Holland custom guitars???

alanchanxd

Has anyone ordered a custom guitar form Dickie before?

http://www.hollandcustomguitars.com/
http://hollandguitars.yolasite.com/

I have ordered a body and neck (cost £450) from him during late October 2013 and unfortunately, I have not heard back from him for weeks now.
He has recently deleted his facebook page and changed his website name to "VINTAGE STYLE GUITARS".
Did I get scammed? Kinda worried now

ThePrettyDamned

Is there a phone number anywhere? Probably the best bet.

alanchanxd

ThePrettyDamned said:

Is there a phone number anywhere? Probably the best bet.

Just found their contact number, gonna give them a ring tomorrow. I hope someone here has ordered from him before and could shed some light
Thanks!

WezV

If that is his new website then I imagine the link at the top may explain why you have not heard from him for a little while, probably less of a scam and more a set of unfortunate circumstances causing delay... but I am sure he will clear that up when you ring him

let us know either way.  

EricTheWeary

Stuff on there about the death of his brother. It's not dated but if that's in this period it might explain the delay?

jayscrivener

I have ordered a body and neck from him. Although it did arrive it was very late. I think he started building last yar and became overwhelmed by the amount of orders and his brothers death and struggled to keep up.

alanchanxd

Thanks guys,

I have managed to email him and he replied me immediately that the body and neck should be ready in the next week or so. Looking forward to it! 

If I got time, I will do a full review and picture diary of the guitar body, neck, and the building process.

alanchanxd

jayscrivener said:

I have ordered a body and neck from him. Although it did arrive it was very late. I think he started building last yar and became overwhelmed by the amount of orders and his brothers death and struggled to keep up.

Do you have any pictures of your build? I am curious to see what others have ordered from Dickie

jayscrivener

alanchanxd said:

jayscrivener said:

I have ordered a body and neck from him. Although it did arrive it was very late. I think he started building last yar and became overwhelmed by the amount of orders and his brothers death and struggled to keep up.

Do you have any pictures of your build? I am curious to see what others have ordered from Dickie

I'm still working on it at the moment, been busy! I actually soldered all the electrics today and have just ordered the bridge. I looked at more expensive ones but in the end I just went for a Wilkinson.

I'm now scouting the computer for pictures!

jayscrivener

These are the images Dickie sent me throughout the build. 

Although looking at them just now the pick up routing near the bridge seems to be different so who knows?! Looking back at the pictures there are also differences in the pictures that were sent. I know he re-did my neck as the original was damaged which was part of the reason it took so long. I ordered in April last year and received this January.

alanchanxd

jayscrivener said:

These are the images Dickie sent me throughout the build. 

Although looking at them just now the pick up routing near the bridge seems to be different so who knows?! Looking back at the pictures there are also differences in the pictures that were sent. I know he re-did my neck as the original was damaged which was part of the reason it took so long. I ordered in April last year and received this January.

woah that looks like a beautiful build, I love that sonic blue finish. I have also ordered my body in sonic blue with a CBS headstock maple fretboard neck. I hope you are enjoying your guitar build, it looks beautiful when its fully naked!

I recently saw a brand new gotoh GE101 trem for 32 pounds online, but it is in gold finish
http://www.guitarandampshop.co.uk/acatalog/Gotoh_GE101T_Vintage_Tremolo.html?gclid=CIO-gY3Jp70CFYWWtAod7DIABw

alanchanxd

Everyone please be wary of Dickie Holland.

After the email where he has promised that the guitar will be completed in the next week or so, he has stopped replying my emails. I have e-mailed his different email addresses and I have tried contacting him via his ebay auction listings. Still no replies despite his auction page shows that he has relisted items. 

Its been nearly 2 months now since he has last contacted me. I tried calling his number, only to connect to this answering machine. I left a message in his answering machine and he still hasn't contacted me. 

Although so far I am having a bad experience with him, I am willing to change my opinion if he starts replying me!!!
Although I understand what he has been going through, I don't think a customer should be left out in the dark for this long. I have been very patient and he has my 450 quid.

LupoUK

Hi Alan, I hear you, and I feel with you.  Here a summary of my experience with a neck order:

I had ordered  a custom specced neck back in April 2013.  It took almost 1 year, many emails, long periods of uncertainty without updates / communication, many promises of delivery (“next week”) and 2 returned necks with issues (both posted at my expense) until I finally received a neck end March 2014 that I decided to keep. I simply gave up. This neck too has its issues and I will strip it, level-sand and re-finish it myself to try and salvage as much of it as I can.

