OffsetGuitars.com

Big fan of Curtis Novak pickups. I have a set of his Fender XII pickups in my vintage Fender XII and love them. So much that I bought a set for my Alternate Reality XII.

I installed the pickups and the neck pickup did not work. Curtis is always so quick to respond via e-mail, and he kindly walked me through the steps of testing to see if it was something I had done wrong or if it was something wrong with the pickup.

I was able to confirm with a multimeter that there was something wrong with the pickup, it was measuring no impedance from the lead and ground on each side, whereas the bridge pickup was measuring the correct impedance level, as well as my set of stock pickups that I had removed. Pretty clear something happened to the pickup. When I reported this to Curtis he just stopped responding to my e-mails. I was being super polite, just reporting what I had found and asking him what his policy was, should I send it back to him, should I toss it and buy a new one, etc. No response. I followed up once or twice over the next few months. No big deal, figured he was busy, these times are insane after all.

Did something happen to him? Seems he still posts on social media. I checked his web site to see if I had violated some stated policy and was therefore potentially irritating him, but I didn't find anything. Are there some unwritten rules I may have violated?

Or... how can I fix a pickup that measures no impedance from either side?

I have 2 sets of Novak XII pickups as well- the most recent set was ordered a little over a month ago. Order/payment to shipment was about 1 week. Overall a pretty smooth transaction.

Of some concern was the lack of communication- I had asked after a set of white pickup covers (which he no longer has as an option on his site) or even an extra set of black covers that I could dink around with. I mentioned my willingness to pay for these extras, but never heard a peep of a reply on any of my questions.

I was a big fan of Curtis. I used him on every build. He was always great. Then a couple years ago I ordered Jazz bass pickups, and I asked for white covers. He sent the pickups with black covers instead. No biggie. I contacted him, he made me return the black covers first and then he'd send mine... Never refunded for the return shipping. Left a bad taste in my mouth, but whatever. It's a 8 bucks to ship it back.

Years later I wanted another set of Jazz bass pickups. I emailed him to inquire about custom windings and for general advice on a tone. Never replied back. I sent another reply from another email address - nothing.

Bought Lollars and were MUCH more impressed when I compared both Jazz bass pickups from Curtis and Lollar side by side.

Nice guy, God bless'em, and good luck to him - but he seems awfully busy now - understandable.

Sorry to hear that. I bought several sets of pickups from him from 2015-2018 IIRC, and he was super communicative. We shot the shit over e-mail for quite a while leading up to each order, as I was trying to figure out what exactly I wanted and he was trying to figure out how to get me there. It was a fun process.

akpasta wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 21, 2020 6:44 am

Or... how can I fix a pickup that measures no impedance from either side?

Rewind it.

This is where you initiate a PayPal refund and provide all the unanswered emails to show you've made good faith efforts to resolve the issue.

I don't care how good someone's reputation is, you need to provide goods that work and are fit for purpose. Your (no doubt quite expensive) dead pickup is not.

Yeah, there are pretty much only two options. 1) He's ghosting you on purpose because he doesn't want to issue a refund or 2) He genuinely missed your emails and didn't mean to ignore you. I don't really know which one it is, but he does have a pretty good reputation in general.

when I inquired about pickups for my Jaguar last month, he offered me a money back guarantee if I wasn't satisfied. I doubt that he extended that just to me and his communication is typically great. perhaps he just missed your email?

I sent him an email over the weekend, inquiring about a humbucker-sized pickup for my player Jazzmaster, mentioning that I don't like humbuckers . Usually, he responds pretty quickly, within 12 hours, but I haven't heard back. Perhaps there's something up and he's unable to reply?

Have made a couple of purchases over the years; I found communication limited (to non-existent) once you'd paid the money.

He used to post on here somewhat regularly.

andy_tchp wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:58 pm

Have made a couple of purchases over the years; I found communication limited (to non-existent) once you'd paid the money.

I emailed him a technical question a few months back 2 different times, and have never received a response. I've never bought anything from him. I've been wanting a set of his JM pickups for a long time, but the lack of communication makes me wary of doing so...

I got some Jazzmaster pickups from him that I am waiting to install on a guitar once it's finally refinished. I bought a set of Jaguar pickups from him long ago, but I have also bought Lollars, Fralins, Creamery, and maybe a few others. [I feel like pickups are like hamburgers and pizza: with the right ingredients and some experience, just about anybody can do a great job, and getting that super-special extra good example is almost random]

These sorts of issues are always interesting to me because we get to see how all different types of people's personalities when it comes to their approaches to customer service and payments. I'm one of those polite and passive types that patiently emails and generally doesn't get to agitated with delays and slow response times-- but we all have our limits. I don't mind the waiting, but when the thing I was waiting for arrives, like everybody else in the world, I want to to work. Getting a defective product is serious issue. I'd try and initiate a refund too, or a replacement.

I'm sure with all the Covid stuff and a bunch of bored guitar players at home with itchy fingers that he's a busy guy, but this shit is going to happen and it needs to be dealt with.

Jaguar018 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 27, 2020 6:25 am

I'm sure with all the Covid stuff and a bunch of bored guitar players at home with itchy fingers that he's a busy guy, but this shit is going to happen and it needs to be dealt with.

I noticed earlier in the pandemic that Seymour Duncan got shut down for quite a long time because they're in California. I expected used pickup prices to go up and wait times for everyone to soar even further because of that. They're the largest producer of aftermarket pickups and them pausing production probably had industry-wide effects. That's on top of whatever extra demand probably happened with people stressed and stuck at home. Pickups are the cheapest way to get a totally new-sounding guitar and it wouldn't surprise me if stress/GAS/hours on the internet led to an uptick in overall pickup demand.

I have been in correspondence with Curt this week, so he is definitely around. However, in the past i’ve also had unanswered emails.

My assumption is that he gets tons of emails, and if he happens to be near the computer when they arrive you are likely to get a pretty quick response. On the other hand, if your email arrives during a time when he’s away from the PC for a while, it probably gets buried under a mountain of others. They may also be a degree of selective responding, i don’t know.