Official Daemoness Guitars Thread

[mehegama]

It just seems weird and pointless given the state of affairs.

Maybe a year or two ago it would have meant something.

fair enough. Let's agree on the evaluation of the situation. Let's disagree on the messaging. I do not find neither weird nor pointless him giving a closure. There are a few guitars almost done so maybe people get these at least.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

There are a few guitars almost done so maybe people get these at least.

I know you think guitars are *proofed* into existence by sheer force of will, but by all accounts there isn't a shop to do any of this in.

There's the concept of Daemoness as a business and there's the actual things things that make it such. Right now, Daemoness the guitar company, doesn't have a means to make guitars, it's little more than a dormant IG account.

 

[SpaceDock]

Based on everything that's transpired, if he said "it's happening" would it be believable? If the only reasonable answer is "it's not happening" wouldn't that be the drawn conclusion?

I mean, Bernie Rico Jr. never said that he was closing BRJ Guitars, but I have a feeling we're not going to see him make any guitars anymore.

When these builders go bust they don't send out a newsletter, they just sort of disappear into the ether.

We'll be closing in on a decade pretty soon. I think it's safe to say that it's done. Maybe he'll make guitars again someday, but it's not going to be anyone here's.

Wtf man? I have been counting on zombie Rico Jr finishing my build, I mean he told me two weeks last time we chatted!

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Wtf man? I have been counting on zombie Rico Jr finishing my build, I mean he told me two weeks last time we chatted!

 

[narad]

Zombie arm reaches out of the ground and pushes the dirt away from a partially decomposed skull...

"Sorry for the radio silence, we've had a few set backs but here's to 2023 being the best year for BRJ Guitars yet!"

 

[Blytheryn]

That s absolutely not the case. I just think people that gave him money need to know the situation. Why would anyone get any satisfaction out of a situation like this?

I mean you have no skin in the game yet you’re the one leading the witch hunt.😂

 

[prlgmnr]

man you got your refund didn't you, what more do you want?

 

[mehegama]

man you got your refund didn't you, what more do you want?

I think it is pretty clear that I would like some kind of closure so people with thousands invested at least get something, and as i admire his work would like to see him get his stuff together and maybe 10 years down the line he does this properly.
I don't understand where is the controversy on this. Especially if it is fairly easy to do this and costless (it s just a phone call), since there are people here that are in contact with him and contrary to the silly BRJ analogy, Dylan is not dead yet to my knowledge..

 

[Blytheryn]

I think it is pretty clear that I would like some kind of closure so people with thousands invested at least get something, and as i admire his work would like to see him get his stuff together and maybe 10 years down the line he does this properly.
I don't understand where is the controversy on this. Especially if it is fairly easy to do this and costless (it s just a phone call), since there are people here that are in contact with him and contrary to the silly BRJ analogy, Dylan is not dead yet to my knowledge..

Very noble of you.

 

[mehegama]

Very noble of you.

Sure. better than being a dick about it

 

[mehegama]

In other news, even the great scam and king of procrastinators Jari Maenpaa, stated that he stopped working with Dylan because he could not complete 2 endorsed guitars. If Jari of all people quit waiting for his guitars, it s the mother of all ironies in this saga

 

[Lorcan Ward]

In other news, even the great scam and king of procrastinators Jari Maenpaa, stated that he stopped working with Dylan because he could not complete 2 endorsed guitars. If Jari of all people quit waiting for his guitars, it s the mother of all ironies in this saga

I missed that. Was it a post or on the Wintersun podcast? When Jari stepped down from guitar it wouldn't have been that beneficial to have a Daemoness endorsement so I presumed that's what ended it.

Edit: Just saw it was a post on their Patreon. Dylan told me what the plan was but it revolved around the next 4 Wintersun albums....AFAIK he got two, maybe three of those builds?

 

[prlgmnr]

Dylan told me what the plan was but it revolved around the next 4 Wintersun albums

the unreleasable album meets the unbuildable guitar

 

[mehegama]

AFAIK he got two, maybe three of those builds?

I think he only got one, the green one. I have seen no other ones either in Dylan's or Jari's social media

 

[dmlinger]

What will happen first - new Necrophagist album, or next finished Daemoness guitar? I kid, I kid. Daemoness has a much higher likelihood, but the \m/ metal \m/ theme was too much to pass up on.

