So what exactly happened? Did Dewayne personally know the luthier, and he stopped by the guy's house to get your stuff back? How did the Flying V end up in someone else's hands? I'm glad you got your stuff back!!
"The guy actually came through, so I do have a good judge of character" Dude.. he sold at least one of your guitars, destroyed and returned a few, and half of them are still unaccounted for.... How is that coming through?
@@denismacfarlane255 He did say that, but as someone who has had experience with someone exactly like this I never sent out that many valuable items at once, a little at a time. 10 projects + others for one "luthier" to do by himself is way out of his league, that should be pretty obvious.
The whole time I'm watching this, I'm thinking of my best friend and his Gibson EB3L bass. At a gig, Michael had broken the neck over some guy's head who was trying to dance with his girlfriend. A guitar shop in Raleigh had sent the guitar off to Gibson to be repaired. (He had them make it fretless while they were at it.) When it came back, Michael didn't have enough money to pay for it, so he left it at the shop while he got his money straight. This took a few months, and by the time Michael had the cash, the guitar shop went out of business, and the owner vanished. For over 5 years, Michael had no idea where his guitar was. Until I moved to Raleigh. I did quite a bit of detective work, and tracked down the guitar shop owner. I found out he was laying low to avoid the IRS. Michael and I showed up at his door one Saturday morning, and when he opened it, Michael said, "Where's my guitar?" The guy was somewhat taken aback, but quickly recovered and said, "The bass! I have it." It turns out that when the sheriff padlocked the shop, the owner broke into the shop and "stole" the guitars that belonged to other people so they wouldn't be sold at a county auction. He had them all in storage. We met the owner later that day, paid him what was owed, and Michael had his prized bass back. Years later, after Michael's funeral, we all went back to his house. As soon as we walked in the door, his widow went into the back room and rummaged around for a bit. When she came back out, she handed me that guitar, and said, "I was told to make sure I gave this to you." It's the most precious thing I own.
Don't confuse positivity with gleeful stupidity. Example: Positivity - I found my stolen guitars, but I'm sure I'm going to take them back because I contacted the police. Gleeful stupidity - The guy that stole and scammed me sent my old guitars all ruined. Good on him! I'm just waiting for him to ship the rest, hehe!
Yeah that's ridiculous I haven't followed this whole situation too closely but I've seen enough to know that he was basically in the middle of being whole sale swindled when the criminal got too sick to keep going lol
Regardless of a medical condition, I know alot of people who take stock when in that condition begin to grow and start to work towards getting into heaven. The medical condition he has in in his head imagine if everyone stated to burn people every time you get diagnosed. The guy is sick in the head using that excuse. He is a criminal he could have done the right thing and got his business off the ground. How many people would have used him in the future? He went for the easy money and lost a opportunity to do alot of work for a lot of folks, I hope he goes to jail because they will take care of him, I am a little hot because I have felt this pain first hand.
Not so much I know. Poor guy seems lost sometimes. I do like his joy concerning musical instruments. Needs a business manager of some kind to bounce things off of.
@@DFDalton1962 aint a d@mn thing passive about my aggression. You know, it's a funny a thing. All these bad a$$ tough guys on the internet, I never seem to come across them in real life. I'd like love to, but no one ever talks any sh!t like that while looking in me in the eyes. Funny how that works isnt it, ma'am
"I don't want anybody else to be hurt in this whole situation." Then you have an obligation to prosecute the offenders so they can't screw anyone else the way they screwed you.
Seeing these guitars in this state makes me physically ill, especially since you never got the Flying V back. Health problems or not, the dude did you wrong. He should have said straight up, "hey, man, I'm not doing well, is there any chance I can send these back to you?". I'd maybe call The Guitologist, I know he restores guitars, may make for a cool crossover series between your two TH-cam channels.
Dude this man sold your most valuable guitar, and hasn't finished a single project in three years, and you still haven't gotten half of the guitars you sent to him... *you got got*
Love your content. But you do not have a good judge of character. No pickups, serial numbers scratched off, some have been sold or are still missing. He completely ripped you off. I don't understand why you don't take legal action... He stole all the valuable hardware and destroyed most of these. Seriously sue this man.
@@elymolloy8333 I'm picking up on that, too. I've seen enough in this world to know the rest of the luthier's story is none of our business, but it might be a very disturbing tale.
Totally confused. So what exactly happened? 1) "The guy actually came through, so I do have a good judge of character" 2) "I got my stolen guitars back" Both can't be true. More details!
To summarize: - He got scammed by a guy claiming to be a luither, and for the longest time he lost contact with him due the guy being "in the hospital" and having "severe medial problems". - He found one of his stolen guitars on reverb, and then contacted the "Luither" again - He got half of them back in this video, however he's so niave that he doesn't want to do anything about this guy
"I Never Thought I'd See This Guitar Again"… in 1983, I had a guitar stolen out of a broken-down band bus (yeah, I know, what are the odds?) that I reported to the county sheriff. Two YEARS later, I get a call from the country sheriff's office, saying, " We think we've found your guitar…" which I had totally written off. Long story short, I drove out there, recovered my stolen guitar, and thanked them profusely. Epilogue: I traded that guitar for some other guitar. That stolen guitar was a 1965 Duo-Sonic. Go ahead and kick my ass, since I've already done it mentally a thousand times.
Mooseboy08 I had a similar experience to you. My car was stolen in 1984 which contained my 1962 Precision Bass. The car was recovered a few weeks later at the car park of a local airport with the bass still there and undamaged! Like you I sold the bass about ten years later and have regretted it ever since!
It’s funny when he sees these and says “this isn’t to bad” and it’s sanded all to shit and ruined, but get one with barely a ding on the bottom of it you can barely see and he says “ohh I’ll have to email him and get some money back on this one “ 😅
That luthier can’t be above board if your Flying V ended up for sale. Surprised you let the new owner sell it, you could have recovered that one and given him some cash if it made you feel better. I’d be worried about the remaining guitars the luthier has.
butting this is one of those times where he is still working to get the other guitars back from the luthier so he has 2 options pick a fight and hope to force a return or play nice and work with someone that "got in over their head" with work and complications and hope to make the best of it
@@wmose3694 Getting the police involved significantly changes the incentives for the "luthier", which in turn changes things for Trogly as well. The luthier is already liable to answer for the Flying V and returning the rest should not be a matter of favor but a matter of, ultimately, not having to answer for further crimes.
