# Strictly 7 NGD... and so, so very much disappointment :(



## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 30, 2014)

So, back in September of 2013, I decided I was sick of buying 7 string guitars that needed fretwork and mods right out of the box. I considered many different options, but at the time, Strictly 7 seemed to be a major up-and-coming player in the custom/semi-custom world with an impressive, fast-growing artist roster. For the price, it seemed they couldn't be beat.

I contacted the owner to start hashing out the specs and pricing on a UK Production Cobra 7 bolt-on (pretty much a semi-custom since they let you choose whatever you want on it). After discussing my initial quality concerns, which were based mostly of]n the Strandberg* debacles and Keith Merrow's fret issues, my worries were put to rest and I sent off a money order for the full amount up front with a quoted build time of 4-6 weeks.

Around the 3 month mark, I kept being told everything is being cut and the guitar would be done "next month". Whatever, no worries; I am patient and didn't need it right away. Hell, I figured I'd rather wait for quality rather than get something rushed and imperfect.... am I right?

During this time, I informed the owner that I'd like different pickup covers since he had yet to even place the order and I had already paid up front. No problem, he says. I also sent him more money to put Luminlay side dots in. Again, no problem. I had asked him to flush mount Dunlop strap locks as well. I was told to purchase them and have them shipped to him. Done deal. I also sent 2 sets of $10 strings to be installed (an extra set in case a string broke on the first set during setup).

Fast forward to around February 2014; the neck and body are done and almost ready for assembly. One of the builders contacts me and says they don't have the pickups I wanted, so I could choose from a couple sets they had on-hand. After mulling it over, I told the owner to order the ones we agreed upon before they even started building my guitar. I was informed that prices had gone up, so I would need to send $35 more to cover the increase. Fine, I sent it along with $250 extra for him to re-cut a new body since the stain came out really bad on the first one. 

Then, the whole crew pretty much quits after 2 months of not getting paid and it comes out that the company is pretty much bankrupt, but the owner will still fulfill all obligations to customers. Fine, at least he was still going to deliver on my now $1940 investment.

Another month goes by with "I'm working on it" being about the only response I can get... then, I'm informed that the new neck pocket won't work for the old neck (everything is CNC cut...?!), so he basically has to rebuild the entire guitar.

Little to nothing in the way of pics on the FB page, etc. etc. etc... over the next few months, but I wasn't too concerned as I was smack dab in the middle of the hardest portion of nursing school. 

Fast forward again to September 2014. My guitar is finally finished. I'm excited as I get word that it has shipped. I finally receive it and bring it into the house. After cutting through the tape and opening the cardboard box (with no padding or packing around the case whatsoever), I stare puzzled at what I see; the case was not the case I had paid for (the G&G-style S7G branded case), but a generic, cheaply made "Kases" brand bass case that barely fit into the cardboard box in which it was crammed for shipping.

Whatever, I thought; maybe he had just run out of the nice cases and all I really care about is what's inside... I open the case anxiously. What do I find inside? Even more disappointment. 

First of all, the guitar doesn't fit in the case, so it was just sliding around inside the case. Thankfully, the neck was bubble-wrapped. I picked it up and tuned it, and was initially very impressed with the fretwork and the sound of the BKP Aftermath pups.

After playing for a few minutes, I started looking over the guitar... more disappointment and the slow, but inevitable realization that I had just thrown away almost $2000.

What I found:
The vinyl logo was ripped and had bubbles underneath, but they just went ahead and finished over it anyway. There were drip marks on the neck and headstock from the paint booth where they sprayed the satin on way too thick. There were little pebbles or wood scraps under the finish on the back of the neck as well; they were very sharp and I had to pick them out of the finish with a tiny blade and use steel wool to smooth the holes out. The locking tuners were all installed crooked and the high e and high b tuner nuts were stripped. The strings I sent in never made it onto the guitar and I never saw them again. The strap locks never made it on, and I never saw those either. The body had black paint splattering on it and they just sprayed over it. The pickups were installed backwards and couldn't be adjusted almost at all because of how much wiring was running underneath. Not to mention, the pickups were the covers I had initially paid for, not the ones we agreed upon when I sent in the extra money because "prices went up". The control layout was a volume knob and 3 way toggle; I ordered a volume, tone, and 5-way switch. There was no control cavity plate installed and the holes were never drilled either, so I had to have that mailed and install it myself. The Luminlay side dots I paid extra for never made it onto the guitar. And now, the worst thing of all: The neck joint... one of the four screws holding the neck to the body was completely stripped out, it just spun freely and I couldn't remove it. The new neck (the one they had to re-cut since the old one didn't fit the new pocket) didn't fit the pocket; there was about a 1/8" gap on the treble side. What they did to make it tight was glued small pieces of wood into the gap to push the neck tight up against the bass side of the pocket. This made the heel stick out from under the neck. I know I paid for stainless steel frets as well, and the frets on this guitar were nice... but, I don't think they were stainless. They were polished up very nicely, but if you've ever seen polished stainless frets, you could tell these were most likely just polished nickel-silver frets.

Now, I know there have been many, many instances where people will take to the forums and other public spaces to complain about a single, fixable issue, and that we've been advised to "contact the builder to give them a chance to make it right before going public"... well, .... that. I could see if it were simply one or two issues, but this whole guitar I waited a year for and paid fo in advance is just ....ed from top to bottom. The only remedy would be to have a whole new guitar built, and I'm not waiting another year+ for that to maybe happen. This level of failure in the QC department of one's business is entirely unacceptable and disgusting. 

In short, I sold it off at less than half of what I paid for it. While it did play great after a minor setup, I still felt like I was ripping off the buyer (as should the person who shipped this guitar out with all of these glaring issues).

The moral of the story: only go with respected, well-established builders who have a consistent track record. Do not pay everything up front and don't pay in full until you've seen close ups of the final product. And, last but not least, don't go with cheap builders (as you can see, I got what I paid for).


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## vhtforme (Oct 30, 2014)

What kind of woods were used for the body and neck? Doesn't seem too exotic of a guitar for 2 grand, bolt on, rosewood fretboard. I'd expect the logo to be an inlay. Pretty uninspired super strat design... Square heel neck joint without a neck plate? Whats the point of that? Bummer.


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## DancingCloseToU (Oct 30, 2014)

Sad story... This really harshed my mellow.


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## Scruffy1012 (Oct 30, 2014)

dam dude, that sucks how it turned out, few mates had the same thing happen to them as well.


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## MoshJosh (Oct 30, 2014)

Sad to hear, specially because I think its a sexy looking axe from far far away.


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## downburst82 (Oct 30, 2014)

Wow 

That's a terribly put together guitar..

Its a shame I was just looking at the strictly 7 facebook and was somewhat impressed that Jim was still carrying on by himself and at least trying to make good on peoples orders....but seeing this 

I get the impression that Jim is working really hard, I just don't think he really knows what it takes to build a great guitar.

Sorry about the disappointing experience OP.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 30, 2014)

Yeah... I was impressed that he was carrying on as well. I even stuck up for him a lot at times... I feel screwed over, tbh.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 30, 2014)

vhtforme said:


> What kind of woods were used for the body and neck? Doesn't seem too exotic of a guitar for 2 grand, bolt on, rosewood fretboard. I'd expect the logo to be an inlay. Pretty uninspired super strat design... Square heel neck joint without a neck plate? Whats the point of that? Bummer.



The body is Northern Ash, neck is one piece flame maple. It's not that the wood makes the guitar close to $2k ($1600 if you don't count the extra $ I sent for options that never made it on the guitar and to replace the first poorly stained body). It's supposed to be a high quality, hand made guitar (or as hand made as it gets nowadays, so that's where the $$ comes into play. 

The neck joint seems like it's designed for simplicity of programming the CNC cutter. It doesn't get in the way of upper feet access at all, even though it seems like it would.


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## codyblast (Oct 30, 2014)

Refund! If there's one thing I learned from my Acacia NGD horror story it's the power of this forum. If there's issues on a $2k guitar you wouldn't find on a $200 guitar, well, it's not acceptable, and you deserve your money back!


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 30, 2014)

codyblast said:


> Refund! If there's one thing I learned from my Acacia NGD horror story it's the power of this forum. If there's issues on a $2k guitar you wouldn't find on a $200 guitar, well, it's not acceptable, and you deserve your money back!



Ha! I'm pretty sure I would have better luck finding Jimmy Hoffa's grave! The owner even sent out an email after word got out that his employees quit, that he could not afford to give anybody refunds and has no money left. Short of suing him over $2000, there's really not much I can do. I at least got half of my money back by selling it to somebody who was going to basically redo the guitar themselves, so the rest I lost I'll just chalk up to experience.


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## SYLrules88 (Oct 30, 2014)

wow. haven't been keeping up with what's what in the world of guitars for a little while but last time I checked, people were loving their S7s. im sorry you had to go through this man, that's disappointing in so many different ways.


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## Maverick187 (Oct 30, 2014)

Wow, that is so shit man - really sorry to hear. Other guitarist in my band recently traded for 2 solar 7s and they are fantastic. Hopefully you end up with something you love


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## simonXsludge (Oct 31, 2014)

Pilgrim of the Dark said:


> I sent it along with $250 extra for him to re-cut a new body since the stain came out really bad on the first one.


Let me get this straight: THEY messed up the stain on the first body and let YOU pay for it??? Insane!

Considering that you didn't even get half the features you payed for on top of this ridiculous fact, I can only say fvck this Jim dude. I can't believe he'd charge all your hard-earned money and go ahead and send a piece of crap like this out of his shop. I hope no one's ever gonna do business with him anymore.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 31, 2014)

Maverick187 said:


> Wow, that is so shit man - really sorry to hear. Other guitarist in my band recently traded for 2 solar 7s and they are fantastic. Hopefully you end up with something you love



I believe it. Unfortunately, almost all their endorsed artists jumped ship a while ago and after all the employees quit, QC went down the toilet (as you can see by the pictures above).


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## JuliusJahn (Oct 31, 2014)

This is NOT ok....And to think I looked up to this guy when I was first starting.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 31, 2014)

simonXsludge said:


> Let me get this straight: THEY messed up the stain on the first body and let YOU pay for it??? Insane!
> 
> Considering that you didn't even get half the features you payed for on top of this ridiculous fact, I can only say fvck this Jim dude. I can't believe he'd charge all your hard-earned money and go ahead and send a piece of crap like this out of his shop. I hope no one's ever gonna do business with him anymore.



