peteb

I understand that there may be a similar agreement in place with America? Certainly, my mate who promotes a big English blues festival has no problem getting acts from the America, but always seems to hit insurmountable visa problems the couple of times he has tried to book acts from the far east.

Very different genre, but basically the same thing

I am currently in two bands that each have a deal with a German record company to sell an album in Northern Europe / Italy (one a licensing deal, another a distribution deal). The only reason either of these bands exist is to sell very specific genre CDs to an existing market in Germany, Sweden and Italy. In previous times, if an album started to get a bit of traction then we might have hoped to be invited to play a festival and a few club dates in Europe. This would hopefully have broken even financially for the band and resulted in quite a few more album sales and raised the band’s profile. A good friend of mine did this a few years ago and did quite well out of it (as indeed has the guitarist / songwriter of both of these bands). This would be quite cool thing for someone who normally plays pubs and the tribute circuit, but it is lot more serious for a lot of my pro muso mates who regularly make money from playing small scale tours in Europe. Essentially this is make or break for them.

As Doctor J has just pointed out, this will also apply to those of us who work cruise ships, holiday seasons and other longer term residencies, etc.

For us, maybe not. I would imagine that there could well be an issue for dancers, classical musicians or those playing on longer term engagements (shows, etc).

Unfortunately there are a hell of a lot of musicians in this country in the same position as you.

That as well, but more to do with cashflow

And small shops just cannot afford to carry too much stock.

My mate runs a small music shop in a small town that mainly sells entry level gear with a few better guitars in stock. You would approve of his shop, it's a drive away but I sometimes drop in for a cuppa and a chat and maybe buy a set of strings. The gripe he has is that he can't carry the stock that he needs to be successful as he can't (for example) afford to buy 10 pieces of Warwick basses / amps from across the whole range, whereas if they were prepared to supply him with two Streamers then he could probably turn them around reasonably quickly. There are a number of well-known brands that do this to him; Warwick is a hypothetical example. He does carry a lot of Blackstar and Hartke as they are a lot more reasonable in this regard. I have just bought a branded hardcase (that he might have been able to get, but it would have taken him months and he couldn't have come anywhere close on price) and a few spares from a Greek company who haven't shipped directly to the UK for a while, but who Thomann still carry. I'm the same about self-checkouts in supermarkets!

Just got my Thomann order (same day) twenty minutes ago! Excellent service I think, given the current chaos. I have always had a good experience with Thomann and I will continue to use them, even if there is a slight premium to pay. If I could have got the same stuff from the music shop that my mate runs in the next town then I would bought from him (same as a number of other small businesses that I deal with), but overall I have no intention to prioritising buying from Britain and will continue to use shops in the EU.

Don't get me wrong, I've got a thing about the sound / image of a Les Paul as much as anyone brought up in the 70s! Just looking of one conjures up images of Paul Kossof / Jimmy Page / Thin Lizzy / early Whitesnake / Slash, etc. Unfortunately, the company lost its soul when it sold out to a faceless and rather rapacious corporation some time ago. With any luck it might be able to regain its old spirit by learning its lessons from the past, with Mesa Boogie being the jewel in its no-longer tarnished crown. We can but hope…

Let's hope so. But unfortunately there is not a good record of these things turning out well in the long term, yet alone with Gibson who have a particularly bad history.

From what I have seen, they have 'restructured' and taken most of the debt off their books. This apparently leaves them free to start to doing exactly the same thing again...!

Well it seems that my amp is suddenly worth a lot more...!

If they didn't lower standards then it wouldn't be an issue. But they will...

It's the way of Wall Street, 'grow or die'! In that environment, it is a no brainer to prioritise shot term gains over long term survival. I have just read that Gibson have 'restructured' and got rid of a lot of the old debt off their books. I believe that he is well into his 70s. I'm sure that he deserves some sort of retirement...

The rumour is the relationship will supposedly be a 'mutual partnership'...

You don’t have to be a Chinese company to move production out to China. The thing is that companies like Aguilar and Mesa are usually privately owned and understand their products and customer base. Of course, they want to make money, but they don’t need to make it all right now and they are just as concerned about their reputation and the continued excellence of their products. As soon as they are bought out by a larger company, their amps are no longer the core business and ‘Wall Street’ rules start to apply – its all about quarterly earnings, short term profits and cutting costs. The parent company understands the brand rather than the product and the new CEO just wants to make quick profits to justify his annual bonus rather than ensure the long-term reputation and viability of the company (in three years time he will have moved onto another job anyway). I am sure that there are exceptions, but this is why these mergers are rarely a good thing for these smaller high-end producers.

Unfortunately there is always the temptation for a company like Korg to acquire a high profile quality brand like Aguilar and then move production to the far East, cut costs and reduce standards. Let's hope that this will not happen with Aguilar.

Fender were the guilty party with SWR; I can't remember at this late hour who bought out Eden. I've actually got a Spector Euro 5 string, but it was acquired for a specific project that has been put on ice due to the pandemic, so I've hardly played it. I haven't heard any horror stories about Spector so hopefully they will look after the Aguilar brand. However, you will note the initial reaction of Chris, a serious player who I believe is an Aguilar user. We shall see...

Blind optimism isn't usually my thing, so let's hope that you're right on this one. What happened with SWR and Eden (broadly similar brands to Aguilar) was awful. I was once obliged to play a dep gig using a Line 6 bass combo. It was terrible, probably the worst amp I've ever used live.

History suggests that doesn't bode well (SWR, Eden, etc).

There was a big music shop in the town where I went to school. We would go down there at lunchtime and weekends to look at guitars we couldn't afford and get advice and impromptu lessons from the old timers who used to also hang out there. Ten years later, I was mates or had played with everyone who worked there, they would make me a cup of tea / roll me a cigarette when I walked in there, I would give them a hand moving stock and it was me teaching kids the odd lick or how to play certain songs. They went bust nearly 30 years ago. I have known a few pretty similar shops to that, but none of them have been in business for at least 20 years.

That will be shipped to a warehouse in Europe

I did amend my post as I am not quite sure of the reasons, only that we can no longer use a French system that we relied on for checking VAT registrations on imports. Apparently, there is also likely to be a shortage of scaffolding bolts in the UK soon. These are made in a factory in North Africa and shipped to a warehouse in the EU, who are not shipping to the UK because of the VAT issues.