Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 4:53 pm
Indeed, the C Series had a significant up-front investment that figured into the pricing.
However, another factor was at work as well. We had not raised our prices since 1999, until just this last April, even though many costs had increased significantly. The C Series being new items to the line, were priced based on current costs, obviously. On the other hand, they didn't go up in April either, so that temporary illusion that they were much more pricey does not exist much now.
Finally, since you specifically mentioned the 325C58, this guitar is more costly to build than many of our other guitars for a number of reasons including the use of extra thick Alder, which in turn requires much more work in the finish process. The Kaufman vibrato is also quite an expensive assembly and there's a large amortization to cover the tooling costs for the repro keys.
However, another factor was at work as well. We had not raised our prices since 1999, until just this last April, even though many costs had increased significantly. The C Series being new items to the line, were priced based on current costs, obviously. On the other hand, they didn't go up in April either, so that temporary illusion that they were much more pricey does not exist much now.
Finally, since you specifically mentioned the 325C58, this guitar is more costly to build than many of our other guitars for a number of reasons including the use of extra thick Alder, which in turn requires much more work in the finish process. The Kaufman vibrato is also quite an expensive assembly and there's a large amortization to cover the tooling costs for the repro keys.
