Re: gibson/steinberger/echoplex

[Darrell Jones <djones01@columbus.rr.com>]

These are not real Steinbergers!!!



Kim Flint wrote:

> 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/  |