Just received a post similar to others I have seen and responded to here on the
Guardala BLOG.
The post said that
Guardala being a crook made him never want to buy anything
Guardala made. You can read it in a comment for one of the past 2 posts I have made.
The issues are many here. For one - on the used front, the
sax player that owns that
Guardala is not to be punished for the actions of the maker. The mouthpiece is either a great piece or not. I had
Dave Guardala steal 20 grand from me and still play
Guardala mouthpieces on 3 of 4 saxophones. All 3 are
original Dave Guardala handmade mouthpieces. I would not trade them for the world. But I would not have
Dave Guardala over for Christmas dinner for the world either.
The guy made great stuff. But the guy was morally challenged. The 2 things are not related.
Dave Guardala does not make anything anymore. To support things he was to receive profit from might turn my stomach but all
new and used Guardala brand mouthpieces and
products have no relationship to
Dave Guardala. In fact, for the new stuff, they are made by people that Dave Guardala ripped off and actually support the recouping of losses from bad business deals or illegal activities by Dave Guardala to those individuals.
WWBW Guardala's and
PMS Guardala's are made by, sold and profit those 2 businesses, with not one penny going to
Dave Guardala. I wont try and explain the complexities as to how or why there are 2 different companies making the same product with
Dave Guardala's name on them, but I can tell you they are independent of
Dave Guardala - 100%!!
I can tell you I have owned each of these and really like the
PMS version. I even had
Nadir at PMS reface and replate my
original Tenor Crescent Guardala and it came back better than ever. The name
Guardala lives on, but
Dave is going to rot in jail with no money ever to me made from his name again.
And, as I said earlier; I have
original Guardala's that I have never felt bad about playing on. they are
great mouthpieces!
It can be hard to separate
character and
abilities. Just because someone has an amazing talent it never makes them an amazing human being by default. Just like the person that has little talent but gives so much!
Dave made great mouthpieces and was a piece of poopy.
Another example would be what I face in Church every day. People with huge hearts and no talent wanting to play in the music ministry. I have to split that hair all the time. Great people don't always mean great leaders, musicians, or anything else. And a great guitar player/singer might be a horrible worship leader!
SO, in defense of 2 people I really respect, and the hundreds of sax players that might be selling vintage pieces one day - lets try and keep the beauty of the art and the villain separate. I know I have had to.
Thanks for reading,
Greg Vail ~ SAXBOY
Check out tons of
Video on You Tube on Guardala Mouthpieces -
Alto -
Tenor - and
Bari Saxophones!
