Buyers Beware/Scam: Rick Link/Beardly Customs

[Brian Crosby]

To anyone looking for a custom bass made by Rick Link of Beardly Customs, let me share my overwhelming negative experience to save a lot of headaches. I contacted Rick in October 2023 to have a multi-scale 5 string bass built for me. He said he was able to accommodate everything I asked for in a custom instrument. The build process was extremely stressful, with the neck having to be replaced, many nuts made because they were not cut correctly (despite me giving him measurements and what I was looking for). He also broke the preamp that I sent out to have put in the bass, and denied any accountability for it. I drove and wasted 16 hours from Upstate NY to southern PA and back to pick my bass up once it was “done”, to notice that the neck was severely bowed on one side and straight on the other, and the fret slots not even close to being cut properly. Rick later offered to replace the fretboard and fix the neck, which I agreed would be the right thing to do in this situation. Upon receiving the bass back with a partial refund to remedy issues with the abhorrent fretwork, I noticed the neck was STILL bowed on the bass side despite having 2 truss rods installed (incorrectly, as well; photos attached of the angle of the rods). Additionally, a tuner is very loose and can’t be tightened, and the bass was covered in dings and scratches when I received it. There is a visible gap between the nut and fretboard due to the nut slot being cut incorrectly. There is a huge crack in the wood from behind the nut up to the first 4 frets which was never disclosed to me until I brought it up to Rick. There are multiple frets with many tooling marks, dings, dents, and one with a chunk of steel taken out of it, as shown in the photos. The fret edges are razor sharp and protrude from the edge of the fretboard. I brought the bass to a reputable luthier, and the bass is unable to have any fret leveling done because the neck will not straighten due to the bass side truss rod being completely maxed out. Essentially, a paperweight. I’ve attacked photos of the damage and complete lack of quality. There are also tech notes from when I brought it to be serviced, stating that the work cannot be done. I am livid with the amount of money I spent for the complete lack of care that went into my bass. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this “luthier” if you’re looking for anything more than pretty firewood.

It has been more than 3 weeks since I sent him a message saying I want a refund, without any reply or even a glance at my messages.

Rick - you are destroying your reputation and are rubbing a lot of people the wrong way in a tightly-knit community of bass guitar builders. If you could just refund me my money, it would be appreciated.

 

[Mastodon2]

I saw this on Facebook the other week. Man that is some shoddy work. I hope @BeardlyCustoms will put this right - that horror show should never have been allowed to leave the shop.

 

[RVRSCO]

I would post this on Facebook and tag Beardly Customs and the builder. Time to put it out there publicly where they will see it. Include the photo evidence as well.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

A sadly common story on TB, and the primary reason I'll probably never build a bass for someone else on a commission basis. I don't know how long Beardley has been around, but a lot of builders seem to fall into this death spiral in the act of trying to upsize from small output to actually making a profit building. They get in over their heads, have some kind of personal or financial disaster, etc., and then just try to crank something out the door to get back onto more profitable projects, as the one they screwed up becomes a black hole of time and lost money. Based on the photos, it seems like a real mess, if the neck can't be adjusted flat enough to level the frets, it's toast. There a re few TB threads, some a decade old, with similar stories, some resolved, some not, but all seem like long-term hassles for the buyer. Sorry you are going through this. Factor in the stress and mental health issues on your part in deciding how far this is worth pursuing if the guy just ghosts you.

 

[Beej]

@Brian Crosby sorry this build has had this impact on you, as you're obviously pretty steamed. Since you've posted this in the Luthier's Corner, I'm guessing you'd like some commentary from builders as well? You should know that Rick has posted builds here before, though has not for some time. Although he's part of this community, I doubt there are any shills here. That said, he's also built dozens of basses for dozens of happy customers, so it's unlikely that you've uncovered some massive widespread fraud here. From reading your post and seeing the pics you've added here (I could not find it on Facebook), it looks like the fit and finish details, fretwork and nut fitment in particular were not satisfactory for you. I've summed the list in your post:

