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Mikeyswood - BUYER BEWARE

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Alex Xander

Alex Xander

Oct 10, 2005
1,471
5,316
Out in the the bush, Australia
#1
A LONG READ, BUT PLEASE READ ANYWAY

MODS: PERMISSION WAS GIVEN TO PUBLISH THESE EMAILS. YOU WILL FIND IT IN MY LAST POST ON PAGE 2

I have given the subject of this email ample time to acknowledge my attempts to contact him (all I wanted was an acknowledgement), but he could not even bother sending a 10 seconds email of facebook message to prevent this.

It is with a heavy heart that start this thread.

In August 2010 I began talks with Michael Wayne Pearson, aka mikeyswood, Mike Wayne, based out of Cincinnati. He is a chemist by day and multiple things by night, including the director of the Cincy Blues Fest (under the name Mike Wayne).

I had conceptualised a bass and after a little while committed to the build.

Mike's "pricing plan" works like this. $250 for shop disposables and then material costs x 2. So if your wood and hardware costs $1000 then the completed bass costs $250 + 1000x2 = $2250. He claims his pricing to be cheap, but it is more or less on par with other luthiers.

Payment terms were $250 up front 50% at build start, then the remaining 50% when it ships.

2 years ago I laid down the $250 and Mike was rather enthusiastic about the build. My employment was terminated shortly after this, and I expressed that I would have to cancel the build. Mike offered to continue building while I looked for new work. Shortly after, I came into a sizeable hunk of cash and payed the balance up to 50% (he then had $1500 of mine). This was 15 months ago.

Since then Mike has made little to no progress and is ignoring my emails and facebook posts.

I was at my wits end in July and emailed him to see what was going on. The response was that his life had got a lot busier and luthery was now not so important to him. He was now a political leader in Cincinnati, a director of a blues fest, a mechanic on the weekend and a chemist by day! His build rate is now two basses a year!

He justified his poor communication (I am paraphrasing here) by telling me I don't have his full attention and don't deserve it because I am receiving an Alembic quality bass at a bargain price. When I suggested that comparing himself to Alembic was perhaps a little ambitious, he was offended.

After a few emails back and forwards we reached a resolution of sorts. One part of the resolution was that he would make an effort to keep me updated on a weekly basis on his progress or lack off the aforementioned. 10 weeks later and I am still waiting on that first weekly update.

The bass was supposed to be completed in September (one of many deadlines he has put forward) and as it happens I have a family member state-side at the moment who I was hoping could bring a completed bass back with him.

One of two things has happened. The bass is complete and it is not what I requested (since there has been no communication between us) or the bass has not been built.

I will be bumping all his unfinished build threads to the top, and will publish my emails with him.

$1500, two years, and all I have is a photo of a neck blank

EDIT: A response has been received! see end of page 2. Not satisfactory, but perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel...
 
#2
Jun 29 2012

Hi Mike,

I write following posting on your facebook wall yesterday and receiving no response. I can only assume that you saw the post, since you have been active on facebook since. I feel I have been very patient, but I am close to the end of my tether.

It seems that between being a chemist, organising blues festivals, filing for liquor permits, doing comprehensive work on two vehicles, having a multitude of concurrent instrument builds (commissioned and personal, it seems), and the hit and miss nature of my facebook communication with you, my bass is not a great priority. I am a little dismayed that $1500 of my money is sitting overseas and after 2 years since our initial discussions, I have but a photo of a neck blank to show for it. Also, within that two years, I have not seen a single completed instrument of yours on TB or FB. You may have dozens done, but perhaps you can see how things look from this side of the Pacific.

At this stage I have reluctantly arrived at the position where I would like to propose cancelling the build. I know that terms were not broached previously (as to what was refundable and what wasn't), so we are in uncharted territory; as such I am open to suggestions. As a suggestion, I would be happy for you to keep my initial $250 deposit, leaving a $1250 balance. I understand that you have purchased wood for this build, but you don't seem like the kind of bloke who would be concerned about having a few extra boards laying about the house ;)

Finishing it post haste wouldn't necessarily work for me either as I would have a short time to find another $1500 + whatever shipping will be, and my financial priorities are elsewhere at present. We discussed the bass being in Australia for my 30th, but realistically that leaves you with two months to finish a challenging build and two months for me to redirect funds for completion.

Please don't mistake the tone of this email for a nasty or unpleasant one - it's not. I think we just need to level with each other about what is realistic. Build time was never discussed, but nearly twelve months have passed since I transferred the 50% balance to you, and god knows how long since the initial $250.

