I remember talking to Stefan about a guitar years ago after the hype. He wanted to charge for just a consultation. Ridiculous. How can a strat style guitar be worth > $10K with no provenance, history, etc.? Sorry, but woods do not make that dramatic a difference in tone. Pickups and amps do. And so many other makers with a lot more experience make guitars similar but less than half the price or even less. Deeper dive looks like he's more of a saleman than true craftsman. But he sure is good at it as he has fooled a lot of snooty guitarists.
Fast forward to recently where there's been a debacle of sorts with the owner trying to make some modern amp but it looks like shit and is crap.
https://gtroblq.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-dpergo-litigator-30-watt-guitar-amp.html
I guess he tried the same BS method on amps as he has been successful on with guitars. Sucker born every minute!
This just validates the hyped-up aspect of this brand. The strat he makes is probably OK, but I have never seen the owners do a full double-blind test with other comparable guitars to see if they could really tell the difference -- both as a player and listener.
Oh -- and there's a lawsuit against Sweetwater!
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCO...-9/context
Which D'Pergo lost ...
In that judgement, you get more info on D'Pergo:
D’Pergo manufactures and sells high-end, custom electric guitars. Unlike some other guitar manufacturers, D’Pergo manufactures nearly all its own parts and harvests many of the raw materials required for its guitars’ construction. D’Pergo relies on the meticulous nature of its guitars’ construction to generate sales—the company does little advertising, preferring instead to sell directly to consumers through positive word-of-mouth reviews. D’Pergo guitars generally sell for between $10,000 and $18,000. In 2017, the company sold approximately twenty guitars for total revenues of around $250,000.
Amazing that he can sell 20 of these snake oil guitars a year.
The lawsuit judgement is an interesting read into the company and does not bring it in a good light. His clients who were witnesses are more guitar collectors than players who no doubt have plenty of money but uncertain whether they can actually play. Such is normally the case for guitar cork sniffers. It further strengthens the snakeoil theme.
The Gear Page forum really furthered the brand, and unfortunately, it appeared that any negative criticism (especially after the Sweetwater dismissal) resulted in threads getting locked. Sounds like censorship to me. We all know moderators have bias (like the old Twitter), so this isn't new. These are the same folks who believe in nitro finishes that allow the guitar to "breathe" and that tonewoods make a huge difference. You just have to careful where you get your (mis)information!
Fast forward to recently where there's been a debacle of sorts with the owner trying to make some modern amp but it looks like shit and is crap.
https://gtroblq.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-dpergo-litigator-30-watt-guitar-amp.html
I guess he tried the same BS method on amps as he has been successful on with guitars. Sucker born every minute!
This just validates the hyped-up aspect of this brand. The strat he makes is probably OK, but I have never seen the owners do a full double-blind test with other comparable guitars to see if they could really tell the difference -- both as a player and listener.
Oh -- and there's a lawsuit against Sweetwater!
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCO...-9/context
Which D'Pergo lost ...
In that judgement, you get more info on D'Pergo:
D’Pergo manufactures and sells high-end, custom electric guitars. Unlike some other guitar manufacturers, D’Pergo manufactures nearly all its own parts and harvests many of the raw materials required for its guitars’ construction. D’Pergo relies on the meticulous nature of its guitars’ construction to generate sales—the company does little advertising, preferring instead to sell directly to consumers through positive word-of-mouth reviews. D’Pergo guitars generally sell for between $10,000 and $18,000. In 2017, the company sold approximately twenty guitars for total revenues of around $250,000.
Amazing that he can sell 20 of these snake oil guitars a year.
The lawsuit judgement is an interesting read into the company and does not bring it in a good light. His clients who were witnesses are more guitar collectors than players who no doubt have plenty of money but uncertain whether they can actually play. Such is normally the case for guitar cork sniffers. It further strengthens the snakeoil theme.
The Gear Page forum really furthered the brand, and unfortunately, it appeared that any negative criticism (especially after the Sweetwater dismissal) resulted in threads getting locked. Sounds like censorship to me. We all know moderators have bias (like the old Twitter), so this isn't new. These are the same folks who believe in nitro finishes that allow the guitar to "breathe" and that tonewoods make a huge difference. You just have to careful where you get your (mis)information!
