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Is Modulus still in Business?

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#688
If I had to make a guess, another company bought them and they're in some transitional phase. Genz Benz was just bought out by Fender, but there's no thread slamming them. Again, this is just a guess, but it's entirely probable. Perhaps Peavey or Fender bought them, as others have speculated. Someone is saving them though, my two cents. If they are in transition they won't be going public with this until next year or so. Maybe what's going on is top-secret. That means Modulus as we currently know it may be done, but not all together. If Jacquo is alluding to anything, it's that they're gonna be around in the future in some form or fashion, and everyone is reading into this too much. I do know Fender is trying to make a huge come back into the high end scene, and this may be affiliated with that...but only time will tell if I'm right. Again, it's just a theory--and I'm not trying to spread any more rumors.

For the record, maybe not many of you remember Mars Music. Mars was a big chain out of Florida that spread across the southeast, and carried tons of Modulus basses. (I'm sure they had something to do with the popularity of Modulus basses in the southern jam band scene.). They had lots of Modulus inventory when they folded in late 2002. I'm sure Modulus has never fully recovered financially from that blow.
 
#692
dmusic148 said:
What blow? Mars owned those basses.
Click to expand...

Sure about that? Often enough smaller custom builders will consign inventories to big chains in hopes of volume through exposure. This is a common practice with many products, probably less so with instruments, but very common in wholesale. When things go south it becomes a tangled web and everyone looses.

DaveAceofBass said:
If I had to make a guess, another company bought them and they're in some transitional phase. Genz Benz was just bought out by Fender, but there's no thread slamming them. Again, this is just a guess, but it's entirely probable. Perhaps Peavey or Fender bought them, as others have speculated. Someone is saving them though, my two cents. If they are in transition they won't be going public with this until next year or so. Maybe what's going on is top-secret. That means Modulus as we currently know it may be done, but not all together. If Jacquo is alluding to anything, it's that they're gonna be around in the future in some form or fashion, and everyone is reading into this too much. I do know Fender is trying to make a huge come back into the high end scene, and this may be affiliated with that...but only time will tell if I'm right. Again, it's just a theory--and I'm not trying to spread any more rumors.
QUOTE]

This is probably the closest to what is actually happening.
I'll add another twist here. I've bought and sold several businesses over the last 30 years. I wouldn't put it past a potential buyer dragging their feet to drive the price down. It happens all the time. A cash strapped business floats a prospectus knowing that if they don't sell the doors will close. A potential buyer leads them along knowing time is on their side. The longer they wait the lower the cost of ownership.
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#695
The thing that troubles me about their "silence" is that there are a number of us who are original owners of their basses and want to know what the status of the warranty is/will be. I don't think it's too much to ask for a short statement or email from Modulus to let us know whether that warranty is going to be honored or not should the need for repairs arise.
 
#696
Yes we say Modulus make great basses - actually nope. Joe Perman makes great basses, and he has been doing it for years at Modulus.

For your reading pleasure:

http://oteilburbridge.blogspot.com/2011/05/joe-perman-bass-guitars.html

Don't really know what it is saying, but it does indicate Joe making a graphite necked bass in Jan 2011 and it ain't a Modulus.

I have hated this post for the fact that Modulus may/could go under and so many think they know what is going on, "the inside skinny".

But the fact is - sometimes companies go under and sometimes they stay afloat. If Modulus go, so be it. But let us hope Joe stays in the game and we will always have that special bass we all love. Oteil looks happy in the above article.
 
#698
"This bass was Joe’s first bass under his own name. He is the Luthier responsible for every Modulus bass that I’ve owned, and I’ve had a bunch of them. My very first signature bass was the Modulus OB-1. As in, Kenobi… As you can see in the picture, this instrument is exceptionally beautiful. Its another “glass case” bass. It sounds equally as gorgeous. It also has about the longest sustain of any bass I’ve ever played. I originally got turned onto graphite because I heard Tony Levin with Peter Gabriel. He is one of the few bassist that had a distinctly different sound from Jaco when he played fretless. I never played fretless because I didn’t want to sound like yet another Jaco clone. Levin showed me I was wrong. Now that I have this bass I have some serious homework to do. Fretless instruments are much harder to keep in tune and require lots of practice. Special thanks to Joe Perman for so many years of support and so many beautiful basses. This bass is so pretty I named it “Pretty Boy Floyd”."

To me, this implies that it has a graphite neck.
 
#699
JFMusic said:
"... I originally got turned onto graphite because I heard Tony Levin with Peter Gabriel. He is one of the few bassist that had a distinctly different sound from Jaco when he played fretless. I never played fretless because I didn’t want to sound like yet another Jaco clone. Levin showed me I was wrong. Now that I have this bass I have some serious homework to do..."

To me, this implies that it has a graphite neck.
Click to expand...

i'd say strongly implies.
 
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