Yep, sure could. Trogy's not into it. He seems to pick his fights subtley or peacefully. He seems well funded. For some, $15k is just crap at the end of the day. God bless him either way.
So, he took all your expensive guitars, destroyed them, held them for 2 years and shipped them all back with less value. At least you got some of them back.
Stop letting this guy walk over you man, everybody down here is concerned for your wallet and guitars. He scammed you out of 13 guitars and destroyed most of them, nevermind the ones he sold, he’s not a ‘friend’ or ‘business pal’. Go take legel action, this guy shouldn’t be allowed to capitalize on forgiving and nice people like you. It’s up to you now, if you don’t take legal action there’s a chance you wont ever see your other guitars again. Even worse than that, other people like you could also be a future victim of this guy. C’mon man, I’m telling you now, you’re gonna regret NOT doing it later on.
I laughed pretty hard when he said the Slash LP was "the worst mistake of his entire career". My man managed to get FIFTEEN GIBSON GUITARS STOLEN BY A SHITTY LUTHIER, but still made worst mistakes than that. Some people are just naive as fuuuuuuuck.
@@JohnPaulSheets Didn't think about that one, did you? Yes, he makes a pretty penny in his business but if he keeps getting screwed (Which seems to be a habit of his) he'll be penniless.
I would've shown up to an empty house. The guitars are scattered in many locations (for various reasons.) The trip would've been fruitless. It took 2 years just to finally get a pickup/drop off of what he had on hand
The Trogly's Guitar Show gotcha, I’m about to watch the video right now. Great content as usual, have a good night. I hope you get everything back that you’ve ever been burned on.
@@Trog Big congrats on recovering what you have so far, and good luck on future episodes of more recoveries hopefully. As for the last one you showed, we must name this one "The Fake Pit" it's just too appropriate. 😆
Shout-out to the guy from Gibson Custom Shop who helped with the recovery. I saw something the other day where Gibson will be giving some guitars through their Gibson Gives charity to help local musicians who lost instruments in the Nashville tornado. It's nice to see a company give back in times of tragedy.
@@Trog I don't understand your explanation of events. Has the original tech given your guitars to other people for no apparent reason or is someone else effectively handling stolen goods and that's who you are getting them from?
He didn't come through. He still has half your guitars and I'm betting you'll never see them again. I'm betting he's sold off the one's you didn't get back.
I know this is a year old comment but my theory is this guy sanded them to pretend like he was working on them. My guess is that he sanded and parted all of them out just to convince someone as naive as trogly that he’s doing the work he promised And maybe his original intention was to steal the parts but put them back when trogly contacted him This could be completely wrong though, just a thought I had to justify it
Just a question “ why don’t you find a local luthier that you can work with and maybe partner on some of these project guitars ? I always try to keep any business local when I do things for work , so I have some control. Good luck love the stories
for the life of me, I will never understand why anybody would want grey-coloured guitars. Just look soulless. Now that said, I'm glad something good came of this and some good folks got their gear back.
This dude is around guitars enough, he should learn how to work on them. Most of the tools you need will last a lifetime and after that initial investment you can make a little extra scratch working on other people’s instruments. And you never have to pay a luthier again. Guitars are hardly rocket science!
Dan & Co. would knock that chopped RD out of the park. It's really not that terrible of a fix either. Props to DeWayne. I was hoping one I want was in this vid.
You have lost your rear end on those, I am afraid. Not much more than firewood at this point. And notice how the guy you say you knew would come through did not include the valuable pickups. You should get a warrant and have him put in jail.
Spanky McCallister Sounds like he probably could, legally speaking. I’m not sure it would accomplish anything, though. Seems like the guy’s trying to collect them all to get them back to Trogly... is getting the cops involved _at this point_ really going to speed things up? Personally I’d wait to get the rest of the guitars back first and then talk to him about the pickups. If he disappears again, I’d probably feel differently. Depends on what the “medical issues” are.
Thats what I thought. The pickups, tuners n other hardware no doubt ended up on ebay. It's common practice there to part out guitars for far more than a complete guitar would sell for n the parts would be untraceable if reported stolen.
@@brendanmanning9683 I bought a beautiful Grote Les Paul's and put a lot of work into the electronics and frets and in my opinion is better sounding and playing than a guitar 10 times its cost. I'm not a slave to a name. I just like a solid build and I make it my own.
chrisdigital yeah I like that I collect Ltd lp styles because I find they play better then Gibson’s or esp or anything. I wouldn’t mind having a real les paul but until I find a deal I like imma hold off
chrisdigital yeah honestly even some of the chibsons are really nice guitars, they just need electronics replaced and they sound great. Also the firefly les Paul copies are a huge steal for the price, better than most epi’s in my opinion
I don't get it either.. For the price of just one of those old, beat up Gibson's missing half of their parts, you could buy a new Epiphone Les Paul, three Chibsons and a couple of LP kit guitars.
this is giving me flashbacks to when I thought I could mod my guitars as a kid...Granted I was only tearing apart Squiers and secondhand Epiphones, but still...ptsd!
@@drkronenbongsoddities4969 And he said he'd sell that one for $1500? It had as much hardware in it as my purse. It'd probably cost that much to restore. Then you'd have 3K in a stock Les Paul Whatever-It-Is. Ridiculous, especially considering I just got a 2010 Gibson Les Paul Studio in Fireburst for $600, that hasn't been torn apart, stolen, then returned to me years later as firewood. And mine has a broken & repaired headstock, the most authentic Gibson relic job ya can get! She's so crunchy, even her neck went Crunch!
