Petition for an Ibanez Custom Shop (open to public)

[AC]

http://www.ruokangas.com/

GREAT guitars! I played some a while ago, and I consider them up to par with suhr or Tom Anderson.

 

[Shark Diver]

http://www.ruokangas.com/

GREAT guitars! I played some a while ago, and I consider them up to par with suhr or Tom Anderson.

Like to try the TT frets!

 

[kasperjensen]

I have found nothing negative about Juha and the team at Ruokangas, but then again... for the price they are asking it should be really top notch!
Although not insane, like PRS Private Stock.
I got a quote on one of Juha's guitars (a Mojo I believe it was), with damn near everything I could think of. Custom inlays and bla bla bla.... came to 7500 euros. Something else came up, so I could not place my order... but hopefully one day soon!

 

[PeteLaramee]

I would love to have an LA custom shop open. Even if it wasn't to build a complete guitar - if they were just to have bodies, necks, and different color hardware available for individual purchases. Try finding a mahogany RG7 body. I've been waiting 15 months for an RG7620 body (which shipped yesterday ) and 4 months for an RG1527 body (different builder).

 

[AC]

I have found nothing negative about Juha and the team at Ruokangas, but then again... for the price they are asking it should be really top notch!
Although not insane, like PRS Private Stock.
I got a quote on one of Juha's guitars (a Mojo I believe it was), with damn near everything I could think of. Custom inlays and bla bla bla.... came to 7500 euros. Something else came up, so I could not place my order... but hopefully one day soon!

I had my heart set on this one

a near stock hellcat, that one would have set me back about 2500 €.

 

[Shark Diver]

I had my heart set on this one

a near stock hellcat, that one would have set me back about 2500 €.

Wicked!

 

[PeteLaramee]

That would rule but I have a feeling the prices would be at least as nuts as Jackson's cs.

...or ESP

was more like what i was thinking.

im pricing a custom shop right now, id expect it to be in the $4,000 range easily.

It's starting to get where for the price of a 'custom shop' instrument from a large company, you can have a small builder go crazy and save some money. No, it won't be a major company and you could lose your shirt on resale, but still...

another option would be to buy all the parts for your custom creation from Warmoth or a parts place, and then pay a luthier to assemble it.

Pete

+1 on the parts and pro assemble job.

What is it with every Ibanez cloner though being a wack job and not trustworthy?????? I know Sims is one hell of a painter and has sold beautiful bodies but heard one bad review.....could have been that the kid was an idiot though.

I ordered an unfinished mahogany RG7 body from Sims on July 22nd. He told me it would be 2-4 weeks and I'm still waiting for it. He hasn't returned my emails for over 2 weeks (he's never returned my emails in a timely manner). He goes out of his way to NOT give you his phone #. The one time he called me I wrote down his # from my caller ID, but I must've wrote it down incorrectly because it's no longer in service. Now you can go on sevenstring.org and there are threads and threads complaining about similar situations. I'm just glad I didn't splurge on a pricey finish...who knows how much longer it would be or how much $ I'd be screwed out of.

 

[Digital Jams]

That would rule but I have a feeling the prices would be at least as nuts as Jackson's cs.

...or ESP

was more like what i was thinking.

im pricing a custom shop right now, id expect it to be in the $4,000 range easily.

It's starting to get where for the price of a 'custom shop' instrument from a large company, you can have a small builder go crazy and save some money. No, it won't be a major company and you could lose your shirt on resale, but still...

another option would be to buy all the parts for your custom creation from Warmoth or a parts place, and then pay a luthier to assemble it.

Pete

+1 on the parts and pro assemble job.

What is it with every Ibanez cloner though being a wack job and not trustworthy?????? I know Sims is one hell of a painter and has sold beautiful bodies but heard one bad review.....could have been that the kid was an idiot though.

I ordered an unfinished mahogany RG7 body from Sims on July 22nd. He told me it would be 2-4 weeks and I'm still waiting for it. He hasn't returned my emails for over 2 weeks (he's never returned my emails in a timely manner). He goes out of his way to NOT give you his phone #. The one time he called me I wrote down his # from my caller ID, but I must've wrote it down incorrectly because it's no longer in service. Now you can go on sevenstring.org and there are threads and threads complaining about similar situations. I'm just glad I didn't splurge on a pricey finish...who knows how much longer it would be or how much $ I'd be screwed out of.

