No more black ebony? New EVH Wolfgang Stealth not so stealthy...

CodePoet said:
They got back to me and they couldn't be less interested that after eight months of delay they delivered a guitar that doesn't match the model's signature aesthetic. They said that the spec just says "Ebony" and not "dyed Ebony", so it's to spec, regardless of how their photos show it. This is after they initially told me that yes, all of their ebony fingerboards are dyed. I asked if there was something more they could explain or do, and their only reply was that I could buy some of their fretboard conditioner - "it can darken the wood".

I'm not wanting anything from them, other than perhaps some official dye to do the job they missed, but it's disappointing they don't seem to care if they had a manufacturing issue or to explain why there's a discrepancy. I don't actually know if there was a manufacturing issue, or if this is how they're shipping them now. They wouldn't say. IMO, I think it's a shame if they lose that stealth look.

On top of that, they looked up my serial number and came back and said it doesn't exist in their system, although they confirmed by the photos that it's a legit EVH/Fender product. In this sense it truly is a Wolfgang Stealth - it doesn't exist. :). Hopefully they'll still warranty it.

So, not a great customer service triumph. Has me a bit worried the product line may drift/decline now that EVH is gone (not that he ran the business), but time will tell as it always does.

But the good news is that the guitar plays and sounds great, so back to that!
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Typical Fender/Jackson/Charvel response in my experience. Once a dealer purchases their stock they don't care too much about problems the customer has. Take it up with the dealer! Might be why many long time dealers of those brands from 10-20 years ago no longer carry the brands.

It's not a "blem" as that's how ebony is. It's also common to find the streakier (is that a word?) stuff in the under $2k price range. While they SHOULD be dying them to line up with the "stealth" aesthetic, it's not listed as such so... likely would be an uphill battle trying to convince Sweetwater they should be knocking some coin off.

The upside is it plays and sounds great. You can achieve the stealth look with pretty minimal effort on your part if you don't mind having some dirty fingers for a little bit! ;)
 
Morphine said:
Typical Fender/Jackson/Charvel response in my experience. Once a dealer purchases their stock they don't care too much about problems the customer has. Take it up with the dealer! Might be why many long time dealers of those brands from 10-20 years ago no longer carry the brands.

It's not a "blem" as that's how ebony is. It's also common to find the streakier (is that a word?) stuff in the under $2k price range. While they SHOULD be dying them to line up with the "stealth" aesthetic, it's not listed as such so... likely would be an uphill battle trying to convince Sweetwater they should be knocking some coin off.

The upside is it plays and sounds great. You can achieve the stealth look with pretty minimal effort on your part if you don't mind having some dirty fingers for a little bit! ;)
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Yep, it's not a big deal. Just bummed I waited 8 months and they changed the look of it, when the look is the reason I got it. But on the scale of things to worry about it, about a 0.00001.

I'm really more curious as to why they'd change it as it was perfect before (IMO of course). 🤷‍♂️
 
CodePoet said:
Yep, it's not a big deal. Just bummed I waited 8 months and they changed the look of it, when the look is the reason I got it. But on the scale of things to worry about it, about a 0.00001.

I'm really more curious as to why they'd change it as it was perfect before (IMO of course). 🤷‍♂️
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I hear ya and agree completely.

Yep, hard to speculate. Could just be a board that wound up in production that missed the dying process. A lot of times as a customer we think wouldn't QA catch that? Why would they send something out like that? But it's not uncommon with stuff coming outta Mexico, Indonesia, Korea etc. Let the dealer get it and mark it as B-stock if they want. Or straight up sell it. There's a high probability the customer just wont care.

My experience with the Jackson custom shop was unfortunately very similar. On multiple occasions they would send pictures of stuff they messed up on with my builds to the dealer and asked, "Is this ok and we'll knock $200 off?" Fuck no it's not okay. Fix it.
 
CodePoet said:
Yep, pretty much. Slap a Fender logo on there and throw it in the case with the whammy bar.
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Just some comic relief brother.
Pretty disappointing to hear your plight. When I saw that stealth model I was really tempted cuz it looks so good. However, I am leary of anything from the fender Mexican plants. I've seen too many mim strats over the years that had issues. With a $1000 price tag I'd be more inclined to shop the used MIJ Ibanez market and just deal with the bruises and paint chips. I won't spend that kind of money on anything Ibanez makes in Indonesia or Korea either.

Bottom line is you waited a long time. They gave you the run around saying one thing then another. You didn't get what you paid for. It's completely up to you if you can just accept it tho.

Thank you for sharing so others are aware the mim stealth may or may not be "stealthy" 👍
 
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Justincase said:
Just some comic relief brother.
Pretty disappointing to hear your plight. When I saw that stealth model I was really tempted cuz it looks so good. However, I am leary of anything from the fender Mexican plants. I've seen too many mim strats over the years that had issues. With a $1000 price tag I'd be more inclined to shop the used MIJ Ibanez market and just deal with the bruises and paint chips. I won't spend that kind of money on anything Ibanez makes in Indonesia or Korea either.

Bottom line is you waited a long time. They gave you the run around saying one thing then another. You didn't get what you paid for. It's completely up to you if you can just accept it tho.

Thank you for sharing so others are aware the mim stealth may or may not be "stealthy" 👍
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It’s definitely not a “plight”. ;). I can just return it if I want. Sweetwater actually just reached out, interested to take it to Fender so we’ll see what becomes of that.

At this point I’m just looking to find out what they’re up to as I’m a fan of the WG models and Ed. I have an Ivory WG Special that I got used, so I kinda wanted a new Stealth to see what they’re like new. Other than the fretboard mishap, the build is stellar.
 
