The BRJ Black Friday Thread (Only for updates for/by customers.)[Ad Free]

[Tesla]

Anyone think BRJ will show his face at NAMM? Not as an exhibitor, but just an attendee.

No.

 

[Cloudy]

Id be surprised if he arrived at NAMM, I'm sure there are a number of attendees who would love to punch his lights out.

 

[clubshred]

Anyone think BRJ will show his face at NAMM? Not as an exhibitor, but just an attendee.

Not a chance in hell. If he did, he'd prove to have balls the size of Alpha Centauri

 

[UnderTheSign]

Ed Roman went to NAMM for years despite being despised in the guitar world so never say never!

 

[Speculum Speculorum]

Yeah, people despise Ed Roman. But I'm pretty sure there are at least a handful of dudes who might actually physically hurt Bernie if they saw him.

And for the record, I am in no way recommending or encouraging violence against him. It's just that I'm pretty sure I've even read things from people saying if they ever see him in public they will hurt him. I doubt he would go to NAMM though.

 

[electriceye]

Yeah, people despise Ed Roman. But I'm pretty sure there are at least a handful of dudes who might actually physically hurt Bernie if they saw him.

And for the record, I am in no way recommending or encouraging violence against him. It's just that I'm pretty sure I've even read things from people saying if they ever see him in public they will hurt him. I doubt he would go to NAMM though.

DespisED. He's dead for a while now.

 

[pushpull7]

Man, I love SS. I'd never have found out about this.

 

[Hollowway]

So what are the options here, really?
1) file a police report - not likely since it's a civil issue
2) small claims court - But we have to find him to serve him.

Anything else? I was thinking he may not have been paying his taxes as well, so a call to the IRS may be in order. I'm going to guess he didn't claim all those payments as income. That will at least keep him from making guitars for a while, because any income will be attached to what he owes.

 

[clubshred]

Ed Roman went to NAMM for years despite being despised in the guitar world so never say never!

You're right, Ed Roman did go to NAMM for years but of all the BS that came out of his mouth, one thing stands true: The man delivered. I don't give a furry rat's ass if he had a sweat shop or whatever there were always guitars being built and put out for sale... forget the fact on whether or not you think they're good or not. He had product.

Bernie? Not so much. He just stole money. That's all.

BTW, I was at NAMM and didn't see Bern - didn't really expect to either.

 

[Tesla]

You're right, Ed Roman did go to NAMM for years but of all the BS that came out of his mouth, one thing stands true: The man delivered. I don't give a furry rat's ass if he had a sweat shop or whatever there were always guitars being built and put out for sale... forget the fact on whether or not you think they're good or not. He had product.

Bernie? Not so much. He just stole money. That's all.

BTW, I was at NAMM and didn't see Bern - didn't really expect to either.

Can someone give me a quick rundown of Ed Roman and what he done wrong?

 

[ElysianGuitars]

Can someone give me a quick rundown of Ed Roman and what he done wrong?

Well, for one, bondoing up a bunch of Ibanez bodies and then claiming Ibanez used bondo on their guitars instead of building them right. He said a lot of bullshit for years, and ripped off other guitar companies.

 

[UnderTheSign]

He built BC Rich copies for years and claimed he was building them for BCR.

Like Elysian said he was quite the ripoff yet until his death he went to NAMM every year. Think one year he had a little confrontation with Neal Moser on some designs.

 

[Tesla]

Pretty grim stuff...cheers for the catch up.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

He built BC Rich copies for years and claimed he was building them for BCR.

Like Elysian said he was quite the ripoff yet until his death he went to NAMM every year. Think one year he had a little confrontation with Neal Moser on some designs.

I heard that Bernie went up to a well known custom shop at NAMM before accusing them of stealing his ideas. The quickly told him where to go and laughed as he stormed off in a huff.

 

[SpaceDock]

For those interested, from the Gearhounds Still Open? Thread:

Interesting side note to this place. I don't know if this is old news or not, but I heard from some very reliable sources at NAMM that this is where many (if not all) the BRJ guitars that people were trying to track down ended up. They were selling them as new in their store, despite the fact many of them were customers builds that were already paid for. Apparently BRJ himself was spotted in there finishing up incomplete guitars to be sold here. Pretty sketchy stuff.

For those who don't know, I too was screwed by the BRJ situation. Apart from the business side of things, I had sent Bernie my old white Vixen 7 for a headstock repair a couple years ago, and he never sent it back and disappeared forever on me. Pretty disappointing considering we were friends. We drove down to see the place ourselves before we left California, but its been abandoned now.

PS: I don't know if this is 100% true, but the people who told me this at NAMM saw this first-hand and have no reason to lie that I can figure out. Just some FTF.

Let's all keep an eye out for them trying to resell peoples guitars, I don't know how an influx of Hesperians couldn't go unnoticed, though

 

[mikernaut]

Yeah really sad stuff, I know Nick ( Zimbloth) probably really feels sick about all this. I know I got interested in BRJ because of Nick's praise of the quality. I ordered my 6 string and it blew me away and still does to this day, the best guitar in my collection.

My 2nd order had issues, I even sent it to Nick before he disclosed that he too had been burned with his vixen. needless to say he said doing a pickup swap on my Jekyll was a total headache.

Also seeing as Bernie even screwed over Jed Simon speaks volumes to his character.

shout out to the luthiers who built the good BRJ's cuz pretty much at this point we know Bernie doesn't do much then just sign the headstock.

 

[Tesla]

Thing is though, if these guitars do start appearing for sale...what can be done? Unless someone got an up-to-speed lawyer actively ready to pounce, isn't it just your word against theirs?

 

[wizbit81]

Hey hey chaps, I just did my usual quick Ebay search for a used Rico at a reasonable price and I came across this:

Bernie Rico Jr USA SN Black Fr Like New EMG Floyd Rose Neck thru B C Rich | eBay

This German shop is selling 4, yes 4 Ricos, in block colours. Sounds like it could be a new supply and he's trying abroad.....could be wrong, but thought I'd put it in here in case anyone wanted to check it out.

EDIT: They all say seller refurbished.....could it be non-finished stock showing up that someone else has finished off?

 

[v1nter]

@wizbit yeah german shop ProMusicTools, i asked them for serial number for a white hesperian but they have no clue about that / can't find one on the guitar.
As far as i know the shop orders directly from the companys and they carried BRJ Guitars for a long time. (they had a orange helloween vixen a frew years ago i remember)

 

[flint757]

The serial numbers were probably removed, if they were ever there.