Hi all - just wanted to share a quick update for those of you who pre-ordered Sparks.
Shipping Update
We had a slow start to our shipping schedule - 2/3 of our team unfortunately got COVID at a local event right after we announced the start of Sparks shipping and it pretty much ground things to a halt. Some of you probably noticed tracking labels generated but they didn’t move for awhile. I’m sorry about that - they are now in USPS/DHL’s hands and you should have estimated delivery dates. Thank you for your patience.
We are back at it now and have caught a good stride. It looks like we’re managing final QA + shipping for about 40 units per day. If we continue at that pace we should finish shipping all the pre-order units by next Friday August 9th. Realistically it may spill into the following week though. We’ll continue to post about what orders are going out on this thread. And we’ll try not to leave anyone in a pre-shipment status for more than a day or two - we like to have a decent batch boxed up before handing off to USPS, and international orders sometimes lag a bit because we drive them directly to the airport which is a ways from our house.
Synth Tutorial Video
Our printed manual references a YouTube tutorial about the SID Chip synth. Since I was out sick I wasn’t able to finish editing this and it won’t be up online until after the first couple batches arrive. We’ll try to carve out some time for that ASAP so you can have a hands on guide to help you get started with that part of the device. In the meantime it’s documented in our online manual along with other MIDI topics.
Hope you guys at kinotone will recover fast from covid, and thank you for very effective service, you responded fast on my mail and very shortly after it, i got a shipping mail and as we speak Its been delivered from USA to Europe in only a couple of days, i cant wait to spend time with this and experiment with the pedal and stack it with my other pedals, thanks again kinotone.
Just an FYI: All remaining Sparks orders have been packed up and prepped for shipment. If you ordered you should have a tracking number in your email inbox. Everything left will go out between now and Monday.
Big thanks to everyone for being patient and kind while we worked to get them out the door. Ya’ll are the best.
Jaak, The buy button disappeared from your website. Either it’s a browser issue or you don’t plan do to any more batches of sparks ? If yes please give us some updates. thanks
We’ll share a more formal update in the next few days here but we’ll have a batch of Sparks and Ribbons available later this month or early next month before the holidays. We’re starting to build up both now.
Perfect Circuit will also be selling a small batch of both. We’re shipping them out to them next week - not sure about the timing on their end but I imagine before the end of the year.
Glad some people who were wanting Sparks were able to get them!
That did not go as planned though We were really hoping Perfect Circuit would talk about Sparks in a social media post or an email, since apart from our little corner of the internet Kinotone is not well known, and Sparks especially is pretty under the radar. That’s generally the idea working with a dealer - they take a 30% cut in exchange for help with marketing / brand awareness. And since it sold out before they shared anything they probably won’t market it now.
Oh well. Live and learn. Maybe we’ll get a bump about Ribbons!
Haha oh no. Is there any chance of making something like that clear to them in the future? I’m an animator for a social ad agency and it’s good to have specific plans for time sensitive posts etc.
I feel a bit silly for thinking it would naturally play out the way I wanted it to - I should have communicated our expectations more clearly. This was our first time selling to a dealer. You can tell I’m 7/8 engineer and 1/8 business owner haha.
Yeah it’s all a learning process. Social media can feel very willy nilly (and sometimes it is) but it’s surprising the planning / contracts / etc that can go into it. At least selling out before the product is even able to be advertised seems like a good problem to have!
But I think we will have to wait a few more months. May be a B-Stock ? That is how I got my hand on my beloved Ribbons.
We were really hoping Perfect Circuit would talk about Sparks in a social media post or an email, since apart from our little corner of the internet Kinotone is not well known, and Sparks especially is pretty under the radar. That’s generally the idea working with a dealer - they take a 30% cut in exchange for help with marketing / brand awareness. And since it sold out before they shared anything they probably won’t market it now.