Crimson guitars; I'm starting to give up

[Wyliee]

Welcome to the boards Ben.

Points for stepping up and posting.  I hope you and Orpheo can work together for a positive resolution.  Your blogs have been very interesting to read.

Reminds me of the old music joke, "How do you make a million dollars in the music business??  Start with 2 million!"

 

[stubhead]

When I was chef'ing in the restaurant business I actually started feeling sorry for the people who came into it because they were really great cooks, all their friends told them that they would eat there, they'd eaten restaurant food that they could do better, it had always been a dream... etc. Then they found out about bad suppliers, chiseling contractors, incoherent (and CONTRADICTORY) regulations (that you have to OBEY anyway), na na na.... and particularly here in America, they've found lately that chains like the Olive Garden, Chili's, the Hiltons and Hyatts can get their food and supplies 15 to 20 percent cheaper because they've made deals with suppliers specifically to drive out the small guys. Kinda sounds like the learning process of somebody who can make really great guitars, and then....

There used to be only two business models, the one where you die destitute like Doug Irwin, Rex Bogue, Stephen Cripe, or the one where you become a factory owner with diamond pinkie ring and a big cigar like Paul Reed Smith and Bob Taylor. Lately it seems to have opened up a good bit, I hope so because I have a few friends who are just gearing up now in the middle of a depression. Having a few guitar shops act as agents who can take on some of the website & marketing load seems to be a popular option. The main reason I blew up my old catering company* in 1994 was the discovery that no matter what I did, I still had to do at least 30 hours of paperwork a week or the IRS was gonna getcha. On top of the hundred hours a week you had to work to compete against the guys who only worked 90 hours a week... I still get disgusted by politicians on the right and left spewing "support" for "the small business owner" when the biggest difficulty in selling anything at all is caused by actual thousands of regulations that don't protect a damn thing except the bureaucrat's jobs. Gee this came out comix.... but good luck, sir!

*(figuratively? sure, figuratively....) :evil4:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jacksonsteelguitar?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/F-irC-i1Mgo

 

[Orpheo]

I understand the predicament Ben Crowe/Crimson Guitar's having, and I respect the choices that has been made. But communication, proper projections and apologize even before the customer complains, will solve many annoyances.

Just as a little side note. Two weeks ago I got a mail 'the inlay will be done in the next week or two'. the inlay themselves are done, and look lovely (like churchwindows, as some guy pointed out nicely) but they're not inlayed yet...

 

[crimson guitars]

You are right, and I'm going to do my best to ensure this sort of thing never happens again.. I'm happy with the look of the inlays now and will be moving on with making the fretboards, tomorrow.. no matter how important it may be if I stare at one project for too long it will go wrong, hence a bit of timber buying and machining this last week. 

As to the state of the business, yes it is difficult, especially in this economic climate but I'm lucky that I do have a long list of instruments on order and despite evidence to the contrary with Orpheo I have built up a fairly good reputation in general.  I will not be going out of business any time soon, though I really really want to employ someone else to take over the day to day management.. if I spent the time I'm on the phone or computer in the workshop I'd have a six week turnaround on custom orders with six months!!  But what can you do?  This is life as a small business owner and if you want to make guitars for a living there's no other option available to you..

 

[Orpheo]

as I said before, if you go out of business that would be a super-crying shame, cause your guitars are top notch, on the same level (imho) with warmoth and huber. the inlay look very nice indeed. happy to see them on the fretboard. looks very cool! exactly as we envisioned them, right?

 

[crimson guitars]

I'm happy so far.. I'm going to have to make the last few slightly narrower than they are now because of the extra width of the silver and the huge frets but that's not a peroblem.. these will be stunning in the end.. and I'm past the scary bits, installing the inlays is easy enough, though very time consuming, it was the silver-work and regular shapes that had me worried.. abstract work is so much easier!! oh well, they will go in over the next couple of days.. keep well all!

 

[Firebird211]

I am liking those inlays a lot Ben.  That is a helluva lot of work to do by yourself.  With all of the crap you have been through, you deserve some honest people in your life to help you out, instead of screw you over.

 

[MR Smith]

Hello,
I received my Crimsonguitar  around August 2010 . Well it wasn't very nice. The custom bridge was not very well designed,
The whole guitar was a disaster except for the inlay which is exactly what I wanted. The rest could be used for firewood. If your
interested check out this website http://www.crimsonguitarsreviews.com.

 

[JimBeed]

This isn't the place for your insesant bad mouthing of someone who obviously has gone through alot lately and has to make a living at the same time, so back off, the stuff on his website looks first class, and everyone makes mistakes from time to time.
Plus, can you do half of the stuff he does yourself? No i hear you say? then SHUT IT.

 

[Wyliee]

OK, folks.  This thread is getting locked.

If Orpheo or Ben want to PM me with updates, I'll post them to the thread for the benefit of others.

MR Smith, I hope you did not come here solely for Ben.  I hope you stick around and become a productive member of the forum.