What's going on with the Custom Shop?

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Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

Yep. Good old large business problems. Dealers talking to distributors who are not on the same page as the manufacturer.

I ran into this problem all the time in the Archery industry. I helped dozens of frustrated customers in Canada that had to suffer with an Incomptent distributor and misinformed dealers. Sometimes it was a real pain in the ass to fix things/make things right. I sent one guy my personal bow for a expensive hunting trip he had planned because the distributors would not step up their game, even at the request of my company.Finally my company dropped that distributor and things got somewhat better. It's still suboptimal as a consumer, but it makes life easier for the manufacturer and makes money for the distributor.

Find someone you can deal directly with. You have an amazing pickup company in the UK, called Bare Knuckle. Have you inquired with them? They might be able to help you.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

JeffB said:
Find someone you can deal directly with. You have an amazing pickup company in the UK, called Bare Knuckle. Have you inquired with them? They might be able to help you.
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Do BK do custom stuff?? I thought about it, but didn't see anything regarding built-to-order designs.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

Yeah. I'm not sure. But they are close.

I'd look around at some other forums, do some research.


I know for example, the guy who built my t tops will actually go to the trouble of recreating the t on the bobbins utilizing a lot of elbow grease, time, chemical/plastics experience, and clever improv. There's even a video of him on YouTube going through the process. Wasn't necessary for me, but t here are folks who will the extra mile.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

This isn't my first CS project. It's my first since I've moved to the UK. Never had any problems before that, which is why I'm so frustrated.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

gabrielstreit said:
This isn't my first CS project. It's my first since I've moved to the UK. Never had any problems before that, which is why I'm so frustrated.
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Well he never said it was your first CS build... he said it's silly to bad mouth the custom shop when you're not even dealing with the custom shop. Which is true. It is silly to blame them when you're dealing with a distributor and a person who couldn't care less if you get the CS pickup you want... all that person wants to do is sell you a production pickup and then get you the hell off the phone so they can make another sale.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

gabrielstreit said:
Quick update: the dealer said he's talking with their UK distributor, which is in turn talking to the CS. So that might be the problem: the distributor.
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You nailed it.

SD's UK distributor is notoriously unhelpful.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

^ +1 to the distributor theory

Local distributors are a separate company more often than not. They want to make $$ the easiest way possible, especially as they are simply reselling and don't have to bother with product development or marketing. Their way of making 'the easiest' profit is to sell the product they have already in the country, as this takes the least time and they have already paid for it and its shipping.

As an example, Gibson is distributed by Gallins in Australia. They want to do exactly the same. They get in limited models in only the most popular or sale-worthy colours. If you want to order anything different to the limited options the bring into the country, they require full payment upfront and its an 18month wait......even if it was just a different colour of a popular guitar like a Trad or standard. These conditions are mainly to discourage buyers from going this route, as it requires them to do something other than get in the bare minimum.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

Hey folks. I just had a chat to Derek to see what's up and he asked me to pass this along:

Thanks for the feedback about customer service. We’ve been a few people short in customer service recently but have made three new hires in the last month that are all doing customer service in some way. And if you’re on Facebook, a post to the Wall is a good way to make enquiries too.

Sometimes if a description matches an existing pickup like the JB or Phat Cat pretty closely, we or a distributor will steer the customer in that direction instead of charging them double for something a production pickup would do. It’s possible you were suggested something production before your inquiry made it to the Custom Shop.

It isn’t unheard of to email us directly, work out the specs of a pickup and then email the dealer with the description of what they can use for the order. For instance, we’ve made several Quarter Pound humbuckers, most recently for Lahaina guitars last year. We could certainly do a Strat pickup under a Phat Cat cover as well. Sometimes the best way forward is to simply say “I want tone X in pickup size Z, with requirements 1,2,3” and leave the construction side of it to us.
 
What's going on with the Custom Shop?

So Derek is making excuses, passing the buck and suggesting that the customers use Facebook as make shift customer service...

Great!?

It's clearly worse than I thought there these days...

I hate that things are like this today. I used to deal with the CS all the time with no issues but the past few years it's all been in a huge downward spiral.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

Well, if business is really booming, maybe the other pickup makers will open there own "custom shops", but im not convinced that's the case. Their custom shop prices seem fairly low for a domestic made to order component. I can't imagine they're raking in the green.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

The reason we mention the Facebook as an alternative contact method is that it's monitored pretty much 24 hours a day.


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Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

In any event, it's not as though they're ignoring the forum pickup because they take issue with the design.
 
Re: What's going on with the Custom Shop?

I'd probably just buy the single coil pickup I wanted, a spare humbucker baseplate, and an empty pickup bobbin. Then cut off the mounting tabs from the single coil, glue it to the baseplate along with the extra bobbin, and be done with it. You might need to notch the bottom of the extra bobbin to clear the single coil's leads and maybe drill a new hole in the baseplate for the same, but it seems kinda straight forward.
 
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