> Abi von Reininghaus ? for Eric V

  


Does he have a heavy metal band called Megaherz?   
  
If not, there is someone on another board using the pictures from Abi's website and claiming them to be his. Which is no big deal I guess. Im just curious.  
  
The net can be a strange place at times.  
  
btw, Abi's music kicks ***!!  
  
And so does this site. I've only posted a few times here, but I do stop in at least a couple times a day. And I usually come away with something useful.  
  
Thanks   
  
Brian

Hey Brian,  
  
no, Abi´s not in Megaherz. Do you happen to have a link to the board where they used those pics ? It isn´t a big deal, I´d just like to see that :)   
  
( And yes, the net IS a strange place sometimes.. last year, for some reason, some dude was impersonating me in some MIRC-chat rooms. I mean, what´s that all about ?!? )  
  
Anyway, I´ll tell Abi what you said. If you want to, send him an Email, he´s a really nice dude.   
And yeah, his music rocks. I love the "King Of Heart" album... great songwriting, great guitar-sounds and toooooooooone :)   
  
Warm regards  
Eric

Hey thanks Eric.  
  
I'll do a search and post some threads. Or...the site is Guitar.com (http://www.guitar.com/discuss/) .  
  
He posts in the Electric Guitar forum as X_ti. Before that he was Dundee the pod.(I don't know if I got all the caps and stuff right in those names)  
  
It's kinda funny because the guy seems to really know what he's talking about at times.  
  
Guitar.com was the first music discussion board I ever checked in to. There used to be a lot of good players there that posted great music and had intelligent discussions. But now it's mostly kids arguing about which band is better etc.  
  
That site is kinda like Jerry Springer, once you start watching you don't want to stop.:p   
  
Although there are a couple of people in the theory forum with excellent advice and instruction. JonR, in particular, is a walking encyclopedia of music theory.  
  
Thanks again  
  
Brian

Hey there, thanks, I´ll check that out. I can assure you though that that is not Abi.   
I checked the guitar.com-forums a few times. I guess forums become a bit confusing or get that "Jerry Springer-vibe" once they get a LOT of members...   
It sucks once flaming and too many commercial posts or simply pointless one word-posts become standards.  
  
Anyway, thanks again !  
Eric

Looking at some of his posts right now. Yes, he IS using pics from Abi´s site, saying that the guitars on those pics are his.  
He posted a pic of Abi´s white Relic Strat and said "I own this too, a 61 Strat"... LOL  
  
At first I thought he simply didnt have a camera, and used the shots of Abi´s Thorndal when he talked abotu his own Thorndal. But he used several of those pics and its kinda silly...  
Well, go figure =)  
Eric

I posted a X_Ti...X_posed thread there.  
  
Check it out.  
  
Do you mind if I quote your replies?

Yes, go ahead  
See, I don´t see any harm done by the fact he used the pics from Abi´s site, but I just checked out some recent posts ( you did post there, right ? ), and apparently, this guy claimed that he IS Abi, using that name as an artist´s name.  
And thats a lie.   
Normally I wouldn´t care, simply because that fake name stuff happens a lot on the web, but Abi´s a good friend of mine, and this is getting kinda ridiculous. Obviously people believe he IS Abi, and so I kinda think this is getting too far.  
So yes, you can quote me there  
Eric

Can you send me a link to the thread you´re posting this in ?  
Thanks  
Eric

Well, my thread got deleted.:confused:   
  
Those people really believe that the guy is for real.  
  
Oh well, it's the net.  
  
I emailed Abi and told him about the "poser".  
  
Things like this are why I do a lot of looking on the net, but not much participation. Hell, I can remember when I was the remote control.  
  
Brian

Yeah I noticed that the thread was deleted. SO I guess Abi´ll have to have his webmaster post something on his site or something.   
As I said, no harm done by ripping off a few pics, but to impersonate someone...   
Before the thread was deleted I saw someone post this in there:  
""X-Ti goes by both names. Plus, a couple others.  
X-tian (or Christian) is just the name he uses for Megaherz.  
He's not trying to pull the wool over anyones eyes.  
He has admitted many times to using both names.  
I believe he uses Abi for his solo projects and magazine articles.  
He's a great guy. Fun to talk with. and Discuss things. He's very knowledgeable. So Please dont be goin all Michael Jackson on him."  
  
