Too high demand for FAS products?

Gonwild

Gonwild

Inspired
I'm a new (hopefully soon to be) FAS user. Like many here, I'm eager to recieve my AX8 invite. How things are looking(atleast for us in Europe), the ones who didnt join the waitlist in the first few days, aren't likely to receive their units in many many months. (I signed up nov 6). Tell me, is this normal Fractal procedure? Have they always been struggling to keep up with demand for their products? A friend who bought and Axe-fx about a year ago, was on a G66 waitinglist for 6 months. And that was long after its release. Just curious...
 
[QUOTE="...Tell me, is this normal Fractal procedure? Have they always been struggling to keep up with demand for their products? A friend who bought and Axe-fx about a year ago, was on a G66 waitinglist for 6 months. And that was long after its release. Just curious...[/QUOTE]

It's always like this. When I ordered the Standard, or the MIDI foot switch, or the Axe 2. It'll shine when it shines, etc...
 
Fas has always been a small company. Just a small group of people only able to ship a few Units a day. There is a pic floating around of stacks of AX8. That seems to be the most prepared they have ever been. Problem is even if they have 300 units instock if they are only able to process say 10 a day 5 days a week minus holiday vacation it will still take a long time to get all 300 shipped. We all just need a I pray that the stock they had was huge. As long as that stock was huge he have hope. The chassis is made over seas then come to them on a cargo ship and must make it through customs blah blah blab before they get it. Then the need to assemble them. There have been many times that things like Mfc 101 go out of stock for extended period of time it is due to things like delays in getting the chassis
 
I remember when companies like PRS had almost 2 year waiting period to get a guitar and they would take part of your money up front. As much as everyone would love to give FAS their cash to ensure they get their unit FAS is cool enough to say no we will just put you on a list when it is your turn we will let you know
 
brokenvail said:
I remember when companies like PRS had almost 2 year waiting period to get a guitar and they would take part of your money up front. As much as everyone would love to give FAS their cash to ensure they get their unit FAS is cool enough to say no we will just put you on a list when it is your turn we will let you know
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True story.
 
I think keeping it in a small company, rather than a large manufacturing line, may inherently have long distribution times, but leads to unparalleled quality, support, and response time. Where else can you get answers about a product from the guys that actually designed it? Where else can you actually give input to a company where they listen? (we all pushed for that Engl Savage amp for a while) Also, where else do you get the main designers that are also players? I think if they were to outsource a lot of this, we would miss some of the "magic" that we are paying for.

I think this serendipity is what leads us to such a quality product. I've never really seen a guitar gear company run this way.
 
Well a Ferrari 430 Scuderia takes about 24 months wait ....... and I couldn't possibly think of getting on the list for an AX8 until I had something decent to transport it to our backstreet bar gigs now could I? :D
 
While nobody likes to wait for anything, I will wait as long as it takes for my name to be called off of the AX8 list! :eek:

I'm in love w/ Fractal as a company, it's products (Axe Fx ii XL+), support & amp modeling quality.

I still think that these guys are doing everything in their power to get these units out as fast as they can build & test them.

Being a smaller company is why we have direct access to Cliff, Matt & Mark Day on a daily basis.

I do feel your waiting pains & wish I had a time machine for ya my brother! :)

Happy Friday! X
 
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I know people that have waited 3 years for a Fender Custom Shop guitar. Personally, I've waited over a year for custom guitar to get delivered. It was worth it as it's the best guitar I've ever had in my hands.
 
dkenin said:
I think keeping it in a small company, rather than a large manufacturing line, may inherently have long distribution times, but leads to unparalleled quality, support, and response time. Where else can you get answers about a product from the guys that actually designed it? Where else can you actually give input to a company where they listen? (we all pushed for that Engl Savage amp for a while) Also, where else do you get the main designers that are also players? I think if they were to outsource a lot of this, we would miss some of the "magic" that we are paying for.

I think this serendipity is what leads us to such a quality product. I've never really seen a guitar gear company run this way.
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THIS ^^^^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
X-Mann said:
While nobody likes to wait for anything, I will wait as long as it takes for my name to be called off of the AX8 list! :eek:

I'm in love w/ Fractal as a company, it's products (Axe Fx ii XL+), support & amp modeling quality.

I still think that these guys are doing everything in their power to get these units out as fast as they can build & test them.

Being a smaller company is why we have access to Cliff, Matt & Mark Day.

I do feel your waiting pains & wish I had a time machine for ya my brother! :)

Happy Friday! X
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Totally agree. The "typical American" in me is disappointed and frustrated from time to time, but I only have to play my existing rig and realize that it's the sound I'm looking to emulate with the AX8. So, while I'm anxious to reduce my baggage to a much smaller yet more powerful size/weight, I have to keep telling myself that I CAN wait, and that there's nothing I can do about it so I just need to settle down. Thanks for listening to my inner dialogue...

Re: smaller companies...I was a big fan of THD amps about ten years ago and that was a similar situation, 'though a simpler product and much less demand. Still it was really cool to talk to the designer and to find that he incorporated our wish list into subsequent designs after the initial Univalve amp. I hadn't found that situation again until now...
 
brokenvail said:
I remember when companies like PRS had almost 2 year waiting period to get a guitar and they would take part of your money up front. As much as everyone would love to give FAS their cash to ensure they get their unit FAS is cool enough to say no we will just put you on a list when it is your turn we will let you know
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Yeah, back when Boogie didn't have distributors it was a six month wait (after posting a cash deposit!) for my first new Boogie, but it was a wonderful company to work with. FAS is like Boogie was then, and I personally hope they have tremendous success that lets them stay that way!
 
dkenin said:
Where else can you get answers about a product from the guys that actually designed it? Where else can you actually give input to a company where they listen? (we all pushed for that Engl Savage amp for a while) Also, where else do you get the main designers that are also players? [..] I think this serendipity is what leads us to such a quality product. I've never really seen a guitar gear company run this way.
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The other day I called Quilter to ask a technical "load" question. The secretary put me on hold and Pat answered. We had a great little tech discussion.

Same thing with Jet City. Doug is super accessible. The last time I called him (probably over a year ago now) I think he answered in the car on the way home and we talked about circuit trace run modifications in the JCA50 and his next factory trip.

Hopefully FAS will get past this stage. They're called growing PAINS for a reason. ;)
 
To the OP yes it is normal for FAS to do this, I waited for almost a year for my Ultra. Small co with super high demand product is a nice problem to have.

On the other hand FAS has been around long enough now to hopefully have expanded enough to be able to cut down the wait time on a new product release. With the wait list on the board most of us should be able to get an idea as to how much faster and I'm using that word loosely as it's not an accurate list it has become.
 
I think they are shipping more product faster, but we're not talking about the Fractal Audio of 2007 anymore. They were a one trick pony then (with an admittedly awesome trick!) and have now expanded to multiple items and platforms. Add to that they aren't selling hundreds anymore, but thousands, and it becomes obvious they've actually ramped up output capabilities quite a bit over the years. It's just that the demand has ramped up equally. Like Sixstring says... a nice problem to have.
 
I know the google spreadsheet is just a sampling, but it does illustrate the rate at which FAS is working through the back log, and it's disappointing that the rate has been this slow. It's hard to understand why FAS would design a product at a price point to attract the masses, and not be better prepared to deal with high demand. If their plan was to stay small, I think they should have charged more for it.
 
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