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Is Avantguard a SCAM?
- Thread starter oo.viper.oo
- Start date
I've seen how these kind of guards are made, although maybe not this company, but still. They don't just grab a piece of tort plastic and cut the guard. They pour each sheet of material themselves, which may sound easy, but not if you want an authentic tort look. It's an art. Each one is unique and they probably throw away a ton of pours that don't meet their standards.
So if I make a brass pickguard you're going to assume I have a foundry and rolling mill?
I see he has a website where he claims "we make the material" but without detailed definition of what that is.
At any rate, if you want to put $400 into a pickguard that takes a year to receive, I guess it's your money; seems like piling up a bunch of tens on the garage floor and setting them on fire would be faster and easier.
...
I see he has a website where he claims "we make the material" but without detailed definition of what that is.
At any rate, if you want to put $400 into a pickguard that takes a year to receive, I guess it's your money; seems like piling up a bunch of tens on the garage floor and setting them on fire would be faster and easier.
...
Looks fantastic! These handmade celluloid pickguards are the best available. They’re crafted one at a time rather than cut from sheets of plastic like Fender pickguards. Fender used to make real celluloid pickguards, but switched to a different plastic in the '60s because celluloid is extremely flammable
Enjoy that beautiful bass.
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It is nitrate celluloid. François makes the sheet HIMSELF.
No, you can’t just buy the sheets, it is much much more complicated to male, hence the price
No, you can’t just buy the sheets, it is much much more complicated to male, hence the price
Also, please, gentlemen, that would be nice to avoir the same old comment :
“Oh, X€ for something ?! You can just do YYY instead and you’ll save money”.
Yes, boutique products made by a 1 man business are more expensive than mass produced goods made abroad.
Yes, homemade nitrate celluloid sheets identical to those made 70 years ago costs much more than cheap printed ones you get on Amazon.
It takes, time, research and efforts to perfect your product.
You pay for development time, and craftsmanship. nYou can’t get that off Amazon.
It’s ok if you’re only looking for budget option.
Some of us are looking for the best possible option, even if it takes time and if it is expensive.
“Oh, X€ for something ?! You can just do YYY instead and you’ll save money”.
Yes, boutique products made by a 1 man business are more expensive than mass produced goods made abroad.
Yes, homemade nitrate celluloid sheets identical to those made 70 years ago costs much more than cheap printed ones you get on Amazon.
It takes, time, research and efforts to perfect your product.
You pay for development time, and craftsmanship. nYou can’t get that off Amazon.
It’s ok if you’re only looking for budget option.
Some of us are looking for the best possible option, even if it takes time and if it is expensive.
The following post is taken from a german Bass-Website called Bassic. We spoke about Francois over there. One of our fellow bassists, Jörg, who is crafting basses with Francois PGs, shared the following:
„This morning, I spoke to François on the phone. He contacted me again after a long time, during which I had not heard from him. He apologised profusely and seemed almost contrite, but there is a good reason why he took so long to respond and did not communicate: he fell ill, underwent surgery and had to recover. All of this led to an immense backlog of work, which he is now gradually catching up on and completing. Unfortunately, it was not possible for him to provide any information during this time.
François works as a one-man show. He did briefly employ his brother as a temporary assistant for a short time, but this could not fill the huge gap left by his illness.“
„This morning, I spoke to François on the phone. He contacted me again after a long time, during which I had not heard from him. He apologised profusely and seemed almost contrite, but there is a good reason why he took so long to respond and did not communicate: he fell ill, underwent surgery and had to recover. All of this led to an immense backlog of work, which he is now gradually catching up on and completing. Unfortunately, it was not possible for him to provide any information during this time.
François works as a one-man show. He did briefly employ his brother as a temporary assistant for a short time, but this could not fill the huge gap left by his illness.“
As of 8:50am PST on 1/10/26, Avantguard has a Precision bass pickguard in stock if anyone is interested.
'1965' Precision Bass Tortoiseshell Pickguard (USA) - Light aging | Avantguard
'1965' Precision Bass Tortoiseshell Pickguard (USA) - Light aging | Avantguard
If you have to ask, you won’t understand.
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4 month lead time on a pickguard would have been my first and only red flag. No way I'm waiting 4 months on a pickguard.
Dude is a psycho and should not be approached with your hard earned cash. I ordered one a couple of years back and after 9 months I asked politely for a refund. He got nasty real quick. Three more months of him sending unhinged accusatory rants (a year in, with no product and I’m the a**hole?) then one day out of the blue, a refund through PayPal. Phew me thinks, that nightmare is finally over.
Literally the next day, the guard turns up on my doorstep. It was totally underwhelming. So I messaged him, said I got the refund, why did you send me the guard? No reply.
Buck him, I thought. I listed it on the usual sites. For a LOT less than what I’d paid him for it (even though he had finally refunded me) Made a mental note to return his refund once it cleared in my PayPal account, which at that point was usually five working days, despite him being so vile to deal with. Time to move on I thought.
How wrong was I?!
About 24 hours later I get this facebook message from his wife/girlfriend/lunatic calling me every abusive insult she could think of, accusations of international scam operations and a dark threat to engage INTERPOL(the cops, not the band) to track me down and have me arrested and thrown into prison. Clearly she and him are a match made in heaven.
I told her I wasn’t the one who had refunded me and then was dumb enough to actually send the product - it clearly was NOT a goodwill gesture as there was zero contact from him saying anything like “Hey sorry for messing you round for a year, have the guard on me” - it just turned up in an envelope.
The moral to this story? There is none, just don’t deal with em.
Literally the next day, the guard turns up on my doorstep. It was totally underwhelming. So I messaged him, said I got the refund, why did you send me the guard? No reply.
Buck him, I thought. I listed it on the usual sites. For a LOT less than what I’d paid him for it (even though he had finally refunded me) Made a mental note to return his refund once it cleared in my PayPal account, which at that point was usually five working days, despite him being so vile to deal with. Time to move on I thought.
How wrong was I?!
About 24 hours later I get this facebook message from his wife/girlfriend/lunatic calling me every abusive insult she could think of, accusations of international scam operations and a dark threat to engage INTERPOL(the cops, not the band) to track me down and have me arrested and thrown into prison. Clearly she and him are a match made in heaven.
I told her I wasn’t the one who had refunded me and then was dumb enough to actually send the product - it clearly was NOT a goodwill gesture as there was zero contact from him saying anything like “Hey sorry for messing you round for a year, have the guard on me” - it just turned up in an envelope.
The moral to this story? There is none, just don’t deal with em.
Yes to both. I have been ripped off so many times on eBay and by band members/record labels I cannot bring myself down to that level. I felt sorry for the dude in the end. Living with her could be the reason and cause of all his business management issues
still radio silence here. So that's the 2nd P-bass pickguard he sells without honouring his orders from nearly a year ago...
100% correct. I don’t expect at this point to receive what I paid for, which is theft. Having previous orders unfulfilled while offering a guard for sale… Shameful.
It's not a good look. At least it's a pickguard and not a custom bass, still sucks to get ripped off regardless. If you don't mind me asking, what was he charging for these pickguards?
