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Introducing Shishkov Guitars, USA


cmatthes

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I saw the initial post 20 mins after it was posted, then proceeded to pace around for the next hour trying to determine if I should buy in or not. Bottom line, timing just wasnt there for me in regards to wanting/needing another guitar. Probably a bad decision but one I had to make :(

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Got in too late. Hoped Mike would up the offer to 25. Didn't hear anything back.

I'd question a marketing strategy that immediately shuts out the majority from the initial offering. But what do I know.

On the contrary, if I perceive the purpose of the initial offering correctly, it is a strategy to get buzz going on the new company.

We're 11 pages in with overflow onto the Seymour Duncan forum (and possibly others). I'd say it did exactly as purposed.

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Got in too late. Hoped Mike would up the offer to 25. Didn't hear anything back.

I'd question a marketing strategy that immediately shuts out the majority from the initial offering. But what do I know.

On the contrary, if I perceive the purpose of the initial offering correctly, it is a strategy to get buzz going on the new company.

We're 11 pages in with overflow onto the Seymour Duncan forum (and possibly others). I'd say it did exactly as purposed.

<<<< gets it.

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Got in too late. Hoped Mike would up the offer to 25. Didn't hear anything back.

I'd question a marketing strategy that immediately shuts out the majority from the initial offering. But what do I know.

On the contrary, if I perceive the purpose of the initial offering correctly, it is a strategy to get buzz going on the new company.

We're 11 pages in with overflow onto the Seymour Duncan forum (and possibly others). I'd say it did exactly as purposed.

<<<< gets it.

I guess all my experience with initial public offerings and hundreds of start-ups has been a waste of time. An initial public offering is just that. It should benefit as many as are interested. "Damn, I missed out" isn't a positive first impression. Bring on the arrows!!!

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Nothing creates a buzz quite like Unobtanium.

Mike should take it to the next level and get all Howard Dumble/Soup Nazi with it: Contact him for any reason before the guitar is completed, you lose your deposit and you're off the list forever. He'll be a millionaire cult figure in short order.

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I guess all my experience with initial public offerings and hundreds of start-ups has been a waste of time. An initial public offering is just that. It should benefit as many as are interested. "Damn, I missed out" isn't a positive first impression. Bring on the arrows!!!

Different dynamic with selling stock versus selling product. In this case, "benefitting as many as interested" with a run of guitars that's presumably priced close to the bone won't benefit Mike very much.

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Got in too late. Hoped Mike would up the offer to 25. Didn't hear anything back.

I'd question a marketing strategy that immediately shuts out the majority from the initial offering. But what do I know.

On the contrary, if I perceive the purpose of the initial offering correctly, it is a strategy to get buzz going on the new company.

We're 11 pages in with overflow onto the Seymour Duncan forum (and possibly others). I'd say it did exactly as purposed.

<<<< gets it.

Also, lets say the “initial offer” is 250 guitars - at that crazy low price, and it fills up immediately. So, then the wait times become long. Folks gripe - bad for business. Mr. Shishkov has to make 250 guitars below market value - bad for business. I don’ know the magic number, but the magic number has to be “too few"

Also, over on the duncan forum, folks were saying that they ultimates were “out of my price range” - is that bunch of folks even cheaper than the HFC. I know $1650 is real money - but a cookie cutter Fender American Deluxe is $1400. A hand made, standard style, set neck, bound, and mahogany guitar for $1650 is a steal.

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^^^GETS IT^^^

Mike priced the initial run at the absolute bare minimum he could to be able to get enough orders to get his new business up and running. Remember, this is a guy who, after twenty five or so years working for a company that moved him 1/2way across the US, he had the rug pulled out from under him and needs to develop a source of income to live and support a family.

'Getting closed out' of the initial rock bottom offer isn't the way to look at it-people can still (and are and will) be able to order some of the finest custom instruments at prices well below what most other single person builders (of lesser quality) are selling for.

Here is a guy who has to furnish an entire shop, purchase equipment, tools and materials and still be able to make a living at it.

Mike is an artist and a hell of a craftsman so chaining him to a bench either by doing nothing but making slim margins or being tied to investor demands simply was not possible to allow him to operate at the high standard he holds himself to.

