SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

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SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by theninthwave » Sun Jun 26, 2022 4:15 pm

many of the pickguards being sold by "portlandmusic" on ebay are not as advertised. they are fakes, poor quality printed material that is being misrepresented as real celluloid tortoise. the same person, jimi haskett, goes by "fender parts & pickguards" on reverb. he has sold many fakes as demonstrated by his current and past listings. he continues, even after i've messaged him and called him out on it. the listings are still live, descriptions unchanged. i have messaged him on ebay and reverb asking for an explanation. all of my messages have been ignored, which suggests he knows exactly what he's doing. seems as though an honest seller would respond.

what happened is that i purchased a jazzmaster guard from a guy on reverb. he had purchased it from portlandmusic and provided a screen shot of the original ebay transaction. i could go into a long description of the entire affair, but the more important question would be: why does the jazzmaster guard i bought have the identical pattern as the strat guard portlandmusic is selling on ebay & reverb? how could both the strat and jazzmaster pickguard materials be the same if they were genuine? real tortoise material is a chemical pour...never the same pattern. answer: because portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards selling prints (and lying to his customers). take a look at the listing links i will provide. look at the jazzmaster pickguary and note the pattern just above the right of the top edge of the bridge pickup cutout. then compare that pattern area to the bottom/lower fin area of the stratocaster pickguard. the pattern is identical. it's a print passed off as the real thing. read his description!

https://reverb.com/item/54828463-fender ... -shielding

https://reverb.com/item/55242396-fender ... ntage-avri

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203841643766?m ... name=11050

in his descriptions and titles, he very clearly refers to these as "celluloid nitrate", "celluloid tortoise", and claims "no two tortoise patterns are the same", including the false claims "you will not find a better guard", also stating that the material looks "3-D". it certainly does not. it's entirely one dimensional. which was what caused me to check in the first place. i have a magnified photo of the jazzmaster pickguard that i bought where the pixels can clearly be seen. i would post it, but i don't have a hosting site. will provide additional photo proof and imagery via DM to anyone who wishes to contact me and receive it.

i remember thinking when i first saw this pickguard that the cutout/routing work is as bad or worse than WD music. then it hit me. this IS WD music. portlandmusic doesn't make jack. he's buying their pickguards, aging them, then marking them way up...at least double, sometimes more. which is fine, except he's lying. this is fraud. take a look at material #05F Faux Tortoise Shell on their page. faux aka fake, imitation. that's the material he used for the pickguard i was sold and a few of the others he's selling as the real deal. it's a print. https://www.wdmusic.com/wd-custom-pickg ... tails.html

any pickguards made of this dark red/orange tortoise material being sold by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards as real "celluloid nitrate" are fakes. they are poor quality prints. you can buy the same pickguard direct from WD music for less than half the price minus his horrendous-looking, dayglo yellow relic job if you are interested in having one.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by YALCaster » Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:15 pm

Bought one from him before on reverb, and it was fantastic quality. I was very pleased with it

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by Mechanical Birds » Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:10 am

Yeah I can’t distinguish the repeated patterns in the different listings but I will say that holy shit that stuff looks terrible

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by Francer » Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:38 am

I can see a repeated pattern in the JM and strat guards so there is something fishy going on. I wonder if the identical Strat guards are literally just the Reverb and Ebay listings for the same actual pickguard?

<edit> no, they are different guards with the same pattern - busted!

I have actually bought a couple of these in the past, they seemed OK to me, but not even close to the quality of real boutique stuff.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by theninthwave » Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:08 pm

Francer wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 7:38 am
I can see a repeated pattern in the JM and strat guards so there is something fishy going on. I wonder if the identical Strat guards are literally just the Reverb and Ebay listings for the same actual pickguard?

<edit> no, they are different guards with the same pattern - busted!

I have actually bought a couple of these in the past, they seemed OK to me, but not even close to the quality of real boutique stuff.
the two strat guards are the same pickguard on ebay and reverb simultaneously. the noteworthy part is that if you look at the link to the jazzmaster guard i purchased and compare the area immediately above and to the right of the bridge pickup to the area in the lower fin of the strat pickguard, you will notice the IDENTICAL pattern. that would ONLY occur if this was a printed material, which it is. the pixels are clearly seen under magnification. he knows it is a print, and yet he has chosen to advertise it as real "celluloid nitrate".

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by theninthwave » Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:08 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 5:10 am
Yeah I can’t distinguish the repeated patterns in the different listings but I will say that holy shit that stuff looks terrible
i agree. you should see it in person. horrendous work.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by theninthwave » Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:12 pm

YALCaster wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:15 pm
Bought one from him before on reverb, and it was fantastic quality. I was very pleased with it

what you actually bought was a pickguard made by WD music, which is a hit and miss experience. most of theirs are sloppy trash. then portlandmusic does a relic job and adds a hefty markup, in some cases creatively, blatantly misrepresenting the material of which the guard is made. thus said, not every guard he sells is a print. only some of them. the trouble is that he doesn't tell you which. instead he claims that all are "celluloid nitrate" and that "no two tortoise patterns are the same". this has proven to be a lie. if you inspect your guard with a magnification device of significant strength, it's easy to see whether you have a print or not...if you are curious.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by countertext » Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:14 pm

:fp:

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by marqueemoon » Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:08 pm

Ok, but aren’t these a different bevel than WD usually does?

