Hey Scott Olson!

[Curly]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

I agree that floor shop customs are kind of a black hole as far as ordering. The good news is that if you have something that qualifies as a floor custom, there's no upcharge except for materials ... i.e., an alnico II would be a slight upcharge from a stock alnico 5 magnet.
I also agree that not a lot of dealers are well-informed about floor shop customs.

The simple answer is what Scott suggested: talk to Banjomikez or Stratosphere. To be frank, it's something dealers should do.
I can personally vouch for Banjomikez. I called customer service at the Duncan factory, told them what I was looking for, and they suggested him. You don't have to go through EBay either, if you don't have an account. You can use email or the phone. (PM me if you need that ... I'll at least have his email, if it's not on his EBay site).
If you look on his ebay site, as Scott said, yes, he already carries quite a few FSCs, like tapped tele pickups, custom color bobbins, as well as quite a few trembuckers that others don't seem to stock.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

I agree that floor shop customs are kind of a black hole as far as ordering. The good news is that if you have something that qualifies as a floor custom, there's no upcharge except for materials ... i.e., an alnico II would be a slight upcharge from a stock alnico 5 magnet.
I also agree that not a lot of dealers are well-informed about floor shop customs.

The simple answer is what Scott suggested: talk to Banjomikez or Stratosphere. To be frank, it's something dealers should do.
I can personally vouch for Banjomikez. I called customer service at the Duncan factory, told them what I was looking for, and they suggested him. You don't have to go through EBay either, if you don't have an account. You can use email or the phone. (PM me if you need that ... I'll at least have his email, if it's not on his EBay site).
If you look on his ebay site, as Scott said, yes, he already carries quite a few FSCs, like tapped tele pickups, custom color bobbins, as well as quite a few trembuckers that others don't seem to stock.

That's simply one of a hundred different approaches customer might take. Just because an approach works for one does not mean it will work for another. Additionally, does banjomikez carry a Full Shred set with A2 mags and gold poles? And if they don't, what not use a website, let that extra money go straight to SD and the customer does t have to wait the extra time it takes to ship to the retailer before it gets re-shipped to their front door.

Once again, not much to set up and nothing but benefits for the customers. There are pickups companies that do it already. This shouldn't even be a discussion, as SD should be a leader in the industry, not one that brings up the rear.


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[ToddStaples]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

I know this. As a small dealer for seymour duncan, it would upset me greatly if sd offered floor customs on a website. I dont do a ton of duncan but I do about 1/3 floor customs. This would take business away from me im certain.....
Just my opinion. YMMV.

I

That's simply one of a hundred different approaches customer might take. Just because an approach works for one does not mean it will work for another. Additionally, does banjomikez carry a Full Shred set with A2 mags and gold poles? And if they don't, what not use a website, let that extra money go straight to SD and the customer does t have to wait the extra time it takes to ship to the retailer before it gets re-shipped to their front door.

Once again, not much to set up and nothing but benefits for the customers. There are pickups companies that do it already. This shouldn't even be a discussion, as SD should be a leader in the industry, not one that brings up the rear.


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[speed2dirt]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

You could definitely have a webpage with features for a shop floor custom. At the end of the process, you could either print-out your final order with an order number and take that to a dealer (the dealer sends the order to SD where the pickup features are already stored under SD order #) or have it emailed to a retailer of your choice (BanjoMikez and Stratosphere) and pay for it all through the Duncan site. That way dealers don't lose, but all features are listed and easily accessible for the buyer. It'd also make it a lot easier for the dealers to order them too. Plus, if the print-out is an option, small SD retailers like ToddStaples wouldn't lose out because his customers could choose to use him if they wanted to.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

You could definitely have a webpage with features for a shop floor custom. At the end of the process, you could either print-out your final order with an order number and take that to a dealer (the dealer sends the order to SD where the pickup features are already stored under SD order #) or have it emailed to a retailer of your choice (BanjoMikez and Stratosphere) and pay for it all through the Duncan site. That way dealers don't lose, but all features are listed and easily accessible for the buyer. It'd also make it a lot easier for the dealers to order them too. Plus, if the print-out is an option, small SD retailers like ToddStaples wouldn't lose out because his customers could choose to use him if they wanted to.

