Q & A with the REAL Owner of the Controversial Hunterburst Guitar!

[Tuxedo Kaz]

Ugh, God. How I would die to hear some of that. I've been waiting a good while now! Krash, you sonuvabitch!

I run 10s with my 58 through my Splawn setup...agh, sounds sooo good.

[LPV]

Originally Posted by krash

History aside, that is a beautiful instrument. Any chance of ever hearing it again ?

[b-squared]

Originally Posted by krash

I'd rather be who I am in private.

Totally in jest; took it from the sign in Mark's pic.

BB

[hardrivr]

So the bottom line is why does everyone think Scott did this? To sell the Hunterburst copy he found for big bucks? Fame? Why... it just doesn't make since to me, I mean he spent a lot of time and money but for why???

[b-squared]

Originally Posted by LPV

History aside, that is a beautiful instrument. Any chance of ever hearing it again ?

I'm hoping we'll get to see/hear Mr. Slash play it again...would that be righteous or what?

Speaking of Slash, he did a great job on American Idol last night.

BB

[hardrivr]

Originally Posted by b-squared

I'm hoping we'll get to see/hear Mr. Slash play it again...would that be righteous or what?

Speaking of Slash, he did a great job on American Idol last night.

BB

Yea, I agree, it would have been cooler if he'd played with the house band instead of just sitting there with his wife and family... but I guess it was a contract issue for that...

[captcoolaid]

Originally Posted by hardrivr

Yea, I agree, it would have been cooler if he'd played with the house band instead of just sitting there with his wife and family... but I guess it was a contract issue for that...

It would have taken away from the performers. I know that I would have been watching him and not them.

[Big John]

I've been thinking about this, too. What exactly, I mean EXACTLY, was Sheldon's motive?

I was watching some dipshits pheasant hunting with dogs last night while messing around on youtube, and then it hits me. The analogy between the video and this whole story was uncanny. Follow me on this...

You're a hunter, and at the local bar you hear about a pheasant that's the grandaddy of all pheasants. This thing is the size of an eagle by all accounts. You decide to hunt for it, but you can't find the pheasant yourself. You get your dog to sniff it out. It may take him some time, but he finds it and points at it like you trained him to. You get your shotgun ready and give your dog the command to rustle the bushes for the bird to expose itself. It takes a few barks from the dog to get the bird in flight. If you hit it, you take home the prize with all the bragging rights. If you miss it, you discredit the bird and the dog.

I think Sheldon was the dog in the hunt for this guitar. Since the hunter missed shooting this bird down and taking it home, both the dog and the bird got hung out to dry. I think the real issue in this story lies with the hunter.

[1958BURST]

Quote:
Originally Posted by hardrivr
So the bottom line is why does everyone think Scott did this? To sell the Hunterburst copy he found for big bucks? Fame? Why... it just doesn't make since to me, I mean he spent a lot of time and money but for why???

Originally Posted by Big John

I've been thinking about this, too. What exactly, I mean EXACTLY, was Sheldon's motive?

I was watching some dipshits pheasant hunting with dogs last night while messing around on youtube, and then it hits me. The analogy between the video and this whole story was uncanny. Follow me on this...

You're a hunter, and at the local bar you hear about a pheasant that's the grandaddy of all pheasants. This thing is the size of an eagle by all accounts. You decide to hunt for it, but you can't find the pheasant yourself. You get your dog to sniff it out. It may take him some time, but he finds it and points at it like you trained him to. You get your shotgun ready and give your dog the command to rustle the bushes for the bird to expose itself. It takes a few barks from the dog to get the bird in flight. If you hit it, you take home the prize with all the bragging rights. If you miss it, you discredit the bird and the dog.

I think Sheldon was the dog in the hunt for this guitar. Since the hunter missed shooting this bird down and taking it home, both the dog and the bird got hung out to dry. I think the real issue in this story lies with the hunter.

I really screwed up and want to aplogize to everyone for doing so.
I've written an open letter of an apology to everyone here. I hope someday that I can be forgiven.

I really mean it, I'm sorry for doing what I did.
Here is the link for the letter.

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/backstage/43821-open-letter-apology.html

Regards,
Scott

[pinefd]

Now that I'm all caught up on what's going on, I have to admit...I'm confused! I thought I owned the real Hunterburst!!!




Frank

[River]

Originally Posted by pinefd

Now that I'm all caught up on what's going on, I have to admit...I'm confused! I thought I owned the real Hunterburst!!!

Frank

Yours is too purdy!

[jason_mazzy]

great guitar!

[1958BURST]

Originally Posted by pinefd

Now that I'm all caught up on what's going on, I have to admit...I'm confused! I thought I owned the real Hunterburst!!!




Frank

Gorgeous Guitar Frank!