I could see it. Or maybe he started all these projects and ended up just losing steam on finishing em, so is using the scraps for views and plans on selling em. 🤷🏽
When you get it share with me. I want to send my guitars to him as well with you. Maybe we can both go and send are guitars to him together.I have a car, Split gas?. ;)
What a great guy you are, such a really nice thing to do to sort that chaps guitar for him. You are a gentleman of the highest order, brilliant gesture
Man, I wouldn’t be laughing if I got ripped off that bad. What you got is a pile of junk back. That guy is a crook, medical or not he should be in jail. All these guitar people that get scammed are so understanding. I would have pressed charges in fear this would happen to someone else.
Was literally watching your previous video about this and you can only imagine my surprise when, at the exact point you said the line at the start of this video, I get a notification that you had just posted this video.
I know EXACTLY how Jake feels, in 2005 my 1993 Les Paul standard birdseye cherry burst was stolen when my apartment was broken in to. Two years later a detective with GPD put it back in my hands… It was like a family member came back from the dead, I just hugged that guitar and cried….
You have a real soft spot for shitty guitars. I'm entirely confused by why someone would want to steal those to begin with. Glad you got them back. I guess I'll have research your earlier videos to get the backstory on these guitars. New to this channel. Did you buy them that hacked up?
I’m relatively new to your channel and I have to ask, why are you so passive on getting your guitars back? Why don’t you file police reports why didn’t you do everything you could do the track this guy down and get your guitars back? You seem to be handling this in a very unprofessional way. Did you get any money for the flying V? Why are you so willing to get rolled
I bought an early 60s eb3 off Ebay at least 15 yrs ago. No finish, few parts but I got it for next to nothing, I was so proud that I got a killer deal and caught a sleeper auction. I was amazed when it showed up,... roughly 2 years later.
Center Stage Vintage Guitars in Noblesville Indiana. Kevin is a master luthier and an amazing person. He’s done a lot of high profile builds, repairs, and relics.
Was that his illness? Tweeking out? Why would you tear apart and sand down so many guitars at once? One project at a time is how most would of handled your guitars. Sorry for your loss Trogly Austin!
Also, for your knowledge you use sand paper to remove paint or glue on a guitar. 800 is a bit risky you can blow through. 1000-2000 will take forever on spray paint especially if you wet them (I work wet because it prevents dust as well as dipping my paper cleans the debris off the guitar and sand paper so it works more effectively) but less chance of burn through. In either case you will need to touch up spots once the covering paint coat is stripped. Note, they painted it for a reason to cover something. I just count on burn through and use 800 then up to 1000 for removal. When it is removed I then repair and put a nice new clear on top sand and polish. I put thicker clear on all my guitars than would come from the factory because it really does not mess up your tone, looks better and protects it more! The myth thinner coats are better comes from companies trying to save money on workmanship and materials cutting it as thin as they can using the guise of it magically making the tone better. No, it just makes the guitar more fragile to minor damages.
Good evening Austin! I am happy for you getting your guitars back finally! I wish you good luck in their restoration, and or their sales. You must have some sense of satisfaction that they have returned to you, soak it in while you can, this seldom happens. Please have an excellent and awesome evening! 🙂
That's what I meant I get what he is claiming but its just so dumb and he is so happy, something is pretty weird about this guy. It's like watching someone drown and they are smiling and laughing. Just weird.
@@God4445 i think he ended up with all these shitty guitars and made up the story so he could make the videos about the guitars. He'd have tens of thousands of dollars just in the guitars, and even more in all the work he was supposedly having done. I don't believe any of it.
My first bass- a transparent emerald green ‘83 Precision Elite bass- was stolen from me when I was in middle school. I still miss that thing 30-plus years later. Any day you can recover something that was taken from you is a good one.
He had apparently completed a few guitar projects for Trogly and shipped them out to the customers so Trogly started to trust him. Trogly kind of went overboard with sending him 14 guitars though. Maybe 2 at a time if you trust him.
More money that sense apparently. I don't think this story is true anyway. Why would he not just called the police and get them all back or at least sue the guy? He's far too happy with getting robbed. Probably bullshit.
14 is beyond excessive. That would take forever for one guy to do from what it sounds like he wanted done. There's luthiers that don't even do 14 instruments total in a year. Even at a month a guitar that is over a year. And who knows if he has other projects as well. If they were sent with the idea of working them all to finish and then sending them all back at once, you should expect to be waiting a really long time even without other issues or work compounding the time.
Oddly, though you seem so happy, this is probably the most depressing episode I’ve seen. From losing on the black Firebird to the ridiculous shape he returned those guitars in. My heart goes out to you. He really seems to owe you thousands.
Literally watched your stolen Flying V video 3 hours ago, watched a movie, and this one popped up under my suggestions. I didn't have to wait long to complete the story arc. I'm glad you got most of your collection back :)
If Dewayne was one of my brother Knights I would award him the Jewel of Honor. What a great video.. Hope for a few restoration videos, you might be able to recoup your investments and grow your channel too. Provided of course that utube doesn't demonitize your content....
I'm so happy you got some of your guitars back, The "Fakepit" episodes were so heart breaking... you are doing a wonderful service posting these videos and being there for others in a similar situation.
Hey can you do a review on the B&G little sister Crossroads. I am interested in one but there aren’t many reviews on the guitar. Love the Chanel too by the way.
You have a kind soul and yes sometimes we pay a heavy price for trying to be the best we can be. Never let others change who you are there are too few like you in this world. It hurts when others do not have the same moral compass as good people. The World We Live In will never change never let it change a kind heart.
A red 1978 Les Paul Custom was stolen from me while living in London about 6 years ago. I know damn well who it was too. I reported to the police and it never turned up. I had owned it for almost 20 years when it was stolen. It had been repainted by the original owner, and all the original hardware had been replaced, so I got a tremendous deal on it when I bought it. I was a teenager gigging out and that was the first big spend I had made on a guitar. It's on a few albums not many people have heard from the late 90s lol. It had been on three continents with me, around the world twice, and well taken care of. I never felt nervous about bringing it out. It sounded great, and played better than any other guitar I've ever played. When I realised it was gone that hit me pretty hard. It still eats at me some days. It took me a few years, but I managed to find a replacement, a Standard gold top. To be honest it sounds better than that red custom did, but doesn't play quite as nice. That ebony fretboard was a lover. Somewhere out there Goldie has a brother he'll never meet. I just hope he ended up somewhere getting played some decent music.
