It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Will they sell more guitars at £2600 than £3100 - Not guaranteed at all - Let's first of all assume they reduce the price by £500 and sell no more guitars
£500 reduction at shop floor prices equates to £416 after you remove UK Vat - Now allow say £116 for dealer profit, import duty and shipping fees and that allows for a £300 reduction at Fender's ex factory price - They make just over 10,000 CS Guitars a year - So do you think a senior member of the board will authorise a potential £3,000,000 reduction in profits - Obviously need to adjust this to $'s - But you get the drift
Also take into account that Fender do not carry any stock in the USA, EU or UK warehouse (or indeed throughout the world) - Every guitar that is built, is already assigned to an appropriate dealer somewhere in the world - As such it carries an invoice and Fender will be paid within 7-10 days in most instances - So it is not a case that they have warehouses full of guitars they can't sell
Current delivery times are around 6 months from the date of order - A couple of years ago Fender CS mucked up a custom order for a customer of mine - Mainly a colour issue - It was built for a special birthday - We asked for a replacement and how quick could it be offered - They said they have never built a guitar before in under 4 months - But in the main orders are delivered after 6 months
Now if they dropped the price, with a view to selling more then either delivery time will go from 6 months to something closer to 8 months - Maybe more - Or they invest in more CNC, appropriate staff and probably more spray booths, to keep the delivery date at 6 months - Therefore more factory costs and more capital expenditure - On the basis that they might sell more, but have to do more work to make the same profit at the old/original pricing
I've had the chat many times with CS team and they admit that they never thought this vintage relic craze would last so long - They've almost been expecting a down turn many times - And yet 2018 was their best year yet
Like it or loathe it, it is a success story for Fender
They are more than a fender pro.
When you start looking at dgt and other models the cost soon spirals
This happened to me 6 years ago with a CS Strat. I currently own 8 electrics, and normally take 2 to a gig. The CS Strat rarely stays at home.
Having said that, I came across one with supposedly the same spec in another shop and tried it out of curiosity - it was a completely different playing experience, and not in the least appealing.
In addition to enjoying the guitar itself, I can feel happy that it has lost relatively little in financial value.
/smug
L
2015 and I found CS Strats on my stock books for £2300 as a selling price and a1.6 exchange rate - Now convert £2300 to a 1.27 exchange rate and that same guitar is now £2890 - No differential in profit margin for me or Fender - Just a change in exchange rate
So add a 5 % factory price increase - I've only used this as a guide line - 5% over 4 years is a low increase - Effectively my 2016 cost + 5% factory increase + an exchange rate at 1.27 now equates to a guitar at £3051 - So we are not far away from this pricing as I have new stock around £3100-3200
If the exchange rate had have stayed at 1.6 over the last 4 years and the factory applied a 5% increase, which is more than acceptable - The £2300 Strat would only have gone up to a touch over £2400
The Classic Series 50's has a lovely soft V neck.
You can get it in nitro as well:
https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-classic-series-50s-stratocaster-lacquer-2TS/919217?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxMiGwfbM4gIVrDLTCh00UwMKEAQYASABEgKS3fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Oh what we have to look forward to post-Brexit. Buy now, save later?
I recall the days of 2$ to a £ and yes regularly I heard such comments regarding the price differential then from customers - I wasn't selling CS Guitars at the time, so can't recall the full details and don't have any accurate data to go on
However I was selling plenty of PRS - During the good old days of 2$ to the there was no reduction in the price as such - However we managed to acquire 10 tops + bird inlays at no extra cost as a benefit - Normally around £400 and £200 upgrade - So for many years (around 3 or 4 years) a PRS Custom with 10 top + birds was £1999 - No variation from this for ages
But today on USA brands and global distribution, there is little, if any, price differential on Fender, PRS, Gibson, Suhr etc - maybe Martin + Boogie as they still have a 3rd party distribution channel
Agree they can't and don't offer a more 'favourable' UK pricing, as any such advantage would impact on their EU market as well - There is very little difference on CS prices between say UK dealers and Thomann
Remember guitar sales world wide is still a cottage industry, hence my comment that a lower price would not guarantee any additional sales - I stand by the comment that to sell more they would need to make more - Yet they are already at full capacity - Hence a 6 month lead time on orders - More orders would therefore either mean longer delivery times, or they would need to expand production, with more capital expenditure on expensive CNC machines + additional spray facilities
Not necessarily the case.
If nothing else, the US government debt will eventually drag the dollar down.
Their current debt is $22 trillion, and they are adding $1.1 trillion to it each year with their current level of government deficit. That debt is $67,000k dollars for every citizen - and they are adding another $3,000 per citizen to that every year.
It's actually worse than that, as most of their citizens don't pay tax. The current debt is $181,000 per tax payer, and around $9,000 per tax payer is added to the debt every year. That isn't sustainable. Sooner or later it will implode.
At that point it might all become irrelevant as it might drag the world economy down with it.
Even avoiding doom and gloom scenarios, the pound might gain some ground once the uncertainty about Brexit is over.