This made me mad, then sad

Jason Dumont · Post by **Jason Dumont** » 15 Dec 2005 10:49 am

This guy is so ridiculous! Anyone who's ever shipped anything overseas knows it's a big pain in the butt. Customs slip in duplicate, shipping label in duplicate, receipt of payment in duplicate! This guy is lying plain and simple.
The whole "I gave it to friend...." what the heck is that? That's just so...so...it's the most cockameemie story I ever heard.
Everyone here knows how tough it is to make a living. And to make a living as a MUSICIAN! I know I don't have $400 to throw away. Steinar you need to get your dough back! and ASAP.
Loser SOUNDS like luthier but they ARE NOT the same thing.

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 15 Dec 2005 11:37 am

I consider Steinar a friend also.

The words of Eric Brown in his email response yesterday
(about 20 posts back).

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 15 Dec 2005 12:00 pm

One comment about this "friend" thing... I doubt any real friend of mine would have had a similar casual attitude if I had sent him the money and never received the goods. And I certainly don't think he would have used my name to fabricate a "success" story about his work.

That's all I have to say about that. Back to the business side of it.....

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Patrick Newbery · Post by **Patrick Newbery** » 15 Dec 2005 12:22 pm

Don't know if this was covered before, but if he shipped it to Steiner in Norway, he would have had to fill out customs forms, declaring the value. And the USPS would have a record of this. He is treading on some serious (federal) fraud charges if he is claiming that he did send it yet has no verification in terms of customs or other receipts.

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 15 Dec 2005 12:30 pm

"Oh what a tangeled web we weave" This guys just diggin a deeper hole isn't he? Steinar I hope this all works out for ya.

Russ Young · Post by **Russ Young** » 15 Dec 2005 1:12 pm

I doubt any real friend of mine would have had a similar casual attitude if I had sent him the money and never received the goods.

Uhh ... well ... ummm ... you're right -- I only considered keeping your MayBell when it was originally shipped to me! So I guess I'm still a real friend?

I have shipped seven or eight (maybe nine?) guitars to Steinar over the past couple of years -- all by USPS, as I recall -- and they have all made it safely to his doorstep. So I'm having a hard time buying Eric Brown's story ...[This message was edited by Russ Young on 15 December 2005 at 01:14 PM.]

Terry VunCannon · Post by **Terry VunCannon** » 15 Dec 2005 1:13 pm

I just got off the phone with Jackson Browne's people & they just asked me to email them the link to the newspaper article. It sounds like they are interested in all this!!!

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'49 & '51 National Dynamics, Harmos Model One, Lazy River Weissenborn, Mesa Boogie DC-3, SRV Strat.
http://community.webshots.com/user/keefriff

Russ Young · Post by **Russ Young** » 15 Dec 2005 1:17 pm

That kinda makes you wonder about the story of Sheryl Crow and her guitar, doesn't it?

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 15 Dec 2005 1:35 pm

I can't find any mention anywhere (Google Search etc) of Vincent Star Guitars in Manhattan where Sheryl Crow was supposed to have purchased the guitar.

That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it just means there's no mention of it anywhere . .

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 15 Dec 2005 1:37 pm

Ok, I'll call her and see if I can uncover something....

Russ Young · Post by **Russ Young** » 15 Dec 2005 1:44 pm

Howard, when was the last time you were awarded a rimshot?

Mike D · Post by **Mike D** » 15 Dec 2005 1:46 pm

Howard tell her Mike D. said 'Hey' and that I'm sorry about that night but that towel rack should have been built better than that!

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Half-assed bottleneck and lap slide player. Full-assed Builder of resonator instruments.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 15 Dec 2005 4:30 pm

This guys just diggin a deeper hole isn't he?

Sure is. It is now 28 hours since my latest email to him, where I asked him to have the receipts scanned and emailed to me, and if there's no reply in my mailbox by the time I get up tomorrow he'll effectively have removed the last shred of doubt about what's been going on here.

