Here Today, Gone Later Today | innovations that failed

[dj150888]

I'm going to get behind John on this one. If I were selling a product, any product, the last thing I would want is some uninformed person telling me what price I should be selling my product at.

With all respect to the luthier, its worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If its too labour intensive to market at a price people are willing to pay, then its a poor business venture. The guy is a bass player who probably has purchased several basses.....not really totally uninformed.

(This is a general comment, not really directed at the particular bass, just items in general, I have no idea of the financial success of the business in question)

 

[funkomatic]

With all respect to the luthier, its worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If its too labour intensive to market at a price people are willing to pay, then its a poor business venture.

Apparently the luthier in question has sold one or more instruments at his asking price. If that is so, I would conclude that there is a market for his instruments. It might be a very small market, but a market nonetheless. A niche market, perhaps.

 

[dj150888]

Apparently the luthier in question has sold one or more instruments at his asking price. If that is so, I would conclude that there is a market for his instruments. It might be a very small market, but a market nonetheless. A niche market, perhaps.

Your argument depends on a certain definition of successful business, but thats irrelevant, my point was merely that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, no matter how much work went into it.

Though now I have a new point this one definitely isn't directed at the luthier, merely talking about your, "sold one or more" line. No matter how bad an idea is, theres always one person who'll buy it.

 

[Jonny B]

With all respect to the luthier, its worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If its too labour intensive to market at a price people are willing to pay, then its a poor business venture. The guy is a bass player who probably has purchased several basses.....not really totally uninformed.

(This is a general comment, not really directed at the particular bass, just items in general, I have no idea of the financial success of the business in question)

You're right, to an extent.

Let's take a look at the market though. I see "mass produced" basses being sold for thousands of dollars every day. I see "custom" basses being sold for thousands of dollars every day. There are luthiers on this very website that are selling their instruments for thousands.

Would you call or email Modulus, or Warrior and tell them that their instruments are overpriced? Do you think that you would get a deal? Probably not.

If John can't sell his instruments for what he's asking, then he has to make a decision whether or not to reduce his prices, or possibly give up the dream. But that's up to him, not some guy off the street telling him his instruments are only worth 25% of what he's selling them for.

In my opinion, almost everything is overpriced these days. New cars: what a scam. The new Hog I'm going to buy next year: overpriced. But if you want something bad enough, you're going to pay what the market demands. The buyer thought John's instruments were overpriced, so he exercised his right as a consumer and didn't buy one. Good for him, but IMO the buck should have stopped there because he was uninformed. He had no idea what it took to make one of those instruments.

/rant off

Sorry to have derailed the thread.

 

[Kipaste]

This comes to mind:

Invalid Link Removed

It's the neuser claudia bass. It almost doesn't fit the category "here today" as most people have never heard of it. Anyhow, the big idea is that the black box located in the pickguard is pad of five keys. And mini pickup looking things are small hammers that hit the string from underneath when a key is pressed, so basically it's sort of a crossbreed between an acoustic piano and a bass guitar.

I got to try one once, like eight or so years ago and I personally liked it very much. It was nice to be able to play big chords and really fast crosses over all the strings. The sound was nice too, as espected it had those clear and ringing piano kind of tone. And it was a great percussive tool too. I'd actually very much like to own one of these.

 

[funkomatic]

Thanks, Jonny B. You made some good points.

Just because buyer A doesn't think it is worth $X doesn't mean buyer B won't pay $X. If you can find a buyer B then congratulations, you're in business.

 

[Stevieb]

Apparently the luthier in question has sold one or more instruments at his asking price. If that is so, I would conclude that there is a market for his instruments. It might be a very small market, but a market nonetheless. A niche market, perhaps.

Got something to add, I think: There is, no doubt, a curve of selling price to sales numbers, here. Looks like the two folks at the center of this argument are at the nether ends of that curve. A fiarly modest move by either would result in either considerable more sales (lower end of the curve) or just a little less profit. When folks dig in their heels, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, happens.

 

[TimWilson]

True, they never became mainstream, but I'd say enough people bought Steinbergers to say that the concept proved out. And I wouldn't trade my Kubicki for any other bass out there.

With a little salt and butter, the foot in my own mouth doesn't taste so bad: six months after swearing lifelong allegiance to my Kubicki, I've decided that I really can't stand the light weight, short scale, and, yes, the headless design. I spent a year trying to get used to it because I LOVED the sound, but I recently sold it off and went back to StingRays...

 

[grifff]

Just intonation fingerboards.
They really arent a tried & failed thing,but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_intonation
2 of the basses on Hanford's right are JI fretted.
Invalid Link Removed

btw,Hansford is in Gongzilla.Killer band,killer bass player & really cool guy.

I like how Warwick basically copied and pasted the information from the Wikipedia website into their explanation of just intonation on the Hanford page...

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Gotta sprinkle a little Mrs. Dash on my words above and eat 'em up: I DID trade the Kubicki for a pair of StingRays. Yum yum... Tastes like chicken.

Didn't you say that two post up and two months ago?

 

[iamlowsound]

Uh oh...well, maybe they figured out a way that actually works? I'm hesitant though- it doesn't help that they start off the write-up with "UL DIST cabinets are tonally superior to any other cabinet previously available." I like Epifani, but come on

I don't think it should be that hard to do. Just wire in a dummy coil that would bring the 8 ohms down to 4 ohms and put it on a bypass switch. Done.

lowsound

 

[Bryan R. Tyler]

I don't think it should be that hard to do. Just wire in a dummy coil that would bring the 8 ohms down to 4 ohms and put it on a bypass switch. Done.

lowsound

You'd have to change all the drivers as well.

 

[ggunn]

I don't think it should be that hard to do. Just wire in a dummy coil that would bring the 8 ohms down to 4 ohms and put it on a bypass switch. Done.

lowsound

And throw away half the output of your amp in the form of heat. I think you're better off just playing into the impedance mismatch than you are by "fixing" it that way.