Official Luthiers Forum!

Is this a business with a location? An order processor who arranges to drop-ship orders without a tangible in-one-place inventory? What went away when the printed catalog disappeared? Is Dan Erlewine offering any how-to videos?

Thanks!

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Peter Havriluk

Best as I can remember, for years all my shipments from SM originated from Ohio. Recently at least some are being shipped from West Virginia, according to tracking information.

Lots of changes it seems at StewMac and I don't have the story or at least enough of it to weigh-in. I read in another thread that they were bought as recently as September this year by someone but I do not know this first hand so take this all with a gain of salt.

My amp cabs came from West Virginia too and all that means is that they have more distribution warehouses than they used to when Ohio was it.

If their business model is or has changed and you don't even know what it is yet I would not be seeing this as necessarily a bad thing. I was just on the site to see if they had 12" high end speakers and wow the selection is not the stewmac I remember they have at least a couple dozen offerings. I was expecting one or two offerings.

And again my recent issues with them were resolved in what I would consider a very fair way and we worked together to make it all right and did exactly that. Im completely satisfied.

Dan is no longer with StewMac he retired a year ago and when he and his wife come to visit us next month I'll ask if Dan and his brother (his brother was behind the camera on many of the videos) have any plans to continue videos.

I see some possible advantages in StewMac changing their business model and will be waiting to see what they are. I also know it's a free country and whatever business model StewMac wants to adopt that's up to them. My only participation here is do I want to do business with them and my answer remains a resounding YES.

Lastly what I see but I'm not in the know is StewMac expanding offerings to be a bigger player in the industry. Now amp builders and even players can find offerings at StewMac for them. There is an Amazon presence as well.

The thing holding back StewMac all these years is that we, builders and repair luthiers are not a very large market so anything that StewMac does to help keep the lights on in terms of expanding the markets that they serve I see as in everyone's best interest. A StewMac who perished in the marketplace will not serve any of us very well.

Did you know that if you purchase a tool at StewMa and it wears out or fails in any way they will replace it for your life time? Me either, that's the policy I'm told now and that's pretty cool! We wear out a lot of tools, I wear out fret files every few months I cut so many nut slots and or gum up my files in dental fillings.

And FYI I am not affiliated with StewMac in any way and in fact just had a dispute with them that was not all that pleasant. It is resolved and resolved well. So when I shill for StewMac it's because they are important to me, our business and this industry and above all they deserve my praise and support, they have earned it.

Thanks

Regarding the West Virginia shipping data: StewMac is based in Athens, Ohio. If you look at a map, you will see that the nearest larger city to Athens is Parkersburg, West Virginia. I don’t see it as surprising that the packages would show up as coming from West Virginia. I don’t know if StewMac also has a picking and packing operation in Parkersburg; maybe they do, maybe they don’t. But I don’t think they are a drop-shipper. Another thing to keep in mind is that they never (at least not for the last few decades) had a retail walk-in storefront. They are a mail order (now an Internet based) company. There have definitely been changes at StewMac, but if you are focused on the above questions, I don’t think you will find evidence of huge shifts in policy or their business model. Those shifts are better evidenced by the changes in how they interact with customers. Hesh reports that things should get better in that regard. I hope that turns out to be the case.

It seems to me that SM is responding to an increasingly competitive environment where consumers are both better informed as to their growing number of buying options and more cost sensitive as both PPI and CPI skyrocket due to global and national supply chain issues and devaluation of the dollar. Add to that staffing pressures as we see the seemingly incongruity of a huge demand for hiring and a shrinking labor pool due to worker exits to retirement or other failure to return after lock-downs, shutdowns, or comfy work-from-home gigs. The cherry on the sundae of that labor force turmoil is state or federal-level vaccination mandates increasingly necessary to participate in what Americans consider to be everyday life.

Summary: a near-perfect storm of rising costs, declining productivity, supply chain issues, and labor friction seemingly purpose-designed to sink small and medium-sized businesses.

I expect that SM will weather that storm, but I also expect that they will not be the same entity that saw those dark clouds on the horizon in early 2020.

Re: WV fulfillment. Keep in mind that many, many companies have pulled up stakes elsewhere in the country to move to lower-cost states for both production and distribution. My home state may require some updates on residential elevator sizing and weight limit regulation to address the reality of outsized political operatives and their similarly-sized domestic canine partners, but they do shine in terms of luring businesses to the Mountain State.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Stewart McDonald started out as a company that sold banjo making kits to people who wanted to build a banjo. It was natural that they would eventually expand into other kits and the tools necessary to build them. That they moved into the market to supply professional luthiers and repair people tools and supplies is also not surprising.
I still view them as primarily a kit building supplier, with pro luthiers as being a niche market they also serve.
We may be more of an annoyance than a primary market for them.

