Stupid

[DavidN1978]

I made peace with the price a long time ago since being a photographer am used to paying well over the odds for camera lenses. If I lived in Hong Kong or the US I could literally have bought 2x more for the same amount My only gripe has and still is the TM list is being honoured but the G66 list is not. Since the TM list was only created when the Axe II was announced vs the fact myself and many others in EU couldnt even get ultras since as far back as Nov 2010 highlights how far off the balance is. Price point aside it, why shouldnt the people who waited a hell of a lot longer be supplied in equal measures ? Not made a priority, just equal ? After the much publicised countdown I've been told I'd my order would be switched from an ultra to which is great. What's not so great is they told me in several excited emails that I'd get an Ax II in June, then July and after my last enquiry being told all they'll get this month is a very small supply which wont even touch the waiting list of which am allegedly at the top of ( been hearing that since March !! ) Sussi is now unable to give me any kind of date or assurance when my order will finally be shipped.
It's not her fault, she cant sell something she hasnt got - and therein lies the problem.

 

[BadMelonFarmer]

I don't like that I have to pay a major premium on Bareknuckle pickups but I certainly don't blame them for it. Just saying.

For the reverse comparison

Direct from BareKnucke (inc taxes and shipping)

The Calibrated covered Sets mainly seem to be £227 ($366.50)
The uncovered Calibrated Sets mainly seem to be £206 ($332.60)

how does that compare to the prices in the US?

Actually just looking at a random dealer(http://shop.ejsguitarsnmore.com/Bare-Knuckle-Pickups-PG-Blues-Set-1234567.htm) a calibrated PG Raw Nickel set is $329 so that is $30 less than than in the UK

 

[Griffin]

This one has been done to death so many times before.

Taxes have to be paid, like it or not that is a fact. imported US products have always been expensive because of this. Some products may be cheaper because they have large margins to start with...mass produced guitars being an example (Fender obviously choose to rip people off - Apple certainly do for non US sales). Reduced import taxes will make a big difference too, but that would result in higher taxes elsewhere - you know that.

Whether you beleive it or not G66 really does not have huge profit margins and considering their AMAZING customer service, the price is a non-issue. Really.

Jo-7, I think you are gettting confused with the "discount" - it wasn't a discount at all, the non-wait list price went up. The G66 price has always been the same and they have a wait list and no other means of jumping the queue.

Try importing one yourself from the US and see how much you save, with no back-up warranty etc etc etc. I think you'll be suprised at how little you actually save and the potential hassle if things go wrong (in the EU)

btw I have had nothing but hassle with Thomann when it comes to returns and problems etc.

 

[MaxStatic]

For the reverse comparison

Direct from BareKnucke (inc taxes and shipping)

The Calibrated covered Sets mainly seem to be £227 ($366.50)
The uncovered Calibrated Sets mainly seem to be £206 ($332.60)

how does that compare to the prices in the US?

Actually just looking at a random dealer(Bare Knuckle Pickups PG Blues Set) a calibrated PG Raw Nickel set is $329 so that is $30 less than than in the UK

Looks like I picked a bad example here, with the new prices on axepalace the prices are very competitive with the UK price. I don't know if its been like this for a while or not. I do know that 6 months ago it was going to cost me $325ish for a cold sweat and pain killer set(different dealer) or $140 for the dimarzio CL/LF combo. I went dimarzio on that....of course I put them into my $1600 guitar I spoke about. Now that same set through axe palace is like $250, not bad at all. Cheaper, comparatively than the UK?!?!?! Dunno.

 

[BadMelonFarmer]

just checked and both the plain killer and cold sweat sets are the same as the prices listed about, so $250 is a GREAT price for those pickups...NICE!

but if you are comparing Dimarzio to BareKnuckle prices... that is a different discussion... that would be more along the lines of Eleven Rack to Ace-FX...etc IMHO

 

[MaxStatic]

....but if you are comparing Dimarzio to BareKnuckle prices... that is a different discussion... that would be more along the lines of Eleven Rack to Ace-FX...etc IMHO

No no no, not comparing, just saying the way I went. Bareknuckles was a bad example on my part, my bad

 

[BadMelonFarmer]

No "my bad' needed my friend

was interested to see how it worked in reverse as I have heard people saying things from the UK are more expensive in the US.... but never seen any examples.