Simply because this crazy low offer sold out within a couple of hours is not the issue. This will be awesome.

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I got an email from Ted Martin telling us we'll get eventually contacted. I'll be patient, even if I do want this guitar really hard and do have the cash right now.

Got a question though: I guess some specs can be changed/adjusted while in the initial process of placing my order, right? For example, I asked for a quote on an all-mahogany guitar, but never was sure about its color -semi-trans? solid? white? reddish? milky? black?

However, given boomers cannot be done, I changed my mind and I'm now hesitating between all-korina one side, and mahogany with a goldtop the other side.

The model and all the other specs will remain the same, but the inlays, the materials, a maple top with single-ply cream binding (or no top at all)... all that is now not so clear in my mind just because boomers are gone. Gosh! :unsure:

In short, I still have to make some definitive decisions about several details of my first order. ;) Hope Mike will help me with that! :rolleyes:

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^^^GETS IT^^^

Mike priced the initial run at the absolute bare minimum he could to be able to get enough orders to get his new business up and running. Remember, this is a guy who, after twenty five or so years working for a company that moved him 1/2way across the US, he had the rug pulled out from under him and needs to develop a source of income to live and support a family.

'Getting closed out' of the initial rock bottom offer isn't the way to look at it-people can still (and are and will) be able to order some of the finest custom instruments at prices well below what most other single person builders (of lesser quality) are selling for.

Here is a guy who has to furnish an entire shop, purchase equipment, tools and materials and still be able to make a living at it.

Mike is an artist and a hell of a craftsman so chaining him to a bench either by doing nothing but making slim margins or being tied to investor demands simply was not possible to allow him to operate at the high standard he holds himself to.

Simply because this crazy low offer sold out within a couple of hours is not the issue. This will be awesome.

I hope he gets chained to the bench because his business model is uber bad ass and he is makin' the moneyz!!!!

Chain him to the bench!

Chain him to the bench!

Chain him to the bench!

Chain him to the bench!

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I got an email from Ted Martin telling us we'll get eventually contacted. I'll be patient, even if I do want this guitar really hard and do have the cash right now.

Got a question though: I guess some specs can be changed/adjusted while in the initial process of placing my order, right? For example, I asked for a quote on an all-mahogany guitar, but never was sure about its color -semi-trans? solid? white? reddish? milky? black?

However, given boomers cannot be done, I changed my mind and I'm now hesitating between all-korina one side, and mahogany with a goldtop the other side.

The model and all the other specs will remain the same, but the inlays, the materials, a maple top with single-ply cream binding (or no top at all)... all that is now not so clear in my mind just because boomers are gone. Gosh! :unsure:

In short, I still have to make some definitive decisions about several details of my first order. ;) Hope Mike will help me with that! :rolleyes:

I don't think that tightening up your specs or changing a color will be an issue-the quote proposals aren't chiseled in stone. That being said, I'm pretty sure that korina is not something that can be done with the limited run. In order to keep the price down, the decision was made to not use korina (it was considered at one point) because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining useable clean boards. As a result, korina was scratched as a wood for guitars at the special offer price point. As for all-mahogany, Mike would have to decide if that can be done with chambering or not.

The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!).

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I got an email from Ted Martin telling us we'll get eventually contacted. I'll be patient, even if I do want this guitar really hard and do have the cash right now.

Got a question though: I guess some specs can be changed/adjusted while in the initial process of placing my order, right? For example, I asked for a quote on an all-mahogany guitar, but never was sure about its color -semi-trans? solid? white? reddish? milky? black?

However, given boomers cannot be done, I changed my mind and I'm now hesitating between all-korina one side, and mahogany with a goldtop the other side.

The model and all the other specs will remain the same, but the inlays, the materials, a maple top with single-ply cream binding (or no top at all)... all that is now not so clear in my mind just because boomers are gone. Gosh! :unsure:

In short, I still have to make some definitive decisions about several details of my first order. ;) Hope Mike will help me with that! :rolleyes:

I don't think that tightening up your specs or changing a color will be an issue-the quote proposals aren't chiseled in stone. That being said, I'm pretty sure that korina is not something that can be done with the limited run. In order to keep the price down, the decision was made to not use korina (it was considered at one point) because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining useable clean boards. As a result, korina was scratched as a wood for guitars at the special offer price point. As for all-mahogany, Mike would have to decide if that can be done with chambering or not.

