Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

[guitarrob]

"In hopes of making it more difficult for people to trade in stolen guitars, Dweezil Zappa is promoting theguitarvaults.com, a new website that allows guitar owners to register the details of their instruments"

I think this is a good idea.
If a shop gets a guitar in they can search the registry, and if your guitar gets stolen, it can be flagged so all these people can keep a look out for your guitars.


I don't know if it is cool to post links to other sites on this forum so I am not going to. This place should be too hard to find as it is called guitar vault.
This place is still rather new, started up on September 24th but hopefully it will help make it more difficult for low lifes to trade in stolen guitars.

What do you guys think about this site or the idea overall?

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Sounds like a great idea to me. I would welcome anything to help get them back if they are swiped.

 

[guitarrob]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Yep. To most guitarist, their guitars are valued beyond almost any other possession and if they are stolen they are next to impossible to replace.

Sure, you might be able to find a similar year and model but it still will not be your guitar and in most cases our guitars have very unique signatures, as that is why we bought them in the first place. So it is ncie to know, that if they are stolen you can flag them and if they surface anywhere, you have a good chance of getting them back.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

They let you register 1 guitar free then there is a fee?

 

[guitarrob]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

I don't think a fee is too much to ask for such a service as it cost money to keep any site running.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Ill pass its great in theory and intent but the odds of it making any difference are slim.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

How does the owner verify ownership? A Fender serial number that is stamped into a neck anchor plate or, say, a vintage style Telecaster bridge would be possible to fake.

 

[guitarrob]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Ill pass its great in theory and intent but the odds of it making any difference are slim.

Atleast they are trying to help and I can see it making a difference if guitarists get behind the place and people start registering their guitars.

How does the owner verify ownership? A Fender serial number that is stamped into a neck anchor plate or, say, a vintage style Telecaster bridge would be possible to fake.

You register your guitars. If one gets stolen, you flag it as stolen.
Now, you have everybody that uses the site knowing that guitar is stolen.
I think counterfiet neckplates are a bit extreme for some idiot that stole your guitar to pass off from some quick cash.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

What is to prevent guitar identity theft?

If the registry uses photographs to assist identification, what is there to stop a rogue from combining generic images of a specific model and then faking the close-up shot of the serial number in order to claim rightful ownership of somebody else's guitar?

 

[guitarrob]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

What is to prevent guitar identity theft?

If the registry uses photographs to assist identification, what is there to stop a rogue from combining generic images of a specific model and then faking the close-up shot of the serial number in order to claim rightful ownership of somebody else's guitar?

Perhaps you should ask the people that set up the site.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

It would be handy for pawnshops to instantly screen guitars coming into their store.

That's how they caught the guy who stole Tom Petty's irreplaceable guitars. The pawnshop recognized one of them from a newspaper article. It would have been easier if there were a database.

I also think that if a guitar thief is found guilty, his picture should be added to the database, so his identity is made public forever.

Meet Daryl Emmette Washington. This 51 year old studio security guard thought he'd run off with Tom Petty's guitars. haha

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

It would be handy for pawnshops to instantly screen guitars coming into their store.

That's how they caught the guy who stole Tom Petty's irreplaceable guitars. The pawnshop recognized one of them from a newspaper article. It would have been easier if there were a database.

I also think that if a guitar thief is found guilty, his picture should be added to the database, so his identity is made public forever.

Meet Daryl Emmette Washington. This 51 year old studio security guard thought he'd run off with Tom Petty's guitars. haha

Runnin down with my Car..... the man who stole my guitar.....

 

[FretFire]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Neither of my electrics have serial numbers, so I'm SOL.

 

[Vengeance]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Someone just needs to steal the idea and make it free.

Plus there is already a online data base for stolen goods that used shops are required by law to use.

 

[guitarrob]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Hard to offer something for free that costs money to implement in the first place.

 

[Hecubus]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

Hard to offer something for free that costs money to implement in the first place.

Isn't this most of the internet? I can think of hundreds of advertisers who would pay to have their banner flash at the the top of the page while you enter and check data.

 

[lpmarshall]

Re: Dweezil Zappa Introduces Online Guitar Registry

I actually thought about doing this many years ago but never even got it off the ground.

It was more of a stolen guitar website that could be searched and send out alerts to pawn shops/guitar stores when something in their area was stolen. I actually had a few pages drawn up on how I wanted the site to flow but that was probably 10 years ago.

I wanted to use geolocation more than anything, because you can't count on guitar shops to log in and regularly check for stolen guitars. Basically it had two sides, a place for people to list their guitars as stolen and a side for businesses to login. Businesses would then be able to receive alerts based on their location (Notify me of any stolen instruments that are within 100 miles of my shop, or whatever range they selected).

I did struggle with the idea of verifying a guitar was actually stolen. I did plan on fields for law enforcement contact info, but it's hard to make that required right away when it can sometimes take awhile to get law enforcement involved.