Haywire Custom Guitars

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Haywire/Rick Mariner sold me a guitar with an obviously incorrect bridge, install, and set-up. After sending Mariner a series of hi-res photos, Haywire had several opportunities to make it right, but left me hanging to the tune of $1650. So I wrote a negative review on Yelp, along with the pics that confirm the claim of negligent (even dangerous) workmanship. In the eight months since, Mariner has launched a malicious retaliation campaign on the web. At first it was just blog post insults on Harmony Central and attempts to bury my review by uploading dozens of near-duplicate reviews by phantom users. Apparently, Mariner has an amazing amount of time on his hands. After reviewing this situation last summer, the website Yelp decided to uphold my review and remove all the Haywire posts. This inspired Mariner to impersonate me (setting up a new user account using my name and other private information), for the purposes of advertising a bogus positive review of his product. Also, on other sites, Mariner started posting bogus reviews of his product using my name for attribution - including my full home address - to Facebook, DotFrets, Merchant Circle, his own Haywire Custom Guitars websites, and who knows how many other sites. You can find me and these bogus reviews all over the web now, thanks to Mariner/Haywire Custom Guitars, but the reviews are posted by Haywire and not me. Although this activity is a violation of the Privacy Act and a few laws, I've still had to get my own legal representation to file a cease and desist court order, and an FTC affidavit has been filed with the FBI. Also, a lot of time and effort has been spent to remove offending content by contacting the webmasters of various sites. But, unfortunately, much of the evidence is still on the web, just search "elliott haywire guitar" and multiple hits will appear, including among others a recent March 16 bogus post on Facebook - see for yourself. I didn't post any (as in ZERO) of these comments/reviews. Has anyone else been a victim of such a strange case of identity theft - I would like to hear how others may be addressing a situation like this.

What a beautiful guitar. After unpacking it, I did a quick tune up and it was ready to go - the setup was perfect. Spent several hours playing it and basically just having fun with this excellent guitar. The Warmoth neck is fantastic. I spent a lot of time researching Strats to find the right one for my collection, and now feel very lucky to have found Haywire Guitars and Rick Mariner. The finish on the body is stunning, and the workmanship on every part of the guitar is outstanding. Just as important for me is the customer service. I spent quite a bit of time talking to Rick via phone on two separate occasions, both about the guitar I was interested in and generally chatting about guitars. I felt as though we had been friends for years. He answered all of my questions and offered great information about guitar specifics. Would highly recommend Haywire Custom Guitars to anyone looking for the highest quality in a guitar - 100%.

By Bill Rosenberry on May 19, 2010 at 07:51 AM

Haywire is just fantastic! I was treated very well by Haywire and really enjoyed my second experience. Rick is a pleasure to work with considering my "fussiness". He is a gentleman. Rick Mariner always was and continues to be very easily accessible to answer any questions I have had during the building process and after I had received it. He went out of his way to listen to my wants, and helped make this guitar is a totally unique piece of art. I have one more thing to say, "Thank you Rick, for a great experience and a great guitar. If you're in the market for a new electric guitar, you cannot do any better than going to Haywire Custom Guitars. I`ve been playing for many years and I can honestly say that my whole experience in purchasing this custom Strat from RICK MARINER & HAYWIRE CUSTOM GUITARS have been a great.