Ian Elson Guitars - AVOID!!

Mototech

I have personal experience of this cowboy. He announced a batch of six guitars about 18 months ago, so I put a deposit down & was told it would be delivered in about 8 weeks,a few weeks later, he said he was ordering the pickups from Bare Knuckle & would appreciate the cost of them to help the build along,at this point I paid the full balance. To cut a very long story short, 8 weeks turned into 5 months, with excuses & lies to try to smooth things out. I eventually told him if the guitar wasn't delivered by the Friday of that week, he could keep it & refund me. He said the guitar was despatched, but couldn't provide tracking details, when the following Monday came & still no guitar, he eventually sent me a photo of the shipping label with that day's date on, at this point I told him I had had enough of his lies& wanted a refund, he said the guitar had already left, but as soon as it was returned to him,the refund would be issued. No surprise that it took another 3 months to get my money in dribs & drabs & he still owes me £25.

A friend of mine did actually take delivery of one & it was quite literally unplayable, every one of the faults listed above, Elson is obviously a slow learner!  It went to a local Luthier, who himself makes very good quality guitars & he said he had never seen a guitar as bad in 50 plus years working with guitars.

Kittyfrisk

This whole tale is so sad from any perspective.
Nowt so queer as folk, eh?

Danielsguitars

Blimey that's shocking, I don't feel so bad now, I've cast aside stuff with far less things I wasn't happy with.

mendy

 

GoldenEraGuitars

mendy said:

I got a C in woodwork. If anyone wants to give me £700 to have a bash at making you a guitar let me know. No refunds

Call it tree-fiddy and we got a deal!

mrkillermister

So the who wants to see the disaster that I recived then?
Won it in a competition (thank god it only cost me £6)
Waited nearly 12 months for it and oh boy what a dissapointment.
I had folks messaging me if I'd got it, telling me horror stories of what theirs were like.
Ome of them took him to court and still hasn't heard anything back.
The other guy litrally took the hardware off and took a axe to it. 

Now for mine. Theres a poorly fitted nut with what looks like super glue reaction with what ever material it's made of.
There's a two+ mm gap where the neck meets the body (I told him and his reply was "just tighten it up which it won't, the screw head was already stripped.) I think it's hitting the truss rod to be fair.

Pickup mount screws heads were knarled up.
And there's no more adjustment in the bridge at all to bring the action down to any sort of decent playing.
Oh and poor fret finishing. 
All I can say is thank god I didn't pay for it! 

IanElsonGuitar

I totally take responsibility for this fuck up and I gave a full and immediate refund. I shouldn't have tried to do it for the budget I was given and took my eye off the ball...after lockdown I couldn't afford not to take it on and it bit my arse big time. If I'm judged on this one cock-up rather than the 50 or so guitars that are out in the world then fair play but I did mess up and I admit it. Hopefully, people may take the time to check out all my others and see this was a one-off aberration. You are judged by your worst effort, not your best so I guess I just have to wear this one and hope it takes its place as the only one I'll ever fuck up. My bad. 

SlopeSoarer

Mototech said:

I have personal experience of this cowboy. He announced a batch of six guitars about 18 months ago, so I put a deposit down & was told it would be delivered in about 8 weeks,a few weeks later, he said he was ordering the pickups from Bare Knuckle & would appreciate the cost of them to help the build along,at this point I paid the full balance. To cut a very long story short, 8 weeks turned into 5 months, with excuses & lies to try to smooth things out. I eventually told him if the guitar wasn't delivered by the Friday of that week, he could keep it & refund me. He said the guitar was despatched, but couldn't provide tracking details, when the following Monday came & still no guitar, he eventually sent me a photo of the shipping label with that day's date on, at this point I told him I had had enough of his lies& wanted a refund, he said the guitar had already left, but as soon as it was returned to him,the refund would be issued. No surprise that it took another 3 months to get my money in dribs & drabs & he still owes me £25.

A friend of mine did actually take delivery of one & it was quite literally unplayable, every one of the faults listed above, Elson is obviously a slow learner!  It went to a local Luthier, who himself makes very good quality guitars & he said he had never seen a guitar as bad in 50 plus years working with guitars.

Sounds more like a twXt (insert you own vowel) rather than a slow learner!