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 15 December 2005 at 05:05 PM.]

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 15 Dec 2005 7:39 pm

That's Eric Brown on the right cutting the neck for Steinar's guitar that he paid in advance for but has never received.

Or maybe it's a different guitar.
I wonder if it will be paid for in advance and never delivered.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 15 Dec 2005 9:16 pm

My friend Peter Stroud works with S. Crow. He is the tall guitar player on all her concerts. Steinar if you will Email me, I will give you his email address if you need to know about the Crow guitar. You can't get to her, but Peter might can find out some info on it.

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 15 Dec 2005 9:31 pm

Randy,- if your heart is warmed, then imagine how mine feels! I am truly touched and deeply moved by all the support - this is the best freakin' birthday present I could ever get!!

STEINAR, MAYBE THIS IS WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT. A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PRESENT, A SPECIAL MEANING OF WHAT FRIENDSHIPS CAN BE - "LIFE". JUST A BUNCH OF CARING STEELERS!!!

Aloha,
Don

P.S. I was the second poster on your thread, and it did not seem your post was going anywhere then. I left for a couple of days and came back and WOW at the response that took place. It was very gratifying to see the troops rally.

[This message was edited by Don Kona Woods on 15 December 2005 at 09:32 PM.]

Jon Zimmerman · Post by **Jon Zimmerman** » 15 Dec 2005 10:30 pm

If I may, I'd add that Brown isn't the ONLY one making Tele Bender guitars--Just Google search JOE GLASER--and see all about a REAL Double Bender guitar, out now for many years, starting back in the mid-90's. It's just effrontery and shameless audacity in his claims, plain and simple, IMHO. ~JZ~

Rick Alexander · Post by **Rick Alexander** » 16 Dec 2005 7:42 am

Steinar asked me to call Joyce Grondin, editor of Capital Weekly/Courier Publications to get verbal confirmation of what he already knew - that the false statements in the reprinted article by Douglas Watts came directly from Eric Brown and not from Steinar's web site or any other source. She was kind enough to return my call and she confirmed this very clearly.

She is going to print Steinar's email in the paper as a retraction to the false information in the article. Normally they only publish such letters in the paper and not on their web site, but in this case she is going to make an exception and post it on their site as well. She is also going to email me the URL when this is done.
She was surprised that the article was still on their site and asked me to send her the URL. She is going to remove the article promptly . .
She told me that she knows Eric Brown personally, and that he seems like a nice guy and she is surprised that he would conduct his business in this way. However, she did not express any doubt about what I was telling her. She was very communicative and pleasant, and expressed concern when I told her the whole story.

I also sent her the URL to this thread.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 16 Dec 2005 7:50 am

The surprising thing to me in this whole thing is that Eric has let the thing spiral out of control without doing any kind of damage control.

He is either the most sheltered human being on the planet or the worst business man I've ever seen.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 16 Dec 2005 9:14 am

Bill H - thanks so much for your offer, I appreciate it. Now that the article will be removed I don't see much point in following up on the 'S Crow lead' though...

Don -

Jon - if you read what he writes on his website you will find several 'disputable' claims..

Rick - you've got mail. Thanks!!

Bill MC - some people react like that when things get a too hot. Close their eyes, fingers in their ears, going la-di-la-di-la-di-daa, hoping it will go away all by itself.
Too bad, because his instruments are nice and he IS a nice guy when talking on the phone..

I have not heard any more from him, so by now I can only assume that there is no shipping receipts, and he's just waiting it out, thinking it'll cool off.....

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 16 December 2005 at 09:15 AM.]

John Ummel · Post by **John Ummel** » 16 Dec 2005 9:16 am

He's crossed off my Christmas list. And I'm letting all the pickers I know to avoid doing business with him.

