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Aguilar cab prices....say what?!

Musicman20

By Musicman20,
in Amps and Cabs

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CameronJ Mentor

CameronJ

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Not a bad profit margin for a cab loaded with a pair of these, and Aguilar pays a lot less for them than Blue Aran does:

https://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=EMIEDP12450A

 

Good god. I’m all for making a profit but this seems to be a prime example of a company taking people for fools. And the sad truth is, a lot of folk seem to be exactly that.

Darkglass have clearly done their homework and taken a leaf out of Aguilar’s book :facepalm:

 

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scalpy Mentor

scalpy

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Posted

I know they are stupid money now but one thing I will say in their defence, and I have said it before on here so my apologies- they look great. It may not make a huge difference to some, but I play mainly weddings and small/mid theatres. I swear blind if you rock up with cabs that look like they fell out of a astra in the 90s (unfortunately many top end cabs do) the client thinks you’re too loud before you’ve even put the cab onstage. Only TKS can rival Aguilar in my book, and I saw a big increase in bookings when I got mine.

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xgsjx Grand Master

xgsjx

Posted
Posted

There's many great looking & sounding cabs that are a good bit cheaper.  Yes, the Aguilar SL series look like cool 1950's TVs, but the DBs look just like EBS Classic Line or Ampeg SVT cabs, but with a different badge & an amp handle in place of a grab.

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scalpy Mentor

scalpy

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, xgsjx said:

There's many great looking & sounding cabs that are a good bit cheaper.  Yes, the Aguilar SL series look like cool 1950's TVs, but the DBs look just like EBS Classic Line or Ampeg SVT cabs, but with a different badge & an amp handle in place of a grab.

If I was buying new I wouldn’t touch Aggies, but I got my pair of db112s in boss tweed for less than the price of a single new one,  with covers. Doing the kind of playing I do the only cab I’d need to purchase now would be a barefaced one ten. But it would have to be silver grill or limited run ‘posh’ finish, because of the clients requirements, not mine.

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Wolverinebass Experienced

Wolverinebass

Posted
Posted

At the LBGS I looked at their prices and laughed. £1750 for a 4x10?!! Which was 5 times more than the Peavey 4x10 a couple of stalls down. Their pedal prices were beyond stupid as well. It makes Westside Distribution price gouging us on Mesa gear look reasonable.

Pfft. Jog on.

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Linus27 Grand Master

Linus27

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, scalpy said:

I know they are stupid money now but one thing I will say in their defence, and I have said it before on here so my apologies- they look great. It may not make a huge difference to some, but I play mainly weddings and small/mid theatres. I swear blind if you rock up with cabs that look like they fell out of a astra in the 90s (unfortunately many top end cabs do) the client thinks you’re too loud before you’ve even put the cab onstage. Only TKS can rival Aguilar in my book, and I saw a big increase in bookings when I got mine.

This is a very good point. For the 50's/60's function band I am in, both our guitarists use Vox amps and they look great. I'm not digging the look of my yellow Markbass speakers next to them. Just ruins the overall look and despite sounding great, I am considering changing them to something more subtle or retro looking.

 

IMG_2810.jpg

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chris_b Grand Master

chris_b

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You can list as many cheaper cabs as you like. If they don't sound as good then they are equally not a good use of your cash.

The price of anything is not an issue unless you want to buy one. You can either afford one or you can't. I don't see  the problem.

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LukeFRC Grand Master

LukeFRC

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Not a bad profit margin for a cab loaded with a pair of these, and Aguilar pays a lot less for them than Blue Aran does:

https://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=EMIEDP12450A

 

Almost definitely - Eminence arn't the cheapest over here compared with EU made speakers. 

I think if I were cab shopping I would just build my own, or head over the FRFR thread and go by the recommendations there to pick up a PA cab 

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LukeFRC Grand Master

LukeFRC

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Yeah.. ‘if’.

 

Cab design seems to be either a super complex science, or a black art... and I'm not sure some of the "tonal" differences are anything linked to price or quality of design. 
There are exceptions to this of course, Alex C and Bill F seem to know what they are doing, I've backward engineered a cab once and it was clear they didn't know what they were doing...

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Al Krow Grand Master

Al Krow

Posted
Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

They're aware. Aguilar is a small company, with a business model of selling small numbers of high priced goods rather than larger numbers of lower priced goods. They price their gear with the intent of attracting those who perceive high prices to equate with high quality, and there's no shortage of those. This cab won't work any better than one of the dozen or more other cabs using the same 2512 driver that sell for as little as half what the Aggie does, but so long as Aggie customers are willing to pay their prices they'll keep charging those prices. Can't say I blame them.

Bill - spot on. These guys are a business and need to adopt a model which works best for them, to keep food on the table for their employees. 

Somehow we don't seem to have a problem with some bass makers charging £3,000+ for a new bass, when frankly no one in the audience would notice us playing a bass which costs a fraction of the price?

