Before I shut this down (another Custom Shop Thread bites the dust), I want to reiterate a few things that have been covered more than once.
First, I understand that people join the forum and don't have this vast background information regarding what we talked to death in, say, early 2006. And again in the summer of 2006. Then once more in the winter of 2006. Followed by every month of 2007, only to revisit it around 100 times throughout 2008.
I understand that. Nor does it mean that your Fabulous New Idea sucks. Only that it might not be as fabulous or as new as you think. I tried to get this across in a humorous manner early in this thread, but we're like a dog with a bone. If it's there, we gotta gnaw on it. So be it.
We get an awful lot of inside information, photos, heads-up on new products and innnovations - and a look inside the process. Perhaps that is more than enough. Let me tell you what I think about all this "custom shop" business and the requests for guitars/basses that are not currently being built:
BP has done a magnificent job of running the company. He has put together a staff of designers and engineers and customer service people and sales staff and so on that work hard to make these instruments the best they can be. But that's not enough. Is it? No, because we have 'personal' wants and/or requirements that we would like to see fulfilled, irregardless of whether or not it makes good business sense. So, in effect, every few months (or weeks), we have to have these threads that say, "Nice job, Ernie Ball MusicMan, but what I'd really like to see is this...."
This isn't about some cult of personality around BP or repressing free speech or controlling the message on the forum. Nor is it about walking carefully around Sterling, although - let's face it - if you have to put "BP Don't Hate Me" in the title of your thread, you sort of already know that something is not quite right. But it's way simpler than that.
The Custom Shop issue has been done. If you don't know that it has been beaten to death, I'm telling you now - it's been done. The answers to the questions are available in older posts and threads. BP has talked about it many times and I can read the frustration in his responses to the "new" questions. It has been done.
I'm not as present here on the guitar side as I am over on the bass side, so maybe you don't know me as well as they do, but here's my general outlook on moderating these things - it's Jeffersonian. That is, the moderator who moderates best, moderates least.
I don't enjoy editing posts or closing threads or any of that stuff. But at some point, I have to admit that the horse is dead and we need to stop beating it. I am at that point now with the CS threads.
Thread closed. If you have any questions about this, feel free to PM me, although I do get a lot of PMs and I'm at the point now where I answer some and others I ignore.
Sorry if this seems harsh, but this back and forth and insulting others and so on is just getting on my nerves.
Appreciate what you've got, peeps.
Jack