One Question for FAS

Akstrat

Akstrat

Experienced
We all respect the work FAS has done on the AX8 and their right to make business-staffing decisions as best they see fit. That's THEIR BUSINESS! And, I for one, applaud the work they do!

I use to check the 'waitlist" three times a day, then once a day, every two days, and now I'm checking here about once a week. For me, its the not knowing part. I need to plan for shows and gigs coming up, financial issues so I have the money set aside......maybe buy a better monitor or a guitar. Maybe take a family vacation??

I would like to see ONE answer from FAS. Given the current waitlist numbers up till the end of November, let's assume that all on the waitlist buy the AX8, we (FAS) expect everyone on that list to receive an invite by....???...the end of Feb, end of May, next September?? Also, for all our friends in the EU, same thing.

Is that too much to ask??
 
FAS doesn't wanna indicate how many are selling and we respect this. But, them giving ETA's on waitlist days doesn't in any way indicate how many are being sold because only FAS knows how many are on the waiting list. It would help me too in my buying decisions in the coming weeks/months.
 
joesatch said:
i could tell you but I'd have to kill type information?
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I'm not a lawyer & I dont know the laws in the US. The management has a responsibility to stakeholders, employees and customers. Disclosing internal company information (such as production capacity) could be damaging to their business. Should the FAS business be damaged in any way, then customers would also suffer. Get it!
 
count_chocolat said:
This type of information cannot be made public.
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Of course it could be made public. It is just not FAS's style.
They could say something like: We expect to be at 5:20 at the end of January, and we will complete all October waitlisters by the end of February. Or they could even do it by weeks.

Since I am ordering thru g66 I could write to them, and they would tell me, which shipment, I am in, and roughly when they expect it.

None of this discloses anything about the total number of waitlisters or the production rate.

By now, I have learned to accept that FAS has a certain way of doing things. It is not how I would do it, but I accept it, sit back, and Wai for my invite.
 
I'm my LENGTHY (6+yrs) association with FAS, I have never known them to answer questions on new product rollouts, waitlists, estimated delivery dates and other such questions as posed by the OP.
Given that the lead time on a custom guitar or bass can be as much as 2 yrs - with no target date - the FAS rollouts have historically been failry fast.
It is what it is... they are NOT a large multi-national corp. that can ramp up production as needed.
 
again i would suggest that giving ETA's in no way reveals production numbers because nobody knows how many are on the waitlist
 
joesatch said:
again i would suggest that giving ETA's in no way reveals production numbers because nobody knows how many are on the waitlist
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ETA bite FAS in the butt. Were you on this forum in November and December when the people got restless because FAS said shipping 4th quarter and they had not shipped yet? They start shipping late 4th quarter and now the Internet wants new info. Ppl are just to demanding and too rude. Everything FAS does in good faith people trash. People suck
 
s0c9 said:
Given that the lead time on a custom guitar or bass can be as much as 2 yrs - with no target date - the FAS rollouts have historically been failry fast.
.
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I see this comparison fairly often pulled out on this forum, but, in my opinion that's totally wrong. We are talking about different product categories. When you said "custom", you just ruled out one of them
 
etzel said:
I see this comparison fairly often pulled out on this forum, but, in my opinion that's totally wrong. We are talking about different product categories. When you said "custom", you just ruled out one of them
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The whole point is plenty of guys wait as long as it takes and they have paid part or all of it up front. FAS is a small operation just like those guitar manufacturers, and can only do so many units at a time. FAS on the other hand has taken no money from any one and let's people get in line virtually until it is their turn to buy
 
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I get a kick at all the post's that state " I need to plan for upcoming gigs". If you are in a band and do not have the equipment to play now, waiting on a newly built just getting released product to complete your rig doesn't seem very good to me! Are ya'll waiting for the AX8 to begin playing gigs?
I am very excited about the AX8 but, I do not think posting such is going to make Fas feel sorry for us and get them out any quicker. I am not going to cancel any gig's waiting for it! I wont lose any sleep either!
 
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joesatch said:
again i would suggest that giving ETA's in no way reveals production numbers because nobody knows how many are on the waitlist
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I would suggest that FAS continue to do as they are doing and focus on what they are good at, designing and building great products. Not waste time building production forecasts for the internet.

Reminds me of a sales manager we had in a previous company I worked for. He was not satisfied with the sales results, nor was he with the monthly forecasts. His solution; demanded forecast every week...guess what, instead of getting bad news once a month, he now got it once a week. As you can guess, sales did not improve.
 
s0c9 said:
Given that the lead time on a custom guitar or bass can be as much as 2 yrs - with no target date - the FAS rollouts have historically been failry fast.
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Ok, I have to chime up on this. I don't see this as equivalent at all. It takes more time to put the finish on a guitar than it does to assemble, update firmware, burn in and ship a single FAS product. You can't compare the two processes at all, there are just no parallel. It's like saying it should only take 4 months to get a hamburger from a cow, because you can harvest lettuce that quickly. I wouldn't yet call this rollout "fast" or "slow" - we don't have enough information to guess. The Axe-Fx II rollout was not fast by any definition, though :p

However, I do agree that FAS keeps things close to the vest, and it's their prerogative to do so. It's how they want to run their business, and people still eat up their products as fast as they can be put out. If it was really an issue, people would vote with their wallets and buy something else. Yeah, it sucks waiting, especially when hints were dropped that things would start shipping in October (they didn't, not for waitlist) and that "plenty of units" were on hand (obviously not the case). If FAS were to post any kind of additional information on a timeline, there'd be serious backlash if it slipped at all. We are not privy to how these things are even really made, and where the issues are in the supply chain. We shouldn't have that information, either. Just be patient.

If anything, the longer delay should be helping, as you're effectively "spreading the payments out" (to yourself, while you wait) for the AX8 over a longer term.
 
brokenvail said:
The whole point is plenty of guys wait as long as it takes and they have paid part or all of it up front. FAS is a small operation just like those guitar manufacturers, and can only do so many units at a time. FAS on the other hand has taken no money from any one and let's people get in line virtually until it is their turn to buy
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Yeap, you are right an all points. I am not battleing their bussiness policy, that's their stuff, they work it around, just thought playing this "custom" card again and again was a poor comparison. The reason behind this was already presented by FAS. That is all
 
paranoid said:
I get a kick at all the post's that state " I need to plan for upcoming gigs". If you are in a band and do not have the equipment to play now, waiting on a newly built just getting released product to complete your rig doesn't seem very good to me! Are ya'll waiting for the AX8 to begin playing gigs?
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I was referring to Rotoshere I am contemplating buying. If you look back at my rig I posted, you will se a pict of my current board, not junk, just evolving. Buying more pedals, that hopefully, I won't need in the future would be not advisable. Others would include a trem pedal or a POG that I currently don't own.

Not looking for numbers or business sensitive accounting, just a better idea. I am new to the Fractal product, sorry I don't have the expertise some of you veterans do!
 
selta said:
It takes more time to put the finish on a guitar than it does to assemble, update firmware, burn in and ship a single FAS product.
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We don't know that. for all we know Cliff hand solders, assembles and tests each unit himself.

I'm sure FAS wants everyone to have an AX8 and is working hard to meet that goal.
 
etzel said:
just thought playing this "custom" card again and again was a poor comparison.
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It may well have been a poor choice of words on my part.. perhaps "boutique" would have been a better word.. idk.
My point was that FAS is a small shop with high demand for the product line.. if you want it, you're going to have to get in line.. No amount of wishing, hoping (or complaining - as some do) is going to change that.
 
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