Hammersmith K4 - TalkBass Special Model

[primussucks9126]

It's on my list of things to do. I'm under the weather (surprise surprise), swamped at work, still putting up NAMM photos, and dealing with a potentially new band.

Totally understood. Not trying to add anymore pressure to you. Thanks!

 

[GeoKinetic]

I'm confused, this just got posted on the Hammersmith FB, photos from NAMM.

 

[primussucks9126]

View attachment 3302869
I'm confused, this just got posted on the Hammersmith FB, photos from NAMM.

That's one of the original prototypes. He left them with different people, like Remco Hendrix and Johnathan Hischke.

 

[Old Blastard]

Really liked the K model. Didn't jump on it and am glad about that. Found something close, though.light, plays well, cool sound, affordable.

Would still consider a K, if they ever show.

 

[wintremute]

Ok. Sorry for the delay.

Marko was at NAMM as a regular person (not an exhibitor), with the intent to talk to the Chinese Manufacturers. Here's my take of our conversation.

Everyone who asked for a refund received either the money (or whatever was agreed upon). There are about 4 or 5 people left (including me) who still have their money in and are waiting for a K bass.

He's a good guy, but he made some bad business decisions, and offered too many varieties of K too soon. Everything is now being held up at the manufacturing level. Until he actually has basses in hand, there's nothing he can do. So it's all a waiting game. He knows he's getting a bad reputation online, and is hopeful that once he's able to actually deliver product, and people have the product in their hands, his reputation will improve. After speaking with the Chinese manufacturers, he seemed somewhat optimistic...but we both agree nothing means anything until he has basses on hand.

 

[wintremute]

View attachment 3302869
I'm confused, this just got posted on the Hammersmith FB, photos from NAMM.

That bass has made the rounds. At one point it was with Zombierella. I think it's now on it's way to the Chinese factories to (hopefully) speed up the process on mass producing K basses.

 

[wintremute]

I spoke to Marko for over an hour on Sunday, and we talked a lot about the K situation (duh) so here's the basic rundown of how this has all gone down. It might leave you with more questions than answers, and I'm happy to do my best to answer them.

1. Marko Debuts the K around NAMM 2017.
2. Everyone gets excited and Marko takes a bunch of pre-orders.
3. Marko is small time as far as the OEM is concerned, so they put Hammersmith on the back end of their workload.
4. Marko ups his order by a substantial amount hoping to get moved up in their production schedule. This required a much greater initial deposit. The order included Hammersmith's other models as well, not just the Ks.
5. Errors in communication from both parties (OEM sending e-mails to the wrong address, Marko getting frustrated by a lack of communication) have led to a strained relationship and almost no communication between Marko and the OEM. However, Marko believes that the OEM should have started production at some point over the summer.
6. There is a remaining balance that needs to be paid before the OEM will ship out the goods. The OEM has not provided Markop with production updates, so Marko doesn't know what (if anything) is currently ready to ship.

Marko's plan going forward is to meet with his OEM at NAMM '19 (Marko will be going as a guest, Hammersmith as a brand will not be at the show). He's hoping to get a concrete answer from them. Beyond that, he's simply going to pay off the balance due to the OEM ASAP. His best case scenario was that things will begin shipping to him sometime in March-April.

Another big reason for the delay is that the initial basses shown at NAMM were prototypes. There were still several things about the design that needed to be re-worked. Those kinks were sorted so that both Marko and the OEM were satisfied, and that's when Marko tried to get the ball rolling. This (in addition to the fact that the current OEM already has Marko's money) is why Marko didn't want to start the process all over again with a new OEM.

As far as my take on the situation, I think Marko is a solid guy. I personally don't think it's fair to draw comparisons to guys like Dr. Bass. I think Marko got overexcited and over-promised things he wasn't fully equipped to deliver, but he seems to have done what he can to make it right with everyone involved) As far as I'm aware, everyone who wanted a refund got one, and everyone that wanted a replacement bass got one. There's only a handful of us that are still waiting on the K basses (I think Marko said 5-6 of us), which is what we all chose to do. If that's not true, please let me know.

Again, to his credit, he's stopped taking orders, hasn't tried to sell anything he doesn't have on hand, took his website down, etc. I don't get the sense he's in it to take the money and run. It's an unfortunate situation that likely could have been avoided, and on the phone Marko took full responsibility for it.

