Paul Warren
Well-known member
Wow. I don't know where to begin. I'll try to be brief though, because I'm between lessons, but this is important for me to say! I want to express my gratitude to John Petrucci and Ernie Ball for something I never expected. I received a shipment from Ernie Ball today which was obviously a guitar upon seeing the box. It had mine and John's names on the outside, so I assumed there had been some terrible shipping mistake because I didn't order any guitar. I got on the phone to Derek at EB and told him what happened and that I didn't open the package since I could see that it was a rushed delivery and therefore most likely something for John which was mistakenly shipped to my address. I've been an EB artist since 2001 or so and I get my EB stuff delivered to my house, so I could easily see the mistake somehow occurring. I've worked for John for many years on his website and I just figured that somehow, the addresses got mixed up in shipping. (no offense to the shipping folks 
)
Well, long story shorter, Derek encouraged me to open the box and tell him what was in it. And after playing along for a couple of minutes and acting like he knew nothing, he told me "well, why don't you just keep it". LOL. Right. The beginnings of a near heart attack were in order. John and EB just gave me a BFR. John had ordered it several months ago for me and had been tracking the progress on it. I freakin' don't know what to say. I mean, I've never, ever been given anything of this magnitude. It's mind boggling. I'm just stunned. And to top it off, it's a different color! It's a tobacco burst finish and they even did a burst on the back of the neck! It plays and sounds wonderful and I just can't can't thank everybody enough who worked on it or had something to do with it. John, Sterling, Dudley, wow. I'm blown away and will try to post more when I'm more coherent and not pressured for time. I talked to John right after Derek and John was just crazy happy for me. That's just awesome.
Derek and John both told me to take and post pics, so here they are. I'm truly very moved and humbled by John and the EB gang. Thanks so much for what you've done and my words can't express my genuine thanks. The guitar rules.
)Well, long story shorter, Derek encouraged me to open the box and tell him what was in it. And after playing along for a couple of minutes and acting like he knew nothing, he told me "well, why don't you just keep it". LOL. Right. The beginnings of a near heart attack were in order. John and EB just gave me a BFR. John had ordered it several months ago for me and had been tracking the progress on it. I freakin' don't know what to say. I mean, I've never, ever been given anything of this magnitude. It's mind boggling. I'm just stunned. And to top it off, it's a different color! It's a tobacco burst finish and they even did a burst on the back of the neck! It plays and sounds wonderful and I just can't can't thank everybody enough who worked on it or had something to do with it. John, Sterling, Dudley, wow. I'm blown away and will try to post more when I'm more coherent and not pressured for time. I talked to John right after Derek and John was just crazy happy for me. That's just awesome.
Derek and John both told me to take and post pics, so here they are. I'm truly very moved and humbled by John and the EB gang. Thanks so much for what you've done and my words can't express my genuine thanks. The guitar rules.
