Your Mullen G2 built time ?

[Joe A. Roberts]

Ordering a new Heckel bassoon (Heckel in Wiesbaden has been considered the top maker for pros for over a century) has a seventeen year wait. That's 2042. The first iPhone came out 17 years ago.
The price is around $70,000 now and that is not locked in, you will pay the price it costs when it is built!

[Jon Voth]

Ordering a new Heckel bassoon (Heckel in Wiesbaden has been considered the top maker for pros for over a century) has a seventeen year wait. That's 2042. The first iPhone came out 17 years ago.
The price is around $70,000 now and that is not locked in, you will pay the price it costs when it is built!

Wow-the lead of the Army Band "Country Roads" group I am in is a bassoonist and has one. In fact the Army Band has a few I believe. I thought they went for around 40K but man that is crazy.

[Bill McCloskey]

Carter used to have an assembly line and could really push out pedal steels quickly.

I look at it as: how many do you have to sell in a year to make it a viable business. Figure an average SD10 sells for $4k give or take, You'd need to sell at least 3 a month to stay in business. So that works out to 10 days per steel, every day with no break. If it is taking you more than a week to produce a pedal steel, you aren't going to be in business long.

[Henry Matthews]

I’ve bought 3 new guitars in my playing career, 1986 D-10 Emmons, 3 weeks
1992 Carter, 1 week
1994 Rains, 3 weeks
What’s taking a year to build a guitar? Am I missing something?

[Paul Awalt]

When two key players of the management and production of any small family owned business suddenly leave, there is a void in the business that might never recover. Hopefully with the support of the dedicated employees,
some whom might miss a check, and faithful customers willing to work with them over time, Mullen will survive. I can image the wait time in this situation for them to catch up being at least the next two years and worth the wait, since I currently own a 2024' SD10 G2 and have owned numerous Mullen's in the past.

[Bill McCloskey]

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.

[Detlef Webert]

Dear all, thanks for jumping in here!
@ Joe A Roberts - looks like that is something very special - not just "plain wood" with a bit of metal, probably very special and filigree parts.
When you're midage you might be willingly to wait 17 years but for sure not when retired.
@ Paul Awalt - about the business - one should have an overview of what's going on and organize the workflow accordingly; perhaps Mullen has to re-organize themself but at least I would expect an email which gives a bit more details what the issue is here.
@ Bill McCloskey- Thanks for the info of all other builder.
Looks llke dark clouds coming up the horizon.

Many thanks,

[Clark Connell]

Mine took about 6 months exactly, but that was 2 years ago; the country has kind of gone to hell so who knows now....

[Henry Matthews]

I don’t really understand how to post something on this new forum and thought I posted this one.
What I wanted to say is what’s the deal with these long long wait times when buying a new steel. I’ve bought 3 new guitars in my life but was in late 80’s and early 90’s. Was an Emmons Legrand D-10, a Carter D-10 and a Rains D-10. Got every one of them in less than a month. To me totally ridiculous to have to wait 2 years or even a year on a new guitar. I can’t believe so many guitars are being sold that puts them that far behind but that’s just me. I must be missing something.

[Bill McCloskey]

No idea Henry, but it has to be costing them sales. Last weekend I was on the new Emmons site. I saw that their delivery time was 4-6 months. Fantastic! I called them on monday to order one and discovered that was no longer the case. Now it is a year wait and 50% upfront.

I passed.

[Damir Besic]

“Excell is no more”

Since when? I haven’t heard they went out of business , and their website is still up …

[Bill McCloskey]

When was the last time you heard from them? My understanding is Mitsuo retired.

[Damir Besic]

He did, but as far as I know his son took over the business, just recently some guys on the forum ordered some parts from them

[Bill McCloskey]

Have you heard anyone getting a steel from them recently? I haven't. I thought Toshiyuki Shoji was going to take over for him but then he started his own business before falling ill.

[Greg Forsyth]

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.

[Bill McCloskey]

Desert Rose and Rittenberry are both one man outfits. don't know about Justice.

[Greg Forsyth]

I don’t really understand how to post something on this new forum and thought I posted this one.
What I wanted to say is what’s the deal with these long long wait times when buying a new steel. I’ve bought 3 new guitars in my life but was in late 80’s and early 90’s. Was an Emmons Legrand D-10, a Carter D-10 and a Rains D-10. Got every one of them in less than a month. To me totally ridiculous to have to wait 2 years or even a year on a new guitar. I can’t believe so many guitars are being sold that puts them that far behind but that’s just me. I must be missing something.

