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Is Kalium having issues or is this normal?

#41
New post up at FB Kalium page, for those who cannot access FB:

"Greetings everyone!

I want to apologize for the silence on this page, with everything going on, and our limited staff - this page has been ignored for far to long
1f641.png
:(

So, whats the F is going on over at Kalium?

I (C3) have recently taken over the Bass-support email address from Darren Michaels, and am now the bass support guy again. I want to thank Darren for taking this off my shoulders while i did everything from buy a house and move, to completely re-architecting the back end of our web site. I have been in way over my head for a few months, and am very thankful for the help Darren provided. It truly kept me as sane is i could be.

Well I'm back, and we have a lot of stuff happening before we head out to NAMM. NAMM is going to be much different for us this year - we will no longer be hosting instruments from other builders as a way to demo our strings. we will be arriving with a new line of our own instruments, amps, cabinets, and of course strings... if its in our booth we made it, and its for sale
1f642.png
:)

Other things going on - we now have Bronze strings in production, and strings up to a .053 will be available on the website next week, we will have a full compliment for guitar and bass completed soon, and our goal is to take them all the way up to a .182 for your acoustic bass or guitar! Wish us luck!!!

Other cool things happening, we are bringing on a "replacement" so to say for Darren, however instead of handling the bass support, we decided it was best for our customers if we had additional help in the order fulfillment and customer service areas, we know we fall WAY short in this area, and we are now able to do something about it! There will be an announcement next week, along with a better way to reach us with your order/shipping/fulfillment questions.

Shipping outside of the USA - we know this is an expensive thing for a lot of our customers, and as we continue to look into launching a EU fulfillment center, we are always open to alternative ways of shipping than USPS. So if you are in the EU and know of a less expensive way for us to get you your order let us know, our only requirements are that it is trackable/insurable.

There is a quick update, I am going to do my best to shift some energy over to this page, and do our best to keep our customers updated the best we can"
 
#42
ixlramp said:
New post up at FB Kalium page, for those who cannot access FB:

"Greetings everyone!

I want to apologize for the silence on this page, with everything going on, and our limited staff - this page has been ignored for far to long
1f641.png
:(

So, whats the F is going on over at Kalium?

I (C3) have recently taken over the Bass-support email address from Darren Michaels, and am now the bass support guy again. I want to thank Darren for taking this off my shoulders while i did everything from buy a house and move, to completely re-architecting the back end of our web site. I have been in way over my head for a few months, and am very thankful for the help Darren provided. It truly kept me as sane is i could be.

Well I'm back, and we have a lot of stuff happening before we head out to NAMM. NAMM is going to be much different for us this year - we will no longer be hosting instruments from other builders as a way to demo our strings. we will be arriving with a new line of our own instruments, amps, cabinets, and of course strings... if its in our booth we made it, and its for sale
1f642.png
:)

Other things going on - we now have Bronze strings in production, and strings up to a .053 will be available on the website next week, we will have a full compliment for guitar and bass completed soon, and our goal is to take them all the way up to a .182 for your acoustic bass or guitar! Wish us luck!!!

Other cool things happening, we are bringing on a "replacement" so to say for Darren, however instead of handling the bass support, we decided it was best for our customers if we had additional help in the order fulfillment and customer service areas, we know we fall WAY short in this area, and we are now able to do something about it! There will be an announcement next week, along with a better way to reach us with your order/shipping/fulfillment questions.

Shipping outside of the USA - we know this is an expensive thing for a lot of our customers, and as we continue to look into launching a EU fulfillment center, we are always open to alternative ways of shipping than USPS. So if you are in the EU and know of a less expensive way for us to get you your order let us know, our only requirements are that it is trackable/insurable.

There is a quick update, I am going to do my best to shift some energy over to this page, and do our best to keep our customers updated the best we can"
Click to expand...

What a load of crap. This sounds like a kid trying to explain why he didn't do his project but diverting attention away from that by telling you all the other things he is gonna do. This whole "company" if you can call it that needs to man up and run itself accordingly.
 
#43
GK Growl said:
What a load of crap. This sounds like a kid trying to explain why he didn't do his project but diverting attention away from that by telling you all the other things he is gonna do. This whole "company" if you can call it that needs to man up and run itself accordingly.
Click to expand...

lol!

"We don't have enough people to be able to ship strings in a timely manner, so we are therefore going to start making guitars, amps, cabinets, cables, and some different types of strings!"
 
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#45
> What a load of crap.

That's very negative and a bad attitude. He apologised, admitted their poor communication and announced they're doing something about it.

Skip and Chris are already innovative bass luthiers (Knuckle Guitar Works and APC Instruments, the designs of which are being combined for the new Kalium Guitar Works), Skip has never stopped making basses and is now creating innovative sub-amplification. They are already a revolutionary force in strings, with an effect on the industry, and are following their interests in other areas, which is a great thing in the extremely conservative world of guitars.
(Note i have actually been sending them messages asking them to get their act together)
 
#46
ixlramp said:
> What a load of crap.

That's very negative and a bad attitude. He apologised, admitted their poor communication and announced they're doing something about it.

