Vik Guitars Discussion

[Edika]

I would say that it's not necessary a bad thing. If done right it might lead to Vik focusing on the custom orders he has right now, instead of doing limited runs and the rest of the gimmicks he has been doing. So the customers waiting two or three years might get their instruments finally.

 

[HighGain510]

Let's now get to more details.

1. Bigger: all of ViK Guitars USA products will be 100% US made by a well-known and long established US Custom Shop in a range that will be enough to cover the needs of the most eager customers and serving some decent stock for dedicated dealers in many places of the world. Wouldn't it be cool to check some of the ViK candy at your local dealership?

So does this mean when you go to the dealer, you can place a blind bid on the pseudo-auction for the guitar or will they actually get standard prices now...?

They state they will be more affordable, but if they're not being built by ViK himself, despite using US labor I sincerely hope they actually price accordingly as that was pretty much the allure of having a ViK before... dude builds a nice guitar. Now you're getting into the whole, "Is a Strandberg really a 'Strandberg' when it's not built by Ola himself?" deal, and prices should reflect that...

Lets just say that I have no intention of being a suspect if the info were to leak. What I can say is that there will be close to ten INSANE custom ViKs at NAMM, one of which will be the USA demo.

I think after NAMM he's gonna be kicking ass on custom stuff that doesn't make it to the show. You don't want your custom to be there on display being handled by people and potentially damaged anyways when your hopefully getting it not too far after anyways. I cant wait to see yours whenever you get it man

Actually I haven't looked at this thread for a while, I thought this was a bit humorous... he has a backlog of custom orders from last year (or longer, when was that first run?) but he has 10 guitars going to NAMM in a few weeks, one of which is the USA demo guitar and the other 9 are customs built by him.... yet none of those 9 are for the customers who have long-standing orders? That's one way to get your USA Distribution off to a good start I guess... outstanding orders with previous customers go by the wayside (yet again...? ) so you can move more pieces at a large venue. Not to keep picking at it, but again he's trying to move to another market and the business practices he's starting things out with are already not-so-great, probably should have delayed going to NAMM with a bunch of his new custom pieces when he's not building backlog customer guitars. Makes me rather glad I didn't drop a deposit way back when, honestly, as I have no tolerance for that kind of shit anymore.

 

[Edika]

Ι'm gonna go on complete speculation mode here only by things seen posted and actual situations occurred.

If he has been planning the USA line of guitars and a probable US custom shop then the 9 pieces plus 1 demo USA production would serve as an advertisement. He obviously tested the waters of how much people were willing to pay for a full on custom by him, he saw he couldn't meet the demand in a one person custom shop and thought of the revenue he could have for production guitars. By the hype created from his existing creations (not that his guitars are not amazing but I haven't even been to a close proximity to judge) and the huge markup people lusting over a Vik can have one that is USA made=excellent build quality (well not always but you get the idea) and can charge around $3000 as you would expect for a high end USA made guitar. It's not $5000 base price and would be a lot more available. Maybe they'll be less so the future custom USA shop will start at around $3500. In any case the demand is there, the product (while not Vik handmade) will be excellent and there won't be a need for someone to buy a copy.

I think one of the reasons he threw a fit for that copy was because he was in the works of this line so he either is planning to get copy rights of the shapes with the new factory, in the US at least or/and was trying to catch it before it became like the Blackmachine copies, where smaller custom companies would offer affordable copies (body shape at least) of high quality.

It seems he has diverted all his efforts to get this company started and expand and that is the man reason for the delay for the customs he hasn't finished. Hopefully he hasn't depleted all his funds otherwise this USA line must go well for the guitars to be finished (sheer speculation). Aside from the way he has behaved so far his products haven't suffered in quality so while some people will be appalled and not by his guitars, a lot more will follow the Blackmachine route hype and by an affordable and hopefully quality USA Vik production model.

 

[TemjinStrife]

They state they will be more affordable, but if they're not being built by ViK himself, despite using US labor I sincerely hope they actually price accordingly as that was pretty much the allure of having a ViK before... dude builds a nice guitar. Now you're getting into the whole, "Is a Strandberg really a 'Strandberg' when it's not built by Ola himself?" deal, and prices should reflect that...

Agreed. Strandberg sells a unique design, design philosophy, and hardware, and one that can be replicated by other builders.

ViK sells his own skills, primarily. There are a few pretty designs he has to offer, but many companies offer pretty designs. The allure there was the construction, attention to detail, and top-class woods. None of those are cheap to source anywhere, and if you really want a ViK guitar, then you're arguably not going to want one that's not made by him.

