Official Luthiers Forum!

Man, that is a real bummer! I'm really sorry to hear about it. They must have been checking you out sometime or another. Hope they catch them and find your stuff, undamaged. Around here, you are hard pressed to even get the police to come to your house. They would rather you file a report on line. Obscene!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Michael, I know I would feel like I had lost a family member if this happened to me, so I feel your pain on this one. I hope that at least some of your belongings find their way back to you.

I dont know if it means anything, but I have 2 dogs in the yard AND an alarm system on the house and shop to help combat things like this. My homeowners insurance gives me a discount on my premiums for having the monitored alarm system.

I hope you get it all back and in perfect condition too!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Luthier:

A person who provides the means for another to express emotion\feeling through the use of an inanimate/? object.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

Michael,

Very sorry this happened to you. I hope the police are able to track the perps down. If not, we'll get Stan to leave retirement for a couple weeks, and he'll hunt them down for you.

Don

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I am hoping this turns out for the best in the end Michael .... thats rotten to have happen.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Michael, I too sympathise and try not to think about the possibility of it happening to me (although I have far less to lose, my last 3 instruments live in my little workshop). I am, however, in the process of having an alarm fitted. Having said that, (perhaps because I'm British and live in a relatively non-urban part of France) I cannot imagine being advised to buy a gun. Are you allowed, in the US, to kill someone who is stealing your chisels? Because having a gun makes that a possibility. Not having one means you can't.

A lot of French people have guns (shotguns and rifles) claiming their right to hunt. Every so often there are accidents and someone (perhaps a child) dies. Sometimes scores are settled, usually 'crimes of passion' and someone, perhaps a whole family, dies. As a friend of mine used to say "no-one was ever killed with a fishing rod". Sorry if this offends anyone (but not very).

Home owner will cover the tools and property damage pretty much over the deductable. Instruments insurance will cover the guitars. The client that lost his guitar is going to be pretty upset. Strangely that is my biggest concern outside the safety of my home and shop.

I put in a new door jam and door last night will clean the shop tonight. Nabors said that they heard nothing but the two closest were like me out of town for Father's day.

Cops said it is the third break-in within a mile of me this month.

I suspect I will recover the guitars eventually if it was a junkie or such. All the pawn shops and music stores that deal in guitars all know me and my logo. I will go around this afternoon and let them know what to be on the look out for.

I can still keep building but will have to pick up new laminate routers router table and plunge router and a few hand tools, Oh and orbital sanders. Funny thing is the hand tools that were really important to me are still here.

The banditos rolled the 16-32 into the outer shop but gave up on it. Probably because of the weight and difficulty to get around the corner of my shop to get it out the door.

Life will go on

I need to let Dan Roach know that his wood is fine. the did not mess with the wood at all

thanks for everyone’s kind words.

Michael

Michael, what can we say except we are sorry for your loss.

You are a kind and good man and we empathize.

Many of us have endured similar losses to thieves as well.

After the police report, days and weeks later, you'll likely miss other stuff you didn't notice.

It's all stuff. Thankfully they did not and can not steal your will to work. You do great work by the way!

Maybe the cops will get a break and you'll recover something? The Craigslist idea is a good one.

Didn't you get broken into once before? I wonder if it's a repeat offender? No, I think you solved that one.

Hang in their Michael, don't let them get your goat too.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Yep about 2 years ago but no loss to speak of. It was vandals back then.

Its times like these, you wish you´d know people you´d normally would not want to know. Sooo sorry for you. I really hope the cops find the people responsible, and that your insured !!

Lars

Dude, that sucks. I am very sorry to hear this.

Hang in there.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Michael - So sorry to hear about this. I trust that you will recover some or all of your belongings. Glad that no one was physically hurt.

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

Really rough Michael.I hope that they are caught and the key gets thrown away when they get locked up.
James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

We were broken into some years ago. That led me to get a monitored house alarm. I think a "pro" would still be able to get in and out and take tha high vaule/easy resale items. The alarm gives me comfort to think the teen or druggie will go elsewhere.
I feel for you.

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Greg
http://garibaldiinstruments.com/

Michael So very sorry that you are going through this - You can't replace the work and care that went into each of those guitars. The tools, the time, the planning, the excitement of stringing them up for the first time...geez, listen to me, pouring salt in the wound...

