Pickford Guards

JamesSGBrown

Are these even real celluloid? They look kinda... crap to me.
I am one of those daft people who spent like £135 on an Avantguard. Took ages, his communication leaves a lot to be desired... but it looks incredible.

brooom

I should have more news in the next week. Let's see.

brooom

So for those of you who were wondering. John did keep his end of the "bargain" and sent me the pickguard after a couple of heated email exchanges.

I got it in the mail today... it is NOT a real celluloid pickguard (to be fair to the guy, he doesn't state anywhere that it is). It seems to me like he buys a regular off the shelf ply material cuts it to the appropriate shape and paints it to emulate the swirls of a celluloid/tortoise guard. It looks ok-ish from a distance, but up close it looks fake and well... not so good.

The pickguard routes and screw holes are very very very roughly/poorly sanded.

I wanted to give it a try, and did so (even though you pay over £100 for one). So now that I have it, I have to be honest and recommend that you save your money for a nice Lavaguard (customer service is much better and the product is professional).

Here is a comparison of a lavaguard and the pickford (lavaguard on your left, pickford on your right). The photo really makes the Pickford look better than it actually is, up close it doesn't look very good, more like an art school project, but anyway... he did end up delivering (which is better than nothing). 

I'll probably be taking some high res photos and posting online for future clients to understand what they are buying.

pickfordguards

Just stumbled over this thread, and wow, quite the party you guys are having over here!

I'd just like to be clear in that my pickguards have never been Celluloid based - never will be. I state this constantly as well as giving reasons for not doing so.
I think this should be clear to anyone who has ever visited my website or any social page. I'm not trying to fool anybody by this fact.

My aim is to make my customers happy, I'm not sure of a company on this planet who's number 1 aim isnt! 
In the case for "brooom" - id just like to state that he was updated throughout the entire process, more than most actually.
 I am a one man thing here, in his first year of ever running a business, and unfortunately daily updates are not possible. "Brooom" sent me a total of 4 emails over a weekend (which happened to be a weekend I had got 4 teeth removed) never the less, i don't reply to emails generally over the weekend, and immediately got back to him on Monday morning.

He demanded the pickguard was immediately sent as is, unfinished, and making claims I was never planning to send it. (I'm not sure what kind of business model he imagines I have) but anyways, I advised the curing process is a crucial stage of the process, provided pictures of it as it was curing up, as well as an estimated shipping date - which was not good enough still. He wanted it out as it was, unfinished. I did just that. Once again advised him it was not complete, and therefore he is unhappy with the final product, as I said he would be.

I value each and every customer I have, as like Scott at GoldenEra has said, it's how I earn my livelihood. I put just as much time into replying to emails, updating customers, providing pictures, social posts as I do actually making the pickguards. It's a very essential stage of keeping people happy and aware of how things are going. I even allow customers.to change the look of the pattern if desired DURING production, which is a rarity these days.

Everyone has opinions on what they like and dislike and by all means, if you are looking for a genuine Celluloid pickguard, please do not order from me. 

Thank you - everyone can now continue your fest of exaggerations and in a lot of cases here, plain and simple lies.

pickfordguards

Just thought I'd also state here to the claims 'brooom' has made that I never replied to him over a 3 week period - this is plain and simply false. 

There was a 2-3 week gap no emails were sent from him or I, as I had last advised the pickguard was in the curing stage and an update would be sent once ready to ship. He then emailed me 3 times over a weekend (starting from Friday night at 11:30pm, ending at Monday morning at 8am, if we're being specific.)

My pickguards are made to order, an estimated time is given to each customer when payment is made. This can be slightly longer or shorter, depending on a bunch of factors.

brooom

I will happily put the emails on this thread if you want mate. And mind you I do have emails sent from you over the weekend and several people here in forum report you posting on social media in that particular weekend. Not to mention all the other facts you are distorting.

I've been contacted by other people who used your services with less than satisfactory results, so all of this came as no surprise to me. A bad reputation is a hard thing to shake and really the quality (or lack of) your work pretty much speaks for itself.

Also your website doesn't state (clearly or otherwise) that you don't use celuloid. You should also be advised that it is poor service to promise a customer a product that week only to disappear without communication for 3 weeks.

You have several professional/serious business owners in this forum, you could learn a thing or two from them.

chrisj1602

Wow, it looks shit.

brooom

I'll take some decent photos, because I think you don't quite understand how shitty it looks. And then let me know if think this a service worth over £100. I'll let John's work do the talking:

pickfordguards

If it wasn't clear to all, this is obviously not how the guard was sent out. 
Every single pickguard I have ever sent has the edges smoothly rounded, routes/switch holes smooth, and not rough as they are in Bruno's/'broooom's pictures.

This has now moved to the conversation of defamation against my buisness and slander of my personal name, Bruno.

All the best.

brooom

oh so now I'm lying? I pulled a pickguard out of my ass to drag your name through the mud, is that what it is? Mate grow a pair, get some sense into that head of yours and do right by your paying customers.

digitalscream

Discussion closed while we investigate.

@pickfordguards - please reply to my PM.

