One company is Acoustic USA, the other is Acoustic Amplification. Apparently they both have the right to use the original logo and colors. That is all I know at this point.
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Acoustic USA News
- Thread starter ZiggyDude
- Start date
So technically the company names are different, but from looking at a photo of the front of an amp, there is no way to tell the difference. Brilliant!
So technically the company names are different, but from looking at a photo of the front of an amp, there is no way to tell the difference. Brilliant!
I guess you'll have to head down to your local GC and turn the amps around and look at the back.
One series of amps will say "Made in China."
The other amps will say "Made in the USA."
Cheers,
Duff2
You are missing something.
GC owns the Acoustic trademark and has developed, and is manufacturing products under the Acoustic brand name. If you do a little research on Acoustic, you will see that most of these products have a cosmetic treatment that is uniform, and in keeping with the Acoustic look from roughly 1972-1975.
These products have been carefully designed and engineered to deliver excellent performance and many years of trouble-free operation at great prices. The warranty is for 3 years, and any defects that may arise in materials or workmanship are essentially handled by store exchange, a very costly process if the products are not right.
The GPG company has a limited license to manufacture approved products bearing the Acoustic logo in the USA. The decision has been made that these products have a uniform look which is more in keeping with products manufactured from 1968 - 1972.
Marketing and branding of anything with the Acoustic logo will be driven by a group within GC, in concert with the GPG folks.
As far as products being manufactured in different locations, just about every major brand in the world, including some in the music industry, consumer electronics, automobile, etc...manufacture different products in different places...under the same brand name.
On your suggested use of a "sub name", which in and of itself implies an inferior product line, the country of origin is not the only, or even the most important distinction between product categories in any industry. Many car companies which are headquartered in other places in the world now have factories in the USA and many other countries. Is it not a "real" Mercedes if it is not made in Germany?
The delivery of appropriate value will be measured by consumers on individual product merits, attributes, tone and the price paid. Perhaps you should carefully consider the features on, and the sound coming from, the front of the amp
instead of basing your decision on the "fine print on the back of the amp"
Hope this helps.
Has it even been confirmed that the Acoustic USA line will be sold at Guitar Center? Seems like GC doesn't carry much high end gear and this Acoustic USA line seems to be more underground and word of mouth at this point.
This is what I've seen repeated in forum chat. I can't find anything official from the company that owns the "Acoustic" trademark.
Just a note, to mark something "Made in U.S.A." the predominate cost of manufacturing needs to be in the US. That's not too hard to do. Case study:
Invalid Link Removed
Not to contradict, but GC carries a wide assortment of high-end, professional products in many categories, so that assertion is not quite accurate.
In terms of the specifics of the GPG products, this decision has not been made. The parties operate as separate businesses.
Once products have been completed in their final form, they will be evaluated by GC for fit in the product assortment. Another consideration will be the ability of the manufacturer to keep up with the volume needs of GC.
At the same time, GPG will make the distribution decision that they feel is in their best interest.
This will probably unfold in 2009.
If this IS the situation, it still makes for a confusing situation. To me, this would be no different than this hypothetical scenario... a new company starts up in 2009 and call themselves AMPEG. They create made in the USA amps that bare resemblances to the early blue line SVT's. The current company LOUD technologies grants them this license, while their own amps are still made in Vietnam. Both companies are Ampeg. Everyone gets confused on what to call each and dub them with their own made up names Ampeg USA and Viet-Ampeg. The regular joe cant tell the difference and doesnt understand why some ampegs are twice as much. Save the people the confusion and make the names different.
I should have said that my particular store doesn't carry much high-end bass gear. They have Ampeg and Markbass. That's it. And when you're a lefty, there are absolutely no decent lefty basses. Just a couple of cheap Yamahas. The website (and probably other stores) has more of the high-end bass gear.
Back on topic, I'm glad to hear that there is a possibility that the Acoustic USA stuff has a shot at making the product line at GC. I'd like to try before I buy.
