I've got a side hustle locally where I rent orchestra instruments (violin, viola, cello, bass) to the parents of kids who participate in a fantastic program called [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] here at VA Tech in Blacksburg. Young kids from 3rd grade on up get 2 hours of instruction each week for a very small fee, and the college students who intend to become music teachers once they graduate get a lot of teaching experience while they're still in college. And the music professors who run the program have something very meaningful to do outside of just teaching their college classes. It's a beautiful thing all around, the proverbial win-win-win sort of situation. Win-win-win-win if you include my small part in the proceedings.
A new opportunity has recently presented itself. The String Project folks here in Blacksburg are starting an acoustic guitar version of this program in the fall, and they've asked me to gear up to handle rentals for this. So I'm faced with having to buy 30+ 3/4 size acoustic guitars for kiddos, plus probably a decent amount of full size instruments for any parents who might also participate. We used to be a Yamaha dealer years ago, so their JR1 and JR2 models jumped to mind when I first heard about this.
Anytime you're dealing with a big brand like this, it's not as simple as asking "can you sell me 30-40 3/4 size guitars?". There's a minimum buy-in this year, there's a buy-in next year, and there's a buy-in every year after that. Imagine committing yourself to buying 40-50 instruments pretty much every year. And the buying is the easy part, it's really the SELLING of that many instruments every year that is the issue.
No small feat when you've got the Sweetwaters of the world selling the same stuff we're talking about.
So I've got to ask myself, how much Yamaha stuff do I think I can manage to sell in the coming years outside of these 30-40 3/4 size guitars that I'll buy once and then use for the forseeable future. I won't need another 40-50 instruments next year unless I'm selling that many.
Looking through Yamaha's price list, I see that they offer a bunch of bass guitar models, ranging from $250-$3020 for their production models, and $3199.99-$3799.99 for the signature models. In G&L terms, that's like their Tribute, BTO and Custom Shop product lines.
So I'm shooting out a question to all of TB. Is anyone rabid for Yamaha basses? And if so, are you looking at the lower end, the middle range or the signature basses?
The same sort of thing applies to Yamaha guitars, so please also chime in if you're a fan of any of those.
Thanks for any input!
Greg
A new opportunity has recently presented itself. The String Project folks here in Blacksburg are starting an acoustic guitar version of this program in the fall, and they've asked me to gear up to handle rentals for this. So I'm faced with having to buy 30+ 3/4 size acoustic guitars for kiddos, plus probably a decent amount of full size instruments for any parents who might also participate. We used to be a Yamaha dealer years ago, so their JR1 and JR2 models jumped to mind when I first heard about this.
Anytime you're dealing with a big brand like this, it's not as simple as asking "can you sell me 30-40 3/4 size guitars?". There's a minimum buy-in this year, there's a buy-in next year, and there's a buy-in every year after that. Imagine committing yourself to buying 40-50 instruments pretty much every year. And the buying is the easy part, it's really the SELLING of that many instruments every year that is the issue.
No small feat when you've got the Sweetwaters of the world selling the same stuff we're talking about.So I've got to ask myself, how much Yamaha stuff do I think I can manage to sell in the coming years outside of these 30-40 3/4 size guitars that I'll buy once and then use for the forseeable future. I won't need another 40-50 instruments next year unless I'm selling that many.
Looking through Yamaha's price list, I see that they offer a bunch of bass guitar models, ranging from $250-$3020 for their production models, and $3199.99-$3799.99 for the signature models. In G&L terms, that's like their Tribute, BTO and Custom Shop product lines.
So I'm shooting out a question to all of TB. Is anyone rabid for Yamaha basses? And if so, are you looking at the lower end, the middle range or the signature basses?
The same sort of thing applies to Yamaha guitars, so please also chime in if you're a fan of any of those.
Thanks for any input!
Greg
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