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Sad Day. Atkinson closes shop.

#61
ghoulbug said:
Wow, that's a shame.

The only other incidence on TB like this that I can remember is Ibanezcollector.. wonder what he's up to?
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Wow! I was the customer that helped Ibazezcollector stop building. Long time since I heard that name!

As I recall, he shipped me a mess of a bass that was wired wrong and he even completely forgot to add a volume knob. He shipped it completely unassembled, the logo fell off the headstock, etc. Brutal.

In any case, Ibanezcollector thought he could be the next TB hot builder.... Except he had no clue what he was doing beyond relic-ing (which he was pretty good at). Atkinson OTOH was a great builder and likely got sick of customers complaining about little quality issues. Not worth the BS to make under $200 a build.
 
#62
Hey Dan,

I hope you read all of this and feel the love coming from caring people.

You are a caring person yourself, and pretty damned un-selfish if I may say so.

Maybe after you cool off for a while, take a new approach?

1) Let people "apply" to become a customer. If you can't properly vet their "good guy" status, sorry - no can do. Not just anyone can buy an Atkinson bass anymore - you need credentials and probably some references as well. If someone doesn't like this approach they would probably be a lousy customer too.

2) Charge more money. Not a lot more, maybe $200 -$300. This has 2 effects - 1) slow down demand, which sounds like it needed to happen and 2) you get a more appropriate paycheck for making everything right on your basses.

3) 20% up front payment. Non-refundable. This is custom work so decent people will expect this. Return the instrument? That 20% is still non-refundable.

I hope you don't mind me giving "business advice" but If you took this approach you would slow way down and be 99% sure you aren't dealing with a slimey snake who doesn't distinguish between you and a corporation like guitar center.

Whatever you do, please don't leave the talkbass community. You are good peeps and we don't want to lose you!
 
#63
SolarMan said:
Hey Dan,

I hope you read all of this and feel the love coming from caring people.

You are a caring person yourself, and pretty damned un-selfish if I may say so.

Maybe after you cool off for a while, take a new approach?

1) Let people "apply" to become a customer. If you can't properly vet their "good guy" status, sorry - no can do. Not just anyone can buy an Atkinson bass anymore - you need credentials and probably some references as well. If someone doesn't like this approach they would probably be a lousy customer too.

2) Charge more money. Not a lot more, maybe $200 -$300. This has 2 effects - 1) slow down demand, which sounds like it needed to happen and 2) you get a more appropriate paycheck for making everything right on your basses.

3) 20% up front payment. Non-refundable. This is custom work so decent people will expect this. Return the instrument? That 20% is still non-refundable.

I hope you don't mind me giving "business advice" but If you took this approach you would slow way down and be 99% sure you aren't dealing with a slimey snake who doesn't distinguish between you and a corporation like guitar center.

Whatever you do, please don't leave the talkbass community. You are good peeps and we don't want to lose you!
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I agree 110%
 
#64
Another guy here that is disheartened that such a nice dude who was putting together quality gear could be brought down by "unsatisfied" customers.

I contacted Dan about a build a few months back and he always responded quickly, was really polite even though I had some dumb questions and out of the ordinary requests. Instead of getting a sweet custom 4 that would have been a versatile session/ recording J and P killer, I ended up finding a sweet deal on a Dingwall 5.

Dan, please take everyone's advice and give it another go! Charge a little more, require a deposit, and keep putting together awesome basses.
 
#67
jmac said:
To quote Randell from the movie Clerks, "This job would be great if it wasn't for the @#$%^& customers."
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Such is the life of someone who must deal with customers. Dan's experience provides an important lesson to those thinking of starting their own business: Only do so if you're willing to deal with jackasses, and fairly effective at doing so without ruining your own day.

I fail at both of those, so I would need to start a business with a partner who has people skills. :D
 
#70
The thing is though,that when someone pays a high price for a "Custom bass",they expect it to be built from the ground up(body and neck).The difference is great in time involved.That is the main reason I only build on a request basis only.Some people will NEVER be satisfied,no matter what you do.I wish Dan the best of luck in the future.
T
 
#72
:cool:

I wish Dan well. We all create our reality.
When you deal with a certain pool of customers. Who want a $2500.00 for $1200.00. You can't win. Sound like Dan burn't himself out.
Maybe he will come back later and do select smaller % of builds?
 
#73
I've worked with the public my whole life, it definitely has its downsides.

It took a lot of experience to learn to be firm and yet give decent customer service, and to know where and when to draw the line and when to cut your losses. There will always be the occasional customer who will never be satisfied, or to whom you have messed up and everything seems to go wrong from there. The trick is not to waste more energy with these than necessary, and to spot them early and obviously to not mess up yourself, but crap happens.

I hope Dan gets back into it, with a business model where the hassle is built into the selling price, and where the risk to himself is lowered to a manageable level, or one where it becomes worthwhile to do business. Only he knows if that is possible.

I bend over backwards for my customers but I won't just bend over.
 
#74
smcd said:
If you're too liberal on your down payment or return policy, people will take advantage of you.
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Especially when his profit margin is $175 on an instrument. If the buyer is only putting down 20%, you're basically buying an instrument and floating its cost until you get paid. How many of use would do that for good friends let alone strangers.
 
#75
Nugun said:
Dan's basses were of a much higher quality than the American Standards though. Hell, they were higher quality than most Deluxes (Deluxi?) even (in which I was assuming Munji was referring to).
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Not to mention the fact that Fender offers only 4 or 5 colors, only in poly, with only their pickups, you can't customize any neck specs, the setup is usually questionable, they're usually on the heavy side, and many of them neck dive, etc. :)

Anyway, just found this thread. Thanks for the kind words. I've got lots of emails from folks encouraging me to get back in the game in some fashion. There's little chance I'll get back into the custom order business. But...I am working on some basses now that are slight modifications to the traditional P, J, and Stingray designs. I'll probably post them for sale on my site. Maybe 1-2 builds a month. We'll see!
 
#76
-=DanAtkinson=- said:
Not to mention the fact that Fender offers only 4 or 5 colors, only in poly, with only their pickups, you can't customize any neck specs, the setup is usually questionable, they're usually on the heavy side, and many of them neck dive, etc. :)
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And you certainly can't get one of these from fender:

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I would so like to rock that thing.:)

Keep up the good work!
 
#78
Actually, Leo Fender had a tabletop test bass that looked very similar to that. It allowed them to try all their different pickups and locations without doing full builds and stripdowns of actual basses.
 

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