Going tomake some very larger orders soon - anyone?

[WolfeMacleod]

I'm pissed. Not only am I pissed, but I'm livid pissed.

After calling Allparts today for cream screw-side bobbins, Steve tells me they're out and won't have any more for - six weeks-

That leaves me pretty F'ed in the rear.
So as you can tell, I'm pissed.

When they get thier new shipment in, I'm considering buying it. ALL of it. I cannot deal with thier incompetence at keeping parts in stock any longer. It's putting me at risk.
A large purchase like that will have me with a lot of bobbins, and I'll be willing to sell @ or very near cost.

I'll also be placing an order with a new company for 10,000 slug poles to fit the Allparts bobbins. .187x 1/2 inch 1018 steel, and will be sent "proofing samples" before the production run.
If anyone wants to add onto my order, feel free to contact me. I believe the price quoted was 17 cents each, but I have to double check.
Also soon will be at least 10,000 pole screws.

Just ordered 300 polepiece keepers @ $2 each, too. Yep, those hurt.

[David Schwab]

Just ordered 300 polepiece keepers @ $2 each, too. Yep, those hurt.

Ouch!

I went through something like this with bass pickup covers from one of the popular parts sources. His minimum order was for $700 worth of covers (which was 200 pieces). So obviously he doesn't stock them, and that's HIS minimum order... only now he's adding to the price. I managed to get him to sell me a dozen he says he got from one of his customers.

This makes me wonder... wouldn't we all be better off buying from the places that Allparts, et al, buy from instead? I mean they are buying wholesale, and basically selling at discounted retail. In my case the covers are from WSC. I'm sure there can't be that many manufacturers of pickup parts... I mean I doubt Allparts has anything custom made.

If you have to buy such a large quantity anyway, getting it for less would be the way to go! I was considering doing this with the covers, since I know who makes them, but I decided to go the route of making them myself, since I want an embossed logo... for about twice the amount of that minimum order, I can have injection molded covers tooled up.

I still have no covers...

[corduroyew]

This makes me wonder... wouldn't we all be better off buying from the places that Allparts, et al, buy from instead?

kinda depends on what you are getting though. I imported 1 cubic meter of rosewood a few months ago and I had to pay 1000GBP shipping and 1000GBP customs and another 1000GBP on duty. That’s a whopping 6000 GBP (or about $11100 USD) which is 1000 GBP more than I paid for the material. Had I purchased enough to fill a whole 20 foot container, then I would have actually spent less to ship it.

Today purchased 20,000 alnico V rods from a middle man and with shipping included. I'm only spending 6p per magnet. If I ordered them directly from china I'd save 1p on each magnet but then I'm stuck with the same shipping issue I had with the rosewood. So even if you can make the minimum order after importing costs you might end up worse off.

[WolfeMacleod]

This makes me wonder... wouldn't we all be better off buying from the places that Allparts,
I still have no covers...

Yes, unfortunately the pickup parts people won't sell to anyone. When I originally found them and contacted them, they actually forwarded my message to Allparts.

I think I may have a box of WSC J-bass covers here that Allparts sent me by mistake. If I can find them, you can have them.

[soundmasterg]

You can bet that Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio and the other biggies like that don't buy from people like All Parts, and get their supplies direct from the manufacturers, so the pickup parts people ARE selling to someone. If there was a way to get the boutiques together on orders on a regular basis, to where your order sizes are large enough, then I bet you could bypass people like All Parts and go direct. It might even be helpful to setup some entity to purchase the parts that was independant from any one pickup maker so that the actual suppliers wouldn't be able to make the connection.

It shouldn't be so hard for people to do business. When companies like ALL Parts have their heads up their asses, it makes it a lot harder for you guys. Kudos to Wolfe for trying so hard to get around this crap over the years, and if you guys can afford it, join with Wolfe on this so the pricing goes down for everyone.

Greg

[David Schwab]

I started to post this, and then my browser crashed... (too many tabs open...)

I don't think it would be too hard to become a dealer for these parts manufacturers, generally you just need a legit business license. Allparts isn't any different from any retailer that buys wholesale.