I´ll talk to Abi on the phone tomorrow anyway, so I wonder what he´ll say.... :)   
I´ve known him for years, and Í never hard him refer to himself as Chris. And I´d be surprised to see him play in Megaherz.:)   
  
Thanks for looking into this !  
Eric

OK, it's cool.  
  
I've always been a person who means what he says. Sometimes I'm brutally honest and sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about.  
  
I appreciate all intelligent advice. Even if it is from someone pretending to be someone else.  
  
Sometimes I don't get it.  
  
:confused:

I talked to Abi ( he send his regards and says thanks for the mail... ) and he is both a bit amused and a bit concerned.  
  
He had checked out some of those other posts by the dude, and he really is seriously implying that he IS Abi.  
So this will be taken care of now... we´ll see  
Thanks  
Eric

Abi replied to me pretty quick. You're right, he's a great guy.  
  
I would be concerned as well if someone was using my identity in ANY context. Lucky for me that will probably never happen.  
  
I hope I didn't open a can of worms or anything. I just thought Abi should know.

Nah, you did right. I think Abi´s pretty grateful that you brought that to his attention.  
After all, it´s surprising no one realized this stuff yet. The guy has been doing it for quite a while now, and it´s time this gets cleared up.  
  
AFAIK, Abi and his webmaster are currently looking into this, and it looks as if the OTHER identity the guy used ( guitarist of Megaherz ) might be a fake too.   
  
So anyway, thanks for pointing this out. Usually, it´s no big deal if someone does stuff like that, but this guy obviously has almost everyone at guitar.com convinced that he is Abi.  
  
There´s a lesson for us in there somewhere, I guess :)   
  
I mentioned that someone impersonated me on some MIRC chat rooms. I learned abotu that through some emails I got from a young lady who was very mad at me, although I had never talked to her before. :)   
  
Thanks. I´ll let you know what Abi and his webmaster´ll find out  
Eric

Well the guy finally admitted he was a fake on guitar.com.  
  
He said it was a joke that got out of hand. And his original intention was to get people to buy the real Abi's and Megaherz's CDs.  
  
I hope that's the case. And nothing bad comes to Abi or Megaherz as a result.  
  
Anyway, thanks Eric for introducing me to Abi.  
  
Brian

Yes, I noticed. Just got off the phone with Abi.   
I also posted there and stated that people could email me for further verification.   
I can understand that this is quite surprising to many, since he obviously did this whole thing for a long time.   
What strikes me as odd though is that no one ever emailed Abi by using one of the email links on his site. Because if someone would have done so, referring to "Abi´s" posts on the guitar.com forum, the whole issue would have been cleared up a bit earlier.  
  
Anyway, the admins there reacted pretty fast... Abi told me that his webmaster sent them an email a few hours ago.   
  
Anyway, I hope that this whole thing is over now.   
Thanks again  
Eric  
  
NP: Buckethead - Electric Tears

  
And his original intention was to get people to buy the real Abi's and Megaherz's CDs.  
  
I hope that's the case.   
  
Uhmmmm, yeah, but what ever happened to "Hey guys, check out this band / artist / player !!! Great stuff" ?!? :)   
Again, nothing bad about using some pics from another site, and if he really wanted to support Abi, cool... but impersonating someone ain´t funny, and there´s a risk of hurting someone´s reputation that way.   
I mean, people might have a completely wrong impression of Abi after reading that guys posts for so long...   
But let´s stop right here. I hope this story is over now, and I guess the lesson to be learned is that ( as you mentioned before ) you shouldn´t take everything for granted on the web.  
Eric

Hi, Eric, I post on guitar.com occasionally and, before they wiped out the music links Dundee claimed were his, I heard one of them and was very impressed. Can you tell me how to go about checking out Abi's stuff? The stuff I heard was very clean and jazzy. Does that sound like him?  
  
Thanks man.  
  
