Any news of Cameron lately?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kyrpajyra
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I'm not going to lie, I was starstruck when I heard my buddy's Cameron Aldrich, followed a few years later by hearing another friend's Cameron Jose mod. Best amps, for my favorite tones, that i had ever heard.

It is sad to think I'll travel to the Moon before I get the opportunity to own a Cameron.
 
So after all these years, people still think that the guy is going to deliver refunds and product? I admire the optimism, but it's gone beyond optimism to a harsh reality. It's over, the topic is and has been dead for a very long time. If you gave the guy money, you got robbed plain and simple.
 
Man these threads always go to shit. No matter what if it was 12 amps it should have been very easily replaced when he is selling 20 watt amps for 3k. How long does it take to really build an amp if that is your job? A day, a month, a year? Either one of those options and everyone should have been made whole several times over. I mean if I screwed up this bad I would pay people back just to quit having 10+ long pages of people bitching.

Is it about the money to actually build the amps? It really doesnt cost that much to build an amp from the ground up resistors and caps cost pennies to at the most a couple bucks, and 2-300 for iron. What cost the most is his time which he doesnt feel like he owes you after ripping off everyone.

At the very least sell 1 $3-4000 amp then build 1 to pay someone back. Imagine if every few months you heard someone say "I got the Cameron I was owed"...

There really are no excuses. I've seen black market deals go bad and end up having better results. "Mark's a good guy, he just got taken advantage of.. he was sick... his dog ate the amps..." It doesnt matter he has had PLENTY of time. IDGAF if his amps make me ejaculate every time I power one on or if he gave me the best tips on modding an amp I would never give him a dime/or even compliment him out of principle.

In my younger partying days I knew a lot of shady people and some were really nice people/talented people. The absolutely best thing I did was avoid them like the plague.I would apply the same logic here
 
I tend to be very slow to judge when I don't know all the details. What if someone took on that debt in exchange for rights or something (something like this was mentioned earlier itt). If that's the case it is not on MC to pay anyone back, it is on whoever took on that debt (at least legally, ethically may be different depending who you ask). This is just one possibility/example in a constellation of possibilities/examples. I don't doubt people got screwed and that is on MC but I just don't know enough details about everything after to nail him to the cross.
 
ClintN667 said:
Man these threads always go to shit. No matter what if it was 12 amps it should have been very easily replaced when he is selling 20 watt amps for 3k. How long does it take to really build an amp if that is your job? A day, a month, a year? Either one of those options and everyone should have been made whole several times over. I mean if I screwed up this bad I would pay people back just to quit having 10+ long pages of people bitching.

Is it about the money to actually build the amps? It really doesnt cost that much to build an amp from the ground up resistors and caps cost pennies to at the most a couple bucks, and 2-300 for iron. What cost the most is his time which he doesnt feel like he owes you after ripping off everyone.

At the very least sell 1 $3-4000 amp then build 1 to pay someone back. Imagine if every few months you heard someone say "I got the Cameron I was owed"...

There really are no excuses. I've seen black market deals go bad and end up having better results. "Mark's a good guy, he just got taken advantage of.. he was sick... his dog ate the amps..." It doesnt matter he has had PLENTY of time. IDGAF if his amps make me ejaculate every time I power one on or if he gave me the best tips on modding an amp I would never give him a dime/or even compliment him out of principle.

In my younger partying days I knew a lot of shady people and some were really nice people/talented people. The absolutely best thing I did was avoid them like the plague.I would apply the same logic here
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R/C circuits/tubes/transformers/wire maybe $300-400 bucks in materials.
I know some folks are gonna "but it costs this much for yada" but the $3500 to $4000 pricetags are absurd.
 