1. Neck needed replacement
2. Many nuts were made incorrectly and the final nut is not satisfactory
3. Preamp was 'broken' with no accountability
4. Neck is severely bowed on one side, straight on other
5. Fret slots 'not even close' to proper cut
6. Incorrect truss rod installation (angles?)
7. Loose tuner (can't be tightened)
8. Visible gap in nut slot
9. Fretboard crack
10. Dings and scratches over bass
11. Frets have tooling marks, dings, dents and chips
12. Fret edges are sharp
13. Fret sprout
14. Frets can't be leveled due to bow on bass side
15. Truss rod 'maxed out'

Attempted to be remedied by:

1. Offer to replace fretboard & fix neck
2. Partial refund

On it's face right now, it reads more like you are very angry and so are inflating the issues you experienced. I'm not criticizing this, I'd probably do exactly the same! I'd like to learn a bit more if you're willing to share some more information about:

1. Neck replacement - was it replaced with the neck we now see that has the fretwork issues and fretboard crack? Or is that the original neck now replaced?
2. Many nuts made - that happens all the time in builds, were you aware of them all? Or was this something you went back and forth around? I'm trying to understand how there could be many dissatisfactory nuts made when you are 16 hours away?
3. Preamp broken - what happened? Was it tested and working before it was shipped to rick?
4. Neck bow - can you show this in pics? Are you referring to forward bow or side curvature?
5. Fret slots not even close - can you show examples of what you mean here? Frets not even close would be visually obvious and not playable at all, is this the case?
6. Incorrect TR install - can you go into more detail? I didn't see a pic showing the TRs.
7. Loose tuner - what makes it so it can't be tightened? Is the headstock too thin in this area so that the capstan nut can't be tightened? Can you share a pic?
8. Visible gap in nut - that is annoying, but is it also poorly located and affecting intonation?
9. Fretboard crack - this looks identical to a fretboard crack that is generated by overtightening a truss rod. Is this the first or second neck?
10. Dings - bummer. this is why I steam all instruments before starting the finish process.
11. Truss Rod 'maxed out' - maxing out is a phenomenon that mostly occurs with single acting rods like in fenders. Modern double acting double rods can't really 'max out', instead if you go too far, they just break. If it's not broken, it's probably still working, but could have other issues.

Can you share more pics? I think if you can show these issues, it will be clearer that they are actual issues and not a result of you being a hard-to-please customer. Again, I'm not accusing you of that, but those of us who build all have war stories about folks that were difficult or impossible to please, or had unreasonable expectations. Right now from the post, it isn't super obvious who's in the wrong, especially if you got a partial refund and he attempted to rectify the concerns.

I also want to be clear that you absolutely deserve to be satisfied and experience value for your money. I'm not just defending him and minimizing your concerns!

 

[Lenny JG]

Ive been following them for a while on IG and considering a build, curious to see if beardly responds, it says they were on the forum about 3 hrs ago last, meaning that they may have seen this post by now.

 

[Eidolon0274]

The production basses coming out of Indonesia are built better than this. That's not even fair to Indonesia.

 

[Brian Crosby]

1) The current neck was installed prior to me picking up the bass. During the build process the original neck needed to be replaced. However, this is the second fretboard that the bass has seen since I picked it up. When I first saw the bass, the board had uneven fretwork and incorrectly spaced frets around 13-15 with sub-par fretwork (See photo attached for fret spacing) The board was replaced with the one that is shown in the original photos, the one with the scratched frets and crack in it. 2) Rick sent me pictures of every nut that he made, and all of them were spaced unevenly. The inconsistency in the space on the sides of the strings were quite noticeable on each one and it was very stressful to see “ok, nut is done” in my messages and it not be done. 3) A surface mount capacitor broke off a filter board. Everything was working just fine (with the cap installed) before shipping out to Rick. When I got it back, there was no cap to be found and I had to get a preamp board replaced. 4) Yes, I will upload pictures of the bass and treble sides. 5) I was referring to the first fretboard here, which I’ve uploaded a picture of here in the reply. 6) I only have the notes and info from the luthier that examined the bass. Due to the bass side rod being unable to tighten any more with a visible forward-bow, he believes something went wrong with the install of the rod. They look to be installed at an angle or something, because the truss rod nuts are not parallel in the cavity. One is even digging into the side of the wood. I’ve attached images of the rods. 7) One of the tuning heads is loose/wiggles, and will not tighten. 8) the nut should be flush against the fretboard. 9) This is my guess as well. This is the replacement fretboard. 11) it absolutely will not tighten at all without damaging the bass further. It won’t go any further.

