New UK Supplier

[Christian Clarke]

Hello, Merry Christmas and a Happy forthcoming New Year to all members and guests on this forum.

My name is Christian Clarke and I am the proud owner of a new company called Electric Keys. We are based in the UK and are dedicated to supplying high quality Fender Rhodes reproduction piano parts across the UK and Europe.

Please take the time to browse the website (www.electrickeys.co.uk), have a look at the products; I'm sure you will find the navigation easy and intuitive and the pricing to be very competitive.

As we are a new company any feedback you would like to give would be really appreciated.

Additionally I would encourage all visitors to subscribe to the Newsletter to be kept informed of all future product news and updates.

Thanks
Christian

[little george]

As we are a new company any feedback you would like to give would be really appreciated.

I´m missing tines and pickups between your products.

If possible, I would like to see prices in euros aswell

[goldphinga]

This is great news Christian, we have been lacking a dedicated UK parts supplier for a long time, I have a few questions that would be great if you could answer:

1. Where do you source your parts from? Are these Vintage Vibe parts or your own newly manufactured parts?
2. If they are your own new parts have they been tested in the field?
3. You currently have no tines, damper modules or pickups in your inventory, where will you source these from and whats the pricing going to be?
4. What else do you plan to stock? ie sustain pedals and rods? legs? would be great to know...

Great stuff!

All the best with the new venture
Happy 2014
D

[Christian Clarke]

Thanks for the immediate feedback. I'll try to answer your questions as best as possible.

I´m missing tines and pickups between your products.

If possible, I would like to see prices in euros aswell

Tines and pickups are on the list of products that will be introduced early in 2014.
I will look at introducing pricing in Euros if this becomes a common demand. It is not as simple as you may think as the Euro price will change constantly due to the exchange rate. For now all I can suggest is that you check with a live exchange rate what the conversion would be.

This is great news Christian, we have been lacking a dedicated UK parts supplier for a long time, I have a few questions that would be great if you could answer:

1. Where do you source your parts from? Are these Vintage Vibe parts or your own newly manufactured parts?
2. If they are your own new parts have they been tested in the field?
3. You currently have no tines, damper modules or pickups in your inventory, where will you source these from and whats the pricing going to be?
4. What else do you plan to stock? ie sustain pedals and rods? legs? would be great to know...

1. I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that Vintage Vibe are the supplier. I see no reason to re-invent the wheel when another supplier is already doing such a great job.
2. Answered in No.1.
3. & 4. All current and future products are planned to be sourced from Vintage Vibe. Future products are likely to be:

Cross Bar Plates
Bass Logos
Stage Name Plates
Suitcase Name Plates - 4 pin & 5 pin
Tines - Long, Medium & Short
Tine Springs - all sizes
Sustain Pedals
Full Pedal Kits
Sustain Rods
Sustain Guide Cups
Sustain Damper Bar Bushings
Sustain Pedal Bushings
Pedal Feet
Sustain Dowels
Sustain Rod Wing Nuts
Sustain Rail Damper Pins
Centre Damper Pins
Vintage Vibe Pickups
Leg Flanges
Cheek Blocks
Stage Brace Knobs
Front Leg Couplers
Vintage Hammers - Half Wood & Plastic
Damper Arms - Bass, Mid & Treble
Octave Damper Strips - Bass, Mid & Treble
Bridle Straps
New Tone Bars - 73 Style - all sizes
Tine Tone Bar Screws
Pickup Screws
Namerail Felt
Suitcase Concentric Knobs - all types
Suitcase Concentric Pots - all types
Tine Bomb Tube Pre Amps
Stage Vibe Stereo Pre Amps
Suitcase Cheek Block Power Supplies - 4 pin & 5 pin

As you can appreciate with any new company a level of risk management has to be involved - that is why all these parts are not available now. I have to consider there maybe a reason why there hasn't been a dedicated UK supplier before. Therefore for the products that are available now, they have been purchased in large volumes to produce the competitive price that I believe they are at. It is the intention to continue this approach with all future products - buy in bulk and pass those savings on. I don't wish to give too much pricing away at this time as it is subject to change for various reasons. However for now I would expect the follow to be:

Long Tines - £16.00 + vat
Medium Tines - £11.50 + vat
Short Tines - £10.00 + vat
Pickups - £8.50 + vat
Full pedal kit - £102.00 + vat
Damper Strips - £21.00 + vat

Regards
Christian

[goldphinga]

Christian, this is amazing news. Im glad you're using VV parts as they are absolutely on the money. Thanks for your reply and all the best!

