The wide neck guitar criminal!

johnnyurq

blueskunk said:

Could somebody please create a graphic to go with the thread name - wide neck guitar criminal. I keep visioning a muscle bound meat head, obviously with a wide tyson like neck stealing guitars

Great idea and a song too, a revamp of smooth criminal ought to do it with some new words.

jd0272

I somehow don't feel this will be placed in his Halcyon Days memory box. 

Bless.

Iamnobody

Fair play for registering Mr Phillips.

I strongly believe the typical copy contained within your auction descriptions is designed to deceive and confuse ill-informed buyers.

How do I come to that conclusion? Because there are many well informed members here including professional players, luthiers and time served guitar techs that would not touch one of your guitars with the proverbial 10 foot pole.

Therefore any buyers must be as clueless as your goodself...

I also note that you claim to offer a 'pro' setup in some of your auctions and wondered if you could confirm if you have some formal training?

I'll end on a positive. You clearly have the enthusiasm and time to pursue the dark art of fucking up guitars - my suggestion is perhaps you could channel that same energy into improving them?

All the best and thanks for registering.

randomhandclaps

octatonic said:

"You say I am just a conman: in what sense am I more of a conman than you are?"

@mdphillips1956

Here's and interesting thread. 

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/4333/octatonic-s-guitar-buildery-thread#latest

It's written from a really strange perspective as although @Octatonic is clearly already talented in luthiery, in it he also admit to mistakes, human errors and displays a desire to learn more.  I appreciate one criticism that could by some people one person is that maybe he is sticking too strictly to recognised techniques developed of hundreds of years of instrument building.  There also appears to be somewhat of a reliance on primitive hand tools and a lack of chainsaw action.

p90fool

ICBM said:

p90fool said:

He's not actually wrong y'know. If, as he says, the strings are sat in an over-wide V-shaped groove then the excess protruding above the string plays no part.

It's ugly and unconventional, but it's not "wrong".

It is - not because of the height of the rest of the nut, but because v-shaped grooves are wrong in the first place.

Well obviously the "V" is a problem, the rest is just stupid and clumsy. I'm just playing a little devil's advocate really, mainly because these "all pile in" threads depress me a little. I didn't respond to the original thread about him, and watched the vast numbers of replies it accumulated with an increasing sense of gloom to be honest.

Really, the guy's just a bit of a clown, though any fan of Ry Cooder, JJ Cale or Neil Young will recognise his style of "customisation" readily enough. At least he's knocking out cobbled-together bits of rubbish for pennies rather than thousands, so I suppose it could be worse.

I have to admit that I find the thread about the hotshot "industry insider" telling a child's parents they HAVE to buy him a Gibson Les Paul or his career will be over before it's started far more worrying than some ebay charlatan selling the contents of his skip for a few pounds.

Tinseltown Rebellion anyone?

jonnyburgo

He does use Tite Bond wood glue from the USA though. That could swing it for me.

randomhandclaps

I loves a bit on synchronicity I do and I feel the timing of the arrival of this thread fully justifies the refusal reinstate face palms.

 

stevenguitars

Gagaryn said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Mark's eBay feedback is pretty good, so his customers seem to appreciate what he does, even if I wouldn't.

That's true. Maybe it's down to his use of quality machine heads?

classic

Lukeage

*ah-heh-heh-hemmm* 

I would like to start by saying, first of all, welcome to "the wide neck guitar criminal" himself. Man of the hour. I guess we all saw this coming sooner or later. 

Look, let's just be honest about things. My opinion of the matter expressed here changes like the wind. 

First and foremost, I don't really see a market for wide necked guitars that you describe here and in your auctions. It seems a bit of a niche. I can see what you're trying to say with it, but I feel like there's a way to go about filling a niche and this may not actually be the way to go about it.

If you were to say "it's a shame Gibson and Fender et al. don't make guitars with wider necks that are more suited to people with particular needs", I'd agree.

I'm all for modding. But there's a fine line to draw between modding a guitar in a way that actually improves it and between what damages and de-values a guitar. 

Essentially, you believe (and I would agree) that most of these guitars you've modded are very "one-of-a-kind". Can't deny you that! But then what if you changed your business model? 

That is to say what if you created a 'custom shop' and said "I have x,y,z guitars available..." and people could say "I would like the black Encore Strat copy and I would like a SC-sized humbucker fitting in the bridge position, a re-finished headstock, and a widening of the nut slots" You know...? If you offered people an old 'base' model, and said they could have the mods or improvements done by you on that guitar... 

What do you think? I think that you have the makings of someone who is clearly keen to get hands on with instruments. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But if you offered a service like that, to build "parts-a-casters" for people from old guitars and accepted help to learn how to complete the jobs to a high standard then I actually think you could create a very nice little business that actually really does turn trashy old guitars into treasure!! 

jd0272

stevenguitars said:

Gagaryn said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Mark's eBay feedback is pretty good, so his customers seem to appreciate what he does, even if I wouldn't.

That's true. Maybe it's down to his use of quality machine heads?

classic

Oh. My. God.

mudslide73

^^ I can't believe they put Grovers on either.

meltedbuzzbox

jd0272

mudslide73 said:

^^ I can't believe they put Grovers on either.

Heathen! Grover's kill Kluson's on LP's all day long.

not_the_dj

stevenguitars said:

Gagaryn said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Mark's eBay feedback is pretty good, so his customers seem to appreciate what he does, even if I wouldn't.

That's true. Maybe it's down to his use of quality machine heads?

classic

I bought a kettle from that guy.

randomhandclaps

not_the_dj said:

 

classic

I bought a thong from that guy.

Was it a black one?

mike_l

not_the_dj said:

I bought a kettle from that guy.

I really hope you had it professionally cleaned

Evilmags

Ultimately it´s a free market and if anyone is dumb enough to buy one of those things, then it´s there fault really.

Gagaryn

not_the_dj said:

stevenguitars said:

Gagaryn said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Mark's eBay feedback is pretty good, so his customers seem to appreciate what he does, even if I wouldn't.

That's true. Maybe it's down to his use of quality machine heads?

classic

I bought a kettle from that guy.

I hope you didn't use it.

meltedbuzzbox

Gagaryn said:

not_the_dj said:

stevenguitars said:

Gagaryn said:

GuitarMonkey said:

Mark's eBay feedback is pretty good, so his customers seem to appreciate what he does, even if I wouldn't.

That's true. Maybe it's down to his use of quality machine heads?

classic

I bought a kettle from that guy.

I hope you didn't use it.

did it come with a free teabag?

JookyChap

@not_the_dj @meltedbuzzbox - you owe me a replacement for my twice coffee drenched keyboard