John Cruz Custom Guitars(Update from John Cruz)

Rob1742

Why a retailer would make advance payments to a new company of several hundred thousand euros is beyond me.
A new company whose owner was tarnished from the off.
With regards to risk, I just am astounded as to the decision making by the retailer here. It is insane to say the least.

Those figures suggest they would be funding the start up to a degree, yet the new companies experience and knowledge I think only went as far as guitar making in previous employment and not running a business. 

Philly_Q

crunchman said:

guitars4you said:

Philly_Q said:

I've been trying to remember the name of the other Fender Custom Shop guy who went out on his own, and it just popped into my head... John Page.  He has/had a very different business model, with production outsourced to Japan (I think, although they may have switched to the USA now) and much more reasonably priced guitars.

You are going to have to help me now as well - Who was the guy who built the guitar(s) for Robben Ford - Espirit style - Had his own company and I think for a while was part of the Premier Builders Guild

Gene Baker?

Yep.  Ronnie Montrose (RIP) was also using Baker guitars in his latter years.  Both Baker/B3 and John Page guitars have been available at Coda occasionally.

GoFish

Was John Page the guy that worked there when the Custom Shop was first launched? I do like the look of his branded guitars.

Philly_Q

GoFish said:

Was John Page the guy that worked there when the Custom Shop was first launched? I do like the look of his branded guitars.

https://johnpageguitars.com/pages/about
https://www.johnpageclassic.com/

(I'm not trying to sell you one )

guitars4you

crunchman said:

guitars4you said:

Philly_Q said:

I've been trying to remember the name of the other Fender Custom Shop guy who went out on his own, and it just popped into my head... John Page.  He has/had a very different business model, with production outsourced to Japan (I think, although they may have switched to the USA now) and much more reasonably priced guitars.

You are going to have to help me now as well - Who was the guy who built the guitar(s) for Robben Ford - Espirit style - Had his own company and I think for a while was part of the Premier Builders Guild

Gene Baker?

ta - related to Ma Baker ?

Philly_Q

She taught her four sons to handle their guns.  She never could cry, but she knew how to die.

GoFish

Thanks @Philly_Q ; - "Co-Founder" no less!

DrBob

GoFish said:

Was John Page the guy that worked there when the Custom Shop was first launched? I do like the look of his branded guitars.

I’m sure there was another guy, a tall skinny dude with a beard, builds a downsized 335 type guitar 

Strat54

DrBob said:

GoFish said:

Was John Page the guy that worked there when the Custom Shop was first launched? I do like the look of his branded guitars.

I’m sure there was another guy, a tall skinny dude with a beard, builds a downsized 335 type guitar 

Michael Stevens....the other founder of the Custom Shop.

GuyR

I’m still waiting for a Mexican version of Cruzs guitars. 

GoldenEraGuitars

GuyR said:

I’m still waiting for a Mexican version of Cruzs guitars. 

So are Proguitar.de

DrBob

I saw a video interview with him at the Cruz Guitars workshop and the thing that struck me was that as he introduced the other people there, the majority of them had little/no guitar building experience. Of itself that’s not a terrible idea, irrespective of what you might think of him having someone like that trying to train/retrain a load of people in a new discipline is laudable. But to try charging 8k per guitar for the result feels a bit adrift 

Lebarque

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke

carlos

jeromegreenday said:

I know someone who went to vegas, Bought a lot of drugs and women didn't pay for them then he came back to england, the dealers were on a plane across the atlantic banging on his mum and dads door, if they didn't re-mortgagethe house they'd kill him. They re-mortgaged the house, I know someone else who did something similar and he killed himself. 
He best go into hiding because people do things to get that kind of money back.

So the dealers knew his address? And then his parent's address, too? And hung about in the UK while the parents went throught he faff of remortgaging the house, getting the money in the bank, and then cashing it out to give the dealers? They aren't very busy people these dealers are they? Must have taken weeks. They could have been in Vegas all this time dealing drugs instead.

elstoof

vegas dealers are notorious for giving out tens of thousands worth of drugs to foreign strangers on credit

Offset

elstoof said:

vegas dealers are notorious for giving out tens of thousands worth of drugs to foreign strangers on credit

...not to mention the services of 'laydeez'...

elstoof

I’m not sure I could even take 10 grands worth of drugs in one holiday, that’s a lot of drugs

CHRISB50

elstoof said:

I’m not sure I could even take 10 grands worth of drugs in one holiday, that’s a lot of drugs

You need to try harder! 

Seziertisch

Rob1742 said:

Why a retailer would make advance payments to a new company of several hundred thousand euros is beyond me.
A new company whose owner was tarnished from the off.
With regards to risk, I just am astounded as to the decision making by the retailer here. It is insane to say the least.

Those figures suggest they would be funding the start up to a degree, yet the new companies experience and knowledge I think only went as far as guitar making in previous employment and not running a business. 

It was a completely batshit thing to do to give that amount of money upfront to someone with no track record of running a business with the hope that they know what they are doing.

rsvmark

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/234026/john-cruz-guitars-at-guitar-guitar/p3

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