Heads up on a bargain- Relic Strat neck

mdphillips1956

ICBM! Hey I like it... the first voice with sense and intelligence!

Actually it feels a bit weird not to be universally slagged off, even if it's just a single non slagging off voice among a hundred.

Nice to hear the words of someone who clearly can think and reason alone... not just go howling along with the pack agreeing with anything as long as its the same thing everyone else is saying!

This site suddenly seems improved.

Thanks,

Mark....................

WezV

mrchi said:

@WezV your website does not seem to be working at the mo bud,

you are wrong.  I am a professional web designer and that website works exactly as it should.   it may not look like other professional websites but thats because they are made by people who have read books on web design but don't actually understand how web design works in the real world

....

actually i am a terrible amateur when it comes to web design, and photography, and many other things.  The website is as basic as it gets as i just wanted somewhere to put pics that i could update myself easy enough.  It does work for me on IE and chrome, but not on my phone.   I keep meaning to change it, maybe to a blog format as i have not updated it in about 3 years!

WezV

Gassage said:

@wezv

I saw your site, but you don't appear to do wide necks for beginners with sausage fingers? Any chance you'll be releasing something of this ilk soon?

Is this a niche you've missed
?

Yours,
@gassage

there are a couple of wide necked 6 string guitars on there, both made with people who were certain that is what they wanted.   I did try and talk both of them out of it at the time,  both have asked me to remake them with more normal sized necks since then.

xmrchi

You deserve a lol for that! I shall check out the site when I am by an actual pc:-) as like you I can't see nothing on the phone.

[Deleted User]

ICBM said:

It's the honesty of many things in the description which is the problem - including things like "professional set-up", which cannot be true given the state of most of these.

I have no issue with him butchering cheap, already-wrecked guitars if he wants to and even selling them - but I do with the way he markets them as some sort of specialist conversion to people who don't know any better.

mdphillips1956 said:

ICBM! Hey I like it... the first voice with sense and intelligence!

Actually it feels a bit weird not to be universally slagged off, even if it's just a single non slagging off voice among a hundred.

Nice to hear the words of someone who clearly can think and reason alone... not just go howling along with the pack agreeing with anything as long as its the same thing everyone else is saying!

This site suddenly seems improved.

Thanks,

Mark....................

fantastic,

he agrees with what ICBM says, which is basically questioning his honesty and ability, and it's positive that this is not seen as a slagging off.

4114Effects

@mdphillips1956 In the spirit of showing you that we're not all a bad bunch, I'd like to apologise if my photoshopped image caused you any offence. It was intended to highlight how your eyes appeared to follow me around in that particular picture, not to cause you any insult. I'd happily allow people to photoshop pictures of me ... however I'm probably ridiculous enough looking as it is

I think the problem people are having is with the perceived arrogance of what you do. Take the neck that started this thread for example. I agree that the Squier necks are usually very nice, and sometimes worth saving. However, I don't agree that simply shoving a few plastic inserts into the extra holes is a good solution. With all that wood missing from the headstock it's borderline structurally unsound. I wouldn't want to be the one winding the strings to full tension, lets put it that way. It wouldn't be too hard a task to buy some appropriately sized hardwood dowel, glue it into the holes and then sand flat. Maybe even add a thin veneer to the face of the headstock to neaten up the appearance. You could even add your own logo to the headstock then. Voila, a nice neck to put on to one of your builds, and something to be proud of, rather than apologise for.

The nuts are another example. Last time I checked, a reasonable set of nut files was around £20 on ebay. This is a tiny expense for the amount of nuts you will be filing down. You'll have a neater looking nut and the deepening of the slots will be much quicker to boot. Everyone's a winner. 

For what it's worth, you do seem to be able to get the action nice and low, (maybe even lower than I can) so you're not lacking in skills. Plus your wider neck idea isn't the worst in the world - it certainly seems to have found a niche in the guitar buying community. I just wish you'd go that extra mile and make the guitars look as good as they allegedly play. 

Heck, if you were going to do it properly, I'd probably put some money into the project. Have a wider bridge made rather than roughly filing down a 7 string one, have someone like Warman produce wider spaced 6 string single coils instead of putting a standard spaced cheap telecaster one in the bridge position. There certainly seems to be a potential UK market for wider necked guitars that could be exploited. 

I'm also a guitar modifier and builder. The point is, whenever I undertake something I've not done before I read up on it, watch videos, and most importantly visit forums like this and ask questions in an attempt to do the best job I possible can. I want to be able to stand back from the guitar I've built and say "Yep, I'm proud of that one, I've made a good job of it". Especially if I'll be selling it to someone else.

Hope you read this post with the helpfulness it was intended to convey

welshboyo

@mdphillips1956

I take offence at your comments.

I don't make out to be all knowledgable, it's just the 30+ years playing at all levels that gives me some form of justification for my comments - I have probably played more gigs than you have poorly cut and spaced your nuts...

These years of experience also lead me to believe that your magical string spacing and plain weird ethics on what a good guitar is just wrong..I bet Fender are really kicking themselves for not coming up with some of your ideas.

There is a simple solution to the constant slanging you get and is take up Imppman on his offer, but you decline as you know subjective or not, it isn't going to be easy reading.

Oh and btw, at least get YOUR facts right, my son is 12.

mdphillips1956

Oops sorry 12 then... a fatal error to make on this pedantic site, though it was by memory.

Sorry to cause offence but I didn't say you were knoledgable as that would clearly be a nonsense! (only kidding!)  I think I questioned your apparently absolute knowledge that all my guitars are dreadful to play... without you ever playing one.

