Can Anyone Explain The Controversy Over Rob Chapman?

Sporky

But if you put Harley Benton ones in then it's as good as a Cort. 

axisus

I like the guy and he's entertaining on his videos. It's pretty annoying when people rip into him on the forum here. I did start a post in favour of him a year or so ago, which actually went better than expected if I recall. 

poopot

He is a member here… just not under his real name obvs…

mudslide73

It looks to me like it's all worked out for the best in the end. He seems well happy in Malta and Anderton's seem to be unharmed. He only occasionally appears in my YT feed now too.

Nick

digitalscream said:

DrumBob said:

I know there was a big stink about Rob Chapman several years ago, but I don't know the details. Can anyone explain what happened? I know he used to be on Anderton's videos, then he was gone. 

Pretty simple, really. Some idiot kid saw all of the hit-pieces done on bigger YouTubers in the tech and makeup spaces, and decided that the guitar community on YouTube needed some of that action...so he started doing the same thing to guitarists on YouTube in order to try to grow his own channel. Rob was simply the first target; it was all the same sorts of arguments you see elsewhere - out-of-context quotes, innuendo and half-truths assembled to make him look like evil incarnate.

The problem was...Rob responded to it, in possibly the dumbest and most ill-advised video he's ever done (and yes, I'm including the Korg Miku one in that). For somebody who's always said, "Don't feed the trolls", he should've known that the next day, the headlines were all "Rob Chapman bullies small YouTuber!".

None of that was related to him disappearing from the Andertons channel for a while, though - the timing was a bit out.

The daftest thing about the whole episode is that there are things that really happened which Rob would probably get utterly excoriated for if it ever got out, or at least somebody wrote it all down, but none of those things made it into the hit-piece video.

That "idiot kid" you refer to was one of Rob's earliest and biggest fans. He was active on the Rob Chapman Forum and buying Chapman Guitars around the same time - if not before - the likes of you and I. I'm talking original ML-1 days. Did you not realise? I assume not, due to the lovely nickname you betrothed upon him.

Having spent a substantial amount of years working closely with many of the individuals involved in this saga, Kelan's video captured the wave of growing resentment that many feel for Chappers. I can empathise with much of the frustration and am genuinely surprised it didn't happen earlier. And I do agree with your point that Rob has allegedly done far, far worse than what was exposed in the video. He would certainly be finished if someone was to make a video of that stuff.

In any case, Kelan's video has forced Rob to reflect on his persona and the way he presents himself online. I hope his channel can recover and Rob can come out of it a better person, which was Kelan's aim all along.

Sassafras

Chapmangate?

RocknRollDave

I think a good standpoint to have would be:

If you don’t know what the fuss was about, you don’t need to concern yourself with it and you should carry on your day as you were.

Caffeine_Vampire

Lebarque said:

Gŕrrrrrrrrrreetings

FTFY

jonnyburgo

Irish kid in sun glasses. Said something, Rob responded with a well thought out retort, summat like "I don't care cos I've got LOADSAMONEY" And then whopped his wad on the counter. And the Internet kinda went "eurgh". 

poopot

Nick said: we

And I do agree with your point that Rob has done far, far worse than what was exposed in the video. He would certainly be finished if someone was to make a video of that stuff.

Can you allude to bad character like that without backing it up? Legally I mean…

 Spill the beans

Sassafras

I've got video footage of him pushing into a queue while shouting "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"

digitalscream

Nick said:

That "idiot kid" you refer to was one of Rob's earliest and biggest fans. He was active on the Rob Chapman Forum and buying Chapman Guitars around the same time - if not before - the likes of you and I. I'm talking original ML-1 days. Did you not realise? I assume not, due to the lovely nickname you betrothed upon him.

Well, I don't recall coming across him, so...draw your own conclusions there

And in that case, why was none of the stuff from more than a few years ago present? Why go down the innuendo-and-twisted-facts route, rather than use actual demonstrable facts? Smacks of low-effort and poor research, particularly since he must've known people who have actual grievances rather than fictional whinging.

That was the reason for the "idiot kid" tag - because everybody who makes YouTube-drama-style videos like that for views is an idiot. Just about everything in the video was easily refutable by anybody who was around at the time, and you must know that surely? 

On top of that, the fact that he did a bunch of similar hit-piece videos on other YouTubers (and then switched to guitar content) would strongly suggest that it was a self-serving strategy to give his channel a boost before trying to become known as a YouTube guitarist, rather than some sort of public service. That's not the mark of a decent, trustworthy person - to me, at least.

I get the growing resentment - went through a wave of that myself, before arriving at "meh" - but that video was probably the most childish and self-serving way to go about representing it, and IMO it deserves all the derision that can be thrown at it.

tomajoha

poopot said:

Nick said: we

And I do agree with your point that Rob has done far, far worse than what was exposed in the video. He would certainly be finished if someone was to make a video of that stuff.

Can you allude to bad character like that without backing it up? Legally I mean…

 Spill the beans

I think he placed his delay pedal in front of his overdrive 

Philtre

Anyone for some Wednesleydale?

Bigsby

If only this forum had a search function....

Going from memory, which may be unreliable, I'm pretty sure it turned out that Chappers couldn't actually play guitar at all, he now runs a Chippie in Malta and is/was involved with one of the girls from Wham! 

Funkfingers

fastonebaz said:

Lee couldn't play guitar initially so needed Chappers but then when everyone was shredding online he needed someone tasty and he could jam along a bit

Slightly unfair on LA. He can play but - he would be the first to admit - he is fairly restricted to Dad Blues and limp, white person, Funk. This was (and still is) unlikely to shift very many units.

Lee Anderton was wise to involve Rob Chapman when he did. Musical instrument retail was in transition from magazine advertising and bricks and mortar shops to web sites and distance selling. Lee Anderton positioned his retail business ahead of the curve and, simultaneously, co-opted Chappers' existing on-line fan base.

The Chapman ML-1 was almost inevitable. There was a ready market for it. Perhaps, they should have left it at that? Later, "upmarket" Anderton/Chapman manufacturing might have benefitted from rebranding. 

tony99

Sassafras said:

Didn't he sell guitars with pickups that needed upgrading?

You're thinking of Harlebob Chapelton.

Jetfire

poopot said:

He is a member here… just not under his real name obvs…

Is this actually true?

Funkfingers

tony99 said:

Harlebob Chapelton.

Good thinking, Batman. A Chapman versus H-B shoot out could prove interesting. 

digitalscream

Jetfire said:

poopot said:

He is a member here… just not under his real name obvs…

Is this actually true?

Not to my knowledge. And, honestly, it would be very much against everything he's said (publicly and privately) over the years, as far as I'm aware.

And...if you think about it, it makes sense that tFB would be largely irrelevant to him. Not only that, but his last foray into caring-what-people-say-about-him didn't exactly go particularly well.