[spradders]

Brilliant!  If only I still lived in Norwich.... :-)  How can anyone resist a complete case hardware kit for that price?

[Christian Clarke]

If you go through to the checkout, you can find out how much it would cost to post any product. You will have to put in your delivery details but you can still cancel the purchase at this stage without going through with the payment. All postal and courier charges are at cost and there is no mark up whatsoever.

[Tim Hodges]

Great stuff, Christian. I was planning on buying a few items from VV in the next month but it makes a lot of sense to buy from you.

[Christian Clarke]

Thanks for your support tjh392, I look forward to receiving your order in due course.

[Christian Clarke]

Just a quick heads up to say new tines have been ordered and are on the their way. They will cost a little more than quoted earlier, but not by much.

If you subscribe to the newsletter you'll be the first to know when they're ready for purchase.

[Christian Clarke]

Hi all. New tines, tine springs and back check kits are now in stock.

For those of you that aren't subscribed to the website you can view the Newsletter here that went out yesterday.

Don't worry I won't fill the forums up with spam, this is the last time I'll post a link to the Newsletter.

[martin]

just received my first order from electrik keys!!! will order from them again when the damper bar bushings are in stock! highly recommended!!!

[Christian Clarke]

Hi all,

Stage and Suitcase Name Plates are now in stock for Mark I pianos. Also stock that is on it's way include:

VV Pickups
Pedals
Sustain Rods
All other products to do with sustain (including damper bar bushings martin )

[Christian Clarke]

Hi all,

Pickups are finally in stock, along with pedals and all parts sustain!

[Christian Clarke]

Good morning everyone  . Electric Keys is having an Easter Special between 7th April and 21st April, offering 10% off all purchases.
To grab your discount code, view the Newsletter here:
http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=4d1687dfb65fbac1868cfc259&id=726fc86657&e=f151787312

[Tim Hodges]

I recently bought the 4 Pin Peterson Bulb to LED conversion kit off Christian as a custom order.

Really good service and quick delivery so will definitely use again (buying more next month) I've been looking for a supplier in the UK for sometime so I'm glad you've arrived!

[Christian Clarke]

Thanks for the feedback Tim. I'm really pleased you are happy with the service.

I have a few other customers with custom orders right now too. It's great to see demand for products, as it proves that there is a need for a company like mine in the UK. Also it is helping drive which products are being stocked on the website - saves me the headache of deciding what to buy next!!

[Christian Clarke]

We're now taking custom orders for Wurlitzer parts. If Vintage Vibe stock it, we can get it for you. Don't expect to see them stocked on the website yet, they are only ordered upon request.

[Christian Clarke]

Hi everyone,

An exciting new development of the Electric Keys website is currently in progress. All being well by the end of this month there will be an advertising board for the sale of all manner of Electric Pianos and Keyboards. The best thing for all of you wishing to use this advertising board is that it will be absolutely FREE! There'll be NO listing fees, and NO transaction fees. Later we will introduce some Premium features which will be announced in due course.

Sellers will be able to advertise as many pianos/keyboards as they like, upload 5 images for each listing, receive notifications and manage their account preferences.

Buyers will be able to browse by brand, price and location with the ability to view individual products and images, add to favourites, refine their search, enquire about an item and receive notifications.

Both sellers and buyers will be able to communicate with each other via the internal mail system.

We are at Electric Keys are extremely excited about this new venture, it is a bold one as we are competing against the likes of Ebay, Gumtree and Craig List. However we feel strongly that there is a need for a dedicated Ad board for the Electric Piano Community and we are happy to provide that.

Any questions or feedback will be gratefully received.

[Olaf]

That sounds phenomenal! I'll keep my eyes out for a silver lady...

[Christian Clarke]

The latest news on the Ad board is that it has been slightly delayed. We're now looking at maybe another 2 weeks as the back end development is taking longer than expected to do.

I hope to have some screen shots which I can share with you all soon.

[Christian Clarke]

As we are a new company any feedback you would like to give would be really appreciated.

I´m missing tines and pickups between your products.

If possible, I would like to see prices in euros aswell

It is now possible to pay with Euros little george.

In fact we now accept payment in EUR, USD, CAS, CHF & YEN as well as GBP

Say goodbye to conversion fees - we'll cover the cost!

Just choose from the currency selector at the top of the screen and pay via any method other than Paypal.

If this works well, we'll consider extending the list of currencies accepted.