I don't know about Rains but I imagine Emmons and Carter's dealers had guitars in stock back in those days and they weren't produced to order. Hence the shorter lead times.

[Bill McCloskey]

Carter was really set up as a production line. And they had a great marketer as their head. Maybe a lot more guitars were being bought then. But I've never figured out the economics of the pedal steel guitar business. If you imagine there is maybe $1500-$2000 profit per guitar, if you aren't making and selling one a week, I don't know how you stay in business.

[Toshiyuki Shoji]

Have you heard anyone getting a steel from them recently? I haven't. I thought Toshiyuki Shoji was going to take over for him but then he started his own business before falling ill.

Yes, that's correct.
Even after I left Excel, Mitsuo still seems to be building steel guitars.

[Henry Matthews]

Carter was really set up as a production line. And they had a great marketer as their head. Maybe a lot more guitars were being bought then. But I've never figured out the economics of the pedal steel guitar business. If you imagine there is maybe $1500-$2000 profit per guitar, if you aren't making and selling one a week, I don't know how you stay in business.

Yes Bill, I realize Carter was more or assembly line and their guitars were great. If I owned one of the guitar companies and the profit margin was worthy of it, I’d have an assembly line to if they are sell enough guitars to put them years behind. I may be dead wrong but I don’t they they sell that many guitars. I’d have them a perfect new guitar in less that a month. .
I can put one together in a week my self.
It just makes no sense

In a week.Have done it many times but I had the parts. That may be the drawback not getting parts but the the parts company’s s should step up their production. Someone is dragging there feet.

[Derek Puckett]

Hey, I’ll come up just to clear some thing up, since 2020 we have had a lot of issues with supply chain and vendor passing. Legs,cases,polishers.
I’m a one man show and I got really busy all at once. I did have a full time job I had to keep due to the loss of my in-laws from COVID. Their family business would have closed if I had not stepped in. Once we get behind it’s hard to get caught up. Last year my polisher destroyed most of my endplates, necks and keyheads this his put me behind 6 month that I was already behind 6months. The more the options the longer it takes to make. There are only a few lacquer finishers out there and they are months behind. So that adds time as well. I’m training my step son now fingers crossed I can get him involved and teach him to start building.

[Henry Matthews]

I don’t really understand how to post something on this new forum and thought I posted this one.
What I wanted to say is what’s the deal with these long long wait times when buying a new steel. I’ve bought 3 new guitars in my life but was in late 80’s and early 90’s. Was an Emmons Legrand D-10, a Carter D-10 and a Rains D-10. Got every one of them in less than a month. To me totally ridiculous to have to wait 2 years or even a year on a new guitar. I can’t believe so many guitars are being sold that puts them that far behind but that’s just me. I must be missing something.

I don't know about Rains but I imagine Emmons and Carter's dealers had guitars in

stock back in those days and they weren't produced to order. Hence the shorter lead times.

I ordered my Emmons back then a custom color, red in front and gray on top so no, was not in stock, neither was my Rains, Carter was I think.

[Doug Earnest]

Just to clarify things again while it is true that I am not taking new Stage One and Encore orders right now, I work on guitar orders every day. Yes, pretty much EVERY day. I am very nearly caught up with the last batch of orders and then I will take more. Meaning that when I take more orders, some people will get a guitar in a week, some in a month, etc.

Adding helpers doesn't mean you will make more money, you will just have a chance of sending more guitars out the door. Two different things.

[Samuel Rogers]

I ordered a custom 4+5 all polished Discovery in 2022 and then a lacquer w/ wood neck SD-10 G2 in 2023. Mullen got them both done and to me right around the 12 month mark.
I did check in a time or two in the process after about six months from the order date. My G2 was one of the last three guitars that John Wilson did before retiring.

like others have said though already, they have had a few major set backs. they were not taking new orders due to CNC issues, then the (sad) passing of Mike Mantey.

I had heard it was an 18 to 24 month wait at one point from a friend who was shopping for a new G2 mid to late last year.

[Dave Grafe]

Del is gone, Mike is gone, Shaun walked away. There is no experienced builder currently in house. I ordered pull rods and they arrived with the thread ends ground off square and completely unusable due to an unsupervised 'assistant' unclear on the concept being the only body in the shop. Fortunately I have the necessary skills and tools to be able to salvage them. Best option IMHO is to cancel your order and talk to another builder.