Think about the excitement of stringing up the guys that did this instead...

Its a sad commentary on our times, but things are bad all around, even for us working stiffs - some folks are going to try to take what ain't theirs...I guess we just have to prepare for that and be ready...

Makes me nervous to leave the Mrs home when I travel for work

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Mitch

I'm sure you thought of this but It could be those same vandals you
had before.Maybe they are moving up in their criminal careers! Very
sorry this happened to you Michael and I hope you get your guitars
and tools back .

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Sorry to hear that happened to you Michael. Been down that road myself, I know how it feels.

Just be glad you weren't at home when it happened. Could have been a lot worse.

Micheal ! Sorry to hear about your misfortune!anyone that has been through that knows it stinks! I was worried about that too while I was at the GAL. especialy since quite often these things are inside jobs... hopefully you have some pics of your work which might make it easier to track down the dogs !have you had any " new customers" by the shop lately? check ebay , and other auctions for the guitars , maybe give some pics to the local music / pawn shops , maybe if there is a large metropolis near you. maybe , if you do have pics, post an add in the local papers" have you seen this guitar "? at least being custom it would be easy to identify , maybe they could be cought showing off their new axes to someone ! .its easy for me to say but it could have been worse,perhaps if it happened while you and/or your family was at home , someone might have been hurt ! at least noone was ! around here the gangs have been doing home invasions, they just drive down the street , pick a home , enter it , rough up ( or worse) who ever is at home,take what they want . one guy here , they held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, luckily the gun misfired.it is a tough loss , but at least it is only stuff lost ! sorry and good luck .. Jody

Just an update. One of the two involved caught attempting to pawn two of the guitars Monday afternoon. I identified the guitars Tuesday afternoon. I will have those two guitars back Monday or Tuesday of next week. Both will need repaired as it appears that they just laid them in the back seat of their car and dumped the hand tools on top of them. Really gouged the primo curly Maple neck on the commission guitar and lots of dings in the tops and messed up finish on the body. I had no curly maple to build a replacement neck with so gave Chris at Hanalei-Moon the specs Tuesday night and he emailed me yesterday that he would ship the replacement neck today. How is that for going above and beyond the call of duty. Heck I told him 3 weeks would be fine

Ahh the beauty of hand made guitars!!! Very glad to hear you are getting the guitars back, sad that they were damaged, but wonderful that they are actually coming back. Might restore some faith in the system with that! Glad to hear some good news, especially that the axes have been found. Keep us posted. Jason

Half of them anyway

Oops, yes sorry. I think its great that you've already come across some of them so quickly. Hopefully the rest will find their way home soon, especially with you doing such a good job spread the word 'round town. Hopefully, they'll be able to ascertain where some of the tools went as well. Best wishes. Jason

Glad to hear that you're starting to recover some of your things.

Ron M.

Micheal sorry about the burglary and damage.

I hate burglars and those were the top of my list to catch. Ask a cop, particularly bigger city officers and what the best bust in the world is for status, it is a "daylight, onsight, residentual burglary. Very rare in doing. I did it once, but juveniles. So I sat at the Denver PD district 2 office for several hours babysitting so mom and dad could come pick them up and then cuss me our for ruining their day at work. When I was assigned to a organized crime task force in Amarillo a bunch of years ago for about a year, that is what I did, buy stolen items. I was the best fence in that part of the state. Where you have drugs and users, you have the burglars and this sounds like that senerio more than kids. Kid more likely would have taken the guitars and still have them. You would be amazed on how many parents have no idea what are in the kids rooms or how they got stuff.

When they bust these guys from the pawn thing, they will probably get the rest or where it went. They will also more likely clear a bunch of other burglarys in the area. That is just the way it seems to work. You did the right thing in getting with the dealers and pawns first thing. Most are honest and want to do the right thing. Don't let them out of this being a nice guy or get a deal for restitution. Most folks will want to prosecute fully, but then as being nice folks want to give the dudes a break. White uniforms picking cotton in the sun for the State of Tx. is a good job for them.

This sounds as far as clearing up the burglary will be successful. That is pretty rare right off also, but your getting information out early, and the thing they stole are easy to id and not common was the thing that made it that way. As bad as it sucks, you probably will get stuff back, and more important bad guys in jail and save others from having this done to them. Good luck

Good news, indeed! Jody