[marshallcrazy]

Okay, I tried to post this before but I think I timed out as I was trying think through this and be as fair as possible. So, the re-attempt will be short and sweet. Sorry if this ended up being posted somewhere else and is slight redundant.

With all due respect, Scott, I'm not buying it. There are a couple of reasons for this, but I'll try to make it brief. I'm also totally respectful and cool of the complete free pass many have given you in acceptance of your "apology" and I mean no disrespect to them. Further, I'm ready for the counter-attacks and am completely prepared to be called a douche, or censored by the mods for even posting this. Nonetheless, my questions are real and deserve the same validity as your apology.

1. Regarding "the joke", okay, I'm a prankster and like to have fun with my friends too. Why on earth when "things got out of hand" didn't you stop it? YOU were in control (supposedly) with Max with regard to the joke. You claim things "had gone to far". What the hell does that mean? Would you guys have photoshopped a picture or video of Roman and his wife or girlfriend (assuming he has one) having sex with another man, and let it play all the way out through attorneys and divorce court and simply say "things got out of hand and I couldn't stop it"? C'mon, I'm not buying it. YOU guys started "the joke" and you could've stopped it. Further to that end, when Roman "bought" the fake burst hook/line/sinker, you STILL could've clued him in and continued the videos and story to "flush out" the real guitar.

2. Why all the personal attacks against guys (who've forgiven you publicly in this thread by the way) who called you out and pointed out discrepancies in the thread? I'll note that they accepted your apology in spite of the fact that you called them out and continued the bogusness as far as you could BEFORE you apologized to them in the public apology thread after the jig was up.

3. Intersting who the public apology was directed towards, but more intersting who it wasn't directed towards. Specifically, B-Squared, El-Toro, and Max. Everyone else you apologized to by name was done via edits AFTER they publicly accepted your generic apology thread. What gives? You killed "friends" here, on your myspace pages, etc and posted a long diatribe about how the MLP threads got out of hand and were an attempt to discredit you right up until the time you couldnt' continue that and then shut down the sites. Oh, and don't forget the "Under Construction" but by the way "onvacation@gofurslf.com thing. What's up with that? Where are the apologies to Max, El Toro, and B-Squared? Why shut down your sites and tell everyone to go "F" themselves? Why try to spin it where the MLP is the bad guy?

4. Here's my guesses, and again feel free to respond and/or flame away. I may be totally off base. You seized an opportunity, because you're an opportuntist. I'll leave it there. You started the whole thing in attempt to profit off of someone when the time was right. You totally misjudged the fact that the H-Burst was actually out there and that someone would actually admit and prove they owned it. You had a similar guitar and attempted to pass it off as the real deal. This would do one of three things; a). allow you to sell a fake at an exhorbitant price, or b.) allow you to attempt to procure the real deal at far less than "market value", or c). link you to something famous and enable you to broker a deal for big money (between you and Slash) if your ability to basically steal the guitar on the cheap failed, and gain notoriety as the "magic man" of lost and famous guitars.

Again, I'm fully prepared to be called a douche. That said, I find it intersting that the apology came after EVERY attempt to make excuses and cover up what according to the apolgoy was an easily rectified "mistake" AND still keep the "mission" (that of locating the real guitar) going. When lies are met with anger, accusation to cover one's a$$, disappearance, and then a re-emergence of "hey, I really realized the error of my ways" it smacks of disingenuousness. Oh, I didn't even go into the late night/early morning phone calls to Flick begging to remove/edit certain things according to Flick's own posts which helped to frame this discussion. Nor, Max's posts which ultimately culminated in "Scott no longer wants to be affiliated with me".

I'll leave it there and await the onslaught. Here's a theory which would vindicate Max; this guitar is in fact NOT a "Max". What it is, is an original 59 burst or conversion that Max "did" and I'll let you guys define "did". That would certainly substantiate Max's claim that he didn't "build" the guitar, wouldn't it? And, there are many real reasons as to why that could be possible, as well as many reasons as to why I could be totally in left field.

[Tuxedo Kaz]

That, has a lot of credence.

[b-squared]

[1958BURST]

1. You're right MC, I could have clued Roman in on the guitar and I did not, I've apologized to him already, that was already stated. I'm glad in the end he was not clued in, he had nothing to do with it.


2. Yes after the jig was up, ....what crime did I commit again?
Everyone did acknowledge my apology, we're all human and we all make mistakes, I made a few. It appears you have not accepted my apology, I'm sorry to you too, and I hope someday you can get over it like others who were actually involved have.

3. There was 1 early edit to correct spelling 30 minutes after it posted - check the time and it was not to add or delete names. The apology included everyone including the moderators. My apology also included my behavior, not cool, but I did publically apologize, that is what the open the letter was for.....to apologize to everyone.

