Email from Barefaced

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I think it's very honorable for Alex to be so upfront and transparent. They indeed have not increase price for a while so it sounds totally justified in the current market.

I have 2 BF cab (a one 10 and a Super Midget 12) and I love them...my only problem is that when I gig the backline is always provided so I never have a chance to really push them.
 
I think Barefaced cabs are super affordable because they are more efficient. For example I don't need more than one Super Compact (1x12) whereas with cheaper brands I would probably need to have a 2x12 or two 1x12. No to mention sound quality.
Exactly what I think. In my opinion you pay a fair price for a cab that is more powerful and can be even more smaller/compact than other brands. Also you get great customer services and help.
 
Not sure this is the right forum, so please move if needed. Got this email from Barefaced today, prices going up. I'm no business mind, but, according to email, they are " selling plenty " of cabs, can't keep up, but prices need to go up because cash reserves are down. Someone want to dummy this down for me? Here it is:


Hello everyone - and sorry about the bad news,

So Barefaced has been going for 16 years now and we've continued to be an independent business, owned by me, designing, building and selling everything direct from our factory in a small business unit in Brighton UK.

And our customers thankfully seem to love what we do, and our consultative way of selling, so you get our expertise (it's usually me answering the emails but for guitar stuff I often end up chatting to the proper guitarists here - bass advice I can do totally solo) to make sure that the money you spend is on THE BEST CAB for your needs.

If you've ever watched Dragon's Den (Shark Tank in the USA?) you may have come across the term "lifestyle business", which the "Dragons" define as a business that provides a job/income for the boss and staff but little else - and I guess that's what we are. There's no outside investors, no shareholder goals for profits and dividends - we make the best products we can for our customers and we try to end each month (after everyone is paid) with a bit more money in the bank than before, because a business that doesn't won't last very long.

Sadly things seems to have been going the wrong way for a few months - we're selling plenty, getting the usual awesome feedback from our international rosta of owners, but the cash reserve (which finances all our material/component purchases) is getting too low to be comfortable. This mean we now need to analyse all our costs and update all our prices - it's not going to be much fun... I'm guessing we'll be seeing a 5-10% price increase on everything - we've not updated our prices in a fair while and although inflation is lower than it was, it's still been happening (and is cumulative) so everything is costing us more than it was.

From a profitability perspective we really need to put the prices up now, but I don't want to annoy those of you that have been planning/saving for a purchase, so we're going to hold off the pricing revision until Monday 21st October. If you'd like a Barefaced cab at the current price, please order one now.

Please understand that we do not have a choice in this: This is not "dynamic pricing" (aka screwing people because demand is higher than supply), and this is not something that can be avoided by increased production quantities - it is the cost per unit vs price per unit that is too high.

To end on a more positive note, since we began all those years ago, I've been astounded and delighted by the quantity of repeat customers we get! For those of you that haven't heard/owned a Barefaced cab, please take note of how many people keep coming back to Barefaced for all their bass and guitar cab needs, and how many who've heard a cab in person then get in touch to help choose their own.​
Thanks for your understanding - and I hope that you're able to continue to support us!

Alex and everyone at Barefaced HQ​
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Sound like an honest businessman taking care of his customers
 
What's there to explain? Prices of pretty much everything have been going up fast in the past 4-5 years especially. So they're still selling cabs, but the profits are down, and as a result their financial 'cushion' to buy components, pay rent, salaries etc is being eaten away.

It's a business.
As I stated, I don't have much of a business mind, so I requested a " dummy down " explanation. Yes I know its a business. Thanks for your input.
 
The fact that most new gear is over priced really takes the urge for impulse buying away from me. It also makes the decision to return any new piece of gear that I am even slightly not happy with much easier.
 
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Note that we never see the price of an existing product going down, but we see a lot of new affordable products (think Harley Benton), of increasing quality.

In the long term, entry level products (instruments and amps) have never been so cheap and so good.
Thinking about it, it's also true for high-end gear: when I was 25 years old (30 years ago) I bought a Mesa 400+.
I don't remember the price, but I remember it cost me the equivalent of several months' salary.
Now I can get a Mesa TT800 for less (I think), and it's a much better product.

So prices of existing products always go up and never go down, but new products are always better and cheaper.

Is that a general rule, or did I take a non-representative example?
 
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