Well, Olson Guitarworks had quite the week. After sharing a potato-quality photo gallery featuring a 17-string guitar that he allegedly built for Jared Dines, he received thousands of shares, coverage in Guitar World, Ultimate Guitar, and even your friendly neighborhood Gear Gods. He had the internet all abuzz with “you should just play the harp”/”that’s not a guitar, it’s a piano”/”you were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should” (every single comment thread) and sheer disbelief that someone would build such a monstrosity – for a couple days.
That awe and disgust has quickly turned to mockery and rage as it was revealed today by Jared Dines, who commissioned the guitar for an upcoming “Djent 2017” video, that Nicholas Olson had not, in fact, built the guitar at all, but had instead commissioned it be built by a Chinese luthier for the princely sum of $400, and passed it off as his own work.
Also, unbelievably, in spite of his already terrible reputation as a builder and a scammer prior to this, when the internet inevitably sniffed out the truth (how did this guy think he could possibly get away with this in the age of the internet?) he still had people defending him. Even after this revelation came to light:
And now – now. The smoking gun – someone emailed Musoo Guitars in China and asked for photo examples of a 17-string bass and they received pictures of the “Olson” guitar.
With a full gallery here.
As of this writing, the Olson Guitarworks and Nicholas Olson Facebook pages have been deleted or made private and we cannot reach him for comment. His Instagram account is still active, but now private.
Be careful when you get custom guitars built, y’all. Buy from reputable builders and never pay the full amount up front.
