Anyone else feel like expensive basses are arbitrarily priced?

[Schlyder]

 

[MobileHolmes]

I saw Jason had chimed in... wanted to go back a few months ago and grab a quote from another gentleman who claimed that Jason from Fodera said "we here at Fodera put more hours in on our headstock emblem than most builders put into their entire builds". Hmm........

I've seen similar claims about some of the stuff at sadowsky. So robe posted a story a while back about an employee spending half an hour to get the pick guard fit just right. That's the kind of thing that doesn't mean much to me, but it does to some folks and meticulous don't come free

 

[awilkie84]

It really is the cost of having experienced skilled craftsmen doing hours and hours of hand work, paying for their skilled work and insuring them, as well as overhead like rent, taxes, utilities, and more insurance and more taxes. The cost of doing this domestically is not cheap, and running a business is very costly in NYC. Add to that expensive proprietary parts and rare woods, a fair margin, and a pile of incidental costs I'm leaving out, and there you have it. The Fodera shop is just that - a workshop. There are no Persian rugs, fancy office furnishings, or trendy juice bars there. Given the scales of economy involved, Fodera charges a fair price for what they deliver. Jason has an advanced degree in business/manuacturing of some sort, and if he could figure out a way to offer Foderas any cheaper without compromising company standards, he would and they would. I don't get the impression it's a money grab over there. A visit to the shop reveals this in very short order.

Fodera is not alone in having high priced guitars by any means. A quick look at any acoustic/Jazz box builder of repute will reveal the same numbers that Fodera throws around.

If one company can do it for a few grand, why is another costing 10 grand? It seems to me that they should look at ways to reduce their cost without cutting quality, as an exorbitant amount must be going into cost of business.

 

[dtsamples]

What company is doing what Fodera does for a few grand?

 

[petrus61]

If one company can do it for a few grand, why is another costing 10 grand? It seems to me that they should look at ways to reduce their cost without cutting quality, as an exorbitant amount must be going into cost of business.

Like paying rent in NYC? They (Fodera) could save huge money moving to the sticks to produce their basses. The only problem with that is a huge part of their clientele are centrally located in NYC and between service and marketing (not to mention travel for staff) I'm guessing the costs must be justified somehow. It doesn't seem to have hurt Stuart Spector or Mike Tobias to take root in the country, 150 miles away from NYC, so I don't see why Fodera couldn't do it either aside from the fact that it's owners just happen to have homes and lives closer to te shop.

 

[20db pad]

Both Fodera and Sadowsky have expressed that they want to be in the NYC area where some of the world's finest players are. It stands to reason that the instruments they make with the features they have would not have emerged without that kind of input. The bulk of their respective advances happened pre-internet, so locality and easy availability to world-class players was much more important back then than it is now.

 

[TMARK]

Yep. In Capitalism you can charge whatever you can convince people to pay! It might only cost 10-50% of what they sell the bass for to make it.

Apple is an example of a company that is adept at convincing people to pay high prices for electronics/computers. Their manufacturing costs aren't that different than their competitors. They still make everything in China. However, they make a killing because they have a customer base willing to pay that premium for an Apple product.

It's the OS not the device. Apple has the best OS. No one cares about hardware so long as it is reliable. They do care about the quality of their interaction with their device.

 

[awilkie84]

Both Fodera and Sadowsky have expressed that they want to be in the NYC area where some of the world's finest players are. It stands to reason that the instruments they make with the features they have would not have emerged without that kind of input. The bulk of their respective advances happened pre-internet, so locality and easy availability to world-class players was much more important back then than it is now.

See, that makes sense in the pre-internet days. Everything is so easy to connect & ship now that it is a moot point.

 

[awilkie84]

It's the OS not the device. Apple has the best OS. No one cares about hardware so long as it is reliable. They do care about the quality of their interaction with their device.

...Apple has the Fisher Price OS. It definitely isn't the best if you like to tinker & mod. They've also got a fair share of stupid things that happen every time an update is released.

 

[Menorahman]

Ironically, there is a Fodera I'm really lusting after. It's the only one I've ever found attractive, and of course it also happens to be, in my opinion, the best looking bass (or guitar) ever. Too bad someone will probably buy it before I get the money together.

 

[Belka]

See, that makes sense in the pre-internet days. Everything is so easy to connect & ship now that it is a moot point.

And your point is what, that Fodera, whose main owners have lived in that area all their life, have to move in order that some people on the Internet who are not happy about their pricing can now afford one, despite stating already that their Carvins sound just as good? Grow up.

 

[Flaked Beans]

What company is doing what Fodera does for a few grand?

+1.

 

[smperry]

Closing this thread...it's redundant and isn't going well (it never does).

It's pretty simple you buy what you want and I'll buy what I want that way we both are happy.

BINGO