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I ordered a tonearm from him early this year with the understanding that the usual turnaround was six months. In July he indicated to me that my order would be completed in August.
I have not heard anything since then and he has not responded to two emails.
Has anyone here had any contact with him recently? Anyone have an order for a tonearm that was placed ten months ago or more?
Thanks,
M
Follow Ups:
And hopefully he will have my third Schick arm ready when I see him in two weeks. This is for a Gates CB500.
I'm selling my trusty SME 3012s...not even in the same league and going all Schick with my main TTs. Hope to have enough change from the sale to pick up a Jelco 12" also. Can't afford Schicks for all of my experiments!
My 9" Jelcos, present and past, are "good enough" but smeared and a bit dull next to the Schick. Same with the SMEs.
Steelhead Mike, I know the wait is killer but I'm willing to insure your purchase with one of my personal Schick arms. I'm only risking that because I know he would never rip anybody off. Totally good guy. Slow but good.
He has been working furiously installing modern heating and plumbing in his old farmhouse and finishing a barn as a well-equipped workshop. I was there, in the winter. Very cold in Eastern Germany! Insulation would be nice!
Thomas is my friend, and I love using things made by friends, but the long Schick is really super for compliance 10 and under, SPU and DL103s specifically, my main cartridges. A specialized tool, it is not for everybody or every application, but for 2g plus VTF, low compliance it is totally dialed in. Set and forget. No fishing line, springs, silicone oil, outrigger weights, etc. My kind of arm.
These arms are handmade by Thomas working alone. I would be surprised if he can make more than 4 or 5 a week working full time with a gun to his head.
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Free your mind and your ass will follow -- Parliament/Funkadelic
Thank you Joe for your kind, generous offer and for your valuable insight. Thomas is fortunate to have a friend in you. My patience is being tested, but it's still there and running strong.
Best,
M
Schick was my friend for some years before I even tried out his tonearm. Many of my good friends are manufacturers and I don't run out and buy any of their stuff. But once I finally broke down and tried his arm, I was sold on it.
Frank Schroder is also a good friend and his arm sounds great, but he knows I will never go for an arm using fishing line as part of the mechanism, even if I could afford it. Or even if he gave me one, which is extremely unlikely.
Actually, Frank is also a vocal supporter of Schick arms for people who need an arm like that. He is another super honest German tonearm maker.
In any case, I'll insure the purchase, so all you have to worry about is time, not loss of funds. It is nice to have the opportunity to buy meticulously hand made items but the wait list downside is indeed painful.
The other arm I bought recently is a Karmadon Gray Research update from the Ukraine. Handmade beautiful thing. $500. Soon he will have a long wait list too, probably.
Many who go into the business "on the side" don't last when they realize that it takes over your life and making as much money as a real job is a distant goal. Schick is fully committed to full-time manufacturing and past that part of the cycle, but it is surely a relentless gig to run a one man shop, even though I can see he loves what he does.
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Free your mind and your ass will follow -- Parliament/Funkadelic
I got my arm last week after an 11 month wait. Thomas kept me updated all along stating he was very behind in part to a restoration of his 150 year old home.
Excellent! Good to know it's just a time blip. Enjoy your tonearm.
M
....I appreciate your thoughts and comments. I'm going to hunker down and wait, for now.
M
If you haven't actually paid for the Schick arm yet, I would encourage you to contact James Grant of Analog Instruments about getting a 12" Siggwan. I owned a Schick for a couple years but sold it soon after buying a Siggwan. The Siggwan is a 12" solid cocobolo unipivot arm. Very professionally engineered and built. Sonically I greatly preferred it over the Schick. And the icing on the cake is the Siggwan is less expensive than the Schick. Mine was built and delivered in just a few weeks, exactly on schedule. James is located in New Zealand but is very easy to communicate with by email. You can reach him via Facebook.
I just noticed they recently are introducing a new arm with detachable headshell. Good for them!
I think Schick tonearms occupy a niche market that demands 12" arm with detachable headshell that allows SPU type of cartridge heads. Or if you want to play 78 records that certainly requires an arm with interchangeability. Regardless of its sound, it satisfies a market.
Purists will always prefer arms with no signal and/or mechanical breaks between armwand, of course.
Is he still making them? The Facebook page hasn't been updated in over five months and the website is no longer functioning.
James was still making the Siggwan as of a couple months ago, but he is no longer actively promoting it. I think he is just too busy with his full time job and family.
Edits: 10/21/16
I ordered and received a new arm from TS last year. It took quite a bit longer than was originally planned.. but as I know well (through 2 arms of his over a few years),
Thomas is an honest and fair guy.. He will come through for you, i'm sure of it.
I think he's just really, really busy and production is a bit slow right now. Word is he's really slammed with orders and efforts on his new turntables.
Hang in there.
I exchanged emails with Thomas in September. I used his email contact listed at his website to get in contact. I gather he's still active.
-Steve
Sorry! I can't help you with your problem, but I'm wondering what the attraction is for the Schick tonearm. It appears to me to be a very simplistic design that costs way too much money. How would it compare to something like a Jelco SA-750D or SA-750L?
Thanks,
John Elison
Why do you always bash the Schick tonearm when you've never actually heard one? We get it, your SME V is the best ever. But did you ever think that the Schick is for a specific type of cartridge (low compliance) and works exceedingly well in that regard? Do you also think the classic Ortofon arms are trash as well? Just because the Schick doesn't look fancy doesn't mean it sounds like crap.
I had a Schick tonearm for a few years on 2 different tables, a Thorens TD124 and a Rek-O-Kut L34, as good as it worked with an upgraded Denon 103 cartridge, I could never get rid of a small amount of hum. Even after rewiring and different mounting configurations and different headshells, the hum was always there. I sold it and bought a 12" Jelco, dead quiet-finally!
I know they are a nice arm, but waiting months and months for an arm to get built can get frustrating. I had the same experience with another well known custom arm builder, after the completion date kept getting pushed back, I requested a refund.
Thomas
You are perfectly within your rights as a customer to be distressed about waiting overly long for an order, but the fact that you had a hum problem with your Schick is almost certainly not the fault of the tonearm per se.
Possibly, but I really didn't want to purchase other turntables, phono-preamps and cartridges to try and eliminate the hum. I actually tried several cartridges, they all sounded fine but the hum remained. It was obvious to me that the Jelco didn't have any hum, it is being used today and I am happy with it.
Thomas
I suppose it's possible that there was something awry with the wiring in your sample of the Schick, but hum in a vinyl system has so many possible causes that it's impossible to say what caused your particular problem without more information, as I am sure you already know.
I have never seen a Schick tonearm "in the flesh". Nor have I ever heard one, therefore. The design seems very simple and straightforward. Materials, machining, quality of the bearings, etc, all may contribute to its rather high cost. My only thought about the design is that it does not place the counter-wt in the plane of the LP, which has become a latter day fashion, for good engineering reasons. However, there are many great and even much more expensive tonearms that also do not adhere to this design element, e.g., the Durand Telos ($25,000!!!!).
You seem awfully defensive about your Schick tonearm. Personally, I don't like Schick tonearms and I don't like Ortofon tonearms either because I think they are both way overpriced for what you get. However, I think Jelco tonearms represent a very good value in today's market of overpriced tonearms.
To each his own!
Good luck,
John Elison
I already like this Thomas character. His new turntable is idler-drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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