-wp

Hey there  
  
Yes, go to www.abi-r.com (http://www.abi-r.com) You can hear some excerpts from Abi´s album, "King Of Heart", by clicking on "The CD", then going to "Soundfiles"  
  
Or you can download some full songs which are not on the CD by clicking on "Sounds".  
I think the track you are referring to ( clean, jazzy sound ) is Abi´s cover-version of "That´s The Way Love Goes". You can download an MP3 of that track at the "Sounds" page.  
  
In general, Abi´s playing instrumental rock. Check out the "King Of Heart Medley" or tracks like "Pray" or "I Don´t Wanna Miss A Thing". That should give you a good idea of his style.  
Here are direct links:  
  
The SOUNDS- Page (http://www.abi-r.com/Home/Sounds/sounds.html)   
Info about the King Of Heart album (http://www.abi-r.com/Home/The_CD/the_cd.html)   
  
Hope this helps  
Eric

Wow, it's great. I like it a lot. Lots of world influences in there. Dundee must've pilfered from others as well because it was a lot different than this. Well, back to downloading. If nothing else good came of this, at least I found out about Abi. Thanks for the quick reply man.  
  
-wp

Not a problem at all.  
I don´t know where else he got "his" soundfiles. I checked his profile before it was deleted and all the tunes there were by Abi... "Endless Love", "Tennessee Motel" ( he referred to it as "Motel" only ), "Voices That Care", "That´s The Way..."  
  
But don´t forget that he also pretended to be Chris from Megaherz ( who has got nothing to do with the whole story either ), so who knows where he got more MP3s.  
  
Ok, have fun downloading the other tunes, and if you want to, email Abi, he´s a nice guy.   
Warm regards  
Eric

Thanks again Eric. I might email him once this all blows over. Poor guy's probably inundated with crap right now.  
  
-wp

Yeah, and he´s not the only one :(   
Anyway, glad you liked his music.   
Hope you´ll come visit us here at ibreathe from time to time =)  
Warm regards  
Eric

  
Yeah, and he´s not the only one :(   
Anyway, glad you liked his music.   
Hope you´ll come visit us here at ibreathe from time to time =)  
Warm regards  
Eric Yeah man, I'll stop by. This place seems cool. Just so you know I'm not some 13 year old jerk off, my website is in my profile if you'd like to check out a tune or two. I'd suggest Why Not to start.  
  
Thanks for helping set the Dundee thing straight.  
  
-wp

Abi is likely to feel mixed emotions about this, but to stay on the positive note he should flattered that someone wants to 'Be' him, and was willing to go to such lengths to perpetrate this fraud.  
  
Kudos for Abi

  
Abi is likely to feel mixed emotions about this, but to stay on the positive note he should flattered that someone wants to 'Be' him, and was willing to go to such lengths to perpetrate this fraud.  
  
Kudos for Abi True, and the free pub didn't hurt. But, it's got to be uncomfortable for someone to basically "steal" your stuff.  
  
-wp

Duke Ellinton Said it best........

Yeah, I can see what you mean, James.  
  
And I read what most people said at guitar.com, that after all, that x_ti / Till helped to promote Abi and Christian / Megaherz,a nd also gave away some good advice  
  
What many seem to miss is that, if you impersonate someone really good, there is a good chance that you also damage the reputation of whomever you´re impersonating.  
Everyone who has believed in that guy´s story had a certain imagination of Abi. Without even really knowing him.  
Also, a lot of the information the guy gave away was incorrect.   
He stated a few times that he USED to play Diezels and does not do so anymore, that he prefers Boogies or Soldanos or something.  
  
Now, Peter Diezel ( the guy who builds Diezel amps ) and Abi are friends, and Abi still is playing Diezel amps. So imagine someone wlaks up to Peter and says "Hey, you know, Abi has been posting at guitar.com that he prefers Soldanos, that he is not playing Diezels anymore"  
I know, since they are friends, this would be cleared up pretty soon, most likely, but maybe not... who knows ?  
  
I mean, this might seem a bit far-fetched but imagine Abi was an endorser for a big company, and he had the usual relationship between endorser / company going. And the company gets some emails saying "Hey, just wondering, this guy Abi, who endorses your gear, has been posting on this board for motnhs, and he says he is not using your stuff anymore, really... instead he uses etc.".   
As weird as it seems, this can really do some damage.  
  