See???? I thought he had his stuff together too.

I can't believe one of the most popular guitar makers out there do not have good people cloning them

 

[highgain510]

What is it with every Ibanez cloner though being a wack job and not trustworthy?????? I know Sims is one hell of a painter and has sold beautiful bodies but heard one bad review.....could have been that the kid was an idiot though.

Dude check out http://www.simswarning.com if you want to get more info on that guy. So far that I've seen personally, he's been banned from THREE forums I frequent after trying to peddle his wares and then screwing a TON of customers. He lies like crazy, too, both publicly and privately.

I've seen emails posted where his responses directly contradict previous responses he's given a customer. One of the guys on the sevenstring board posted some pics of bodies he was sent by a few other folks for assembly and one of them had a glue joint that was so open he could fit a piece of paper in between as well as chips and burnouts from using dulled CNC tips! Some others even had the bridge routing done in the wrong spot! Found the pics:

Sims is a world-class douchenozzle, he got banned when he lied and screwed a bunch of folks on the sevenstring board and then proceeded to sign up for a troll account under the name "TheTurtleman" (which he has used on other forums too btw) to come back and defend himself again when those pictures were posted! The excuses he came up to defend the shoddy workmanship were classic too. I believe on mg.org he signed up for a few shill accounts to post fake reviews about guitars he painted to try to stir up more business but got called out on that as well. Guy is a Grade A tool in my book.

 

[PeteLaramee]

What is it with every Ibanez cloner though being a wack job and not trustworthy?????? I know Sims is one hell of a painter and has sold beautiful bodies but heard one bad review.....could have been that the kid was an idiot though.

Dude check out http://www.simswarning.com if you want to get more info on that guy. So far that I've seen personally, he's been banned from THREE forums I frequent after trying to peddle his wares and then screwing a TON of customers. He lies like crazy, too, both publicly and privately.

I've seen emails posted where his responses directly contradict previous responses he's given a customer. One of the guys on the sevenstring board posted some pics of bodies he was sent by a few other folks for assembly and one of them had a glue joint that was so open he could fit a piece of paper in between as well as chips and burnouts from using dulled CNC tips! Some others even had the bridge routing done in the wrong spot! Found the pics:

Sims is a world-class douchenozzle, he got banned when he lied and screwed a bunch of folks on the sevenstring board and then proceeded to sign up for a troll account under the name "TheTurtleman" (which he has used on other forums too btw) to come back and defend himself again when those pictures were posted! The excuses he came up to defend the shoddy workmanship were classic too. I believe on mg.org he signed up for a few shill accounts to post fake reviews about guitars he painted to try to stir up more business but got called out on that as well. Guy is a Grade A tool in my book.

Yea - I saw those pics in Adam/Elysian's thread. That thread went a long way fast and was on its way to being epic. I saw there was one or two semi off topic posts within the thread so it was closed. That same thread here would go on for months at a time.

 

[highgain510]

Yea - I saw those pics in Adam/Elysian's thread. That thread went a long way fast and was on its way to being epic. I saw there was one or two semi off topic posts within the thread so it was closed. That same thread here would go on for months at a time.

Yeah, I was hoping they would have let it run for a bit longer and see what Sims would come up with next, his excuses cracked me up as there is no justification for sending out a crappy product like that to a customer (especially after months and months of wait time incurred)! His whole pseudo-personality with the other "TheTurtleman" profile he created was hilarious as well since all his posts were worded the same (same types of grammatical and spelling errors) as when he posts under the Sims user name, not to mention he started going off about private issues with other customers that had not been posted publicly so there was no way anyone besides Sims, the actual customers involved or friends of said customers would have known about. Way to blow your cover there, chief! Sims = epic fail incarnate!

 

[PeteLaramee]

Yea - I saw those pics in Adam/Elysian's thread. That thread went a long way fast and was on its way to being epic. I saw there was one or two semi off topic posts within the thread so it was closed. That same thread here would go on for months at a time.