His lack of communication is completely inexcusable, and the reasons he gave for that were unsatisfactory, though relate-able (overwhelmed by the sheer volume, and something about his Talkbass commercial user membership expiring that won't allow him to post in this thread).

That's the gist of everything. As I said before, I'm happy to try and answer any questions you guys have. Like I said, definitely not good news, but not really bad news either. My conversation with Marko left me feeling hopeful, and I'm eager to see how this all works out.

Pretty much this.

 

[Boschman1]

Hello all. I'm one of the facebook group of buyers for the K and found this thread last summer but decided to sign up today to make my first post since I met marko today and got a first hand report.

My story is like this: I was pretty stoked to come across a new canadian builder and the design itself.. well we all agree its pretty sharp. I thought I could not only get a cool bass on its first release but also do a small part to help a new company since I live several hours from toronto. In any case.. things got delayed as well all know and communication was hit and miss but I did get my refund back last summer.. I considered a substitute bass but just wasn't confident and wanted to try something out in person or get something from stock instead of something else custom. The K is so different than anything else that I was buying on hopes it sounded as good as it looked but something else I think needed to be tried out first. So I took my refund and was promised that if I ever wanted to order that he would honour the 800$ credit that he would have for a subsititute bass. We left it like that and with an open invitation to visit whenever I might be in toronto.. Well fast forward to now and the wife and I are going on a vacation that flies out tomorrow so we came into town earlier today and are staying at the sister in laws tonight. She spent some time with her sis and I managed to visit 2 long+mcquade stores as well as the hammersmith shop which is crazy close to the airport.. I was there for almost 3 hours but strangely we only talked about basses or music for about an hour of that so I'm going to share what we talked about bass wise and also some about the other talking.

Bass stuff: I got to see and try out the surf green one that he just got back from someone while at namm. He says its going to be shipped to the oem he is moving the K production too.. Its super light and plays nicer than I hoped.. the worn in chromes on it are nice and sound great through that pickup which I also wanted to try because I have never seen a lace alumatone before. The body and neck and bridge are all going to be different on the production models but only just a little so this was a close tryout of what will come out later.. and I liked it enough that I do plan on getting one later when they come out.. He had a few other basses there to try out but just a gallien kruger combo to play with so that was kind of a bummer not to hear through different amps that I am more familiar with. I didnt choose something else to order and will wait for the K to finally come out instead. I have a much better understanding of the whole hammersmith picture and the shop space and how the necks and bodies come in seperately to be assembled when orders come.. He says its to do what fender should do since everything is already there under one roof.. and that makes sense.

The K update: I dont think its 100% final but it seems the K model will be made in a different factory from his other stuff.. He may still get K necks and bodies from the first guys once they ship him his stuff but the new guys are a factory he originally wanted to work with but they would only do whole basses.. not just bodies.. but I think after seeing the bass at namm they wanted to be part of it. There is designs for a reverse K and a six string guitar K as well so it would be a good bunch of stuff once its all rolling for this factory.. He didnt want to commit to any dates because every time he did that he says it didnt work and then he was accused of a lie so he just said some time in spring unless the other stuff came first. I saw the other designs and he says the K will outsell everything else he has done and I believe it.. so I think he really wants and need this to happen for his company.. Im probably forgetting a lot of things but this was just earlier today and I wanted to write this before I forgot more things. I wasnt part of the talkbass batch so I dodnt think to ask him about posting here but he says hes trying to keep better communication and that with each person he takes care of its like there is less weight wearing on him which I understand (same as the wife). I think he thought it would all just go easier like the first models and I didnt really catch all the reasons why it went as badly as it did.. That was a whole lot of talk that sounded a little scripted but he did say that it was the main thing people asked him about last week at namm so maybe its just gotten that way.

