Like I've said before, if I don't have a reasonable flow I will stop making them and that is starting to be the case.

I thought the Gel Lenses would sell ok but so far have only sold 1 and have only had a couple of orders in the past 2 weeks for the others.
I don't know what happened to all the people that wanted specific colors before I had the Gels but I guess they don't want them now.

But in any case I think the time has come to stop so when
my current stock runs out I don't think I will be making any more.

If you want them get them now. Sorry folks.

Do you have anymore smoked ones left?

Wow, I cant believe more people arent taking advantage of the custom lenses. That smoke lens was the best $25 I spent on my empeg so far. (Other than the empeg itself of course).

Matches my VFD dash and now looks stock! Once I add my Jeep logo....

Steve- have you tried advertising these on ebay? I wonder how many of these ebay people buying them know they can get custom colors?!?

-Jeff

Well, I certainly did my best to help... Web page construction, photography, image editing, linking them from everywhere I could...

I'd really hate to see these go away, as they're currently the only way folks can get alternate lens colors after the fact.

I think Ebay would be a viable option considering how many people are there already looking for empegs, tuners, etc.

That's a real shame. I'm ordering mine now - I suggest y'all do the same! Especially if, like me, you're on the lit button waiting list and want a neon lens to go with it for the ultimate effect!

A.

And I can't decide which I want - I want them all, but can only afford three right now!!

A.

I wish I could order a pair. I can't pay for them because Paypal isn't available to South Africans

Does anyone know of alternatives to Paypal?

Darkstrom, Which plate is closest to the original red replacement lens?

For the time being I do.

Well,

I never commented on the Gel lenses as I wasn't sure what everyone was getting at. I assume these Gels are essentially a thin sheet of plastic that you put behind the clear or smoke lens? If this is the case, why don't you sell the Gel sheets separately? You could drop the price on them. I think that's what's keeping people from purchasing them. If I could buy 1 $30 or $35 smoke/clear lens, then use it with 4 or 5 $10 gel sheets I'd be much more interested.

$90 for 3 is just too much. I bought the Neon Red lens and I've been very happy with it (I haven't taken it out in 2 months), but I would have had a VERY hard time justifying the price without the 'special effect' around the edges. (That said I'm probably going to purchase a light blue, a smoke and a clear lens over the next few months)

I guess I was one of the couple of people that have ordered in the last 2 weeks. I bought a smoke and a light blue sculpted lens. I am very impressed with the workmanship and the delivery times. I would hate to see this option disappear, I am going to order more, just in case.

That is too bad, I had been waiting for a neon blue option. Maybe I'll have to settle for one of the others...

If orders smoothed out to a consistent flow (maybe 2-3 a week) I would still keep making them but so far it only seems to come in spurts.
Like right now. Since I announced that this will be it everyone orders, but I'm almost positive after this initial flood it will go back to the way it was.

I don't want to be a dick or anything, but I think it's only natural that you only sell one once in a while.
I mean : there are only 4000 or so empegs out there. Most of the people have the lens they need, be it because they don't care for another colour than the blue that came with it or because they bought the lens 3-packs sold by empeg themselves.

It's not like these things wear out fast too. I've been using mine for 8 months now and it doesn't even have a scratch on it. So I don't think it needs much replacing.

This however DOESN'T mean that I don't commend what you're doing. Kudos to you for putitng the effort and time into it.

I've always wanted to buy one of your Neon Red lensed when I've found someone which I trust enough with a soldering iron to do the button hack for me.
I might buy it in advance anyway (knowing now that you'll most probably stop production) but I'm not sure. I think $30 (excl. shipping) is a lot of money for a lens that I don't have any direct use for.

In short : please don't stop providing this service to the empeg users. And if you can't justify the expense of having a large stock of lenses anymore, maybe you can work on a pre-order basis from now on.

Commend what I'm doing?! That I do take offense to.
If you worked for my boss you would understand.
I have to pay for the time to use the machine and invest for the materials to make the lenses which I am out until they're bought. It would be more of a hassle doing them occasionally because of scheduling time and the cost of doing one at a time. That's the reason I need to have 2-3 orders a week so I am not out the money that long and can schedule more to be made at one time.
I don't know what you're trying to label me with that tone in your post but I don't like it.

Please don't take offense, I meant none.

I don't know your situation exactly, but I would think that it might be easier for you to work with pre-orders (and maybe even pre-payment), because I can sure understand that you're not happy when you've made a large stock and it keeps on laying there. But I can also understand why they don't sell like hot cakes. (as explained above). I'm pretty sure though you would keep on selling them, even it it only were one or two at a time.
I only meant that I believe that through your work you're a true example of what the Empeg community is all about and I would be sad to see it end.

I'm not trying to label you with anything, just making a point. Maybe I used a wrong word, I don't know. Don't forget that English is not my native tongue.

If my post seemed offensive to you, please accept my apologies.

Apology accepted.
I do understand why they don't sell like crazy but in order for me to justify keep doing them on a regular basis I would need the order to be 2-3 a week instead of all at once anytime I even contemplate stopping.
With scheduling for time and money tied up in stock of them I can't have them just laying around.