I can't help but conclude that my bass is not high on your priority list, and to be honest, after such a long time, I am starting to lose interest. Also, it's discouraging to see other builds like your violins (commissioned?) making progress and my queries going unanswered.

Progress may have been made, but you haven't responded to requests on facebook photos for things as fundamental as the top wood layout, so I am either out of the loop on my instrument, or progress is stalled.

I might consider delaying the completion day further, but communication lines would have to be much more open than they have been.

Over to you,
Alex
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#3
Jul 2 2012

Hi Mike,

Still yet to receive a response to my email, some 72 hrs after you acknowledged receipt. It's disappointing that can find the time to post a blurb about poor customer service that you have received over a $200 pair of sunglasses on facebook, yet you haven't found the time to address my concerns. The irony of this situation was not lost on me.

In light of this, and the other issues we have discussed, I have decided to terminate our agreement. I will not seek a full refund, I believe it fair for you to keep the initial deposit of $250, leaving me with a refund of $1250. This can be paypaled to me at the address ********** .

I expect prompt acknowledgement of your receipt of this email. I also expect payment within 14 days. Please advise me immediately if there are any problems arising from this email.

I mean no ill will towards you, but reading a post on facebook where you have highlighted the failures in customer service of another company, whilst ignoring your own customer service failures, pushed me to the point of writing this email.

Regards

Alex
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#4
Jul 3 2012 - A response!

Hi Alex,

It is unfortunate that you have come to this conclusion. I would encourage you to seek a quote for this instrument from Alembic and other builders that take such creativity with wood. Also consider their lead times. Given the price and the specs for this instrument I am confident that you shall not come into an opportunity such as this in any reasonable time. You are welcome to terminate this build but I would also encourage you to see it through. You are correct that I don't mind having additional boards aging in my shop. However, until I am able to discover the process of uncutting wood it is simply unreasonable to leave that bill on me.

I will let you know that this instrument shall be continued in creation. Each instrument from my hands is like a child and receives the attention as well as caution while rearing each aspect. Once an idea enters my head and inspires me I see it through from thought to finish. So even should you desire to give this instrument up for adoption you will continue to see this bass take shape. Should your trepidation be about the money for September completion I would encourage you to not worry about that. We can figure that out later.

As for the note you saw on facebook - that draft began in April and the crafting of a message is much more important than spewing words on a page. Getting it right is much more important than getting it right now. There is also a myriad of pictures that are in queue to be uploaded to facebook with descriptions. Photobucket is even farther behind. Talkbass receives occasional attention from me these days since the quality builders are becoming dinosaurs. There is little for me to learn from the newer class and composing the tutorials is an enormous amount of time; which has become a commodity. This draft began on Friday and has come to completion today.

If you had told me that I would become a political leader in Cincinnati when we began this creation I would have said you're a loon. At the time I was a chemist by day and a luthier by night. That was it. Since then it has become a whirlwind of activity that has placed many responsibilities upon me. Some more welcome than others. But all important. Leading the Cincy Blues Fest has taken me out of the shop on several occasions. Becoming involved with the beer renaissance has also added a direction that was previously unexpected. My annual output has gone from ten per year to about two. Each one is more special to me and is now held to a higher level since the mistakes of previous build are unacceptable here.

Allow me to apologize should you feel your attention has been diminished. I assure you that it hasn't. I have had many times in the lab where an idea to make the next difficult cut on your bass came to light. I can work on addressing your questions in a more timely manner. There are not many builders that are this involved electronically with their customers; for good reason. However, I prefer to think of those receiving my instruments are partners. If you were to seek the Alembic price I am sure you will quickly see why they are able to make that their full-time career. And they still maintain a multiple year build time.

I would encourage you to think this over and consider staying with this. This instrument has already received $1750 in materials so a cancellation would not result in a refund. However, attempting to pick this back up would change this from creating it with you to building it for you.

Bass wishes,
Mike
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#5
Jul 3 2012

G'day Mike,

Thank you for addressing my concerns

I appreciate that you create instruments of a very high standard, but it is perhaps a little ambitious to compare yourself to a company with such long established and demonstrable credentials as Alembic.