Samhain said:
R/C circuits/tubes/transformers/wire maybe $300-400 bucks in materials.
I know some folks are gonna "but it costs this much for yada" but the $3500 to $4000 pricetags are absurd.
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Yeah that makes them out-of-reach for most if you can even find one. But what if you were an amp builder and you sold your amp for $2k...and then the customer bought the amp for $2k and immediately flipped it for $4k? How many times would that have to happen before you upped your price? And then what about the realization that all the pent up demand for your product fades as you fill orders and other mfrs make comparable products? Now you're not selling as many amps as you can. Then there is warranty work, you're married to that amp you sold for a time.

I'm so glad I didn't "ruin a perfectly good hobby by making it my profession" about 25 years ago...when I actually gave it a thought.
 
Every amp ive ever sold had at least $500 or more of NOS glass. I tune an amp & when i sell it thats how i sell it. Practically every CL deal ive done i upsell meaning take a loss as opposed to buy low/sell high or flip just to flip. not all but alot.
Every car or boat ive sold ive not followed it around to see how many times it flipped. I just had an original 1981 MXR micro chorus go bad. Took it to my pedal guy. It was the chip [thats hard to get] i didn't want to put anymore money into it as that pedal was problematic. I donated it to the pedal guy for parts. That pedal is on reverb right now for $180 bucks. Sounded great when i had it but too much hassle.
Not my monkey/not my circus.
 
Cameron’s are some of the best sounding/feeling amps out there period. If someone wants that tone, they can buy one. It’s their choice. I’ve only ever bought them used; they are just too much coin new for my taste. Do I think MC should make things right?
Absolutely. I hope he has the ability to do so going forward. But savaging anyone for buying a used one is comedy at best.
 
I mean if I built amps for a living one by one then yeah I get the 3500 price tag. That's a lot of work but what I'm saying is if he is selling amps then he has income that he could take a small portion of each sell to buy extra components to make people whole. I'm not saying the guy shouldn't make a living he definitely should. But damn it's been years and years and its deja vu. It's just gotta be a slap in the face each time these guys see a 4k amp being posted on reverb. And yeah I'm sure there were some fuckery that went on in that group he was working with but there have been several posts over the years where whoever is handling him is promising that they are working on getting right with everyone. If it was only 12 amps or hell even 20 amps how hard could it possibly be to make things right? Hell I've built 2 amps this week just being off work and populated another pcb 90% just cause I had extra components laying around and I'm a complete noob at building. I would have more respect for him if he would come out and say "it ain't happening ever, fuck off". Instead of "we have a list and we are working on it" in every thread that is Cameron related. That shit is only said to save face for future buyers and that's it.
 
I might be completely off on this but I truly think if Mark got his life together and started making amps again (with a good team) and explained that it might take awhile, but wants to eventually make things right with those people, folks would be fairly understanding. When I say that, I mean like he has a Friedman-type operation going, making amps like an assembly line, and taking a bit of the profits and either refunding them as he can, or getting them their amp.

I'll always said that the whole tragedy in this is that the guy makes an amp with tone that several of us have already dreamed of owning. It is like the movie "Good Will Hunting". He could be sitting on a potential goldmine, could be doing guitar magazine interviews, etc. I get it, people's lives get screwed up by drugs, alcohol, or medical issues, etc. My bud Keeley (and this is openly known information), struggled with pill addiction after his first set of pedals came out. He almost lost everything. But, he turned things around and is doing better than he ever has. He even lost the shop in a fire during a particular period and was still able to rebound. Can always turn things around. It really is sad.
 
^ I was actually kind of shocked to realize/remember how old some of those other threads were - back to the Brad era. What you just said is beautiful and heart warming but unfortunately, it appears that ship has sailed. Mark was actually given a very good (I'd say great) second chance with an actual plan and a team as you call it. He failed to deliver again. IIRC - he didn't give up the entire secret circuit wise and ultimately reneged on his end of the bargain. Brad himself said it was one of the worst business decisions he ever made. I couldn't own one personally but it doesn't bother me that others do. What bothers me is the people that lost their money or their donor and now it appear that contractually, Mark owes no one anything.

