Re: What is the Value of "Made In USA" for SD Pickups? (Part II)
People know my general standpoint, so no need to go into it again here.....
Most of my friends that also play use MIUSA or MIUK equipment exclusively and will save for it before purchasing somethign of lesser tenure, though with most of them it is not necessarily a conscious decision. We all agree however that when you´re regularly spending >2k on an instrument, balking at 200 bucks for new pickups is laughable.
Most sheeple on the other hand will probably react as follows: "What, SDs are now 10 bucks cheaper than Brand X? Ok, I´m buying SDs now."
In my experience however, the number of people that buy multiple pickups for each instrument is limited, as is the number of players that even OWN multiple instruments. On top of that, most players don´t know or even really care what´s in their instruments, I assume that you yourself can probably confirm that there are very famous players out there that don´t know jack **** about their own rig and what it does other than make the guitar louder.
It is most definitely a niche market within a niche market. As you´ve probably considered, as a general rule anything that could endanger a large part of that niche in a major way is to be avoided.
To that point, I assume that SDs financial evolution more or less follows the overall financial trends of the US. I feel that in very few years it´s likely that it´s gonna get tough again, this time for a longer stretch and to a more extreme degree than a few years back when the upper portion of the house of cards came tumbling down (the tip came down already a few years prior).
But if SD moves to China, they automatically lose much support both from musicians as well as their own local community. When the economy tanks again, I think you don´t really want to be thought of as a company that "moved offshore to milk what they could out of an economy that they personally abandoned". But I fear you will need exactly that support to weather the storm, much akin to the people that helped each other rebuild after 9/11
To my personal standpoint it: I currently still purchase new instruments outfitted with SD pickups, and still at least consider SD first when deciding on new ones (though I admit that the last SD I purchased new was the original Bro, but the reasons are not in any way directly influencable by SD). SD is the ONLY company that enjoys this luxury, refusal to buy only a specific product line instead of a flat out boycot including removal and replacement of installed base (exactly this happened to "the other guy" as wellas Ruby tubes /Magic Parts as some may recall. I don´t advertise for companies I refuse to support
). I consider it a legacy bone out of love for SD and the decades of positive experiences with their products and service, very much the same applies to my forum patronage.
As it stands right now, the only
guaranteed deal breaker on a new instrument (other than overall quality of course) is if it comes outfitted with PUs from "That other guy" or is itself MIC. That is however subject to alteration at any time and I must say that I´d rather purchase from a manufacturer that made a couple questionable and morally uncool business decisions based on marketing forever and a day ago than one that spent many many years providing the best of everything, then turned around and
knowingly and
intentionally slapped it´s employees and customers in the face by abandoning the economy that made it possible for them to purchase their products in the first place
I must agree with Prophet that demanding an upgrade in the quality of service offered by the distributor in my locale (Germany) would be a much more prudent choice, or some form of online direct sales. The current status quo is that I can still get a new pickup, faster, cheaper, and with the options I want (including Shop Floor Custom wait times) by ordering it from a US dealer and importing it myself. I prefer to buy locally, but if doing that means I have to jump through significantly more hoops to get a red JB than I do to get a ****ing brand new guitar with an aftermarket red JB installed in it at the US dealer´s (true story), and I STILL get the guitar in less than half the quoted delivery time of the PU alone (
6 months quoted in that particular case, the pickup needed to be wound, took 8 weeks grand total from order to first chord), then there is a MAJOR problem that needs to be addressed. This is also the reason I bypassed distro on the brobucker, becasue for the price it would have cost even as a limited run I could have purchased THREE by ordering through Curly. 200% price increase? So 50% import duties and 150% for putting a sticker on a box and putting it back in the mail? I mean, it´s bad enough that US MSRP is equivalent to or LOWER than german wholesale and has been for years, but that´s just insane, Tuck Fhat :saeek:
Your US dealers do a MUCH better and more efficient job of distributing your product to Europe than the people this task is currently contracted out to. This has been a major gripe of mine since 1996, and it remains unchanged. Over the course of 7 years when I had my retail establishment and workshop, I purchased a total of about ten SD pickups from legit distro. Multiple hundred on the other hand (I still have all the bills somewhere) were purchased from US dealers.
I mean sure, there´s no real difference in profit for SD as the pickups have already been sold from your perspective, but imagine what some kid says that wants to put a custom in his guitar and hears that he has to wait half a year and save his allowance for a full year to be able to afford it, when "The other guy"´s pickup can be here in a week, in the color you want, and you can still afford to eat a burger when you´ve bought it.
Heck, some production SDs command prices that would be considered "boutique" in most other countries, and must actually compete with true boutique pickups like Bareknuckles and Häussels .... I can´t really imagine that this is your intent...
.....
Having said that, NEW products made overseas could develope into a whole
new lucrative market.
Who here would consider an Australian or German made and or designed product
built by Seymour Duncan Australia or Germany?
Think of the high manufacturing standards, the quality control and indeed the
great talents of some of our own pickup designers and makers.
Would you buy a new pickup made by Schaller for Seymour Duncan?
Some food for thought!
Interesting thought indeed. though I fear that the original intent was geared towards "cheaper to produce"
