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Sterling prices are insane in Brazil

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prepair02

Jul 7, 2023
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#1
After Sterling (by Music Man) announced the new Joe Dart basses, I started checking out their models and honestly, both the Pete Wentz signature and the short scale look great. The problem? In Brazil, they're almost the same price as a JMJ Mustang.

Brazil has a ridiculous amount of taxes, but usually you'll find Fender and Squier basses costing about 10x their USD price. The JMJ Mustang goes for around 13000 BRL, while the Pete Wentz Sterling is listed at 10500 BRL. That's a 1350 USD bass versus a 650 USD one. That can't be normal.

From what I could find, there's only one store selling Sterling basses here, and that might explain the inflated prices. But still, it's frustrating. Just feels like we can't have anything nice down here...

Sorry about the rant lol
 
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#3
prepair02 said:
After Sterling (by Music Man) announced the new Joe Dart basses, I started checking out their models and honestly, both the Pete Wentz signature and the short scale look great. The problem? In Brazil, they're almost the same price as a JMJ Mustang.

Brazil has a ridiculous amount of taxes, but usually you'll find Fender and Squier basses costing about 10x their USD price. The JMJ Mustang goes for around 13000 BRL, while the Pete Wentz Sterling is listed at 10500 BRL. That's a 1350 USD bass versus a 650 USD one. That can't be normal.

From what I could find, there's only one store selling Sterling basses here, and that might explain the inflated prices. But still, it's frustrating. Just feels like we can't have anything nice down here...

Sorry about the rant lol
Click to expand...
Do as I did, and leave this garbage country.
 
#7
Ivan R said:
Do as I did, and leave this garbage country.
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I may be a bit too old for that haha
moles said:
Hate to be 'that guy' but I'm definitely sympathetic ... right up until I Google 'Brazilian bass luthiers'.

Yeeeaaah you'll be fine 😁
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Well, someone has to be that guy, I have never thought about getting a custom bass...
LadyLoveStingRay5 said:
A JMJ isn't a USA made Fender . Neither are the Sterling import models. So I don't see the problem .
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Fender and Squier models typically follow a similar pricing pattern (around 10x the USD price), but I don't understand why Sterling models are almost double the price. AM Pro II around 16000 BRL. I'm not saying this is an issue between Brazil and the US, but rather that it has to do with Brazilian taxes and the nonsense pricing of Sterling models.
 
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#8
Yeah.. even getting hipshot hardware and some Lollars imported to a luthier down there costed the price of your average guitar center bass. Worth it though because the luthier's work (Samuel Martin) was absolutely top notch for the price of the rest of the build.
 
#12
Not only are Brazilian luthiers great, but some of the wood choices are remarkable.

I'm all for sourcing what a country does well. Some years ago, Brazil was producing some of the best hide glue in the world.

Way better than anything from India or China. I don't know if that's still the case, but I was loving the material while I had it.
 
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