The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!).

Well, my quote is not for the limited run, as I stated before. I want something else. I do know it has a price and that the 12 Ultimates might even go first, so I'll have to wait forever. Anyhow, do count me in... for my own thing. ;)

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The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!).

I simply don't understand why some can't grasp that.

And we wonder why we can't have nice things.

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The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!).

I simply don't understand why some can't grasp that.

And we wonder why we can't have nice things.

Well, I guess everyone can understand this:

Case 1: The Ultimate is a limited run with fixed specs at a friendly price tag in order to get Mike's business going. Color choices and minor hardware changes are tolerated, but those guitars aren't custom orders There are just 12 slots for that one.

Case 2: If you want something else, even if it's still Standard-shaped (which by the way is not my case, as you might have already guessed), then you're placing a regular custom order, at Mike's regular price and with all the advantages and disadvantages that kind of order implies.

Doesn't look very hard to grasp.

PS: My quote is for a guitar of the Case 2-type above.

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I got an email from Ted Martin telling us we'll get eventually contacted. I'll be patient, even if I do want this guitar really hard and do have the cash right now.

Got a question though: I guess some specs can be changed/adjusted while in the initial process of placing my order, right? For example, I asked for a quote on an all-mahogany guitar, but never was sure about its color -semi-trans? solid? white? reddish? milky? black?

However, given boomers cannot be done, I changed my mind and I'm now hesitating between all-korina one side, and mahogany with a goldtop the other side.

The model and all the other specs will remain the same, but the inlays, the materials, a maple top with single-ply cream binding (or no top at all)... all that is now not so clear in my mind just because boomers are gone. Gosh! :unsure:

In short, I still have to make some definitive decisions about several details of my first order. ;) Hope Mike will help me with that! :rolleyes:

I don't think that tightening up your specs or changing a color will be an issue-the quote proposals aren't chiseled in stone. That being said, I'm pretty sure that korina is not something that can be done with the limited run. In order to keep the price down, the decision was made to not use korina (it was considered at one point) because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining useable clean boards. As a result, korina was scratched as a wood for guitars at the special offer price point. As for all-mahogany, Mike would have to decide if that can be done with chambering or not.

The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!).

Well, my quote is not for the limited run, as I stated before. I want something else. I do know it has a price and that the 12 Ultimates might even go first, so I'll have to wait forever. Anyhow, do count me in... for my own thing. ;)

Sorry-didn't see that. If it's a custom, Mike can and likely will get exactly what people want to the extent it is available and legal!

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One thing people are assuming here is that the price on a similarly spec'd custom ordered guitar from Mike is going to be so much more that its no longer attractive.

I am pretty sure that Mike is committed to keeping the prices reasonable. The special order was just beyond reasonable. Keep the faith.

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I got an email from Ted Martin telling us we'll get eventually contacted. I'll be patient, even if I do want this guitar really hard and do have the cash right now.

Got a question though: I guess some specs can be changed/adjusted while in the initial process of placing my order, right? For example, I asked for a quote on an all-mahogany guitar, but never was sure about its color -semi-trans? solid? white? reddish? milky? black?

However, given boomers cannot be done, I changed my mind and I'm now hesitating between all-korina one side, and mahogany with a goldtop the other side.

The model and all the other specs will remain the same, but the inlays, the materials, a maple top with single-ply cream binding (or no top at all)... all that is now not so clear in my mind just because boomers are gone. Gosh! :unsure:

In short, I still have to make some definitive decisions about several details of my first order. ;) Hope Mike will help me with that! :rolleyes:

I don't think that tightening up your specs or changing a color will be an issue-the quote proposals aren't chiseled in stone. That being said, I'm pretty sure that korina is not something that can be done with the limited run. In order to keep the price down, the decision was made to not use korina (it was considered at one point) because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining useable clean boards. As a result, korina was scratched as a wood for guitars at the special offer price point. As for all-mahogany, Mike would have to decide if that can be done with chambering or not.

The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!).

