Have you ever try to get an attorney who could help you with this? I believe I would never get this guitar without attorney's help.

I am certain that I would need an attorney if I ever intend to get my Jem from him. However, going through that process is something out of my affordability at the moment. Out of curiosity though, how much will that send me back to hire a lawyer and go through the whole small claims court?

PM' d

Just thought I'd add in MY experiences With Patrick Sims.
Now that I'm divorced, and no longer care if the EX- knows about the money I essentially threw away.
All of this took place ~7 years ago:

After initial correspondence via email sent through his website, I sent Patrick Sims an original Ibanez DSY JEM neck, that I wanted to have him refinish in LNG. (and the $$ to pay for it, in the form of a postal money order)
At the same time, I had Christopher Woods build me a square heel JEM body, as well as a JEM PBK neck (MOP/Abalone pyramid inlays on rosewood, but with Wizard profile) - Had Chris ship them both to Patrick Sims for paint. The body in LNG, and the neck, just black headstock, with white logos.
Sent Patrick more money for those paint jobs, once he confirmed that they arrived there from Chris's shop.
Didn't hear from Patrick for many weeks. Finally reached out to him, and was told that he had a fire in his paint shop, and my original JEM neck had been lost in the fire.
He offered to replace it with another custom-made & painted neck, we discussed & agreed to specs.
I also saw on his website, that he was now selling LNG painted bodies, so I called him & we discussed my buying one of HIS bodies for the LNG project, and painting the body of mine that CWG sent him, in black, to go with the PBK neck. Sent him more money for the painted body.
Had a follow-up discussion regarding adding large (glitter-style) "smoke" flake to the black, to make it a bit different. Sent him even more money to buy the flake to add to the paint.

Then I waited...
And waited...
A few months went by, and I heard nothing, so I emailed him for a status update.
Nothing. No response, nothing at all.

Never ever got another response from him in any way (never responded to my emails, never answered the phone, never returned my voicemails, nothing...)
Back then, I was still married, and she didn't know about the money I had been spending on these projects, so there was little I was able to do, as far as pursuing this beyond the emails & phone calls that went ignored by him.

So, he has of mine:
1 Original DSY Ibanez JEM Neck, allegedly "Lost in a shop fire".
1 Custom-built (By Chris Woods) JEM PBK neck, Wizard profile.
1 Custom-built (By Chris Woods) lightweight alder JEM777 body.

I also sent him money orders for:
The DSY-to-LNG JEM neck refinish.
Painting the JEM777 body in black/smoke sparkle
Painting the JEM PBK neck's headstock black, with white Ibanez & JEM logos
One of his alder LNG square-heel JEM777 bodies that was allegedly already complete (painted).

Anyway, I'm hoping that at very least someone will read about my nightmare experience, and send their business elsewhere.

I'll just leave it at that.
I never met the guy, I live in New Hampshire, and have absolutely no reason to falsely slander the guy's name.
I wish I knew WHY he decided to pick ME as one of the people that he picked to screw over, since it APPEARS that he DOES actually have some satisfied customers.
I don't expect that I'll ever get answers, or my parts, or money back.
It's just an absolutely an awful feeling. I hope I can help someone avoid it.

I'd rate Sims as the most arrogant, twisted, thieving bastard of a so called luthier on this planet.

Everyone loves to beat on this guy, but it doesn't make any sense. He finishes guitars every few days and posts their pics on instagram and facebook. I had him do a custom checkerboard finish on a destroyer that was messed up by a well known swirler (that's a whole other story) and it required a bunch of work on the lions claw, the neck ferrules and the neck pocket widened to a 58mm from a 56mm.

It took 6 months - but it was worth the wait. Best finish of anything that has come through our studio. It's glossy. it's thin. Not a sanding mark, not a buff mark. I'm talking really good - as good as my 777 30th reissues, or my UB777bk or my Herc Fede swirl.

And I got a swirl that he had done - 7 string body and an engaging swirl with a WAY better clear coat than I've received from others. The line is good too - gotta get that wave in the right spot.

So if you ask me - there's more to these stories of people bitching, as I got my stuff back, and it's sweet and the best I've found. What makes me special, and it so bad for you?

Good news & promising to see. Please don't victim shame though... the issues Patrick created were quite real. Hopefully his customer service will continue to meet expectation.

Please believe me, I _WISH_ I knew why he chose to stop responding to me completely, and just walk away with my money & parts.
I'm not bitching, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll never get any of it back, but knowing WHY he chose me to do this to, when I hear stories about happy customers, might help with some sort of closure over the whole thing...

I feel you. I had the same exact experience with a guy named Eric Bauer--recommended by Ben Eller. Dude just up and disappeared off the face of the earth with the Ibanez neck I sent him. I just want to know: WHY ME? So frustrating that he decided to disappear on me, after doing tons of great work for other people.

How high do you get with that volcano clone on your desk?

Sims shooting his mouth off and getting defended by either friends or people that haven't got a clue who he really is.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/892795974218863/events/

You'll prob have to join this page to see his post but its a cool page anyway.

Not high enough to be on this forum.

So you know that model? That's a V-Tower, not a Volcano clone. It uses a hookah not a bag. You probably have those in Texas.

I live in Oregon. That's where the term OG came from.