KORG ACQUIRES AGUILAR

[MachMike]

I started with the MS20 mini. Then ordered the new MS20 FS ( still on order! ).

And then I was lucky enough to score a new KARP 2600 FS. The holy grail.

Yep, Korg fan here. And if you never played the Korg iMS20 app, check it out on a large iPad. It was that app that drove me to the above hoarding

I still have my Korg Trinity w/di-tri. 24 years and still works like new. Great gear.

 

[getBAK]

This makes me nervous - I watched the automotive aftermarket industry consolidate in the early 2000's as Holley and Mr. Gasket/Accel bought up a ton of the older companies. Earls, B&M, Lunati, and Hurst were all ruined.
Holley since purchased the Accel/MrGasket family of companies and I have little faith in that going well.

The automotive aftermarket has A LOT of parallels to the Musical supply industry

 

[57pbass]

Back in the early 90’s Aguilar and Sadowsky were on the same floor at the original Times Square location at 1600 Broadway.
To get to Sadowsky Guitars, when you got off the elevator you had to pass the Aguilar shop. I passed a room maybe 20’x20’ and there were always two guys in there assembling Aguilar Amps by hand. I would sometimes stop and have a quick chat. I ran into Boonshoft a few times and we would talk shop. As an active NYC bassist he took taxi cabs to shows and used a Bag End single 15.. this lead him to develop the single 12” cab that was easier for him to transport and sounded as good as his trusty Bag End.

 

[frankie5string]

The automotive aftermarket has A LOT of parallels to the Musical supply industry

Yes, and the photography industry is undergoing a change right now too. Camera sales have dropped to 10% of what they were only ten years ago. It's like the 1990s all over again in that business.

 

[57pbass]

Yes, and the photography industry is undergoing a change right now too. Camera sales have dropped to 10% of what they were only ten years ago. It's like the 1990s all over again in that business.

Have you gone mirrorless?

 

[frankie5string]

Have you gone mirrorless?

Years ago... and I use Olympus gear, so I'm watching the JIP carveout of the Olympus camera group very closely.

 

[BOOG]

I don't understand why many TBers here are concerned! this is just business. Nobody buys a successful company to ruining it and loss a lot of money.

Not always true.

 

[Sorado71]

I’m not sure what I think about Aguilar. The only person who I heard live... That sounded good using that stuff, was Scott Ambush. I’ve heard Veasley and Tacuma using it live and it was pretty bad. Patittucci... passable imo. Mids and distorted slightly... After Covid, I’m going to have to listen again. The brand and professionalism is solid, but I didn’t imagine that cardboard sound...
I wonder ...

If those guys are endorsed artists, they're using the latest gear. I have owned but no longer own any of Aguilar's latest gear. Check out Jack Casady (Hot Tuna) live - he uses a DB680 preamp into a DB720 400w power amp and a GS410 speaker cab. The sound is outstanding, but Aguilar stopped making the 680 and 720 15 years ago or so. Because I don't want to haul around 80lbs of pre and power amp, I use a DB359 (also out of production) into a GS410 and it sounds great. Aguilar's older gear is made VERY well and will last longer than I do.

 

[getBAK]

In automotive, in the late '90s catalogs (Summit, Jegs) got too powerful and destroyed everyone's profit margins. The whole industry went to hell.
The Music industry was smart enough to put MAP pricing in place quickly and benefits from having "personal" qualities to their products. IE an instrument has it's own personality, but a Camshaft is a Camshaft if they have the same part #

 

[BOOG]

Korg and Aguilar?!!! This is Paranoia!

Paranoia saves lives, and businesses.

 

[Ffreddy]

HEY KORG TOSS THE MS-20 FILTER SECTION ON A POWER AMP AND $$$$$$$$$

 

[MoonDoggy]

And chance this will be some sort of conflict of interest (or insert other legal jargon) for Korg USA since they are also the US Distributor for Darkglass?? I know the demographic for Aguilar may be different than Darkglass, but they do both make bass amps and cabs. Or is owning one company and simply being a distributor for another not make this a conflict of interest?

 

[fishdude101101]

If those guys are endorsed artists, they're using the latest gear. I have owned but no longer own any of Aguilar's latest gear. Check out Jack Casady (Hot Tuna) live - he uses a DB680 preamp into a DB720 400w power amp and a GS410 speaker cab. The sound is outstanding, but Aguilar stopped making the 680 and 720 15 years ago or so. Because I don't want to haul around 80lbs of pre and power amp, I use a DB359 (also out of production) into a GS410 and it sounds great. Aguilar's older gear is made VERY well and will last longer than I do.

In a live setting there is no guarantee that you're even hearing the aguilar gear in the front of house. Even if using the DI on the head it can be set to "pre" and nothing from the head is coming through.

 

[ElMon]

Not always true.

Yep, and in fact that's exactly why some companies make this kind of acquisition.

• Absorb the competitions product line/design know-how/QC processes
• Take what you need and scrap the company
• Sometimes it's 'we're tired of competing with you so we'll just make sure you don't exist anymore'.

That's been my experience, in some cases. Lot of navel-gazing and arm chair prognosticating on my part, but then again I happen to enjoy that. Thinking out loud: I wonder if a move like this is similar to what Roger Sadowsky had in mind. Let a larger company with more distribution connections/capabilities get your legacy into more people's hands, at an even-lower price point.

No, you can't have any of my pre-Korg Aguilar gear!

 

[Nobis17]

does anyone own any new Ampeg stuff? Has there been any change since Yamaha bought them? Does stuff like this always provide a negative?

I purchased a BA210 combo at the beginning of 2019. It served its purpose for about a year, but it started acting up at the beginning of 2020. Since then I've offloaded it and replaced it with a Bergantino head and cabinet - it was the best decision I could have ever made.

 

[dkelley]

Hmmm.

Yamaha has Ampeg; now Korg has Aguilar. Curious to see how crazy-digital the collaborative efforts get when the engineers from these companies start mind-melding.

Hey modeling is getting pretty good. Wonder how close we are to someone finally nailing power tube overdrive convincingly. My thoughts are that it's quite possible one of these two partnerships can do it.

I've heard convincing power tube emulation for several years now from certain companies.

What I've learned though is how little I actually like it. What I prefer is tube overdrive followed by an eq followed by my amp's tone stack. The only time I like power tube overdrive sounds is when the tubes are dying due to poor biasing or other factors. And with modeling you can emulate that sound very well (recreating the same electrical situation, in fact, through modeled circuit recreations), and with the model the tubes don't blow up. In real life, based on my own experience, the tubes blow up after a matter of an hour or two at that state.

 

[Nobis17]

Gibson just bought Mesa Boogie

I just saw that as well

 

[sears]

Dave, I want garlic where there aren't a lot of tiny useless cloves in the center. I want BIG CLOVES, not necessarily big heads, but I want a good yield all the way through. Also it must be delicious, of course. Manufacture an accessory called the Clove Hammer. I could do this all day.

 

[DJ Bebop]

I hope this isn’t true, Gibson basses suck...

Gibson acquires Mesa/Boogie amps | Guitar World

 

[Kukulkan61]

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