Back on topic, I'm glad to hear that there is a possibility that the Acoustic USA stuff has a shot at making the product line at GC. I'd like to try before I buy.
Sorry, I think you are off bass (so to speak).
As a bass player, I am pretty sick of the jokes about how we (regular joe, as you put it) aren't up to the intellectual rigors of say guitar players, or keyboard players in selecting gear.
If we can figure out the plethora of pricepoints and quality in the current offering of instruments labeled as "Precision" and "Jazz" basses, I think we can follow the logic laid out above.
Please. Don't be insulting.
Sorry, I think you are off bass (so to speak).
As a bass player, I am pretty sick of the jokes about how we (regular joe, as you put it) aren't up to the intellectual rigors of say guitar players, or keyboard players in selecting gear.
If we can figure out the plethora of pricepoints and quality in the current offering of instruments labeled as "Precision" and "Jazz" basses, I think we can follow the logic laid out above.
Please. Don't be insulting.
Im not being insulting. I am pointing out a fact. People are not referring to each company as simply Acoustic. If so, we would all be confused. Everyone here is calling it Acoustic USA. Why, because we have to clarify. They are calling it that to help all us intelligent people know which one they are referring to. My point is, companies should just save people the hassle of having to come up with our own names to clarify the differences.
So here... test your intelligence from this craig's list ad:
Acoustic bass amp 200 watts with 15" speaker. $400.
Any smart buyer would then ask, "what Acoustic is it USA or China?"
Hi Nellie -
I say this as a friend who's been watching this thread with interest, not as an adversary.
IMO it won't be too tough to determine one product line from the other.
Consider Fender, which does not have a strict division in how it labels its US, MIM, & MIJ instruments -- they're all Fenders, and there are ways to discern. Like Fender US vs. Fender overseas-manufactured instruments, it'll just take a little attention to detail on our part.
I for one find it a pretty exciting development, and an innovative way to pursue two differently aimed product lines.
Any smart buyer would first find out the model number of the amp, which would then easily answer the question.
I think we will have to wait a bit and see.... but I bet the lines won't completely overlap. i.e. Acoustic bass am 200 watts will be made in China and the 300W will be the made in USA. Also, the made in China seem to be using the B prefix and I bet the made in USA will be straight numbers (e.g. 360). But I am just guessing here.
Determining what company an Acoustic amp is from wont take much investigating. That is not my main beef. I totally see your point with the Fender analogy. It IS the same situation. But it is still silly IMO to have two totally different companies with the same name. If i am not mistaken, Fender is one company with many areas of production. If I understand this right, Acoustic is two separate companies who make totally different products yet share the same name. I am definitely making a bigger deal out of this than what its worth. But I just like to question the way things are. You would think companies would like to protect their trademarks.
So if I am reading this right, the new "Acoustic" stuff at Guitar Center just has the Acoustic look.
The current Acoustic line at Guitar Center is the Acoustic Amplification brand name as implemented by Guitar Center in the vein of the Acoustic Control Corp. tradition.
I'm not sure what "just has the Acoustic look" means to you.
bongomania
Commercial User
Then please explain to me why every single day the basses forum here has threads asking "what's the quality difference between MIM, MIJ, MIA, and why is a Sadowsky Jazz twice as expensive as a Fender Jazz?" Every freaking day, sometimes multiple times in one day.
TBH it looks to me like the only insult here is that your GC pride and loyalty is being affronted; nothing to do with the intelligence of bass players.
Uh, well OK.
Seems to me like you are saying "regular joe"= DS bass player.
I just give us bass players more credit than that.
Even a guitar player can figure out the difference between two Vox AC30's. One is $1200.00, the other is $2300.00. So according to you, they should have called one a "Vox" and the other "Schlox". C'mon.
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Vox-AC30BM-Brian-May-Custom-Guitar-Amp?sku=482640
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Vox-AC30CC2-30W-2x12-Custom-Classic-Combo?sku=482620
They even look nearly identical!!!
No one is trying to be confusing, just create product differentiation based on models and pricing under the same brand umbrella.
Wake up dude, it is done all the time.