Well, it was a two piece ash body and the top half looked like it was supposed to, but the bottom half had a lot of streaking and lots of splotchy dark spots. It might've just been the piece of wood, and of course it's subjective whether or not someone will like how the staining came out. 

I thought it looked like trash, and I've stained lots of stuff before and never had streaking and dark spots like that, so who knows. Also, he was originally supposed to stain the headstock to match the body, but didn't... So I paid extra partly because the stain looked like shit and I wanted the body to match the headstock.

Another thing I failed to mention (because there are too many issues with the guitar to even keep track of) is that they didn't even get the matte finish on the entire body. It actually looked like they applied it with a rag and then sanded it and buffed it. If you've ever seen a tile floor waxed by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, that's what the guitar body finish looked like.


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## ihunda (Oct 31, 2014)

So sad, man, I am so sorry for you....
Those kind of stories are why I am still only ordering customs from Carvin or buying used after testing the gear.

I feel for you man


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## sevenstringj (Oct 31, 2014)

Hope things work out.


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## ArnoldHablewitz (Oct 31, 2014)

I saw this post on the ERGN group on facebook and brought myself to read this. It's not even my guitar and yet the further into your story I read, the more angry I became. Can't even try to understand that.


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## Erockomania (Oct 31, 2014)

The odd part is he HAS to know this stuff will hit the forums and kill any ounce of banked credibility he's gained by following through with old builds. Or, he just simply doesn't have an eye for detail.


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## Andrew91 (Oct 31, 2014)

This seems about like an 7/10 on how much an experience buying a custom guitar could possibly suck.
I'm sorry man..


[10/10 = expecting a mayones and getting a devries for $3500]


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## sevenstringj (Oct 31, 2014)

Erockomania said:


> The odd part is he HAS to know this stuff will hit the forums and kill any ounce of banked credibility he's gained by following through with old builds. Or, he just simply doesn't have an eye for detail.



Or maybe this forum isn't as far-reaching as we'd like to think it is? I mean, it SEEMS like this company has been dragged through the dirt enough times over the years that S7 NGD threads should no longer surface. But apparently they're alive and kicking.


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## Erockomania (Oct 31, 2014)

sevenstringj said:


> Or maybe this forum isn't as far-reaching as we'd like to think it is? I mean, it SEEMS like this company has been dragged through the dirt enough times over the years that S7 NGD threads should no longer surface. But apparently they're alive and kicking.



I dunno, I haven't seen a "new" build in a long time.


Also, the lack of control cavity plate screams "I don't give a fu**". lol


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## axxessdenied (Oct 31, 2014)

This is downright theft. He stole your money.


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## yingmin (Oct 31, 2014)

That's really unfortunate. At least when I had a really disappointing experience with a custom build, I still got an amazing guitar out of it. I can't imagine how angry I'd be if, at the end of the frustrating process, the guitar I got were poorly built as well.


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## mniel8195 (Oct 31, 2014)

despite these guitars coming out looking horrible i don't know how these caught on in the first place? I ran into one of these guitars at guitar center in lynnwood Wa and it was just horrible feeling. It weighed like 12 lbs and had the strangest neck profile i had ever played!


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 31, 2014)

sevenstringj said:


> Or maybe this forum isn't as far-reaching as we'd like to think it is? I mean, it SEEMS like this company has been dragged through the dirt enough times over the years that S7 NGD threads should no longer surface. But apparently they're alive and kicking.



I think the forum is far-reaching, lol! It's just that S7 takes so damn long to build your guitar... In my case, I really didn't hear anything negative until long after I had placed my order. Of course, as soon as it's too late to get any money back, shit hits the fan and I just got to wait and hope that I'd get what I ordered...


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## Neilzord (Oct 31, 2014)

Shame you sold it for half the price as legally you should be able to get all your money back?
Its like ordering a 42" 1080p In Black, And them sending you a 37" 720p In white. Yeah it's still a TV but its not what you ordered, or Paid for. And aslong as you have proof of what you ordered then they've just blatently stolen from you. 

Either way, Not a cool story and I'm sorry you had to go through it!! Hopefully your next custom will be with a reputable builder and will make up for this downfall!


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## jacksonguitar1111 (Oct 31, 2014)

I bought one S7 8 String used with piezo circuit. 
The wiring had an issue and it ran out of battery every day. 

To top that the trussrod was pretty much popping through the back.


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## Timothy Drake (Oct 31, 2014)

Wow, this is a very sad story. Makes you wish to punch someone in the face immediately. I feel for you, dude.


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## Alfrer (Oct 31, 2014)

jacksonguitar1111 said:


> I bought one S7 8 String used with piezo circuit.
> The wiring had an issue and it ran out of battery every day.
> 
> To top that the trussrod was pretty much popping through the back.



Oh gaaawd, Im crying


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## decreebass (Oct 31, 2014)

I'm speechless.

Thanks for the warning. Thanks for taking one for the team and possibly saving other people by your 'sacrifice.'


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## canuck brian (Oct 31, 2014)

I'm pretty blown away by the absolute "i don't give a shit" that this thing screams. No control cover????


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## crystallake (Oct 31, 2014)

Kinda funny on their About Us page:



> The endless list of problems players have been forced to live with seemed unreasonable and entirely correctable. Here at S7G we offer &#8220;production&#8221; models that stand up to the best from other custom shops, and our own custom shop guitars can fulfill every players dream. We start with the best components available, pay incredible attention to every detail, and maintain unyielding quality control before the instrument leaves our shop.
> 
> If we wouldn&#8217;t play it, we wouldn&#8217;t expect a customer to buy it.


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## Tango616 (Oct 31, 2014)

L.O.L. "Stand up to the best from other custom shops." 

That thing looks like it couldn't stand up to a $50 best buy First Act.

Absolutely disgusting, that was heartbreaking, Jim needs to be taken to court and sorted out, this is just flat out false advertising and stealing. You paid money for a good or service and you did not receive that good or service. Bottom line.

As for how S7G came to be a bigger name, As far as I know when Mr. Ola Englund was up and coming Jim reached out, and Ola being Ola made the brand big, but as we all know, that didn't work out too well since they seemed to be learning how to build guitars on the customers dime.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 31, 2014)

Thanks for all the sympathy and condolences. Tbh, I'm not too pissed aout it; I'm definitely disappointed, though.

The whole point of posting this is to add to the pile of warnings about throwing your hard-earned money at an unreliable "builder", especially one who puts out work like this and blames his customers when shit goes wrong. 

I saw all the warnings and should have known better; granted, there wasn't too much of it out there when I placed my order. Regardless, I should've listened. If this thread keeps even one person from throwing their money away on this "company", then I'll be happy.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 31, 2014)

Tango616 said:


> ...they seemed to be learning how to build guitars on the customers dime.



Exactly!!! This is exactly what it seems like! This "guitar" I received looks like it was someone's first attempt to build a guitar. Tbh, I think it was. A few months after all his employees quit, he had a couple of the new kids he had hired come back part time on the weekends. I'm pretty sure he just let them do the work, even though they are highly unqualified.

On top of all this, he says he's getting ready for NAMM on his FB page... NAMM?! Again?!?! Such BS; your company pretty much goes under because you can't put out peoples' guitars within a reasonable amount of time and you spend all the deposits on NAMM show booths, so what do you do? Go to NAMM more, of course!!!

The biggest stinger for me was when he put out the email saying he couldn't finish peoples' guitars with the money they sent him because "the orders stopped coming in"... Isn't that a Ponzi scheme?!?! Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul?!?! So, I guess his business model is as follows: promise customer short build time to get their money, blow them off for a year or more and use their money to pay for NAMM booths, artist signature guitars, and other customers' builds, rinse and repeat until the house of cards falls down, blame "Internet trolls" and unhappy customers...


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## Lorcan Ward (Oct 31, 2014)

The lack of control cavity cover just makes it clear that Jim does not give a crap anymore. Good that he is finishing peoples orders but he only has himself and his awful bushiness decisions to blame that S7 went down the toilet.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Oct 31, 2014)

To think people still defended him when things were quickly going downhill.


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## simonXsludge (Oct 31, 2014)

I think Jim has no pride in his work and brand. I mean, for sure he believes he does, but that's just delusional. The lack of the control cavity cover on this disgrace of a guitar proves that he really doesn't.

If he actually turns up at NAMM, I hope some of his oh so valued customers go up to him and make his appearance there a miserable experience. He needs to be called out for this shit and seriously stop running this business at the expense of customers who end up with something expensive, yet useless.


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## awesomeaustin (Oct 31, 2014)

I remember talking to Jim at the first NAMM he showed up to, and that point his guitars looked and felt like garbage. The throat of the neck was so thin I could feel it flex when I bent a string. The neck shape and heel of the neck were so uncomfortable, I couldn't imagine selling anything like that for more than $5-600. The only redeeming factor was that he used nice hardware. Hipshot, Bareknuckle, etc. but it didn't make for his shitty "Custom CNC" guitars. 

The idea was awesome, but when put into practice by him it was a train wreck. I'm super surprised he got to the status he did, but unsurprised that he fizzled and became a steaming pile of shit.

This is one of the worst "custom" guitar I've ever seen. Sucks bro...sucks hard.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Oct 31, 2014)

awesomeaustin said:


> The idea was awesome, but when put into practice by him it was a train wreck. I'm super surprised he got to the status he did, but unsurprised that he fizzled and became a steaming pile of shit.



I think the only reason S7G did well for those few years was because of Curran Murphy. That dude was basically their main builder when they were putting out quality stuff. 

The guitar I got pics of with the shitty stain job (Curran never worked the finishing/painting end of things, that was always Jim) actually looked fantastic minus the stain, and had everything I wanted on it (at least up to the point in the process the guitar was). 

However, It was right after I paid for a new body because of the horrible stain job on the original that Curran and the rest of the crew jumped ship. Can't blame them; Curran said they went months without pay on promises that they'd be caught up on pay "soon". Curran said he almost lost his house working for Jim.


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## awesomeaustin (Oct 31, 2014)

He seemed like a shyster way back when, and my feeling was right. S7G should be in Business school texts books in the "How to Run an Unsuccessful Business" chapter.


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## Tango616 (Oct 31, 2014)

Agreed, once Curran and Allan Marcus left, you could tell who was really doing most of the work. Borderline firewood was being shipped out.


