Post BFCM shipping status

[Doc B.]

We have been busting ass and we have almost everything but Crack kits shipped thru the Black Friday orders. We got way more Mainline orders than anticipated and that exhausted our tube inventory. Thus the 'almost' is due to a few Mainline kits which are awaiting 6C45pis from Eastern Europe. Mail from there is a crap shoot these days with some things arriving very quickly and other things arriving not as quickly. We hope to see those 6C45pi tubes clearing customs soon.

Tomorrow we hope to get all the Crack and Speedball orders made through Black Friday shipped. Everything is kitted as of this evening so we should be able to get them all packed and ready to ship out. At the risk of dislocating my shoulder patting myself on the back, that means we will get the equivalent of 6 weeks worth of kit orders out in about two weeks. Cyber Monday left us with another full month's worth of orders to pack and a few other tube types will need to arrive from vendors before we can ship a few of those orders. We will get as many of the orders as possible shipped before Xmas.

[mjstealey]

Your busted buttocks are greatly appreciated Doc!

I'm new to the whole Bottlehead ecosystem and have spent the past many months reading, researching and viewing content on the various kits that you all have perfected over the years. And yes, I am one of those BF Crack people who is adding to the kinks to your backbone ...

In the brief time that I've been perusing the forums I've learned a lot, have had the chance to exchange email with Eileen (who is awesome!) and have read of personal loss within the family (my condolences to your family).

I may be later than most to the Bottlehead game, but I'm happy to have found you, and am truly looking forward to my first build (of hopefully many) with my kids along for the ride.

Thank you for what you do and all the best to you and yours!

[Doc B.]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

[mjstealey]

Hard not to have kind words with the wonderful community that you all have built up around these kits!

Since my last post UPS has delivered both of the Cracks that we had ordered during the BF sale so it's quite exciting times.
Next step is off to the hardware store to pickup some Hammered Rust-Oleum spray paints, get the plates, bells and misc hardware fasteners prepped, and start the painting and curing process.

Should make for some nice holiday memories for me and the kids :-)

Thanks again!

[twofires]

I just received my S.E.X. kit this morning - that's ordered and packed and order tweaked (thanks Eileen) and repacked and sent across the planet to Australia in under a month, from out of a massive pile of orders. I'm pretty impressed. Also super impressed with the packing - the little bubble wrap bumpers on the thin edges of the wood pieces? Fantastic. Clearly you've done this once or twice before.

On the subject of the wood, has the type changed since a couple of years ago? Seems more figured and, um, sugary-looking (sorry, I don't know from wood) than the Crack I built last year. I don't actually know the age of that kit, as I bought it locally from someone who had never built it up, but it came with the most recent Speedball iteration, so I imagine not that old.

Not complaining, mind you (this actually looks more interesting), just curious. Maybe it's just the difference between trees. I honestly don't know.

Anyways - thanks BH team. I appreciate the effort to get these out the door so fast and professionally.

[Mucker]

Nice choice of amplifier! One of the best headphone amps in existence IMO. I believe the wood has always been Alder. The wood from my Crack kit, 2015, is more blond than the redder wood of my recent Crack. S3X, and Moreplay (all purchased within the past couple of years). The first Crack was painted and remained that way for years. When I built my second amp, the S3X, I was so impressed with the oiled wood that I stripped off the dark Crack paint, sanded and oiled it. See attached before and after photos of the same amp with other upgrades. Much, much better! (The same Crack is shown in all 3 photos).

Another interesting observation is that the wood color changes depending on the room lighting. In the third photo you can see the effect. Notice the side color is different from the front on the Crack. In reality it isn't. When I rotate the amp the color changes. Above lighting is LED. Cool effect.

Enjoy your amp mate, the S3X is incredible.

[Doc B.]

Yup, the most wonderful thing about wood is how every piece is a little different. We have had our bases made from alder by the same excellent millwright (Harmonic Designworks) for what, 25 years now? And I think JR has been using pretty much the same supplier for the alder during that time.

Just a little early history - the very first S.E.X. kits had poplar bases that I made in the garage on an inexpensive Ryobi table saw and Craftsman router table. Then for a while I made bases with John Tucker (Exemplar Audio) in his wood shop. JR approached me about making bases for us at one of the first VSACs and we've been using his ever since.

