Vik Guitars Discussion

[Thorerges]

I was about the order that Savior haha - spoke with the admin of the guitarporn page and my interest in Vik guitars has diminished considerably.

My guess is there will be a lot to expect from Vik USA. I am really hoping for a duality model of around $2500-$3500, though that might be asking too much.

 

[Thorerges]

It sounds like he should really hire some help over in Belarus. With the cost of living over there he could probably hire several craftsmen with what he charges for guitars now, who could do all the easy work on the guitars with his supervision and he can concentrate on the more important things.

I still wonder who the US luthier is in California. Jackson/Fender maybe?

I believe he might be moving to the US.

 

[Animus]

I believe he might be moving to the US.

aaah Interesting.

 

[thrsher]

This could go either way, remember Keith Merrow's Lotus? That took goddamn forever, if he screws a high profile artist with a ridiculous wait time or a shoddy build, he's done. Conversely, he could just keep doing what he's doing as of right now. Musikmesse is right around the corner isn't it? He should price his stuff in this range if this is the service he's providing.

keith merrow ordered his guitar a month after me and has had that guitar for at least 6 months now. building him that guitar did nothing for his business either that i can tell also dont know what kind of deal they had worked out, for all we know, keith paid normal price but we will never know. maybe vik just wants to build for artist and when he needs money, builds a guitar and sells to the public.

 

[patata]

Just in case anyone missed it. ViK Guitars are the absolute BEST guitars Ive ever played and probably the best out there. They are absolutely AMAZING guitars. Get it straight!

fvck you should be a gear demo'er or something.

 

[Thorerges]

keith merrow ordered his guitar a month after me and has had that guitar for at least 6 months now. building him that guitar did nothing for his business either that i can tell also dont know what kind of deal they had worked out, for all we know, keith paid normal price but we will never know. maybe vik just wants to build for artist and when he needs money, builds a guitar and sells to the public.

Tells me all I need to know! Mehtab was not so fond of his situation either.

Of course Keith Merrow is someone who can give Vik more exposure, it is kind of ridiculous how he runs his shop. I still hope to own one, but the $5.5k I wanted to spend can go to another company.

 

[absolutorigin]

Guess I got a bit off track, just to say that I agree it's a matter of personal taste, and that by raising his prices so much he's put himself in the rung of other builders who have a long established reputation for building flawless instruments. What's the ViK USA motto? "Experience the Perfection" or something like that? There's a lot of brands that can deliver perfection at $5-7k, not to mention that a glue-y neck joint is not it!

This whole situation just seems a little disheartening. as the man can build a pretty sweet guitar. Unfortunately, his business decisions are highly questionable. The mistakes on the Redwood Duality were a bit unfortunate. I wasn't expecting "perfection" I can be very nit-picky with that word, and I have only seen very few that are "perfect." But this being his first NAMM show, I did expect a little more. I highly doubt he's going to make the Jan 15 ETA he gave me .

Tells me all I need to know! Mehtab was not so fond of his situation either.

Of course Keith Merrow is someone who can give Vik more exposure, it is kind of ridiculous how he runs his shop. I still hope to own one, but the $5.5k I wanted to spend can go to another company.

It sucks, but he's not the first person/company to do this. Look at Jackson, while customers are waiting 2+ years for a guitar and Misha gets about 4-5 in the same or less time span.

 

[AxeHappy]

It's incredibly common in all forms of business. *shrug*

It's not right, but it is super common.

 

[Thorerges]

This whole situation just seems a little disheartening. as the man can build a pretty sweet guitar. Unfortunately, his business decisions are highly questionable. The mistakes on the Redwood Duality were a bit unfortunate. I wasn't expecting "perfection" I can be very nit-picky with that word, and I have only seen very few that are "perfect." But this being his first NAMM show, I did expect a little more. I highly doubt he's going to make the Jan 15 ETA he gave me .



It sucks, but he's not the first person/company to do this. Look at Jackson, while customers are waiting 2+ years for a guitar and Misha gets about 4-5 in the same or less time span.

Thats understandable in some sense at least, because I think Jackson has more than one luthier (haha). I am quite certain their top luthiers are building Misha his customs, while non-artists are getting theirs made by the others. I am fairly certain.

Jackson is different to Vik. For $7000 I can get the most insane Jackson custom, insane graphics and enormous amounts of work, not to mention - their business foundation is sound because they're selling thousands of guitars a year. Vik cannot make that much money off Misha, Wes Hauch and other artists - he needs his customers.

I would gladly buy one off Vik USA, but if he has any hope of making a production line - he has to get the basics together. Also, I am pretty sure he's smart enough to have big plans to turn Vik into a renowned guitar company, we'll see how it happens.

 

[TIBrent]

Mehtab was not so fond of his situation either.

