Agileguy_101
Master of his Domain
Just got an email from Analogman - it's my turn to get a King of Tone. Of course, I've got no way to afford it... :grumble::grumble::grumble:
What a great time to be broke
- Thread starter Agileguy_101
- Start date
King IzzO)))
Ultimate Kitten Puncher
Re: What a great time to be broke
How much is it?
How much is it?
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
They were $235 stock last time I heard...
No worries, Mike will hold your place in line as long as you have that email...I gave a spot in line to Lew last year that I'd been holding since 2007 or 2008!!!
They were $235 stock last time I heard...
No worries, Mike will hold your place in line as long as you have that email...I gave a spot in line to Lew last year that I'd been holding since 2007 or 2008!!!
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
I think they are around 18 months now but I am a little out of touch.
I think they are around 18 months now but I am a little out of touch.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: What a great time to be broke
I can understand a small company not wanting to over expand, but I'll never understand why any small business with big orders to fill wouldn't add a few people to their production line in order to get up to speed.
It's as if analogman leaves money sitting on the table, while also irritating potential customers.
I can understand a small company not wanting to over expand, but I'll never understand why any small business with big orders to fill wouldn't add a few people to their production line in order to get up to speed.
It's as if analogman leaves money sitting on the table, while also irritating potential customers.
Chris of Arabia
Desert RATT
Re: What a great time to be broke
+1 to that. If it was the only pedal he did, then I'd understand it to a degree if he wanted to maintain absolute quality over what goes out the door. Why then is the delivery timescale for something like a Sunface not similar, when they are also built to order in around a week?
+1 to that. If it was the only pedal he did, then I'd understand it to a degree if he wanted to maintain absolute quality over what goes out the door. Why then is the delivery timescale for something like a Sunface not similar, when they are also built to order in around a week?
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the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
Mike puts his guys through a bunch of training and adding guys just to fill orders of the KoT would just result in filling the orders and then him having to lay people off.
The KoT requires no money up front and if you decide not to get one after your name comes up first they are fine with that second you can just keep your spot in line and get one later on.
Mike puts his guys through a bunch of training and adding guys just to fill orders of the KoT would just result in filling the orders and then him having to lay people off.
The KoT requires no money up front and if you decide not to get one after your name comes up first they are fine with that second you can just keep your spot in line and get one later on.
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
From AnalogMan.com
We are still backed up due to heavy orders and workload on other effects. I can only process so many orders per day, no matter how many people I have building pedals. So I only email the KoT waiting list people when we are not too backed up on normal orders and shipping. By doing this, I don't have to work more than 70 hours a week usually, and when you get to the top of the list and get your email I can ship it out the next day.
Having the waiting list, and not growing too large when things were good, also helped keep our company strong when the economy got weak. One of our competitors got too big and laid off about 20 people when things got bad. He told the employees to file for unemployment. I had to scramble to reassign people, but nobody got laid off, and we are still in good shape, with sales pretty even in the last few years and picking up little by little.
Remember what happened to guitars in the late 60s? The market got HUGE and all these new companies came out, and the old companies (Fender, Gibson, etc) started making too many guitars, of relatively poor quality. Then most of the smaller companies went under, and the big ones nearly did too. We're not going to make 100 KOT pedals a week, of poorer quality, just to get them out there and possibly fail as a company. We are still making them by hand one by one.
Sorry for the delays, hope you understand that it has been as painful for us as it was for you.
From AnalogMan.com
We are still backed up due to heavy orders and workload on other effects. I can only process so many orders per day, no matter how many people I have building pedals. So I only email the KoT waiting list people when we are not too backed up on normal orders and shipping. By doing this, I don't have to work more than 70 hours a week usually, and when you get to the top of the list and get your email I can ship it out the next day.
Having the waiting list, and not growing too large when things were good, also helped keep our company strong when the economy got weak. One of our competitors got too big and laid off about 20 people when things got bad. He told the employees to file for unemployment. I had to scramble to reassign people, but nobody got laid off, and we are still in good shape, with sales pretty even in the last few years and picking up little by little.
Remember what happened to guitars in the late 60s? The market got HUGE and all these new companies came out, and the old companies (Fender, Gibson, etc) started making too many guitars, of relatively poor quality. Then most of the smaller companies went under, and the big ones nearly did too. We're not going to make 100 KOT pedals a week, of poorer quality, just to get them out there and possibly fail as a company. We are still making them by hand one by one.
Sorry for the delays, hope you understand that it has been as painful for us as it was for you.
Gearjoneser
Gear Ho
Re: What a great time to be broke
He's probably right at the point of having the choice of expanding the way Fulltone and Bogner did, or reigning it in the way Tom Anderson did. It's a tough choice, because over expanding could leave you with debt and laid off employees. Not expanding is safer, although you've got a backlog of orders and could be missing out on huge success.
I've never owned a business where I had to make that decision. It's not a bad place to be. Bogner and Mike Fuller became very wealthy.