If you're interested in any of these project guitars check Reverb for Availability - reverb.grsm.io/CurrentInventory
💰New to Reverb? Get $10 on Me ➡️ reverb.grsm.io/earn10
0:18 - Recap/Updates
2:05 - Unboxing #1
4:48 - Unboxing #2
6:44 - Unboxing #3
8:48 - Unboxing #4
10:48 - Unboxing #5
12:47 - Unboxing #6
14:30 - Unboxing #7
📹 Mentioned Videos:
Stolen Flying V: th-cam.com/video/bzQiT0VR10U/w-d-xo.html
Rhino Les Paul Custom: th-cam.com/video/FzYiLdfn4Xk/w-d-xo.html
Jake's Band: m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=285741218760576&ref=content_filter
The Trogly's Guitar Show would you sell the fakepit les Paul?
Yes I called it a fakepit on purpose 😁
The Trogly's Guitar Show OMG!!!!!!!! Yesssssssssssss!!!!!! I’m sooo happy for you and I couldn’t wait for this video and now it’s out!!!!
So what exactly happened? Did Dewayne personally know the luthier, and he stopped by the guy's house to get your stuff back? How did the Flying V end up in someone else's hands? I'm glad you got your stuff back!!
I'm interested in buying the customs shoot me a email with the prices fourfost@sbcglobal.net
I want to buy and restore one of those customs
"The guy actually came through, so I do have a good judge of character"
Dude.. he sold at least one of your guitars, destroyed and returned a few, and half of them are still unaccounted for....
How is that coming through?
Yeah I really don't want to be pessimistic but this is kinda fucked. Trogly is being a little too nice about this, the dude royally fucked him.
I can't believe he was dumb enough to send him more than one at a time. Who sends 10+ guitars to a guy who hasn't even finished one? lol
Dickleson i think he mentioned in a video prior he worked with him before and he built a few and sent them back so thats why he sent the lot.
@@denismacfarlane255 He did say that, but as someone who has had experience with someone exactly like this I never sent out that many valuable items at once, a little at a time. 10 projects + others for one "luthier" to do by himself is way out of his league, that should be pretty obvious.
@@dickleson7776 exactly, someone got the barrel
The whole time I'm watching this, I'm thinking of my best friend and his Gibson EB3L bass.
At a gig, Michael had broken the neck over some guy's head who was trying to dance with his girlfriend. A guitar shop in Raleigh had sent the guitar off to Gibson to be repaired. (He had them make it fretless while they were at it.)
When it came back, Michael didn't have enough money to pay for it, so he left it at the shop while he got his money straight. This took a few months, and by the time Michael had the cash, the guitar shop went out of business, and the owner vanished. For over 5 years, Michael had no idea where his guitar was.
Until I moved to Raleigh.
I did quite a bit of detective work, and tracked down the guitar shop owner. I found out he was laying low to avoid the IRS.
Michael and I showed up at his door one Saturday morning, and when he opened it, Michael said, "Where's my guitar?"
The guy was somewhat taken aback, but quickly recovered and said, "The bass! I have it."
It turns out that when the sheriff padlocked the shop, the owner broke into the shop and "stole" the guitars that belonged to other people so they wouldn't be sold at a county auction. He had them all in storage.
We met the owner later that day, paid him what was owed, and Michael had his prized bass back.
Years later, after Michael's funeral, we all went back to his house. As soon as we walked in the door, his widow went into the back room and rummaged around for a bit. When she came back out, she handed me that guitar, and said, "I was told to make sure I gave this to you."
It's the most precious thing I own.
Incredible
Patrick Jones what a story a man. 🙌🏼
wow
That's so wholesome man
What a story, Man ❤
Really love how positive this dude is. If I ever die you're invited to my funeral. You're like the Ned Flanders of guitar enthusiasts...
Hey neighbor, check out this Gib-diddly-ibson! Jesus is watching.
only if there's a LP in the coffin ;)
Craig Smith pray authentic!
Yeah sure he's dead, but now he can't say anything negative, but I'm sure he wouldn't have anyway..LOL
Don't confuse positivity with gleeful stupidity. Example: Positivity - I found my stolen guitars, but I'm sure I'm going to take them back because I contacted the police. Gleeful stupidity - The guy that stole and scammed me sent my old guitars all ruined. Good on him! I'm just waiting for him to ship the rest, hehe!
medical problems or not, that dude is a criminal.
That’s easily grand theft. The dude should be in jail.
Indeed
Yeah that's ridiculous I haven't followed this whole situation too closely but I've seen enough to know that he was basically in the middle of being whole sale swindled when the criminal got too sick to keep going lol
heres his reverb page reverb.com/shop/tuckermusic
Regardless of a medical condition, I know alot of people who take stock when in that condition begin to grow and start to work towards getting into heaven. The medical condition he has in in his head imagine if everyone stated to burn people every time you get diagnosed. The guy is sick in the head using that excuse. He is a criminal he could have done the right thing and got his business off the ground. How many people would have used him in the future? He went for the easy money and lost a opportunity to do alot of work for a lot of folks, I hope he goes to jail because they will take care of him, I am a little hot because I have felt this pain first hand.
“I do have a good judge of character” .... as we say in the South, bless your heart
Not so much I know. Poor guy seems lost sometimes. I do like his joy concerning musical instruments. Needs a business manager of some kind to bounce things off of.
Amen, at least he got something back
@@sgtmac62 Yeah too much money not enuff brains
@@DFDalton1962 who the fack you calling a coward, keyboard warrior? Guarantee you wouldn't talk that sh!t to my face, boy
@@DFDalton1962 aint a d@mn thing passive about my aggression. You know, it's a funny a thing. All these bad a$$ tough guys on the internet, I never seem to come across them in real life. I'd like love to, but no one ever talks any sh!t like that while looking in me in the eyes. Funny how that works isnt it, ma'am
"I don't want anybody else to be hurt in this whole situation." Then you have an obligation to prosecute the offenders so they can't screw anyone else the way they screwed you.