As for your life getting much busier, that offers an explanation, but I'm not sure that it constitutes an excuse for your poor communication. I have aspirations outside of civil engineering, but should I get the opportunity to perhaps become a political leader myself, I would not consider it appropriate to throw my current projects on the back burner or significantly delay them because something more interesting came up.
I would consider it common courtesy for you to have at the least flicked me a quick facebook message explaining what was going on in your life and asking if it was ok to delay the build (I would have replied that it actually suited me, had you have done so). Instead I have been sitting here think *** is going on?

You say that you have had thoughts in the lab as to how you will make the next difficult cut on my bass. Unless this cut is for the scarf joint on the neck, I am concerned, because I still have not been shown overlays of the different cocobolo boards (the main feature of the bass!) that I requested here in November. Further, I can't recall giving a firm answer as to which boards wanted from the youtube clip. Alembic may not have youtube clips for their customers, but I bet your arse they let them chose the top wood for their basses. For all I know, you resawed some cocobolo in November, glued a neck blank shortly after that, and cut that neck blank in half recently, but you allude that you have done further work, and that work includes choices that I should have been involved in. I was told (only after asking) what the body sandwich would be (is?). Being that I commissioned this build and the concept is entirely mine, why wasn't I consulted? Also, I asked about modernising the vintage headstock (and showed an alternative), yet received no response.

Perhaps I am a needy customer, but this is the fourth custom build I have commissioned and communication was considerably more open on the other three builds (three different luthiers).

Mike, you have given me little choice but to continue with this build, since the alternative is that you keep my money and build the bass anyway.

As such I would like the following, which in hindsight should have been laid on the table a long time ago, and I suspect the likes of Alembic probably do as part of their business model
A detail of what stage of construction is the bass at now (have you chosen the cocobolo layout and body sandwich on my behalf? What hardware has been purchased?)
A firm date at which this bass will be completed. 6-9 months? Fine, my finances will need to be considered
A firm completion price
A complete spec list - list all inventory and wood layout. If there is stuff that needs ironing out still, I can spit out a dwg showing laminates etc for your consideration
After reviewing the spec list and build status, allow me to raise any concerns (about the construction) additional to the ones raised above and have them addressed.

Once the above is done, I won't need to harass you on details. There are/were many details that were left as vagaries, and I assumed that we would be collaborating on these as the build progressed.

May I also ask that since you are down to a production rate of 2 instruments per year (and you have many builds going!), where is mine on the schedule?

Finally, keep me in the loop! It takes ten seconds to post of my facebook wall. A one sentence post once a fortnight or month would be great, even if was just to tell me that you have done nothing due to other commitments.

I have little doubt that you are what us Aussies would call a "fair dinkum bloke". I have restored faith that this build will continue, but please don't give me a reason to cut my losses again.

Cheers,
Alex
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#7
July 6 2012 - A REPLY

Hi Alex,

The scarf is one of the easiest cuts. This weekend is the layering of the body. Cutting the wings to minimize lumber waste was a tremendous challenge. The Padauk veneer is also an issue. While there will be a veneer layer the colors and weights won't be enough to convey the desired effect. There will be an additional layer of Padauk to make the body Coffee thick, Padauk medium, Coffee thin, Padauk thin, Coffee thin, Cocobolo medium. This conversation was stemmed from out facebook conversation. The additional layer of Padauk is being added due to aesthetic need. This type of corrective action will be done when it's required. The same action was taken with the drafted lineweights of the neck; they were adjusted for the instrument's need.

The Cocobolo layer will be added at the end of the woodwork and the profiling of it will remain a large hurdle. The horns have very thin section that will reveal too much under-layering from the front which would harm the overall theme of this instrument. The proper solution would be to solvent bend the Cocobolo to a curved horn. This will not be occurring since I have yet to experiment with solvent bending Cocobolo; and now is not the proper time. There will be a proper fix to maintain the complete Cocobolo front view but at current I am not sure what that shall be.

Several MM pickups have been picked up to cut open and lay under the fingerboard and find the best sounding and engineered bobbin to fit Funny he should come up with this all of a sudden - I had already told him the exact pickup that I wanted to use!. I have gold and chrome hardware to check aesthetics. Black is ruled out. It may be best to go with chrome. That decision can wait until finishing. My completion date is targeting September. Should completion occur before you are comfortable with finances we will make arrangements.

I appreciate your concern with the creation of this instrument. However, I would caution you against dishonest accusations and I would again encourage you to price this build from another high-end luthier. I can assure you that they will not be under $12,000 for this. You are welcome to increase your payment to $9,000 to get my full-time attention through completion. We agreed to $3000 and I will hold my word on that. But at anytime you are welcome to send $9,000 more should you feel the need.

