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Post by Charlie Hall on Jun 29, 2009 20:17:40 GMT
I recently bought a Kavanagh Customs Strat body from the well known auction site. The seller was supposedly in Oxford and selling some surplus Strat bodies so I looked at a Strat body that was alder and finished in two tone sunburst, the blurb said the body pictured would not be the one received but that it would be identical in quality so I decided to go for it. I got it for £142 and paid £12.50 shipping. It turned out that my payment was received by John Cavanagh the owner of the company in Manchester!! that made these bodies. When the body arrived I noticed that it had been sent from Manchester, and there were also 2 labels that had my name and address and that it was from Kavanagh, with an Oxford postcode!!! When I opened the box I was horrified to see that the routings were so badly done they went through the sides of the tremolo back cavity. There is also a visible scratch on the front under the finish but can really only be seen clearly in brighter light. I complained through the the well known auction site system to the seller asking for a refund or replacement and saying that it appeared that the body had been shipped direct from the manufacturer in Manchester and that I thought the seller was Kavanagh or that the seller was involved with them to sell off seconds. He wouldn't do anything about it, told me I was mistaken and that his name is Simon Roberts, that Kavanagh don't sell seconds, and to contact Kavanagh direct to confirm the origin of the body. If there is something I really hate it is being lied to, after contacting the well known auction site I received a refund of £120 and I could keep the body. The listing was removed from the the well known auction site system, and another body from the same seller was also removed. The seller's the well known auction site name is guitarnecks. I also read afterwards a review, I think it was Harmony Central, that Kavanagh had got bad feedback on the well known auction site. Last week I took the body to show it to Richard Bartrum, he looked at it and said it definitely wasn't alder and looked like poplar, and by scratching at the finish he confirmed that it definitely wasn't cellulose and was poly. The neck pocket is more than 18mm deep, it should be about 16mm. This is a warning to anyone who might have been looking at anything made by Kavanagh. There is even a legal section on their website which sates that if anyone contacts them with an issue and uses the email address for that purpose, the bill for Kavanagh's solicitor will be sent to the person complaining! I would be interested to know if anyone here has actually had any similar experiences with Kavanagh and even whether anyone has actually been satisfied with anything they supplied. Anyway, I am not interested in keeping the body, if anyone would like it for a cheap Strat project, I will take the first offer that matches the £34.50 it owes me plus shipping at cost price (I will insist on a signed for delivery which won't add much to the cost, insurance won't be necessary), and will consider lower offers than that if no one is interested at that price. I haven't taken pics of it yet but if anyone wants to see it I can take some and send by email. I will show all the defects I have seen, unlike Kavanagh who did not, and they should be drummed out of business. This should really be in the for sale section but I thought it would be better to warn as many people as possible first. Regards, Charlie
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Post by peterbower on Jun 29, 2009 20:47:04 GMT
Hi Charlie That's a really bad experience and you have my sympathy. I remember Kavanagh being reviewed in Guitarist magazine years ago, but i can't remember what conclusions they arrived at. I also remember that they were Oxford based and you dealt with them direct, well you did then. Guitarist compared necks and bodies to Warmoth and Warmoth got the vote although they were very much more expensive.
Peter
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jun 29, 2009 22:32:18 GMT
Hi Peter, Thanks, it is interesting that you remember them being based in Oxford. I never heard that before. Their website does not give an address or even a phone number. They say to contact them use the contact form on the site or use Skype. They also say visits to their workshop are not allowed as their insurance doesn't cover for that. They even say that accuracy of anything on their website is not guaranteed although they take every care to ensure that it is. I wonder if they even know that the body they sent me isn't cellulose finish. Regards, Charlie
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Post by olemuso on Jun 29, 2009 23:34:51 GMT
I see where you`re coming from. It looks like you`re buying from an individual but you`re actually dealing with a business. That means you`re covered by the Distance Selling Act and they don`t like that - hence the pretence. Can I suggest you also take it up with Trading Standards. How many other unsuspecting victims have they duped?
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jun 30, 2009 3:21:30 GMT
Hi Ian, I tried to solve another issue by contacting Trading Standards although it was not because of goods that I had purchased. They were initially helpful but the advice I received in the end was to use a solicitor. So I'm not sure whether I should or not. The auction also stated that no returns would be allowed. Also, the 7 days allowed have long passed, although I did complain to the seller immediately at the time. Regards, Charlie
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Post by kipper on Jun 30, 2009 6:19:06 GMT
thanks for posting this charlie i was about to buy from this maker. and did bid on the bodys you brought on the well known auction site.later i`m sure i got an email from the well known auction site telling me that if i had won any items from them not to continue with transaction. i am 99% sure it was same aution they also had a shorline gold as well. peter
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Post by kipper on Jun 30, 2009 6:28:09 GMT
hi again charlie. just looked it up, it wasnt the same auction but same maker. on 16th july i got an email from the well known auction site saying items 2700401713274 and 270401726820. had been taken of site. they were a red body and a shorline gold body. so i had a lucky escape. peter
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Post by peterbower on Jun 30, 2009 7:37:44 GMT
Hi all Forget Kavanagh, i can thoroughly recommend Allparts, Pincotts and Brandoni for necks and bodies. These are available in the UK.
