Why the Delay on the Delays?
As I write this it’s the middle of May 2021 and we have not shipped ADG-1 Rev B units. I had hoped we would be shipping in March but here we are and still not shipping. So what is going on? Massive supply chain issues are mostly to blame along with the difficulty of running a small business with a small team.
We hope to start shipping again in limited supply before the end of the month. However each time we think we are about to ship something new comes up to slow us back down.
Covid, as we know, has set the world upside down. Shipping costs have gone through the roof. Things that used to be easy to get are not. Everything is taking weeks or months longer than expected. Shipping prices for heavy items have tripled. I used to not worry about shipping cost but now sometimes it cost more to ship an item than I paid for the item. My theory is that since people are at home their purchasing habits have changed and the entire world supply chain has been disrupted. This is making it very challenging for us to get parts and even harder to deliver you ADG-1 pedals at the price you expect. We have had a small price increase as a result, but my vendors and I are doing the best we can to keep prices down and absorb the extra cost.
To give you some ideas of what we have experienced.
Enclosures that use to take a few weeks to get are taking 3-5 months.
Knobs that used to take 30-60 days we are being told 6 months if they will even take new orders.
Standard capacitors that used to be stocked are not to be had with 3-9 months wait time!
Switches are on long back order with unexpectedly long lead times and some are not taking orders at all.
Semiconductor manufactures are backlogged adding months to normal shipping time.
The transistor that is the heart of the filters has just gone end of life with no stock available.
And the latest delay - a critical Op Amp, that we thought we had plenty of stock of turned out to be the wrong part sent. We are being told 9 months for more stock.
If anyone has a source or extra stock of OPA1678IDR (SOIC) Op Amps we are in desperate need. Please contact us!
I feel blessed to be working with a fantastic PCB manufacture here in North Carolina who is doing their best to manage these problems but I know it’s a ton of extra work for them that they did not expect. Without their effort we would be lost. Thank you for the entire West Jefferson Team. You folks Rock!
All that said, I am really happy with how the Rev B units have turned out. The new changes have made it much easier to calibrate and the units we have tried tuned up perfectly the first try in under half the time the previous version took. The boards look and sound great and everything went together well. The new enclosures look fantastic with a nice texture and a subtle green sparkle tint I think folks will love. Our vendor reports that this paint went on much easier and more consistent and that the printing adhered well without the extra steps and hassle they required for the previous paint we used. So for this we are very thankful.
So that is where we are at. We have found most of the missing parts but are still short some op amps and enclosures. We hope to ship with what we have soon but it’s a wild world out here in 2021. Thanx for hanging in with us.