 

[Gasp100]

Standby Jo.7 you are about to be deluged with a whole lot hand-wringing talk of import duties, taxes, birth & death dues etc. that have to be paid whenever something is shipped out of the good ol' USA. The face that duties and taxes are levied on items entering a country by the local authorities and are of no concern to the exporter haven't stopped this old tale being dragged out every time this is mentioned. As you well know there are any number of USA based online stores that are more than happy to ship directly overseas. (I purchased a voodoolabs GCX, with not a single problem from anyone, same goes with Matrix Amplification, from the UK, no problem!).

Next you will hear how warranty/support is going to be a huge problem!, well tomorrow night at 10.30 when I am playing in Fremantle I'll ring up the Australian distributor and see if I can get a replacement before the next set, No Chance. What I would have to do is pack it up and ship it to Sydney or Melbourne. Now in this day and age there are probably more than 5 flights a day from Aus to USA so it would probably get to New York just as quickly as Sydney. It would cost me about $160.00 to ship it to the USA AND back so I could send it back five times and STILL be in front. Most online stores simply stipulate that warranty is based on a "return to store at purchase's expense" clause. This is not a real issue but a simple choice.

We won't even begin to discuss exchange rates!!!!

I can fully understand that Fractal would like to establish a local presence in places like the UK and Australia but it looks like some people are dipping their little fingers into this pot of gold. Every other supplier seems to manage to get their products onto international stores at the same price so what's different here? Again I'll use Matrix as an example, relatively small boutique company etc, they manage to do it.

I don't understand, Matrix is very expensive to get over here in the US.
Also, isn't the US dollar the weakest it has ever been... ever? Your money should be worth at lot more than our dollar at this point in time, no? Don't you have much more purchasing power?

 

[MaxStatic]

I don't understand, Matrix is very expensive to get over here in the US....

There ya go, perfect example there, although most of that is due to exchange rate.

Now you must excuse me so I can go ponder which covers I'm going to get with some new Aftermaths.......muhahahahahahahahaaaahhaaa

 

[Jo.7]

btw I have had nothing but hassle with Thomann when it comes to returns and problems etc.

I've never heard of hassless interaction with music stores. In fact I've never heard of hassless anything, 'cause there isn't such thing.

I've ordered from Thomann for more than 8 years now, I've had problems (with returns, warranties), sometimes its damn hard to get my money back because of all the products go into warranty repair or replacement staight on. But they deliver so ridiculously fast and their customer service is so badass, there isn't possibly another music store that offers 3 year warranty on all products! (please link me one if there is!)

I've understood the price difference reasons from first few posts on, cheers for them. Still I can't help but to wonder why they chose G66 instead of Thomann.

Whether you beleive it or not G66 really does not have huge profit margins and considering their AMAZING customer service, the price is a non-issue. Really.

Its very hard to believe it when some neverheard music store in Germany starts selling Axe Fx's when we (Europe) got Thomann.

PS. My old Jackson's got Alder body, the bottom looks normal but the top is green in some parts?

 

[Griffin]

I've never heard of hassless interaction with music stores. In fact I've never heard of hassless anything, 'cause there isn't such thing.

Hassless? Hassle, as in lots of trouble and inconvenience...

G66 really do offer a great personal service (I really doubt any large distributor could match it). I thought I had an issue with my ultra a couple of years ago and via a few emails in the space of less than an hour (only due to me stripping my rig down etc), it was diagnosed quite correctly as a ground loop, albeit a "subtle" one. There is no way Thomann would go into the detail that we did - I would have shipped it back to them, for them to say there is no problem and ship it back, potentially taking at least a couple of weeks, and me being none the wiser!

I do use Thomann a lot too and they are good as a large "store" goes (although I prefer DV247 for locailty, being in the UK), but they don't (realistically couldn't) do the "personal" touch like G66.

But my Ultra (bought a loooong time ago) and my MFC shipped real quick...once available...but that is a whole different story.