Peter
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Post by ha2he on Jun 30, 2009 8:09:02 GMT
Hi Charlie & All,
Had similar problems about three or four years ago with a set of pickups I bought from him/them. They were supposedly Bare Knuckle Apaches which were in an auction I won, and came at a reasonable price. As soon as I opened the package alarm bells started to ring, this was not what I was expecting at all. The covers could not be removed, they were sealed with some sort of gel and each pickup had a flimsy looking plate on the underside, the hookup wires were not the waxed cloth type either. I spoke to Tim Mills (really nice guy) the owner of Bare Knuckle and he asked me to email him some photos, of course they were not his pickups and said he couldn't tell who's they were. I got my money back without too much hassle having informed the well known auction site, my credit card and Kavanagh Customs. Shortly afterward the pickups re-appeared on the well known auction site and were duly sold with a buy it now price and glowing positive feedback left, suspicious me thinks!
Some time ago an inquiry was made on this site (I think) about Kavanagh Customs and I relayed the above story and as far as I know the purchase was not completed. Good.
It's a shame this has happened to you Charlie but a bigger shame is that Kavanagh Customs still exist and continue to do this to people.
Regards, Tim.
P.S. I got a set of Apaches direct from Tim Mills and am very pleased with them.
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jun 30, 2009 13:25:43 GMT
Thanks to all for contributing to this thread. Is there no one that can give me a good word about Kavanagh??!!!!!! ;D I guess no one will be interested in the body then Keep the comments coming, this will be a valuable thread, worth far more than the body. Regards, Charlie
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Post by olemuso on Jun 30, 2009 16:29:49 GMT
Is there no one that can give me a good word about Kavanagh??!!!!!! ;D Regards, Charlie yes, his mum loves him (maybe )
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Post by john on Jun 30, 2009 22:41:00 GMT
Charlie.
Put up some party lights up in your back yard, find some flat steel plate and a few bricks. Get a few folding chairs some steaks and snags and if worst comes to worst you can use the Strat body to start the barby.
Invite the band around and sort of have a Viking funeral. A bit of a sing along, Taz sitting there between you all waiting a tit bit. I say count your loses but enjoy them ;D
John m
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Post by olemuso on Jun 30, 2009 23:14:43 GMT
I guess no one will be interested in the body then Regards, Charlie £34.50 - hmmmm. I got a whole guitar for nine quid
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jun 30, 2009 23:18:30 GMT
Hi Ian, That reminds me of an old mate of mine who bought a guitar from a car boot sale. I forget the asking price, it was maybe either £6 or £10, but he offered half because it only had 3 strings, and he got it for half. Regards, Charlie
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Post by noelford on Jul 1, 2009 7:11:46 GMT
Having read through this topic, I took a look at the Kavanagh Customs website. I can understand how Charlie (or anyone else) could be taken in by these folks, it's a very professional job, very convincing, in fact a hell of a lot better quality than the product would appear to be! Just goes to show how careful you need to be.
Incidentally, I was going to suggest John's barbecue idea but I've come up with a more appropriate one:
Cut a large hole in the strat body and use it as a designer toilet seat. That way, every time you use it you'll be reminded of Kavanagh 'quality'.
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jul 1, 2009 7:48:38 GMT
Hi John and Noel, thanks for the ideas! If you have heard the expression mother of toilet seat, this would be the real mother of them all. What I'd really like to do is to be able to use this body to show to others as proof of what Kavanagh are capable of. Tim, I don't remember seeing anything on this site before about Kavanagh and having done a search, only messages from this thread came up. I've now read in another forum that someone suspects that the Kavanagh bodies are sourced from Mighty Mite, or are from the same supplier that Mighty Mite uses. The colours, especially the style of sunburst, do look similar. But the enlarged pickup routings don't appear to be on any Mighty Mite bodies I have looked at, maybe Kavanagh does this part themselves, in fact they most likely do. Does anyone have any experience with Mighty Mite bodies? As in the neck pocket depth? Regards, Charlie
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Post by rogercook on Jul 1, 2009 11:50:19 GMT
I thought Mighty Mite products were licensed and should therefore be dimensionally as per the Fender items on which they are based (at least that was the claim made for the neck I purchased on the well known auction site from a dealer in the US and which incidentally I am quite happy with though I can't get the action quite as low as I would like and the fret job is OK but not brilliant) so I would have expected the bodies to be OK give or take machining tolerances. I nearly bought a Kavanagh neck instead and now I'm glad I didn't.