Skip and Chris are already innovative bass luthiers (Knuckle Guitar Works and APC Instruments, the designs of which are being combined for the new Kalium Guitar Works), Skip has never stopped making basses and is now creating innovative sub-amplification. They are already a revolutionary force in strings, with an effect on the industry, and are following their interests in other areas, which is a great thing in the extremely conservative world of guitars.
(Note i have actually been sending them messages asking them to get their act together)
Click to expand...

None of that matters if they can't deliver their product.
 
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#50
The recipe to success for small innovative companies it often to let the creative team be creative and have business people take care of the business part. It sounds less cool but it's more efficient.

As of now, I love these guys' product but can't afford to throw 100 bucks in the wild, hoping for strings to eventually reach my doorstep.
I will wait for current orders to be fulfilled, those that have been waiting for months.
 
#51
ixlramp said:
> What a load of crap.

That's very negative and a bad attitude. He apologised, admitted their poor communication and announced they're doing something about it.

Skip and Chris are already innovative bass luthiers (Knuckle Guitar Works and APC Instruments, the designs of which are being combined for the new Kalium Guitar Works), Skip has never stopped making basses and is now creating innovative sub-amplification. They are already a revolutionary force in strings, with an effect on the industry, and are following their interests in other areas, which is a great thing in the extremely conservative world of guitars.
(Note i have actually been sending them messages asking them to get their act together)
Click to expand...

Everyone has problems. I just don't see where going on Facebook and telling everyone about his problems makes any difference to customers who are waiting for product. My customers don't care about my problems. They care whether I deliver what I say I will in the time frame I said I would. Seems kinda juvenile to me to go on social media whining about life getting in the way, and then telling us they are about to add more products that they probably can't deliver on time!
 
#52
Well as i said, Skip never stopped making and selling basses, and has been experimenting with amplification for years, so this makes little difference. Knuckle Guitar Works is being rebranded into Kalium. Their instruments and amplification is very specialist stuff so will be low volume sales. Maybe they have plans for expansion who knows.

Hmm, seems they can't win, everyone was desperate for news of what's going on, Chris writes a post and now people are complaining about too much information. He's just a friendly open guy and just happened to share a few details of his personal life. When i copy-pasted that i was somewhat dreading returning because i knew (understandably) that there would be a negative reaction.

Anyway, they're a tiny company (one guy hand-winding everything) which has gained a lot of attention, they're too small to cater to a large amount of mainstream bassists so i recommend if you're tuned within BEADGC and want to try a balanced tension set, build custom sets from your favourite brands. Kalium is more for sub-B bassists, extreme scale lengths, 7+ string bass and 9+ string guitar.
 
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#55
ixlramp said:
Well as i said, Skip never stopped making and selling basses, and has been experimenting with amplification for years, so this makes little difference. Knuckle Guitar Works is being rebranded into Kalium. Their instruments and amplification is very specialist stuff so will be low volume sales. Maybe they have plans for expansion who knows.

Hmm, seems they can't win, everyone was desperate for news of what's going on, Chris writes a post and now people are complaining about too much information. He's just a friendly open guy and just happened to share a few details of his personal life. When i copy-pasted that i was somewhat dreading returning because i knew (understandably) that there would be a negative reaction.

Anyway, they're a tiny company (one guy hand-winding everything) which has gained a lot of attention, they're too small to cater to a large amount of mainstream bassists so i recommend if you're tuned within BEADGC and want to try a balanced tension set, build custom sets from your favourite brands. Kalium is more for sub-B bassists, extreme scale lengths, 7+ string bass and 9+ string guitar.
Click to expand...

I think there's just a higher degree of wanting to deal with reality rather than wishful thinking, apologies, and bright promises for the future when it comes to dealing with a business around here.

People asking to hang, go for a pizza, or date somebody's sister. The simply want to order strings, pay what's asked, and have them delivered when promised - and be told fairly promptly if things aren't going to happen, and be given a definite date by when whatever went sideways will be resolved. It's a fairly simple and rational set of expectations called "doing business." I don't see why the annoyance of those who have orders hanging should be hard to understand, nor why they should be criticized for it.
 
#56
I should have done more research. Have heard good things about their strings, so decided to order 2 sets. Didnt realize tbey were such a small company. I assumed the strings that they had advertised on the site were actually in stock. I get the impression now that a guy actually winds your strings when you order, or something.
I still look forward to the strings, but it would be cool to have something on their site about the turnaround time, or if the set you order is currently out of stock.
 
#58
Indeed the frustration is understandable, sorry to be critical of it.

> Dang, shipping product has been a problem with them for over three years!

See knucklehead's (Skip of Kalium) reply further down.

flojob,
Apparently they keep a small stock but i guess sometimes certain strings will be depleted.
They have no pre-packaged sets just individual storage for each gauge / material / length combination.
 
#59
ixlramp said:
Indeed the frustration is understandable, sorry to be critical of it.

> Dang, shipping product has been a problem with them for over three years!

See knucklehead's (Skip of Kalium) reply further down.

flojob,
Apparently they keep a small stock but i guess sometimes certain strings will be depleted.
They have no pre-packaged sets just individual storage for each gauge / material / length combination.
Click to expand...

Yeah that may well be the case...i just ordered standard bt hybrid sets. They might be out
 

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