THIS!!!
Exactly!!
Hmm. The man has a point.
Very true. Still hasn't happened as far as I know.
Seeing these guitars in this state makes me physically ill, especially since you never got the Flying V back. Health problems or not, the dude did you wrong. He should have said straight up, "hey, man, I'm not doing well, is there any chance I can send these back to you?".
I'd maybe call The Guitologist, I know he restores guitars, may make for a cool crossover series between your two TH-cam channels.
That guy usually doesn't put up with massive bullshitters... I think he'd just call this guy a retard and mock him
Dude this man sold your most valuable guitar, and hasn't finished a single project in three years, and you still haven't gotten half of the guitars you sent to him... *you got got*
Love your content. But you do not have a good judge of character. No pickups, serial numbers scratched off, some have been sold or are still missing. He completely ripped you off. I don't understand why you don't take legal action... He stole all the valuable hardware and destroyed most of these. Seriously sue this man.
theres probbablymore hes NOT telling us,anyone with half a brain would have
Can't squeeze water from a rock man. "Luthier" probably has no assets of value. Would cost more to sue than what he would likely get out of it.
@@elymolloy8333 I'm picking up on that, too. I've seen enough in this world to know the rest of the luthier's story is none of our business, but it might be a very disturbing tale.
For all you know, he could be posting these videos to document what happened, so that he can seek damages.
Steve Reaves I think you’re giving him credit he doesn’t deserve.
Totally confused. So what exactly happened?
1) "The guy actually came through, so I do have a good judge of character"
2) "I got my stolen guitars back"
Both can't be true. More details!
To summarize:
- He got scammed by a guy claiming to be a luither, and for the longest time he lost contact with him due the guy being "in the hospital" and having "severe medial problems".
- He found one of his stolen guitars on reverb, and then contacted the "Luither" again
- He got half of them back in this video, however he's so niave that he doesn't want to do anything about this guy
Shout out to DWAYNE from Gibson custom shop. True hero 🤘
He seems to know a lot more about guitars than he does people.
Maybe, we Love guitars. People? Eeh
I'm jealous
@@dank6852 yea, seems like more mo eh than brains
@@dank6852 Eh, if it was special to him and he doesn't want to sell it, he can do whatever mods he wants to it.
Or not....regurgitated over learning does not equal expertise especially in the guitar trade.
Man that "luthier" did some really questionable work on some of those...
I think the luthier is competent enough, but he had other personal issues and took on more projects than he can finish.
Lesson to be learned: only give a luthier one project at a time. 🤔
Nothing is worse than an overwhelmed luthier.
You restore cars? Here's 15 projects. Call me when you're done.
But of course, nothing excuses the guitars being sold or "lost".
If that was a luthier then I'm john carter of mars.
G MinK, very good analogy.
“Good judge of character” !!!! I guarantee you only got your guitars back because you called him out and he doesn’t want to go to jail.
"I Never Thought I'd See This Guitar Again"… in 1983, I had a guitar stolen out of a broken-down band bus (yeah, I know, what are the odds?) that I reported to the county sheriff.
Two YEARS later, I get a call from the country sheriff's office, saying, " We think we've found your guitar…" which I had totally written off. Long story short, I drove out there, recovered my stolen guitar, and thanked them profusely.
Epilogue: I traded that guitar for some other guitar. That stolen guitar was a 1965 Duo-Sonic. Go ahead and kick my ass, since I've already done it mentally a thousand times.
Damn, that's a crazy story arc. Have you tried to track it down at all?
You’re the only person I know to lose a duo-sonic twice
Mooseboy08 I had a similar experience to you. My car was stolen in 1984 which contained my 1962 Precision Bass. The car was recovered a few weeks later at the car park of a local airport with the bass still there and undamaged! Like you I sold the bass about ten years later and have regretted it ever since!
@@gabevaladez8551 lol
I remember trading you out of that guitar. I kept it and sold it 6 months ago for a small fortune. Sorry.
It’s funny when he sees these and says “this isn’t to bad” and it’s sanded all to shit and ruined, but get one with barely a ding on the bottom of it you can barely see and he says “ohh I’ll have to email him and get some money back on this one “ 😅
That luthier can’t be above board if your Flying V ended up for sale. Surprised you let the new owner sell it, you could have recovered that one and given him some cash if it made you feel better.
I’d be worried about the remaining guitars the luthier has.
butting this is one of those times where he is still working to get the other guitars back from the luthier so he has 2 options pick a fight and hope to force a return or play nice and work with someone that "got in over their head" with work and complications and hope to make the best of it
@@wmose3694 Getting the police involved significantly changes the incentives for the "luthier", which in turn changes things for Trogly as well. The luthier is already liable to answer for the Flying V and returning the rest should not be a matter of favor but a matter of, ultimately, not having to answer for further crimes.
absolutely, I'm not the kind of guy to get the police involved in everything, but the police should have been involved long before this point
Yep, sure could. Trogy's not into it. He seems to pick his fights subtley or peacefully. He seems well funded. For some, $15k is just crap at the end of the day. God bless him either way.
@@sgtmac62 He definitely seems like he's rich as fuck, so he's either really gullible, or he's rich as fuck and doesn't care.
If you’re not on drugs, you should be.
DISGRUNTLED DEWEY he ain’t a liar .
Man this is pretty heartbreaking to be honest, so many molested guitars...
Casey Hurd but now he is smarter and will make a good choices
Tj ross For sure. I actually have a couple guitars that suffered the same fate from years ago, it’s a hard lesson to learn.
Austin Brown invest in a vault
@@austinbrown5562 a humidity controlled gun safe would probably do it. Also. A humidity controlled gun safe is probably overkill lol
Casey Hurd, this video is actually painful for me to watch.
So, he took all your expensive guitars, destroyed them, held them for 2 years and shipped them all back with less value. At least you got some of them back.
Stop letting this guy walk over you man, everybody down here is concerned for your wallet and guitars. He scammed you out of 13 guitars and destroyed most of them, nevermind the ones he sold, he’s not a ‘friend’ or ‘business pal’. Go take legel action, this guy shouldn’t be allowed to capitalize on forgiving and nice people like you. It’s up to you now, if you don’t take legal action there’s a chance you wont ever see your other guitars again. Even worse than that, other people like you could also be a future victim of this guy. C’mon man, I’m telling you now, you’re gonna regret NOT doing it later on.
