My take is Bartolini doesn't have the time for small luthiers like Zon. When Ibanez or Dean come calling how many sets do they order? 5000? 10000? And how many do Zon order? 50?
I think there should be a couple of things that need to be done...
1)Zon should find a new pick up supplier. Bartolini is not the know all see all manufacturer of pick ups. There are a lot of great guys out there.
2)Bartolini should have the decency to tell smaller manufacturers/luthiers to go else where or order in batches of 100's.
3)Redundancy is a business practice that Zon should practice. Look at Sadowsky, they get their pickups from Nordstrand, DiMarzio and Seymour Duncan.
4)Zon need to seriously go to a Borders and look for the "Idiots Guide To Good Communication".
My $0.02's!
Let me weigh in on this, if I may....
Firstly, the quantity that Zon orders doesn't impact Bartolini's "time for Zon". The pickups made for Ibanez are not made by the same people as the pickups for Zon- all the Ibanez stuff is made in Asia (Korea or Indonesia, I forget). So the big deals don't affect how or when Zon gets their stuff...except for the fact that the Ibanez deals make sure Bartolini keeps their doors open.
1) Yes, the delays are an issue, but Bartolinis are what people want, so it doesn't necessitate completely switching. But notice they have a model that comes with custom Seymour Duncans (the Studio, for example), and you can order them with any bass. You could also get EMGs, people have ordered them with Aeros, I got mine with Lane Poors, etc. All you have to do is ask. But if you want Bartolinis, then what are you going to do?
2) You don't understand their business, so this comment doesn't really reflect reality.
3) See #1. They use a number of pickup suppliers if you want them. But you can't just swap pickups on pre-existing orders with different pickups because one is delayed. These are not machine screws- they're pickups with huge, fundamental differences. It isn't ensuring redundancy if they aren't the same end product.
But, for reference, DiMarzio doesn't make pickups that fit this application and they do ZERO custom work, Nordstrands are very expensive so the customer would have to pay more, and they do use Seymour Duncan. It's substantially easier to get J pickups or J-style pickups from multiple different manufacturers, but that does not reflect the majority of Zon's business. Not really a direct comparison.
4) Yes, they need to hire someone full time who is good at dealing with customers. But that takes a lot of money, and they aren't swimming in it. Yeah though, that is absolutely, positively their weakness. Talk to Joe once though and you'll find out why: he's always bending over backwards and pushing until 10pm to get all of the customers' requests filled and made to their specifications. He's a hyper perfectionist, and at a certain point there's only so many hours in the day.
They would benefit from getting a really good person, though.