Also, Abi´s webmaster told me abotu a thread were someone made some harsh statement about Germans, and the dude kinda shot back, commenting in a way Abi would never comment on something like that.   
  
People have to realize that Abi is a REAL person, that he has got a career to worry about. Same goes for Christian.  
A lot of people believe whatever they read on the internet, so doing such a long impersonation, giving away incomplete or wrong information ( just to clear this up: Abi IS NOT going to release a new album in the style of "Blow By Blow" and "Wired" in spring, his book was never released in any other language but German, he does not think that his Goldtop Les Paul is his least favorite guitar, he still is using Diezel amps a lot etc. ), can do some harm, added to any promotion.  
The longer you keep something like that up, the more you establish a separate reputation. You plant an image of the one you´re impersonating into people´s minds and establish it by going on and on.  
And he also somehow arranged it that NO ONE ever got in touch with Abi by way of the email-addys on his sites, which still surprises me.  
That is why this whole thing was ended this way. No one really minds some little impersonation going on, that happens a lot on the web anyway, but you gotta consider the effort that went into this... this has been going on for a really long time.  
  
But hey, hopefully this is over now, and yes, maybe he got some people interested in Megaherz and Abi v.R. But I think Abi, Chris and many others would hav epreferred if he had chosen a different way to do so.  
Eric

I was just trying to look on the brite side of things.  
Abi does remind me of Jeff Beck! More than any other player.

Yes, I know that you tried to point out th ebright side.  
And my reply wasn´t aimed at you.   
But who knows, if anyone from the g.com forum happens to read this, maybe it helps to explain what happened there and why it was stopped  
  
( have you seen how often this thread was viewed within the last 24 hours ? )  
  
Eric

  
Yeah man, I'll stop by. This place seems cool. Just so you know I'm not some 13 year old jerk off, my website is in my profile if you'd like to check out a tune or two. I'd suggest Why Not to start.  
  
Thanks for helping set the Dundee thing straight.  
  
-wp   
  
Hey Wes,  
  
I checked your mp3-site already ( I like to check out whom I am talking to :) ) and I like "Life Goes On"... a lot. Very nice atmosphere and songwriting. Very relaxed.  
Good job  
Eric

  
Hey Wes,  
  
I checked your mp3-site already ( I like to check out whom I am talking to :) ) and I like "Life Goes On"... a lot. Very nice atmosphere and songwriting. Very relaxed.  
Good job  
Eric Thanks man. Brad actually wrote that right after 9/11 (I don't know if you live in America but that day hurt us all deeply). I tried to capture a range of emotions in there from sadness to anger. There's one point in the solo where I'm just spitting out non-sensical notes. I tried to re-do it but I couldn't capture the emotion on any of the subsequent takes so the demo became the master.  
  
;)  
  
Thanks for checking it out. I appreciate it.  
  
-wp

OK  
  
I didn´t look at too many posts of the guy. And I wasn´t trying to say he said something really bad. I just said that the way he replied was totally unlike Abi, and that that might confuse some people in their opinion of him.   
As I said, no real harm done, but I think it´s best that this was stopped.  
Thanks  
Eric

This whole thing is making me have mixed feelings.  
  
I'm glad it's out, but I feel bad about the extra hassle it's caused Abi, Christian,Eric, and whoever else.   
  
It was just by chance that I recognized the connection. I wasn't trying to "expose" anyone.   
  
I hope everything works out OK for everyone.  
  
Brian

Nope... don´t worry, really.   
I mean, it was quite surprising, and Abi and me spent a bunch of time on the phone and the net to see what´s happening, but it´s really a good thing that it´s over.  
It hasn´t been the first time I got some insulting emails or viruses by email, either. :)   
Abi is feeling better that it´s over now, and I hope Christian is too... I heard we was completely blown away by hearing about this...  
  
Seriously, you did nothing wrong, didn´t cause Abi or Christian any trouble, quite the opposite, because you helped to clear up something that those guys weren´t even aware of but should have been.  
  
Who knows how much longer this would have been going on  
Thanks  
Eric