Is CreamTone Worth The Wait?

[Bones]

I seriously do not understand these small "boutique" vendors, they take your money 24/7/365 but seem to ship when they feel like it. I mean, it's bridge, I do not believe they are hand making these things one at a time to order. They should have inventory and then ship it when the order comes in.

So far all I have gotten is "Thanks for the money!" and a tracking number that has not shipped. I'm not sure how these guys compete in the real world.

On the one hand, I wish I had ordered the other stuff I need, on the other hand, if this is how they do things, there wont be a follow-up order.


Yes, I'm a big entitled baby who doesn't know how lucky I am. But I'm also perplexed by all these guitar parts guys that do business this way.

 

[BorderRadio]

I can whittle you a bridge out of mesquite wood. I assure you, it is worth the wait—no CNC BS, no waiting on the chrome guy, or other backorders for that matter. I don’t need to know your radius or playing style either. No, just me, my pocket knife, and a branch. Paypal me 1,200. There is a 2 year turnaround time.

 

[nojazzhere]

I can whittle you a bridge out of mesquite wood. I assure you, it is worth the wait—no CNC BS, no waiting on the chrome guy, or other backorders for that matter. I don’t need to know your radius or playing style either. No, just me, my pocket knife, and a branch. Paypal me 1,200. There is a 2 year turnaround time.

At least you're being honest and upfront.....
Bones didn't say how long he'd been waiting.....three days?.....two weeks?.....six months?
We live in an Amazon Prime/two day delivery era, so he may have unrealistic expectations.....but they SHOULD be able to give him an ETA, and, if too long, let him cancel with full refund.

 

[Bones]

At least you're being honest and upfront.....
Bones didn't say how long he'd been waiting.....three days?.....two weeks?.....six months?
We live in an Amazon Prime/two day delivery era, so he may have unrealistic expectations.....but they SHOULD be able to give him an ETA, and, if too long, let him cancel with full refund.

It's past what they say is their average shipping time, which they say is 3-5 days which is ridiculous for an in stock item to began with. I do not want to cancel the order and they do not allow cancellations for slow shipping anyway. These guys all seem to run their businesses like it's a hobby. It's 2019 it's very easy to ship things.

 

[Deebs3]

There's a company around here I buy my guitar parts from, they always ship the same day I place my order,

 

[Rumblur]

I bought a guitar with a Creamtone Broadcaster harness in it. I didn't care for the switching, so I removed it and put the stock stuff back in. I'm gonna sell the Creamtone harness... is it extra special with pixie dust and mojo? Nope. It's just your average piece of pots, wire and average soldering skills with an expensive cap. They DO have excellent marketing skills, as do all the guys with backlogs. I see Don Mare if 15-20 WEEKS out. WTF? Pickup Wizard can have it to you in a week! Curtis Novak, same deal. WHY would you wait all that time for something that isn't rocket science??? It's just using the right parts and DOING THE WORK. That's the hard thing these days, finding people that will do work.

 

[Obsessed]

Ahh, the instant gratification syndrome. Relax and it will arrive. Play some guitar while waiting.

My wife has the same illness. I supposed spurned on by tracking and "Prime" and FedEx and UPS. It is a modern day disease.

"Boutique" is typically very low production. I think some of these manufacturers build a bunch of one type and then a bunch of another type. This is called, "batching". Probably a good method for small companies to insure consistency at low volume.

 

[Bones]

Ahh, the instant gratification syndrome. Relax and it will arrive. Play some guitar while waiting.

My wife has the same illness. I supposed spurned on by tracking and "Prime" and FedEx and UPS. It is a modern day disease.

"Boutique" is typically very low production. I think some of these manufacturers build a bunch of one type and then a bunch of another type. This is called, "batching". Probably a good method for small companies to insure consistency at low volume.

It's not an "illness", these guys all charge top dollar and charge for shipping and basically act like you are lucky to be doing business with them. Again, no reason why an in stock item can't be shipped within 48-72 hours. I didn't expect in to be on my door step the next day, but I certainly expected it it to leave their shop within a week.

 

[Durtdog]

Rob has always shipped my Cavalier pickups in 2-3 days. Custom wound pickups. And yes, they sound great.

It's nice to buy from people who run their business like a business.

 

[Bones]

Rob has always shipped my Cavalier pickups in 2-3 days. Custom wound pickups. And yes, they sound great.

It's nice to buy from people who run their business like a business.

that's all i'm sayin'.

 

[nojazzhere]

It's past what they say is their average shipping time, which they say is 3-5 days which is ridiculous for an in stock item to began with. I do not want to cancel the order and they do not allow cancellations for slow shipping anyway. These guys all seem to run their businesses like it's a hobby. It's 2019 it's very easy to ship things.

