[madformac]

Hi Brandon, sorry its taken a while to reply. I don't post or come here anymore so its thanks to Suzy and her email that alerted me to this.

I don't want to sound negative at all and I'm sure it will be sorted out. From a luthiery point of view Rick builds very revolutionary instruments using top grade parts. From a business point of view its very unprofessional. I have owned 3 Model 1's in the past 4 years.

The first one came with a split where the body and neck joint is, I'm sure this was due to either expansion/contraction of the maple or mahogany in transit to the UK (It was sat in a cold UPS warehouse over Xmas 2003) or it was due to a knock in shipping. Ricks response was "most of them do this". Which wasn't what I was looking for as an answer when I handed him $5200 up front. Then he changed his argument to it being done by me which was not the case at all. Then I noticed the pickup was microphonic at higher gain levels too. His response was to tell me to turn the trim pot settings down inside the guitar, I did this but it changed nothing. A microphonic pickup is usually caused by air pockets in the coils. Rick dips his in epoxy which is not the best method from all accounts (I've studied this area when I was thinking of legal action). Eventually Rick agreed to send out a new pickup through his UK distributor, Ian Morton, who is a great guy and very professional and accomodating. It took a YEAR to arrive from first contact over the problem.

So the pickup was changed and the problem still occured. Again I had it expertly looked at and it was another faulty pickup. This combined with the split neck really made me pissed so I voiced my dissatisfaction and Ian offered a replacement.

He sent me the replacement up and the finishing was really bad. The "faux" soundhole was poorly cut and the guitar was delaminating at the headstock so I kept the original one.

Ian agreed to replace it again and eventually a new one arrived in February 2007. This one worked perfectly and was much better made but I really had enough of the hassle by this point. It had different control knobs to the ones i requested as well. Ian contacted Rick and the 4 replacement knobs were dispatched. When they arrived only 3 worked and one had the thread stripped and was unusable. I think that was the point I finally gave up. I fitted some really nice ebony knobs to match the ebony tuners and if anybody wants a bargain its for sale at £1995, never gigged. UK list price is £3095. Go to soundsgreatmusic.com to check it out in the secondhand section...

I can't really play that Model 1 for two reasons. Firstly I'm really a Strat player at heart and the neck is too "Gibson" for my liking. Secondly the guitar reminds me of the whole caper and I really don't want to think about the fact it took 4 YEARS to sort it out and even then Rick and Barry couldn't get it right.

I've heard many stories of Rick being friendly and great when you order. But if there is a problem he goes silent. One guy on Ricks forum waited over 2 years to get a split neck repaired (I recall the forum closed after a few customers voiced their concerns over his service). I remember advising you not to send it back last year unless you really couldn't live with the issues (the tuners and the neck size if I recall?) because Rick takes a long time, and I mean years, to sort it out and I'm really sorry this has happened to you Brandon.

PM or email Seteca for advice. He nearly came to legal blows with Rick over his Model 1 over something Rick promised and wouldn't deliver on and as I recall he contacted the BBB too but its not for me to post it here.. He may even still have Rick's private email, home and cellphone numbers at hand.

Good luck Brandon. Remember Rick is in his mid 60's now. He devotes a lot of time to his D-TAR brand and I get the feeling he is a luthier and really doesn't like having to deal with the business side of things.

You may have to issue a few legal letters in his direction but you will get his attention, its just unfortunate this is the only way you will.

My very best of luck in resolving this.

Justin.