Excellent idea. There's a win-win in something if people work together to hash out the details.


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[Curly]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

That's simply one of a hundred different approaches customer might take. Just because an approach works for one does not mean it will work for another. Additionally, does banjomikez carry a Full Shred set with A2 mags and gold poles?

Please allow me to clarify that what I suggested is certainly NOT the only way to get a shop floor custom, but rather just what I know works from my own experience, should someone prefer a solution already in place.

Also, FYI, Banjomikez has an entire section of shop floor Duncan humbuckers with gold poles, with over 40 different pickups -- mostly floor shop customs, including 3 Full Shreds. I'm sure getting the set you want would be fairly easy, since magnet swaps are easy on the floor.



Peace, out.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

Please allow me to clarify that what I suggested is certainly NOT the only way to get a shop floor custom, but rather just what I know works from my own experience, should someone prefer a solution already in place.

Also, FYI, Banjomikez has an entire section of shop floor Duncan humbuckers with gold poles, with over 40 different pickups -- mostly floor shop customs, including 3 Full Shreds. I'm sure getting the set you want would be fairly easy, since magnet swaps are easy on the floor.

Peace, out.

No sweat, big guy. It's clear there are options out there. I've looked at some stuff on eBay for a few of the retailers mentioned in this thread. But I have to say, going that route isn't for everyone. Some dig it some don't. I suppose my point is that there are means for vendors to make things hassle-free and effortless for the customers....and that's really want customers want (customers will even pay a few $ more for service and convenience). And it seems there are some other pickup companies that will take direct orders via phone and email that will make a tweak or a change...and it seems odd to me that a pioneer like SD wouldn't be leading the packing on opportunities like that.

Seems like there are a few customer-centric ideas being tossed around in this thread that should be considered to see if they are viable.


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[scarr]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

I agree with speed2dirt, since that's what I suggested in July. :fing2:

I hope it it's a little smoother than "here's something you can email to someone else" though. While that will make people aware of the options, it doesn't streamline the ordering process.

ToddStaples,
With all due respect, I hope you're offering your customers something beyond being the gatekeeper to floor customs. If you can be replaced by a website, you aren't doing much. Presumably, you can help guide customers on their creations, possibly hearing their actual instruments, which the website can't do.

 

[Scott Olson]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I'll be sure to bring this up during our next meeting.

 

[CountFeedback]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

It would be awesome if when seymourduncan.com gets a makeover there is an "assemble your pick-up" section for floor options (with a list to the special order ready dealers)

I know some dealers suck but you can't hate on all of it; soon there'll be no place to go and no one to talk to.

 

[ToddStaples]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

ToddStaples,
With all due respect, I hope you're offering your customers something beyond being the gatekeeper to floor customs. If you can be replaced by a website, you aren't doing much. Presumably, you can help guide customers on their creations, possibly hearing their actual instruments, which the website can't do.

With all due respect, right back atcha..
I run a full line repair shop in AZ. I find that many customers dont even know about the Floor customs until I tell them about it. Of course we guide them to what we think is the right pickup. What kinda shop would I be? lol.
.. Also, most of out floor customs are either "Without Logo" or "Gold pole pieces"

My point is,.... If Duncan offers Regular pickup Floor Customs on the custom shop website, It will no doubt take business away from the core dealer base.

 

[ToddStaples]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

You could definitely have a webpage with features for a shop floor custom. At the end of the process, you could either print-out your final order with an order number and take that to a dealer (the dealer sends the order to SD where the pickup features are already stored under SD order #) or have it emailed to a retailer of your choice (BanjoMikez and Stratosphere) and pay for it all through the Duncan site. That way dealers don't lose, but all features are listed and easily accessible for the buyer. It'd also make it a lot easier for the dealers to order them too. Plus, if the print-out is an option, small SD retailers like ToddStaples wouldn't lose out because his customers could choose to use him if they wanted to.

Hmm...

 

[scarr]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

With all due respect, right back atcha..
I run a full line repair shop in AZ. I find that many customers dont even know about the Floor customs until I tell them about it. Of course we guide them to what we think is the right pickup. What kinda shop would I be? lol.
.. Also, most of out floor customs are either "Without Logo" or "Gold pole pieces"

My point is,.... If Duncan offers Regular pickup Floor Customs on the custom shop website, It will no doubt take business away from the core dealer base.

