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Has anyone bought anything from Allied lately? the last two orders from them have been total crappy packaging and or crappy material. They sent me a box of firewood for brace wood and some back and side sets with cracks inside th patterns.

Seems like ever since Allied was bought out its an entirely different company

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I have placed and received a few orders from Allied over the last 3 months. Both went well. I recommend telling them about what happened to your package. I bet they will make it right.

My thing with Allied is that they price some (not all) items pretty high, in my opinion. But, maybe I just don't have taste or needs as sophisticated as their average customer.

I have done price comparisons on both and found that Allied is less expensive on several items compared to LMI and Stew Mac even when factoring free shipping from LMI (over $50. purchase) and Stew Mac with the $40 per year then free shipping.

Off the top of my head the 2 things that come to mind are bone nuts and saddles-aside from a lower price Allied uses Water Buffalo bone which I have found to be more consistent and denser than whatever LMI and Stew mac are using.

They are also less expensive on their kerfed lining which is exactly the same as LMI.

Once they sent me the wrong product but were very responsive when I called them and made it right.

Bonus points for actually answering their phone......

True; along with wood binding, and some finishing supplies, etc. Those are the things I buy there, because they are good deals. A lot of their tops and back/side sets, however, feel like they are priced for fancier guitars than I want to build. I am sure there are people who want to pay that much; I just don't want to.

Yes, same here. I have gotten some really good deals on ebay, facebook and at my local lumberyard.

I have not made a purchase there is many months but I have found their one piece mahogany neck blanks to be the cheapest price around and decent enough in quality. They also have the best price on Ivoroid binding. Kered linings and bone as mentioned too.

I didn't know they were bought out. Hopefully not by venture capital but by someone interested in the business?

Not to insult David as I know you are experienced in building instruments but split brace wood does indeed look like firewood. Of course cracks inside the outline is not good unless otherwise mentioned at time of purchase. Things like that happen though. I bet they will do you right if you contact them.

OMG lol yes I am aware that split brace wood can show up looking like firewood lol I was referring to the quality of the brace wood.

The new Allied is a completely different business model than the old Allied.

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https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

I won't buy from Allied again unless I'm at their shop with eyes on what I want to buy, which won't likely happen. I suppose that they have some good quality wood but the web site description of what I bought was, uh, "fanciful". Took a year and a half to get part of my money back and got anything at all because I was stubborn (but polite). When I worked in retail as a teenager, I had a better concept of customer service than what I experienced as a customer of Allied. BTW, this was entirely during the present ownership. YMMV, but there's not enough time in the day to deal with this kind of stuff. There are so many other places to buy wood.

I ordered a large shipment of truss rods from them, just months after the current regime took over. They arrived in a reasonable timeframe and were quality rods. Haven’t ordered any wood in recent times.

I really want to like allied because of past experience prior to being sold and moved. But honestly I haven't purchased from them since the sale, their prices just didn't seem to compete. But I do miss the old allied, maybe I should give the new one a chance on some of the things you guys mentioned.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Last time I looked at their social media they seemed to be really focussing on buying up stashes of nice old wood from retired luthiers and marketing choice pieces for $$$ - definitely their marketing was targeted towards pro builders looking for high end material, rather than enthusiasts. Surprised to hear they are sending out poor quality stuff.

I probably got 90% of my tonewood from Walter Lipton at Euphonon from early on in my building career.

Allied bought him out when he retired a few years ago. His wood was advertised as Euphonon stock but with his prices almost doubled. I still bought some, it was great wood.

Walter was great. When I called him the first time he asked me how many guitars I had built. I think it was around 10.

His response - “I can’t give you the good stuff yet “

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I like Allied for some things, but I think their back/sides sets are way overpriced. I don't really care if a set came from a particular luthier who never used it, at least not enough to pay a premium for it based on that.

As a probably extreme example, they want $300.00 per set of Mediterranean Cypress, which they get from Octopus Tonewoods in Turkey, which I know because they have left their stamp on there. You can go to Octopus' website and order 4 sets of their top grade Cypress for the same ~$300, including UPS shipping from Turkey.

I've bought some things from them, and everything has been fine though. Brad Goodman's point about the nuts and saddles is a good one, and I'll probably order some from them.

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier