My missing custom ESP order, ESP staff please read

Updated
EXPcustom

I am going to go ahead and make this public as I hope to have a resolution to this issue and I hope my custom shop ESP guitar I paid for is not out there or given away to some ESP employee, VIP or dealer. As many of you know I was friends with Armand Crump (Slayer's headtech) and people in the Slayer camp. I had worked out a deal between Jeff, Armand and me for a one off custom order guitar. This order was placed in late 2011/ early 2012 shortly after  the release of the Jeff Hanneman Eclipse was announced. I also have E-mails between me and Armand documenting this deal and showing I had paid for it, but that's not important I will pay again if I have to I just want to get my guitar since it's the only thing I would have left of our relationship.

Shortly after Armand's passing I was told by the person in charge of Armand's estate/gear at the time (Scott) that after his passing my ESP custom shop order would be fulfilled. Sent him proof showing I had paid for and had taken care of this on my end with Armand. I know months had passed and Armand's girlfriend had taken full control of the gear or what was left of it. I had attempted to have her communicate with ESP on the status of my order with no luck.

It is now coming up on six years and I would like to know where my guitar is, it was a silverburst Hanneman Eclipse with 24 frets, tune o matic bridge and deaths head inlays. I had to get Jeff some WWII stuff as well so he would approve the order so Armand could place it.

Unfortunatly the only people I know who were involved with this deal are deceased now but I figured I would be patient and wait and something or someone would contact me letting me know about the status of my guitar. So please if anyone from ESP is reading this help me get my guitar and like I said I have proof and E-mails showing this was taken care of on my end. If I have to pay cash again since the parties are deceased than fine I am ok with that but I just want my guitar that I had to get Armand and Jeff's approval of before I could order it.

It would be the only thing that I have to show that all three of us had collaborated on and the only thing I have to show for our friendship. I know I am not a Big Four artist but just a fan that had some good friends. I remember even Jeff was curious how this guitar would come out looking as he was interested in doing another custom order similar to it. So please if someone from ESP is reading this please speak with or show them this post to the ESP VPs or Presidents Matt or Makoto and help me get my guitar, like I said it's not about the money I will pay again if I need to but I had to collaborate with Jeff and Armand to approve the specs and get the greenlight on this guitar. It would be the only thing left showing that I had at one time in a creative manner collaborated with these artists.

Edited to add: I intend on keeping this guitar for as long as I am alive and will sign whatever NDA or agreement/contract I need to in order to get my guitar I had collaborated on with my friends.

HateEvent

Bumping this as I presume you haven’t had any feedback?

EXPcustom
HateEvent wrote:

Bumping this as I presume you haven’t had any feedback?

Not yet... I have a feeling this guitar is out there somewhere and the crappy thing is I paid for it.

Tondog

What happened after you paid for it? Presumably you have some form of a receipt for the custom build, or were you trusting Armand to remember all the details and recite them to ESP faithfully?

Second question pertains to what would make this not a build ESP would do normally for you?!

Third, what WWII stuff did Jeff want that he couldn't possibly get on his own? He was in some "inside" circles of that collecing realm as it was and could have likely gotten just about anything he wanted with full assurances of authenticity from those groups. There is virtually nothing SS that can be bought anymore that hasn't been faked a thousand times over in the last 15 years. I don't even look twice anymore at most of it because the fakes are so good.

EXPcustom
Tondog wrote:

What happened after you paid for it? Presumably you have some form of a receipt for the custom build, or were you trusting Armand to remember all the details and recite them to ESP faithfully?

Second question pertains to what would make this not a build ESP would do normally for you?!

Third, what WWII stuff did Jeff want that he couldn't possibly get on his own? He was in some "inside" circles of that collecing realm as it was and could have likely gotten just about anything he wanted with full assurances of authenticity from those groups. There is virtually nothing SS that can be bought anymore that hasn't been faked a thousand times over in the last 15 years. I don't even look twice anymore at most of it because the fakes are so good.

First of all yes I have the order sheet and even have an E-mail with Armand and Matt confirming a spec on this build, rather not say what spec on a public forum but it's an Eclipse so if you're bright you can figure it out, if there was a question of balance like I said, I would pay again to get this guitar but I have documentation showing it was paid for by Armand. Normally Armand would deliver the guitar to me but after I paid for this one he couldn't deliver it because he is no longer in the world of the living. Also you can read my first post explaining the evidence and E-mails I have.

Second, go try an order a guitar with deathshead and SS runes, tell me what ESP says to you. Also I am not a top endorser or employed by the big four in anyway. 

Anyone of the deathshead guitars you have seen in public hands either went through me or Armand's hands at one point.