Then again, with the clearly superb skills and gigging experience you have, I guess you just know what a guitar will be like by extra sensory perception!

And this Impman thing?

Yes I agree it might look like I am scared to have one of my guitars given his one hour assessment... I am not really scared that he would hate it, as most people say very nice things about how my guitars play... one guitarist has now bought six of my guitars over a year and says they are the best he has ever found... but it just seems a bit dumb to come to a site where everyone almost to a man abhores everything you stand for, and then to post off one of your guitars to the biggest site cheese of all so he can slag with authority... I mean that there is no possible way he would dare to come back to the site and say, "well surprisingly, it was rather good", would he!

A while back some here said they were going to club together and buy one so they could see how really awful they are... but sadly never did as that way everyone would be a winner, and I couldn't do an extra careful set up to get everything right as I could if I sent one to the big cheese!

Now it is time to ride my motorbike and sidecar to the next village for a beer.

Thanks,

Mark.................

Corvus

mdphillips1956 said:

When I need help on guitars I don't go to a load of whooping yelping photoshopping phoney air guitar luthiers, I seek people with some thought and intelligence... sorry about that!

Mark.................

This is what I'm seeing:

http://thumbs.imagekind.com/369925_650/cockerel_art.jpg?v=1390546800

xmrchi

@mdphillips1956 I very much doubt any authority here would go to the effort of receiving one of your guitars taking time to play and scrutinise then would write it off as rubbish for the sake of popular opinion, I can see their would be positives and certainly negatives, plus as a professional already in the field, some pointers to improve.
Mark believe it or not we want you to do well people buy your guitars, and the guitar playing public is dwindling, we need quality out their and we want you to showcase this quality as it will reward us all in the long run.... But unfortunately your attitude is terrible and your skills suspect, , so you get slated for it, and for that it's fair play.

Lew

mdphillips1956;301645" said:

Now it is time to ride my motorbike and sidecar to the next village for a beer.Thanks,Mark.................

Please tell me you added the sidecar yourself because you found the bike to narrow -_-

octatonic

mdphillips1956 said:

Deary me... it sounds like too many of you only know it from books... does the real world of actually playing a guitar to form an opinion count for nothing with you?

Today I was messaged by a guy asking if I can do a standard acoustic for him on my ebay shop... says he has had three of my guitars (electric) over a couple of years and they worked so well he would love to try one of my acoustics.

An hour ago I listed a low cost acoustic for him to consider, though he wants a standard and this one has a 48mm nut so might be too wide for him... my point is though: many who actually play my guitars like them a lot... it's only you bunch of theorists who insist (with no hands-on knowledge) how terrible my guitars are.

Come on boys, wake up and smell the coffee!

Mark.................

Your customer, if he exists at all ( I suspect you made him up)  is an idiot.

No hands on knowledge?

You don't need to jump off a bridge to know that jumping off a bridge would kill you.

Here is an acoustic I built from scratch- as in it started as lumber.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t31.0-8/10548008_539014426228343_1367396753253185297_o.jpg

impmann

I'm not the biggest cheese, Mark. And frankly I would hate anyone to think that I considered myself anything other than a member of this community.

For the record there are several pros on here who I consider their opinions to be highly valuable - I may not always agree with them but I respect their position and value their experience. Hopefully I have learnt from them, just as they have learnt from others - it's a circle.

The issue I have is that no matter what constructive criticism I or anyone else may give you, I fear you are so arrogant as to not learn from it.

You still seem to treat my offer and my experience with derision and cynicism so for that reason, it is hereby retracted.

octatonic

impmann said:

I'm not the biggest cheese, Mark. And frankly I would hate anyone to think that I considered myself anything other than a member of this community.

For the record there are several pros on here who I consider their opinions to be highly valuable - I may not always agree with them but I respect their position and value their experience. Hopefully I have learnt from them, just as they have learnt from others - it's a circle.

The issue I have is that no matter what constructive criticism I or anyone else may give you, I fear you are so arrogant as to not learn from it.

You still seem to treat my offer and my experience with derision and cynicism so for that reason, it is hereby retracted.

Bravo.

No-one here believes they are the final word on guitar building.

I've built a few things but I am constantly learning and adjusting my technical knowledge- because I want to be skilled at it and learn as much as I can.

That is how it works.

The guys who don't survive in the industry are the ones who have plainly bad ideas, poorly implemented, are rigidly dogmatic or are just plain lazy.

Some people are all of the above.

Does this sound like anyone, do you think?

Gassage

octatonic said:

Does this sound like anyone, do you think?

@randomhandclaps ?

thermionic

mdphillips1956 said:

Now it is time to ride my motorbike and sidecar to the next village for a beer.

How many beers do you have before you start cutting a nut?

octatonic

thermionic said:

mdphillips1956 said:

Now it is time to ride my motorbike and sidecar to the next village for a beer.

How many beers do you have before you start cutting a nut?

We need a new fret category: the wisdomlol.

mdphillips1956

Tell you what... how does this look from the other side? 

I mean in that you all speak as if you make perfect guitars where mine rip off unsuspecting buyers on ebay... can you send me some item numbers of the ones you have for sale so I can go and look and learn?

Thanks I will look later tonight or in the morning.

Mark..............

mdphillips1956

I have just realised the big problem... you guys on this site, you really take yourselves very seriously don't you?

mdphillips1956

And I like the instrument you built Octatonic but though I can see it has the right number of strings if I didn't know better I would have thought it was a Ukelele?