 

[kruneh]

USA is the new Korea.

 

[Negav]

I wonder if the production ones will be Strandberg-like or Carvin-like, set production models or choose-your-specs models.

 

[SamSam]

I do not think it will be possible (or legal) to obtain woods of the same quality as he uses on the customs. The Eastern European builders generally offer very high quality woods. This is probably due to lack of control like that exercised in the US, etc. If Vik moves to the US or opens a custom shop over there I highly doubt he will be able to offer the same quality raw materials he does now. And lets be frank, one of the primary appealing features of his guitars is the insane wood selection.

 

[narad]

I do not think it will be possible (or legal) to obtain woods of the same quality as he uses on the customs. The Eastern European builders generally offer very high quality woods. This is probably due to lack of control exercised in the US, etc. If Vik moves to the US or opens a custom shop over there I highly doubt he will be able to offer the same quality raw materials he does now.

Dude, this is so off. The US has an absolute stranglehold on high quality quilt and flame maple, along with figured redwood, redwood burl, buckeye burl. There's your tops. Everything else is imported from outside the EU anyway.

 

[SamSam]

Dude, this is so off. The US has an absolute stranglehold on high quality quilt and flame maple, along with figured redwood, redwood burl, buckeye burl. There's your tops. Everything else is imported from outside the EU anyway.

In that case I wish a few more builders would start using the bloody stuff!

 

[Watty]

I think one of the reasons he threw a fit for that copy was because he was in the works of this line so he either is planning to get copy rights of the shapes with the new factory, in the US at least or/and was trying to catch it before it became like the Blackmachine copies, where smaller custom companies would offer affordable copies (body shape at least) of high quality.

Based on how he handled the situation.....he threw a fit for throwing a fit's sake; no two shits about it. Doesn't matter if he had been looking to license in the states, the way he communicated with both the luthier and customers defending him (and I) was deplorable. And even if the BM thing was a factor, we've seen how little a company has to change the shape in order to skirt even the strictest of copyright laws here in the states. I mean is there really all that much difference between an ESP Eclipse, a Gibson LP, and a PRS SC? Yes, but not so much that you don't know EXACTLY where the "inspiration" came from and even that certainly hasn't stopped any number of private builders from making LP copy after LP copy after LP copy...

As to the rest of your post, I don't think there's anything wrong with him bringing 9 guitars to test the US waters so to speak; in fact, it's a great business move on his part.

BUT:

Bringing those 9 guitars, none of which are apparently helping to delve into his current waiting list, is perhaps the worst thing he could have done to guarantee business for his true customs. Perhaps after the wait list becoming what it is, cash flow being an issue with "runs" and issues with his personal handling of any number of things, he realized that his one-man-shop mantra was doomed to fail and so tried to get this plane in the air as quickly as he could to ensure there wasn't a whole lot of downtime from a financial standpoint while he switched gears...

 

[thrsher]

vik told he plans to have my guitar finished this weekend.....

 

[Lorcan Ward]

vik told he plans to have my guitar finished this weekend.....

Sweet! I'm dying to see how the fretboard turned out.

 

[narad]

vik told he plans to have my guitar finished this weekend.....

Bringing it to NAMM then?

 

[thrsher]

Bringing it to NAMM then?

i hope not. he did not ask me about any of that, but i do not want it there. i will be more pleased if i had seen a pic of the guitar ready for final assembly but we will see soon enough....

 

[Watty]

Here's hoping he keeps his word to you, shame that's reached this point regardless.

 

[capoeiraesp]

Bang! That's awesome news, Brandon.

 

[narad]

i will be more pleased if i had seen a pic of the guitar ready for final assembly but we will see soon enough....

Still waiting on my pics from Nov 14th, but glad to hear there's ermm...new promises!

 

[Lorcan Ward]

Lets get back on topic before the lock.

Revealing our NAMM show program: Adam Nolly Getgood will be presenting new 6 strings version of his Signature Duality model! Oh this is going to be awesome!

One on the left.

I can definitely see this being one of the USA production models.

 

[HighGain510]

Looks really nice! It's unfortunate that despite loving the design and wood choices that I can't/won't be buying one of these.

 

[Jlang]

sorry to derail the thread, but does this mean that Nolly has a signature Bass AND guitar coming out? Wow, I don't know If I have ever seen/heard that before.