The other two thirds of your business is pickups that are otherwise available on dozens of websites, so having these pickups on a website doesn't mean your business will disappear. The same things that bring in your customers now will potentially draw more customers if they actually know you can provide options that other places won't. If SD sets this up so you can choose from dealers who sign up, you might even see more business. If you can get my orders processed quickly, I'll buy from you.

 

[scarr]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

Perhaps I should flesh out my original idea a bit more, since only one method make sense to me:

- You, the customer, select all the options you want on SD's site.
- Then your "checkout" is ONLY selecting a dealer from a list of participating dealers, and formally agreeing to pay for it. (Participating dealers opting in makes sense, since the contact details would need to be setup, and dealers would need to guarantee a certain turnaround time on processing orders.)
- At the end of the process, SD emails the order to you, and to the dealer you selected.
- The dealer then has your email, and can send you an invoice that way.*
- You pay the invoice
- The dealer sends the order back to SD for construction. (The dealer might want to notify the customer of this via email.)
- I don't know if SD has to send the pickup to the dealer first in this arrangement. Since the address info was already provided in the original "checkout", they ought to be able to ship directly to the customer. This might be a customer selectable option on the site. (Indirect, via dealer, would allow overseas orders too! SD could extend Custom Shop orders in this way too.)

*The payment methods might vary (credit card v. PayPal, over phone or via the web, etc.), and those options could be noted on the SD "checkout" page. (Giving the options would be part of the dealers' opting-in process.) It's a pretty simple process with PayPal, which the eBay resellers would already be familiar with. Dealers could still offer discounts, like they might with standard production pickups, and lower the price when sending the invoice to the customer. The SD website would basically define the "MSRP", like it does for the Custom Shop.
--
For dealers, this means they can actively direct their customers to SD's site for ordering, or just to see all the options. They don't need to design a process themselves. If they have a customer who isn't web-savvy, then the dealer simply fills the order out his/herself, as if s/he was the end customer, after getting the details and payment from the customer.

For SD, they get orders in a nice, clear format they can specify. The details are just a block of info that gets bounced back-and-forth in emails.

Also, this means SD doesn't have to generate a formal order number until they get an actual order from the dealer. I'd think this would be important, since there is always the chance that someone could place an "order" on SD's site, but then not pay anyone for it (even if the SD checkout is a formal commitment to do so). Since the customer & dealer are emailed the details of the order, everyone can keep on the same page about it. (You could give that an arbitrary ID number still, but it doesn't have to be a formal SD order number.)

While I'd prefer a pure one-stop shop, it doesn't seem terribly practical to pay on SD's site. It seems odd for SD to control money that would be going to (but really should come from) end-dealers, and I suspect that would be a nightmare for managing sales taxes. That's why I didn't write that up. Otherwise, you'd just add the payment directly to the SD checkout process, and SD handles the payment to the selected dealer on the back end.

There are a few more nuances I could spell out, and some ideas I have for how the web forms should work/flow to make it easy for most people, but I've already written enough for now. I'm happy to share more as desired.

 

[ToddStaples]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

The other two thirds of your business is pickups that are otherwise available on dozens of websites, so having these pickups on a website doesn't mean your business will disappear. If you can get my orders processed quickly, I'll buy from you.

Having product available on dozens of websites and on the manufacture website for sale are two different things....I understand both sides of this,, im just trying to show how a typical dealer might think.... no more.

Im my experience Floor customs are 10 days out.

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

Perhaps I should flesh out my original idea a bit more, since only one method make sense to me:

- You, the customer, select all the options you want on SD's site.
- Then your "checkout" is ONLY selecting a dealer from a list of participating dealers, and formally agreeing to pay for it. (Participating dealers opting in makes sense, since the contact details would need to be setup, and dealers would need to guarantee a certain turnaround time on processing orders.)
- At the end of the process, SD emails the order to you, and to the dealer you selected.
- The dealer then has your email, and can send you an invoice that way.*
- You pay the invoice
- The dealer sends the order back to SD for construction. (The dealer might want to notify the customer of this via email.)
- I don't know if SD has to send the pickup to the dealer first in this arrangement. Since the address info was already provided in the original "checkout", they ought to be able to ship directly to the customer. This might be a customer selectable option on the site. (Indirect, via dealer, would allow overseas orders too! SD could extend Custom Shop orders in this way too.)