Other stuff: I had to use the bathroom and in passing the offices going to the bathroom I noticed a couch in one of them that looks sleeped on. I made a joke about him living there but he says he just crashes there a lot since he works weird hours with his lighting thing and does airbnb at his place sometimes to help pay for the shop. The more we talked the more he seemed to be exactly like my wife.. which is to say that he has a creative and social side but has a huge introvert part of his personality too and its hard to go back and forth. This conversation opened up to all sorts of different things that I wont share here but I think I better understand now why communication isnt consistent. Like my wife he goes back and forth between introvert and extrovert and this is just really tiring when dealing with a lot of people.. so he really has to grow and hire someone to talk with the public for most of the stuff. She got a pretty big rep in her work and did speaking spots and tv spots and started working with a more diverse clientele and it just wore her down.. It was like for every hour she talked to someone she needed an hour by herself to balance things out which was tough for me to adjust to..but it was tough for her too because it was all new to her also. Luckily she doesnt do that work any more since we are planning to have kids. He really has to figure this part and he admitted this and said he didn't want to end up like the lakland guy and closing his business because he was bipolar and couldnt handle it.. He seemed really positive about the factory change and getting things back on track and I feel pretty confident it will happen. He says he is mortly doing lighting work now to make the money to do all this since the bass money is sort of dried up but he is still making some of the other basses and expects it all to go ok.

So thats what I can remember. Sorry about the long post.. whats the record for a first time poster????

 

[wintremute]

Welcome to TB. Thank you for the report. What do you currently play?

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Hello all. I'm one of the facebook group of buyers for the K and found this thread last summer but decided to sign up today to make my first post since I met marko today and got a first hand report.

My story is like this: I was pretty stoked to come across a new canadian builder and the design itself.. well we all agree its pretty sharp. I thought I could not only get a cool bass on its first release but also do a small part to help a new company since I live several hours from toronto. In any case.. things got delayed as well all know and communication was hit and miss but I did get my refund back last summer.. I considered a substitute bass but just wasn't confident and wanted to try something out in person or get something from stock instead of something else custom. The K is so different than anything else that I was buying on hopes it sounded as good as it looked but something else I think needed to be tried out first. So I took my refund and was promised that if I ever wanted to order that he would honour the 800$ credit that he would have for a subsititute bass. We left it like that and with an open invitation to visit whenever I might be in toronto.. Well fast forward to now and the wife and I are going on a vacation that flies out tomorrow so we came into town earlier today and are staying at the sister in laws tonight. She spent some time with her sis and I managed to visit 2 long+mcquade stores as well as the hammersmith shop which is crazy close to the airport.. I was there for almost 3 hours but strangely we only talked about basses or music for about an hour of that so I'm going to share what we talked about bass wise and also some about the other talking.

Bass stuff: I got to see and try out the surf green one that he just got back from someone while at namm. He says its going to be shipped to the oem he is moving the K production too.. Its super light and plays nicer than I hoped.. the worn in chromes on it are nice and sound great through that pickup which I also wanted to try because I have never seen a lace alumatone before. The body and neck and bridge are all going to be different on the production models but only just a little so this was a close tryout of what will come out later.. and I liked it enough that I do plan on getting one later when they come out.. He had a few other basses there to try out but just a gallien kruger combo to play with so that was kind of a bummer not to hear through different amps that I am more familiar with. I didnt choose something else to order and will wait for the K to finally come out instead. I have a much better understanding of the whole hammersmith picture and the shop space and how the necks and bodies come in seperately to be assembled when orders come.. He says its to do what fender should do since everything is already there under one roof.. and that makes sense.

The K update: I dont think its 100% final but it seems the K model will be made in a different factory from his other stuff.. He may still get K necks and bodies from the first guys once they ship him his stuff but the new guys are a factory he originally wanted to work with but they would only do whole basses.. not just bodies.. but I think after seeing the bass at namm they wanted to be part of it. There is designs for a reverse K and a six string guitar K as well so it would be a good bunch of stuff once its all rolling for this factory.. He didnt want to commit to any dates because every time he did that he says it didnt work and then he was accused of a lie so he just said some time in spring unless the other stuff came first. I saw the other designs and he says the K will outsell everything else he has done and I believe it.. so I think he really wants and need this to happen for his company.. Im probably forgetting a lot of things but this was just earlier today and I wanted to write this before I forgot more things. I wasnt part of the talkbass batch so I dodnt think to ask him about posting here but he says hes trying to keep better communication and that with each person he takes care of its like there is less weight wearing on him which I understand (same as the wife). I think he thought it would all just go easier like the first models and I didnt really catch all the reasons why it went as badly as it did.. That was a whole lot of talk that sounded a little scripted but he did say that it was the main thing people asked him about last week at namm so maybe its just gotten that way.

