, but I wasn't too concerned as I was smack dab in the middle of the hardest portion of nursing school.
Fast forward again to September 2014. My guitar is finally finished. I'm excited as I get word that it has shipped. I finally receive it and bring it into the house. After cutting through the tape and opening the cardboard box (with no padding or packing around the case whatsoever), I stare puzzled at what I see; the case was not the case I had paid for (the G&G-style S7G branded case), but a generic, cheaply made "Kases" brand bass case that barely fit into the cardboard box in which it was crammed for shipping.
Whatever, I thought; maybe he had just run out of the nice cases and all I really care about is what's inside... I open the case anxiously. What do I find inside? Even more disappointment.
First of all, the guitar doesn't fit in the case, so it was just sliding around inside the case. Thankfully, the neck was bubble-wrapped. I picked it up and tuned it, and was initially very impressed with the fretwork and the sound of the BKP Aftermath pups.
After playing for a few minutes, I started looking over the guitar... more disappointment and the slow, but inevitable realization that I had just thrown away almost $2000.
What I found:
The vinyl logo was ripped and had bubbles underneath, but they just went ahead and finished over it anyway. There were drip marks on the neck and headstock from the paint booth where they sprayed the satin on way too thick. There were little pebbles or wood scraps under the finish on the back of the neck as well; they were very sharp and I had to pick them out of the finish with a tiny blade and use steel wool to smooth the holes out. The locking tuners were all installed crooked and the high e and high b tuner nuts were stripped. The strings I sent in never made it onto the guitar and I never saw them again. The strap locks never made it on, and I never saw those either. The body had black paint splattering on it and they just sprayed over it. The pickups were installed backwards and couldn't be adjusted almost at all because of how much wiring was running underneath. Not to mention, the pickups were the covers I had initially paid for, not the ones we agreed upon when I sent in the extra money because "prices went up". The control layout was a volume knob and 3 way toggle; I ordered a volume, tone, and 5-way switch. There was no control cavity plate installed and the holes were never drilled either, so I had to have that mailed and install it myself. The Luminlay side dots I paid extra for never made it onto the guitar. And now, the worst thing of all: The neck joint... one of the four screws holding the neck to the body was completely stripped out, it just spun freely and I couldn't remove it. The new neck (the one they had to re-cut since the old one didn't fit the new pocket) didn't fit the pocket; there was about a 1/8" gap on the treble side. What they did to make it tight was glued small pieces of wood into the gap to push the neck tight up against the bass side of the pocket. This made the heel stick out from under the neck. I know I paid for stainless steel frets as well, and the frets on this guitar were nice... but, I don't think they were stainless. They were polished up very nicely, but if you've ever seen polished stainless frets, you could tell these were most likely just polished nickel-silver frets.
Now, I know there have been many, many instances where people will take to the forums and other public spaces to complain about a single, fixable issue, and that we've been advised to "contact the builder to give them a chance to make it right before going public"... well, .... that. I could see if it were simply one or two issues, but this whole guitar I waited a year for and paid fo in advance is just ....ed from top to bottom. The only remedy would be to have a whole new guitar built, and I'm not waiting another year+ for that to maybe happen. This level of failure in the QC department of one's business is entirely unacceptable and disgusting.
In short, I sold it off at less than half of what I paid for it. While it did play great after a minor setup, I still felt like I was ripping off the buyer (as should the person who shipped this guitar out with all of these glaring issues).
The moral of the story: only go with respected, well-established builders who have a consistent track record. Do not pay everything up front and don't pay in full until you've seen close ups of the final product. And, last but not least, don't go with cheap builders (as you can see, I got what I paid for).
I contacted the owner to start hashing out the specs and pricing on a UK Production Cobra 7 bolt-on (pretty much a semi-custom since they let you choose whatever you want on it). After discussing my initial quality concerns, which were based mostly of]n the Strandberg* debacles and Keith Merrow's fret issues, my worries were put to rest and I sent off a money order for the full amount up front with a quoted build time of 4-6 weeks.
Around the 3 month mark, I kept being told everything is being cut and the guitar would be done "next month". Whatever, no worries; I am patient and didn't need it right away. Hell, I figured I'd rather wait for quality rather than get something rushed and imperfect.... am I right?
During this time, I informed the owner that I'd like different pickup covers since he had yet to even place the order and I had already paid up front. No problem, he says. I also sent him more money to put Luminlay side dots in. Again, no problem. I had asked him to flush mount Dunlop strap locks as well. I was told to purchase them and have them shipped to him. Done deal. I also sent 2 sets of $10 strings to be installed (an extra set in case a string broke on the first set during setup).