I built my "Strat" with an anonymous ash body which I believe to be an Eden product, reasonable quality for the £40 or so I paid for it but the neck pocket needed a rework (it was square ended and too too deep). I painted it myself with cellulose - I can't believe how much grain filler it needed! On that basis I bought an Eden maple (not one piece) neck which looked great at first sight but was actually dreadful (for example the tuner holes were at what looked like random centres!!)
I'd be interested to know what people think of the quality of the quality of components generally with a view to informing my next project
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jul 1, 2009 15:01:35 GMT
Hi Roger, USA Custom Guitars (USACG) are said to be the best. Warmoth are probably still pretty good. All Parts are OK as far as I know. What I am noticing is that none of the manufacturers seem to offer nitro finish any more. Even Fender's thin skin nitro is said to be applied on top of poly. Regards, Charlie
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Post by john on Jul 1, 2009 22:41:38 GMT
Hi Charlie.
Had a peek at a few sites concerning Kavanagh Custom Guitars and there are some not so happy chappies out there, wrong depth in the necks of the bodies, timber in bodies being specified as alder and then found to be poplar. Also some thoughts being pushed around that they are made cheaply in China and sold as custom UK made. Not a very good way to run a business by any means.
John M
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jul 1, 2009 23:11:21 GMT
Hi John, I saw some of those comments but didn't find anything about poplar. That comfirms what Richard told me would be correct. Regards, Charlie
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Post by GeorgeII on Jul 2, 2009 16:47:04 GMT
Hi Charlie & All
I´m also a victim of " Kavanagh ". I bought a Strat body "fiesta red" for 169€ at the well known auction site last autunm. The account name at this time was "kavanaghcustoms" The feetback of this account was 99%. The discribtion sounded good, so I bought the body.
But every day after the money was out, he got one bad feetback after the other, so after a week it was only by 77,7 %!!. The comments : Bad rounting, scratches, body made out of 5 pieces and so on. I could not stop the payment and after around 3 weeks I got my "fiesta red" kavanagh body. It looked horrible! It´s never fiesta red and never a nitrolaquer! The body is also too heavy for alder wood, it `s made out of 4 pieces wood (what kind of wood ever) The laquer finish has picks and so on.... Short time later the kavanagh account was deleted, but I could see this guy was registered with a few other account names before.
I could not use this body for my project, but a friend of mine, Wayne Kuser in U.S. made a real fiesta red 1 piece alder body (it looks and sounds awsome)
The Kavanagh is only good for building a dummy strat, to hang it up on the wall after finished. It was a bad and expensive experience for me!
I can only give some warning to deal with John Kavanagh!
Best regards Gerd
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jul 2, 2009 20:34:47 GMT
Hi Gerd, While I'm really sorry to hear all the horror stories about Kavanagh, it does make me feel that I'm not alone. I must say that I have seen the custom solid colours of the bodies on their site, and I wasn't impressed with any of them. I especially thought that the Fiesta Red colour looked really wrong. Regards, Charlie
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shrek
Member
keep the music playing
Posts: 17
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Post by shrek on Jul 2, 2009 22:21:49 GMT
hi Charlie, you could sell it as a toilet seat, but you would need some neck, obviously no strings attatched. sorry. Steve
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Post by olemuso on Jul 2, 2009 23:10:19 GMT
Fly swatter
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jul 3, 2009 1:49:11 GMT
I don't think I'm going to sell it. I'll probably give it away, but only to someone who thinks it worth doing anything with. Or I could try to find out where Kavanagh is and throw it through the window. I'd need to drill lots of small holes in it to use it as a fly swatter, and fix a neck to it to hold it with! Regards, Charlie
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Post by noelford on Jul 3, 2009 7:05:42 GMT
I see a big market opportunity for the Kavanagh Swatocaster.
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Post by joeboy on Jul 3, 2009 10:44:22 GMT
Hi Charlie I would take close up high detail photos of all the faults, take some written statements on it's quality from well respected expets. Then put up a website detailing how crappy this product is, with links to all the other sites where people are not happy with his products. Place the site on the google search engine with the name Kavanagh in the title. Hit him where it hurts - in his pocket
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Post by Charlie Hall on Jul 3, 2009 14:06:31 GMT
Hi Robert, That sounds like a good idea, but I am not sure who would be prepared to put anything in writing, as it could come back to them if there was a legal issue. Regards, Charlie
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Post by olemuso on Jul 3, 2009 15:14:55 GMT
I have a Chimenea in the garden just crying out for some firewood
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Post by joeboy on Jul 3, 2009 17:01:48 GMT
Yes, I know what you mean Charlie, it's just annoying that people like that always seem to get away with it.
I wonder how many others are being ripped off.
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