I have not been able to speak with Jimmy in over 6 months... so lets get that out of the way.
The original poster has valid complaints.... but let me move on for a minute
mmm is anyone neutral....truly neutral ? Are you?
No BS now.
I find there is more slant and agenda pushing and more BS and hype in this forum than i have ever seen from a bunch of adults....
TB is great entertainment tool and a place to get some info.. its not the Bible!
First you don’t even know me. And I certainly don’t know you.
But people that do know me quickly realize that I’m a straight shooter.. You may not like what i say or how i say it , but that’s not my problem.
One of the reasons why we must put our affiliations on the Header is to let folks have a better understanding of the things we may say... Its TB Rule. Perhaps a silly rule but it is a rule anyway.
Would you believe me more if i did not have my affiliations posted?
It could easily be done.
I could remove them.. And no one would know any better.
And i could post anything under the wire, and i would not have to defend myself against your statement.
But im being honest and stating my knowledge and experience from my REAL WORLD dealings.. Of which goes pretty deep and stretches pretty far, without wanting to toot my horn. Which i hate to do.
Anyway the Affiliation is posted so that the folks that are able to read, will see the affiliation and then they can choose to either take the written info or just move along to the next thread.
Now, I have known Jimmy for over 20 years. Both professionally and as a friend.
It goes back to when we both lived in new york city ,up until today.. He helped me out with my gear when in I was in the studio and on gigs, he introduced me to folks and I did the same for him. We go way back..
In fact it was I that busted his tail real hard for a long while, I was relentless trying to get him to make basses after seeing the incredible guitars he was making for some of the NYC studio cats.
Unfortunately I was not the first Alleva Owner .
Jason got the first Alleva bass. He was in town on tour and I met him and I saw he #1 bass, heard it live and played it after the show and said wow..It was a nitro Dakota Red JJ4, strung BEDG. I remember it well.
I said,Im glad he is doing it.. So my nest trip to NYC I picked out my wood..which became my favorite bass .
So am I Neutral?..In the big picture, I hope so..
But what I have written earlier in this thread has more to do with etiquette and the lack of it where the complaining person chose to pre-maturely aire dirty laundry in a forum. without even giving 24 hr to speak with the builder... thats just too weird to me
Something that should have been taken care of over the phone first with the builder..
It Doesn’t matter what his gripe was.
That’s not the way to handle that in the bizz world. That was improper etiquette.
Like I said I have not talked with Jimmy in over 6 months... so i dont know what the deal is with this.
I do know how he is as a person, as a builder, as a human being, dog lover and a guy that is real passionate about a the vintage vibe like no one i have ever met..
And to have his name and company name dragged through the mud the way one person has done so far in this thread bothers me and i need to say something in his defense.. If that makes me not neutral in your eyes, then that’s cool for you..
But I would do the same for Roger Sadowsky too..
I have known Roger since the early 80s, and I own his basses too. And I would defend him to the end too, if someone did a similar thing to him on a forum.
Someone emailed me to tell me that Jimmy has hired someone to help.
The guy who is now at Alleva is also has a good reputation in the bizz and has a slew of war medals to back up his work .
Like I said a page or two ago, Mistakes happen. And mistakes can be corrected if you give it a chance, and not to just send an email on a Friday night ( I assume after dinner since he waited for UPS to get there) and expect to get an email response right away… Its not an IM!!!
And like I said yesterday, even Sadowsky (another great builder) has clearly listed on his site
to not depend on EMAIL as a way to communicate Since It IS Unreliable.. Use the Phone..
Without going postal, I have seen the main complainer here have issues with other companies in the past, and I have witnessed that on a few occasions.. its all cool none of us are perfect .. not even me.
But that is what it is.. Does that make this right? Well like I said humans make mistakes on both sides.
And give jimmy a chance to address it before you go and try to drag his good name through the mud..
That’s me as a friend standing up for my friend, not a player or endorser. I hope you get that.
This has nothing to do as an endorser. He’s my longtime friend.
Lastly , the bridge is a mistake. OK, %^& happens… Theback plate would be good to see a photo.
Now the scratches.. I would ask the complainer a question..
is this his first dark colored bass? Is it Nitro or Poly. If you run your fingernail over the "scratches" ,do you feel the grooves of the scratch? If not it may be swirl marks..
The reason I ask those???? is because dark color basses will often show Swirl marks alot easier. Are they swirls .. I dont know, i have not seen it.. if so and a swirl bugs you , you call the guy on the phone...…
My good friend got a high dollar bass from a builder that is similar to the Alleva and well spoken for on this forum.
It was a black bass, just slightly darker that rootbeer.. and that bass, from that builder, had finish swirl marks on delivery..
They were not scratches, just some buff swirls… dark colors show that way more easily at times… Think about that before you go order a dark bass,, The same for Dark cars etc. doesnt happen all the time.. but it does happen..
Did my friend send the bass back, NO..
He going to play it, gig it ,not sit stare at it…
So I’m saying , is it finish swirls or scratches?
Hmm...endorsing artist, you're neutral?
I wouldn't call Jimmy's customer service into question over this in a public forum, yet, as it's only been a day and he should absolutly speak with Jimmy. But, give the guy a break. He's upset for valid reasons. I don't care how much Jimmy is stressed out gearing up for NAMM or Bass Day or whatever. Maybe he should hire someone if he is getting too many orders. I certainly wouldnt let my QC suffer.
And, public forums are for expressing dissatisfaction as well as excitment. Anyone reading the AC threads certainly couldn't miss the fact that there is everwhelming adulation by AC owners around here. I'm glad to now know of the no return policy.
Keep us posted MotoMan, my guess is that it will all work out well enough that all the AC fans and endorsers will be happy.