 

[Jo.7]

Hassless? Hassle, as in lots of trouble and inconvenience...

G66 really do offer a great personal service (I really doubt any large distributor could match it). I thought I had an issue with my ultra a couple of years ago and via a few emails in the space of less than an hour (only due to me stripping my rig down etc), it was diagnosed quite correctly as a ground loop, albeit a "subtle" one. There is no way Thomann would go into the detail that we did - I would have shipped it back to them, for them to say there is no problem and ship it back, potentially taking at least a couple of weeks, and me being none the wiser!

I dont think hassless is even a real word. I don't know what was the detail that you went in with G66 then.

We sent our Lexicon I-ONIX back to Thomann last year, thought some of the ports were broken. Turns out we needed a microphone with a higher output level. They charged nothing. I bought a Ibanez RG220Z from Thomann this year. First they promised me new screws (the original screws lost their paint) and afterwards I sent the guitar back because of the other faults that occured. They sent me the screw, I sent the guitar back. Again they charged nothing for the screws and gave me my money back straight away. I bought Audio Technicas Noice Cancelling heaphones from Thomann few years ago, turns out they start making this stupid radio noise once in a while (never got to know what was going on with them). I sent them back, they sent me the newer model that costs 199 euros, twice the price of the older model. I'm not joking.

I'm sure we could tell thousands of these stories, in the end none of us will be any more convinced before we actually try it by ourselves. If Thomann sold Axe-Fx, it would simply be better, not only for me, but surely most of the people living in Europe.

 

[Sammetal91]

I dont think hassless is even a real word. I don't know what was the detail that you went in with G66 then.

We sent our Lexicon I-ONIX back to Thomann last year, thought some of the ports were broken. Turns out we needed a microphone with a higher output level. They charged nothing. I bought a Ibanez RG220Z from Thomann this year. First they promised me new screws (the original screws lost their paint) and afterwards I sent the guitar back because of the other faults that occured. They sent me the screw, I sent the guitar back. Again they charged nothing for the screws and gave me my money back straight away. I bought Audio Technicas Noice Cancelling heaphones from Thomann few years ago, turns out they start making this stupid radio noise once in a while (never got to know what was going on with them). I sent them back, they sent me the newer model that costs 199 euros, twice the price of the older model. I'm not joking.

I'm sure we could tell thousands of these stories, in the end none of us will be any more convinced before we actually try it by ourselves. If Thomann sold Axe-Fx, it would simply be better, not only for me, but surely most of the people living in Europe.

If Thomann is like the European version of guitar center and Sam ash, I wouldn't sell an axe fx for a klondike bar through these guys. Reason why is because if these things are out on display, all these grimy handed people who think they're the next Misha are gonna abuse and screw with the buttons, patches, and knobs and then the usual (not all are morons) salesman moron will expect you to buy that axe for full price. Even if they were to be put behind a glass wall like the 67 gibsons, the salesmen jerks are gonna use that thing Cus they got the keys. To have a 2,000 dollar object be put with the rest of the stuff to be abused is something I wouldn't ever want. Ever seen an ENGL invader on display with the line 6 or a diezel with a crate? I haven't and there's a hell of a good reason for that. That's why I'm partially glad I'm a lefty. Not as many people play and rough house lefty stuff so It's in better condition.
But I do understand the frustration of you euro guys paying more. It sucks but I don't think giving a product to a chain store would fix things.

 

[aleclee]

If you think that shipping and taxes are all that G66 expends to distribute FAS products, you're way off base. Anyone here provide tech support? In multiple languages? In time zones far off from your local time? Who wants to cover shipping across the pond whenever there's a hardware issue? If Fractal doesn't want to deal with that (and I think they're wise not to), someone else needs to do it.

If someone else were to take that on, they might be silly enough to want to be compensated for it. They might even want some profit margin built into the business model! How do you suppose G66 gets money to pay Jochen's salary? Do you think their web site magically translates itself into 12 different languages? They might be silly enough to pay for office space and maybe even a warehouse! Since it's cheap warehouse space, it probably doesn't magically transport units back to the USA for repair.

