A Special Thankyou to Sterling ……….

A Special Thankyou to Sterling ……….

Hi Guys,
It’s been a long while since I’ve dropped in here.
It’s been a long time coming.

Some of you old timers may know that back in 2009, I started the Music Man Facebook Page.
Ernie Ball Music Man – Home | Facebook

This was back at a time when FB pages etc were just taking off, and I decided to have a play with it.
With a love for EBMM guitars, a pile of pics and resources at my fingertips, creating an EBMM page seemed to be a fun way to try it out.
Next thing I know, it’s looking pretty cool.
I was a long time member, and always had a great rapport with “Big Poppa” on this forum, with some epic banter threads between he and I, so after a while I flicked Sterling a message and asked him if he’d like to adopt my FB page as the Company’s official page.
He OK’d the idea, I secured the Facebook web address and Sterling opened up pic and content resources for me to use and it took off very nicely.
As the membership grew, some of the Ernie Ball crew came onboard.
It grew steadily, and now stands at around 160k members.

By 2015, social media presence was well & truly a business must-have, and the EBMM crew had ramped up personnel accordingly.
It was then that Sterling wrote to me and advised that they’d like to take full control of the page.
I was already playing a much smaller role in the administration, so my first reaction was one of humility that the big guy had even contacted me personally to ask.
My second reaction was one of wonder and amazement.
As I read further, Sterling offered a guitar of my choice in appreciation for my efforts.
“Tell Derek what you’d like and he’ll get it sorted”
Just wow. What an amazing gesture.

With my mind blown, I sat back and absorbed what I had just read.
Right from the start, it was a labour of love and I had never expected anything in return.
If was just cool to have an “official” role with such a great company.
In the later years, my involvement was greatly reduced as the EBMM crew took more control, with staff dedicated to such tasks.
So why the email and gesture from Sterling ?
Because that’s the sort of guy he is.
There are many stories around of BP’s caring nature and generosity.
And mine is yet another one of them.

This is in stark contrast to an article I read recently where a boating company had taken legal action against an enthusiast for using their company name in his fan page.
Which is what brought me back here to tell the story………..

Getting back to the guitar offer ;
After a tongue-in-cheek request for a 30th Anniversary Silhouette, I sat back and absorbed Sterling’s offer.

Unfortunately life then took a few turns with news that my mum had been diagnosed with the big C, and all priorities changed.
I kept in touch with Sterling to let him know I wasn’t ignoring / being unappreciative.
Of course, he just replied with best wishes for my mum, and words to the effect of “no rush, I’m not going anywhere !”
Time flew by, and things eventually came good with full remission after intensive treatment.

Things settled down and I started playing a bit more again.
After a while, the thought of adding a JP15 to my collection was pretty attractive.
I sent Derek and Sterling an email asking if that would be an OK request.
Somewhere in that email was a line of “unfortunately I missed out on the Blueberry Burst limited run of 300” (or something like that).

Derek’s response was “well, there are actually 302 of them – and I have the last one in my office….. I’ve checked with Sterling, and it’s yours if you’d like it”.

It turns out that 302 were made.
300 for the limited run, and 2 for JP himself.
JP had only taken 1 so far, which left 1 remaining…….. all set up for JP.

I graciously accepted this wonderful offer, and within a few days the guitar was delivered express to my door, with all duties etc all taken care of by EBMM.
A few very appreciative emails were exchanged.

Conscious of the limited 300 owners’ acquisitions, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to show off mine.
Sterling already knew my deep appreciation.

It was only after recently reading the boating article mentioned above, that people need to know stories like this – to know that there are still good people out there.
I commented on the article accordingly of my story with EBMM, and it took off and got shared directly to the offending company’s page as an example of how to treat people.

So here I am again, back with my story about this awesome bloke and his wonderful company.
Here’s a few pics of JP15 Blueberry Burst “#000”

Or as Sterling himself has dubbed it : “Number Juan” :D:D:D

Thanks again BP.

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Source: http://forums.ernieball.com