Surely WD doesn’t make their own material, so if it’s the same stuff that doesn’t necessarily constitute proof that the guards were cut by WD.

Also , Imgur works fine for free image hosting and there are many other options.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by YALCaster » Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:54 pm

theninthwave wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:12 pm
YALCaster wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:15 pm
Bought one from him before on reverb, and it was fantastic quality. I was very pleased with it

what you actually bought was a pickguard made by WD music, which is a hit and miss experience. most of theirs are sloppy trash. then portlandmusic does a relic job and adds a hefty markup, in some cases creatively, blatantly misrepresenting the material of which the guard is made. thus said, not every guard he sells is a print. only some of them. the trouble is that he doesn't tell you which. instead he claims that all are "celluloid nitrate" and that "no two tortoise patterns are the same". this has proven to be a lie. if you inspect your guard with a magnification device of significant strength, it's easy to see whether you have a print or not...if you are curious.
That’s great and all, but I still like what I purchased. I don’t feel like I got ripped off, it was described as fitting reissue Jazzmasters, and it does. I hate that you had a less than pleasant experience with them. Hope you can find closure

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by Sweetfinger » Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:00 am

I don't know if they are ordering those guards from WD with the wide bevel or cutting them from sheet stock, but it is definitely the non-celluloid printed stuff for sure. WD no longer carries celluloid sheet.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by theninthwave » Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:04 pm

YALCaster wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:54 pm
theninthwave wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:12 pm
YALCaster wrote:
Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:15 pm
Bought one from him before on reverb, and it was fantastic quality. I was very pleased with it

what you actually bought was a pickguard made by WD music, which is a hit and miss experience. most of theirs are sloppy trash. then portlandmusic does a relic job and adds a hefty markup, in some cases creatively, blatantly misrepresenting the material of which the guard is made. thus said, not every guard he sells is a print. only some of them. the trouble is that he doesn't tell you which. instead he claims that all are "celluloid nitrate" and that "no two tortoise patterns are the same". this has proven to be a lie. if you inspect your guard with a magnification device of significant strength, it's easy to see whether you have a print or not...if you are curious.
That’s great and all, but I still like what I purchased. I don’t feel like I got ripped off, it was described as fitting reissue Jazzmasters, and it does. I hate that you had a less than pleasant experience with them. Hope you can find closure
the closure for everyone would be if the seller would stop lying and false advertising. which he has no intention of doing. so if anyone wishes to support a crook and they are okay purchasing a $160 printed tortoise pickguard, go for it. but that ain't me.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by theninthwave » Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:07 pm

marqueemoon wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:08 pm
Ok, but aren’t these a different bevel than WD usually does?

Surely WD doesn’t make their own material, so if it’s the same stuff that doesn’t necessarily constitute proof that the guards were cut by WD.

Also , Imgur works fine for free image hosting and there are many other options.

WD offers a wide bevel option. they have this red faux tortoise material on their website. i recognize their sloppy AF routing and cutout work as i've ordered their pickguards before. looks like they were cut out with dull scissors as part of third grade class project with all the kids high on paste and blinded by fluorescent classroom lighting. i could call WD and try to get a line on whether they are providing these or not, but really is of no relevance whatsoever. just mentioned it in passing. the real issue is that i have one of his pickguards that he represented as celluloid nitrate, real tortoise...unique...the real deal. and it is a print. he continues to sell printed pickguard material that is falsely advertised. the sourcing doesn't really matter.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by countertext » Tue Jun 28, 2022 2:29 pm

Hopefully no OSGers will fall for it now that you’ve brought it up.

I have, in the past, significantly overpaid for a pickguard from a well-known seller that was clearly implied to be made to order but in fact was just an Allparts guard. Still had a sticker on the back and everything.

It is a very particular, almost esoteric, sort of frustration.

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Re: SCAM ALERT: fake celluloid nitrate pickguards on ebay & reverb by portlandmusic aka fender parts & pickguards

Post by marqueemoon » Tue Jun 28, 2022 3:18 pm

theninthwave wrote:
Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:07 pm
marqueemoon wrote:
Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:08 pm
Ok, but aren’t these a different bevel than WD usually does?

Surely WD doesn’t make their own material, so if it’s the same stuff that doesn’t necessarily constitute proof that the guards were cut by WD.

Also , Imgur works fine for free image hosting and there are many other options.

WD offers a wide bevel option. they have this red faux tortoise material on their website. i recognize their sloppy AF routing and cutout work as i've ordered their pickguards before. looks like they were cut out with dull scissors as part of third grade class project with all the kids high on paste and blinded by fluorescent classroom lighting. i could call WD and try to get a line on whether they are providing these or not, but really is of no relevance whatsoever. just mentioned it in passing. the real issue is that i have one of his pickguards that he represented as celluloid nitrate, real tortoise...unique...the real deal. and it is a print. he continues to sell printed pickguard material that is falsely advertised. the sourcing doesn't really matter.
If it’s printed material that is definitely not how it’s being represented by the seller.

If you have no conclusive proof that WD had a hand in the cutting of these guards I think you should leave their name out of this particular discussion though regardless of what you might think of them.

I’ve only had one guard made by WD. It’s fine. Not exceptional, but fine and they were easy to communicate with. I feel like I got my money’s worth and would recommend them for anyone not looking for a special snowflake pickguard.

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