Vik Guitars Drama: Part III

[Randy]

Making good on his promise:

https://www.tiktok.com/@fmassie0521/video/7004888208181873925

Drama ensues:

https://vikkuletski.com/articles/clown-world/

[Randy]

Incase the article gets deleted

[Randy]

[Chris]

I ain't readin' all that.

Dude should have sold the fiddle and donated the coin to a local charity or something.

[beneharris]

I ain't readin' all that.

Dude should have sold the fiddle and donated the coin to a local charity or something.

Yup. Plenty of people could put a couple grand to use. A tik tok video helps nobody.

[Darren]

A TikTok video helps people become “influencers.”

[Chris]

I thought for sure that Nolly coming right out and saying fuck this piece of homophobic trash would be the end of it. I don't care how nice his guitars are, fuck him.

[Randy]

I thought for sure that Nolly coming right out and saying fuck this piece of homophobic trash would be the end of it. I don't care how nice his guitars are, fuck him.

The tl;dr on that is basically the Vik as we knew him when all that shit went down still lived in [Poland? Belarus?] and it was AFTER that he ran off with money from a bunch of customers (our buddy Elq was one of them) that he used to finance his move to SoCal and basically rebooted his life.

He's escaped his past because the FB and Insta came after he came stateside and being able to admin your social media meant he could squash any time his past came up. Most people out there (he's got about 100k followers between FB and Insta) just know him through a wall of pics of beautiful guitars, they have zero idea about the homophobia or the scamming.

It sounds like he's been changing names for his merchant accounts and business registration to dodge legal actions. I noticed recently he tried to relaunch as Envoy Guitars, which I thought was just a marketing thing but now looks like it was another attempted dodge of spurned customers.

[Chris]

I miss elq. Good dude.

[Ken]

I read more of that than I should have. Glad I never got caught up in any custom build BS.

I find it hard to believe that "a cheap skate" would destroy a guitar. I know cheapskates. Hell, I am one in some aspects of my life. If the customer was truly a cheapskate, he would've kept that guitar intact and played it, especially after going through so much to get it. I guess he could've sold it and donated to charity, but it was about making a statement, and that was a doozy.

Also, sad that elq didn't make it over here. He sent me a bunch of strings for free. Cool dude, indeed.

[petereanima]

Scammy homophobe still scammy after all these years. Also, water is wet. Fuck him.

[Chris]

I read more of that than I should have. Glad I never got caught up in any custom build BS.

I find it hard to believe that "a cheap skate" would destroy a guitar. I know cheapskates. Hell, I am one in some aspects of my life. If the customer was truly a cheapskate, he would've kept that guitar intact and played it, especially after going through so much to get it. I guess he could've sold it and donated to charity, but it was about making a statement, and that was a doozy.

Also, sad that elq didn't make it over here. He sent me a bunch of strings for free. Cool dude, indeed.

He hasn't been around in quite some time. Long before the split.

[jacksonplayer]

I did read it all. Assuming any of this is actually true, it sounds like they deserve each other.

[bigdave]

I can't believe he is still in buisness . I dont wanna sound like a hard-on but I have taken hundreds of flights in my time, for far less the a Vik guitar.... if I had sent that guy as much dough as some of these guys have Mr. Vik would have gotten a up close and personal meeting. Before I found my way to a tech career I "collected" money for people who could not call the cops.... that turd would pay up ...its cheaper than healing.

[Chris]

I can't believe he is still in buisness . I dont wanna sound like a hard-on but I have taken hundreds of flights in my time, for far less the a Vik guitar.... if I had sent that guy as much dough as some of these guys have Mr. Vik would have gotten a up close and personal meeting. Before I found my way to a tech career I "collected" money for people who could not call the cops.... that turd would pay up ...its cheaper than healing.

In a related note, I think this is why I'm one of the few people who actually got their last guitar from Sherman. It's not that I was within driving distance to his house so I could start a fight with him (I'm too old for that shit) - it was that I was close enough to make it worth my while to take him to court over it. He knew damn well he had nothing and that I was more than willing to drive an hour to get my money back. He also knew that someone like Seanbabs ( ) wasn't going to fly halfway across the country to take him to court, and that Beard (who is Canadian) was even less likely. So Mike just up and fucked off with their money because he knew he could.

[Webdood]

Shit like this is makes me want to just play Squiers and save the extra money for worthwhile things like hookers and blow.

[jacksonplayer]

I can't believe he is still in buisness . I dont wanna sound like a hard-on but I have taken hundreds of flights in my time, for far less the a Vik guitar.... if I had sent that guy as much dough as some of these guys have Mr. Vik would have gotten a up close and personal meeting. Before I found my way to a tech career I "collected" money for people who could not call the cops.... that turd would pay up ...its cheaper than healing.

Even a quick read over at sevenstring makes it easy to understand why guys like this persist.

Delusional customers with more available cash (or credit cards) than sense, coupled with too many builders who don't know how to manage expectations or run a business and get in over their heads--and that's not even delving into the sociopaths.

[Mike]

He hasn't been around in quite some time. Long before the split.

He is missed.