When it comes to militaria I have some choice stuff no one else can or could get. I am one of few people with a California legal SVD Dragunov and a real Russian made Ak with original barrel. There was less than a 100 of these ever imported. I also have connections through family in Europe and lots of Waffen SS officers were passing away in the 2000's in Austria and Germany. So what you have is huge lots of uniforms with photographs and documetation including a documented SS marked Luger. Anyways it doesn't matter the deal was between us three but that's all I will say on that. It's not like I'm one of these guys coming on the forums lying about this and that or bullshitting trying to get a free handout. I've been around for years and gotten people guitars they only dreamed of owning because there were no other means of getting them.

Also no Jeff was not in some "inside" circles, most of the major collectors never heard of him. I know because I had asked them. Jeff had some nice stuff but there was no "Hanneman" collection everyone was in awe of or knew about compared to what these other inner circle guys had, (no bad boys) lol.

Tondog

I think you misinterpret my questions as somehow being adversarial or confrontational and that is not the case at all. I was genuinely wondering. I know the situation with Armand, knew that he died, and knew that you and he had some cool stuff between the two of you for sure.

As far as the guitar was concerned, yeah I thought it odd that after you had an order sheet done and confirmed, someone there (Matt presumably) would have honored such a thing! I didn't know you couldn't get deaths head inlays though?! It seems more than a little stupid that they wouldn't be available to anyone ballsy enough to do it because it certainly wasn't a Hanneman patented design! Did Jeff ask that no one else could get them like the middle finger inlay stuff, or is it just a "cultural sensitivity" thing? If it was the latter, I'd be scratching my head for sure!

There was an "old coot" at the Oklahoma militaria show who had a HUGE display of WWI/WWII German stuff that I salivated over for at least an hour. He displayed a picture of himself with Hanneman and when I asked about it, he said that "Jeff had some of his stuff, and that this is how they met." He said he'd never seen a Slayer show before. Given the provenance of this said "old coot" (he was probably 60) I believed him that Jeff had gotten stuff from him in the past. He also said that Lemmy had contacted him about a knife that Lemmy thought was cool, but one that was readily available, and heavily faked. He thought that was pretty funny and rounded one up for him. He knew who Lemmy was though and said that Lemmy preferred the fake stuff to the real stuff.

I didn't think you were bullshitting anyone in the least....genuinely curious, mostly about the German militaria. People that have that stuff are increasingly rare these days. The VAST majority of SS stuff is post war stuff pieced together, or was looted out of Russian museums after the cold war ended.

EXPcustom
Tondog wrote:

I think you misinterpret my questions as somehow being adversarial or confrontational and that is not the case at all. I was genuinely wondering. I know the situation with Armand, knew that he died, and knew that you and he had some cool stuff between the two of you for sure.

As far as the guitar was concerned, yeah I thought it odd that after you had an order sheet done and confirmed, someone there (Matt presumably) would have honored such a thing! I didn't know you couldn't get deaths head inlays though?! It seems more than a little stupid that they wouldn't be available to anyone ballsy enough to do it because it certainly wasn't a Hanneman patented design! Did Jeff ask that no one else could get them like the middle finger inlay stuff, or is it just a "cultural sensitivity" thing? If it was the latter, I'd be scratching my head for sure!

There was an "old coot" at the Oklahoma militaria show who had a HUGE display of WWI/WWII German stuff that I salivated over for at least an hour. He displayed a picture of himself with Hanneman and when I asked about it, he said that "Jeff had some of his stuff, and that this is how they met." He said he'd never seen a Slayer show before. Given the provenance of this said "old coot" (he was probably 60) I believed him that Jeff had gotten stuff from him in the past. He also said that Lemmy had contacted him about a knife that Lemmy thought was cool, but one that was readily available, and heavily faked. He thought that was pretty funny and rounded one up for him. He knew who Lemmy was though and said that Lemmy preferred the fake stuff to the real stuff.

I didn't think you were bullshitting anyone in the least....genuinely curious, mostly about the German militaria. People that have that stuff are increasingly rare these days. The VAST majority of SS stuff is post war stuff pieced together, or was looted out of Russian museums after the cold war ended.

There were a bunch of prior orders done, like the Heiniken Erik has was originally my order. That white Hanneman with the deathshead inlays was another order for one of Jeff's close friends. The Heiniken graphic with deathshead inlays was originally another order for one of Jeff's friends. Anyways I just want the guitar I ordered and attempted to go through proper channels and am hoping Matt or Makoto at ESP sees this and will help track down or get my order.

This is a public forum and I am not really going to go into more details or post more information here especially about their policies when it comes to culturally sensitive stuff. I am hoping this can be resolved privately and quietly. 

 

Anyways I don't take any offense to your questions, I have had a few people recently try to call me out and claim I had no idea what I was talking about or didn't know anyone.

 

Reuben G.

So have you heard anything from ESP?

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