Fast forward to around February 2014; the neck and body are done and almost ready for assembly. One of the builders contacts me and says they don't have the pickups I wanted, so I could choose from a couple sets they had on-hand. After mulling it over, I told the owner to order the ones we agreed upon before they even started building my guitar. I was informed that prices had gone up, so I would need to send $35 more to cover the increase. Fine, I sent it along with $250 extra for him to re-cut a new body since the stain came out really bad on the first one.
Then, the whole crew pretty much quits after 2 months of not getting paid and it comes out that the company is pretty much bankrupt, but the owner will still fulfill all obligations to customers. Fine, at least he was still going to deliver on my now $1940 investment.
Another month goes by with "I'm working on it" being about the only response I can get... then, I'm informed that the new neck pocket won't work for the old neck (everything is CNC cut...?!), so he basically has to rebuild the entire guitar.
Little to nothing in the way of pics on the FB page, etc. etc. etc... over the next few months, but I wasn't too concerned as I was smack dab in the middle of the hardest portion of nursing school.
Fast forward again to September 2014. My guitar is finally finished. I'm excited as I get word that it has shipped. I finally receive it and bring it into the house. After cutting through the tape and opening the cardboard box (with no padding or packing around the case whatsoever), I stare puzzled at what I see; the case was not the case I had paid for (the G&G-style S7G branded case), but a generic, cheaply made "Kases" brand bass case that barely fit into the cardboard box in which it was crammed for shipping.
Whatever, I thought; maybe he had just run out of the nice cases and all I really care about is what's inside... I open the case anxiously. What do I find inside? Even more disappointment.
First of all, the guitar doesn't fit in the case, so it was just sliding around inside the case. Thankfully, the neck was bubble-wrapped. I picked it up and tuned it, and was initially very impressed with the fretwork and the sound of the BKP Aftermath pups.
After playing for a few minutes, I started looking over the guitar... more disappointment and the slow, but inevitable realization that I had just thrown away almost $2000.
What I found:
The vinyl logo was ripped and had bubbles underneath, but they just went ahead and finished over it anyway. There were drip marks on the neck and headstock from the paint booth where they sprayed the satin on way too thick. There were little pebbles or wood scraps under the finish on the back of the neck as well; they were very sharp and I had to pick them out of the finish with a tiny blade and use steel wool to smooth the holes out. The locking tuners were all installed crooked and the high e and high b tuner nuts were stripped. The strings I sent in never made it onto the guitar and I never saw them again. The strap locks never made it on, and I never saw those either. The body had black paint splattering on it and they just sprayed over it. The pickups were installed backwards and couldn't be adjusted almost at all because of how much wiring was running underneath. Not to mention, the pickups were the covers I had initially paid for, not the ones we agreed upon when I sent in the extra money because "prices went up". The control layout was a volume knob and 3 way toggle; I ordered a volume, tone, and 5-way switch. There was no control cavity plate installed and the holes were never drilled either, so I had to have that mailed and install it myself. The Luminlay side dots I paid extra for never made it onto the guitar. And now, the worst thing of all: The neck joint... one of the four screws holding the neck to the body was completely stripped out, it just spun freely and I couldn't remove it. The new neck (the one they had to re-cut since the old one didn't fit the new pocket) didn't fit the pocket; there was about a 1/8" gap on the treble side. What they did to make it tight was glued small pieces of wood into the gap to push the neck tight up against the bass side of the pocket. This made the heel stick out from under the neck. I know I paid for stainless steel frets as well, and the frets on this guitar were nice... but, I don't think they were stainless. They were polished up very nicely, but if you've ever seen polished stainless frets, you could tell these were most likely just polished nickel-silver frets.
Now, I know there have been many, many instances where people will take to the forums and other public spaces to complain about a single, fixable issue, and that we've been advised to "contact the builder to give them a chance to make it right before going public"... well, .... that. I could see if it were simply one or two issues, but this whole guitar I waited a year for and paid fo in advance is just ....ed from top to bottom. The only remedy would be to have a whole new guitar built, and I'm not waiting another year+ for that to maybe happen. This level of failure in the QC department of one's business is entirely unacceptable and disgusting.
In short, I sold it off at less than half of what I paid for it. While it did play great after a minor setup, I still felt like I was ripping off the buyer (as should the person who shipped this guitar out with all of these glaring issues).
The moral of the story: only go with respected, well-established builders who have a consistent track record. Do not pay everything up front and don't pay in full until you've seen close ups of the final product. And, last but not least, don't go with cheap builders (as you can see, I got what I paid for).
