Digital Jams":1679d said:
This is just my opinion and no I am not going to post it on TGP due to the fire storm it would cause and backlash.......some of the boutique "contributing Member" owners are pissed that $700 worth of parts are making such great tones and Nil is taking away business....the smoke and mirrors seem just that after guys build this cheap knock-off. ... Hell look at Doug walking around that thread.
Placing Ken's amp name on those amps was wrong no doubt about it but the ban of his amps is being pushed by other forces. I posted the link in the TGP guitar spam list regarding the blatant copyright disregard for an EVH guitar, I took me 5 minutes to find a copyright issue and it concearns a much larger company and vastly more resourses than the Fischer family.
I am going to stop causing trouble over there but I am sorry, this is not just about Ken's family and THAT is what I find humorous.
As to who reports what to the mods or why people continue arguing, look at the whole picture. It's a sore subject for a lot of people because we all work for or own companies who have to deal with intellectual property theft. You can see that in what people post, and how many people have shared their feelings about it in those posts. If you think Doug Roccaforte has anything to worry about with a Trainwreck clone being made in Asia directly hurting his business, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. However the idea that a business openly used the Trainwreck logo--and it was accepted on those forums--makes it a frightening prospect for some of us (like me for instance). I would bet that is the reason Doug posted his opinion on that thread, and the fact that he did shouldn't be seen as anything but that unless you have some further evidence to back up what you said.
If Nik can get away with that, what's to stop him from using my logo on clones of my amps. I've built my reputation over the last several years and it's been a long difficult road to travel. I've already had two techs trying to copy my amps for the purpose of selling them as their own designs--and that's one thing--but for someone to use my logo at the same time? An unknown tech who may not even understand amp design, without the same business expenses that I have, just stepping into the market and undercutting me with my own designs *and* logo? If that isn't crossing the line what is. Irrespective of what it does to my sales (especially if the clones are 1/3 the price of what I sell them for), think of what it does to my brand in general. "Clones" would exist in the market which may or may not even sound the way I intended; that alone could cause problems for my business for years to come. (And to those who'd jump in here saying "Ken Fischer is dead though!", keep in mind the Trainwreck name may be owned by his family and they may choose to release new products, and irrespective of that some of those clones will end up on the used market and confuse some people especially if some unscrupulous stores sell them as the real deal.)
It's also not just about Nik. This sort of thing being considered acceptable at all means others would do it too. Nik isn't the only one out there cloning amps, not by a long shot. Every month there's a new cloner on the market.
Keep in mind we're discussing intellectual property theft specifically here too people, not whether the amp is based on a Trainwreck or even an "exact copy" of the circuit itself. It's that *plus* the Trainwreck *logo* being used on the clone. This is in fact crossing a line that's clearly defined, for good reason.
Of course if my cost of parts (let alone my other business costs) weren't already higher than what someone such as Nik can *sell* his amps for, I probably wouldn't even give this a second thought. Why do you think he's getting sales on those forums? Because he's proven himself with his own company's name over the years or has something unique to offer? No; he's offering clones of amps for cheap, and in this case he even went so far as to use the original company's logo to help get more sales. He wouldn't even deny this, so no offense is intended by my saying it. And whether Nik decided to use the Trainwreck logo before or after Ken Fischer's death is irrelevant to me. The fact he stopped using it is nice. The fact some people keep saying there was nothing wrong with it in the first place, or that it's all "a bunch of people getting their panties in a wad", that's what I don't get. If this sort of thing happens and people accept it, it'll happen rampantly and then you can say goodbye to the small companies in the industry that you know. It's that simple.
As for TGP and the EVH guitar, contact a moderator and see what happens. They seem to react when people complain, or when threads endlessly spiral out of control such that the forum is a mess of shit. Again, this is mentioned in my previous posts on this thread. That is most likely the reason for the "banning" of this specific subject, not that Doug Roccaforte insisted on it or something. Just because Doug spoke his mind doesn't make him some collaborator in a conspiracy to ban Nik (which didn't happen, in any case).
I never thank you enough for that day 
