Re: gibson/steinberger/echoplex

[Kim Flint <kflint@annihilist.com>]

At 8:56 PM -0800 11/16/99, Madoud@aol.com wrote:
> The note by Kim Flint was very informative.  I don't follow the industry
>real close, but I have recently been in  the market and have successfully
>purchased a  used Steinberger  Guitar w/Transtrem,  so I have been doing a
>lot of  looking, watching and waiting.......I noticed now that Steinberger
>has come out with a new line of guitars, on Yo music.com or something like
>that and are selling  the new line very cheap  w/o transtrem.  These 
>guitars
>are dirt cheap.  I mean cheap.....

It's http://www.musicyo.com, and when he says dirt cheap, he ain't
kidding... all the steinbergers are around $200....similarly, all the
Kramer guitars, under $300, all the slingerland drums - jaw-dropping cheap.
(I'm thinking of upgrading my hand-me-down set....) They show the list
prices for comparison and they're all about *4 times* higher than the
prices listed at music yo...

hmmm, can you say factory direct? no middleman, no retailer, no
distributor, no tavelin' sales dude..... I think we are seeing the
potential of e-commerce landing on the MI industry. 4x is pretty close to
the typical difference between manufacturing costs and list prices in the
music instrument biz. If you're going to buy it online anyway, why not just
buy it straight from the company that makes it, at the factory price?

.....and note the musicyo.com brands: steinberger, kramer, slingerland. Yo,
if yo can't figure out who sits on the board of that yo company, yo brain
is a couple of yo's short of a full yo-yo.....


>My point is that  there is a good chance
>the Digital Echoplex may be a thing of the past or emerge in some new
>downsized form.

not a thing of the past, not downsized!

> That what seems to have happened with Gibson  or whoever
>reintroducing the Steinberger.  I admit,  I don't know all the facts about
>Steinberger,  but I am not holding my breath waiting on  a new top of the
>line Steinberger.    Face it,  the Digital Echoplex is  a very 
>sophisticated
>machine and very deep and appeals to a certain type of musician.   How 
>were
>the profit margins on these things and what kind of money did they make 
>the
>company.

the echoplex profit margin was good enough, that's why it's still a living
product. (unlike the other stuff on the oberheim roster....)  And there's
no need to downsize the echoplex any, because the manufacturing costs are
already pretty low.  But I can tell you that the retailers never really
added much to the profit equation. People who buy echoplexes already know
about it (from the net or elsewhere) and already know they want it. Selling
through retailers usually just meant people had to go calling all the
Oberheim dealers to find one with echoplex stock. That always seemed
pointless. Selling direct would be an obvious thing for Gibson to do....
that way they could cut enduser prices considerably and even give
themselves a bit more profit at the same time. yo.....

>with all the small boxes coming out with the ability to loop for
>short periods and with effects  to boot they must be very appealing to the
>masses......and profitable to the companies.  I have a Korg unit with some
>looping capabilities I bought because I like Korg effects but   After 
>using
>the Echoplex and a  4 minute Boomerang for quite a long time I don't even
>bother to play with the Korg looping feature.  When I bought the 
>Echoplex,  I
>loved it so much I immediately went on the lookout for a backup.  comments
>appreciated.

all those cheapo boxes with limited loop functions just suck people into
the fold, get them addicted to the idea of looping....then they want to buy
a real looper! heh, its all good.....

kim


______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
http://www.annihilist.com/  |