I want your string business!!

[RocketMusic]

Good on you for making the best of it!
That’s what will keep you in business… if you haven’t read the book Think Again, I’d highly recommend it.
I ended up putting in an order for the LaBellas you did have and a set of compression wounds

Thanks for the order and the book tip. I'll check it out!

 

[RocketMusic]

Hi Greg -
I just want to point out the growing opportunity for short - scale bass string products, including 5-string sets. The demand seems to be growing, and supplies are short - pandemic or otherwise. It’s a niche, but it’s a growing niche. Thanks!

Thanks, that's good to know!

When I pickup up a new brand, I tend to start with long scale / medium gauge 4-string and 5-string sets. Then I might get into the light and heavier gauges. Then maybe the 6-string sets. THEN maybe the short scale stuff, and probably just 4-string at that. LOL

I'll add more short scale stuff to my orders over the coming weeks.

 

[TomB]

Thanks, that's good to know!

When I pickup up a new brand, I tend to start with long scale / medium gauge 4-string and 5-string sets. Then I might get into the light and heavier gauges. Then maybe the 6-string sets. THEN maybe the short scale stuff, and probably just 4-string at that. LOL

I'll add more short scale stuff content to my orders over the coming weeks.

Yeah, 5-string shorties are a weird item. So far Dunlop and LaBella have come through for me. But LaBella noted that they're pretty swamped recently.

 

[StayLow]

Nickel is up 150% the past year, steel price going ever higher, and shipping/labor/etc. won’t get cheaper.

How long before the latest price spike in costs is reflected in the price of strings?

Will this advantage certain string brands or retailers?

How might it affect Rocket Music or it’s customers?

 

[RocketMusic]

Nickel is up 150% the past year, steel price going ever higher, and shipping/labor/etc. won’t get cheaper.

How long before the latest price spike in costs is reflected in the price of strings?

Will this advantage certain string brands or retailers?

How might it affect Rocket Music or it’s customers?

String prices have crept up across the board in 2022, but nothing outrageous so far. I suspect you're right, though, I'm not sure how long that can continue. At some point, each manufacturer will burn through its current supply of whatever metal(s) and will have to go buy more.

I work with one company that brings their machined metal parts in on containers from overseas. The cost of a container has gone up 10 times, and that turned into just a 7-8% price increase on their products. So I guess we need to remember that the cost of raw materials is just one factor in a product's price. There's also labor and overhead costs that play a significant role. Those costs are probably less volatile, at least for the time being.

I'm anxious to see the slightest sign that things are turning in a better direction... but nope.

 

[skycruiser]

Is your standard shipping USPS with tracking? I ask because I have found standard USPS packages get neglected and lost. Looking at those ML7200's.

 

[RocketMusic]

Is your standard shipping USPS with tracking? I ask because I have found standard USPS packages get neglected and lost. Looking at those ML7200's.

Yes, I ship small string orders domestically using USPS first class mail service with tracking. I've shipped hundreds of mailers like this in the past 6 months with no problems at all.

I could use UPS or FedEx if anyone prefers, but I would have to charge some shipping $$ to do that.

 

[RocketMusic]

Yes, I ship small string orders domestically using USPS first class mail service with tracking. I've shipped hundreds of mailers like this in the past 6 months with no problems at all.

I could use UPS or FedEx if anyone prefers, but I would have to charge some shipping $$ to do that.

Actually - I had one minor problem, and it's a pretty funny story. A guy bought a set of strings through my reverb store. A couple days later the mailman gets to this guy's building, and I guess he must've scanned all the packages he was dropping off while he was still in his vehicle. The mailman then had to walk however far to actually put them in the mailboxes. My reverb customer got the electronic delivery notice as soon as the scan happened, then he raced to his mailbox, beat the mailman there and found no strings. He managed to request a refund through reverb before the strings landed in his mailbox like 2 minutes later. I'd say he was more than a little excited to get his strings.

 

[RocketMusic]

I started this thread about selling strings just over a year ago. Seems like a good time to reflect, analyze, and look for some opportunities for growth.

Reflection #1
We pretty quickly ramped up to the point where I was shipping strings on a daily basis. That's great, that was my whole goal with getting into strings in the first place. I wanted a bread and butter thing that would sell frequently and consistently even during the lean times with bass and amp sales. Success!

Reflection #2
One thing that has been really interesting to me is to see how many of our string sales come through Reverb.com. I'm guessing it's something like 80-90%? That's great in the sense that Reverb is bringing us customers that we might not have met otherwise. There are a couple of downsides, though. Their 5% cut for connecting us with those customers is well deserved, but it's also a pretty serious bummer on sales of a single set of strings (which is most of them). Between that fee, payment processing fees, and shipping & envelope costs, there's not much left as profit. That's Bummer #1. Bummer #2 is that from the little experience I have buying on Reverb, the site doesn't really foster any sort of relationship between the buyer and the seller that is fulfilling the orders. Buyers have a relationship with Reverb, sellers have a relationship with Reverb, but the buyers and sellers don't really develop a direct relationship that could lead to repeat business.