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## fortisursus (Nov 1, 2014)

That sucks man. How the hell can you not drill the holes for a control plate. And that is complete bullshit that they made you pay an extra 250 for a new body along with every other screw up they made along the. No respect for a company that doesn't fess up to their mistakes


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## Nour Ayasso (Nov 1, 2014)

Holy f*ck that story was brutal...SO much money...and such a F*CKED guitar...


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## teamSKDM (Nov 1, 2014)

Only trustable customs nowadays on this forum seems to be ormsby, ola strandberg, and good ole carvin


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## mnemonic (Nov 1, 2014)

teamSKDM said:


> Only trustable customs nowadays on this forum seems to be ormsby, ola strandberg, and good ole carvin



And Daemoness. 

Honestly though, I can't think of a budget builder who popped up on here, and didn't gone up in flames. Even some 'trusted' names have went belly up.


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## leonardo7 (Nov 1, 2014)

People are still ordering from this guy? 

OP, Im sorry that this had to happen to you, there is no acceptable excuse whatsoever for any builder to put out this kind of shitty work, but I think many of us want to ask "You ordered this in late 2013? What the fvck were you thinking ordering a Strictly 7 after all the shit that went down" 

Edit: I see your a new member so perhaps you missed all the threads about how terrible Strictly 7 guitars are



teamSKDM said:


> Only trustable customs nowadays on this forum seems to be ormsby, ola strandberg, and good ole carvin



There's more. What about ESP, Schecter, Jackson, Daemoness, Skervesen, Mayones, KxK, ViK? Despite what you may have read, those are all trustable builders/shops, although some may take 3+ years such as KxK, Daemoness, and ViK, and maybe even Jackson, but they are all trustable customs who will make you a guitar that wont have issues. 



simonXsludge said:


> If he actually turns up at NAMM, I hope some of his oh so valued customers go up to him and make his appearance there a miserable experience. He needs to be called out for this shit and seriously stop running this business at the expense of customers who end up with something expensive, yet useless.



He will be there. He was there last year like everything was good. Unfortunately you cant just walk in to NAMM off the street and start raging on a builder. Most people wont have what it takes to approach the guy at NAMM


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 1, 2014)

leonardo7 said:


> People are still ordering from this guy?
> 
> OP, Im sorry that this had to happen to you, there is no acceptable excuse whatsoever for any builder to put out this kind of shitty work, but I think many of us want to ask "You ordered this in late 2013? What the fvck were you thinking ordering a Strictly 7 after all the shit that went down"
> 
> Edit: I see your a new member so perhaps you missed all the threads about how terrible Strictly 7 guitars are



You're half right, man; I was but a lurker back then, so I didn't see too much of it until it was too late... BUT, I did see enough to have known better. What can I say? I wanted to believe what Jim was feeding me; I didn't want to believe what I was seeing here. Lesson learned the hard way, lol!

It sucks too, because I was looking at Carvin, but they weren't offering the extended scale guitars yet when I ordered 

Honestly, I could kick myself in the ass for going through with it and buying into the BS. The money isn't really a big deal to me after a year, tbh; it's the lies and shitty quality that really disappoint me.

I just hope this saves at least one person from ordering a S7. I didn't listen and should have; don't make the same mistake.


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## capoeiraesp (Nov 2, 2014)

OP, very sorry for the experience you're having.

S7 have released a new website and there's one glaringly big lie right on the front page - "Our guitars are handmade.."
Sorry, and I love CNCs, but when you're getting a lot of work including cutting bodies, inlays etc. done on them, it's no longer 'hand-made'.







oh... and they have a djent model...


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## AboutBlank (Nov 2, 2014)

leonardo7 said:


> There's more. What about ESP, Schecter, Jackson, Daemoness, Skervesen, Mayones, KxK, ViK? Despite what you may have read, those are all trustable builders/shops, although some may take 3+ years such as KxK, Daemoness, and ViK, and maybe even Jackson, but they are all trustable customs who will make you a guitar that wont have issues.



Trustable, atleast for me, implies honesty. And I have a hard time to believe that some shops are not able to quote realistic build times.
Imo it comes down to 2 alternatives:
They have no clue how long it takes to build the guitar in their current order situation or malicious deceit.
Some people do not care about that, at all, which is fine, but for me it leaves a bad taste and I don't get that some people defend vehemently such practices.


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## Tango616 (Nov 2, 2014)

leonardo7 said:


> There's more. What about ESP, Schecter, Jackson, Daemoness, Skervesen, Mayones, KxK, ViK? Despite what you may have read, those are all trustable builders/shops, although some may take 3+ years such as KxK, Daemoness, and ViK, and maybe even Jackson, but they are all trustable customs who will make you a guitar that wont have issues.



I don't know if Skerv stepped up their game, but I've seen quite a few with some flaws, same with Jackson, go look for a couple threads on that, I only take to heart the ones that aren't Misha or other artist customs because they have artist wait times and prices, and if an artist gets a subpar custom, they know a billion more people are going to hear about it, so they step up their game and throw them out the door hand over fist.

Misha alone has had like, 5-6 or so customs in the past few years, meanwhile people with super basic orders still have to wait 2-3 years EACH and can sometimes get a messed up order.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 2, 2014)

capoeiraesp said:


> oh... and they have a djent model...





Calling a model DJENT shows just how lazy they are and how little they care.


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## CudBucket (Nov 2, 2014)

Sorry to hear this. Unfortunately it's fairly common with small builders who've only become somewhat known because of the internet. I would sue them for sure. The guitar is a mess.


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## CudBucket (Nov 2, 2014)

BTW, I wouldn't really want a body or neck made "by hand". I'll take a CNC cut guitar every time. Hand made doesn't mean what it used to. And it shouldn't. Technology has given us the opportunity to move away from "hand made" in cases where a machine is more consistent and just, better.


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## OWHall (Nov 2, 2014)

I really feel for you man. Bad times. This happens all too often. I don't know how you look at this but from an outsider's perspective, please know that I really do NOT think this was your fault. You got roped in and ripped off and it could happen to anyone.


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## noise in my mind (Nov 3, 2014)

Sorry dude. S7 is so wack for this. They should refund your money, but I don't think they live by any morals from what I have seen in the past. Hopefully you can save up for a carvin dc7x soon. They are really awesome guitars with a very short build time!


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## eaeolian (Nov 3, 2014)

teamSKDM said:


> Only trustable customs nowadays on this forum seems to be ormsby, ola strandberg, and good ole carvin



KXKs is still putting out quality work, but thanks to the likes of Strictly 7 and BRJ, he's not taking any new orders.


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## eaeolian (Nov 3, 2014)

Tango616 said:


> Misha alone has had like, 5-6 or so customs in the past few years, meanwhile people with super basic orders still have to wait 2-3 years EACH and can sometimes get a messed up order.



Yep. Then again, this is nothing new - endorsers always have CS priority, and Jackson's CS builds about 40x the number of guitars that the small builders do in a year. It sucks that they get screwed up occasionally, though.


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## TemjinStrife (Nov 3, 2014)

Sorry dude, it sucks to see stories like this. I appreciate that you posted your experiences, though, as it helps protect other customers from shit like this happening to them (and from the inevitable apologists who come out of the woodwork to defend everyone from BRJ to Roter to Etherial to vik.)


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## ncfiala (Nov 3, 2014)

Lorcan Ward said:


> Calling a model DJENT shows just how lazy they are and how little they care.


 
I think it is very fitting. After all, isn't that the hallmark of djent. Being lazy and not caring that is. Chug, chug, chug, ...

Back on topic, I really feel for you getting such a crappy guitar man. I would be devastated. I'm really thankful to this forum for steering me clear of builders like this. At one time I was considering S7G and Acacia. Then I checked on here and changed my mind. I'll just stick with Carvin. Although I really want a Skervesen. And a Strandberg.


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## vick1000 (Nov 4, 2014)

Wow, what a shoddy job. Looks like it's best to just stick to big name custom shops now days unless you want something they can't offer.


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## decreebass (Nov 4, 2014)

God help me bite my tongue if I see this guy at NAMM... Maybe I'll bring a camera and interview him as to what he has to say about your build. I'm actually quite surprised he hasn't chimed in on this thread yet. Usually these shoddy builders/companies put their feet in their mouth by at least page two...


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 4, 2014)

ncfiala said:


> I think it is very fitting. After all, isn't that the hallmark of djent. Being lazy and not caring that is. Chug, chug, chug, ..



That actually makes a lot of sense.

There is no way this guy will be at NAMM with an S7 booth. He spent so much money on this year's booth and new designs that he almost bankrupted himself which lead to all his staff having to leave.


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## Tango616 (Nov 5, 2014)

decreebass said:


> God help me bite my tongue if I see this guy at NAMM... Maybe I'll bring a camera and interview him as to what he has to say about your build. I'm actually quite surprised he hasn't chimed in on this thread yet. Usually these shoddy builders/companies put their feet in their mouth by at least page two...



doitdoitdoitdoit


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## ben_hurt (Nov 6, 2014)

dude, that sucks. sorry about all that nonsense. I've had zero luck in my custom builds and have sworn them off since then (different companies).


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## Deepwatertiger (Nov 6, 2014)

First off, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you for this guitar being unsatisfactory. We made a mistake in judgement sending you that guitar in the condition it was in. We should have consulted with you in regards the surgery we did to the heel joint to make the neck fit, and we should not have assumed the finish work would be good enough for you. 

We were very shocked to see this surface as you had initially sent text messages to Jim saying how much you loved the guitar. Had you let us know of all the problems you found with it, the faulty tuner issue, the screws stripping.. these things happen from time to time and we gladly will replace them. In your case.. there happens to be a lot wrong with it, I am not here to argue that one bit. We are at fault. I assure you does not happen often but sometimes things slip through the cracks, errors in judgement are made, and parts go bad. In your case all of the above. We just wish you had contacted us first before making all this public because in this scenario, we would replace your guitar, AND let you keep the money you received from selling the first one. We WILL still do that for you. We aim to please 100% of our customers, and although it is not always possible for any builder or production guitar, we will do what it takes to make things right in the end when problems like this occur. 

