ShortScale.org

I seem to remember a Princeton Reverb was £699 which I thought a little pricey at the time, these days they're £884.

lol, Fender.

Last year or maybe longer I looked at buying a Mexican Strat for £350ish pound, which I bucked at. They're now an eye-watering £440.

If I've done my maths right we're both noticing an increase of about 25%. Fuck.

They did this last when the Recession became official.

I wonder if this is because it's over. Oh wait.

Its prolly not Fender but the UK sellers having to bump up the prices due to studpid rates of import tax & vat in this country plus tories obviously etc etc etc

VAT increased by 2.5%, John, not 25%.

Maybe the Tories have fucked Import Tax. I wouldn't be surprised.

£884 for a Princeton Reverb?! Wow.

i was a bit shocked about the import tax i had to pay this week and the woman on the phone said that it had gone up recently

Fender have put in a price policy where all main dealers will be set to a strict price selling price. You should be seeing soon, everyone levelling up. i.e. on google shopping for example.

The prices have gone up partly due to VAT but also because of suppliers new selling prices. There is now margin in Fender for retailers where there wasn't before so despite the increase and set prices, buyer deals can be negotiated with more discount than usual. Retailers have to advertise at a strict price but can sell the products at whatever price they wish.

Many smaller under the stair cupboard type businesses will no longer be allowed to sell Fender. It's going more official and there is a certain level of stock that you now need to carry now. There will be less dealers Fender dealers but the dealers that will be left will have more stock than ever. Very similar to what Gibson did a few years back, they're trying to make the brand more of a specialist thing.

O

Ebay all the way. I've never bought a new Fender anything, never will at this rate either. As for dealers, who cares, them that are only stock the usual crap anyway.

Lol, how can they make the brand more of a 'specialist thing'? Its like saying the Ford Escort car is now specialist or the Dyson hoover just because they hiked the price The brand is 60 years old and they have'nt designed anything that has sold in large quantities (guitar wise) since the 1960's. What they mean is they want to appeal to people with larger amounts of disposable income and fuck the guys that are on low income even if they have used their gear loyally for the last 30 years.
"You guys can have Squier now and check them Blacktops out.."

I think it's about time the Fender company was sold to someone new. People talk about the CBS era being bad, but quite a few new and interesting designs came under them. I'm much more of a fan of CBS Fender than I am the current version. There are a few good value products, like the baja telecaster, but mostly it's rehashed over-priced nonsense.

othomas2 wrote:Fender have put in a price policy where all main dealers will be set to a strict price selling price. You should be seeing soon, everyone levelling up. i.e. on google shopping for example.

The prices have gone up partly due to VAT but also because of suppliers new selling prices. There is now margin in Fender for retailers where there wasn't before so despite the increase and set prices, buyer deals can be negotiated with more discount than usual. Retailers have to advertise at a strict price but can sell the products at whatever price they wish.

Many smaller under the stair cupboard type businesses will no longer be allowed to sell Fender. It's going more official and there is a certain level of stock that you now need to carry now. There will be less dealers Fender dealers but the dealers that will be left will have more stock than ever. Very similar to what Gibson did a few years back, they're trying to make the brand more of a specialist thing.

O

Are Arbiter still the distributor? I heard some interesting stories recently about some of their business practices. It makes the stories about Music Ground look like childs play

GeorgeF wrote:Last year or maybe longer I looked at buying a Mexican Strat for £350ish pound, which I bucked at. They're now an eye-watering £440.

Not just Fender, I payed just over £300 for my leftie Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus-Top about 4 years ago. They are well over the £400 mark now. I remember not that long ago American Standard Strats were about the £700 mark, they all seem to be £1000+ these days.