I’m not concerned for his wallet.
I laughed pretty hard when he said the Slash LP was "the worst mistake of his entire career".
My man managed to get FIFTEEN GIBSON GUITARS STOLEN BY A SHITTY LUTHIER, but still made worst mistakes than that. Some people are just naive as fuuuuuuuck.
At the risk of being, “that guy,” he’s probably making way more money than you or I in his, “naivety,” lol
@@JohnPaulSheets He literally sent 15k in guitars to a random, I don't care if he's Bill Gates, he doesn't make good decisions.
@@JohnPaulSheets considering this video online has 325k views I highly doubt he is making back what he lost.
@@JohnPaulSheets Didn't think about that one, did you?
Yes, he makes a pretty penny in his business but if he keeps getting screwed (Which seems to be a habit of his) he'll be penniless.
Sounds like your envious.
Curious why you don’t take a day to go get those guitars that guy has of yours?... $15,000 worth of gear is crazy man, go get all those back
I would've shown up to an empty house. The guitars are scattered in many locations (for various reasons.) The trip would've been fruitless. It took 2 years just to finally get a pickup/drop off of what he had on hand
The Trogly's Guitar Show gotcha, I’m about to watch the video right now. Great content as usual, have a good night. I hope you get everything back that you’ve ever been burned on.
@@Trog Big congrats on recovering what you have so far, and good luck on future episodes of more recoveries hopefully. As for the last one you showed, we must name this one "The Fake Pit" it's just too appropriate. 😆
Shout-out to the guy from Gibson Custom Shop who helped with the recovery. I saw something the other day where Gibson will be giving some guitars through their Gibson Gives charity to help local musicians who lost instruments in the Nashville tornado. It's nice to see a company give back in times of tragedy.
@@Trog I don't understand your explanation of events. Has the original tech given your guitars to other people for no apparent reason or is someone else effectively handling stolen goods and that's who you are getting them from?
He didn't come through. He still has half your guitars and I'm betting you'll never see them again. I'm betting he's sold off the one's you didn't get back.
The guy appears to have a sanding addiction. Who sands a guitar to that level then just moves on to another one just to stop at the same point.
Sanding is the worst part lmao
Batching.
For real... Completely cannibalized the hardware, but why sand them??
I know this is a year old comment but my theory is this guy sanded them to pretend like he was working on them. My guess is that he sanded and parted all of them out just to convince someone as naive as trogly that he’s doing the work he promised
And maybe his original intention was to steal the parts but put them back when trogly contacted him
This could be completely wrong though, just a thought I had to justify it
Why the hell would you sand them anyway? Use a blow gun, nitro peels of perfectly most of the time!
Just a question “ why don’t you find a local luthier that you can work with and maybe partner on some of these project guitars ? I always try to keep any business local when I do things for work , so I have some control. Good luck love the stories
for the life of me, I will never understand why anybody would want grey-coloured guitars. Just look soulless. Now that said, I'm glad something good came of this and some good folks got their gear back.
IMO silver burst looks horrible on any guitar. Not sure why anyone likes that finish. But to each their own I guess...
I could handle a gray guitar with some black and white accents along the way. My favorite color scheme...maybe with some real or baby blue.
@@TimberMoto I agree, looks like it's broken lol idk
The “luthier” is a butcher.
This dude is around guitars enough, he should learn how to work on them. Most of the tools you need will last a lifetime and after that initial investment you can make a little extra scratch working on other people’s instruments. And you never have to pay a luthier again. Guitars are hardly rocket science!
@@lcl7wrkr man
Do collaboration with Stew-Mac to get that guy's Custom finished properly! Dan Elewine and the crew can handle it with ease.
That'd be sweet!
Dan & Co. would knock that chopped RD out of the park. It's really not that terrible of a fix either.
Props to DeWayne. I was hoping one I want was in this vid.
Great idea! Great cross-promotion and Dan's an Ohio guy too!
Why not just do one at a time? Wrecked them all and didn’t finish anything!
You have lost your rear end on those, I am afraid. Not much more than firewood at this point. And notice how the guy you say you knew would come through did not include the valuable pickups. You should get a warrant and have him put in jail.
Spanky McCallister Sounds like he probably could, legally speaking. I’m not sure it would accomplish anything, though. Seems like the guy’s trying to collect them all to get them back to Trogly... is getting the cops involved _at this point_ really going to speed things up? Personally I’d wait to get the rest of the guitars back first and then talk to him about the pickups. If he disappears again, I’d probably feel differently. Depends on what the “medical issues” are.
Thats what I thought. The pickups, tuners n other hardware no doubt ended up on ebay. It's common practice there to part out guitars for far more than a complete guitar would sell for n the parts would be untraceable if reported stolen.
*Your guitar literally gets stolen and sold* him *I feel bad for the dude that stole it and sold it*
I would of kept it
The price people pay for old beat up Gibson or new Gibson's boggles my mind......
Right like I love Gibson looks and I think they’d be easy enough to make play good but Christ it’s hard to get something good for a reasonable price
@@brendanmanning9683 I bought a beautiful Grote Les Paul's and put a lot of work into the electronics and frets and in my opinion is better sounding and playing than a guitar 10 times its cost. I'm not a slave to a name. I just like a solid build and I make it my own.
chrisdigital yeah I like that I collect Ltd lp styles because I find they play better then Gibson’s or esp or anything. I wouldn’t mind having a real les paul but until I find a deal I like imma hold off
chrisdigital yeah honestly even some of the chibsons are really nice guitars, they just need electronics replaced and they sound great. Also the firefly les Paul copies are a huge steal for the price, better than most epi’s in my opinion
I don't get it either.. For the price of just one of those old, beat up Gibson's missing half of their parts, you could buy a new Epiphone Les Paul, three Chibsons and a couple of LP kit guitars.
