Your Mullen G2 built time ?

[Detlef Webert]

thanks for the reply,
that actually very bad news!
I assume that the build-time is more or less with other brands.

[Jerry Overstreet]

When you say Del is gone, you mean retired right?

I had not heard Shaun had left either. That there are no qualified personnel there anymore is very discouraging. Is this all really happening?

[Dave Grafe]

My understanding is that before Mike passed Del came back in to help get things on track but when I spoke with the shop a couple of months ago the production manager Shaun had recently walked out and the only folks left were the new office gal and one shop hand trying to get parts orders filled with no supervision, thus the mistake on the rods they shipped me. Russ Parks probably has a much better line on the current situation than I do, I only know I was stunned by the circumstances at that time.

[Dave Grafe]

All other factors aside (delivery, third party parts availability) what is the minimum time to build a typical professional S10 with lacquer. Say 3x5.

In other works how many Labour hours

From my experience in rebuilds you're looking at a few hundred man-hours in the casting, cutting, machining and assembly, including building and finishing the single-wide lacquer body. Materials could easily add another $800-$1000 or more to the cost of a build, more for a one-off instrument. Builders out there, am I close?

[Dave Grafe]

UPDATE: Shaun called me today to let me know that he is back in the shop and intending to stay, and that anyone with questions should call and ask for him personally. This is very good news for all concerned.

[Nathan Pocock]

I put an order in a couple weeks ago for a G2 SD10, mica and very ‘standard’. I was told 8-10 months.

Since Covid there are a lot of custom industries backed up, last year I did a custom hunting rifle build and the receiver took almost a year, barrel and stock took 3 months.

In a way it was more incentive for me to put in an order to just get the process started. Hopefully things work out!

[Clark Connell]

Losing Mike was clearly a blow to Mullen. I reached out to them today about getting a single coil and they are out of stock for the foreseeable future as a result of Mike's passing. And one of the main pieces of equipment that they use to manufacture 90% of their parts was out of commission for a while. Williams might end up being the last man standing. MSA is 2+ year wait and out of most people's price range. Excell is no more, Zumsteel isn't taking any more orders. boutique builders like Emmons are long waits and out of most people's reach, GFI seems to be still around and kicking. Jackson's prices are astronomical for a single neck guitar, the growlers are in the student guitar category, all the rest seem like they are one man shops which are prone to sickness, accidents, deaths so it is a risk to put deposits down. As far as i can see, Williams are the only ones making a pro guitar in a reasonable period (one year) for a reasonable price. It is really a sad state of affairs.

Sierra also has stopped production. Stage One isn't accepting orders.

However, I think Desert Rose, Rittenberry, Justice and probably several others are still building pro quality pedal steels.

Hopefully Mullen will recover from the issues they have.

Being in the pedal steel building/selling business would be like watching the 3 Stooges in Spanish, you don't get any orders for a while and then boom, you're slammed with a bunch all at once. Then you add in unreliable third party vendors sending you junk , and if you're a one-man operation, this makes it really hard to keep up and turn out a quality guitar. Builders don't have it easy at all.

[Dave Grafe]

The new Sho-Bud guitars are excellent

[Chris Brooks]

Just checked the new Sho Bud site. They cost many many thousands of dollars.

How is Williams's build time these days?

[Dave Grafe]

Just checked the new Sho Bud site. They cost many many thousands of dollars.

Just like any other high quality build, have you priced Franklin guitars also? These are lifetime professional guitars and still less expensive than a violin or cello or flute or trumpet of equal quality. Decent used instruments are not inexpensive either, I have several times invested over $8k in acquiring and rebuilding 50-year-old push-pulls into proper performance instruments with appropriate cases. The 1983 Zum that is my current show axe took $7500 and 80 hours of my own shop time to get it ready for showtime. That's a $10k plus investment to own and play a first-rate forty-year-old guitar. A new Sho-Bud at that price will play as well or better, sound just as fine, and still be a fine show guitar many years after my old Zum's changer is finally worn out from use.

[Brian Willey]

Just checked the new Sho Bud site. They cost many many thousands of dollars.

How is Williams's build time these days?

Chris - I just got a Williams in exactly 5 months from order date to delivery. They estimated 8 months when I ordered it, so this came in early and the guitar is fantastic. I could have gotten lucky with a production run or something, so 5 months may not be realistic in general.