I apologize for the less-than par photos of the neck bow. It was hard to get my phone to focus.

 

[stevensivak]

This is atrocious!
These stories are bad for the entire custom build world. Lots of horror stories and for many of us, a major deterrent to going this route.
I would be surprised if your credit card company comes to your rescue...I was in a similar position many years ago when I
had an old Moto Guzzi rebuilt..... For me, I need to stay with larger shops... and ideally ones that are within a reasonable driving distance.

 

[Funky-Wunky]

They should build you a new bass.

 

[DuluthDank]

This is atrocious!
These stories are bad for the entire custom build world. Lots of horror stories and for many of us, a major deterrent to going this route.
I would be surprised if your credit card company comes to your rescue...I was in a similar position many years ago when I
had an old Moto Guzzi rebuilt..... For me, I need to stay with larger shops... and ideally ones that are within a reasonable driving distance.

This, and also that I'd probably change my mind on what my "perfect" bass is before the build even started, and the massive loss of value when trying to resell. It works for some people clearly, but for me it would just be too stressful. To me, the perfect instrument is something I stumble into, not something I can plan.

 

[Brian Crosby]

@Brian Crosby sorry this build has had this impact on you, as you're obviously pretty steamed. Since you've posted this in the Luthier's Corner, I'm guessing you'd like some commentary from builders as well? You should know that Rick has posted builds here before, though has not for some time. Although he's part of this community, I doubt there are any shills here. That said, he's also built dozens of basses for dozens of happy customers, so it's unlikely that you've uncovered some massive widespread fraud here. From reading your post and seeing the pics you've added here (I could not find it on Facebook), it looks like the fit and finish details, fretwork and nut fitment in particular were not satisfactory for you. I've summed the list in your post:

1. Neck needed replacement
2. Many nuts were made incorrectly and the final nut is not satisfactory
3. Preamp was 'broken' with no accountability
4. Neck is severely bowed on one side, straight on other
5. Fret slots 'not even close' to proper cut
6. Incorrect truss rod installation (angles?)
7. Loose tuner (can't be tightened)
8. Visible gap in nut slot
9. Fretboard crack
10. Dings and scratches over bass
11. Frets have tooling marks, dings, dents and chips
12. Fret edges are sharp
13. Fret sprout
14. Frets can't be leveled due to bow on bass side
15. Truss rod 'maxed out'

Attempted to be remedied by:

1. Offer to replace fretboard & fix neck
2. Partial refund

On it's face right now, it reads more like you are very angry and so are inflating the issues you experienced. I'm not criticizing this, I'd probably do exactly the same! I'd like to learn a bit more if you're willing to share some more information about:

1. Neck replacement - was it replaced with the neck we now see that has the fretwork issues and fretboard crack? Or is that the original neck now replaced?
2. Many nuts made - that happens all the time in builds, were you aware of them all? Or was this something you went back and forth around? I'm trying to understand how there could be many dissatisfactory nuts made when you are 16 hours away?
3. Preamp broken - what happened? Was it tested and working before it was shipped to rick?
4. Neck bow - can you show this in pics? Are you referring to forward bow or side curvature?
5. Fret slots not even close - can you show examples of what you mean here? Frets not even close would be visually obvious and not playable at all, is this the case?
6. Incorrect TR install - can you go into more detail? I didn't see a pic showing the TRs.
7. Loose tuner - what makes it so it can't be tightened? Is the headstock too thin in this area so that the capstan nut can't be tightened? Can you share a pic?
8. Visible gap in nut - that is annoying, but is it also poorly located and affecting intonation?
9. Fretboard crack - this looks identical to a fretboard crack that is generated by overtightening a truss rod. Is this the first or second neck?
10. Dings - bummer. this is why I steam all instruments before starting the finish process.
11. Truss Rod 'maxed out' - maxing out is a phenomenon that mostly occurs with single acting rods like in fenders. Modern double acting double rods can't really 'max out', instead if you go too far, they just break. If it's not broken, it's probably still working, but could have other issues.