At S7G, I am now the recently appointed production manager and handle quality control from this point forward and things like this will not happen again. As mentioned, we have been through hell the past year. We were ghost building for another company, many of you I'm sure know who I'm referring to, and due to reasons beyond our control as well as employees who betrayed and left the company or were fired, that guitar company breached their contract and screwed us out of $100,000... a hit we are still recovering from. AFTER that happened, several employees jumped ship at a time we needed them most, and things only got worse. We then made the decision to shut down the custom shop and only take orders from dealers for production models we can crank out consistently to help us get money flowing and back on track to be able to complete all of our outstanding custom pieces for customers. In these tough times, we have still managed to satisfy FAR more customers than disappoint.. we can't say this is the first time we've had a similar situation like this.. but no guitar company is perfect (some very close, but most do a better job of staying on top of things so that you DON'T see these things surface on the internet). This is not to say we are not at fault for our mistakes, but I guarantee you there is not a single customer out there that complained like this about a guitar build that we didn't try everything we could to make it right and offer to do many things to make it right that would result in us losing money for your satisfaction.

We are not criminals, we are not in this for the money. Jim has not put a DIME of profit in his pocket since the start of this company.. it has all either went into the company, or in the case of several years of operation due to unfortunate situations like i explained earlier, profits were not made at all. Jim remains in business simply to continue building guitars for people in hopes that things will turn around and he can actually make a living off this company. He has a day job that he has been working for over a year now full time just to keep his house out of foreclosure and try to get this company back on its feet. As we try to do that, we thank every supporter that has stuck with us over the years and we encourage any skeptics to please give us the benefit of the doubt until you have seen one of our guitars in person and really gotten to know us from personal experience as a customer, we try our best to stay in touch with all customers and satisfy them the best we can.

So, A.W. ... if you see this message, PLEASE contact us and lets work this out.


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## Deepwatertiger (Nov 6, 2014)

In response to the CNC work, btw, we only cut our blanks with routes and holes drilled on the CNC for consistency (although, yes, occasionally the CNC produces a flawed blank. Final shaping/sanding is done by hand. Fingerboards cut and radiused by hand.. all fret work and finish work by hand. Only thing not done by hand are the things that benefit from the consistent measurements and otherwise time consuming routes and holes and basic shaping.


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## petervindel (Nov 7, 2014)

It's such a shame that you guys keep letting things like this happen. I have an 8 string custom that I got from you guys 1,5 years ago, and it's still the best 8 string I've ever played. Knocks Ibanez, ESP and even the one Mayones I've tried out of the park, but as long as you keep letting lemons like this out the door you'll never recover. 
Stop taking orders and make sure the people that have waiting on their guitars for years get their guitars and feel it's been worth the wait. 
You guys build great guitars, but the only thing people know about S7G is that you are unreliable and keep sending out lemons.


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## HighGain510 (Nov 7, 2014)

Wow... so much facepalm, so little time.  



Deepwatertiger said:


> First off, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you for this guitar being unsatisfactory. We made a mistake in judgement sending you that guitar in the condition it was in. *We should have consulted with you in regards the surgery we did to the heel joint to make the neck fit, and we should not have assumed the finish work would be good enough for you.*





Deepwatertiger said:


> In response to the CNC work, btw, we only cut our blanks with routes and holes drilled on the CNC for consistency (although, yes, occasionally the CNC produces a flawed blank. Final shaping/sanding is done by hand. Fingerboards cut and radiused by hand.. all fret work and finish work by hand. Only thing not done by hand are the things that benefit from the consistent measurements and otherwise time consuming routes and holes and basic shaping.



If you were building them correctly in the first place, you wouldn't need to perform "surgery" on the neck pocket to have the neck fit. You shouldn't have to consult with the buyer about modifying/"fixing" bad parts at all if you were building guitars that fit together correctly without having to perform special "modifications" to the neck or neck pocket if you were building the necks and bodies properly.  If your neck pockets on the bodies and neck heels on the necks were done by CNC, there should be WAY less "surgery" going on with these guitars to get the necks to fit into the pocket properly the first time. Sorry, but something just doesn't add up. 



Deepwatertiger said:


> At S7G, I am now the recently appointed production manager



Have you worked for S7G for very long before you were appointed production manager? How long have you been on that team? How is Jim paying you if the company is not making any type of profit as you claimed? Just signed on to work for free/continue working for free? Is this actually Jim posting from yet another new account? 



Deepwatertiger said:


> We were very shocked to see this surface as you had initially sent text messages to Jim saying how much you loved the guitar. *Had you let us know of all the problems you found with it, the faulty tuner issue, the screws stripping.. these things happen from time to time and we gladly will replace them.* In your case.. there happens to be a lot wrong with it, I am not here to argue that one bit. We are at fault.* I assure you does not happen often but sometimes things slip through the cracks, errors in judgement are made, and parts go bad.* In your case all of the above. We just wish you had contacted us first before making all this public because in this scenario, we would replace your guitar, AND let you keep the money you received from selling the first one. We WILL still do that for you. We aim to please 100% of our customers, and although it is not always possible for any builder or production guitar, we will do what it takes to make things right in the end when problems like this occur.



Again, not knowing how "new" you are to the company, but S7G does NOT have a track record of making things right nor do they have a record of making things right QUICKLY to say the least. There is zero surprise the OP went public with this, some people stayed quiet hoping you guys would fix the garbage guitars you sent out to them and that never happened. Do some searching on your company and see how many satisfied customers there are vs people who got screwed by Strictly 7. I think you might believe you're doing better than you really are in the customer satisfaction department.  Why do you think someone would rather sell a brand new build from you at a huge loss rather than deal with you on getting a replacement? You assure him it doesn't happen often? Take a look at how many threads there are like this one on this very forum and tell me that again with a straight face.  Have you seen the rant videos Jim posted before he took them down? 



Deepwatertiger said:


> We were ghost building for another company, many of you I'm sure know who I'm referring to, and due to reasons beyond our control as well as employees who betrayed and left the company or were fired, that guitar company breached their contract and screwed us out of $100,000... a hit we are still recovering from. AFTER that happened, several employees jumped ship at a time we needed them most, and things only got worse.



If you guys can't get your own shit out the door without it looking completely fucked up or telling customers you'll fix all those broken or non-delivered builds and don't make good on that, why the hell are you guys ghost-building for ANYONE?! Who in their right mind would sign a contract with you to have you build guitars for them?? $100K lost?  Yes, I'm sure it was entirely due to your customer not holding up their end of the deal.... 

Assuming you're brand new, you might want to abandon that sinking ship, Jim is great at telling people his bleeding heart garbage stories about how much hard work he puts into the business, how much pride he has in his work and how he doesn't make a dime, yet he clearly HAS cash that he's feeding into shit like a booth at NAMM every year (and that is NOT cheap... and they don't give loans out to people filing for bankruptcy or defaulting on payments....) yet magically his customers are receiving jacked up guitars or nothing at all still? Sorry dude, sounds like you're feeding this guy the same lines Jim has been feeding customers for years, and unfortunately for you (and despite your plea against posting this stuff publicly first) this is already WELL-DOCUMENTED PUBLIC INFORMATION. You can try to shrug it off or claim there are more satisfied customers than unhappy ones, but we've seen more than enough horror stories from S7G to believe that nonsense.


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## technomancer (Nov 7, 2014)

capoeiraesp said:


> S7 have released a new website and there's one glaringly big lie right on the front page - "Our guitars are handmade.."
> Sorry, and I love CNCs, but when you're getting a lot of work including cutting bodies, inlays etc. done on them, it's no longer 'hand-made'.



Not defending S7G in any way, but I've seen dozens of places that use CNC and still call the guitars hand made. There is a boatload of work that goes into building after the CNC process, so I don't really have a problem with that either. It's not a big deal if a luthier uses a router or a CNC for the basic carving 

That said there are so many things wrong with S7 and their treatment of customers I find it hilarious that THIS is the thing that you picked out to call them out on 

There's actually a pretty good article on CNC over here http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...take-cnc-timeframes-etc-interesting-read.html


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## technomancer (Nov 7, 2014)

AboutBlank said:


> Trustable, atleast for me, implies honesty. And I have a hard time to believe that some shops are not able to quote realistic build times.
> Imo it comes down to 2 alternatives:
> They have no clue how long it takes to build the guitar in their current order situation or malicious deceit.
> Some people do not care about that, at all, which is fine, but for me it leaves a bad taste and I don't get that some people defend vehemently such practices.



Since there was blanket statement thrown there, it's worth noting that KxKs outstanding orders had no promised build time and KxK has stopped taking orders while working on the back log  Also two of the three in-stock guitars are orders customers backed out on.

Good advice for anybody looking for a custom:
1) If you're not willing to wait for a build don't order... even big shops like Jackson and Suhr experience delays.
2) If you can't actually afford the guitar don't order (NEVER order something assuming you'll "save up" while you wait... if you can't at least throw it on a charge card at completion don't order it). There's been a rash of guys lately that think it's fine to order a guitar, have the builder spend substantial time and money on a guitar, then go oh sorry don't want it anymore.
3) Don't order from companies that have a track record of being dishonest, screwing customers, or putting out substandard instruments. 
4) If pricing looks too good to be true it probably is.
5) If someone is a touring/working musician talking something up realize THEY ARE SELLING YOU SOMETHING and not giving an objective opinion.

These are all pretty obvious yet I see guys on here getting burnt over and over again on them. 

For 1 I do not mean accept being promised two weeks and accept waiting two years, however if you do not have the patience to accept delays you are going to be better off not ordering a custom guitar.

5 especially cracks me up when we've got players on here who do things like spend a year talking up pickups they're endorsing and why you don't need more expensive boutique brands... then switch to a boutique brand and tell you why they're the best things ever and you need them. Yet guys on here still take them seriously and respect their opinions. Or musicians that have stayed consistently with a brand of pickup while hyping whatever the newly released pickup from that company was when they came out. How do people follow this stuff and not realize they're being sold to


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## Nag (Nov 7, 2014)

Pilgrim of the Dark said:


> as you can see, I got what I paid for



for less than 2 grand you could have bought an Ibanez Prestige, ESP, Jackson and what do I know that would have been better built. That's ass, you didn't get what you paid for.

I think it's natural to shy away from cheap, new, small builders. But all the established ones started like that too. it's good to give everyone a chance, but NOT by paying everything in advance. paying a product before the product even exists is the best way to get your wallet dried out. A new builder has to prove he's good. once he's established and has a long waiting list, he can pull the prices up and justify it by the quality of his stuff. But a small builder ? take 30%, prove me you're worth sending the 70 remaining % and then send me the finished product.

You can order an [insert famous brand name] online without playing it beforehand because you KNOW they're solid and their shipping company handles them well. a newcoming builder has to prove he can do the same. else, he doesn't compete, and his business will close soon enough.