I was once a dealer for things like Schaller and GHS strings. I didn't import the Schaller stuff myself, that was through a distributor (in this case The Music People), but it wasn't a hard thing to do. I bet Stewmac also buys their Schaller parts from TMP, then they mark up the price and resell them.

Obviously importing something like hardwood is expensive. But plastic pickup covers and the like can't be all that bad shipping wise. Ultimately if you are able to have the parts you need without running out, and at a better price, it is the way to go.

[ken]

The trick would be tracking down the company who actually sells to Allparts.

It wouldn't matter to them who buys their bobbins, unless they are owned at least partially by Allparts. Of course, they may make other parts besides bobbins, so there may be cost savings there too.

I wouldn't mind some bobbins too, if you get some let me know.

Ken

[David Schwab]

I think I may have a box of WSC J-bass covers here that Allparts sent me by mistake. If I can find them, you can have them.

Hey, that would be great!

[WolfeMacleod]

The trick would be tracking down the company who actually sells to Allparts.

It wouldn't matter to them who buys their bobbins, unless they are owned at least partially by Allparts. Of course, they may make other parts besides bobbins, so there may be cost savings there too.

I wouldn't mind some bobbins too, if you get some let me know.

Ken

Like I've said before, I know who the company is that Allparts is buying thier parts from. I contacted them a long time ago wanting to purchases directly from them. They never answered, but they did forward my email on to Allparts. I nearly shat myself when I learned this, for fear that Allparts would stop supplying me fore trying to circumvent them..
My Asian Distributor is also the Asian Distributor for Allparts in Japan. He's also tried to buy directly, but they refuse to sell, even to him - who is a part of Allparts.

[ken]

Sorry Wolfe, I didn't know that you know who sells to Allparts.

If the bobbin maker won't even sell to Allparts' own asian distributor, the only thing I can conclude is that the plastics company must be owned at least in part by Allparts USA itself. This would not be too surprising, since Allparts sells lots of plastic knobs and other stuff too.

Which reminds me... anyone see Tonerider lately?

Ken

[Mystic]

Wolf, you need to get an injection mold machine. If you get a big lot of cream screw bobbins I'd be interested in buying a few (20 or so)
This looks interesting...(maybe make your own)...
http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/inject/index.html

[EtLa]

This looks interesting...(maybe make your own)...
http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/inject/index.html

very interresting! thanks for the link

[David Schwab]

Wolf, you need to get an injection mold machine. If you get a big lot of cream screw bobbins I'd be interested in buying a few (20 or so)
This looks interesting...(maybe make your own)...
http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/inject/index.html

That is interesting! I had looked into having pickup covers injection molded. The initial setup tooling is somewhat pricey (but not all that bad.. was under $2000) but then the pieces are really cheap... like $0.20 each! I think that even with your own injection machine, you will still have to have the dies made.. and that's the expensive part.

Now if a bunch of people who needed the same parts pooled together for the tooling, that could be a good deal. And the more parts you order the cheaper they are.

Take it a step further, and you can sell bobbins to other pickup makers... obviously it's a hot commodity!

[WolfeMacleod]

Wolf, you need to get an injection mold machine. If you get a big lot of cream screw bobbins I'd be interested in buying a few (20 or so)
This looks interesting...(maybe make your own)...
http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/inject/index.html

I've considered something like that, but I don't think it would produce the tonnage neccesary to creat a well-moulded HB bobbins. And...could you imagine having to produce 100's or 1000's of bobbins on something like that?

Also...I think it would be a bad idea to use re-meltable plastics. I could be wrong...

[R Walker]

I've considered something like that, but I don't think it would produce the tonnage neccesary to creat a well-moulded HB bobbins. And...could you imagine having to produce 100's or 1000's of bobbins on something like that?

Also...I think it would be a bad idea to use re-meltable plastics. I could be wrong...

I would love to be able to have the molds to make bobbins, especially F spaced ones. Would also be nice to have nickel frames made, one version with vintage legs and one version with shorter legs. All this hunting around for parts is making me crazy. Slugs from this vendor, screws from over here, bobbins from this guy, etc. Its enough to make you completely mad.