I think Woodie has got it right. That has been my experience anyway. The first item I bought from Stewmac was probably in about 1993 or so. At that time it was SM, and LMI. That's pretty much all I knew about except for some of the wood dealers in the EU. I'm sure there were more but those were the big two it seemed to me. I had SM packages on my door step every couple of weeks for years. Then I started noticing more and more competition creeping in. When SM started their membership thing with free shipping and discounts I thought it was great and continued using them. Now there is so much competition out there I have not used SM in about 6 months and have just recently cancelled my membership for next year as I don't see the value in it any more.

I don't say this to disparage SM at all. I have never had one bad experience with them. I do see them changing though, and that's fine, they have too. But I don't need amp, pedal, and guitar kits. I most certainly will continue to do business with them and will always recommend them especially to new people interested in instrument making. One thing I will say about them is that even though they are a bit more expensive I have always gotten great quality tops from them. Those old growth red spruce tops they had last year were stellar.

I also like that here in Virginia I can make an order from SM and sometimes it's here the very next day.

Sounds to me like any activity that isn't selling is overhead, and overhead (aka customer service, humans on a telephone line, catalog, advice, technical information) is considered wasted activity.

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Peter Havriluk

Well, perhaps not wasted, but certainly subject to budgetary constraints.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

Good points Clay and I agree. We, builders and repair people tend to be cheap and clever a combination that often leads to shop made tools instead of StewMac purchased tools. We also scream to high heaven when something goes south like I just did. . Who need us!

As someone outside the USA … StewMac’s offer of unlimited free INTERNATIONAL shipping with their membership program is the primary reason they get my money over any of their competitors.

This shipping deal saves me hundreds of dollars a year vs buying through LMI, jescar or whoever.

The fact that they have a broad range of things my shop needs - from electronic components, to tuners, strings, even tonewood, as well as tools - means it’s just easier to get it all from one place.

Yes, I can find pots and caps, or strings or whatever cheaper elsewhere but once you add on shipping plus the time spent clicking around various sites trying to find the best deal, I feel like I still end up losing out vs just doing most of my business through SM.

It’s a savvy move by them to offer this.

Josh brings up an exc pt. In the late 80/s in vancouver . bc I would drive from surrey to the airport, and have my pkt from sm go through customs, pay the duty fee. extra shipping and the exchange on the cdn dollar. Oh how times have changed

Speaking of…

StewMac is all over Amazon these days. Is that them, or an imposter?

If it is an imposter, they are very bold. In my dealings with Amazon they are pretty good about shutting down imposters (as opposed to imitators). Why does StewMac let them keep selling?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

To answer your questions.

1) Yes. The business is in Athens, Ohio.
2) We don't drop ship anything. Everything ordered from StewMac ships from the Athens, Ohio facility (even the stuff bought on Amazon. And yes, that is us selling on Amazon.).
2A) In Europe Madinter distributes some of our products, but everything bought from StewMac is shipped from StewMac.
3) Nothing went away along with the catalog, other than the catalog. There were several decision factors that went into deciding to stop the catalog. Dramatic rises in printing and postage costs, the immediate obsolescence of the catalog as soon as it was printed (we're bringing out more products now than we ever have, and prices are out of synch immediately as soon as we print the catalog), and then there is an environmental concern (which we are starting to take a closer look at across all areas of the business). We conducted several studies about the catalog and learned that most customers were using it as a product discovery aid vs. a shopping aid. Since the catalog was discontinued we have been experimenting with new ways to help with product discovery (box stuffers, etc.)
4) Yes, Dan is still around and works with us. I communicate with him frequently. He retired from the StewMac 40 hour work week last year but we continue to work with him on videos and other content projects. We will continue to do so for as long as he is willing.

Here are a couple other things perhaps worthy of note:

In the last few years we've made enormous investments in R&D, Manufacturing, Wood (Sawmills, Kilns, personnel, etc.), Content (video / article / how to content), and a brand new website which has lots of really helpful customer features that we will begin rolling out once we get our feet under us. Again, much of this came from the surveys and research we have done with customers.

Another thing I think people either don't know (or don't remember) about StewMac is, everything we sell has a lifetime promise on it. If you ever wear it out, break it, or it fails to live up to your expectations let us know and we will replace it. Forever. You can use those nut slotting gauge files for 10 years, wear them out, and we will replace them. That is a significant value and something StewMac has done from the start.