Well, my quote is not for the limited run, as I stated before. I want something else. I do know it has a price and that the 12 Ultimates might even go first, so I'll have to wait forever. Anyhow, do count me in... for my own thing. ;)

Sorry-didn't see that. If it's a custom, Mike can and likely will get exactly what people want to the extent it is available and legal!

No problem. :)

Now another question, just like that -as that is NOT the shape I ordered. I'm just curious:

Is the Phantom shape legal?

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I guess all my experience with initial public offerings and hundreds of start-ups has been a waste of time. An initial public offering is just that. It should benefit as many as are interested. "Damn, I missed out" isn't a positive first impression. Bring on the arrows!!!

Different dynamic with selling stock versus selling product. In this case, "benefitting as many as interested" with a run of guitars that's presumably priced close to the bone won't benefit Mike very much.

Companies do limited runs all the time - like it or not, it drives demand. And really, the guy should run his business at a break-even or minimal-profit level (or even at a loss) until everybody who wants one gets one? Don't think the business would last long that way. Not everybody gets to have everything.

Also, over on the duncan forum, folks were saying that they ultimates were “out of my price range” - is that bunch of folks even cheaper than the HFC. I know $1650 is real money - but a cookie cutter Fender American Deluxe is $1400. A hand made, standard style, set neck, bound, and mahogany guitar for $1650 is a steal.

But...but...it's not $1650, it's $1680!!!! That's almost a whole 2% more - $30 AMERICAN DOLLARS!!!! That's like, a whole T-shirt or something!!! :rolleyes:

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Got in too late. Hoped Mike would up the offer to 25. Didn't hear anything back.

I'd question a marketing strategy that immediately shuts out the majority from the initial offering. But what do I know.

There were over 80 people on the order list within the first 24 hours. Most of them in the first 12 hours that the site was live. Mike is pretty buried in filtering the requests for the limited run and pure custom instrument quotes, so is not able to respond back immediately. There's a LOT of work behind the scenes going on here.

As mentioned by several other people above, the point is NOT to have a larger pool of orders at the special pricing. It's not meant to be exclusionary in any way, and the guitars he builds outside of that will be priced very reasonably, but assuming that it is a savvy marketing strategy to put out the lion's share of initial production at a loss or barely break-even point makes even less sense.

Identical instruments will still be available after this first run, and in fact, are basically available for order now, just not at the introductory price. Nobody is being excluded from ordering, it's just that this is ultimately a business, so Mike needs to build in some kind of profit margin or it just isn't worth his time, effort and aggravation. I don't think there is a single person who could legitimately argue with that.

I also deal with IPOs and private company launches on a regular basis - that's not the same concept as what Mike is doing here at all. There will be plenty of great stuff for everybody, and the prices will be extremely competitive for a custom instrument hand built in the USA by the best in the business. I don't think Mike's regular pricing will offend anybody here! ;)

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There were over 80 people on the order list within the first 24 hours. Most of them in the first 12 hours that the site was live. Mike is pretty buried in filtering the requests for the limited run and pure custom instrument quotes, so is not able to respond back immediately. There's a LOT of work behind the scenes going on here.

As mentioned by several other people above, the point is NOT to have a larger pool of orders at the special pricing. It's not meant to be exclusionary in any way, and the guitars he builds outside of that will be priced very reasonably, but assuming that it is a savvy marketing strategy to put out the lion's share of initial production at a loss or barely break-even point makes even less sense.

Identical instruments will still be available after this first run, and in fact, are basically available for order now, just not at the introductory price. Nobody is being excluded from ordering, it's just that this is ultimately a business, so Mike needs to build in some kind of profit margin or it just isn't worth his time, effort and aggravation. I don't think there is a single person who could legitimately argue with that.

I also deal with IPOs and private company launches on a regular basis - that's not the same concept as what Mike is doing here at all. There will be plenty of great stuff for everybody, and the prices will be extremely competitive for a custom instrument hand built in the USA by the best in the business. I don't think Mike's regular pricing will offend anybody here! ;)

Have you forgotten where you are?

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I just think this is fun. I THINK I may have been number 14 in line. It's like waiting for a prize drawing. I can still buy a regular one later (if I sell more to finance it) but it's kinda cool to get in on the beginning. Hope it's a very auspicious beginning!

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