Can you share more pics? I think if you can show these issues, it will be clearer that they are actual issues and not a result of you being a hard-to-please customer. Again, I'm not accusing you of that, but those of us who build all have war stories about folks that were difficult or impossible to please, or had unreasonable expectations. Right now from the post, it isn't super obvious who's in the wrong, especially if you got a partial refund and he attempted to rectify the concerns.

I also want to be clear that you absolutely deserve to be satisfied and experience value for your money. I'm not just defending him and minimizing your concerns!

@Brian Crosby sorry this build has had this impact on you, as you're obviously pretty steamed. Since you've posted this in the Luthier's Corner, I'm guessing you'd like some commentary from builders as well? You should know that Rick has posted builds here before, though has not for some time. Although he's part of this community, I doubt there are any shills here. That said, he's also built dozens of basses for dozens of happy customers, so it's unlikely that you've uncovered some massive widespread fraud here. From reading your post and seeing the pics you've added here (I could not find it on Facebook), it looks like the fit and finish details, fretwork and nut fitment in particular were not satisfactory for you. I've summed the list in your post:

1. Neck needed replacement
2. Many nuts were made incorrectly and the final nut is not satisfactory
3. Preamp was 'broken' with no accountability
4. Neck is severely bowed on one side, straight on other
5. Fret slots 'not even close' to proper cut
6. Incorrect truss rod installation (angles?)
7. Loose tuner (can't be tightened)
8. Visible gap in nut slot
9. Fretboard crack
10. Dings and scratches over bass
11. Frets have tooling marks, dings, dents and chips
12. Fret edges are sharp
13. Fret sprout
14. Frets can't be leveled due to bow on bass side
15. Truss rod 'maxed out'

Attempted to be remedied by:

1. Offer to replace fretboard & fix neck
2. Partial refund

On it's face right now, it reads more like you are very angry and so are inflating the issues you experienced. I'm not criticizing this, I'd probably do exactly the same! I'd like to learn a bit more if you're willing to share some more information about:

1. Neck replacement - was it replaced with the neck we now see that has the fretwork issues and fretboard crack? Or is that the original neck now replaced?
2. Many nuts made - that happens all the time in builds, were you aware of them all? Or was this something you went back and forth around? I'm trying to understand how there could be many dissatisfactory nuts made when you are 16 hours away?
3. Preamp broken - what happened? Was it tested and working before it was shipped to rick?
4. Neck bow - can you show this in pics? Are you referring to forward bow or side curvature?
5. Fret slots not even close - can you show examples of what you mean here? Frets not even close would be visually obvious and not playable at all, is this the case?
6. Incorrect TR install - can you go into more detail? I didn't see a pic showing the TRs.
7. Loose tuner - what makes it so it can't be tightened? Is the headstock too thin in this area so that the capstan nut can't be tightened? Can you share a pic?
8. Visible gap in nut - that is annoying, but is it also poorly located and affecting intonation?
9. Fretboard crack - this looks identical to a fretboard crack that is generated by overtightening a truss rod. Is this the first or second neck?
10. Dings - bummer. this is why I steam all instruments before starting the finish process.
11. Truss Rod 'maxed out' - maxing out is a phenomenon that mostly occurs with single acting rods like in fenders. Modern double acting double rods can't really 'max out', instead if you go too far, they just break. If it's not broken, it's probably still working, but could have other issues.

Can you share more pics? I think if you can show these issues, it will be clearer that they are actual issues and not a result of you being a hard-to-please customer. Again, I'm not accusing you of that, but those of us who build all have war stories about folks that were difficult or impossible to please, or had unreasonable expectations. Right now from the post, it isn't super obvious who's in the wrong, especially if you got a partial refund and he attempted to rectify the concerns.

I also want to be clear that you absolutely deserve to be satisfied and experience value for your money. I'm not just defending him and minimizing your concerns!

