Post
by Kevin Lightner » Fri Aug 27, 2010 4:55 pm
My experience with Synthwood was horrible.
Stephen Jones wrote to me to ask if I'd build his clear lit wheels after seeing some I made and shown in a video.
He said we could make some money together going into a partnership.
At the same time, I had an order for a client of many SCI Pro-One items: a new case, knobs, name plates, etc.
I waited weeks for the SCI items to arrive along with a some wheels he wanted me to develop for lighting.
No response for a long time, but in the interim, his tech and woodworker (George Mattson) wrote me to show me the new lit wheels he just did at Stephen's request.
Yep.. not only didn't I get the products I ordered, he took the idea he asked me to do and had someone else do it.
Finally the Pro-one parts arrived.
The knobs were loose. (the internal "grabbing" piece of steel was even missing on one!)
The nameplates were not like the originals and poorly finished.
But worst of all, the wood case didn't fit.
The front panel wouldn't fit into it because the wood case was made too small.
I wrote to Stephen several times and he didn't reply even once.
He's never replied, apologized or anything. Just fell off the face off the Earth once I expressed a problem.
So I wrote George Mattson.
At first, George didn't believe me when I told him the wood case didn't fit.
He defended Stephen and basically said the problem simply couldn't exist.
However weeks or months later after he received this defective case back, George did write back, admitted it was cut wrong and apologized.
Props to George for admitting the fault.
The upshot?
My client had to return his Synthwood items himself, fight for a refund and I never did any project as Stephen originally promised.
My first dealing with his company was also my last.
And yeah, there's no shortage of horror stories out there regarding Synthwood.
Muffwiggler has their own thread.
One final note: I noticed an auction where the seller mentioned that Synthwood has refurbished their Minimoog D keyboard.
They included photos. (which I grabbed.)
Not only did Stephen pay no regard to which direction the key bushings were supposed to be installed (he had many upside down), he also paid no mind to the fact that sharp keys and naturals used different tension springs. (that's why they're color coded... duh!)
He mixed them all up, paying no attention to what spring should go where.
So basically he charged someone to mess up their keyboard action in terms of key tension and key heights.
Total fail in my book.
Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime. - R. Pupkin
