Lets keep in mind that just because something is twice the price, it doesn't mean it cost that much to build, it's just what they are charging. There are several products in the bass world that are heavily marketed and hyped up, along with this image there is often a price tag that matches.
I couldnt agree more! There are many items, even more so in the audiophile world, where you pay a huge premium for the smoke & mirrors being touted in their advertising.
Our story is a little different because after 30 years of frustration [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] with bass cabinets, my partner David Innis & I designed the El Whappo strictly for me; not to start a company. We spent a few years testing over 1,200 speakers & every cabinet design known to man for this personal project.
Since I waited 30 years for a solution, I didnt care how much it cost or how long it took. When we were done with the project, I now had "my" perfect cabinet & it was over.
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Later, pro players like Myron Dove (Santana) & Polo Jones (Whitney Huston) heard my personal cab in the studio & wanted to place an order. Thats when we were pretty much forced into business.
At our first NAMM show, everyone including Bass Player Mag. loved our cabinets. However, we couldnt sell them because we did not know how much they cost to build, let alone what they would sell for. When we came back from the show, we reversed engineered our own cabs to see what they cost.
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To this day, when we design a new cabinet we do things backwards from our competitors. Price never comes into the equation, because we do not want to compromise the end result. We never look at the cost of components, the cost of manufacturing or even what the wholesale or retail pricing would be. We do not try to match things up price wise or in any other way with our competitors.
We only have two goals in mind; build a cabinet that fills a void in the industry while solving problems for bass players & build the best no compromise cabinet on the planet. Cost is never a factor, only quality.
In our case, our prices are not inflated; it's simply what it cost to build these babies. In addition, we are a tiny company that hand builds everything from the circuit boards to the crossovers, we cut every piece of wood, glue every piece of carpet, etc. right here in our own facility. We do not use CNC, nor do we out source overseas or to other large manufacturers. Its kind of like getting like getting a custom MTD, Nordstrand or Ritter bass built; everything is done the by hand the slow old fashion way.
I do not set behind a desk crunching numbers all day like a business man; Im in the manufacturing room building cabinets. When they are done, I take the extra time to personally test every single cabinet. Not just with our custom test instruments that we built ourselves, but as a real bass player with my personal basses. (Bee 6 fretted, Ritter 6 fretless, Lakland Joe Osborn 5, M Bass 4 fretless & 5 fretted, Barker upright fretless 5, Basslabs 4 & 5 fretted) Only after passing my tourture tests do they get boxed & shipped.
Yes, there are companies that have heavily marketed and hyped up products with price tags to match; however, we are not one of them.
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Mark
AccuGroove Music Systems
) any comment I care to make and if you don't like it TOUGH,. And by the way, I have heard the same comments expressed by many people that operate in the industry (luthiers, dealers, and distributors), maybe they are irresponsible too. I didn't attack or name names or imply that the E.W. cabs were in fact over priced, I just mentioned that sometimes this happens. And if you read the post by Whappo Grande you can see that he made a clear point to me using tact and class, he did not start off with I don't mean to be rude, but here I'm going to do it anyway". Take a lesson. 