In a way, Mark not only gets to keep the money some people gave him but he also gets to keep the amps other people gave him and may now be legally protected from prosecution. But like I said, I'm not an attorney and not a victim. Just an outsider looking in.
 
romanianreaper said:
I might be completely off on this but I truly think if Mark got his life together and started making amps again (with a good team) and explained that it might take awhile, but wants to eventually make things right with those people, folks would be fairly understanding. When I say that, I mean like he has a Friedman-type operation going, making amps like an assembly line, and taking a bit of the profits and either refunding them as he can, or getting them their amp.

I'll always said that the whole tragedy in this is that the guy makes an amp with tone that several of us have already dreamed of owning. It is like the movie "Good Will Hunting". He could be sitting on a potential goldmine, could be doing guitar magazine interviews, etc. I get it, people's lives get screwed up by drugs, alcohol, or medical issues, etc. My bud Keeley (and this is openly known information), struggled with pill addiction after his first set of pedals came out. He almost lost everything. But, he turned things around and is doing better than he ever has. He even lost the shop in a fire during a particular period and was still able to rebound. Can always turn things around. It really is sad.
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2 bit hustlers are 2 bit hustlers, that guy has never been anything but peanuts. And when people try & help him they get sucked into the vortex.
EVH departed w/a net worth of 100 million. MC's net worth is the price of his next amp.
 
I would never begrudge someone for buying a used one on the market. Buying a new one though is a different story. It's just bad form imho. Like if someone stole your car then set up a used car lot down the road, sold your car then a few months down the road started selling cars to your friends. Yeah the thief sucks but I would be pissed at my friends for giving them a dime.
 
ClintN667 said:
I would never begrudge someone for buying a used one on the market. Buying a new one though is a different story. It's just bad form imho. Like if someone stole your car then set up a used car lot down the road, sold your car then a few months down the road started selling cars to your friends. Yeah the thief sucks but I would be pissed at my friends for giving them a dime.
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Yep and quite frankly I don't know why we let "cameron" sell his one off shit here on rig talk, I for one personally think they should be banned from selling shit here just out of respect for our fellow members who have gotten burned and ripped off. Hit him in the wallet, most of his following is from here anyway. Can we make that a thing? WHY SHOULD RIG TALK HARBOR A CRIMINAL ?

Just my 2 cents
 
Looks like some of my earlier assumptions were incorrect. The debt CamAmps (Brad Era) took on did NOT include the money and donors people had sent Mark.

Ooops. My bad. Didn't mean to spread false info. I thought the goal of all of this was to make whole the people who got screwed using future profits. :dunno:

To quote Brad - "Each case is not my sole decision, it has to be agreed on by Rob and Dave as well who want all of this resolved as well. If you gave your money to Mark Cameron before we licensed his amps you can chase the guy you gave your money too, we have no contract or agreement with you and our best intentions to get you whole FROM mark didnt work out. Sorry, we tried, he flaked and thats it. I will no longer tolerate the bashing, flame throwing threads any more. If you are affected and ordered one of OUR amps we will resolve it to make you whole and I will do everything possible to get that done. I will not warn anymore on this topic. "

https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/cameron-bash-threads.142919/
 
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311splawndude said:
Looks like some of my earlier assumptions were incorrect. The debt CamAmps (Brad Era) took on did NOT include the money and donors people had sent Mark.

Ooops. My bad. Didn't meant to spread false info. I thought the goal of all of this was to make whole the people who got screwed using future profits. :dunno:

To quote Brad - "Each case is not my sole decision, it has to be agreed on by Rob and Dave as well who want all of this resolved as well. If you gave your money to Mark Cameron before we licensed his amps you can chase the guy you gave your money too, we have no contract or agreement with you and our best intentions to get you whole FROM mark didnt work out. Sorry, we tried, he flaked and thats it. I will no longer tolerate the bashing, flame throwing threads any more. If you are affected and ordered one of OUR amps we will resolve it to make you whole and I will do everything possible to get that done. I will not warn anymore on this topic. "

https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/cameron-bash-threads.142919/
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That's not how the contract reads.... I have a copy of it.
 
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