It takes some nerve to expect people to pay for that. :roll

 

[jdolll]

They're not going to sell them through thomann. No matter how much you gripe. G66 is the dealer. Take it or leave it. It does suck that it costs so much more for Europeans to get an axe fx but it is what it is.

 

[sprint]

I live in Canada, 45 minutes from the US boarder. For many years I paid 1.50+ Canadian for an American $ and paid duty + shipping where applicable on many products (shipping a guitar 400 miles from NY to Ontario once cost me more than shipping the same guitar from NY to Alaska!!). The suggestion in the opening post is that FAS is somehow supposed to compensate for this. Sorry that's not how the world works as exchange rates and dutes and shipping charges are not that controllable by individual companies. It is what it is. For me, the good side is that what goes around comes around sometime such as now when a Canadian $ costs more than 1$ US - I've been enjoying this lately and intend to use the opportunity for an Axe II some time soon (when they start shipping the darn thing to Canada - but that's another story). Wait for the Euro to bounce back if the exchange rate on US$ hurts too much - that sounds crass but it's a reality I lived for a long time.

 

[maharzan]

I am sure either both Thomann and G66 approached Fractal or vice versa and the deal worked best with G66. Or Thomann, being the largest or greatest seller in Europe as you mention, didn't give a damn to sell 5-10 units a year back in 2000 era. So G66 is the winner. Why are you even raising this issue? Its your personal problem. You talk about choice in some answer, so its your choice. Make a choice, get another cheap modeler pedal that Thomann sells. I am sure you will get 5 units for an Axe price. Isn't it that simple?

 

[Jo.7]

Reason why is because if these things are out on display, all these grimy handed people who think they're the next Misha are gonna abuse and screw with the buttons, patches, and knobs and then the usual (not all are morons) salesman moron will expect you to buy that axe for full price. Even if they were to be put behind a glass wall like the 67 gibsons, the salesmen jerks are gonna use that thing Cus they got the keys. To have a 2,000 dollar object be put with the rest of the stuff to be abused is something I wouldn't ever want. Ever seen an ENGL invader on display with the line 6 or a diezel with a crate? I haven't and there's a hell of a good reason for that.

So your saying, if Thomann sold Axe's they'd be screwing with the units and then asking a full price? You think they'd but Axe's laying with Eleven racks so everyone can give it ago and then sell the same unit? For 2299 euros? You obv ain't European.

It sucks but I don't think giving a product to a chain store would fix things.

It wouldn't fix it, read up.

Do you think their web site magically translates itself into 12 different languages?

Which of only 4 actually work.

Why are you even raising this issue? Its your personal problem.

Yeah it is my personal problem, but none of you can deny the fact that I and most of the European Axe fans would be happier to order it from Thomann. Either way I'm gonna buy Axe Fx 2 and I'm going to get it from G66, I didn't come here to get a lecture about "if your not happy, get something from Thomann instead" I know that.

I get it, Fractal must've (probably, maybe) contacted Thomann also and they decided its best to get their products sold through G66. After all G66 doesn't sell anything but Fractal and Atomic.

 

[maharzan]

Cool. Matter settled. Everyone really wishes the world to be a better place.

 

[Griffin]

To have your first post simply titled "Stupid" and then almost rant for a while about how you think Thomann might be selling it for less, that we should get a discount etc etc, you cannot expect to not get poked a bit here and there, eh?

but none of you can deny the fact that I and most of the European Axe fans would be happier to order it from Thomann.

It would indeed appear to be a fact speaking for yourself, but speaking for most "European Axe Fans" is quite a bold statement, is it not? I have no doubt Thomann (or any other large music retail outlet) would love to sell Fractal products if given the chance, but I do sincerely doubt that they could/would support the product anywhere near as well and fully as G66 do with Fractal/Atomic products...Whatever, it is what it is and I am grateful for it.

Myself and a lot of other people here have had (and posted about) amazing personal customer service from Sussi, Jacques and Jochen (and others I am sure) at G66 on forums very old,old and new and I am more than happy to be so well looked after by them. I am sure many others feel the same, supply issues aside (which is totally out of their control and would be an issue regardless of the reseller...)


Anyway I hope you enjoy your AxeII from G66 when you get it.