I'm confused. How was Dwayne from Gibson Custom Shop involved in all this? How did he get the guitars?
Cheers from Australia, love your channel, glad you got them back mate..
Damen Smith same
Damen Smith same
Mate your channels fire
Too soon?
Same here. I know a Damien Smith who's big in music.
Next time, only send out ONE guitar to see how good the "luthier" is, and go from there.
this is giving me flashbacks to when I thought I could mod my guitars as a kid...Granted I was only tearing apart Squiers and secondhand Epiphones, but still...ptsd!
Plot twist: they were never his guitars and he’s the scammer
Im not one to be totally negative
.but you got robbed...some of these are so fucked i wouldn't buy them to fix and im a luthier myself
@@drkronenbongsoddities4969 And he said he'd sell that one for $1500? It had as much hardware in it as my purse. It'd probably cost that much to restore. Then you'd have 3K in a stock Les Paul Whatever-It-Is. Ridiculous, especially considering I just got a 2010 Gibson Les Paul Studio in Fireburst for $600, that hasn't been torn apart, stolen, then returned to me years later as firewood. And mine has a broken & repaired headstock, the most authentic Gibson relic job ya can get! She's so crunchy, even her neck went Crunch!
I could see it.
Or maybe he started all these projects and ended up just losing steam on finishing em, so is using the scraps for views and plans on selling em. 🤷🏽
Fingers crossed for a part two man. Glad you got those back though.
do you have this luthiers name? i want to send all my guitars to him lol
When you get it share with me. I want to send my guitars to him as well with you. Maybe we can both go and send are guitars to him together.I have a car, Split gas?. ;)
Agreed, saying as he's not upset about the "work" he did, let's find out his name and phone number and get him in business.
I’ve been waiting for this video. Congratulations!!🎈🍾🎉🎊
What a great guy you are, such a really nice thing to do to sort that chaps guitar for him. You are a gentleman of the highest order, brilliant gesture
This is starting to feel like a family with these stories and I don't know if I'm ready for this type of commitment.
You are way more calm than I would be. I am invested in this saga now!
What a relief... great way to end the week 🙌
Congratulations Austin! Happy for you!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
We have several amazing luthiers/ builders here in State College Pa
Howdy neighbor. Clearfield here.
Mr. Fister RIP Race St Brewery..
@@theharvardyard2356 Shannon would be my pick for refinish.. paint/ stain...Mark for acoustics
@@theharvardyard2356 Cheers!
At church I used to play my les Paul’s an my I would be smiling the hole time nothing like a les Paul. Love your channel man it’s awesome
You handled this very well… I would’ve been to this guy’s house and given him a free hockey lesson without a puck, skates or ice.
Broom?
@@ed13adema It’s all a matter of where its placed…
Man, I wouldn’t be laughing if I got ripped off that bad. What you got is a pile of junk back. That guy is a crook, medical or not he should be in jail. All these guitar people that get scammed are so understanding. I would have pressed charges in fear this would happen to someone else.
Trogly, reach out to stewmac, It would be a really cool collab!
I concur!
@@christophercarty675 He has. They just sent him a load of luthier tools.
This comment needs tons of likes
I'm amazed you got half of them back! You sound like a really nice guy so I hope you get them all back!
Was literally watching your previous video about this and you can only imagine my surprise when, at the exact point you said the line at the start of this video, I get a notification that you had just posted this video.
So happy you got them back Austin. Just hope that you get the rest back soon. Still my number one favourite TH-cam channel by far!!
Seeing those beautiful guitars in that state after that long is unreal. Every case that gets opened, my heart sinks a little more
I know EXACTLY how Jake feels, in 2005 my 1993 Les Paul standard birdseye cherry burst was stolen when my apartment was broken in to. Two years later a detective with GPD put it back in my hands…
It was like a family member came back from the dead, I just hugged that guitar and cried….
You have a real soft spot for shitty guitars. I'm entirely confused by why someone would want to steal those to begin with. Glad you got them back. I guess I'll have research your earlier videos to get the backstory on these guitars. New to this channel. Did you buy them that hacked up?
He took and sold the most expensive and gave him the shit ones back after destroying them for no reason LMAO sigma male grindset
Very kool of Dwayne ! To procure the guitars and then deliver them. Absolutely above and beyond!!!
He stole your Guitar Dude! Which part of that do you not understand!!?? He sold YOUR Guitar, not mine, not his, but YOURS!!!
Man you keep that positive attitude! It’s a shame about what’s happened. I hope you get your other guitars back! Good luck man!
I’m relatively new to your channel and I have to ask, why are you so passive on getting your guitars back? Why don’t you file police reports why didn’t you do everything you could do the track this guy down and get your guitars back? You seem to be handling this in a very unprofessional way. Did you get any money for the flying V? Why are you so willing to get rolled
I bought an early 60s eb3 off Ebay at least 15 yrs ago. No finish, few parts but I got it for next to nothing, I was so proud that I got a killer deal and caught a sleeper auction. I was amazed when it showed up,... roughly 2 years later.
Id love to see the restoration of the "Restorable" guitars at least. Especially the Fake slash snakepit...
I must say..people can say what they want about the kindness here, but you'd wish there was more guys like you Trogly out there
Hey! My wife has a boyfriend but at least he lets me stay up til 1030! This is your logic😂
Center Stage Vintage Guitars in Noblesville Indiana. Kevin is a master luthier and an amazing person. He’s done a lot of high profile builds, repairs, and relics.
Looks like a tweaker got ahold of them...
Was that his illness? Tweeking out? Why would you tear apart and sand down so many guitars at once? One project at a time is how most would of handled your guitars.
Sorry for your loss Trogly Austin!
That’s exactly what I thought. destroys them all while getting nothing accomplished is a tweaker trait for sure
Jean Paul literally did nothing but strip the finishes
Also, for your knowledge you use sand paper to remove paint or glue on a guitar. 800 is a bit risky you can blow through. 1000-2000 will take forever on spray paint especially if you wet them (I work wet because it prevents dust as well as dipping my paper cleans the debris off the guitar and sand paper so it works more effectively) but less chance of burn through. In either case you will need to touch up spots once the covering paint coat is stripped. Note, they painted it for a reason to cover something. I just count on burn through and use 800 then up to 1000 for removal. When it is removed I then repair and put a nice new clear on top sand and polish. I put thicker clear on all my guitars than would come from the factory because it really does not mess up your tone, looks better and protects it more! The myth thinner coats are better comes from companies trying to save money on workmanship and materials cutting it as thin as they can using the guise of it magically making the tone better. No, it just makes the guitar more fragile to minor damages.
