Vik Guitars Discussion

[Simic]

This thread makes me sad. I have major gas for a ViK duality but all these stories keep me away from placing an order... And the two used ones for sale at the moment don't really appeal to me aesthetically :/

Edit: I did exchange a few emails with Vik and he was really friendly via email. I'm still gonna wait with placing an order until all this mess clears up tho.

 

[thrsher]

This thread makes me sad. I have major gas for a ViK duality but all these stories keep me away from placing an order... And the two used ones for sale at the moment don't really appeal to me aesthetically :/

Edit: I did exchange a few emails with Vik and he was really friendly via email. I'm still gonna wait with placing an order until all this mess clears up tho.

ordering a transcendence seems like a safe bet, but if you are debating a full custom, forget about it and go somewhere else

 

[Jonathan20022]

None of it seems like a safe bet it'll only be so once he's consistently delivered all of his backlog and new orders progress with accurate lead times.

 

[asher]

ordering a transcendence seems like a safe bet, but if you are debating a full custom, forget about it and go somewhere else

It does? I didn't think many if any of those had shipped either.

I'd love to be wrong though, I might totally not be remembering right.

 

[leonardo7]

It does? I didn't think many if any of those had shipped either.

I'd love to be wrong though, I might totally not be remembering right.

8 of them shipped in the last 10 months

 

[mphsc]

and there is one spot left I do believe

 

[thrsher]

only reason i say it is ordering a guitar with set specs takes away the personal element with dealing with vik and it seems more interested in banging out those builds then customs

 

[asher]

I didn't realize, that is good to hear

 

[asfeir]

He just posted a Nice picture of a quilt Maple That Is enough for two transcendance.. Im on That run and i ordered quilt Maple So heres hoping I her That or something just as Nice !

 

[Simic]

and there is one spot left I do believe

How does the transcendence thing work? There are 10 spots and once they are taken you can no longer get in? That's what I understood from what I've read here and on the ViK forum but I emailed him and he said that the Transcendence isn't a run but a seperate waiting list.. So by that logic how can there only be one spot left? And if that one spot is taken that means you can't get on the waiting list anymore? I'm confused

 

[StevenC]

How does the transcendence thing work? There are 10 spots and once they are taken you can no longer get in? That's what I understood from what I've read here and on the ViK forum but I emailed him and he said that the Transcendence isn't a run but a seperate waiting list.. So by that logic how can there only be one spot left? And if that one spot is taken that means you can't get on the waiting list anymore? I'm confused

Trying to figure out the rhyme and reason behind how Vik operates isn't a worthwhile usage of your time.

 

[narad]

Trying to figure out the rhyme and reason behind how Vik operates isn't a worthwhile usage of your time.

^^ Also this guy broke my ViK. Not sure if you can trust him on the topic of ViK guitars.

 

[Watty]

There is a lot that can be said about the matter of friendship. Vik is, as many know, my friend. Being a friend doesn't mean that I am bound to agree with his every position or attitude and viceversa in some sort of shill circle jerk, and when asked for my opinion, it is what makes it there. I don't expect him to agree with it or act on it, yet it is what it is.

Does being his friend mean that you automatically agree with him on everything? No, of course not. On paper, my closest friends aren't really like me at all and we routinely have long philosophical debates on high-profile issues where we don't agree.

Does being his friend mean you should call him out on his bullshit homophobia whenever it rears its baseless head? I should hope that's a completely obvious and resounding "YES." I won't read back through the entire thread, but I would assume you've done this and/or distanced yourself from these remarks on his part (as you've done here), which is, of course, admirable and expected. But at what point do you say 'enough is enough?' Vik's made bumble after bumble by spouting those opinions in a public fashion and I don't know how someone could keep coming back to the table as a friend when the issues on it revolve around sexism and homophobia (regardless of what might get lost in second language translation). If my friends started to do that, they wouldn't remain my friend for long, despite any other positive things they might have "going for them."

There are things that are blown out of proportion and perspective around here, while others stems from things that are quite objectively wrong and their consequent disappointment is legitimate. Homophobic / sexist discourse is appalling, yet that isn't the crux of what is actually going south with the operation towards its client base - it's the misleading wait times and the odd unprofessional retort I've seen mentioned here that's objectively not good, and the reason a few people are rightfully concerned. The former is something wrong on a personal level that shouldn't ever become the wrong on a company level (why he insists on doing this is absolutely beyond me), the latter is a very, very slippery slope that, if not corrected, can easily become the stuff of disaster like Sherman before him.

I don't know quite what you think has been blown out of proportion or perspective, so perhaps you could elaborate on what you were thinking there. As to the rest of this paragraph, seems you're firmly in agreement with everyone else here in terms of being concerned about how Vik conducts his business. I'd ask if Vik considers you a friend in light of that vocal concern, but I wouldn't expect an answer.

Ultimately, it just seems a little bit like you're trying to have it both ways. You're free to call yourself a friend, but it seems like that's likely in name only at this point.

 

[StevenC]

^^ Also this guy broke my ViK. Not sure if you can trust him on the topic of ViK guitars.

Your Vik fell apart when I picked it up!

 

[narad]

Your Vik fell apart when I picked it up!

Don't let StevenC play your guitars - when he left my Vik was in three pieces.



(But I'll get those knobs back on some day)

 

[StevenC]

Don't let StevenC play your guitars - when he left my Vik was in three pieces.



(But I'll get those knobs back on some day)

Hey! It was only the tone knob!

 

[TIBrent]

How does the transcendence thing work? There are 10 spots and once they are taken you can no longer get in? That's what I understood from what I've read here and on the ViK forum but I emailed him and he said that the Transcendence isn't a run but a seperate waiting list.. So by that logic how can there only be one spot left? And if that one spot is taken that means you can't get on the waiting list anymore? I'm confused

Ok enough thread derailing...so how it seems to work is that he tends to get a lot of orders for similar builds & his goal is to get into some form of production based guitars soon enough here. So a run like the 8FF run or the Transcendence run is his way of making a much more fixed price, common specs run of guitars. Which means not having to jump from different models for awhile. He can focus specifically on the duality for a few months, or a saviour & so on...anyhow you got all that.
So the transcendence is when you break it right down, a run...but it isn't a one time thing, meaning there will be more of these specific style run cycles in the future (where as the 8FF run may be a one time thing for the foreseen future)...just for the time being you can get in this batch of ten that he is doing at once. That is basically the only option as his custom shop is closed at the moment while he finishes all the existing orders. He was very specific on that part to me, no more custom shop until all existing are complete, then I will re open it. But in the meantime, he will do small runs here & there for those dying to get in on what he feels like is the best overall specs of that specific build/or the ones that are most popular.
Hope that helps bud.

 

[Hollowway]

I've never even heard of the transcendence run. When did that start? I'm gonna have to google it.

Edit: just looked it up. It looks like this run is another Duality run. Anyone know why he didn't just finish up the current outstanding orders and start this run at the end of those? I'm sure he wanted the money, but why not just tell people it would be a 2 year build time. If he's already shipped 8 of the 10 in the last few months I'd think those customers could have waited. I just don't get why he keeps pushing those original runs farther and farther into the future. It's just hurting his business more.

 

[Jonathan20022]

^ I'm pretty sure it's just a renamed model, since Nolly dipped those guitars were the run of Nolly signature guitars. He renamed it to the Transcendence Model/Run.

 

[thrsher]

it was the nolly run, which he completed mid to late 2014 and then he kept taking orders for that model and keeps it on a separate list since its set specs/kind of a production model guitar for him