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## facepalm66 (Nov 7, 2014)

Why don't you just sue him? 

... and kick his aasss, you know how he looks, right... right?


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## Deepwatertiger (Nov 7, 2014)

HighGain510 said:


> Wow... so much facepalm, so little time.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I had already been working for S7G long before the fallout I described and only recently took over these responsibilities as Production Manager. 

I'm not going to waste any more time after this post on here debating with people who are not personally involved with the company or own guitars built by us. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My main concern in this post was to grab the attention of the customer who received this guitar and offer an explanation in hopes that just maybe some people will give us the benefit of the doubt as we try to rebuild this company. 

CNC programs are not always perfect out the gate. It is not a matter of just the CNC performing properly every time, but sometimes we have to go back and re-draw in CAD and fix things. In this case, we did not, and that was a mistake.

Once again. I am admitting guilt on our companies behalf and encouraging as many people as we can to at least consider giving us the benefit of the doubt if you don't know the facts first hand and are only judging based on a handful of other threads posting negative experiences.. which are so often more present in online communities than positive stories. I know first hand and can confidently say we DO have far, FAR more satisfied customers than dissatisfied. Some of these unsatisfied customers have every right to be such.. some were unreasonable, and some just did not accept our efforts to remedy the situation. We have sold HUNDREDS of custom guitars as well as many production models that have not come back to us with negative feedback. We've had problems with less than perfect guitars making it out there in the past, no doubt. We are not a smooth running shop, and have not been for longer periods of time than the few times we caught a break and had some good times. Some of Jim's biggest mistakes were being too hesitant to fire employees that didn't pull their weight.. and we are doing the best to recover from that and all the other disasters we encountered with our small company with a higher demand than our companies financial situation due to untimely disasters allowed us to handle.

I have gone without pay for many months at a time and I am investing a lot of my time in this company in hopes that the few big breaks we've been handed lately will help us get back on track and more capable of producing even better consistency.. that is how this company can afford to continue to run. None of us are pocketing your money. We've continued to go to NAMM to pick up dealers and distributors for our production models and every year has been a success in that regard to help us generate money to catch up on our custom shop orders, which are no longer being taken so we can get back on track.

Believe what you all want to believe. I can't change most of your opinions, and that is fine. Regardless, I figured we might as well offer our side of the story for anyone who is willing to take it into consideration. We are still in this to continue to satisfy the many customers we know are out there and we are working hard every day in hopes that this company will progress as planned as we are investing in one final attempt at a rebirth of this company. I'm an honest guy trying to make an honest living doing what I love to do, and so is Jim. We never leave an unsatisfied customer shit out of luck.. we always attempt to contact them and come to a solution.

By the way, you are right. We should not have taken on ghost building for another company. It was at a time when business was good and we were on track to expand and fulfill it all, but it ultimately destroyed us in the end. 

We are only human, doing the best we can to make it in this crazy world and crazy economy.

To all our supporters who we couldn't stay in business without, thank you for always being by our side.

As for our unsatisfied customers, I'm sorry we let you down. If and when our plans to get this company profitable succeeds, contact us and ask for some payback. We'll work on a future low to no cost build for ya depending on the situation.

And to all those who are just following the forums and haven't had a personal experience with us.. I hope just maybe I've restored just enough respect for you to choose not to kick a horse while it's down without getting all the facts.. but I can't stop you, and you have every right and the freedom of speech to do so.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

Peace.


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## TemjinStrife (Nov 7, 2014)

Seriously? You call not drilling for cavity covers, using customer builds as "practice," and charging customers extra for body rebuilds based on crappy staining "less than perfect?" I suppose you do have a talent for understatement.

Also, the ghostbuilding Strandberg thing didn't work out because S7G couldn't deliver quality consistently, from finish work to knots to body damage.

Remember, you can say that "we have hundreds of satisfied customers" but it only takes one instance of shitty customer service to torpedo your business. That's the harsh reality of being a custom shop in this day and age. Forums provide a fantastic business opportunity, but with that opportunity comes a real need to make sure you're not putting stuff out there that reflects negatively on your shop as a whole.


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## canuck brian (Nov 7, 2014)

Deepwatertiger said:


> CNC programs are not always perfect out the gate. It is not a matter of just the CNC performing properly every time, but sometimes we have to go back and re-draw in CAD and fix things. In this case, we did not, and that was a mistake.



You're very right here sir. That's why you make prototypes and THEN make products for your customers instead of sending the bullshit you guys already did. 

Oddly all the stuff I've cut after Ive finalized the measurements and settings on the prototypes don't need adjustment. If your CNC isn't performing properly every time, then there is something wrong with your CNC. 

Being too hesitant to fire people not pulling their weight? You guys admitted weren't paying anyone for a period of time.

I've actually played a few of your guitars and the ones I did play were really really nice guitars. I really would like you guys to return to form and put out quality guitars again. Jim's making it a point to stay in contact with customers from what I can see and that's probably been his saving grace. I flat out offered to come down to give whatever help you guys needed for free (gluing stuff, fretwork, packing etc) and I got zero reply.


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## leonardo7 (Nov 7, 2014)

canuck brian said:


> I flat out offered to come down to give whatever help you guys needed for free (gluing stuff, fretwork, packing etc) and I got zero reply.



Probably because only the chosen ones are allowed to be let in to the official secrets of shadiness


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## TheRileyOBrien (Nov 7, 2014)

Just don't let crap like this leave the shop. It's not that hard. It has nothing to do with work load or employees not pulling their weight. The fact that "most" of your customers are happy doesn't justify anything and is a horrible way to conduct business imho. Someone looked at this guitar(and a number of other poorly built guitars) and thought "meh, good enough" and boxed it up and sent it to a customer. 

It is not like you overlooked a tiny blemish in the finish and it got out. There are a number of GLARING issues. 

Your CNC excuse is a joke. I know stuff can go wrong with cnc machines and working with wood makes issues even more common since no two pieces are alike. If the piece doesn't come out right it should go in the trash or kept as a personal build. You don't just say "lets slap a shim in there and call it good".

Your post makes it seem like to you there was just a simple mistake(s) blown out of proportion by the evil internets. The reason for the bad reputation is repeated offenses of not caring about what left the shop, well documented cases of treating customers poorly, and hilariously out of touch excuses/apologies such as this one. 

The only way you can fix this is to deliver nothing but absolute top quality guitars, on time, from this point forward(assuming you get more orders). Good Luck.


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## capoeiraesp (Nov 7, 2014)

technomancer said:


> Not defending S7G in any way, but I've seen dozens of places that use CNC and still call the guitars hand made. There is a boatload of work that goes into building after the CNC process, so I don't really have a problem with that either. It's not a big deal if a luthier uses a router or a CNC for the basic carving
> 
> That said there are so many things wrong with S7 and their treatment of customers I find it hilarious that THIS is the thing that you picked out to call them out on
> 
> There's actually a pretty good article on CNC over here http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/lu...take-cnc-timeframes-etc-interesting-read.html



Man, I love CNCs and what they offer to the guitar building process when used properly. I was under the impression that way more work was done with CNCs over at S7G.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 7, 2014)

Deepwatertiger said:


> First off, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to you for this guitar being unsatisfactory. We made a mistake in judgement sending you that guitar in the condition it was in. We should have consulted with you in regards the surgery we did to the heel joint to make the neck fit, and we should not have assumed the finish work would be good enough for you.
> 
> We were very shocked to see this surface as you had initially sent text messages to Jim saying how much you loved the guitar. Had you let us know of all the problems you found with it, the faulty tuner issue, the screws stripping.. these things happen from time to time and we gladly will replace them. In your case.. there happens to be a lot wrong with it, I am not here to argue that one bit. We are at fault. I assure you does not happen often but sometimes things slip through the cracks, errors in judgement are made, and parts go bad. In your case all of the above. We just wish you had contacted us first before making all this public because in this scenario, we would replace your guitar, AND let you keep the money you received from selling the first one. We WILL still do that for you. We aim to please 100% of our customers, and although it is not always possible for any builder or production guitar, we will do what it takes to make things right in the end when problems like this occur.
> 
> ...



This is A.W.

I did text Jim right after picking the guitar up and playing a couple scales. I was very impressed with the fretwork and the sound... Then, I actually looked over the guitar and saw/felt all the crazy [email protected]&$ ups...

First, had this been a couple simple cases of faulty hardware, I'd have contacted you guys no problem (like I did about the missing control cavity cover, which was mailed to me promptly). However, you guys would've had to completely rebuild the guitar from scratch to fix the countless issues this one had (and actually install the stuff I ordered/sent you). I was even assured over the phone after bringing up Keith Merrow's fret falling out that you guys wouldn't let anything happen like that again. "Going public" with this is not an attempt to stick it to you and S7 by any means, but I'm not going to let other people make the same mistake I did for the sake of S7G's image.

I also don't see how anything "fell through the cracks"; every single step of the process of building this guitar was a fail. The neck didn't fit the body, most of the stuff I ordered or sent you guys didn't even make it onto the thing, the control layout was wrong, logo application was so, so, so terribly done, and the finish looked/felt like it was someone's first go around in the paint booth. On top of all that, there was zero, ZERO QC. I'm not even sure if anyone even looked at it before it went into the case.

Second, I'm not willing to wait another year or more for a replacement which may or may not have the same issues. 

I understand you guys are willing to do it for free (and in hopes that this thread would get deleted), and that's honestly cool of you to offer, but I'd rather just cut my losses and disappointment right here. I'll chalk up the $1200 I wasn't able to recoup to experience.


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## axxessdenied (Nov 8, 2014)

Deepwatertiger said:


> I had already been working for S7G long before the fallout I described and only recently took over these responsibilities as Production Manager.
> 
> I'm not going to waste any more time after this post on here debating with people who are not personally involved with the company or own guitars built by us. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My main concern in this post was to grab the attention of the customer who received this guitar and offer an explanation in hopes that just maybe some people will give us the benefit of the doubt as we try to rebuild this company.
> 
> ...



Eh.... Business is business, man. When you are charging for a premium product and don't deliver on that promise. You are going to hurt your reputation A LOT. It's going to take a lot more AMAZING guitars coming out of your shop to undo the bad reputation one guitar can create.
This is why your quality control needs to really be on top of things. If you guys can't get your CNC in order... there is an underlying problem. Either your CNC machine needs some kind of servicing or you need better designs.

You reap what you sow. 