He's probably right at the point of having the choice of expanding the way Fulltone and Bogner did, or reigning it in the way Tom Anderson did. It's a tough choice, because over expanding could leave you with debt and laid off employees. Not expanding is safer, although you've got a backlog of orders and could be missing out on huge success.
I've never owned a business where I had to make that decision. It's not a bad place to be. Bogner and Mike Fuller became very wealthy.
King IzzO)))
Ultimate Kitten Puncher
Re: What a great time to be broke
I kind of like the idea of not compromising anything. Maybe it's not the best model for getting rich, but it's a good model of integrity.
I kind of like the idea of not compromising anything. Maybe it's not the best model for getting rich, but it's a good model of integrity.
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
I won't speak to Bogner because it's just a different thing all together but in the case of Fulltone Mike Fuller expanded and his quality suffered then his sales suffered because the new stuff wasn't "as good" as the old stuff then in order to keep the building, machines and fleet of people he'd hired he had to strike deals with places like Guitar Center then the product suffered once again.
Think about this...
How many pedals are there out there that folks talk about finding one of the "older/better" ones??
Now, sure...some of it is BS however in the cases of a LOT of these pedals the new ones are inferior in various ways to the "older/better" versions.
For more often than not the dip in quality has to do with making the products either faster or cheaper or both.
IMHO there are LOADS of companies out there that make a lesser product than they did at their inception and, again IMHO Mike is not one of them.
Like IzzO))) said it might not be a good model for getting rich but maybe that's not his end goal.
I won't speak to Bogner because it's just a different thing all together but in the case of Fulltone Mike Fuller expanded and his quality suffered then his sales suffered because the new stuff wasn't "as good" as the old stuff then in order to keep the building, machines and fleet of people he'd hired he had to strike deals with places like Guitar Center then the product suffered once again.
Think about this...
How many pedals are there out there that folks talk about finding one of the "older/better" ones??
Now, sure...some of it is BS however in the cases of a LOT of these pedals the new ones are inferior in various ways to the "older/better" versions.
For more often than not the dip in quality has to do with making the products either faster or cheaper or both.
IMHO there are LOADS of companies out there that make a lesser product than they did at their inception and, again IMHO Mike is not one of them.
Like IzzO))) said it might not be a good model for getting rich but maybe that's not his end goal.
ErikH
Well-known member
Re: What a great time to be broke
And a good model to remain in business through tough times with a business that size (small). Realizing how people are spending their money and adjusting your business to sustain itself through that is very important to a successful business in the long run. See, learn, adapt, or it won't be pretty.
And a good model to remain in business through tough times with a business that size (small). Realizing how people are spending their money and adjusting your business to sustain itself through that is very important to a successful business in the long run. See, learn, adapt, or it won't be pretty.
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Lazarus1140
New member
Re: What a great time to be broke
Not to get political, but in the current economic climate it is dangerous to expand when that entails hiring additional workers. The uncertainty of the tax and insurance burdens that employers face brings too much risk. IMO many companies will fail as some of the new legislation is phased in.
Not to get political, but in the current economic climate it is dangerous to expand when that entails hiring additional workers. The uncertainty of the tax and insurance burdens that employers face brings too much risk. IMO many companies will fail as some of the new legislation is phased in.
Empty Pockets
BadHairDayologist
Re: What a great time to be broke
It must be a pretty awesome pedal.
The website makes it sound like two modified Tubescreamers in a really nice case... so maybe I'll become interested if I hear one and it's way, way, way better than that...
It must be a pretty awesome pedal.
The website makes it sound like two modified Tubescreamers in a really nice case... so maybe I'll become interested if I hear one and it's way, way, way better than that...
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
It couldn't be farther form a Tubescreamer or two of them.
Lots of uninformed people that get what little info that do have from the internet talk about it being 2 modded Bluesbreaker pedals but having owned an original Bluesbreaker and a KoT I can tell you that's not the case either...
You just have to try one.
I'm not saying it's for everybody or that it's life changing or anything, it's just an OD pedal but it's a really good one!
It couldn't be farther form a Tubescreamer or two of them.
Lots of uninformed people that get what little info that do have from the internet talk about it being 2 modded Bluesbreaker pedals but having owned an original Bluesbreaker and a KoT I can tell you that's not the case either...
You just have to try one.
I'm not saying it's for everybody or that it's life changing or anything, it's just an OD pedal but it's a really good one!
Empty Pockets
BadHairDayologist
Re: What a great time to be broke
Well if you wana lend me yours for a while I'll tell ya what I think :smokin:
Well if you wana lend me yours for a while I'll tell ya what I think :smokin:
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
I dunno about lending but if you'd like to try one we can get together sometime and have some pedal shoot outs!
I dunno about lending but if you'd like to try one we can get together sometime and have some pedal shoot outs!
Empty Pockets
BadHairDayologist
Re: What a great time to be broke
That would be ridiculously fun and educational. I may have to take you up on that....
That would be ridiculously fun and educational. I may have to take you up on that....
the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Re: What a great time to be broke
Drop me a PM one day and we'll set something up.
You like near Marietta right?
Drop me a PM one day and we'll set something up.
You like near Marietta right?