Your build is alongside 10 other builds that were started with yours and are being done concurrently. To maximize my efficiency in the shop I do all instruments together so that machine set-ups are minimized. Your bass and the two Ebony BTC basses are going to take additional time with top lamination. Otherwise they are with two basses, one guitar, and four violins.

I will make a concerted effort to keep you apprised of your bass' creation on a weekly basis. There are many pics to be uploaded and this Saturday is a full day in the shop. Perhaps as early as Sunday I will be able to write all updates.

Bass wishes,
Mike
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#8
July 6 - I have not had any inwards correspondence since the points I raised in this eamail were never adressed

G'day Mike,

Thank you for the email.

It seems things have been cleared up significantly from what was a very muddy situation from my end.

To explain why I arrived at where I was -

I had made three or four simple requests via facebook messages/posts, that received literally no response. One such request was regarding a tone switch that I want on the bass.that was left unanswered - I still don't know if it can happen or not, in spite of the fact that it is integral to my vision of the build). Add to that all that was going on in your life (including posting progress pics of other builds, but none of mine), I could only conclude that my bass wasn't moving anywhere. This was exacerbated by the fact that you seem to spend an awful lot of time posting things on FB, leading me to believe that you must have read the messages, but not responded for whatever reason.

It seems my bass does indeed have your attention and I am happy to hear that that is the case.

I have never wanted you full 24/7 attention and of course it would be unreasonable to expect it. I was just left feeling that I wasn't receiving any attention. This is not a comfortable place to be in when the Pacific Ocean separates me and the man with my money.

I apologise for my Alembic dig, it was not meant to be a reflection on your instrument building skills. You most certainly can talk the talk, and I sincerely look forward to having an instrument in my hand that shows you walk the walk :)

I am very happy with your choice of body sandwich - (I love the 3-ply look, but what if I didn't? You did OK the neck layout with me before clamping it). As for hardware, I was actually thinking black since it would hide in the cocobolo better (particularly the 6 or more microswitches), why is it ruled out? You may very well be right that chrome is the way to go, however I would like to ultimately make this decision. Also on the pickups, I thought I was clear on the Nordy MM triple coils (MM 4.3?)? I wanted these especially, due to their ability to run hum cancelling in single coil mode.

I am happy to put the past few emails behind me and chalk it up to experience.

September may still be doable for me, but I will have to see where I am situated at the time. I am pleased that you are willing to see if we can sort something out should we need too (I did say you were a fair-dinkum bloke!).
**********personal irrelevant detail edited out********

Cheers,

Alex
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#9
Alex, you as a customer should never have had to exert any effort whatsoever in getting Mike to communicate the status of the build with you. He should have taken on that responsibility himself and kept you up to date on a regular basis without you having to ask. Major fail! :rollno:

In the business world, the customer is king. Any business person worth his/her salt knows this. And as we all know, communication is most important.

I commend you for posting this information on Talkbass as it will help warn others of Mike's business ethic.
 
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#10
Mister Know Not said:
Let me be the first to react...like mikey always did...

Mikey is an assh*** lalalalala....

Sorry to hear that man...people like him are an embarressment to luthiersy.....No real heart.... only in it for the money...Sucker. :bawl:

I bet he can't even play a bass....LOL
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I'd keep the personal attacks to yourself. I'd rather see this thread exist and help other people and maybe help the OP get his bass or his money back, but instead personal attacks could get the thread shut down.
 
#12
Sorry for your woes bro.. Shame to see/read this...I thought he was highly reputable and respected in these parts.

Hopefully this gets resolved in an appropriate manner...in the least maybe a full refund.

For the coin your discussing I think you can do a lot better
 
#15
I seriously don't know why people such as Mike do these things. Thanks to Alex, his (Mike's) reputation is now officially burned and his credibility is history. If, and that is a big IF he ever decides to "turn things around for the better," people will always have this thread and it's responses to turn back to. Talkbass is a very professional environment. First impressions and the way people conduct business is often a reflection on someone's personal attitude. I know I am rambling on here but I just don't understand how people can do this to other people and not feel a BIT guilty about it.. $1,500 is NOT pocket change to most of us..
 
#20
curbowkid said:
I understand if something happens to the luthier himself and he can't contact the buyer or even finish the build. But at least find a way to contact the buyer somehow. Don't go ghost for months.
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He can contact me - we're facebook friends and he has at least a few posts daily (including the last week in which I have been trying to contact him).

He's ignoring me. No two ways about it.
 
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