With all that in mind, my hope for my second 12 months in the string business is to do some things to drive more sales directly through my website and to increase my profit margin on strings. Part of that effort will be to continue posting about strings here on Talkbass. Another part will be expanding the brands and sets that we offer. And yet another part will be a marketing effort to encourage folks to use our website when they buy strings.

Step 1 of my marketing effort is going to be the postcard below that I'll slip into the envelope every time I ship a set of strings. It's got a couple QR codes that you can scan with your phone, and that will take you straight to our website and automatically apply a discount code when you checkout. Ain't technology grand?!?

I've published a couple iterations of these discount codes here before. Upon reflection, there were too many codes; simple is better than complicated. And upon analysis, the original discount codes were more generous than the profit margin math allows (doh!!). So now there are just two discount codes. When you buy 2 sets (instead of 1), you'll get 3% off. When you buy 3 or more sets, you'll get 5% off. That's nice and simple, and hopefully it's enough of an incentive to get folks to use our website instead of third party websites.

Thanks for all the string business in the past year! I'm hoping for more to come. Let me know if there's anything I can do better to earn or keep your string business!

 

[StayLow]

Congratulations & much respect.

I’ve purchased strings from every major online retailer that sells ‘em, and my experience buying from Rocket Music was exemplary; great service, quick delivery, and same or better pricing.

Thanks again, and all the best going forward!

 

[Spidey2112]

Keep up the great work, Greg!

 

[RocketMusic]

Thanks, dudes!

Since I was already in photoshop and had discovered that VistaPrint was doing 30% off, I decided to add a back image for these postcards, as well. Just a little extra info that I didn't want to include on the front side because it would have detracted from the simplicity of that messaging.

I'm pretty clearly a left brained sort of guy, but it was fun to exercise my underused right side. I got absolutely nothing done today other than creating these two images and putting together a VistaPrint order... but I'll take it, I've been meaning to do this for weeks now. Every time I get a Reverb order I think "well there's another guy that doesn't know my website exists." Hahaha! Solved that problem. Bam!

 

[RocketMusic]

About a month ago, I started routing all of my Reverb orders through my website. Most of my strings sales are still coming in through Reverb (why?!?), but I'm at least now starting to accumulate some reasonable "string popularity" stats on my website. The Bass Strings collection on my website is sorted by "Best Selling" by default, and that data is finally starting to become meaningful as more and more Reverb string orders pass through my website.

At the moment, I'd say the "Best Selling" info is accurate for the first 10 sets or so. After that, when there's no sales information available yet, it defaults to sorting by which sets have been setup most recently. This info will just get better and better over time as more Reverb sales get routed through my website. In the meantime, if you're buying your strings from my store through Reverb: PLEASE use my website. Reverb takes 5% of every sale, and I can't overstate how much of a bummer that is.

 

[RocketMusic]

Oooo - the La Bella 760-FS set is sneaking up the charts (#5 on the best seller list as of now). That's my personal favorite set. My ears still prefer it, but my aging hands prefer the 760-FL and its slightly lower string tension.

 

[RocketMusic]

The GHS M3050 set is creeping up the list, too. That and the GHS 3050 set are the big Precision flats movers. Though really all of the Precision flats sets move. Long scale, short scale, light gauge, medium gauge, whatever.

 

[RocketMusic]

I reorganized the menu layout on our website just now. Everything was kind of buried under the general "Guitar" and "Bass" menus, and I wanted to expose some of the bigger categories of stuff at the top level (so amps, pedals and pickups are now their own top-level menu).

Strings are still a bit buried, now they're under the "Accessories" menu. I almost put them at the top, but it's getting a little crowded up there...

 

[RocketMusic]

I reorganized the menu layout on our website just now. Everything was kind of buried under the general "Guitar" and "Bass" menus, and I wanted to expose some of the bigger categories of stuff at the top level (so amps, pedals and pickups are now their own top-level menu).

Strings are still a bit buried, now they're under the "Accessories" menu. I almost put them at the top, but it's getting a little crowded up there...

I couldn't resist promoting "Strings" to a topline menu item. We're selling so many bass strings now, it just doesn't make sense to bury the link to that collection. And maybe that will attract some more guitar string sales, I'd like to get that going more steadily, too.

One thing I'd love some feedback on if you have a strong opinion? I ditched the branded collections (DR Strings, TI Strings, GHS Strings, etc.) just to simplify things in the menu system. You can still isolate a particular brand quite easily with the "Brand" filter once you get to the "Bass Strings" collection. Does that work for everyone?

 

[Ricky Rioli]

Now all the brands are together, it's jumbled up the arbitrary names they give the various sets. If I want to search for all the 4-string / long-scale / 45-105 sets, I can't because the different companies give 45-65-85-105 different names: DR's Medium = D'addario's Light Top Medium Bottom.

 

[onda'bass]

@RocketMusic Add singles for custom bass sets.

 

[ComesATime]

Any chance on stocking the 760F-MUS LaBellas? Wanted to keep a set on hand.