4. You were not there, and not even you can ajudicate a crime that in fact was not committed. The fact is none of that happend as you accuse me of, nor was intended to happen as such. Roman and I plan to continue the story right where we left off to finish the story as intended, provided we get the chance to do so. There is plenty more to come on the Hunterburst story, we're going to pickup in 1984 -1985 period soon.

5. I've also signed my name to everything I've written here too, so everyone knows who I am, I've got nothing hide and stand behind what I said.


6. What most people don't know here is that, you and I have some personal dirty laundry that needs to be resolved, you've stated on another thread here that I have banned you from the Max mypsace page which is not true and has nothing to do with me. You should take that up with Max and not me. If you have something else with me personally we should be taking this off-line.


Feel free to email me so we can attempt to resolve this mano -mano. I'm more than willing to do this face to face too.

[Fletch]

Well I'm dissapointed by all the buildup to nothing in that thread, I read it all as it developed, on the edge of my seat, I voted when it needed to get to 200 votes for an answer, it passed 200 votes and nothing but confusion entailed after that, and now this.

This is all very clear to me. Sheldon had a guitar that he was going to pass off as the real deal from the cover of the book and try to sell for big bucks. THAT'S IT, END OF STORY.

Explaining the slight variations in the top by saying it was restored and the top was slightly sanded? adding fake fleck marks? come on... Then I think that when Roman Rist saw it and didn't question it, he thought if he could fool the master he could fool everybody else, so GAME ON BROTHER!!!

And the whole story about Sheldon putting the Tuckey burst up to flush out the original was just a desparate attempt to save his butt in the end after it all fell apart. He said that he wanted to flush out the REAL guitar but I think that that is the LAST thing he wanted to happen, since it would ruin his chances for a sale with his fake hunter burst.

One other thing that really kicks my a$$...

I believe this is the same guy who went on the Shed pickups thread with a scathing review, nitpicking every little thing from the pole spacing to the thickness of the nickel covers on a public forum, completely unrequested and not to the knowledge of Spence/Nugget until he read it on his own thread. Even bitched about the screw heads on the pickup height adjustment screws being phillips head instead of slotted... Said nothing about the sound, nada. (Don't bother looking, it too was all deleted, but I saw it all!)

And then ending it with how he was sorry but Shed pickups cannot be selected as standard equipment for Max Guitars for these reasons!!! That whole thing ended with Scott Sheldon writing another groveling apology just like the one he wrote after this whole debacle in the Backstage. And then I read these threads and Max says his only association with Sheldon is that Sheldon bought some guitars from him and resold them... that's it, nothing else.

WTF is all I can say. Sorry but I just don't buy Scott Sheldon's story for a minute... He tried to prop up a fake Slash guitar and got busted, that's it.



sincerely,
fletch

[1958BURST]

Fletch
I'm sorry you're dissapointed about the story buildup as it passed 200 votes and then nothing, Roman and I were not ready to finish the story and we still had questions about the builder then too as you have read. Nothing I can do about that, but we will try and finish the story as intended.

You're entitled to your opinion about my guitar, but as I have stated, my guitar had been floating around the internet for a long time and was widely known as the Tuckey burst even on this forum as there a quite a few people (more than you know too) that know that guitar and it was in the exact same state I got when it was filmed and seen by everyone. As for the flecks, they were done almost at the end in April after the real Hunterburst had been discovered already as I had stated. I even have dated photos and emails to prove that. And by the way - sell the guitar to who? and what is big bucks to you, do you realize how much I paid for that guitar? I cannot say who made it but you're way off base here. Even in this market these guitars now fetch 5 figures if you can even get one and I'd be lucky to even get what I paid for it now based on the down market.

FACT - Roman benched / inspected my guitar in Jan / Feb. and determined it was NOT the real Hunterburst long before we discovered the real one, but we used it thereafter as a prop and only that to flush out the real one. This we both have stated.

FACT - The whole story about me putting the Tuckey burst up to flush out the original was also stated by earlier by Roman too. Check his last post on the Hunter Thread, although he did not know what my guitar was he and I concluded earlier on that the exposure would eventually flush out the real one.

What does the Shed Pickup review have to do with this thread? I personally use Sheds pickups in my guitars and love them. That does not prove anything here. Everyone knows that I had rep'd Max guitars for years and yes Max did minimize our relationship as he felt he had to do at the end, I've also stated that I'm no longer repping his guitars for my own personal reasons and have ended MCi because that was a widely known Max guitar retail site. We also happen to be very good friends but what does that have to do with anything?

[duff]

hi, i read the apology and decided to keep my mouth shut, but since it came back up, i'll just say i'm 100 percent with fletch and marshallcrazy.

Since the shedpickup posts from scott, it was obvious he was here with an agenda. The hunterburst thread was all about profit, and when u were pushed in a corner the real scott sheldon popped up, with the insults and all that stuff. Lots of posts were deleted and edited, so here's your chance to rewrite history once more.

