Rico Builds - Non-BFR Customers Only Please! [Not a build thread]

[Rook]

Ok,

First, mods if you don't want this I can completely understand, feel free to delete if you don't want the hassle. I would however quite like to gauge some things and contacting Bernie is predictably pointless hahaha

I have a non BFR order for a 6 string Jekyll with Bernie. Deposit paid, about 5 months waiting thus far.

All I'm asking for in this thread is for non-BFR customers to share their experience in a very numerical sense. I really don't want this to turn into another bashfest/argument, please help keep this thread free and tidy!

If anyone has ordered a guitar with Bernie that isn't BFR, whether you've received the guitar or not, please fill out the following mini-questionnaire. I think this would be helpful for potentially anyone considering ordering in spite of the man's reputation (such as me ).

I think this would also be a cool place for people to post when they get on the list. I think it's a nice way of cutting all the crap and stories out and allow people to clearly see what their letting themselves in for.

Maybe a similar thing for other brands would be cool too, but lets just see how this goes!

I'd also ask people hold comments unless its relevant!

Date of Order: (month and year is fine)
Model Name: (e.g. jekyll 827)
From stock or from scratch?:
Guitar Received: (just yes or no :lol;
Wait time: (if you haven't received, just put wait up til now)
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?:
Any late spec changes? (only things that would slow the build time potentially)
Frequency of contact?: (How often did you contact bernie when he actually replied)

Example for me:

Date of Order: Nov 11
Model Name: Jekyll 627
From stock or from scratch?: Scratch
Guitar Received: No
Wait time: 5 months
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: n/a
Any late spec changes? None yet
Frequency of contact?: I've emailed 6 times, he's replied twice. He's not ignored anything serious.

[MAJ Meadows SF]

Date of Order: Sept 11
Model Name: Hesperian 727 Slant Top
From stock or from scratch?: Scratch
Guitar Received: No
Wait time: 7 months
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: n/a
Any late spec changes? None yet
Frequency of contact?: I've emailed 7 times, they've replied 5, and I just got the "not able to answer emails until April 25th" message. The inbox is going to be stuffed. Consistent replies and I've emailed about every month or so.

[Rook]

That's perfect. I think a fair number of reposes like that and we can start to build a fair image of how long these guitars have/do/will actually take(n).

Thanks.

[Speculum Speculorum]

Date of Order: 03/06/11
Model Name: Jekyll 727
From stock or from scratch? scratch
Guitar Received: No
Wait time: 13 months
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: N/A
Any late spec changes? Nothing.
Frequency of contact?: As of late, I've been trying to call in every couple of weeks or every week, as I have been told the guitar is nearing completion. Like MAJ, though, over the last several days no one has been available for contact at all.

[FrancescoFiligoi]

Date of Order: October 2010
Model Name: Jekyll Slant 724 (was supposed to be a Jekyll Slim, but Bernie misunderstood. I'm fine with that anyway)
From stock or from scratch?: Scratch.
Guitar Received: NO.
Wait time: A year and a half.
Any late spec changes? First, I was told the guitar had to be rebuilt. Then, the guitar built was a different shape than what I ordered (Jekyll Slant instead of Jekyll Slim). Because of that, my initial specification could not be applied since I requested certain switches to be placed on the higher horn, which cannot be applied since with the slanted shape there's no room for them.
Frequency of contact?: I've never had any problem contacting Bernie, although the amount of consecutive excuses I've received is very high.

Specs are lamborghini metallic orange finish, mahogany neck and wings, oiled back, sides and neck, ebony board, ebony top on headstock, floyd rose.

Here's some pics:

[ovation22]

Date of Order: May 2012
Model Name: Hesperian 727
From stock or from scratch?: Scratch
Guitar Received: No
Wait time: 11 months
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: n/a
Any late spec changes? None yet
Frequency of contact?: I've emailed twice, he's replied once stating "I will update you tomorrow."

[ras1988]

Date of Order: November 19, 2011
Model Name: Jekyll 727 RW neck
From stock or from scratch?: stock
Guitar Received: No
Wait time: 5 months
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: n/a
Any late spec changes? None
Frequency of contact?: I have emailed 6 times and called twice. All contact was replied to within a week. Updates are typically prefaced with what may be holding up progress, seen 1 photo of the guitar since purchase (not deposit, purchase).

[Rook]

This is excellent guys, it'd be nice to get a few more people who've received their guitars too

[mikernaut]

Date of Order: 2008-ish
Model Name: Jekyll 6 string
From stock or from scratch?: Scratch
Guitar Received: yes
Wait time: 14 months
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: quoted 4-6 months
Any late spec changes? Bernie wasn't happy with the stain color and I was told it was rebuilt
Frequency of contact?: emailed Bernie and Nick numerous times (ordered thru Axe Palace) for updates. talked on the phone with Bernie atleast 2 times for 1hr each time.

Guitar 2
ordered: 2009-ish
Model Name: Jekyll 7 string
From stock or from scratch?: Scratch
Guitar Received: yes
Wait time: 17 months. wrong inlays. color wasn't quite what I wanted. Currently holding on to the guitar while he is doing a rebuild (14 months in roughly)
If received, how long before reception were you told the build had started?: quoted 6-8 months
Any late spec changes? trying to nail down the color/finish. I decided to go with a similar color ( another color that I have always wanted) to avoid confusion for the rebuild. Got some test color shots roughly 3 weeks back. color approved.
Frequency of contact?: a decent amount of emails and phone calls

Francesco love your color choice.

[Hollowway]

Date of Order: Jan/Feb 2010 (can't remember exactly)
Model Name: Jekyll 827
From stock or from scratch?: scratch
Guitar Received: no
Wait time: 2 yrs, couple of months.
Any late spec changes? No, but apparently there was a misunderstanding as to what the neck material was to have been.
Frequency of contact?: I ordered through Zimbloth (super good experience, btw ) so I communicated a lot with him at the beginning. Then in the past year mainly with Bernie. Bernie reached out to me a couple of times with info, and has been good about replying to my emails or phone calls.

[Speculum Speculorum]

Yeah, but what I want to know is:

Does anyone have any real information as to what is going on right now? I know that Bernie got sick, was very, very sick there for a little while, and is apparently on the mend. Now nobody seems to know a damn lick about what is actually going down. No one is responding to calls/emails, no information has been passed from the actual company, and we're all just kind of dangling here without any information.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm looking for anyone who has had any real contact with Bernie or John to give us any heads up whatsoever about the thrust of the situation over the last couple of weeks. The last thing I heard on April 6th was that in a week-and-a-half my guitar would be ready to ship. I haven't heard anything at all since then, and am, quite frankly, looking for any answer that anyone can provide.

[ras1988]

Originally Posted by Fun111

This is excellent guys, it'd be nice to get a few more people who've received their guitars too

That would be great too, we just haven't seen any NGDs or had any word from the Bernie camp in a long while. I think people are getting nervous again like they did last Summer and that is totally founded.