CodePoet said:
I'm really more curious as to why they'd change it as it was perfect before (IMO of course). 🤷‍♂️
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That's the heart of the matter. Are Wolfgang Stealths all like this now, or is this an outlier? It doesn't seem like you're any closer to answering that than you were at the start of this thread, and Fender isn't helping.
 
It's a supply/demand thing. Truly black ebony is much harder to find than the streaky stuff. With the demand increase for guitars and other wood products black ebony is hard to find.

All of my Carvins from the 90's have absolutely jet black ebony fretboards. It was easier to find then because demand was lower.
 
Disconnector said:
It's a supply/demand thing. Truly black ebony is much harder to find than the streaky stuff. With the demand increase for guitars and other wood products black ebony is hard to find.

All of my Carvins from the 90's have absolutely jet black ebony fretboards. It was easier to find then because demand was lower.
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There are no doubt supply issues. But in this case, they have always dyed the necks to achieve a uniform black look. I've not seen evidence of them shipping un-dyed necks in the past. However, on this new batch, some of the necks weren't dyed, based on my particular model and some of the new product shots I've seen from Sweetwater. So they either just missed it on some new ones, or they stopped dying them altogether. That's unknown at this time.
 
Justincase said:
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Well... @Justincase - you don't know how spot-on this response was. Here's the word from EVH thru Sweetwater:

The EVH representative stated he "had known of customers who went to their local hardware store and purchased a small marker of ebony stain they would apply at about every other string change..." :D

So the word from Fender/EVH is: scribble it with a marker and move on.
 
unix-guy said:
I'd be most concerned about the serial number not in their system... That seems very suspicious to me.
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Sweetwater took that issue to EVH and heard that "EVH have responded assuring us your guitar was indeed built in their factory in Mexico." Which I don't doubt at all. It would have been the most spot-on counterfeit ever made and not worth it to produce. But it's good they now have record of it and acknowledge it.
 
CodePoet said:
Well... @Justincase - you don't know how spot-on this response was. Here's the word from EVH thru Sweetwater:

The EVH representative stated he "had known of customers who went to their local hardware store and purchased a small marker of ebony stain they would apply at about every other string change..." :D

So the word from Fender/EVH is: scribble it with a marker and move on.
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Omfg! No way! They seriously said that to you??? Better get some acetone so you can clean your hands EVERY time you play....that's just absurd.
 
My 6 year old absolutely loves coloring with sharpies. Seats in my Lexus, dressers, door frames, doors, bathroom vanity...hell she's stolen sharpies so many times and decorated so much shit around the house she is an absolute PRO. I can PM you with an address if you would like her to take care of it for you. 😂🤣😂
😜🤘

Btw..I can usually get her to do things around the house for a dollar....so it be cheap.
 
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I posted an update vid below. Sweetwater put me in touch with a Fender / EVH rep and ended up having a nice chat with him. At this point, I don't think they know what happened, which leads me to believe it was just a miss at the factory. So we'll see over time how things end up.

In talking to them, (this guy anyway) seemed to maintain real reverence for EVH and the fact that Ed liked the fretboards a deep black. So I'd hope they aren't making any changes. It sounded like they're still very active and engaged in the EVH line with new products and in working now with Wolfgang. He mentioned they have a 5-year backlog of products that were approved by EVH so we should see more coming out.

He did recommend just using an ebony stain pen as the best way to get the fretboard over to its typical look. I'm going to try that just to see how it turns out.

He did mention that there are some new products coming out next week in the EVH line so we'll have to keep an eye out for that.

 
CodePoet said:
I posted an update vid below. Sweetwater put me in touch with a Fender / EVH rep and ended up having a nice chat with him. At this point, I don't think they know what happened, which leads me to believe it was just a miss at the factory. So we'll see over time how things end up.

In talking to them, (this guy anyway) seemed to maintain real reverence for EVH and the fact that Ed liked the fretboards a deep black. So I'd hope they aren't making any changes. It sounded like they're still very active and engaged in the EVH line with new products and in working now with Wolfgang. He mentioned they have a 5-year backlog of products that were approved by EVH so we should see more coming out.

He did recommend just using an ebony stain pen as the best way to get the fretboard over to its typical look. I'm going to try that just to see how it turns out.

He did mention that there are some new products coming out next week in the EVH line so we'll have to keep an eye out for that.

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Scribble on your BRAND NEW 1000 dollar guitar...yeah sounds like you should be getting a credit. Unbelievable
 
Really? Buy an ebony coloured stain pen to rectify your fretboard discoloration, and also
"Check out the new products we have coming in the next few months?"

If they told me that after I gave them money the last thing I would be interested in
is their "forthcoming products."

#facepalm
 
la noise said:
Really? Buy an ebony coloured stain pen to rectify your fretboard discoloration, and also
"Check out the new products we have coming in the next few months?"

If they told me that after I gave them money the last thing I would be interested in
is their "forthcoming products."

#facepalm
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I'm like #facepalm??? Then I googled it. Lol.... EXACTLY. Fender seems to ruin every brand they aquire...they absolutely ruined Jackson when they bought them in 2002. Now you can't touch a USA soloist for under 4k it seems.
 
With everything else I agree with the above. I would return/walk away from any other company that I had this experience with. But for this, since I waited so long for it and I'm loving the guitar otherwise, I'm kinda past the point of frustration and am just having fun with it. They messed up I think, and it is what it is. I'm not looking to drag anyone - sometimes stuff happens. Long-term, we'll see if they're worthy of future investment and consideration - it'll all come out over time.
 
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