Wiardgroup

Hi cray

congrats on your sudden good fortune.
Paul has done a very thorough job of answering your questions. i'm
just chiming in with a couple of comments of less substance..

> 
> > It would be the best idea if I could get the woggle in a Eurorack
silver
> > faceplate I know it would be wide but it would be the best option for
> > me. 
> 
> ...I'm going to gently suggest that the good doctor has plenty of
work on
> his schedule with orders from the normal production line, and maybe
not so
> much time or energy for one off projects in alternate formats?  I'm just
> saying.  Grant has been very clear that the panel process and costs are
> the biggest expense and (I think) hassle of the entire process.  

Amen, 
Panel/mechanical specs are the real devil in the details. Grant has
standardized on his format in an effort to make his mostly
one-guy-with-a-soldering-iron production methodology work -consistently-. 
 The question of how much of a client-base that format gains or loses
him is, IMHO, moot, because it is entirely his prerogative. If there's
one aspect of the goings-on at Wiard World Headquarters with which i'm
intimately familiar, it's the prolonged pain that Grant endured
learning the hard lessons in balancing the commercial viability,
personal satisfaction, innovation,  and practical efficiency implicit
in his choices for how to make a Wiard.
Paul's 'gentle suggestion' is right on target. Custom work is
expensive for everyone in the transaction. It costs the supplier in
time, material and opportunity cost and it disrupts routines that
generate the efficiencies of a production process. Keep in mind that
when Grant is not occupied making modules he's inventing new ones that
may be even cooler than the ones we already want. In accepting a
custom order Grant must weigh-in the cost of what won't get done in
order to devote  time to the individual project. In order to keep
Wiard going, Grant must pass his best guess at the cost of all these
factors to the client in advance and when he guesses wrong , at least
so far, he has ended up most often with the short straw.

My observation is that even among veteran, experienced synthgeeks,
very few realize that panel, pots, knobs and legending are some of the
MOST complicated and expensive components of a module and the process
of making one.

i realize that the charge of hypocrisy can be leveled loudly and
legitimately at me on this issue, since i have plunged myself in hot
water before for declaring that form-factor is a non-issue and that
'the synthesizer is BEHIND the panel' 
But i realize that this is true only from my individual DIY
perspective. It is indeed a trivial thing for me to grab my trusty
ball-pean and bash a Wogglebug PCB off it's standoffs behind the panel
and remount it in some scratchy lucite with banana jacks. But it is
only trivial because i am providing my own labor, time, and planning
(too often in exactly that exact order!) 
It is a very different kettle of fish to try to factor such ad-hoc
flexibility into a PRODUCTION process. Grants decision to cling to his
form factor is not some arbitrary fiat, it is a lesson that was
'etched on his shoulders by the lash of experience'.

By far, the best way to get Wiard in custom formats is to get the
rework done somewhere other than in the professor's basement.

 
> 
> If you want to build one, see here:
> http://diy.czmok.de/Group-Buys.66.0.html 
> 
> > Anyway if thats not a possibility I plan to get
> > 
> > 2 x WFC (or one WFC and one Classic VCO)
> > WoggleBug
> > Borg Filter
> > Sequentizer
> > Envelator
> > 
> > Id love owners opinions.
> 
> That'll make a big beautiful noise :)  I'm not sure you can go wrong
with
> ANY six modules from Wiard.  

i agree with Paul on this too
your compement of modules looks well-thought-out and should equip you
with some pretty formidable firepower. The sequantizer envelator combo
is (IMHO) especially potent

best wishes,
-doc