To be honest. I could care less how many amazing guitars you guys have made. The fact that THIS actually managed to leave the shop just makes me want to take my money elsewhere.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 8, 2014)

axxessdenied said:


> I could care less how many amazing guitars you guys have made. The fact that THIS actually managed to leave the shop just makes me want to take my money elsewhere.



This is my point exactly. Like I said, I'm not trying to go out of my way to start shit for the sake of starting shit, or to intentionally hurt the company's image or reputation. The absolute only reason I even posted all of this is to try to let others know what could happen to their hard-earned money. I'm not saying it will for sure, but it seems like there's a good chance it could; hell, I played a "Curran era" S7 after I had ordered mine and that guitar was fantastic. 

I do believe that you guys usually put out great guitars here and there, but damn, what the hell happened to mine; it's hands down the worst one I've seen come out of the shop... THE absolute worst.

All I ever heard about was how everyone warning others about this stuff were just "trolls" and their claims/opinions were baseless... I bought into it and sent my money like a fool. You got me good, that's all I can say.

I honestly just hope my story can help others make an informed decision.and save themselves a lot of money and even more trouble and stress.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 8, 2014)

Deepwatertiger said:


> My main concern in this post was to grab the attention of the customer who received this guitar and offer an explanation in hopes that just maybe some people will give us the benefit of the doubt as we try to rebuild this company.



How many chances do you guys think you're going to get? 

Finishing paid customer orders after the rant videos/NAMM wastage was supposed to be Jim's attempt at rebuilding the company but then you ship this out. Did you hope the customer wasn't even going to play it, let alone take it out of the box realise the control cavity plate is missing amongst a ton of other issues? Its clear that Jim didn't even care when he "setup" this guitar and put it in the box. So now you're getting defensive at the customer sharing pictures and giving an honest review of the guitar you gave him? 

If you want to rebuild this company then don't ship out terrible guitars, don't blame customers for your faults, don't keep saying a new & improved Strictly7 is here, don't pay for booths at NAMM when you have such a backlog of customer orders etc etc


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 8, 2014)

I get that a lot of shitty things happened, but I've never heard a company use past misfortunes to try and explain away negligence and just pure shoddy workmanship on all their future products/services. Very sad.


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## vick1000 (Nov 8, 2014)

Sounds like some one wanted the chance to cover up the fact this lemon got shipped to a customer. I think it's too late for damage control on this one.


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## AxeHappy (Nov 9, 2014)

Deepwatertiger said:


> And to all those who are just following the forums and haven't had a personal experience with us.. I hope just maybe I've restored just enough respect for you to choose not to kick a horse while it's down without getting all the facts.. but I can't stop you, and you have every right and the freedom of speech to do so.



As a person whom has ordered 5 custom guitars in the last 2 years (4 of which have been delivered I might add) I can safely say that you have literally done the exact opposite of restore faith.

You entered a thread where somebody posted *glaring* completely *unforgivable* mistakes leaving your shop, and moreover straight up *theft* being involved on money sent you for parts that weren't delivered and your response was:

Lawl, don't buy into all those other people saying we ....ed them over, we would have made this right for you if you had contacted us. Please completely ignore not only our track record but our criminally negligent product we have sent you. Your personal experience is irrelevant in the face of the, "...hundreds..." of nameless fantastic guitars we have shipped. 


Also, just because many of those, "hundreds," of build haven't complained doesn't mean people weren't pissed. For every one complaint you receive, it's best to assume there is a hundred pissed of people.

How many guitars have you shipped total? How many have had pissed off people posting about it publicly? Do the math. 


I work in automotive production (if anybody has bough a recent Dodge or Chrysler there is a chance I installed your airbag!) and if we let anything that was 10 times the quality of this slip through the line we would be fired. 

Get your ....ing shit together and stop blaming anybody but yourself for your complete incompetence.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 10, 2014)

vick1000 said:


> Sounds like some one wanted the chance to cover up the fact this lemon got shipped to a customer. I think it's too late for damage control on this one.



Hahahaha! You think?! Would've been nice to just get the Guitar I ordered, but I guess I should've known better.


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## SevenNotes (Nov 11, 2014)

I have a close friend who lost a ton of money investing in Strictly 7 last year. He was a long time friend of Jim and felt he could trust him. He got shafted for over $50,000. I've watched these threads come and go over the last year. I tried to tell him I thought it was not a good idea to keep giving this guy money but he said he trusted Jim and had known him for a long time. He was in a original band with Jim years ago and said Jim was "trustworthy". 
Never thought I had a right to comment on here since I'd never put money into buying their product but I got angry at the response from the "new" guy posting on behalf of Strictly 7. What a crock of sh*t. Jim has no conscience and is running a ponzi scheme. If he was trustworthy, he'd be attempting to pay his enormous debts to someone he called a "friend" and not told all these customers there would be no refund even though he had not delivered product. I've played their guitars. Some good, some horrible and that gigantic neck profile is crap. They try fooling people by saying it helps the wrist. Ya right...to get carpal tunnel maybe. Seems the only finish they sort of get right is the stains but not consistently after I read this and saw these pics. 
When I saw what happened to Keith's guitar I tried again to tell my buddy to stop throwing his money away. I'm sure he doesn't want it getting around that he lost so much money investing with Jim but it is not a lie. He showed me the loan papers with Jim's signature on them after the employees quit. He even gave them all a check for $1000 a piece to help them when they all left Jim since he wasn't paying them! I couldn't believe he did that but it is 100% true. I can't believe he hasn't gone to court to sue the hell out of him. 
So Mr. "we'll do whatever to make it right" instead of paying his debts down to a close "friend" and filling his obligations to customers waiting for years he goes and spends money for NAMM?? How many thousands of dollars does it take to rent space there and get a hotel and ship your guitars and eat? You have money for that but not to fill your obligations?? This guy even admitted to running a ponzi scheme in his own reply to the OP. Trying to lure unsuspecting dealers in so they can get money on new orders to build guitars they've owed to other customers for years! I hope the orders stop coming in. I hope the truth gets out of control and they can't cover it up. They have lied and stolen from people who believed in them. No integrity. I will put bets down that this "new" guy doesn't get paid what Jim owes him even. He'll have to barter... but all he'll get is a subpar guitar from Jim probably.


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## JuliusJahn (Nov 11, 2014)

What an experience....All I can say is "A happy customer will tell 10 of their friends. An unhappy customer will tell ALL their friends." and in the day and age of the internet, that's more crucial than ever. Shame on Jim and anyone else at S7. I'm pretty sure 99% of all first builds turned out better than this thing.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 12, 2014)

JuliusJahn said:


> What an experience....All I can say is "A happy customer will tell 10 of their friends. An unhappy customer will tell ALL their friends." and in the day and age of the internet, that's more crucial than ever. Shame on Jim and anyone else at S7. I'm pretty sure 99% of all first builds turned out better than this thing.



It's funny that you bring this up. 

From the outset, I had informed the owner that a great number of fellow guitarists I know in the Phoenix area (a place where S7G has little to no exposure) were very interested in what his company could offer. A number of them were actually holding off on Carvin orders to see what my guitar turned out like. So, he knew full-well that this guitar was going to represent S7G to a pretty wide audience of potential customers.

Well, of course most of them went with Carvin or other builders after they found out that my guitar wouldn't even be close to being finished within a reasonable amount of time for what it was (bolt on, matte finish, no inlays). And the rest were just as disgusted as I was when they got their hands on it to try.

SS.org thread or not, he had to know shipping out a turd like this was going to eliminate a portion of his potential future customers... But, they just sent it out anyway.

After putting two and two together, I think the general attitude is "let's just whip out these half-assed guitars so we can at least say we fulfilled our obligations, then duck out in a massive bankruptcy filing"... Again, just my opinion, but it seems pretty plausible with what I've experienced.


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## leonardo7 (Nov 12, 2014)

SevenNotes said:


> I have a close friend who lost a ton of money investing in Strictly 7 last year. He was a long time friend of Jim and felt he could trust him. He got shafted for over $50,000. I've watched these threads come and go over the last year. I tried to tell him I thought it was not a good idea to keep giving this guy money but he said he trusted Jim and had known him for a long time. He was in a original band with Jim years ago and said Jim was "trustworthy".
> Never thought I had a right to comment on here since I'd never put money into buying their product but I got angry at the response from the "new" guy posting on behalf of Strictly 7. What a crock of sh*t. Jim has no conscience and is running a ponzi scheme. If he was trustworthy, he'd be attempting to pay his enormous debts to someone he called a "friend" and not told all these customers there would be no refund even though he had not delivered product. I've played their guitars. Some good, some horrible and that gigantic neck profile is crap. They try fooling people by saying it helps the wrist. Ya right...to get carpal tunnel maybe. Seems the only finish they sort of get right is the stains but not consistently after I read this and saw these pics.
> When I saw what happened to Keith's guitar I tried again to tell my buddy to stop throwing his money away. I'm sure he doesn't want it getting around that he lost so much money investing with Jim but it is not a lie. He showed me the loan papers with Jim's signature on them after the employees quit. He even gave them all a check for $1000 a piece to help them when they all left Jim since he wasn't paying them! I couldn't believe he did that but it is 100% true. I can't believe he hasn't gone to court to sue the hell out of him.
> So Mr. "we'll do whatever to make it right" instead of paying his debts down to a close "friend" and filling his obligations to customers waiting for years he goes and spends money for NAMM?? How many thousands of dollars does it take to rent space there and get a hotel and ship your guitars and eat? You have money for that but not to fill your obligations?? This guy even admitted to running a ponzi scheme in his own reply to the OP. Trying to lure unsuspecting dealers in so they can get money on new orders to build guitars they've owed to other customers for years! I hope the orders stop coming in. I hope the truth gets out of control and they can't cover it up. They have lied and stolen from people who believed in them. No integrity. I will put bets down that this "new" guy doesn't get paid what Jim owes him even. He'll have to barter... but all he'll get is a subpar guitar from Jim probably.



For what its worth I hope you get some of your money back at the very least. Your probably correct in assuming your money is gone though


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 12, 2014)

In the end, I think the saying "excuses are like assholes..." applies to S7G; don't make promises you can't remotely keep and blame everyone else when your dirty laundry gets aired. If you can't handle turning out a consistent product, why bother? What pride can you have in this sort of failure?

It really kills me that there are people out there like this basically defrauding people out of their money on empty promises. I got got, hopefully it all stops sooner rather than later. 