1) The current neck was installed prior to me picking up the bass. During the build process the original neck needed to be replaced. However, this is the second fretboard that the bass has seen since I picked it up. When I first saw the bass, the board had uneven fretwork and incorrectly spaced frets around 13-15 with sub-par fretwork (See photo attached for fret spacing) The board was replaced with the one that is shown in the original photos, the one with the scratched frets and crack in it. 2) Rick sent me pictures of every nut that he made, and all of them were spaced unevenly. The inconsistency in the space on the sides of the strings were quite noticeable on each one and it was very stressful to see “ok, nut is done” in my messages and it not be done. 3) A surface mount capacitor broke off a filter board. Everything was working just fine (with the cap installed) before shipping out to Rick. When I got it back, there was no cap to be found and I had to get a preamp board replaced. 4) Yes, I will upload pictures of the bass and treble sides. 5) I was referring to the first fretboard here, which I’ve uploaded a picture of here in the reply. 6) I only have the notes and info from the luthier that examined the bass. Due to the bass side rod being unable to tighten any more with a visible forward-bow, he believes something went wrong with the install of the rod. They look to be installed at an angle or something, because the truss rod nuts are not parallel in the cavity. One is even digging into the side of the wood. I’ve attached images of the rods. 7) One of the tuning heads is loose/wiggles, and will not tighten. 8) the nut should be flush against the fretboard. 9) This is my guess as well. This is the replacement fretboard. 11) it absolutely will not tighten at all without damaging the bass further. It won’t go any further.

I apologize for the less-than par photos of the neck bow. It was hard to get my phone to focus.

@Brian Crosby sorry this build has had this impact on you, as you're obviously pretty steamed. Since you've posted this in the Luthier's Corner, I'm guessing you'd like some commentary from builders as well? You should know that Rick has posted builds here before, though has not for some time. Although he's part of this community, I doubt there are any shills here. That said, he's also built dozens of basses for dozens of happy customers, so it's unlikely that you've uncovered some massive widespread fraud here. From reading your post and seeing the pics you've added here (I could not find it on Facebook), it looks like the fit and finish details, fretwork and nut fitment in particular were not satisfactory for you. I've summed the list in your post:

1. Neck needed replacement
2. Many nuts were made incorrectly and the final nut is not satisfactory
3. Preamp was 'broken' with no accountability
4. Neck is severely bowed on one side, straight on other
5. Fret slots 'not even close' to proper cut
6. Incorrect truss rod installation (angles?)
7. Loose tuner (can't be tightened)
8. Visible gap in nut slot
9. Fretboard crack
10. Dings and scratches over bass
11. Frets have tooling marks, dings, dents and chips
12. Fret edges are sharp
13. Fret sprout
14. Frets can't be leveled due to bow on bass side
15. Truss rod 'maxed out'

Attempted to be remedied by:

1. Offer to replace fretboard & fix neck
2. Partial refund

On it's face right now, it reads more like you are very angry and so are inflating the issues you experienced. I'm not criticizing this, I'd probably do exactly the same! I'd like to learn a bit more if you're willing to share some more information about:

1. Neck replacement - was it replaced with the neck we now see that has the fretwork issues and fretboard crack? Or is that the original neck now replaced?
2. Many nuts made - that happens all the time in builds, were you aware of them all? Or was this something you went back and forth around? I'm trying to understand how there could be many dissatisfactory nuts made when you are 16 hours away?
3. Preamp broken - what happened? Was it tested and working before it was shipped to rick?
4. Neck bow - can you show this in pics? Are you referring to forward bow or side curvature?
5. Fret slots not even close - can you show examples of what you mean here? Frets not even close would be visually obvious and not playable at all, is this the case?
6. Incorrect TR install - can you go into more detail? I didn't see a pic showing the TRs.
7. Loose tuner - what makes it so it can't be tightened? Is the headstock too thin in this area so that the capstan nut can't be tightened? Can you share a pic?
8. Visible gap in nut - that is annoying, but is it also poorly located and affecting intonation?
9. Fretboard crack - this looks identical to a fretboard crack that is generated by overtightening a truss rod. Is this the first or second neck?
10. Dings - bummer. this is why I steam all instruments before starting the finish process.
11. Truss Rod 'maxed out' - maxing out is a phenomenon that mostly occurs with single acting rods like in fenders. Modern double acting double rods can't really 'max out', instead if you go too far, they just break. If it's not broken, it's probably still working, but could have other issues.

