Owners of Adamas and Emerald?

[ac]

Originally Posted by Matt_Adamas

. . . . I do know the X-20 is not limited so if I wait 6 months I will very likely be able to get one.

Is the backorder on the X20 now at 6 months? Is that the estimate you got from Emerald?

That's longer than usual for Emerald, I think. However, I understand the demand for the X20 is large. Delays are no surprise then as a lot of orders will tend to slow things a bit--but I expect it's worth the wait.

[Matt_Adamas]

Originally Posted by ac

Is the backorder on the X20 now at 6 months? Is that the estimate you got from Emerald?

That's longer than usual for Emerald, I think. However, I understand the demand for the X20 is large. Delays are no surprise then as a lot of orders will tend to slow things a bit--but I expect it's worth the wait.

No, that 6 months has nothing to do with back order times. I just threw out a random time, that's all.

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

Originally Posted by Matt_Adamas

Yeah, there are many things that are different between the two guitars, for sure and I'm trying to weigh those options. Even trying the guitars in person won't tell me I really like some things more than others and I'm pretty adaptable in general...

Matt, sounds like you need one of each.

[Matt_Adamas]

Originally Posted by Ted @ LA Guitar Sales

Matt, sounds like you need one of each.

Yeah, I thought of that and I eventually will get one of each.

The funny thing is I physically have no more room for guitars. I've only got 20 and I'm going to sell one of my Adamas for this new acoustic. After that I will need to sell two electrics to make room for one more acoustic. I've got some redundancy though
so nothing will be lost.

[Alistair Hay]

So heres everything I know about USA Import duties.
We used to ship via UPS and Fedex and guitars would arrive with the customer and often they would get a bill for customs clearance fees but not customs duties. The fee would typically be about $50 . It seems they charged for the process of deciding there was no import duty. UPS told me back at that time that there was no import duties on acoustic guitars from Europe to USA but that they still had to go through their usual clearance process.
About 3 years ago we switched to shipping via postal and since then guitars shipped to the USA have arrived without clearance fees or duty.
We don't falsify shipping documents, we just ship stuff and this is what happens.
Shipping to Canada and most of the rest of the world is different. I think Canada adds about 7% but not certain on that.
Actually if you lived here in Ireland you would really have issues with import duties. Here we pay 23% VAT and 3% duty on imports and they will add a clearance fee on top of that. Its a nasty shock when the postman comes with a COD bill.
Our current lead time on an X20 is now moving close to 5 months. I wish it was shorter but right now our sales are exceeding production by quite a margin.
We are making moves towards increasing production capacity but we are very cautious about expanding too fast as we have to be 100% focused on maintaining and increasing quality.
Hope this helps
Alistair

[Ted @ LA Guitar Sales]

Originally Posted by Matt_Adamas

Yeah, I thought of that and I eventually will get one of each.

The funny thing is I physically have no more room for guitars. I've only got 20 and I'm going to sell one of my Adamas for this new acoustic. After that I will need to sell two electrics to make room for one more acoustic. I've got some redundancy though
so nothing will be lost.

Man, I hate to hear about selling guitars, but sooner or later we all have to do it I guess. My collection got above 100 guitars before I realized I needed a guitar room. Today my collection hovers around 50 or so guitars which is much more manageable.

BTW, I discovered CF guitars in the late 90's. We bought a vacation home in the local mountains where humidity hovers around 12%, so I needed something more durable than wood. A quick trip to the Hollywood GC led me to a Rainsong OM1000, and it was love at first strum. Today I rarely leave the house with a wood guitar. In fact my Rainsong BI-DR1100NS pretty much lives in the back of my SUV.

[steelvibe]

Cool thread with some big names and the wisdom that goes with it. Nothing like watching someone have a gas problem!

[ac]

Originally Posted by Alistair Hay

. . . Our current lead time on an X20 is now moving close to 5 months. I wish it was shorter but right now our sales are exceeding production by quite a margin.
We are making moves towards increasing production capacity but we are very cautious about expanding too fast as we have to be 100% focused on maintaining and increasing quality.
Hope this helps
Alistair

Even 5 a month wait is not too bad for an Emerald. Time passes quickly. Who knows, if orders increase, it could even be a longer wait in the future.

I waited almost 2 years for an Olson in the early '90s. But the absolute perfect quality of the guitar I received made the wait well worth it.

Thanks for the update.

[Matt_Adamas]

Originally Posted by Ted @ LA Guitar Sales

Man, I hate to hear about selling guitars, but sooner or later we all have to do it I guess. My collection got above 100 guitars before I realized I needed a guitar room. Today my collection hovers around 50 or so guitars which is much more manageable.

Eh, I'm a player, not a collector so I'm not going to sell anything I'm attached to. I feel guilty if I don't play each guitar at least once a year and sometimes I don't.

I know folks like yourself that have 100 guitars or more and I can't even imagine that. I worked in music retail for 12 years and like you had access to lots of very cool stuff but even then I only got up to 13 guitars. At some point I feel like they own me instead me owning them.

[Matt_Adamas]

My quest is complete. I bought a used X-20 from a board member here. I still might get a Rainsong too but this was a good deal and will fulfill my needs.

Thanks again to all who replied to this thread.