Was there the same outcry when Warwick pretty much trebled their bass prices a few years back? 

Aguilar, Warwick, Wal, Sadowsky etc. No one has to buy their gear. Many do. 

Edited by Al Krow
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wateroftyne Grand Master

wateroftyne

Posted
Posted (edited)
23 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Cab design seems to be either a super complex science, or a black art... and I'm not sure some of the "tonal" differences are anything linked to price or quality of design. 
There are exceptions to this of course, Alex C and Bill F seem to know what they are doing, I've backward engineered a cab once and it was clear they didn't know what they were doing...

Based on what I've gleaned from chats with TKS' Tommy Södergren, it's fair to say he isn't a box-stuffer either.

Maybe the price difference between Aguilar and TKS could be explained away by stuff from Sweden being cheap in general. Oh, wait...

Edited by wateroftyne
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Wolverinebass Experienced

Wolverinebass

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, chris_b said:

You can list as many cheaper cabs as you like. If they don't sound as good then they are equally not a good use of your cash.

The price of anything is not an issue unless you want to buy one. You can either afford one or you can't. I don't see  the problem.

Very true Chris. However, if you don't see them as a massive improvement, then it looks like brazen rip off. I'm not saying it is of course. That's a subjective value judgement.

The Aguilar cabs I've played were okay, but they are never worth that kind of cash. If I were going high end, it's probably going to be Vanderkley after playing @Al Krow's 2x10 which just killed.

At this point @Bill Fitzmaurice will be along to skewer my dream by saying they use cheap drivers in a random sized box....

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Al Krow Grand Master

Al Krow

Posted
Posted (edited)
23 minutes ago, Wolverinebass said:

The Aguilar cabs I've played were okay, but they are never worth that kind of cash. If I were going high end, it's probably going to be Vanderkley after playing @Al Krow's 2x10 which just killed.

That's kind of you to say. They are indeed a great cab.

I'm about exchange my VK210MNT 8ohms, you played through, for a ... VK210LNT 4ohms. I'm looking forward to being able to unleash the full potential of any amp head with the LNT (it's rated 1200W) and having a 210 cab with a low end freq response of 40Hz. (Amusingly, the guy I'm swapping with also has a DG M900 amp, is about six months younger than me and drives a similar car. OMG I've found my Black Mirror twin living sarf of the river... bassists of a certain age eh? xD)

Tell you what, though, a cab I rate as highly as my VK210 is the Mesa 212 PH. It's not quite as articulate as the VK, but boy what a great rounded sound! And @Osiris's Tecamp 212 was also a very fine beast.

There's some high class gear out there. New prices are often high; I'll always look to get something in great condition second hand - and let's face it BC is the place to be to do just that!

Edited by Al Krow
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LukeFRC Grand Master

LukeFRC

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

That's kind of you to say. They are indeed a great cab.

I'm about exchange my VK210MNT 8ohms, you played through, today though, for a ... VK210LNT 4ohms. I'm looking forward to being able to unleash the full potential of any amp head with the LNT (it's rated 1200W) and having a 210 cab with a low end freq response of 40Hz. (Amusingly, the guy I'm swapping with also has a DG M900 amp, is about six months younger than me and drives a similar car. OMG I've found my Black Mirror twin living sarf of the river... bassists of a certain age eh? xD)

Tell you what, though, a cab I rate as highly as my VK210 is the Mesa 212 PH. It's not quite as articulate as the VK, but boy what a great rounded sound! And @Osiris's Tecamp 212 was also a very fine beast.

There's some high class gear out there. New prices are often high; I'll always look to get something in great condition second hand - and let's face it BC is the place to be to do just that!

whereas the Tecamp M210 i had was just bad engineering IMO

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Mudpup Veteran

Mudpup

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Linus27 said:

This is a very good point. For the 50's/60's function band I am in, both our guitarists use Vox amps and they look great. I'm not digging the look of my yellow Markbass speakers next to them. Just ruins the overall look and despite sounding great, I am considering changing them to something more subtle or retro looking.

 

IMG_2810.jpg

I would spend your money on lights instead - your missus is gonna be furious when she spots that you've pinched her standard lamp from the front room :D

 

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Bill Fitzmaurice Veteran

Bill Fitzmaurice

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

@Al KrowAt this point @Bill Fitzmaurice will be along to skewer my dream by saying they use cheap drivers in a random sized box....

I don't know offhand what they use for drivers, but from what little actual factual data there is on their website I don't see them as anything special one way or another. To paraphrase George Augsperger (look him up), there are hundreds of ported bass cabs out there, this is one of them. I do know that there are cab manufacturers who's engineering expertise extends no further than using the likes of this to determine their cab dimensions: www.eminence.com/pdf/Basslite_S2012_cab.pdf

I agree that the Markbass are ugly as sin, but that's intentional. Like Hartke before them they wanted a unique look that no would mistake for anything else when they saw them on stage or on the tube. In that they're quite successful.

 

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