Can you share more pics? I think if you can show these issues, it will be clearer that they are actual issues and not a result of you being a hard-to-please customer. Again, I'm not accusing you of that, but those of us who build all have war stories about folks that were difficult or impossible to please, or had unreasonable expectations. Right now from the post, it isn't super obvious who's in the wrong, especially if you got a partial refund and he attempted to rectify the concerns.

I also want to be clear that you absolutely deserve to be satisfied and experience value for your money. I'm not just defending him and minimizing your concerns!

1) The current neck was installed prior to me picking up the bass. During the build process the original neck needed to be replaced. However, this is the second fretboard that the bass has seen since I picked it up. When I first saw the bass, the board had uneven fretwork and incorrectly spaced frets around 13-15 with sub-par fretwork (See photo attached for fret spacing) The board was replaced with the one that is shown in the original photos, the one with the scratched frets and crack in it. 2) Rick sent me pictures of every nut that he made, and all of them were spaced unevenly. The inconsistency in the space on the sides of the strings were quite noticeable on each one and it was very stressful to see “ok, nut is done” in my messages and it not be done. 3) A surface mount capacitor broke off a filter board. Everything was working just fine (with the cap installed) before shipping out to Rick. When I got it back, there was no cap to be found and I had to get a preamp board replaced. 4) Yes, I will upload pictures of the bass and treble sides. 5) I was referring to the first fretboard here, which I’ve uploaded a picture of here in the reply. 6) I only have the notes and info from the luthier that examined the bass. Due to the bass side rod being unable to tighten any more with a visible forward-bow, he believes something went wrong with the install of the rod. They look to be installed at an angle or something, because the truss rod nuts are not parallel in the cavity. One is even digging into the side of the wood. I’ve attached images of the rods. 7) One of the tuning heads is loose/wiggles, and will not tighten. 8) the nut should be flush against the fretboard. 9) This is my guess as well. This is the replacement fretboard. 11) it absolutely will not tighten at all without damaging the bass further. It won’t go any further.

I apologize for the less-than par photos of the neck bow. It was hard to get my phone to focus.

They should build you a new bass.

With the amount of issues I’ve had with this builder, I just want my money back at this point.

 

[Beej]

Thanks for your comments and pics! Quite a bit clearer now The only thing that is still a niggle for me is the referencing to adjusting the truss rods separately as though there's an expectation that you can generate different relief on the sides of the board. In my own experience and understanding, dual truss rods are generally adjusted together to set the relief, with the dual rods being capable of exerting more pressure than a single rod. Their purpose isn't necessarily intended to provide separate adjustability - I wonder if the luthier you took it to was expecting each rod to be acting independently of one another? Especially in the case of a neck like this, I'd be holding the neck into position and then tightening the rod to hold it, I would not try to move the neck with the rod itself.

Those things said, the relief we see in the pics could be the result of something entirely differently anyway, so it's not necessarily a due to an incorrectly mounted, functioning or operated TR.

Thanks again for sharing - I hope you get a satisfactory resolution!

 

[dbsfgyd1]

