Price increases have been a constant discussion point in many recent blogs - From what I can deduce then expect many more changes to the price - Fender today have announced a further price increase, across the board, due in part, to the hidden costs of transport amongst other costs of materials
I read many comments about price increases on FB, with many pointing out that these increases are well above the governments inflation figure - This is a hugely distorted source of info anyway - Coupled with 'complaints' aimed at the manufactures for putting up their prices
Timber - Timber prices are amongst the biggest reason we are seeing hefty price increases - Demand and supply are 2 big culprits - Many forest fires and wood destroying insects are now a serious issue - A plague of tiny mountain pine beetles, no bigger than a grain of rice, has already destroyed 15 years of log supplies in British Columbia, and are chewing through forests in Alberta and the Pacific Northwest - Recent import tax tariffs from Canada to the USA on timber of an additional 20% thanks to Mr Trump don't help either - So the likes of Fender are having to pay far more now for their raw maple blanks than previously - Then what many see as hidden costs, have risen - A report in the USA stated that shipping costs of hauling timber from the forest to timber yards has risen 24% - Then add shortages of staff due to the pandemic - Some reports are indicating that timber has risen in price by over 130% in recent years - I've lost the link now, but a colleague of mine was telling me last week how much a sheet of ply wood has gone up by over the last 12/24 months - Remember Fender have now ceased using Ash, certainly for now, due to supply issues, other than on CS models - This supply issue coupled with demand adds to the cost of raw materials
I'm sure many of our luthiers on FB can comment on such issues and what price increases they are seeing
Cost of shipping containers has sky rocketed - pre pandemic and it was around $2000 to rent such a container to ship - Now around $8-10,000 - All such costs will be added to the final price we see once the guitar arrives into stock
Then as per previous blogs from the likes of
@sixstringsupplies and @OilCityPickups we are seeing supply delays and rising costs for hardware, materials, electrical parts - Nickel and cold rolled steel prices are all flying through the roof (Iron ore has more than doubled in price in the last 4/5 years - In less than 12 months, the cost of hot rolled steel has risen from just under $450 per ton to over $1180 per ton
Comments
ive been very excited about new guitars being released this year but the prices have shot up where it’s just completely unaffordable for me.
So I've given up on the idea completely.
https://soundcertified.com/speaker-ohms-calculator/
https://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/news/lumber-prices-fall-from-2021-peak-end-june-at-five-month-low
That certainly has nothing to do with the bug and disease problem though on some of our favourite woods. Some anecdotal things I've noticed about ash -
- Fender said they were gonna stop using it outside the CS, but they are still using it a lot outside the CS (75th Anniversary models, for example, the MIM Ben Gibbard signature Mustang as another... the AO stuff as well, where appropriate, but I think they may have said that "where it's historically accurate they would try to use it" - wonder if a future AO refresh may put pause on that, we'll see!)
- Kauer & K-Line are offering roasted pine as an ash substitute now - exactly what Fender has done on their American Pro II line. You can still get ash from them though, supply is just limited.
- Knaggs charges an extra $3-400 for swamp ash depending on whether you want just the back or the whole body to be made from it now. When they started up a little over a decade ago I think it was a no-charge sub for alder.
- G&L is substituting sugar pine on some finishes that formerly used swamp ash - not all of them, you can still get swamp ash in some colours from the USA stuff and of course in the Custom Shop but if that doesn't point to a constrained supply then I'm not sure what does.
Completely agree on the official inflation figures being bollocks, always has been. Actually had this discussion with my partner a few days ago with last grocery shop making it clear that what we pay there has jumped significantly and it's not the only spend to have gone up.
Plus I dare say they will still come across 'more affordable' planks from time to time, from the timber yards, that they can buy as/when, to be utilised on other models
I don't think it is a case of not available, but more a case of less available, due in part to the disease
https://soundcertified.com/speaker-ohms-calculator/
Correct! Didn't they spend $300,000 to see if Japanese Quail are more sexually promiscuous on Cocaine. More like Hunters stash.
The explanation given is the states ordered huge quantities of it earlier this year after expecting a shortage. Birch plywood is only made in mills in Europe and Russia, so they were quickly had stocks run down and sold at a higher price to the states. So we are now in a situation where the distributors will buy from the mills at any price, ie. they can command whatever price they like as demand is so high and supply is so low.
With my guitar making, I’m hoping I can insulate my customers from the price rises as they don’t seem to be as extreme in solid wood as they are with plywood.
The crowd that are buying MIM Fender will continue to buy MIM Fender, they just have to buy used instead. The ones who buy had the budget for a USA Fender might have to settle for a MIM one.
At the higher end though, nothing much will change.
A £4k guitar is a very significant purchase for most.
£166 per month on 2 years interest free, much less so