• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

I want your string business!!

#81
onda'bass said:
@RocketMusic Add singles for custom bass sets.
Click to expand...

Woof, that would be a massive undertaking... I've got a fair amount of GHS Bass Boomers singles and RC Boomers singles, but I sell about two singles a year.

Honestly, I'd probably prefer to handle singles on a case-by-case basis. Just let me know what you want, then I'd order it and deliver it. That might be a quick process for some brands, and not so quick for others.
 
  • Like
Reactions: onda'bass
#82
ComesATime said:
Any chance on stocking the 760F-MUS LaBellas? Wanted to keep a set on hand.
Click to expand...

Sure, I can do that. La Bella usually takes a couple months to deliver, so it probably won't be quick. But I'll setup the item in my purchasing & website software, and I'll get a box on order with my next La Bella order.
 
#83
Ricky Rioli said:
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.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you've tried this, but when you use the brand filter to focus on a single brand (like my old brand categories, that's all they did for you), all of the other filters (String Count, String Type, etc.) gray out the choices that no longer apply.

So say you're a DR guy. Before you would choose "DR Strings" instead of the general "Bass Strings". Well, now you can select "Bass Strings" and then "DR" under the brand filter and you're essentially right where you would have been if you'd still had the DR Strings collection to start from. There certainly are more choices in the other filters now, but the "non-DR" ones are grayed out. Hopefully the meaning of that is intuitive?

So for your scenario, I'd select the brand, then 4-string, then Long Scale, then the Gauge filter shows what's left. The gray choices don't meet the current filter criteria, and the white choices do.

I certainly agree that's a bit more information to weed through... but is it insurmountable? That's a serious question. I don't want the process to be difficult for anyone.

Capture1.PNG
 
#85
Ricky Rioli said:
On a similar website, I've found it useful browsing by the criteria of specs and then seeing what brands offer the combination I like at what prices.

But perhaps then that was working more as an educational tool for Ricky, than a sales tool for Strings Direct.....
Click to expand...

Oh, that's interesting. They just avoided the non-standard terms like Light, Medium, Heavy, and went straight to string gauges. That makes a lot of sense, and is probably way more useful?

I'll look at converting to that. It'll be a bunch of detail work, but I'm down for that if it improves my site. Thanks for sharing! Let's revisit your opinion once I make that transition to actual gauges.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ricky Rioli
#86
Overall I've found the filter pretty easy to work with.

From my perspective it seems it would be common for a player to know what gauges they're looking for in number and those who didn't know or couldn't remember wouldn't be helped much by the more general "light", "medium" given the potential for variance between brands and between sets within a brand. The pictures would probably be more likely to help in that scenario.

The addition of a Winding Type - Roundwound, Flatwound, Tapewound etc. would likely be a valuable addition which would help customers quickly navigate to the desired set of strings.

Edit: I had a comment about potential confusion between "String Gauges" "String Gauge" but upon refreshing the page the latter shows up as "String Gauge Name" so either I was beat to it, or my laptop was just having an issue displaying things properly! :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: RocketMusic
#87
Phormlyss said:
Overall I've found the filter pretty easy to work with.

From my perspective it seems it would be common for a player to know what gauges they're looking for in number and those who didn't know or couldn't remember wouldn't be helped much by the more general "light", "medium" given the potential for variance between brands and between sets within a brand. The pictures would probably be more likely to help in that scenario.

The addition of a Winding Type - Roundwound, Flatwound, Tapewound etc. would likely be a valuable addition which would help customers quickly navigate to the desired set of strings.

Edit: I had a comment about potential confusion between "String Gauges" "String Gauge" but upon refreshing the page the latter shows up as "String Gauge Name" so either I was beat to it, or my laptop was just having an issue displaying things properly! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, that's all good stuff! I will look into adding a Winding Type filter once I get done with all the "gauges as numbers" editing. Man, that's a big job (I'm about 70% done with it), but I already like what it's done for useability.

The String Gauge Name filter will likely go away once I get the String Guage by number filter done. Should be later today. Or I can leave the String Gauge Name filter active if anyone finds it useful.
 
#88
OK! I've edited all of the individual string set items to populate the "String Gauges" filter now. That was a TON of editing, and while I'm really good at detail work like that... please do let me know if you catch any errors!

I deleted the "String Gauge Name" filter since it's kind of redundant and probably quite a bit less useful than the new String Gauges filter. Howl if you think that was a mistake!

I've also added the "Winding Type" filter, and I'll be editing every individual string set item AGAIN to add that info this afternoon. LOL But that's a great idea, so I'm happy to do it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StayLow
#89
Cool, I just finished the editing for the "Winding Type" filter, so that's now functional. Again, please let me know if you catch any mistakes!

I setup these winding types:
  • Coated
  • Flatwound
  • Pressurewound
  • Roundwound
  • Tapewound
That seems to cover everything that I've currently got in stock...
 
#92
For any of you guys that also play guitar, I've just completed the same filter editing for my Guitar Strings collection.

Guitar strings are still a work in progress. I've got a long way to go in terms of setting up items and investing the capital to get more sets in stock. I'll keep at it, though, it'll get a little bit better every month or two.
 
#93
ComesATime said:
Any chance on stocking the 760F-MUS LaBellas? Wanted to keep a set on hand.
Click to expand...

Here's the 760F-MUS item on my website. I just ordered 6 sets, and they should arrive within 4-6 weeks.

These are for vintage Fender Mustangs that get strung through the body. Top loaded Mustangs should choose any of the other short scale La Bella sets, but not these.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ComesATime
#94
I don't know if adding the numeric gauge filter is responsible for this, but I'm having a nice little run of string sales the past week or so. And most of the sales are coming in through my website (as opposed to Reverb) for a change, so I'm ecstatic about that.

Just in case this thread is what is leading to the little sales surge that I'm experiencing, I figure I'll go ahead and extoll the virtues of buying your strings through my website one more time:

1) Free shipping on orders over $25 (though I also offer free shipping from my Reverb store, so this is a wash)
2) No sales tax if we ship outside of Virginia. Reverb collects sales tax on every order, and I'm sometimes shocked to see $6-8 sales tax on a single set of strings. If you're in a state with heavy sales tax, DEFINITELY use my site instead of my Reverb store.
3) Earn 5% Rewards with every purchase. Think of this as a delayed discount. You don't pay less on the first set, but you do on every subsequent set thanks to the Rewards.

I've been making a push to spread awareness of the Rewards Program, and I'm starting to see a lot more people take advantage of it. Especially if you buy a big ticket item like a bass or an amp or a cab... that 5% Rewards turns into real money pretty quickly. Say you buy a $1,000 cabinet, that earns you $50 in Rewards. That's a couple sets of free strings!

With strings as a more boring (but topical) example, let's say your favorite set is the La Bella 760FX set. Those strings have a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price), and La Bella is very strict about enforcing that MAP. I don't think you'll easily find a set of those being sold by an authorized La Bella dealer for less than $42.95. Pretty much every dealer will list them at that price or more. With our Rewards Program, you can think of it as paying less than $42.95 for that set. Sure, you'll pay the full $42.95 on the first set, but you'll also earn $2.15 in Rewards Points. The next time you buy that set, you can redeem those points and then pay just $42.95-$2.15 = $40.80 for the set. You'll also earn another $2.15 in Rewards to put towards the third set. And so on, and so on.

So in a nutshell: the Rewards Program is obviously something we implemented to encourage repeat business. But it's also a way for us to be able to sell strings for less than anyone else does. Just not the first set. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: StayLow and Joshua
#95
  • Like
Reactions: bdgotoh and Spidey2112

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back