To anyone looking for a custom bass made by Rick Link of Beardly Customs, let me share my overwhelming negative experience to save a lot of headaches. I contacted Rick in October 2023 to have a multi-scale 5 string bass built for me. He said he was able to accommodate everything I asked for in a custom instrument. The build process was extremely stressful, with the neck having to be replaced, many nuts made because they were not cut correctly (despite me giving him measurements and what I was looking for). He also broke the preamp that I sent out to have put in the bass, and denied any accountability for it. I drove and wasted 16 hours from Upstate NY to southern PA and back to pick my bass up once it was “done”, to notice that the neck was severely bowed on one side and straight on the other, and the fret slots not even close to being cut properly. Rick later offered to replace the fretboard and fix the neck, which I agreed would be the right thing to do in this situation. Upon receiving the bass back with a partial refund to remedy issues with the abhorrent fretwork, I noticed the neck was STILL bowed on the bass side despite having 2 truss rods installed (incorrectly, as well; photos attached of the angle of the rods). Additionally, a tuner is very loose and can’t be tightened, and the bass was covered in dings and scratches when I received it. There is a visible gap between the nut and fretboard due to the nut slot being cut incorrectly. There is a huge crack in the wood from behind the nut up to the first 4 frets which was never disclosed to me until I brought it up to Rick. There are multiple frets with many tooling marks, dings, dents, and one with a chunk of steel taken out of it, as shown in the photos. The fret edges are razor sharp and protrude from the edge of the fretboard. I brought the bass to a reputable luthier, and the bass is unable to have any fret leveling done because the neck will not straighten due to the bass side truss rod being completely maxed out. Essentially, a paperweight. I’ve attacked photos of the damage and complete lack of quality. There are also tech notes from when I brought it to be serviced, stating that the work cannot be done. I am livid with the amount of money I spent for the complete lack of care that went into my bass. Do yourself a favor and stay far away from this “luthier” if you’re looking for anything more than pretty firewood.

It has been more than 3 weeks since I sent him a message saying I want a refund, without any reply or even a glance at my messages.

Rick - you are destroying your reputation and are rubbing a lot of people the wrong way in a tightly-knit community of bass guitar builders. If you could just refund me my money, it would be appreciated.

Yikes!!

 

[TK4261]

That should be a full refund IMO....Looks like a kid made it in wood shop....

 

[Brian Crosby]

Thanks for your comments and pics! Quite a bit clearer now The only thing that is still a niggle for me is the referencing to adjusting the truss rods separately as though there's an expectation that you can generate different relief on the sides of the board. In my own experience and understanding, dual truss rods are generally adjusted together to set the relief, with the dual rods being capable of exerting more pressure than a single rod. Their purpose isn't necessarily intended to provide separate adjustability - I wonder if the luthier you took it to was expecting each rod to be acting independently of one another? Especially in the case of a neck like this, I'd be holding the neck into position and then tightening the rod to hold it, I would not try to move the neck with the rod itself.

Those things said, the relief we see in the pics could be the result of something entirely differently anyway, so it's not necessarily a due to an incorrectly mounted, functioning or operated TR.

Thanks again for sharing - I hope you get a satisfactory resolution!

I understand that dual rods are meant to be turned together. However the bass side rod will not turn tighter any farther in general, preventing a proper setup. So I cannot set the relief to where it should be with the neck the way it is.

 

[Slidlow]

Something looks hugely off at the truss rod area? Is that large empty space where a cover goes? And what is with the gouges in what seems to be the headstock overlay? The strings should not be that low to the headstock. My opinion is there are serious design issues irrespective of any glaring quality problems. Maybe a few overall pictures to get a better idea of how this is put together.

Okay I need to update with more questions. Looking at the pictures I am left to wonder what is the part with the gouges under the strings? Is that the truss rod cover? Really would like to see some pictures of the headstock as I really can’t tell what’s going on.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Wow, this is crazy. I have followed him on the book of faces for quite some time now. The joys of social media is that it looks like he builds some beautiful stuff, and he's been cranking them out at a fair pace. Seems like every week he posts another "welcome to the family" photo.

I agonize over my work to the inth degree, especially fretwork. This just blows my mind.
For what it's worth, I'm just not a fan of dual truss rods. I even own an LTD 6 string with dual rods and I'm scared to adjust it because it seems too easy to induce a twist if you get it wrong. If I was building something wide like that, I'd just do a single rod and carbon fiber stiffeners. Dual rods just feels like you're asking for trouble later. But that's my uninvited opinion.
As for the rest of the issues, just wow. I got nothing. I sincerely hope that this is just a fluke and that he makes it right.

 

[Clark W]

They should build you a new bass.

Forget a new bass, @BeardlyCustoms should give @Brian Crosby his money back.

 

[KenD]

I'm not just defending him and minimizing your concerns!

Then what was that long-winded post doing?