ViK Duality 7 QM

[jahosy]

If I were to have an interaction with Rob like this -






And then proceeded to build a bunch of in-stock guitars, I'd be as pissed at Rob as I am at Vik.

Wow. Just WOW.

Love their work and all .... but there's absolutely zero integrity if that's what he did.

Sounds all so familar. Young, talented musician / actor / sportsperson (fill in the blanks) attained overnight success and abandon those people who got him there. Such a pity.

 

[JP Universe]

I took some pics but didnt like em and then said .... it. Its a funny guitar to capture because of the carves/angles and the natural color. I will try again. Believe me I know that if I dont then your gonna continue to bring it up

Im on it ASAP

This is like the 3rd time you've said that you'll post the pics up....

Don't pull a Vik on me!! (sorry I couldn't resist)

 

[MikeH]

Forgive my ignorance, but why does it matter that the wood was air-dried for 8 years? Does that make it more stable than drying it conventionally, or are people just amazed that he held on to it for 8 years and then put it on a guitar?

 

[oracles]

I don't care how great his guitars are, with a business ethic and attitude like his, he'll never see a cent from me.

 

[technomancer]

So specs were locked down, a price was decided upon, and a deposit was placed, then the price went up? I doubt it

For the record, Daemoness has put up his in-stocks for auction as well. The fanned 8 string was sold this way. Didnt Strandberg also do that with that red Boden? It happens.

If your OK with in-stocks to begin with then you have to be OK with selling them to the highest offer don't you?

I dont want to come across as the guy who is defending Vik and his ways, I really dont know or want to be involved, I just really like my Vik guitar

A deposit was placed for a guitar and the base prices for orders was $3k. The guy does not have the guitar and he was told the base price is now $5k. Want to dispute it? Ask the guy that posted it and is trying to sell the build spot, I'm just repeating what was said.

Also thanks for telling me what I have to be ok with. I certainly do not have to be ok with a blind auction of completed guitars, and in fact I'm not. As I said it opens up the door for all kinds of shady shit to go on and further opens the door for the really shady guitar flippers to massively inflate prices. I'm not accusing anybody of anything, just saying it is entirely possible when doing business like that.

I honestly have no problem with Vik's builds, they look great and I've talked to people whose judgement I trust that have said they're really nice playing guitars. I just have no interest in doing business with the guy

 

[Danukenator]

Forgive my ignorance, but why does it matter that the wood was air-dried for 8 years? Does that make it more stable than drying it conventionally, or are people just amazed that he held on to it for 8 years and then put it on a guitar?

In a nut shell, wood that has dried has had the resins in it crystallize. This is why acoustic builders prefer older woods and especially violin builders. Ignoring the debate on tone wood, air dried wood has been said to have a superior tone to kiln dried.

I'm getting this form a local acoustic guitar building company with an insanely talented luthier as the head of the company.

 

[Eclipse]

Such class.

 

[Watty]

Forgive my ignorance, but why does it matter that the wood was air-dried for 8 years? Does that make it more stable than drying it conventionally, or are people just amazed that he held on to it for 8 years and then put it on a guitar?

See D's response for the reason why it's better than not letting the wood season. However, the way Vik phrased it was hyping the fact that he has been sitting on it for that long....so, it is sort of silly.

"Hey guys, I did what a proper luthier should always try to do on an instrument for which I'm charging this amount, LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

 

[capoeiraesp]

A deposit was placed for a guitar and the base prices for orders was $3k. The guy does not have the guitar and he was told the base price is now $5k. Want to dispute it? Ask the guy that posted it and is trying to sell the build spot, I'm just repeating what was said.

Also thanks for telling me what I have to be ok with. I certainly do not have to be ok with a blind auction of completed guitars, and in fact I'm not. As I said it opens up the door for all kinds of shady shit to go on and further opens the door for the really shady guitar flippers to massively inflate prices. I'm not accusing anybody of anything, just saying it is entirely possible when doing business like that.
:

Shady guitar flippers? Never!

 

[capoeiraesp]

and then this comes along.

Vik Saviour 7FF | eBay

 

[s4tch]

Oh my.

 

[HighGain510]

and then this comes along.

Vik Saviour 7FF | eBay

This is part of why I'm glad Stealth and Engage performed enough shady business and bullshit on here to get the boot. That type of flipping is exactly what I (and many others here) absolutely cannot stand. Douche plans the run, waits for the backlog to kick up, prices go up a bit and he tries to ask 2x the price of the NEW, more expensive pricing (keeping in mind he got in back when it was still like $4K or less too, correct?)?! .... off, seriously. He actually sent me a message once asking why I was so against flipping the way they do... you've added ZERO value to the guitar since you picked it up, and you try to flip it usually weeks (days? sometimes BEFORE you even received it?!) within receipt of the guitar to people who either REALLY wanted one and missed out or are too stupid to realize they're over-paying (90% of the cases, as far as I can tell, sadly... ) and you see ZERO issue with taking them for a ride? Nope, just... nope. I also love that with the constant complaints about his medical issue, which if valid definitely sucks, causing him to not be able to play ANYTHING seems to have zero bearing on him continuing to grab up pieces, mark them up and attempt to flip them for 2x+ what he paid for them. The thing that is the most annoying is that folks are suckered in and PAY IT?! Lots of ignorant consumers out there these days, and it's rather unfortunate because by not doing your homework, you're basically paying the idiot tax.