I like to think that part of our success has been to find good suppliers to partner with. JR is our oldest and the best to work with and MCI transformer in Norcal has been a great partner for many years as well. We've also used the same pc board manufacturer for the kit boards for quite a few years.

Latest update on shipping is that we got all of the cyber Monday Stereomour II kits packed before the snow and ice trapped us. The SIIs shipping by mail have gone and the UPS ones are awaiting pickup after the ice has melted. We need a little holiday time and then we will get back to the balance of cyber Monday and later kit orders. We have tubes slowly trickling in from Eastern Europe that will be needed for a good portion of those orders (Eros, Reduction, Mainline).

[twofires]

Nice choice of amplifier! One of the best headphone amps in existence IMO. I believe the wood has always been Alder. The wood from my Crack kit, 2015, is more blond than the redder wood of my recent Crack. S3X, and Moreplay (all purchased within the past couple of years). The first Crack was painted and remained that way for years. When I built my second amp, the S3X, I was so impressed with the oiled wood that I stripped off the dark Crack paint, sanded and oiled it. See attached before and after photos of the same amp with other upgrades. Much, much better! (The same Crack is shown in all 3 photos).

Another interesting observation is that the wood color changes depending on the room lighting. In the third photo you can see the effect. Notice the side color is different from the front on the Crack. In reality it isn't. When I rotate the amp the color changes. Above lighting is LED. Cool effect.

Enjoy your amp mate, the S3X is incredible.

Nice work on those!

I'm planning on getting some funky coloured dye from a diy guitar website (it's probably just food dye but it's cheap anyway so I'm not bothered) and mixing up a purple or something, and then Tru Oil on top. We'll see.

And thanks for the clarification and little bit of history on the wood working, Doc. The design of the base is really very clever. I'm not sure if it was an original Bottlehead idea, or something taken from kits of the past, but I can't think of a cheaper, more efficient design from a material cost, or a shipping cost perspective.

[Doc B.]

The gravity mount of the chassis panel in the rabbet was my idea. It ruffled many feathers. John Tucker showed me the simple and repeatable way to square up the mitered corners with tape as they get glued up. It requires that the miters be damned near perfect, and that's where JR's skills shine.

[caffeinator]

Hi twofires,

An alternative for dye is the ubiquitous Rit Dye; the clothing dye sold in grocery, variety and fabric stores (and online). It actually works fine to dye wood, has no odor, is inexpensive, and is very forgiving. You may need two or three applications to get the color just right, but it is easy to apply more, or use a light sand or steel wool buff to lighten it back up. I have used this with good success on some utility furniture projects around the house. I recommend sealing it with a couple of coats of shellac before applying Tru Oil. And another two thumbs up on Tru Oil!

[twofires]

Hi twofires,

An alternative for dye is the ubiquitous Rit Dye

Cheers, I'll give it a look!

[Doc B.]

Many, many Cracks and Speedballs shipped today as well as Reductions and Integrations. All Black Friday orders are done and all Cyber Monday orders should be done by tomorrow. The remaining Cyber Monday kits are Kaiju, Beepre2 and Eros. We have them kitted and ready to box when we get in tomorrow. Thanks for your patience with us as we plowed thru the biggest batch of BFCM orders ever and our second biggest sales year ever.

We will be working to get completely caught up with December (and some January) orders when we return from a trip to the Bay Area that we are taking next week to attend to some family business.

[Doc B.]

The last of the Cyber Monday kits are being boxed up and labeled as I type this. When we are back from the Bay Area we will be packing another large batch of Crack kits and then moving on through the rest of the kits. Thanks again for keeping us very busy!

https://bottlehead.com/bottlehead-kit-delivery-status/

[Doc B.]

We have shipped a big pile of Crack kits today, along with a couple of BeePre2s. I believe there will be some TwoQuiets going out tomorrow and then I think Moreplays may be next in the queue. We will be shipping out as much as we can before we - once again - leave for a week to wrap up some family business in Cali.

Looking forward to a much less hectic February and getting caught up on a few fun projects. The past four months have been very challenging.

[Doc B.]

We have shipped TwoQuiets and a Stereomour II, and a pile of Moreplays are going out this afternoon. We'll be back in the shop in about a week and diving into Mainlines, Cracks and few other kits.