And as for cost which some others have brought up, the bigget cost of me doing them is the time on the machine. My boss refuses to open the shop after hours so I have to use it during regular work hours for the same amount of anyone off the street. He was reluctant to agree to let me use it in the first place since he apparently doesn't like the idea of one of his employees doing any kind of business of their own with his machinery.
I only make 5-7 dolllars a panel for my time which I don't think is too unreasonable but believe me, if I could find a way to lower the cost I would, since it would probably mean selling more panels.

I don't think you charge too much for your time/work. I don't believe anyone should have to work for free.
That's why I paid the original amount when I got my first Empeg too, because after reading these boards for a bit I had come to the conclusion that those things really did cost that much to produce. I don't regret it one bit because I believe it was totally worth it.
I'm sure it's the same with your lenses. The only thing is, I don't really have a need for it now. That may change in the future when/if I have the button hack done. Since I don't know IF this will ever happen I also don't know if I'll even have the need for a Neon Red lense.
I can only hope that you'll still be making them when that time comes, or when stocks become low and you decide to call it quits you'll notify us of this here on the boards. (but I'm pretty sure you will)

>I've always wanted to buy one of your Neon Red lensed when I've found someone which I trust enough with a soldering iron to do the button hack for me.

I am still offering my button install services, should you ever decide to go that route.

Cheers

I am still offering my button install services, should you ever decide to go that route.

Thanks Mark! I would have you do it in an instant if I could bring my player to you myself.
But I don't trust the postal services that much. I don't know if I'm willing to risk sending you a fragile VFD and letting it go though the hands of those guys...
I've already had one or two bad experiences with them, so my faith in them has really hit rock bottom...

I sent Mark my VFD from Boston to him in Canada and back with no problems.

If you pack it right, and make it easy for Mark to reuse the same packaging it should get there and back intact.

I would agree with Archeon on this one. The button hack is something I find interesting, and something that may be useful. (It can be just as hard to find a little remote while driving at night.)

I wouldn't try it myself because I haven't soldered anything in over 8 years, and I never had a steady hand to begin with. So I would rather find someone who would do it, and bring it to them personally.

Sending my empeg to Cambridge has been nerve-wracking enough...

And on a side note - Mark, where in Canada are you? If I decided to get the button hack and couldn't find anyone to put it in for me... I might consider driving out.

I have sent Mark 2 displays, that he received with no problems. I over packed them for probably the same reason though.

I am surprised how many folks are finding the cost of the lens to be "expensive".

From my perspective, the empeg itself is "worth" at least $1K US dollars (probably more, regardless of whether it was purchased for less, or not), and I hope to be using it for a good number of years, and probably in several different vehicles. Investing a few dollars in a few different faceplate lenses NOW seems like inexpensive "future proofing" and/or investment protection to me.

Even if you don't yet have, or might never have, the illuminated buttons, it still seems to me to be good insurance to have a small range of lenses on hand. Steve certainly won't be making these available forever.

Unless you know exactly what your future vehicle's dash lighting colors are going to be, you really need to consider what you will do when you want to plug your player into your "next" car, and the colors don't mesh.

I appreciate the effort Steve has made, and the product being produced. I just purchased and received a pair of lenses from Steve, and already have one of the lens packs that Rio was selling, so I feel set on the lens front.

Keith

That is too bad, I had been waiting for a neon blue option. Maybe I'll have to settle for one of the others...

I'm in the same situation, was hoping a Neon Blue would pan out. Time to decide on one of the others.

Make that another over here who was hoping for Neon Blue. Oh well... I guess I'll get a Neon Green instead....

Now you know how we felt

Rob

I still have a bit of lenses left. Is anyone else interested or should I just heave them?

Very Interested...just hadn't gotten around to it... I'll order this afternoon.

Argh, still deciding on a neon one for the possibility of backlit buttons. Can you just pick for me?

Greetings!

You are not serious about heaving them, are you? If so, and you ever want to have a fire sale, let me know.

Well, I really need to get my money back out of the stock of them.

I would say all three Neon's. The Orange, Green and Red.

Greetings!

I would add a smoke to that, also... Very nice!!!

I would order more, but I am well stocked at the moment.

Have you ever tried the thicker smoke stock (from the first experiments before getting the thinner stock), cut as the neon? Does it look interesting at all?

I'll take a smoke & a clear...

I thought about it but haven't tried it. I think there is some kind of special color ingredient they add to the Neon's to make them flouresce. The Smoke doesn't have it so if it did give any effect I suspect it would be very miniscule.

Just procede to my website and go ahead and order.
The link is at the bottom of my post or at the top of the bbs pages in the links.

Hopefully my last minute order isn't too late. A few questions:

Any chance that, once you close up shop, you will make the CNC program available (perhaps for a price) to the rest of the Empeg community?

Do you have a solid model of the faceplate(s) and will you make that available as well?

Sorry if I'm being presumptuous, but I may have access to a CNC mill at some point in the future, and I'm sure there are others out there with access as well. It would be a shame if your excellent work faded into oblivion after you stopped filling orders.

Actually the point was brought up to me to try Ebay. so I'm going to set something up there again and hopefullty if I get 2-3 orders a week then I'll keep making them.

As each color runs out I will disable that button at the site so it can't be ordered anymore.