PhilM

IanElsonGuitar said:

I totally take responsibility for this fuck up and I gave a full and immediate refund. I shouldn't have tried to do it for the budget I was given and took my eye off the ball...after lockdown I couldn't afford not to take it on and it bit my arse big time. If I'm judged on this one cock-up rather than the 50 or so guitars that are out in the world then fair play but I did mess up and I admit it. Hopefully, people may take the time to check out all my others and see this was a one-off aberration. You are judged by your worst effort, not your best so I guess I just have to wear this one and hope it takes its place as the only one I'll ever fuck up. My bad. 

It doesn’t sound like it’s the only one though, sadly.

stimpsonslostson

IanElsonGuitar said:

I totally take responsibility for this fuck up and I gave a full and immediate refund. I shouldn't have tried to do it for the budget I was given and took my eye off the ball...after lockdown I couldn't afford not to take it on and it bit my arse big time. If I'm judged on this one cock-up rather than the 50 or so guitars that are out in the world then fair play but I did mess up and I admit it. Hopefully, people may take the time to check out all my others and see this was a one-off aberration. You are judged by your worst effort, not your best so I guess I just have to wear this one and hope it takes its place as the only one I'll ever fuck up. My bad. 

Well done! Holding your hands up in public can't be easy. 
Good luck with your business going forward. 

chrisj1602

IanElsonGuitar said:

I totally take responsibility for this fuck up and I gave a full and immediate refund. I shouldn't have tried to do it for the budget I was given and took my eye off the ball...after lockdown I couldn't afford not to take it on and it bit my arse big time. If I'm judged on this one cock-up rather than the 50 or so guitars that are out in the world then fair play but I did mess up and I admit it. Hopefully, people may take the time to check out all my others and see this was a one-off aberration. You are judged by your worst effort, not your best so I guess I just have to wear this one and hope it takes its place as the only one I'll ever fuck up. My bad. 

But you didn’t refund him immediately and then tried to re-sell it as new! 

mendy

 

GoldenEraGuitars

mendy said:

stimpsonslostson said:

Mendy said:

I got a C in woodwork. If anyone wants to give me £700 to have a bash at making you a guitar let me know. No refunds

Well done! Holding your hands up in public can't be easy. 
Good luck with your business going forward. 

Cheers - I’m not ashamed to admit that I got a C.

Less talking.. go and build my guitar. Chop chop

IanElsonGuitar

His refund took 3 days as I had to get guitar back. I footed postage bill as I should have done, plus I was really embarrassed. Ok, 3 days isn't literally immediate. But I categorically did not just try and sell it as new...I did strip it back to start over and asked if anyone wanted it after that. I Don't mind holding my hands up for shit I've got wrong but I did try and do the right thing by him. I refunded Brian above as well in full. That was right at the start of lockdown and I was in a lot of trouble money wise...

rossi

I would cash in and call your next range the IanElsonFuckedup series .

Andy79

This is getting excitingly awkward 

Mototech

IanElsonGuitar said:

I totally take responsibility for this fuck up and I gave a full and immediate refund. I shouldn't have tried to do it for the budget I was given and took my eye off the ball...after lockdown I couldn't afford not to take it on and it bit my arse big time. If I'm judged on this one cock-up rather than the 50 or so guitars that are out in the world then fair play but I did mess up and I admit it. Hopefully, people may take the time to check out all my others and see this was a one-off aberration. You are judged by your worst effort, not your best so I guess I just have to wear this one and hope it takes its place as the only one I'll ever fuck up. My bad. 

One fuck up???

I think it is time you started living in the same world as the rest of us. I personally know if 2 of your customers whe received unplayable guitars a year or so ago, one of whom had to resort to legal action & you are still ripping people off with the same crap. Plus, I can say without fear of any recourse, as I still have transcript of our Messenger correspondence, that you are a liar & by the way, you still owe me £25.

Legionreturns

@IanElsonGuitar I'd think it'll be very difficult to walk back from where you are with just words. You'll need to show good examples of your work and share good testimonials. 

Lockdown has been really hard for many small businesses, my own included. 

The one thing I did when my work was depleted, was make damn sure everything I did was spot on, going the extra mile to exceed expectations. I had the time to do so. 

Many good businesses have gone to the wall in this Covid era. Bad ones shouldn't get a break just because conditions are tough. I've survived despite this government. Not because of them. 

IanElsonGuitar

You are right. Website has reviews and all videos of demos and testing

octatonic

...

Removed my critique.
I said all I had to say 5 year ago, really.