This was really spot on. It’s just a waiting game. I really don’t think anyone is going to get screwed because he largely had many of the parts already on hand. He had to get the cases made, powder coated, then has to do assembly of the remaining parts (already on hand). I believe he was waiting on a shipment of PSU’s as well.
I’m thinking Q4 this year is possible, but sometime 2024 isn’t out of the question either at this point. I don’t like it (one bit), but I can wait as I already have one and this will be a 2nd. What’s most infuriating is his complete inability to take 3-5 minutes to send an email update or make some kind of social media post as to what’s happening. It’s just inexcusable and indefensible.
I happened upon the gearspace thread for the other synth he took preorders for (VS-1 I think it was called). They have the pitchforks out over there and it actually sounds like people are getting close to taking whatever legal action they can against him (if there is any). Makes me glad I was too slow getting my avalon preorder in lol. It is sounding like these things might not come to be.
Wow… just read that thread. NGL, kinda wish I didn’t. Real s**t show. The money is gone, and it would suck to lose it, but there was always an amount of risk to it though the company did have a track record of actually shipping a product. I still (maybe foolishly so) think we’ll get orders, but only time will tell. If not, it was a somewhat expensive lesson learned to keep GAS and FOMO in check.
The sequencer is nice, the extra features, compared to a original 303, are cool, and the sound is great. But it’s definitely not worth the price, and absolutely not worth the struggle.
I bought mine from the 2020 batch (received after 7 months, which was not that bad), if I remember correctly. At some point I though I didn’t want to be in the situation I had to send it to repair to Abstrakt. So I sold it for the price of a Polyend Play and two Bass bots. Which means a great sequencer (and more) and an excellent 303 sound.
If you bought one from the last batch, you knew this would happen (both waiting for a long time and facing lack of communication from Brian). I just sincerely wish you feel it was worth the wait and worry when you finally receive it…
I strongly suggest you guys try to get a refund.
I bought mine from the first batch in early 2017 and only had to wait a few months for it. I guess things got more difficult for Brian as the orders started flooding in. Things clearly got worse with parts/cost issues etc.
One man band operations must be difficult. I always got great customer service from Brian when he eventually got back to me…
Anyway, I sold mine a few months ago as just wasn’t using it much, and made a profit from its original cost outlay of £900. I got £1,700 for it including a couple of extra filter carts - so it was a good investment for me. I see people trying to sell theirs for £3k. Good luck to them!
Good luck to all of you that are waiting for your lovely new units
There is no need to share these ungrounded “conclusions”, please keep the pitchforks wherever they lie.
Yep, not going to argue there. Giving regular updates won’t keep the most angry people from being angry but it’ll keep those with different expectations engaged.
If you need the money for more pressing matters, sure.
Obviously a lot of time has passed and people would’ve chosen a different option in retrospect, but I’ve sank into sunk cost because I know that I’m eventually going to receive mine.
This I agree with more
There are cases where I’m very glad I didn’t, the pitchforks came for the Space Case debacle. But while pandemic logistics have absolutely fucked Brian’s current two projects, he’s released products successfully before and I trust that he can handle getting them out.
I will absolutely never back small producers that’ve never scaled to a full product (over mods) going forward, obviously.
I hope every flipper who posted about how they bought three and are “going to sue!” lost more on credit card interest than they make when the micro-“market” floods.
That said… I also hope every person who’s moved is able to get their address updated! I get the frustration, and comms could’ve been better and more frequent, but I’ve been trying to not keep it on my brain too much over the year(s).
I was sooooo close to ordering a silver one instead of white, but was scared they would be delayed even further or have QA/QC issues. The silver looks amazing.
I requested a refund 3 or 4 times; now I’m kinda glad I never got a reply and looking forward to this thing showing up at my doorstep some random morning.
I used to put the Avalon through the AH, and it sounded great. It already sounds amazing though, so doesn’t really need anything, unless you’re looking for distortion. I’d highly recommend the SEM and R:OTA filter cards.
