What A Ripoff....

mc2

mc2

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Man, don't ever DIE !! The great builder Phil Kubicki passed away a couple years ago, so another builder has decided it is OK to rip off Phil's famous "SLUGGER" Baseball Bat guitar idea that he built for John Fogerty.  The Kubicki version is famous enough to be sitting in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Total lack of respect, IMO.

But I guess it's better than having some guy in a hut in China building them and hawking crappy $299 copies on EBAY.

This builder ripping off Phil is selling his copies for $3999 !!!

But the real kick in the ass......this guy gives you a "Certificate of Authenticity" with the copy he builds ?!?!? WTF???

As a collector of Kubicki Guitars and a fan/friend of Phil's, I sort of want to buy one just to,drive to L.A. to beat this guy over the head with it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WR-Custom-Shop-USA-Baseball-Bat-Guitar-John-Fogerty-Louisville-Slugger-Replica-/201560739987?hash=item2eedf4d093:g:dUcAAOSw1DtXDcfV

 
Knocking off his concept is a bit strange.  I wonder if Louisville Slugger give him rights to use their logo on this version as well?

Sadly, I think common decency vanished some time ago.

 
Mmmmm, I see less someone trying to rip off the original Kubiki and pull the wool over people's eye's, more a luthier trying to establish his name and make a buck as if you look at the listing, he mention's many times it's by him and is not one of the originals and is not a slavish copy more inspired by. Look at his other two listings, one's like an RG / Dinky and one's a Tele made partly from an old crate and let's face it, neither of those idea's are even remotely original either.

Now, copyright issue's apart, how many of us own guitars which weren't inspired by someone else's design originally - very few if any i'd imagine ?

Standard's, Special's and Vector's certainly weren't Paul or Jol's idea's, although the argument could be that they took the original idea's and 'improved' them, even the stuff I make is clearly Cali based although again, i'd like to say they're more an evolution of the Cali rather than slavish copies as I offer options like drop tops, H/H pickup configuration's, fixed bridges, shorter scale length's etc etc which weren't available with the original design. Ok, there's a couple of fixed bridge one's out there but I think you may see my point.

Taking this from a builder's perspective, trying to establish a name for yourself or even make a meagre living at building 'custom' guitars to order is not an easy task so what are the options, and if someone approaches you to make a copy of something that's really rare what would you do if it meant it will put bread on the family table. Think, how many 'Cloud' guitars and 'Red Specials' are there out there to name but two - this is a supply and demand thing, hell, me making Nocturne's came about in no small part from joining this place in 2000 when the masses were already crying 'when will they make Cali's again' and the thing had barely been out of production for three years and you could pick up an Elite on Ebay for under $500. 

In respect of this 'Bat' guitar, I wouldn't mind betting that the seller was approached by someone to make this for them and he probably thought when he'd finished it "hey, there could be a market for these, i'll take some pics and chuck it up on Ebay and see what happens" as he says that if you want one it will be made to order rather than him having stock of them - very much a "i'll make anything you want" situation rather than an "i'm going rip off someone who's no longer with us so can't fight back" kinda thing, again, supply and demand.

I've got a long time mate in Marty Siggery (Siggery guitars) who initially made the standard things like Tele's, V's, Les Paul and RG copies but he started to get a few people asking him to build them something like a 'Blackmachine' as Doug's lead times were running into two or three years plus he wanted something around the £3500~4000 mark for one so Marty made one, then another and the more he made the more people wanted one and he got majorly slated across the net for ripping off Blackmachine but that was never his intention, he needed customers to survive and pay his mortgage and if that's what people wanted, that's what he was going to build.    

Anyway, just my thoughts from a builders point of view.

 
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Boomerang~Junkie said:
Knocking off his concept is a bit strange.  I wonder if Louisville Slugger give him rights to use their logo on this version as well?

Sadly, I think common decency vanished some time ago.
Click to expand...
John Fogerty has a reputation for enjoying a little litigation.  Perhaps Fogerty and Louisville can team up to legally slap around

  • [COLOR= rgb(111, 111, 111)]WRguitars.com[/COLOR]
  • [COLOR= rgb(111, 111, 111)]Philip Kubicki[/COLOR]
  • [COLOR= rgb(111, 111, 111)]and an entire bullpen of vendors named in the features; Dunlop, Fender and many others.[/COLOR]
 
Maybe Ed Roman's estate can sue this guy over who ripped off this concept first.    ;)    :lol:

 
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Ripping of Phil's SLUGGER baseball Bat guitar, which was such a brilliant build, isn't like building another Tele or Strat.

i would say that it is more akin to someone building q clise copy of Uncle Dick or the original Hamer 5-neck.....and claiming it as your own....AND GIVING OUT A CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY !!  That's the part that REALLY urks me. Balls.

Both the baseball bat guitar and the 5-neck have been displayed in museums, so they are obviously considered very uniques builds. Of anythng, they guy making copies should have to license the design r at least ask for permission to copy the idea.

Certain builds transcend just being another instrument and become more like a work of art. 

 
He's also selling a 'Crate-O-Caster' Tele clone that has a 'vintage' (1979) pine wood crate top and ash body for stupid money.   <_<

 
                                           That is plain wrong on so many levels. :o ....................and unfortunately its been done before.................no respect.. :o

 
A guitar shaped like a baseball bat.

As much as I respect Phil Kubicki, it was an embarrassing novelty design when he did it and I can't imagine why anyone would want another.  

Like the Hamer Miller guitars, but stupider.

Just my opinion.

 
If he's got them listed, there has to be a market. The description notes that the guitar pictured is one he made for a customer, who apparently really wanted a replica of the bat guitar. Not sure why anyone would. He also does note that the original design was from Phil Kubicki, and that he only made 3 of them.

I don't really see this as someone "cashing in" on someone else's legacy. I see it as a custom builder pretty much using ebay as advertising for his services. Maybe there are more people out there who want a bat guitar. I certainly don't. Replica guitars are pretty big sellers in the custom guitar world. Much cheaper often to get a custom builder to make you than to hunt down a real one. All dependent on what exactly the guitar is of course.

 
I remember Kubuki's basses because a guy I knew owned one and I think Mark King played one. Very nice, innovative. I've never heard of the baseball bat guitar, and while I ain't the authority on much of anything, I don't see anything to get het up about.

It's a novelty guitar based on a common non-musical object. It's not like anyone made his name and fame on building it. He name-checks Kubuki and calls him a "GREAT luthier." If for some reason I wanted a guitar shaped like a baseball bat, I should be able to buy one and someone should be able to make me one.

 
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