I can see how if you personally had money on the line that you'd want closure. "Hey man, you still planning on finishing the guitar that I gave you a $2,000 advance on 4 years ago, or should I write that off? No. OK well can you at least send me the lumber, hardware, and pickups? No. Hm. OK. Well what did you do with the $2,000?"

I don't have any skin in the game, so I shouldn't be so critical, but it's hard not to be. MF took how many people's deposits? And that adds up to how much money?

Unless you are an ESTABLISHED builder with hundreds of delivered guitars, all of these horror stories make a solid case that small time builders shouldn't charge anything up front. I get it that isn't realistic (read, I would never go that extreme), but at most, they should charge a very small deposit ($500 or so) to keep people from kicking tires and wasting the luthier's time.

As a builder, if you aren't financially established enough to front the money to buy materials, then you shouldn't be in business. Emphasis on business, because that's what this is when you're accepting thousands of dollars of others' money. Stop giving these guys so much up front, because you lose the leverage in collecting the instrument. It's called retainage. Make them complete the guitar so they can collect the money they are owed. Give them too much up front and they lose financial motivation to get off their ass.

 

[JimF]

I wonder if he counted those 2 or 3 Evertune retrofits he did? As a bit of a "well I did this work for free so that's us straight now"

 

[Samark]

I missed that. Was it a post or on the Wintersun podcast? When Jari stepped down from guitar it wouldn't have been that beneficial to have a Daemoness endorsement so I presumed that's what ended it.

Edit: Just saw it was a post on their Patreon. Dylan told me what the plan was but it revolved around the next 4 Wintersun albums....AFAIK he got two, maybe three of those builds?

I always thought this was Jari’s in the background. Monster quilt on this

 

[Flappydoodle]

What will happen first - new Necrophagist album, or next finished Daemoness guitar? I kid, I kid. Daemoness has a much higher likelihood, but the \m/ metal \m/ theme was too much to pass up on.

I can see how if you personally had money on the line that you'd want closure. "Hey man, you still planning on finishing the guitar that I gave you a $2,000 advance on 4 years ago, or should I write that off? No. OK well can you at least send me the lumber, hardware, and pickups? No. Hm. OK. Well what did you do with the $2,000?"

I don't have any skin in the game, so I shouldn't be so critical, but it's hard not to be. MF took how many people's deposits? And that adds up to how much money?

Unless you are an ESTABLISHED builder with hundreds of delivered guitars, all of these horror stories make a solid case that small time builders shouldn't charge anything up front. I get it that isn't realistic (read, I would never go that extreme), but at most, they should charge a very small deposit ($500 or so) to keep people from kicking tires and wasting the luthier's time.

As a builder, if you aren't financially established enough to front the money to buy materials, then you shouldn't be in business. Emphasis on business, because that's what this is when you're accepting thousands of dollars of others' money. Stop giving these guys so much up front, because you lose the leverage in collecting the instrument. It's called retainage. Make them complete the guitar so they can collect the money they are owed. Give them too much up front and they lose financial motivation to get off their ass.

Well I think it's quite obvious that he was living off deposit money. And you're right - that backs you into a corner where you need more deposits to keep surviving, even if you're not delivering products. And it's easier to collect a new deposit than it is to finish a guitar and get the other half of the money. That's probably how you get a 6 year waiting list.

I also think his method of working was simply inefficient and badly managed. Again, look at Chris from Carillion who is a guy by himself, also in Brexit, pandemic, inflation etc - and seems to do fine. He puts out a healthy mix of custom guitars and "stock" batches which I assume are much faster to build. Batch of 10 stock builds, selling for £3-5K each. That's a chunk of money to pay your studio rent for the next year and make sure you survive.

 

[mmr007]

Honestly when I made that joke about Jari and Dylan I had no idea that it was actually true that one procrastinator was waiting on another procrastinator. I thought I was clever....back to the realization I am just clueless

 

[Heroooh]

This. I ordered a custom from fucking Gibson and they couldn't get it right. Every custom order I've ever made started out with yeah sure we can build that. Then after I'm paid and committed comes the compromises. Well, we can't do this part this way or that part that way. Well we  can do it this way but it will cost extra. The only custom shop guitars I owned that I was ever happy with and didn't regret buying were ones I bought used. A custom shop 1969 Stratocaster and a custom shop ESP KH4. Every other custom order from builders big and small has been full of compromises, mistakes, too much money, and disappointment.

How was the Gibno experience, what went wrong?