I'm embarrassed that I fell for it all even after seeing what they have done to others. Don't be THAT guy like I was.


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## sevenstringj (Nov 12, 2014)

SevenNotes said:


> I have a close friend who lost a ton of money investing in Strictly 7 last year. He was a long time friend of Jim and felt he could trust him. He got shafted for over $50,000. I've watched these threads come and go over the last year. I tried to tell him I thought it was not a good idea to keep giving this guy money but he said he trusted Jim and had known him for a long time. He was in a original band with Jim years ago and said Jim was "trustworthy".
> Never thought I had a right to comment on here since I'd never put money into buying their product but I got angry at the response from the "new" guy posting on behalf of Strictly 7. What a crock of sh*t. Jim has no conscience and is running a ponzi scheme. If he was trustworthy, he'd be attempting to pay his enormous debts to someone he called a "friend" and not told all these customers there would be no refund even though he had not delivered product. I've played their guitars. Some good, some horrible and that gigantic neck profile is crap. They try fooling people by saying it helps the wrist. Ya right...to get carpal tunnel maybe. Seems the only finish they sort of get right is the stains but not consistently after I read this and saw these pics.
> When I saw what happened to Keith's guitar I tried again to tell my buddy to stop throwing his money away. I'm sure he doesn't want it getting around that he lost so much money investing with Jim but it is not a lie. He showed me the loan papers with Jim's signature on them after the employees quit. He even gave them all a check for $1000 a piece to help them when they all left Jim since he wasn't paying them! I couldn't believe he did that but it is 100% true. I can't believe he hasn't gone to court to sue the hell out of him.
> So Mr. "we'll do whatever to make it right" instead of paying his debts down to a close "friend" and filling his obligations to customers waiting for years he goes and spends money for NAMM?? How many thousands of dollars does it take to rent space there and get a hotel and ship your guitars and eat? You have money for that but not to fill your obligations?? This guy even admitted to running a ponzi scheme in his own reply to the OP. Trying to lure unsuspecting dealers in so they can get money on new orders to build guitars they've owed to other customers for years! I hope the orders stop coming in. I hope the truth gets out of control and they can't cover it up. They have lied and stolen from people who believed in them. No integrity. I will put bets down that this "new" guy doesn't get paid what Jim owes him even. He'll have to barter... but all he'll get is a subpar guitar from Jim probably.


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## will_shred (Nov 12, 2014)

SevenNotes said:


> I have a close friend who lost a ton of money investing in Strictly 7 last year. He was a long time friend of Jim and felt he could trust him. He got shafted for over $50,000. I've watched these threads come and go over the last year. I tried to tell him I thought it was not a good idea to keep giving this guy money but he said he trusted Jim and had known him for a long time. He was in a original band with Jim years ago and said Jim was "trustworthy".
> Never thought I had a right to comment on here since I'd never put money into buying their product but I got angry at the response from the "new" guy posting on behalf of Strictly 7. What a crock of sh*t. Jim has no conscience and is running a ponzi scheme. If he was trustworthy, he'd be attempting to pay his enormous debts to someone he called a "friend" and not told all these customers there would be no refund even though he had not delivered product. I've played their guitars. Some good, some horrible and that gigantic neck profile is crap. They try fooling people by saying it helps the wrist. Ya right...to get carpal tunnel maybe. Seems the only finish they sort of get right is the stains but not consistently after I read this and saw these pics.
> When I saw what happened to Keith's guitar I tried again to tell my buddy to stop throwing his money away. I'm sure he doesn't want it getting around that he lost so much money investing with Jim but it is not a lie. He showed me the loan papers with Jim's signature on them after the employees quit. He even gave them all a check for $1000 a piece to help them when they all left Jim since he wasn't paying them! I couldn't believe he did that but it is 100% true. I can't believe he hasn't gone to court to sue the hell out of him.
> So Mr. "we'll do whatever to make it right" instead of paying his debts down to a close "friend" and filling his obligations to customers waiting for years he goes and spends money for NAMM?? How many thousands of dollars does it take to rent space there and get a hotel and ship your guitars and eat? You have money for that but not to fill your obligations?? This guy even admitted to running a ponzi scheme in his own reply to the OP. Trying to lure unsuspecting dealers in so they can get money on new orders to build guitars they've owed to other customers for years! I hope the orders stop coming in. I hope the truth gets out of control and they can't cover it up. They have lied and stolen from people who believed in them. No integrity. I will put bets down that this "new" guy doesn't get paid what Jim owes him even. He'll have to barter... but all he'll get is a subpar guitar from Jim probably.




Damn man, if what you're saying is true, that's so ....ed up.


This thread is so juicy.


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## ramses (Nov 12, 2014)

I cannot believe how lucky I am to have received my Boden 7 in good conditions, and in less than 12 months.

It is scary, and sad, to think of all the people that are waiting for three-year-old orders.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 16, 2014)

Nagash said:


> for less than 2 grand you could have bought an Ibanez Prestige, ESP, Jackson and what do I know that would have been better built. That's ass, you didn't get what you paid for.
> 
> I think it's natural to shy away from cheap, new, small builders. But all the established ones started like that too. it's good to give everyone a chance, but NOT by paying everything in advance. paying a product before the product even exists is the best way to get your wallet dried out. A new builder has to prove he's good. once he's established and has a long waiting list, he can pull the prices up and justify it by the quality of his stuff. But a small builder ? take 30%, prove me you're worth sending the 70 remaining % and then send me the finished product.
> 
> You can order an [insert famous brand name] online without playing it beforehand because you KNOW they're solid and their shipping company handles them well. a newcoming builder has to prove he can do the same. else, he doesn't compete, and his business will close soon enough.



Luckily, the 2014 Prestige line is such a great value (really cheap compared to the last 5 years or so). I just got an Ibanez RG655 and it's phenomenal, especially after my experience with the "luthiers" over at Strictly 7. I'm gonna order a RG752 soon as well.


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## Nour Ayasso (Nov 17, 2014)

Pilgrim of the Dark said:


> Luckily, the 2014 Prestige line is such a great value (really cheap compared to the last 5 years or so). I just got an Ibanez RG655 and it's phenomenal, especially after my experience with the "luthiers" over at Strictly 7. I'm gonna order a RG752 soon as well.



I see this thread has reached it's conclusion. Enjoy the Ibanez man, you won't regret it.


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## Slunk Dragon (Nov 17, 2014)

This thread is so juicy, they'll start using it in Starbursts.

I can't believe you got shafted that hard on the guitar, man! Glad that you decided to cut your losses than to go the Sisyphean route.


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## RevelGTR (Nov 19, 2014)

I came so close to ordering one for these a couple years ago, thank god Jim stopped responding to my Emails.


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## blaxquid (Nov 20, 2014)

Ouch. They should send you a 1.2k$ check so you can order a Carvin...


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 21, 2014)

WSchaferJR said:


> I came so close to ordering one for these a couple years ago, thank god Jim stopped responding to my Emails.



Smart move on your part to stay away from them! I'd advise anyone even entertaining the thought of ordering from S7G to seriously rethink the terrible mistake you're about to make.

They're the shadiest of the shady!


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Nov 21, 2014)

Slunk Dragon said:


> This thread is so juicy, they'll start using it in Starbursts.
> 
> I can't believe you got shafted that hard on the guitar, man! Glad that you decided to cut your losses than to go the Sisyphean route.



Yeah, it's really not worth the extra headache dealing with them. It was bad enough when I actually thought they were going to produce a quality guitar; I can't even imagine what it'd be like having to deal with them through another build after seeing the first turd they sent me.

Very bad company; stay far, far away from them.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Jan 25, 2015)

Jeez... I know I'm semi-necro bumping this thread, but I've gotta post this somewhere:

With S7G going to 2015 NAMM, Im still really pissed about what they did to me (basically stole a disabled vet's money). I posted a short review on their FB page and linked this thread in a couple places... Holy crap, did that open a can of worms!!!

They've been pulling the usual "blame the customer" crap, of course, posting that they haven't been able to tell their side of the story. Complete BS; this is their side of the story: convince customer guitar will have no flaws, quote short build time, get customer's money, spend a year building it, don't build it to customer specs and don't install hardware customer purchased and sent in, ship guitar that is completely half assed in every possible way, blame customer for being pissed.

They've been telling me that I would've just gotten a refund if I asked and that I'm threatening the careers of their employees!!!! Lol! 

Didn't Jim just say he wasn't giving anyone refunds since he has no money?! Btw, they have all my mailing and PayPal info and never bothered to issue any sort of refund before I even said I didn't want one. 

From what I've seen over the last few days is that they're strictly (see what I did there?) concerned with damage control, and once they have your money, everything they did wrong is now your fault.

They also keep telling me that "everyone who has gotten a guitar like yours has or will be getting a refund"... Wait, what?! You assholes actually shipped multiple guitars as half assed as this one? What a sad joke this company is.


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## JuliusJahn (Jan 25, 2015)

I don't know if you saw this, but once the "Music Discussion - Brought to you by GP" group heard wind of this they were sure the make some comments.

https://www.facebook.com/S7guitars/posts/804111769663998


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## CaptainD00M (Jan 25, 2015)

You know when I saw the Strictly 7 NAMM 2015 thread I actually thought of this thread and your situation.

I feel for you dude.

I remember when Strictly were getting off the ground and I got a random PM from Jim. I thought it was pretty cool and almost went for something. But then life happened and I didn't (luckily).

Flash forward four to coming back to this forum after a four year hiatus and all I'm hearing is how they f***ed up royally. Man was I glad&#8230; I never felt comfortable with their bolt on neck joints either.

I hope you get your money back man, the optimist in me wishes you the best of luck.

The pessimist says don't hold your breath. 

Edit:



JuliusJahn said:


> I don't know if you saw this, but once the "Music Discussion - Brought to you by GP" group heard wind of this they were sure the make some comments.
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/S7guitars/posts/804111769663998



I saw that, and laughed at the Sh*t storm that seemed to be blowing in. Their comments were as weak as the glue the construction of their guitars.


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## Insinfier (Jan 25, 2015)

> *Again.. If you have a better idea that is fair to ALL the
> customers.. I'm all ears. We cant give every customer a refund, it would not be fair to
> the customers that are waiting patiently and want the guitars. These people also
> outweigh the unsatisfied customers that are waiting. No matter what, some customers are going to be left unhappy.*



Then stop taking orders and right all the wrongs you currently have on your plate, you ....ing failures.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Jan 25, 2015)

I swear, the more I see their "everyone is just hating on us" shit, my blood boils. I'm sorry, but anyone who gives money to these clowns is in for a rude awakening (I know since I've experienced it first hand). 

