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fender amps rip off australia

#21
remo said:
fender???? man we get ripped of on EVERYTHING..

even a brand new LOCALLY MADE Wayne Jones cost more here than shipped to the USA..

Musicman SR5 here rrp AUD $3800
i got mind delivered from the US for AUD $1900.

Australia, nice place... just don't buy anything.
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Aint this the truth.



Also, the Belman is a peice of art. Just needs Sadowsky preamp and pickups.
 
#25
heath_the_great said:
.....but i dunno if there is any local amp makers/builders around here..
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Not sure about up your way Heath, but manufactured in Melbourne, we have Lab Systems, and Ebony amps ;)

Oh - and Maton making Basses again? That's cool - I remember some of their old basses from my high school days :D very nice!

I used to drop in to Maton in Surrey Hills after shool and drool over their basses with only a schools boy's pocket money in my pocket! :D

At least the dude there was cool and used to humour me :bassist:

;)
 
#26
Maton Email said:
Hey Heath, thanks for the email and interest in Maton Guitars!

Yes, we will be introducing a New Maton Bass in the near future. At the moment it is still in the pipeline though.

It will hopefully be in the second half of this year.

Kind regards,

Hailey Morse
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thats what i got back...i played avery nice maton fretless not long ago...i loved it, just didnt have $2,500

cole clarke are bringing out acoustic basses shortly....i so damn want one
 
#28
You've got to love the US magazine review for,

"Best production bass under $1000"

Stingray 5
Fender J 5
etc etc

And here we pay $3500 for a Stingray!!!

Yet US$1000 converts to AU$1200

Is this just the Howie import duty + tax + tax + tax or is it just the distributor saying bend over you won't feel a thing, I promise. heheheheh. Snap go the gloves.

Reminds me of the old Lampoons Vacation scene where the car gets repaired. "How much is the bill", "Well, how much you got..."

And some dudes thing $1000 for a kick ass bass is tough.

Ouch.
 
#29
mlowe said:
is it just the distributor saying bend over you won't feel a thing, I promise. heheheheh. Snap go the gloves.
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kung pow = eenie meenie miney moe, i wonder where, my glove will go :D ....oh god how i love that movie...now ive bought the dvd i can watch what steve is really saying ("you are the pie man, ive come from far away to taste your lemon merange") lol....

but yeah...i wonder how much it'd cost to buy a KSD over here if they wre sold over here..

i cant beleive the markup though..i was shown at my local store the other day (of course now i get a 30% discount on everything) an ibanez sr3006 retails for something like $3600....the store only paid $1300 for it.....now THATS markup
 
#30
those mallia's are nice...but uhhh....i think ill be getting an alembic before that :D coughpricecough

something along the lines of this :D
alembicjazz5.jpg
 
#31
Holy cr*p! :eek: And I thought that we were getting ripped off!

I think the RRP for a stingray in the UK is about £1,395, which equates to about $2,583 USD at the moment. By hunting around though, I found Stingrays for closer to a grand (even so still wish I could afford one!).

We have to pay value added tax VAT at 17.5% on almost everything we buy in the UK, which would explain some, but by no means all of the difference. :hmm:

Out of interest do you guys have to pay VAT in Oz too?

It may or may not be the fault of the respective manufacturers marketing departments (perceived market value and all that rubbish). Then again, it could be down to regional distributors (i.e. middlemen) getting greedy.

Unfortunately I'm not really qualified to comment. With luck someone who knows about these things might jump in and share some information.....
 
#34
alibloke said:
We have to pay value added tax VAT at 17.5% on almost everything we buy in the UK, which would explain some, but by no means all of the difference. :hmm:

Out of interest do you guys have to pay VAT in Oz too?

....
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Yep, we have a GST of 10% here...

That, plus shipping and any other importing costs could go anywhere near to making up for the crazy prices we pay here though......I wonder where it all goes!

A US$1000 bass in America, directly converts to $1200-1300 AUD, then add 10%, plus maybe a few hundred for importing and shipping?

So, you end up with maybe $1500-1600?

I'm not sure what the street price in the US is for a Stingray 5 - but Musiciansfriend has them listed for $1372US.

....a Stingray 5 is $3500 here!

Someone's screwing us along the way :spit:

I'm all for supporting local suppliers where I can, and my local music shop is great - but sometimes, things just cost too much here not to source them from OS...
 
#38
Luke73 said:
Not sure about up your way Heath, but manufactured in Melbourne, we have Lab Systems, and Ebony amps ;)
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The Ebony Quake 400 amp is a giant killer! I own 2 of them. Why? Because I'd saved enough money to get a GK 1001B. The Ebony sounded better and was almost half the price. I've currently got one of mine on loan to a friend who's Eden 400WT was stolen. He preferes my amp!

I also played through a labsystems head for 12 years. I eventually killed it but it was excellent. I would have bought another one but Lab's prices have gone through the roof in those 12 years. The problem with producing quality gear in Austr is that you still have to ship in many of the parts, and shipping is a killer! So it can often equate to a product that is as expensive as the imported models. I believe labsystems fall into this category. I also believe that non-Australians would go nuts for Labsystem's gear. It's good!

And YES we are definitely gettin screwed here in Aust. But have you ever asked yourself why the markups are higher? Simply put, we're not a volume market. We have a smaller population of bass players, so the "sell lots for small margin" philosophy of business doesn't work here.

Nowdays I'm not affraid to get things shipped in from O/S. Shipping is often as much as the item you're buying. Customs charge 5% on the sale value (the shipping doesn't count). They also charge a $53 entry fee and if for some reason you have a quarantine inspection done, add $44. Then add GST of 10% to the sale price+shipping+customs. After all that, it's sometimes cheaper to import yourself than buy from a store - but not always. I always do my sums before buying anything.
 

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