John Lyons / Basic Audo Power Outage

[Wes Mantooth]

Damn, didn't know all this happened to multiple people

I bought a Spooky Tooth directly from him, I paid $120 for a blem 3 knob. He said the blem wasn't up to snuff so he gave me a new 4 knob instead, no extra cost!

But excane, that story is fucked, I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience

[insubordination]

This is interesting, as the Dirt Halo I ordered took three months with no updates or anything. Pictures promised, knob choices promised, etc. Nothing. Didn't know it was coming until a pic was posted in the DIY forum and then I got it a few days later. I didn't think it was excruciatingly long since I waited EDIT: two-plus months on a pedal from an overseas builder*, but at least he constantly updated me on enclosures, knobs, build progress, everything. I guess I thought the deal was that Basic Audio custom stuff just took awhile, from what others had said on here, but I didn't know there were problems like this.

*builder's name removed because he's awesome and I am a jerk and shouldn't have mentioned him, especially since I remembered it being longer than it was.

[excane]

But excane, that story is fucked, I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience

Thanks man but I just want to make people aware of what they're potentially getting into. There are a lot of good peeps here..... dudes that I like and wouldn't want them getting into a vortex of shit.

I don't mind being the guinea pig since I deal with assholes all day long (for both work and personal) but the least I could do with a bad experience is let others know.

I kinda feel it's like a responsibility on my part.... to my ILF homies

[Wes Mantooth]

But excane, that story is fucked, I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience

Thanks man but I just want to make people aware of what they're potentially getting into. There are a lot of good peeps here..... dudes that I like and wouldn't want them getting into a vortex of shit.

I don't mind being the guinea pig since I deal with assholes all day long (for both work and personal) but the least I could do with a bad experience is let others know.

I kinda feel it's like a responsibility on my part.... to my ILF homies

Yep, even the best builders have to be held accountable

GAS is expensive and it's always nice to have people looking out for you

[Chankgeez]

Well, I'm sorry to hear about all of this, but glad it's coming out.

[behndy]

urrrrr..... shit. i HATE talking bout builders in public in a negative way.

Lyons didn't fuck me, it was just a pretty unsatisfactory experiance. we'd talked about him doing a BYOC build, he suggested some improvements and gave me around a 2 month build time. i paid up (this is on me, i told him since we had a time frame and it wasn't cheap i wanted to get him his money then when i had it instead of maybe not having the funds quickly available when it was ready), left it up to him to keep me up to date over the first 3 months. after that there was a process of me sending a polite "hey, where we at?" email or pm, a few days later i'd get a short response that said, "getiting close!", nothing, 2 weeks then repeat.

after 6 months he put up a pic of the enclosure..... and it was NOTHING like what we'd talked about. not even close, and i didn't dig the style at all. and by this point i'd figured out a different pedal solution for the effect he was building me. i sent him a pm saying i didn't like the way it looked at all, if he could get it done the way we talked about and headed to me in 2 weeks that'd be great, if not we should maybe talk about a refund. he refunded my money within a day or two.

so, wasn't happy, but he was never rude or short with me (i do have 2 or 3 friends he WAS, but not with me), and he DID refund a fair bit of money very quickly. but.... even if it had come out perfectly a pedal that took longer than the Built When I Ordered It bass i have would have left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

the Squarewave Fuzz with a blend he did for me i think was like 2 weeks longer than he thought, which is nothing, and was a beautiful, high quality build that sounded great.

[devnulljp]

I've had a bunch of great dealings with him over the last few years. Last time I sent him a pedal to repair he didn't even charge me for it. This is the first I've heard of anyone having any kind of problems dealing with him. First time I've ever heard anyone say anything negative about him actually.

But FWIW, there really was a big fuckoff storm, and he really is without power, so unless you want a pedal with wires stuck together with tape and chewing gum, you'll have to be patient is all.

[behndy]

i'm not trashing the guy. i was pretty loathe to post in here. but i DO know some peeps that have verrrrrry not good transactions with him. and like i said, one time went smooth, the other was kinda a cluster-fuck.

[excane]

so unless you want a pedal with wires stuck together with tape and chewing gum, you'll have to be patient is all.

I would have gladly taken that over the miserable experience I had.

I probably would have gotten it a lot sooner......and it would have FUNCTIONED like it was supposed to.

[excane]

And I'm with behndy in the fact that I truly hate bashing anyone UNLESS it's rightfully deserved.

In this case, it is.

[MaxMaps]

I've had a bunch of great dealings with him over the last few years. Last time I sent him a pedal to repair he didn't even charge me for it. This is the first I've heard of anyone having any kind of problems dealing with him. First time I've ever heard anyone say anything negative about him actually.

But FWIW, there really was a big fuckoff storm, and he really is without power, so unless you want a pedal with wires stuck together with tape and chewing gum, you'll have to be patient is all.

I would have had my box well in advance to any of the happening if I had gotten it in the timeline that was promised too me.

I am understanding of his situation and I hope him and his family are OK. But if I had frequent communication then I would not be posting in a thread amongst others who were frustrated. If I was told from the beginning it would take 3 months I would have been fine with that but going with no communication for long periods of time and other people having similar stories, you begin to get worried.

Look at what happened to monolith sound speakers, Wade by no means was a bad guy and I heard he was still honoring orders but shit like that wears on a person and it takes the joy out of wanting the product that you paid for.

[CBGB]

Doesn't all this go with the territory? I mean, he's a one-man operation, so it's not all that surprising if he sometimes gets backed up and is not super communicative. Sounds like everyone basically got their pedal or got refunded. Maybe it's not great, but I've heard of a lot worse.

[Jwar]

So they are neighbors? Did he call you dev? How did you find out?

[Deltaphoenix]

Doesn't all this go with the territory? I mean, he's a one-man operation, so it's not all that surprising if he sometimes gets backed up and is not super communicative. Sounds like everyone basically got their pedal or got refunded. Maybe it's not great, but I've heard of a lot worse.

I think not communicating is what really made the difference for me. I am grown-up and can accept that things happen, plans go off course, life happens, etc. Just be honest and forth coming with me. Pedal was sent in mid December. By the end of January Lyons is saying that it is almost done. I contact him again in February, oh, he just has to attach a few wires. I contact him in March and I just need to chill out. In April I contacted him again, he gave me more attitude, so I got very firm, I said the shit that got my pedal finished. The pedal sounded good but I was over it, I traded it within a week of receiving it. I didn't want his work on my board.

I have had Custom Builds take as long as my mod job (to be fair, it ended up almost being a custom build though). The difference is the other builder treated me well, kept me up to date, answered any question I had, etc. I didn't have a ton of questions or anything, I don't want to be a bother. Most of the time, the builder sends me an update, I comment that wow it is looking and thank them. I was in contact with Ben and Excane, we all were going through this at the same time, so I knew it wasn't just me. Maybe John was/is going through something at that time, hopefully the issue(s) get straightened out that are affecting his business, and I don't mean losing power.

Sure, I have heard of worse, but I am not willing to go through this debacle again, knowingly.

[skullservant]

I've definitely noticed a lack of/slowing down of posts on his part on DIYStompboxes. I wondered why it had slowed down, but wow thats crazy. I never would have thought... Sucks