@brooom - you'll get a PM later today.

brooom

Thanks for reopening this topic. I think it's well worth bumping it one more time for everyone to see.

pickfordguards

Ok, I'll add a final reply in that case as well for everybody to see, because this is just silly at this point, from both fourm members and staff here alike.

In summary, this guard was rushed out the door due to the customer (brooom) requesting it to be sent asap. There was no "3 week" delay in my replying to an email nonsense, there was no "bitterness in the DM's" from my part. This is all simply lies. No other way to put it.

The images shared on this forum is not how this pickguard was sent out - proof has been given to the necessary parties. In addition, I had sent a detailed shot of the guard the day before sending, to ensure he was fine with the pattern, which was previously agreed upon, and the result.

I will totally admit - As it was rushed, I'm sure this pickguard was not as good as some of the work I've done, where customers are happy to wait for a great product. Rushing somebody to send something when uncured and not paid the full attention to, will result in a less than perfect product.

In almost any case where a customer in unhappy - I try my best to make both sides feel satisfied. I often will ask for a customer to return a guard they're not satisfied with, and I am happy to do another.

In this case, I wasn't even given the chance to refund/replace/etc to "broooom" - in fact, he was posting about me here weeks before I had even sent the guard, or the time span was "up" as he liked to repeat (my estimated time of arrival for the guard.)

I'm a young guy, following his passions, trying to make a living doing what he loves. My intentions are not to "scam" people as I've seen tossed about on here. Nor is it to provide a shit product. 

I'd encourage those who are legitimately interested to check out my Instagram, website and Facebook pages for a true representation of a span of my work, and reviews from legitimate customers.

I started this because I couldn't afford the high price tag custom guards. (Spitfire for example - their work is FANTASTIC do not get me wrong! I just simply can't afford them myself) So I started trying my own and experienced for over 2 years with various methods until I was happy.

I'm the first to admit - my guards are not perfect! By no means do I claim that. They're completely handmade, barely any machinery involved, and done sitting here in my house. Hence I don't ask £400 for them. My guards are a reasonable price, I show them honestly, and once again, a thread of unhappy customers is the last thing i want.

John
www.pickfordguards.co.uk

pickfordguards

Ultimately - we will never agree on this. 
You rushed me to send the guard out, uncured, I advised you of what could happen, (damage during shipping, failure to proper cure etc) and you received it and were unhappy as a result.

brooom

I've shared all our email exchange as well as several photos you sent me with the forum administration, that information alone paints a very obvious picture. You see I have absolutely nothing to hide.

Those in the know, are aware of who is at fault. Why do you think this thread has been reopened.

You have several unhappy customers in this forum and outside of it. And there is a reason for it.

Nothing else needs to be said... Man up.

Oh and if you want to be given a chance to refund the customers you've done wrong to. You know exactly how to do it. Just reach out, I'm sure each one of us will hapilly take our money back. But I seriously doubt you have any intentions of doing so.

Seziertisch

As an outsider (and potential/theoretical customer of Pickford Guards) it’s very hard to come to any conclusion based on the interactions between the parties here. 

It doesn’t even seem to be a question of interpretation of what was said/happened but rather that the parties are claiming completely different things were said/happened. 

Screenshots of the communications (with people’s names and email addresses blocked out) should really be posted. 

brooom

All communication was requested by the forum admin and it was provided to them. So they are well aware of the situation. If you are a potential customer, proceed with caution, that's the best advice I can provide.

CFH

.

brooom

Here's another example, from a couple of pages ago. I know there's more, if I start asking people to come forward and share their experience.

Radiofred said:

I had a terrible experience using Pickford and would avoid. My pickguard arrived looking nothing like what I asked for and the paint cracked on the finish when I put it on my Jag. There was also a misunderstanding on the process. It was implied to me that he'd use my current pickguard as a base to make the new one but instead he just painted over it. When I brought this to his attention he was very hostile and accused me of deliberately damaging the pickguard (why would I do this?) and then blocked me.

TrentGuitars

Ok I’ve resisted posting here several times but this is starting to get a bit out of hand. 

Unless you’ve started a business making things you will find this difficult to relate to. Pickford has clearly made mistakes, he’s very early on in his journey as a maker and is trying to get a business going. He’s developing a process of creating these guards that is giving a much more visually interesting result than your off the shelf £20 a sheet tort guard. What you don’t see is that this isn’t a fine tuned process, there’s variables to it and of course through inexperience he’s still working out those. 

Why am I even putting this out there? Well, cos I’ve been where he is. Not with guitars but with my first few years making furniture. I wanted (like him) to make a living creating things, that meant occasionally overpromising or even at times delivering stuff that now I look back on and cringe at the idea my name is on it. I was 20 years old and still finding my creative path and my ability was still developing. Furniture I made at 20 and furniture I made at 30 are worlds apart. 

All this to say, look at things more for what they are. He’s a young man trying to carve his way in a world where basically no one his age makes things for a living. If you actually look at what he is creating it’s a really visually intriguing process, what he lacks experience in is the technical aspect of routing, shaping and refining. Trust me, this will be a big wake up call for that. How do I know? Well, after seeing this snowball I reached out to him and I’m attempting to assist in improving his processes. 

Everyone deserves another chance, I’m not here to debate how he handled himself in communication, just to shed some light on what it is to be as a maker starting out.