Until people stop paying their ridiculously marked-up prices, the cycle will continue and those idiots will keep making money off of folks who either don't care if they've over-spending a ton for something that's likely not worth their asking price or they're just ignorant of market pricing on the item they're trying to buy. I'm sure some folks are going to go straight to, "But... but... they're just using eBay for advertising! They don't REALLY expect to get that, they just want offers!" which is still a cop-out as that's against eBay terms of service, not to mention still being a pretty scummy thing to do in the first place. They're no better than the back-room builders running all these pseudo auctions behind the scenes, IMO.

 

[Walterson]

and then this comes along.

Vik Saviour 7FF | eBay

Maybe he likes this one more:

Vik Guitars Caprice T Owned by Jeff Kollman Very RARE 3 Year Wait | eBay

(which he bought a month ago, for a little less than 10.000$)

 

[Rook]

I also love that with the constant complaints about his medical issue, which if valid definitely sucks, causing him to not be able to play ANYTHING seems to have zero bearing on him continuing to grab up pieces, mark them up and attempt to flip them for 2x+ what he paid for them.

He did have nerve damage, he still can't play at all sometimes and is flat on his back, but it's getting better.

Sorry, I'll shut up again now

 

[theo]

He does legitimately have nerve damage.
As for the vik, it's either pay a higher price or wait for around 4 years for your turn in line.

 

[skeels]

It makes my greedy - read, destitute - side want to build some cheap knock offs and spin em for cash.

But truthfully that design just doesn't do much for me.

Ot, I watched Adam Gravett from Aura Guitars take my money and my guitar and patiently watched him build some stuff for other people and then he ended up just burning me.

Got no love.

 

[Rook]

Ok I'm back, sorry.

My experience with Vik sucked. I signed up for a spot, gave rough spec, he kinda beats around giving me a price (says about $3500) and disappears. No comments on spec, just accepts that I've submitted some.
6 Months later 'NEW POLICY, YOU SEND MONEY NOW'
"but vik, you haven't formally quoted me yet"...
We go through the spec'ing process, I ask for things like fanned frets and I asked for 27 frets too 'no, fanned frets will be too much, no I don't do 27 frets, no I won't do a longer scale than 27", I think a koa top will cost too much, have maple instead"
Right, funny that because my good buddy tom has a fanned 9 that's like 29" on the lowest string from you, isn't that weird?
I settle and say 'ok, 27" straight fret 8, whatever, I don't care about fanned frets that much" (and I don't) I pay him $700 and apparently I'm now 14 months timeline guaranteed.

HE STILL HASN'T GIVEN ME A FINAL NUMBER (yeah I know, I'm an idiot)

6 Months later (bearing in mind my guitar's now due in 8 months) he hasn't answered spec questions, I email him saying I wanna get it nailed, apparently I'm looking at $4800 even though I can't have koa, fan, whatever'

Yeah ok, I'm out. Everyone I know at this point is apparently in contact with Vik and he's a great guy, not gunna name names but for some reason I know a load of Vik customers and they all love him. I sell my slot, to someone who seems to be on good terms with the guy and has the slot immediately after mine (hey Lorcan), I figure I'd rather have my money somewhere else and I've got other things I want to do with my life.

It's now (now now, sorry, I keep using confusing timing references) been 20 months since I signed up and 14 since I was 'timeline guaranteed' and as far as I know the build hasn't even started, I'd have to double check with lorcy lorcy though.

I don't buy into this auctiony poo, I don't buy into this 'I'm a super duper guitar builder so I can treat you like crap' mentality, and no disrespect to Tom (W), his guitar is bloody great and very original, perfectly well built, but I think a lot of what I liked about Tom's guitar was a direct result of Tom's design and it was Vik's build and his willingness to go along with that that I was quite attracted to in all honesty. I can live without one though.

I have to say also, someone mentioned Ola and the B-Stock berg. That wasn't an auction type listing, it was a 'is there actually anyone interested, if so give me an idea what this is worth' thing, when he already had a number in mind. I email'd him with interest, not a bid, asking what he wanted for it and he said 'I was thinking about $2800 and people seem to be telling me that's reasonable' and I could have wired him the money there and then and it'd have been done.

Every single email I've sent to Ola has gotten a reply, every stupid idea I come up with for my build gets a response and he never says 'no', only ever 'I like the idea, it might work better if we do [x] instead of [y] because of [z]'. I don't know about other people's experiences of the man, but I've had a lot to do with him compared to the average wait-lister the last year or so (because of number 6 and so on) and he's only ever been good, I feel like he's grateful for my business and he wants to deliver the best guitar for me.

/mini rant

I apologise if I used any hyperbolic language there, I got quite annoyed half way through writing my mini Vik rant. He could be great, I have no idea, my perhaps isolated experience of him has made me quite bitter about the guy and all the stuff I see him doing and watching his prioritising and workflow just annoys me straight up - it doesn't surprise me to see the people who fall right of Vik bigging him up, it looks from here like he treats them very well.

Sorry I've started ranting again.

 

[Winspear]

Ok I'm back, sorry.

I got in at a good time and got lucky I guess. What's going on sucks and I can't really disagree with anything said in this thread. I do feel bad for convincing at least two people to get involved in this mess. Things have changed and I don't see my next build slot finishing up for a very good while - but as somebody else said similarly - I'm sure it will be done eventually, I'm in no rush, and really can't imagine the guitar in mind being anything but a ViK, for me.
I really hope things start tidying up soon!

 

[Rook]

Reasonable Winspear rides again

 

[ramses]

and then this comes along.

Vik Saviour 7FF | eBay

That guitar was finished this week. I wonder how Vik feels about this? Maybe that's why he is doing his own auctions.