Your a better man than me. I would have been a wee bit vengeful. Lesson learned. Glad you have your stuff back.
It looks like you got back most of the junk, firewood,It looks like he parted them all out
Glad you recouped some of your gear and shout to Dwayne for helping. Btw Trogly pls make a template for the RD.
Can't wait to see some of these for sale - well outside of my price range.
Good evening Austin! I am happy for you getting your guitars back finally! I wish you good luck in their restoration, and or their sales. You must have some sense of satisfaction that they have returned to you, soak it in while you can, this seldom happens. Please have an excellent and awesome evening! 🙂
The Snakepit should go in a glass case up on the wall as a reminder.
I am glad you got your guitars back. Class act returning the first LP in playable condition.
that "luthier" seems like he's really good at taking stuff apart but not putting it back together
its so weird, the previous video in this series was the first video of yours i had ever seen, so good to see u got them back
Man this video is confusing, and just weird.
Filling us in on the full back story would have really helped w context.
I was wondering to I don't know the backstory and he should post a link or something to the backstory I don't know what the heck's going on here
I don't believe the story, this guy is an idiot if it's all true.
That's what I meant I get what he is claiming but its just so dumb and he is so happy, something is pretty weird about this guy. It's like watching someone drown and they are smiling and laughing. Just weird.
@@God4445 i think he ended up with all these shitty guitars and made up the story so he could make the videos about the guitars. He'd have tens of thousands of dollars just in the guitars, and even more in all the work he was supposedly having done. I don't believe any of it.
My first bass- a transparent emerald green ‘83 Precision Elite bass- was stolen from me when I was in middle school. I still miss that thing 30-plus years later. Any day you can recover something that was taken from you is a good one.
I'll NEVER understand why you sent all of these guitars to some unknown guy. ????
He had apparently completed a few guitar projects for Trogly and shipped them out to the customers so Trogly started to trust him. Trogly kind of went overboard with sending him 14 guitars though. Maybe 2 at a time if you trust him.
When you full of money, maybe that's normal to send 13 guitars to an unknown guy! No just kidding. This guy's a joke, wake up...
More money that sense apparently. I don't think this story is true anyway. Why would he not just called the police and get them all back or at least sue the guy? He's far too happy with getting robbed. Probably bullshit.
14 is beyond excessive. That would take forever for one guy to do from what it sounds like he wanted done. There's luthiers that don't even do 14 instruments total in a year. Even at a month a guitar that is over a year. And who knows if he has other projects as well. If they were sent with the idea of working them all to finish and then sending them all back at once, you should expect to be waiting a really long time even without other issues or work compounding the time.
@@AveragePicker this guy bought 2 uptown strats by mistake and kept both...
Oddly, though you seem so happy, this is probably the most depressing episode I’ve seen. From losing on the black Firebird to the ridiculous shape he returned those guitars in. My heart goes out to you. He really seems to owe you thousands.
If you pay for shipping back and forth I would hydrodip one for free for you. Congratulations on getting them back enjoy your content.
Literally watched your stolen Flying V video 3 hours ago, watched a movie, and this one popped up under my suggestions. I didn't have to wait long to complete the story arc. I'm glad you got most of your collection back :)
i will never understand how or why you would send so many guitars into oblivion.
I want that hecked up RD. I’d dowel in a cool piece of hardwood so it keeps it’s history on display.
If Dewayne was one of my brother Knights I would award him the Jewel of Honor. What a great video.. Hope for a few restoration videos, you might be able to recoup your investments and grow your channel too. Provided of course that utube doesn't demonitize your content....
I'm so happy you got some of your guitars back, The "Fakepit" episodes were so heart breaking...
you are doing a wonderful service posting these videos and being there for others in a similar situation.
Hey can you do a review on the B&G little sister Crossroads. I am interested in one but there aren’t many reviews on the guitar. Love the Chanel too by the way.
Chanel West Coast? She's pretty hot, but her rapping is wack.
I’d get the Step Sister
You have a kind soul and yes sometimes we pay a heavy price for trying to be the best we can be. Never let others change who you are there are too few like you in this world. It hurts when others do not have the same moral compass as good people. The World We Live In will never change never let it change a kind heart.
Did the guy ever finish a guitar?
A red 1978 Les Paul Custom was stolen from me while living in London about 6 years ago. I know damn well who it was too. I reported to the police and it never turned up.
I had owned it for almost 20 years when it was stolen. It had been repainted by the original owner, and all the original hardware had been replaced, so I got a tremendous deal on it when I bought it. I was a teenager gigging out and that was the first big spend I had made on a guitar. It's on a few albums not many people have heard from the late 90s lol.
It had been on three continents with me, around the world twice, and well taken care of. I never felt nervous about bringing it out. It sounded great, and played better than any other guitar I've ever played.
When I realised it was gone that hit me pretty hard. It still eats at me some days. It took me a few years, but I managed to find a replacement, a Standard gold top. To be honest it sounds better than that red custom did, but doesn't play quite as nice. That ebony fretboard was a lover. Somewhere out there Goldie has a brother he'll never meet. I just hope he ended up somewhere getting played some decent music.
PayPal is the absolute worst . I won't deal with them ever again.
I actually like the first LP that's supposed to be silverburst the way it currently is!
I love that hacked up RD. I'd put a bent piece of metal on it in the shape of the fin, and put some single coils and a bigsby in it.
I’m so happy that these things are back
Maybe send one of those to Phillip McKnight for a "Sharpen my Axe" episode.
The footage of Austin giving the LP Custom back is so wholesome.
Moral of the long story: if it sounds too good to be true, well, it is.
you are a decent human Trogly. glad it worked out