[Randy]

Shit like this is makes me want to just play Squiers and save the extra money for worthwhile things like hookers and blow.

[Mike]

Even a quick read over at sevenstring makes it easy to understand why guys like this persist.

Delusional customers with more available cash (or credit cards) than sense, coupled with too many builders who don't know how to manage expectations or run a business and get in over their heads--and that's not even delving into the sociopaths.

...it's almost like they drove off all the people with sense and de-powered the mods.

[Chris]

Even a quick read over at sevenstring makes it easy to understand why guys like this persist.

The progression goes like this, every time:

Thread: "Vik stole my money" (6 views, 3 replies)
Thread: "Vik homophobic rant" (11 views, 2 replies)
Thread: "Vik uses ground up kittens for inlay materal, makes video" (8 views, 1 reply)
Thread: "I will totally steal your money" Started by: Vik (9 views, 3 replies)
Thread: "Read my new blog post, titled I Ain't Sending You Shit, by Vik" (11 views, 5 replies)
Thread: "2021 Vik Black Friday Sale! Get your order in now!:" (1,423 views, 300 replies)
Thread: "Should I tip Vik 5% or 10% when I paypal him?" (500 views, 90 replies)
Thread: "Woohoo! Just placed my black friday pre-order!" (692 views, 88 replies)
Thread: "FS: Vik Black Friday Spot, only 200% upcharge (SOLD)" (900 views, 37 replies)
Thread: "Has anyone heard from Vik lately?" (15k views, 800 replies)

[Mike]

Shit like this is makes me want to just play Squiers and save the extra money for worthwhile things like hookers and blow.

In general, I'm tired of the "I'll buy a $4000 Djentstick" mentality, but that sad thing about guys like Vik and Sherman is that they actually build instruments that are worth the money, but are shitty people.

[Chris]

...it's almost like they drove off all the people with sense and de-powered the mods.

It's almost like he never gave a fuck in the first place and sent me a bunch of money as an investment, and you've all been a bunch of rubes "working" for free all along.

At least I pay you guys. Or at least, I ask Drew to pay you guys. In snuggles.

[Greg McCoy]

In a related note, I think this is why I'm one of the few people who actually got their last guitar from Sherman. It's not that I was within driving distance to his house so I could start a fight with him (I'm too old for that shit) - it was that I was close enough to make it worth my while to take him to court over it. He knew damn well he had nothing and that I was more than willing to drive an hour to get my money back. He also knew that someone like Seanbabs ( ) wasn't going to fly halfway across the country to take him to court, and that Beard (who is Canadian) was even less likely. So Mike just up and fucked off with their money because he knew he could.

Sean is too pure for this sinful Earth, it's been forever since I've seen him, but I've played the one Sherman he did get and heard the whole ridiculous story. He didn't even pay him with outright cash IIRC. IIRC (without saying too much, been a while though), he paid for at least part of the package deal of two by buying Sherman (Sherman's wife technically IIRC) car parts off eBay. Sean's a super nice guy and just gave him the benefit of the doubt that there was a legit reason to pay him in such a convoluted "there is no way I am ever getting my money back if this goes bad" manner.

Always have a clear paper trail. Even if it's family. Protects both parties and prevents problems from springing up. Most of the "scammer" luthiers don't start out wanting to be scammers. They just never deliver and always have some non-sensical reason why it's not their fault. Which at some point it's like, "Yeah, this guy isn't technically an out and out scammer, but six of one, a half dozen of the other, he's certainly using a lot of questionable self deluding logic why keeping my money and not delivering is acceptable and could happen to anyone."

There's this one local contractor who screws everyone over named Clint (I call him "Clunt") who can't go anywhere without looking over his shoulder for vengeful victims of his terrible business practices and his "I'm totally not keeping up my end of the deal, but here's why it's not my fault" stories are legendary. I personally saw him rip a deck off the side of a house for completely unnecessary reasons and declare he was going to fix it "tomorrow" and then he spent the next three years blaming the fact that he couldn't fix it on Nancy Pelosi, the person who originally built the deck that made it "too sturdy and difficult to understand", and "the beatles that eat redwood trees".

The last one was particularly weird, because in spite of the fact the deck was not made out of redwood, after he fucked it up he went on and on about how he would fix it with "a solid fully grained luxury redwood veneer he would get from Ace hardware the very next morning". He got all irate and flustered when it was pointed out that not only would a "solid fully grained luxury redwood veneer" do fuck all to fix it, Ace hardware doesn't even "solid fully grained luxury redwood veneers"

[Greg McCoy]

Also, chopsaw/mitre saw dude is an idiot. That is heinously unsafe.

That's like, two of the cardinal rules of using that kind of saw.

1) Make sure stuff is properly clamped down so you don't injure yourself.

2) Especially make sure stuff is properly clamped down if you are cutting through a piece of wood concealing a metal rod or screw like a truss rod the blade could easily catch the blade. Or frets for that matter.

Dude got lucky the blade didn't catch on the truss rod and fling his stupid djent headstock at his head.

That's not even getting into his hand positioning. Probably doesn't even play guitar. Whenever I fire up a mitre saw my first thought is "don't put your hand right by the blade, or else you might never play guitar again"