[Greg Tudor]

I see that 3 pedals, 5 knee levers is standard on the G2 (SD-10).

Does anyone know what/where is the 5th knee lever on a standard G2 with the Day setup?

[Chris Brooks]

Thanks Brian for your response. Five months is not that long a wait. Glad to hear you like your Williams and may you play it for many years to come!

[Detlef Webert]

Hi Greg,
The G2 comes with 8 or 9 floor pedals and 5+ knee lever, depending on what you want.

[Jerry Overstreet]

I see that 3 pedals, 5 knee levers is standard on the G2 (SD-10).

Does anyone know what/where is the 5th knee lever on a standard G2 with the Day setup?

The normal setup for the 5th lever is a vertical lever between LKL and LKR lowering strings 5 & 10 from B to Bb. If you just order the standard setup, this is what you get.

You can, however, change that to move whatever strings you want within the parameters of the build cost.

[Chris Robbins]

Just ordered a new Willams and the lead time is 8 months .When I talked to Bill he was confident 8 months would be feasible.

[Chris Brooks]

Yes, Chris R., today's e mail from Tim at Williams said 8 to 12 months.

[Henry Matthews]

A year is ridiculous, should be 6 weeks or close to it.

[Rich Ertelt]

I was told, when I ordered my Discovery in January, that they had parts to assemble them so it should be "by May". It continued to be "soon", with a month ago told the one before mine had shipped, so probably the next week. Turned out it showed up about 1/2 hour ago.

I appreciate they are trying and they finally go it out. I understand they had some challenges. The did get it out, so that is good. I'd expect the wait to be a while.

[Bill McCloskey]

Actually, that is pretty good time Rich.

Let me interject that I recently acquired a Mullen G2 D10 9x9 with the full polish package from (well known steeler) who plays with (well known country aritst) and it is the finest pedal steel I've ever owned by far. Smoothest playing, best sounding, best looking steel I've ever come across, let alone owned. (btw if someone is looking to get a mullen right now without the weight, my old Mullen G2 D10 8x5 is available)

I ordered my MSA a year ago August. I won't see it at the earliest until next August...If I'm lucky.

I'll take 9 months over that.

[Rich Ertelt]

I ordered my MSA a year ago August. I won't see it at the earliest until next August...If I'm lucky.

I'll take 9 months over that.

I will say, after just a couple hours on it (I have played one before, the steel player I played with in TX had one, so I knew it would be good) - plays great, sounds great.

9 months wouldn't have been so bad if I knew that up front. I had a LOT of work this summer, a couple gigs a week, some recording, which I really wanted it for. So the "it will be soon" only made it worse. I understand they had worker issues, I'm not mad or anything, just wish I'd known.
I also was thinking about cancelling and getting the new sho bud maverick, at one point. I wasn't sure When it would be done, they were saying 2 months at first (it is now 4).

Supposedly, when I ordered, they had the parts, they just needed to assemble, and there were a few ahead of me. I would expect their higher end stuff would be even longer. Just putting that out there, if you want one (and yea, I can see why), it is going to be a while.

[Garry Simpson]

I ordered a Mullen SD10 G2 on September 30th, 2024. I spoke with a lady from Mullen yesterday, I forget her name, but she is Shaun's sister. She said she is assuming managing the office duties at the company. She also stated their CNC machine was down for three months which caused some delays. Shaun will be out for the next couple of weeks due to a medical event, so they are closing for the next couple of weeks. She said as soon as they return, she would get back to me with an updated delivery date.

From what I picked up it sounds like the company has had a rough year and they are trying to get things back on track.

[Bill McCloskey]

Probably Lynette, who is a very sweet woman. She always has treated me well.

[Rich Ertelt]

I found this on a thread from 2019. Of course, things have changed since then, just found this interesting -
viewtopic.php?t=352167

by Lynette Richards » 9 Dec 2019 2:13pm
I did some quick calculations and would say 10 hours. Assembly on a D-10 if the parts are ready is 2.5 hours(that is just here though), but the average # of guitars per month vs # of hours worked comes out to a guitar every 10 hours. That is with making all our own parts and doing all the finishing to the metal and body etc. These are not exact #'s but a general idea.

[Garry Simpson]

Probably Lynette, who is a very sweet woman. She always has treated me well.

No, it wasn't Lynette, she mentioned that Lynette is no longer there, but this lady was nice also.