Once again, you're not actually saying how long it's been.....no offense, but "it's past 3-5 days" is not very specific. In your original post you said you're a "big entitled baby".......I thought you were being self-effacing, but now I wonder. I have some custom ordered pickups that are now twelve days since I ordered, but they're worth waiting for......take a deep breath and relax.

 

[Bones]

Once again, you're not actually saying how long it's been.....no offense, but "it's past 3-5 days" is not very specific. In your original post you said you're a "big entitled baby".......I thought you were being self-effacing, but now I wonder. I have some custom ordered pickups that are now twelve days since I ordered, but they're worth waiting for......take a deep breath and relax.

7 working days, there ya happy? And this isn't a custom order. I don't need to take a deep breath, I'm just asking a question and commenting on how so many of these boutique builders are more than available to take your money, but not all that stoked to get the merch out the door. If you order stock parts from Guitar Parts Factory and they ship the same day or next day, same with Stratosphere. It's always a bad sign when these cats claim not to have a phone in the shop and/or don't have an actual address on their website. Not that I would call about this, I have absolute faith that they will send what I paid for it's just a peculiar way of doing business as far as I'm concerned.

 

[TelePunkJCM]

Worth the wait?

For the kind of things they sell?

No.

How could it be?

 

[Obsessed]

It's not an "illness", these guys all charge top dollar and charge for shipping and basically act like you are lucky to be doing business with them. Again, no reason why an in stock item can't be shipped within 48-72 hours. I didn't expect in to be on my door step the next day, but I certainly expected it it to leave their shop within a week.

Bones, from your history of posts, I know you as an intelligent, reasonable, well informed person (umm, with a gorgeous dog too). I am not sure how you derived these expectations of 48-72 hours or "at least within a week"? You stated that this was a "boutique" item, so I honestly believe that your expectations are a bit high here. Gotta lower the bar for very low production manufacturers. It is the fair and right thing to do here.

Perhaps watch some YT videos of boutique pedal manufacturer tours like Keeley has made to get a sense of how they go about manufacturing. I think it will interest you and help adjust your emotions about this. Just trying to help.

 

[WetBandit]

Because alot of these guys will not even start building until they get enough orders... that way they eliminate the up front out of pocket expense, pretty unethical if you do not relay that info before someone orders. And in this case I may be completely wrong...

Let's not forget the many scandals that have happened in the "boutique" pedal game. It's not the few times someone lied, it's just the few times we have caught them.

The pedal game has become extremely over saturated and somewhat shady imo.

But hey we like pedals, and we seem to like the ones with cool graphics the most... even if it is just a repackaged product.

This is all just my personal opinion, and it may be to bitter...ymmv.

 

[SPUDCASTER]

I've never had problems with Angela, Darren Riley, Guitar Parts Resource, Philadelphia Luthiers or even GFS.

And at the top of my list is Rob@Cavalier. Pickups, usually within a week and electronics about the same.

These are my go to's.

Sorry Bones for your compromised experience.

 

[Torren61]

You should see how long you have to wait for a boutique amp if you live in rebel-held Syria...

 

[Bones]

Bones, from your history of posts, I know you as an intelligent, reasonable, well informed person (umm, with a gorgeous dog too). I am not sure how you derived these expectations of 48-72 hours or "at least within a week"? You stated that this was a "boutique" item, so I honestly believe that your expectations are a bit high here. Gotta lower the bar for very low production manufacturers. It is the fair and right thing to do here.

Perhaps watch some YT videos of boutique pedal manufacturer tours like Keeley has made to get a sense of how they go about manufacturing. I think it will interest you and help adjust your emotions about this. Just trying to help.

Again, it's an in stock item, if it was out of stock it would have said "out of stock" like the things they don't have. Does anyone really think they are manufacturing 1 bridge at a time as the order comes in? That's absurd. And I'm not just picking on CT, all these little parts guys are like this, it's weird.

 

[BorderRadio]

All kidding aside, I feel Bones’ case, and I have waited some 3 or 4 months for some custom lathed ferrules. Yes I had to wait on the chrome guy. Those were truly custom parts from a one-man show.

Far as I can tell the CreamTone stuff is just run of the mill TOM/ABR parts.

 

[Bones]

Perhaps watch some YT videos of boutique pedal manufacturer tours like Keeley has made to get a sense of how they go about manufacturing. I think it will interest you and help adjust your emotions about this. Just trying to help.

I'm not 'pedal guy' I had a certain amount of time off and ordered this bridge to coincide with that time off and figured even based on their own estimates, I would have gotten the bridge had time to cut the slots, install it and set the guitar up and be done before I had to get back to my business. That's not going to happen. The world will keep spinning and eventually the project will get done.

Still, no one has answered the actual question that I asked so far, just a bunch of comments on my "illness" and how I remind guys of their wives.

This place gets weirder every day.