They have all my contact info (phone number, Facebook info, PayPal info, home address, email address) and not one single time have I recieved an actual apology that wasn't actually a bunch of customer blaming bullshit in disguise on social media.

I hope someone who can actually go to NAMM gives them a piece of their mind.

At the outset, I even told Jim I was wary because of all the messed up guitars they had put out; and that I had saved up this money over a very long time out of my military disability funds. I received personal calls assuring me that the mistakes are in the past, the customers (keith Merrow, in particular) were just trolling and never gave them a fair shot, and that my guitar would be flawless...

Real classy S7, real classy :golfclap:


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Jan 25, 2015)

The only real consolation I've recieved was from Eric Nuss, who said he wouldn't have let that happen had he been in his current position in the company then. He offered to build me a guitar out of his own pocket, having nothing to do with Jim or S7G... 

All I can say is that is a nice offer, but if you are having to settle your boss's past mistakes out of your own pocket, you should probably look for a more honest employer. 

Also, don't blame upset customers for your employer's company's potential demise.


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## Nour Ayasso (Jan 26, 2015)

This is getting ridiculous. If you think you legally deserve a refund then you should take legal action. I haven't read everything on this thread, and I don't know the whole situation. All I know is you paid full price for a guitar you didn't get, and they're using their own personal problems (debt/other bs) as excuses. Get you're full 2K back an go pick up ANY Ibanez RG7


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## jwade (Jan 26, 2015)

You should send some emails to their local news stations. People love vets, and seeing a story about a vet being ripped off and lied to? Holy hell, the shitstorm they'll be facing if a station decides to jump in.


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## SilentCartographer (Jan 27, 2015)

Ugh, sorry bredda. Although I've heard nothing but nightmares from S7 as of the last year or so.


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## ArnoldHablewitz (Feb 3, 2015)

Saw the Strictly 7 booth at NAMM. I legitimately liked how the instruments played and for the most part how they sounded, but there are still many flaws. What's worse, is they try to play off the flaws with "well, it's a prototype." Dude, if the thing being a prototype means you can have finish bubbles rough fret ends...then leave the ....ing thing at home at least and only bring FINISHED guitars.

But before that...finish your guitars for all the customers who have purchased from you, before you even THINK about getting a booth at NAMM.


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## TRENCHLORD (Feb 3, 2015)

ArnoldHablewitz said:


> What's worse, is they try to play off the flaws with "well, it's a prototype." Dude, if the thing being a prototype means you can have finish bubbles rough fret ends...then leave the ....ing thing at home at least and only bring FINISHED guitars..



I'd be willing to bet that those "prototypes" with many flaws are indeed their most flaw-free units buillt lately.
With such quality issues hanging over them I just don't believe they'd bring their B-stock anywhere close to NAMM, that is unless they have no A-stock, which I bet is the case.


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## SilentCartographer (Feb 3, 2015)

I didnt hear or see a single picture of them at NAMM, must not have made an impact at all


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## djentychvggs (Feb 4, 2015)

Their booth at NAMM was a joke. I remember at the 2014 show, they had such an elaborate booth as well as boasting about their new "djent" series and how much "Math" went in to their ugly as sin 9-string build.

This year it was a couple awful looking instruments, a line 6 amp, and hardly anyone was there. I don't know who's booth was more barren, S7 or Vik


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 4, 2015)

djentychvggs said:


> I don't know who's booth was more barren, S7 or *Vik*



Well-deserved.


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## Nour Ayasso (Feb 4, 2015)

djentychvggs said:


> ugly as sin 9-string build.
> 
> This year it was a couple awful looking instruments, a line 6 amp, and hardly anyone was there. I don't know who's booth was more barren, S7 or Vik



LOL...those are some crushing insults, I mean _EVERYONE_ heard about what happened with Vik...I wonder if this thread, in particular, has caught their attention in a serious manner. Not sure how many threads have roasted them, but this one, at five pages, seems to be going strong...
It sucks, I understand business problems such as delays and debt (and whatever other excuses they're using) but like I said; that's no exception for failing to give the customer what they paid for. I don't understand how you can have customers filing complaints, requesting refunds, and _still waiting for their product_ and then show up at NAMM saying "this will bring in money so we can fulfill future orders which will bring in more money to fix those old orders" How many graves are you trying to dig??

Yo dark pilgrim, have you figured out these legalities out yet? Unless they have a strict policy for non refunds and a brutal contract that you signed (which I haven't seen anywhere on this thread) then, as far as I know, you should be able to get a full refund. Heck, you could probably sue the living sh*t out of them for "loosing" pickups _you sent them_ (unnecessary, don't, just throwing it out there). 

Seriously, I'm tired of reading NGD threads where someone spent 3k for a 2+ year build and got a f*cking squire. Tired of seeing these "custom companies" getting away with this crap.

So are you planning legally getting you refund? Or did they offer you a legitimate refund? Or is this done and over with?


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Feb 4, 2015)

After what happened with Siggery last night and the shit that went on with BRJ, S7G, and seems to be going down with ViK, I'm surprised people are still fantasizing about going with really small custom dealers.

EDIT: And Blackwater, apparently. Especially their pickups.


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## kevdes93 (Feb 5, 2015)

^ right? if im gonna be dropping custom dollars its gonna be with OAF, mayo, skerv, or carvin. cant think of anyone else id trust.


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## Hollowway (Feb 5, 2015)

Yes, although, like every crappy cop movie, "just when I get out, they pull me back in!" I feel like when I'm out then someone like John from Doberman, or Julius Jahn, or Shad Peters, or any number of these smaller luthiers comes along with something that seems so good I'll roll the dice just ooooonnnnnne more time.  

I did just get my Doberman, so I know that it's possible I CAN actually receive a guitar I order.  

Still, luthiers going belly up should be the exception, not the rule.


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## sevenstringj (Feb 5, 2015)

Let's not get carried away. I'd have no qualms about getting a custom from Todd Keehn (TK Instruments), for example.


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## Purelojik (Feb 5, 2015)

i agree lets not get ahead of ourselves. the problem is that small luthiers are in a very small pond. One person goes down it makes ripples that effect everyone. I've had wonderful experiences with Aaron at blackwater guitars and his pickups are some of my favorite. I have two orders in with him currently as well.


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Feb 9, 2015)

Nour Ayasso said:


> So are you planning legally getting you refund? Or did they offer you a legitimate refund? Or is this done and over with?



Sorry, I've been away for a bit and am just now catching back up on the forums 

I'm not planning on getting a refund at all, or a new build. As I said in one of my earlier posts, that's not the point behind this thread. This thread is purely to get another detailed review of a customer experience with this terrible company out there and hopefully deter any potential future (unhappy) customers fro giving their hard-earned money to these clowns.

After the nightmare that was dealing with them when they were actually taking my money, I can't imagine what it would be like trying to get it back from them... and I don't want to know either. This one is chalked up to experience for me.

All they do is try to blame the customer to save face on social media anyway. 

This thread is simply here to air their dirty laundry and serve as yet another warning to the masses to stay the heck away from this garbage company. I should've heeded the warnings I saw, but I wanted to buy into Jim's BS, I guess.


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## glassmoon0fo (Feb 9, 2015)

I owned a great S7 Boden back in the day, and talked with Jim a good bit throughout it's production. Same with my Bernie Rico Black Friday builds. I stood behind both guys through what I can only assume were tough times for them. I don't think anyone starts out looking to run a company name into the ground, especially when that company is your own, but you can't go through life not being accountable for your own lack of forsight/actions/bad business practices. My guess is, you would have handled these situations differently 100% of the time if you were in their position, and like me you projected your own ideals onto other people. Don't fault yourself for wanting to believe in people, it's a virtue. good luck in the future broham.


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## zero_end (Feb 9, 2015)

sevenstringj said:


> Hope things work out.


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## zero_end (Feb 9, 2015)

Oh, and by the way, I feel for ya man. I think I've been screwed by a small luthier as well. Depending on how things unfold in the next couple of weeks, I'll be opening my own thread exposing yet another liar


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## asher (Feb 9, 2015)

zero_end said:


> Oh, and by the way, I feel for ya man. I think I've been screwed by a small luthier as well. Depending on how things unfold in the next couple of weeks, I'll be opening my own thread exposing yet another liar



Rutroh...


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## SilentCartographer (Feb 9, 2015)

damn influx of incompetance


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## Pilgrim of the Dark (Feb 9, 2015)

zero_end said:


> Oh, and by the way, I feel for ya man. I think I've been screwed by a small luthier as well. Depending on how things unfold in the next couple of weeks, I'll be opening my own thread exposing yet another liar



Sorry to hear... This whole experience has completely turned me off to the idea of ordering a custom instrument in the future. There are way too many variables just waiting to go wrong.


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## decreebass (Feb 9, 2015)

Pilgrim of the Dark said:


> Sorry to hear... This whole experience has completely turned me off to the idea of ordering a custom instrument in the future. There are way too many variables just waiting to go wrong.



Just get yoself a Kiesel and call it a day 

TREAT YOSELF!


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## Nour Ayasso (Feb 11, 2015)

Pilgrim of the Dark said:


> I'm not planning on getting a refund at all, or a new build. As I said in one of my earlier posts, that's not the point behind this thread. This thread is purely to get another detailed review of a customer experience with this terrible company out there and hopefully deter any potential future (unhappy) customers fro giving their hard-earned money to these clowns.



Ah ok I see. My bad, the thread kept going so I thought it was gonna lead to something...like revenge! Lol Anyway thanks for the thread, it definitely showed me a lot. Strictly Seven is permanently out the window. In fact, I think I'll stay away from most customs shops from now on.


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## Andromalia (Feb 11, 2015)

Hollowway said:


> Still, luthiers going belly up should be the exception, not the rule.



Internet actually has tow effects: 
-New guys can advertise
-_You can get online training and try your hand at it without any actual tutorship_

Likely resulting in more people attempting it overall. Some amateur guys in the build section certainly turn up good stuff.


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## Eclipse (Feb 12, 2015)

My condolences to you and your axe family.


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## /wrists (Apr 2, 2021)

This thread motivated me to register an account and also stay away from the brand - I'm familiar with the disappointing experience of guitar purchases as well. Thanks for sharing.


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