Dude, don't bring that guy up in this thread. He is a used car salesman, buying nice stuff up keeping it for a week, gets off on watching people oogle over it, then turns around & sells it for over twice what he paid for it initially.
Case in point, I said back in Decemeber when announced he was selling off the vik to get a blackmachine 'INB4 gets blackmachine & sells it for 2 times what he paid', he quickly countered with no way, I have wanted this guitar for years, never gunna happen...& he it is one month later, guitar on sale on ebay for over $18,000...
so don't bring that joker up about anything, he has no place in the realm of fine guitars, his place is on the used car lot offering folks less than what their current car is worth & then turning around & selling the same car back to the public double that the next day.
(not raging the guy, this is not an opinion of him personally (I am sure he is a fine guy personally), this is only professionally speaking)

 

[Thorerges]

So? He does keep a few of his parker models, if I remember correctly.

 

[elq]

I found another picture of my guitar from NAMM...

using my amazing image forensic skills I was able to recover this message from Vik on the paper attached to my guitar

 

[thrsher]

so he took it back home? you have no clue?

 

[elq]

I have no clue. I've emailed him twice since Friday. No reply.

Yesterday Alain says the redwood guitar shipped on Monday and that he assumed mine would ship then too... I haven't heard a peep.

It's time to send him an email informing him that I want to sell my FF8 run spot. This is getting a bit annoying.

 

[thrsher]

 

[AxeHappy]

Dude, don't bring that guy up in this thread. He is a used car salesman, buying nice stuff up keeping it for a week, gets off on watching people oogle over it, then turns around & sells it for over twice what he paid for it initially.
Case in point, I said back in Decemeber when announced he was selling off the vik to get a blackmachine 'INB4 gets blackmachine & sells it for 2 times what he paid', he quickly countered with no way, I have wanted this guitar for years, never gunna happen...& he it is one month later, guitar on sale on ebay for over $18,000...
so don't bring that joker up about anything, he has no place in the realm of fine guitars, his place is on the used car lot offering folks less than what their current car is worth & then turning around & selling the same car back to the public double that the next day.
(not raging the guy, this is not an opinion of him personally (I am sure he is a fine guy personally), this is only professionally speaking)

Are you ....ing serious? He has made the quality of ViKs clears after selling his off, and only offered his black machince up for trade after finding the B7, that he made it clear he would only sell when he found his B7.

Will he hype up a guitar he is trying to sell? Sure. but if you message him privately you can get the complete story. and he has.done this.for me knowing full well I wasn't going to buy anything he had for sell ngage was a sleezy salesmen. Methlab just likes dealing in ultra.high end guitars

For the rerecordr

 

[Watty]

Also, regardless of the demand for his guitars - most people could not afford a $5k build - don't let the facebook posts fool you.

SOOOOOOOO MUCH THIS.

@ Axe - TIBrent had it pretty much right on the money. Regardless of the "I want to sell the Vik to get a BM and then want to sell the BM for a different BM" situation, he likes the attention he receives from having purchased the guitars in the first place. Not to say that no one else can appreciate having people slobber over a nice custom or rare axe, but the way he chooses to do so is a bit underhanded, if not only because it occurs with such regularity.

 

[AxeHappy]

Dude, don't bring that guy up in this thread. He is a used car salesman, buying nice stuff up keeping it for a week, gets off on watching people oogle over it, then turns around & sells it for over twice what he paid for it initially.
Case in point, I said back in Decemeber when announced he was selling off the vik to get a blackmachine 'INB4 gets blackmachine & sells it for 2 times what he paid', he quickly countered with no way, I have wanted this guitar for years, never gunna happen...& he it is one month later, guitar on sale on ebay for over $18,000...
so don't bring that joker up about anything, he has no place in the realm of fine guitars, his place is on the used car lot offering folks less than what their current car is worth & then turning around & selling the same car back to the public double that the next day.
(not raging the guy, this is not an opinion of him personally (I am sure he is a fine guy personally), this is only professionally speaking)

Are you ....ing serious? He has made the quality of ViKs clears after selling his off, and only offered his black machince up for trade after finding the B7, that he made it clear he would only sell when he found his B7.

Will he hype up a guitar he is trying to sell? Sure. but if you message him privately you can get the complete story. and he has.done this.for me knowing full well I wasn't going to buy anything he had for sell ngage was a sleezy salesmen. Methlab just likes dealing in ultra.high end guitars

For the rerecordrerecord:

1- hhehe hhahashas rraratratwratwdratwdnratwdn bblblablacblablbbVbVibVikbVik aatatnatn#atn#2atn#2/3 sshsheshensheshenshenoshenotshenot.ttrtrytryitryintryingtryingttryingtotryingto sseselsellsell tththethenthennthem

 

[AxeHappy]

Mobile is.bullshit.

Bascally Mrthlab hypes the quality of ViKs when having having none.to sell. recommends Myka for same quality but less business.bullshit.

 

[Watty]

Mobile is.bullshit.

Bascally Mrthlab hypes the quality of ViKs when having having none.to sell. recommends Myka for same quality but less business.bullshit.

Well, always good business to hype what you don't own so that when you do, you can say you were in the know all along.

And I think he has a build in with Myka, so of course he'll talk him up. From personal experience, I can say that Myka exhibited some mild Vikness (hardy hard har) in a professional capacity that I didn't appreciate. But I suppose that's neither here nor there.