*The payment methods might vary (credit card v. PayPal, over phone or via the web, etc.), and those options could be noted on the SD "checkout" page. (Giving the options would be part of the dealers' opting-in process.) It's a pretty simple process with PayPal, which the eBay resellers would already be familiar with. Dealers could still offer discounts, like they might with standard production pickups, and lower the price when sending the invoice to the customer. The SD website would basically define the "MSRP", like it does for the Custom Shop.
--
For dealers, this means they can actively direct their customers to SD's site for ordering, or just to see all the options. They don't need to design a process themselves. If they have a customer who isn't web-savvy, then the dealer simply fills the order out his/herself, as if s/he was the end customer, after getting the details and payment from the customer.

For SD, they get orders in a nice, clear format they can specify. The details are just a block of info that gets bounced back-and-forth in emails.

Also, this means SD doesn't have to generate a formal order number until they get an actual order from the dealer. I'd think this would be important, since there is always the chance that someone could place an "order" on SD's site, but then not pay anyone for it (even if the SD checkout is a formal commitment to do so). Since the customer & dealer are emailed the details of the order, everyone can keep on the same page about it. (You could give that an arbitrary ID number still, but it doesn't have to be a formal SD order number.)

While I'd prefer a pure one-stop shop, it doesn't seem terribly practical to pay on SD's site. It seems odd for SD to control money that would be going to (but really should come from) end-dealers, and I suspect that would be a nightmare for managing sales taxes. That's why I didn't write that up. Otherwise, you'd just add the payment directly to the SD checkout process, and SD handles the payment to the selected dealer on the back end.

There are a few more nuances I could spell out, and some ideas I have for how the web forms should work/flow to make it easy for most people, but I've already written enough for now. I'm happy to share more as desired.

Even if this concept needs further tweaking, it appears to be all about the customer and that's where the business is at. The more companies focus on making to easy and convenient for the customer and the follow up with a superior product and great service, the more a company is set up to succeed.

Once again, as I've been looking more into a few boutique shops, a lot of my interest is drawn to how I am get a hand wound pickup that can be tweaked as needed (meaning its also hand made for me and not just sitting on a shelf at guitar center) at a price point that falls between a Duncan production model and a Duncan custom shop model. And that can be done from a dealer on the phone or a dealers site or directly from the manufacturer. Doesn't seem to be a valid reason for an operation like SD to not open up the options and the possibilities.


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[Despised]

Re: Hey Scott Olson!

Here's what I think on this matter...

I wouldn't mind nor do I or would I mind doing a specialty order for a shop floor custom pickup or pickups from banjomikez, as I've ordered countless pickups from him in the past 3 years.

But my issue with having to go to a dealer for a shop floor custom, is if I'm looking at having an actual Custom Shop pickup made, and I want a couple normal production models with a few minor different options. For example: I am working with Derek on having a 7-string version of a tapped and RW/RP'd SSL-6, and at the same time I would like to get a Nazgul and a Pegasus with it. But for the Nazgul & Pegasus, I want normal chorme/nickel polepieces, and a normal white Seymour Duncan logo on both of them. However here is the problem. Derek informed me that I would have to order the Nazgul & Pegasus from a dealer (banjomikez in this case...), while I can order the SSL-6 directly from SD.

Now in this case since I'm ordering 3 pickups that have to be made specialty anyway, why can't I order the Nazgul & Pegasus Shop Floor Customs directly from SD anyway along with the actual Custom Shop order, and get all 3 pickups at once??? This would save time and extra shipping charges by not having to order 2 pickups from a dealer, have them made and then shipped to him before getting shipped to me, while the actual Custom Shop order gets sent right to me.

I'd much prefer to have all 3 pickups at once, to install at the same time rather than take my guitar apart several times to wire them in because I had to wait for them to be shipped from 2 different places, when they are all coming from the same place and are being made at the same time. So what that the Custom Shop pickup may take a few days extra, I'd have no issue with waiting to get everything at once and having 3 custom pickups.

My two cents on the subject...