there's a luthier in my town (not cicolin, the one i usually go to and the one that's building me a custom, he's a very good and convincing seller... :)) that works for many famous musicians in italy and abroad. or at last he says so, and has got many autographed pictures to certfy it... ;)
he also works for friends, friends of his friends and people that come in company of other people he knows...
i have no connection with him.
and he made me wait a month for a fu**in' pickup change, he treated my guitar and my pickups very roughly, and lost my BKP box with included warranty... he said there were delays due to urgent works he had to do... y'know, people that needed their instruments for gigs and such...
i never stated that i used that guitar as a doorlock, though...
he's an idiot and will never see me again.
i'm not saying that doug is this kind of person, i don't know him personally and i'd never dare to speak in such terms of someone i don't know... but i'm not very fond of this kind of "inner circles", not just because i'm usually on the wrong side of the boundary...
in my work i don't treat people differently depending on who they know or who they are.
and, going back to the blackmachine topic, i can understand if someone can't satisfy every request and has a looong waiting list, but if he hates answering emails he should at least use a standard automatic reply such "thanks, you're on the list. prepare yourself to wait A LOT"
