Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Lets face it, Rickenbacker does not sell direct to the customer. When John Hall says americans don't want to pay the price, he is simply repeating what his distributors are telling him. It's not that he wont release these special models in america, it's his dealers aren't ordering them. It's the dealers that take the risk of unsold merchandise or having to sell at a price that they can't make a decent profit on. You may say Ric is charging too much to begin with but these foreign distributors don't seem to be having much of a problem.

electrofaro wrote:As someone who sells a brand name to musical instrument dealers I can tell you JH is quite right and on the spot.

I agree.

Seriously, the American guitar market is practically built upon lack of innovation and nostalgia; those are the reasons Gibson can sell their overpriced instruments successfully in this country. If you look at the price of a Les Paul Custom in Japan it's quite a bit less expensive than the same thing as sold in the USA. (Brand new Les Paul Standard in the USA: between $2,500 and $3,759; same thing in Japan: ¥168,000, or about $1,383.) If you wanted a Stratocaster with an f-hole and binding on the neck 15 years ago: you'd either have to call-up the Custom Shop and spend $3,000 - $4,000 ... or you could just browse guitar shops in Japan, which sold them (and still sell them) for less than a USA-made vanilla strat!

Now is a good time to buy instruments from Japan, 'cause the Yen has been declining for a few years.

electrofaro wrote:

Kopfjaeger wrote:Ugh! And this is one of the reasons why JH is so endearing to most everyone. He's got a knack of annoying people with his words.

As someone who sells a brand name to musical instrument dealers I can tell you JH is quite right and on the spot. The people who are really annoying are those that make remarks without any experience of the topic! Sometimes I do get why he stopped posting here.

While JH may be spot on, there is way to tell people they are SOL without actually telling them they are SOL. It's called tact and diplomacy. Most successful business owners have it or at a minimum, when they lack tact, they have a press agent speak for them.

In a nutshell, tell someone to get bent or **** up a rope and you will normally get a specific negative reaction. Saying, "sorry, due the economic climate and the inability to justify the expense in said unstable economic climate, we can't justify offering these instruments in certain areas", you get quite another result. I suppose the old adage 'you get more flies with honey than with vinegar" is most applicable in these instances. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm too sensitive.

Sepp

While JH may be spot on, there is way to tell people they are SOL without actually telling them they are SOL. It's called tact and diplomacy. Most successful business owners have it or at a minimum, when they lack tact, they have a press agent speak for them.

In a nutshell, tell someone to get bent or **** up a rope and you will normally get a specific negative reaction. Saying, "sorry, due the economic climate and the inability to justify the expense in said unstable economic climate, we can't justify offering these instruments in certain areas", you get quite another result. I suppose the old adage 'you get more flies with honey than with vinegar" is most applicable in these instances. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm too sensitive.

Sepp[/quote]

+1

Kopfjaeger wrote:I suppose the old adage 'you get more flies with honey than with vinegar" is most applicable in these instances.

Vinegar works way better in actual fly traps, from my experience, and it's also much easier to clean-out when the bodies pile-up.

Seriously though, when a guy runs a business which has already sold all of its product before they even start production on an average day: maybe he doesn't see the benefit of being tactful. I'm not saying it's right, or that I disagree with you, but it doesn't seem to impact his business in a meaningful way at present.

That's JH's roundabout way of saying 'Merica suxs.

Forgetting about approach, that **** doesn't bother me, we're all grown boys and girls.., I just believe, for 50 or so units those models will sell just as we'll here as in japan. Maybe it's just my perspective...

All you have to do is find a dealer who agrees with you & is willing to take the risk!!!

Here's another Japan exclusive variation:

DriftSpace wrote:Here's another Japan exclusive variation:

Just make CB binding standard already.... PLEASE!

Just occured to me that If Ric made CB binding a standard
it wouldn't be part of what is special about the special guitars they offer in Japan..

Judging from the banter here, I would say these serve to stimulate the marketplace. And, for some entrepreneurs it creates a gray market...as we have seen with the Santa Ana Blue and Plumglo.
But, only if the price is right! Seems as though I just read that somewhere.
If a dealer ante's up with the minimum order, I wager they can be available here too. Recall POTR and the three shades of C64's. I nearly bought the white one.

This begs the question: Why won't Rickenbacker make these for us here in the US?

Our pockets aren't deep enough. We want big features for Walmart prices. At least that's what I hear.

Guys, the truth is, the market determines the models. Rickenbacker is not anti-America or anti-customer, they simply respond to the market, as the dealers are RIC's market.

If enough dealers ordered the 4005, RIC would respond to their request. The dealers don't order models they think will not sell. Guitars on the wall aren't a good thing if they stay on the wall. It is simply that the Japanese dealers will order in quantity, specific models with features that they know the customers want and will pay for.

Let's go to the dealers with specific requests and back it up by actually buying the instruments, that is how it's done...

Jim

My thing is, you can't buy from Japan cause they won't ship here. How can we get these goodies without sending them out for refinish etc?