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Price hike across the brands?

The price I pay for my strings

  • hasn't changed much lately.

  • has gone up significantly during the pandemic.

  • has always been carrots.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Emre Hanli

Emre Hanli

Aug 22, 2009
112
49
#1
Hello string pullers!

I use DR Fat Beams 99% of the time on my basses and had stocked up big time like 2 years ago. It's been convenient and I remember saving a few bucks buying bulk. Now I'm looking to buy again but the prices seem to have gone up since I hid under this rock. Did a search in the strings forum and saw a couple of threads about price increases regarding two different brands from a few months ago. Now that I see DR is also more expensive, I'm wondering if that's the case with all the makers perhaps due to the pandemic related raw material shortage type mess up?

I remember the price for a Fat Beams 45-125 set being around $25 in general and $23 when on sale. Now most vendors sell them for $34/set and the cheapest price I can see is $29. Am I being delusional or what?

I was feeling nostalgic about the times when I'd be playing and recording all the time and restringing weekly but I guess it's a good thing I don't do that anymore.

What do you say?
 
#2
https://www.amazon.com/DR-Strings-FB5-45-Fat-Beams-Medium/dp/B009P6E9ZW
$27.68/set. That's not too shabby; I think it's somewhat normal to see 5-string sets go north of $30 in recent times. 4-string sets can still be had for ~ $18-25, but always anticipate price increases commensurate with demand increase coupled with upticks in raw material costs. Taking inflation into account, bass strings are waaaaaay cheaper than they were when I started back in the late 80s, i.e. I still paid close to $20 for my first new set of Bass Boomers, almost 6 hours of my labor working part-time, LOL.

FWIW, Fat Beams are damn good strings; I like the subdued, not-so-tinny sound inherent of stainless (non NPS) strings.
 
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#3
Just as an FYI. Last year at this time steel was 38 cents per pound, current steel quotes $1.05 per pound. Add in all the other raw material increases such as packaging which is up over 20% and freight and it is amazing that prices have not gone up even more. On another note a good bit of Asia is shut down again due to Covid. Nothing in or out or being made. Container shipping prices which this time last year were $3000 for a container from Asia are now as high as $17,000 if you can get a spot on the ship. So expect al lot of stores to remain under stocked.
 
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#4
Mr Ralph said:
Just as an FYI. Last year at this time steel was 38 cents per pound, current steel quotes $1.05 per pound. Add in all the other raw material increases such as packaging which is up over 20% and freight and it is amazing that prices have not gone up even more. On another note a good bit of Asia is shut down again due to Covid. Nothing in or out or being made. Container shipping prices which this time last year were $3000 for a container from Asia are now as high as $17,000 if you can get a spot on the ship. So expect al lot of stores to remain under stocked.
Click to expand...

Well, that's quite messed up. Hope those numbers are not here to stay. $17K for a container? Sheesh...
 
#13
This is my order from 2020. The Daddarios went down in price. And the EB's went up. The DAddarios were 19.99 and the EBS were 16.69. Noow the Daddarios are 14.99 and the EBs are 19.99 That's a good price on them XLs:D
Picks from old order and if bought today @ amazon.
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#19
At the beginning of the pandemic there was more transportation than goods to transport. What we are seeing now is a massive amount of current production and not enough transportation to get it to market so shipping prices are stupid high as makers and dealers bid against each other for a spot in a container or trailer.
Like a slinky, transport is currently stretched to it's limit, but things should lighten up once the slinky contracts again and shipping prices drop back off.
 
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