No nice, it's just a matter of whether you are dealing with Jeckell or Hyde!

Did the speed guitar get to you yet? any updates on it?

The trouble with Chris isnt his workmanship, I've heard only the best stuff about it, its the wait times, responses to emails and just hoping you even recieve your product at all.. Seems like alot of people give him afew orders and he doesnt even work on those, its like he is selective with the work he does, doing half and keeping the other halves money, with no refunds.. Fortunately when I did talk to him, we agreed on a payment plan so I would only be paying around $300-400 until I see the completed guitar in pics, and thats not too much money to risk, but the thing that really bothers me is it takes him 2-3 weeks to respond to emails, which is so hard to get any work done thru that (esp when agreeing on specs)

I think the other thing to bear in mind when people are slagging Chris for taking too long in answering emails is that when you're in business (as i am in a similar field to Chris) you get 1001....... tyrekickers!

I get loads of emails asking for custom builds, with a custom neck, swirl body, this hardware, that type of pickup, these tuners etc etc you can spend a while typing out and finding out prices and availability on the hardware or pickups....... then 6 emails down the line, the guy says "I'm only seventeen and haven't got the money, but if i do get some money i'll consider it" or they want a totally custom built Jem, but expect it to be costing buttons more than a used 550.......

When you work as a sole trader as i (and Chris) do, time is precious, and it can be best spent not answering emails to people who in reality have no intention or finances to have the work done that they're asking about.......

Maybe that sounds harsh, but as i said time is precious!
I do believe though that as a business i should be there to provide a good service to customers and prospective customers...... so i do answer emails as quickly as i can....... but guitar work comes first, as they are the guys who've put their money where their mouths are and have sent their guitar to you and have paid and want it back in a reasonable time scale........

Can you see what i mean?

Max

Chris now has a guy to answer general inquiry emails. Chris is only taking emails from those with orders already placed. So that should help with the tire kickers.

It's funny. When your talking about tire kickers. I went to my local music store with my graduation money in hand. I've heard stories on here about salesman that won't let you play the axe on the top row. Well let's just say if I got that kind of treatment I would have fanned out my cash and gave a big f you. Proud Jem owner aka possible tire kicker.

Yea. If they adapt that attitute, where they dont answer any emails at all because of 1 or 2 bad apples, Then I dont wanna do business with them at all, sound like an unhonest person.

Not saying Chris Woods is an unhonest person or anything, but its just odd hes given me a price quote, then specifically asks like "sent me more detailed specs" and then when I do, I hear nothing back and its been like a month now..

Guess the only way to do things right, is to do them yourself =/

Send Tony an email Nick. He's handling all the new orders inquiries. He should be able to give you a quote with all your specs, and an ETA to how long it'll be until he can get to your order.

Hey Koss did you get your order?

I've been there and done that. Hassled at GC, made to wait 4 hours for a New guitar and Mesa amp. With cash in hand, they screwed me around by making me wait for these nickel and dime sales, kids buying strings and rinky dink crap, I finally walked out. They called my house for a week until I finally replied "If you don't know why I walked out, don't bother calling back."

The custom market seems to be huge, and if the right guy comes along with the right price and turnaround times, he will clean up.

I got some encouraging emails from Chris over the weekend as did other customers on his wait list. I hope the new Luthier he hired will be able to help out with the work load.

For some reason, I have never felt like I was going to be conned out of my cash from Chris, I just don't get that vibe from him.
Don't get me wrong, I don't care to wait, but I also don't think that I won't get my product unless a huge ball of fire slams into the earth or some weird thing like that. *Crosses fingers for no huge balls of fire slamming into the earth anytime soon*

If that would be an issue, as a business owner myself i develop a pricing/inventory structure/list and post it online and thats it. Have an extensive set of FAQ's and you will cut email time next to nothing.

So you got the Jem that day? Cool grad gift.

My parents wrer very cool about it. I got a desert yellow Jem with my grad money. They also showed me an explorer shaped Jackson with a flying eagle paint job I have never see since.

Do you still have it?
I saw one (DY) when I was in high school (like '88 or so) in a store in downtown Chicago and it was the first real Jem I had ever seen. It was around $1300-$1400 and I wish I would have tried talking my partents into buying it at the time but I was actually at the store to get drum gear - I turned guitar into my main instrument shortly there after.

Oh yeah I'll probably keep it as long as I'm alive. I saw a poster of the Jem at another guitar store and was blown away. I was really into Steve Stevens at the time but his pink Hamers were a little too much. The store had the Loch Ness, and the Pink. This is when the Jubille Marshalls were the rage and they had a boatload of them. I remember playing on a gray stack.

You took the DY over the LNG? WOW. As much as you love your DY, I'll bet you kick yourself over the missed LNG.

Steve S. kicks some serious a$$. Whammy maniac for sure