Other stuff: I had to use the bathroom and in passing the offices going to the bathroom I noticed a couch in one of them that looks sleeped on. I made a joke about him living there but he says he just crashes there a lot since he works weird hours with his lighting thing and does airbnb at his place sometimes to help pay for the shop. The more we talked the more he seemed to be exactly like my wife.. which is to say that he has a creative and social side but has a huge introvert part of his personality too and its hard to go back and forth. This conversation opened up to all sorts of different things that I wont share here but I think I better understand now why communication isnt consistent. Like my wife he goes back and forth between introvert and extrovert and this is just really tiring when dealing with a lot of people.. so he really has to grow and hire someone to talk with the public for most of the stuff. She got a pretty big rep in her work and did speaking spots and tv spots and started working with a more diverse clientele and it just wore her down.. It was like for every hour she talked to someone she needed an hour by herself to balance things out which was tough for me to adjust to..but it was tough for her too because it was all new to her also. Luckily she doesnt do that work any more since we are planning to have kids. He really has to figure this part and he admitted this and said he didn't want to end up like the lakland guy and closing his business because he was bipolar and couldnt handle it.. He seemed really positive about the factory change and getting things back on track and I feel pretty confident it will happen. He says he is mortly doing lighting work now to make the money to do all this since the bass money is sort of dried up but he is still making some of the other basses and expects it all to go ok.

So thats what I can remember. Sorry about the long post.. whats the record for a first time poster????

You must have gotten along really well with Marko- you’re posting this from the exact same computer he posts from...

 

[/\/\3phist0]

You must have gotten along really well with Marko- you’re posting this from the exact same computer he posts from...

You gotta be kidding!

 

[Sodbuster]

Shady...

 

[Fat Freddy]

You must have gotten along really well with Marko- you’re posting this from the exact same computer he posts from...

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"....

If Marko reads this and being fully aware that this may cost me a ban.....

FCUK you Marko!.....You lying, no good, piece of crap!!!..........

 

[wintremute]

You must have gotten along really well with Marko- you’re posting this from the exact same computer he posts from...

This does not look good at all.

 

[MCF]

This does not look good at all.

Yep. OP joined Saturday. Posted the one post. All that is disclosed in the profile info is his gender. Assuming Bryan Tyler is correct (I’m no tech guru and would have no way of knowing how to find out where a post originated), it certainly looks bad and has an order to it.

 

[ahc]

Bryan's a mod/administrator so he has the means to look at that kind of info.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Hello all. I'm one of the facebook group of buyers for the K and found this thread last summer but decided to sign up today to make my first post since I met marko today and got a first hand report.

My story is like this: I was pretty stoked to come across a new canadian builder and the design itself.. well we all agree its pretty sharp. I thought I could not only get a cool bass on its first release but also do a small part to help a new company since I live several hours from toronto. In any case.. things got delayed as well all know and communication was hit and miss but I did get my refund back last summer.. I considered a substitute bass but just wasn't confident and wanted to try something out in person or get something from stock instead of something else custom. The K is so different than anything else that I was buying on hopes it sounded as good as it looked but something else I think needed to be tried out first. So I took my refund and was promised that if I ever wanted to order that he would honour the 800$ credit that he would have for a subsititute bass. We left it like that and with an open invitation to visit whenever I might be in toronto.. Well fast forward to now and the wife and I are going on a vacation that flies out tomorrow so we came into town earlier today and are staying at the sister in laws tonight. She spent some time with her sis and I managed to visit 2 long+mcquade stores as well as the hammersmith shop which is crazy close to the airport.. I was there for almost 3 hours but strangely we only talked about basses or music for about an hour of that so I'm going to share what we talked about bass wise and also some about the other talking.