David Siegler · Post by **David Siegler** » 16 Dec 2005 10:17 am

Eric makes strange choices! He built a guitar for me at the same time as Steinar's. Both basically the same based on Steinar's suggestion after he liked his first guitar so much. Steinar prepaid and I did not. Eric finished mine while Steinar's was being "road tested" so to speak. In hindsight I can't understand why he didn't send the one I got to Steinar (as he had prepaid and had referred me to Eric) and kept me waiting until he got the other one back. I assume it was to get some more cash.

In my case I sent him the money when the guitar was finished and he did send me the guitar pretty quickly after that though almost a year later than promised. It had a gouge in the edge of one of the wood trim pieces and on the body near the PU switches. It's pretty clear that he slipped with a screw driver while tightening a screw. The fretboard had come unglued and was only being held in place by string tension at the nut. The tuners and tele bridge plate were scratched and looked used. Also, the PUs were wired out of phase. Eric offered to fix the problems if I wanted to ship it back to him. Guess what I decided to do?

He did send me another trim piece to replace the one that was dinged.

Eric did refer to these guitars as "prototypes" and that we were getting a really good price... thus the used parts and sloppy finish I guess.

Between the gouge (maybe only 1/2" long) on the front of the guitar, the fretboard not sticking to the oil finish and the sloppy visible glue line on the back of the guitar I decided to completely re-sand and refinish the whole guitar. Not what I would expect to have to do to a "new" guitar.

That said, I really like the guitar. It plays easy and one of the PUs sounds really good. Though with the long wait, assorted "promises" made and not kept, the long emails betweeen Steinar and I and the time refinishing it the guitar was way overpriced. I figure we should both have gotten our guitars and $800 each for the headaches along the way. I will admit that the opportunity to get to know Steinar better was worth the price of the guitar though I would have rather have done it with a visit, some playing and some beer!

One of these days.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 16 Dec 2005 10:47 am

Whew! All of those things are unacceptable in my book!

I've worked with several builders, Carroll Benoit, Mike D., Rick Aiello, Sage Harmos, Bill Rudolph (Williams), Herb Remington, and they are all top notch in terms of both quality and integrity.

Makes me want to appreciate all of the good guys that much more. [This message was edited by HowardR on 16 December 2005 at 10:50 AM.]

Terry VunCannon · Post by **Terry VunCannon** » 16 Dec 2005 11:05 am

Howard...good point...I also have some custom instruments & would never expect to be treated this way by a custom builder. I would like to say thanks to Rance White, Sage Harmos, James Baecker & Rick Turner for the fine work they do & the great instruments that they make. It is really such a pleasure to play a fine instrument.

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'49 & '51 National Dynamics, Harmos Model One, Lazy River Weissenborn, Mesa Boogie DC-3, SRV Strat.
http://community.webshots.com/user/keefriff

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 16 Dec 2005 11:33 am

The whole Jackson Browne thing is amusing to me because I was the official documentary videographer hired by my old buddy and the producer of "Enjoy Every Sandwich", Jorge Calderon - on behalf of Artemis Records. I was personally present for the sessions and have them on videotape in great detail.The CD was cut at a variety of studios including Billy Bob Thornton's home studio and two cuts were culled from live concerts(Dylan and Springsteen)but "Poor Poor Pitiful Me","Werewolves","Studebaker","Monkey Wash Donkey Rinse","Keep Me In Your Heart" and "Searching For A Heart" were cut at Jackson's personal studio - Groove Masters in Santa Monica in July/Aug 2004. On "Poor Poor Pitiful Me",the rhythm section plus Jackson's vocal was cut first - Rick Marotta played a DW drum kit,Jorge played a Fender Bass direct and Waddy Wachtel played a Fender Tele thru an amp. Then the overdubs were: Jorge playing maracas,Jamaica Rafael on fiddle,guitar licks on Waddy's Tele,harmony vocals by Bonnie Raitt,Benmont Tench playing a baby grand piano and then Bonnie played slide on a Fender Strat. That's about it. No lap steel on that tune or any tune on the CD - and if there were to have been any steel,it would likely have been David Lindley on a Bakelite Ricky.
-MJ-