I just saw a youtube video with a tour of the StewMac facility. Looked like a really neat place! Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmAH-fRDRsk

Hey Brock thanks for this and thanks for helping me too to a good resolution that I am happy with. I also have Tommy to help me now too so I'm a happy camper. Had a bad weekend with my 90 year old blind mom's health so no amp building for me but I hope to resume that today.

Patrick thanks for this, very cool video.

I used to participate in the acquisitions of corporations for the biggest company in human history at that time. In doing so I've visited hundreds of companies and taken some walks around them too.

This does not look like a company that is on the bubble to me. Instead I see massive investment, a professional organization and an investment in product and facility that may be second to none in the Lutherie industry.

Pretty clear from this video to me who by the way is a betting man that the only place that StewMac is going is up. And that's a beautiful thing.

Thanks great video. I like Stewmac and have bought much them over the years. I’m glad they are there. I just don’t like hearing that they don’t answer the phone anymore (for whatever reason). One time I had a friends Borgeous (sp?) guitar in and a Waverly tuner button gave out (Ivoroid). Button moved but the tuner didn’t. I called SM and the nicest lady answered. Asked if I could buy a button - she shipped me two free of charge. Incredible.

Well Dang! I am going to have to dig one of my nut files out of the trash that I literally just tossed away the other day because it's shot...

One thing I can say is, it's frustrating for both of us when a client comes back with a guitar because the knob breaks on a set of Sloan tuners but it's equally satisfying to both of us when SM replaces them no questions asked in short time. This has happened twice over the years.

I think you guys should push that guarantee on your website a bit more. Maybe you do but I was not aware of it for all things. That's actually a huge incentive.

Brock--

Following up on JF's comment that emphasizing the guarantee would be a good selling point (a comment with which I agree):

Something a few of us have noticed is that someone searching the StewMac website for acoustic guitar tops can reasonably be led to believe that you don't have any. That happens when someone follows the Woodstax path on the website and finds that you don't have any acoustic tops in Woodstax. That person would have to know that Woodstax is the "pick the actual pieces you want" part of the website, but the "picked from stock" part of the website has lots of other woods. The difference is really not explained well on your website. You might want to have some part of the website explain the difference between Woodstax and the other woods, and make the shopping path more flexible for people to switch between the two, with reminders in Woodstax that there is a whole inventory of stock woods also on the website. Plus, it feels like a missed opportunity if you don't pick out some really nice tops and include them in Woodstax.

Another selfish request of my own is that, if you had some opportunity for individuals to come to Athens, by appointment, and pick out the wood they want to buy from your stock, I am 100% sure I would take advantage of that opportunity. I live only 1.5 hours away from your headquarters. I understand not wanting to run a retail storefront; I don't blame you. But for those of us within driving distance, it would be great to come pick from your stock in person.

Thanks for coming onto the OLF. I appreciate what StewMac provides, and want it to stay healthy and successful. Please take any suggestions as being given with that intent.

Informative topic! I liked the video and came away with an even better view of Stewmac. I am amazed that they building their tuners, I use both Waverley and Sloan tuners; I think how easy it would be to offshore the manufacturing. I hope they continue to do well and I am impressed with the level of investment being made.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Watching the video, It looks to me like Stew Mac is "insourcing" as much of their products as they can. New sawmill, CNCing tuner parts, etc. This seems wise to me given the current (and probably ongoing) supply chain problems that manufacturers have been experiencing. It looks to me like Stew Mac isn't nearly as dependent on others as a lot of other companies are. There's always going to be some dependency on raw materials suppliers and such, but the more stuff you manufacture in house, the more likely it is you'll be able to fill your orders. Bet we see a lot more of that in all kinds of manufacturing going forward, but Stew Mac seems to be ahead of the curve.

Dave

After reading this thread I had a conversation with the marketing team about this. From my perspective we do talk about it a lot, but perhaps not enough, or not making it clear what the "Lifetime Promise" is. So I appreciate this feedback. Thanks.

This was another eye opener for us. I completely agree with you that we need to work on the UI/UX to make it clear that some woods can be bought buy the piece (Woodstax) and others are picked from stock. It might take us a while to make this change happen, but I have discussed it with the team and we are coming up with ways to make it clearer.



We used to do "shop sales" but when the building was remodeled it became tougher to do (we don't have an actual building lobby), but I will discuss it with the team and see what it will take to make that happen. I appreciate the suggestion.[/quote]

My pleasure. Thanks to you (and everyone) who has shared ideas and feedback. It is very helpful.

StewMac got where they are by answering the phone and printing a catalog. Planning on spending down the legacy?

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Peter Havriluk