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Current Ace Frheley's burst mad at Gibson

Uncle Gary

Active member
Joined
Oct 15, 2006
Messages
2,431
I don't have any comment on the content of his post really, I don't know/don't care about it. But WHY are these long ass rants always written in such a weird way without any logical paragraphing? It makes my eyes bleed. If the one ranting wants people to read his short story, shouldn't he at least have the courtesy to make it easy to do so?

Well, the OP's location is listed as "Brazil", so I assume that English is not his first language. His English is much better than my Portuguese.
 

chasenblues

New member
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
1,228
Well, the OP's location is listed as "Brazil", so I assume that English is not his first language. His English is much better than my Portuguese.

The OP didn't write the post,He copied and pasted it from a Facebook post. I have seen it posted elsewhere and its not a wall of text like here.
 

thin sissy

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 2, 2006
Messages
2,691
Well, the OP's location is listed as "Brazil", so I assume that English is not his first language. His English is much better than my Portuguese.
Hey man, I'm not slagging of his language skills (I'm not a native english speaker myself). I just can't stand the "wall of text" approach to writing, that's all. It takes so much effort to read that, and I would think most languages have the concept paragraphing in them?

And, this wasn't aimed at the OP, I know he didn't write it.

Lastly, chasenblues pointed out that this originally wasn't a wall of text anyway. So I was wrong :laugh2:
 

jimmyace2006

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Joined
Dec 24, 2007
Messages
2,157
The original post was posted by Al on his Facebook page a few days ago. I have been friends with Al on Facebook for a few years. I don't always agree with what he says, but I have a listening ear. When I read his post, the first thing I thought was that it was another re-hash of what went down with him and Gibson, and he's still angry about not getting compensated properly. Understandably so.

I made a couple of comments on the thread. My first comment explained that Gibson Custom Shop was not shut down or out of business and that they do still make reissues, and will continue to make reissues; they just call them something different now (Les Paul Standard). And I told everyone to call Wildwood to get a better explanation.

My second comment was one where I tried to convey to Al that I remember when all of this first started, and I agreed that he was not treated fairly, etc. And then I stated that I don't think it is fair to say that owners of the guitars got ripped off. And I stated I don't think it is right to knock our guitars because many of us paid a lot of money for them & it could hurt our "investment" if he did that. So I asked him nicely not to knock our guitars.

The next day, Al blocked me from his friends on Facebook. Hmmm.....something I said in my cordial response must have really angered him. Well, so sad, too bad. I was very polite, and everything I stated was right on.

Al contradicts himself a couple of times. First he says he had a contract, then he says he didn't. From the very beginning, he always told me he never had anything in writing and he just trusted Gibson to do what they said they would do. That was his mistake, and therefore the whole thing is his fault. Should he be compensated? YES. Is it his fault if he does not get compensated? YES. Al also refers to the Frehley burst as "my guitar", as though he still owns it. Yet, his listing on Uncle Lou's web site states the guitar was sold, and Al told me privately how much he sold it for. So why does he refer to it as "my guitar" to this day? Did the sale fall through?

Gibson had two press releases for this run. The first one was a NAMM press release in January 2015 before the guitars were released and it stated that Al and Ace worked together closely with Gibson to get the guitar exactly as it should be, and it said the guitars are Murphy aged. Then Al did not get paid. So he threatened a law suit. The run's release was delayed about 6 months because of this.

I submit that many of the guitars were already built before Al got mad, and they were built to the specs of Al's original burst. But to cover themselves from a lawsuit, Gibson changed the wording of the press release to say that the guitar was built to Ace's memory (which anyone who is familiar with Ace knows he himself states he remembers nothing from that time because he was too drugged / drunk). And Sweetwater had the old press release on their web site for months after the guitars had been selling. The only thing that is really different is the aging; Gibson left off a few scratches. And the guitars were aged in-house, not by Murphy. But they did a great job on the aging. You can even check Gibson's web site. They posted the output of the pickups, and I confirmed with Al when the guitars came out that those readings match his original burst.

Al states in the original post that the guitars are nothing like his guitar. Yet, I have private communications from him stating that he played signed #20 at a guitar store and stated "Felt like mine for sure...Sounded close too". And I have a video of him shredding on the guitar. Doesn't sound consistent with what he stated in the original post. So in my opinion, the guitars are exactly as they were intended to be, except for a few scratches in the aging.
 

slammintone

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 19, 2001
Messages
2,003
What can one say. With all the many, many fans of Gibson's Custom Shop and their employees current and former, you know at least one customer is going to have something to balk about!:laugh2::yah
 
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