People posting above have righty mentioned Dickie’s personal circumstances and challenges last year. 

Don't get me wrong, I empathise with the challenges Dickie faced, loss of his brother, health worries of his mum, etc  - I do not wish this on anyone, and I did express my heartfelt sympathy to him when the going got tough - and I meant it!  

However, while I would have happily accepted all of this as explanation for the long wait, it does not excuse poor craftsmanship or lack of consideration towards paying customers. 

Disclaimer:  Above is my personal experience and opinion and this may not at all be representative of the level of quality Dickie normally produces. Although my experience with the neck I ordered makes me somewhat skeptical, if the reports that used to be published on Dickies website are true, some of his customers must have been really happy with the parts / guitars they received from him. 

LupoUK

Just spent 4 hours... 4 (yes HOURS!!!)  stripping the neck I got from Dickie off its uneven and patchy finish and trying to even the bumps in the back and sand out a couple of nasty dings just opposite the 2nd fret.  Was very annoyed to see he had glued the nut into its slot and it took me a while to get the gunk to of the bottom of the nut slot...  After all that sanding I guess the neck is quite a bit thinner now overall, but should be ok.  

Got to do a just a little more and sand it with 280 to get a good key for the finishing.  Plan is to treat the whole neck with a few light coats of a potassium permanganate solution to oxidise the very light maple to a more aged colour before spray finishing with a few light coats of light brown nitrocellulose lacquer, followed by clear nitro... 

jayscrivener

LupoUK said:

Just spent 4 hours... 4 (yes HOURS!!!)  stripping the neck I got from Dickie off its uneven and patchy finish and trying to even the bumps in the back and sand out a couple of nasty dings just opposite the 2nd fret.  Was very annoyed to see he had glued the nut into its slot and it took me a while to get the gunk to of the bottom of the nut slot...  After all that sanding I guess the neck is quite a bit thinner now overall, but should be ok.  

Got to do a just a little more and sand it with 280 to get a good key for the finishing.  Plan is to treat the whole neck with a few light coats of a potassium permanganate solution to oxidise the very light maple to a more aged colour before spray finishing with a few light coats of light brown nitrocellulose lacquer, followed by clear nitro... 

I've got to say I was a bit disapointed when my parts arrived.

The issues I had -

• Took almost a year to arrive after being quoted a few weeks.
• The neck was the wrong shape, I asked for soft C but got a V. ( I didn't bother saying anything as it took so long to arrive and I didn't mind the shape.)
• One of the inlays was cut wrong and filled, can only just see it.
• The body finish wasn't perfect and not glossy as expected. It also had a few dings even though I ordered NOS.

I feel bad mentioning this here as I never complained at the time but think people should know.

I think Dickie has the potential to create quality guitars, once built and finished by myself its a great solid guitar, but think he has maybe taken on too much and began to rush which isn't good for anyone.

I'm concerned now the reason my neck was wrong was because it was maybe one that had been sent back.

Maybe also worth mentioning he did throw in the tuners and neck plate.

 

Anyway here is my finished guitar -

Fatfingers

I ordered a relic'd Strat body from him last year, which turned up a little later than I'd hoped but was what I ordered. I'm very happy with it.

jayscrivener

Fatfingers said:

I ordered a relic'd Strat body from him last year, which turned up a little later than I'd hoped but was what I ordered. I'm very happy with it.

That looks great, was the pickguard custom made?

Fatfingers

No - I cut it out myself. Drilled the corners with a 10mm bit and filed the rest. It's not perfect but, as you can see, it's a bit of a rat build.

alanchanxd

It has now been 2 months and a week since he last replied me

He still hasn't reply my email, after endless phone calls only to find that my calls are still being directed to his answering machine

Despite he claims that he has no access to his email and internet on his website, his recent Facebook activity shows that he has made profile changes on May 17th

I am sick of waiting without news. I have a plane to catch in a few weeks and I don't know if he would ever fulfill my order before I leave UK for good.

The neck and body I have ordered was well before my departure date. Ordered on late October and was told that it would be completed in "4-6 weeks" (his words). It has been more than half a year now.

Prospective customers please beware of this waiting time and poor communication

octatonic

What a bugger.

Send him a link to this thread.

bibmuff69

A Piss poor service all round,really regretting using him,probably the worst builder I've used in 30 years,it's not about just the guitars a builder can produce,whats just as important is the overall service he provides,and communication must be at the top of his list,I really think dickie has to realise that he really fucked things up with his PAYING customers,he just treats you like shit basically