Bass stuff: I got to see and try out the surf green one that he just got back from someone while at namm. He says its going to be shipped to the oem he is moving the K production too.. Its super light and plays nicer than I hoped.. the worn in chromes on it are nice and sound great through that pickup which I also wanted to try because I have never seen a lace alumatone before. The body and neck and bridge are all going to be different on the production models but only just a little so this was a close tryout of what will come out later.. and I liked it enough that I do plan on getting one later when they come out.. He had a few other basses there to try out but just a gallien kruger combo to play with so that was kind of a bummer not to hear through different amps that I am more familiar with. I didnt choose something else to order and will wait for the K to finally come out instead. I have a much better understanding of the whole hammersmith picture and the shop space and how the necks and bodies come in seperately to be assembled when orders come.. He says its to do what fender should do since everything is already there under one roof.. and that makes sense.

The K update: I dont think its 100% final but it seems the K model will be made in a different factory from his other stuff.. He may still get K necks and bodies from the first guys once they ship him his stuff but the new guys are a factory he originally wanted to work with but they would only do whole basses.. not just bodies.. but I think after seeing the bass at namm they wanted to be part of it. There is designs for a reverse K and a six string guitar K as well so it would be a good bunch of stuff once its all rolling for this factory.. He didnt want to commit to any dates because every time he did that he says it didnt work and then he was accused of a lie so he just said some time in spring unless the other stuff came first. I saw the other designs and he says the K will outsell everything else he has done and I believe it.. so I think he really wants and need this to happen for his company.. Im probably forgetting a lot of things but this was just earlier today and I wanted to write this before I forgot more things. I wasnt part of the talkbass batch so I dodnt think to ask him about posting here but he says hes trying to keep better communication and that with each person he takes care of its like there is less weight wearing on him which I understand (same as the wife). I think he thought it would all just go easier like the first models and I didnt really catch all the reasons why it went as badly as it did.. That was a whole lot of talk that sounded a little scripted but he did say that it was the main thing people asked him about last week at namm so maybe its just gotten that way.

Other stuff: I had to use the bathroom and in passing the offices going to the bathroom I noticed a couch in one of them that looks sleeped on. I made a joke about him living there but he says he just crashes there a lot since he works weird hours with his lighting thing and does airbnb at his place sometimes to help pay for the shop. The more we talked the more he seemed to be exactly like my wife.. which is to say that he has a creative and social side but has a huge introvert part of his personality too and its hard to go back and forth. This conversation opened up to all sorts of different things that I wont share here but I think I better understand now why communication isnt consistent. Like my wife he goes back and forth between introvert and extrovert and this is just really tiring when dealing with a lot of people.. so he really has to grow and hire someone to talk with the public for most of the stuff. She got a pretty big rep in her work and did speaking spots and tv spots and started working with a more diverse clientele and it just wore her down.. It was like for every hour she talked to someone she needed an hour by herself to balance things out which was tough for me to adjust to..but it was tough for her too because it was all new to her also. Luckily she doesnt do that work any more since we are planning to have kids. He really has to figure this part and he admitted this and said he didn't want to end up like the lakland guy and closing his business because he was bipolar and couldnt handle it.. He seemed really positive about the factory change and getting things back on track and I feel pretty confident it will happen. He says he is mortly doing lighting work now to make the money to do all this since the bass money is sort of dried up but he is still making some of the other basses and expects it all to go ok.

So thats what I can remember. Sorry about the long post.. whats the record for a first time poster????

You must have gotten along really well with Marko- you’re posting this from the exact same computer he posts from...

Thanks for looking out for us Mr. Tyler.




I quoted Boshman1 (Marko)'s post so it does not disappear.

 

[JLY]

Good work Bryan... I would assume a ban is in the works


Unbelievable....

 

[Sodbuster]

Thank you Mr. Tyler.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

You gotta be kidding!

Thats all I could bring myself to post without lacing it with "colorful" expletives.
Seriously: why go to this length of subterfuge? borrow someone's phone or PC if ur gonna pretend to be someone.

This is SO monumentally stupid. I was hoping he was not another charlatan looking to dupe people out of money:
I'm pissed and I did not plunk down my money.
I wanted a K, BAD !

I'm sick and disgusted at the amount of effort that he has expended to dig a deeper and deeper hole with lies and deceit.
I feel bad for the people that put faith in the words he put forth as to the future, and now to out (blame) Bi-polar disorder
is just laaaaame.

I know we are supposed to have respect for other members, apologies for any that feel I'm being disrespectful...

that said he's been disrespecting all of us all along!