Once again, just because u write FACT before every sentence, doesnt make it true. Even after steven hunter wrote the guitar in the midwest was the real hunterburst, u tried to make it all sound different on your site.

Anyway, i'm sure u don't care about my opinion, and u shouldn't, but just wanted to say i'm not buying it anymore. All imho and such ..

[1958BURST]

Actally Duff - I do care about your opinion, it does matter to me. I know you were an avid reader of the Hunter Burst thread and I do feel bad about the way it derailed and I expected to have some people jump on that band wagon as well.


But I also believe we did alot of great work here too, we found a long lost guitar and paid tribute to an amazing rock star who had been almost forgotten in some circles, now alot of renewed interest for a new generation of kids can refer back to this thread. We also covered some great 1980s LA rock history and entertained the masses in doing so and got alot of people talking about a guitar that had been almost forgotten too. None of this was done for profit I might add, regardless of what some people may think.


I'm not claiming to be an angel either, I realize I did some damage but I'm also have taken the first huge step by admitting I was wrong pubically and have not "hidden somewhere until it all blew over" as some had suggested. Nor have I hidden behind an anonymous avatar. I'm not that kind of person.

The way I see it - all the good that we did will far outweigh any hatred or negativty in the long run. Hate is too consuming, I've learned this too. I came back after I realized I was wrong to make it right. I plan to do just that make it right, hope someday you'll see that too.


I realize trust has to be regained, so I ask everyone before this continues why don't you try and forgive and see the positive stuff that has been done so we can move on?

[John6:66]

Classic sociopath (in my opinion).


Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist, but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[marshallcrazy]

Scott, first of all you don't owe me an apology, nor did I mean to imply that I was owed one. That was specifically between you and the parties involved. Second, it was a great thread and still is a great thread. The fact that the guitar was found is a miracle in and of itself and the backline history of it was great. Third, I posted in the original thread a couple of months back in support of you and the Max Guitars, I've got no issue with either. In fact, Max builds one helluva guitar and always has. Fourth, yes we did have one deal that didn't go down but I've got no problem with that either and there was nothing nefarious about that, just business, and although it didn't work out the way I'd hoped, it's water long under the bridge and wouldn't prevent me from buying from you in the future.

So, as I said to begin with, this was not an attempt to call you out, and I can accept your public apology, except you have nothing to apologize to me for!! My hope is that everything is made right between all of the parties who were involved and that's it. The only person that I know involved in this is B-Squared and he's a damn cool dude. I don't know Roman, Flick, El Toro, etc but from everything I can assume via their posts on here, they seem like really good guys too.

The thing that rubbed me the wrong way was what I perceived as the anger involved in posting how the MLP had tried to wrong you on your website, then taking it down and killing all of the websites with the "onvacation@fu" thing, and then coming back around and saying "okay, I made a mistake". That's cool, we all make plenty, I just didn't get the anger when it doesn't appear that anyone else involved did anything wrong. Nor, did I understand why you got aggressive with some of them as they started to unravel what was going on but I think I now understand that that's what you are apologizing to them for.

Again, the thread is incredible and I found it fascinating. I'm still itching to know exactly "what" the H-burst is. There's plenty more to be told about this time period from Roman, Max, etc and I'm looking forward to the rest of the stories.

Peace.

[jonesy77777]

what would have happened if the real one didn't surface, ever?

[Droog]

Originally Posted by jonesy77777

what would have happened if the real one didn't surface, ever?

Well, that's the 64,000 dollar question, isn't it, my fellow R1 riding, Les Paul playing Canuck? Anything I can say would just be pure speculation.

In all seriousness, something like this coming on the heels of another sponsor trying to pass off a re-issue for something it's not, it just gives all the honest sponsors, and all the members who try to give something to this board, an undeserved swift kick in the nads from now skeptical potential customers.

[FLICKOFLASH]

INTO THE LIGHT

[BOBBO]

Have any cavity shots been taken of the Hunterburst ??? Not to stir the pot or anything ... But I've heard expert conjecture that the Hunterburst is in reality a retopped 50's Gibby ...

[hardrivr]

I don't know but from what I've been told the build quality is kind of questionable and that is why Max (Peter B) didn't want to take ownership of building this as it may have been one of his first builds or something like that... it would be interesting to put this thing to rest ONCE and FOR ALL!

[River]

Originally Posted by hardrivr

<snip>it would be interesting to put this thing to rest ONCE and FOR ALL!

Killjoy!

[MKLP]

Originally Posted by jonesy77777

what would have happened if the real one didn't surface, ever?

The Earth would have stopped spinning and we all would have floated out into space, freezing & asphyxiating to death simultaneously, all at once, at the same time.