Yeah, I was hoping they would have let it run for a bit longer and see what Sims would come up with next, his excuses cracked me up as there is no justification for sending out a crappy product like that to a customer (especially after months and months of wait time incurred)! His whole pseudo-personality with the other "TheTurtleman" profile he created was hilarious as well since all his posts were worded the same (same types of grammatical and spelling errors) as when he posts under the Sims user name, not to mention he started going off about private issues with other customers that had not been posted publicly so there was no way anyone besides Sims, the actual customers involved or friends of said customers would have known about. Way to blow your cover there, chief! Sims = epic fail incarnate!

Since I'm actually waiting on a Sims body right now I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and not start too much trouble. We'll see what happens down the road.

I'm expecting my Elysian body today or Friday. It's taken over a year, but the difference is I have rec'd over 50 emails from Adam (I'm not exaggerating) several of them had status pics. When his business is up and running again I would have no problem dealing with him again.

BTW - I'm diggin' my AN7.

 

[highgain510]

BTW - I'm diggin' my AN7.

Excellent, glad I could help! Ironically enough with this thread topic, that pickup was pulled from an LACS RGA7 I own!

 

[moltenmetalburn]

That would rule but I have a feeling the prices would be at least as nuts as Jackson's cs.

...or ESP

was more like what i was thinking.

im pricing a custom shop right now, id expect it to be in the $4,000 range easily.

It's starting to get where for the price of a 'custom shop' instrument from a large company, you can have a small builder go crazy and save some money. No, it won't be a major company and you could lose your shirt on resale, but still...

another option would be to buy all the parts for your custom creation from Warmoth or a parts place, and then pay a luthier to assemble it.

Pete

+1 on the parts and pro assemble job.

What is it with every Ibanez cloner though being a wack job and not trustworthy?????? I know Sims is one hell of a painter and has sold beautiful bodies but heard one bad review.....could have been that the kid was an idiot though.

I ordered an unfinished mahogany RG7 body from Sims on July 22nd. He told me it would be 2-4 weeks and I'm still waiting for it. He hasn't returned my emails for over 2 weeks (he's never returned my emails in a timely manner). He goes out of his way to NOT give you his phone #. The one time he called me I wrote down his # from my caller ID, but I must've wrote it down incorrectly because it's no longer in service. Now you can go on sevenstring.org and there are threads and threads complaining about similar situations. I'm just glad I didn't splurge on a pricey finish...who knows how much longer it would be or how much $ I'd be screwed out of.

See???? I thought he had his stuff together too.

I can't believe one of the most popular guitar makers out there do not have good people cloning them

Try Jim Donahue at Noah James Guitars, I have never heard a bad thing about him or his work and he designed the Jem for Vai during his time at Ibanez.

 

[bunghole]

ET guitars? they any good?

 

[kasperjensen]

I had a look at that Sims website, and I was very intrigued until I read all the bad reviews... and even that dedicated site to warn people off him...
I am not one to judge, but there cant be that much smoke without a fire. So I will stay away from that one, me thinks.

Ruokangas seems like the best one here in Europe (I am not really willing to pay the import duty from the US... its a right stinger! I bought a Carvin Quad X pre on eBay for $400, and the customs department charged me $380 to release it!).
So I might just have to save up a big pile of cash, and send it back home to Scandinavia!
The only issue I have with their shop is their headstocks... I dont find them appealing at all, and Juha was reluctant to change it or exclude his name from the top of the headstock.
Now, I understand that you want to put a stamp on your masterpiece... I understand that fully. But I dont know if I would be willing to make that compromise if I was to spend 8000 euros ($12000!) (It would be that pricey because it would be a very special custom job, so I appreciate that it would it cost a few bucks )

But I think I will start by saving that last chunk of money... and do a lot of research.
Anyone know any other good custom shops in Europe?

 

[ihave27frets]

The funny thing is, A lot of people would be both surprised and disappointed and what the current ibanez custom shop will and wont do.

Theres a reason why you don't really see artists with crazy customs.

 

[Ayrton]

The LACS charges crazy money for customs. I have a friend who is an endorser and all he wanted was a custom fretboard. After getting a quote from the LACS, he went to an independent.

 

[Code001]

BTW - I'm diggin' my AN7.

 

[kasperjensen]

The LACS charges crazy money for customs. I have a friend who is an endorser and all he wanted was a custom fretboard. After getting a quote from the LACS, he went to an independent.

So the LACS is only open to endorsed artists, yet they get charged an obscene amount of money?