Mesa amps price cuts. No more middle man

[Al Krow]

16 minutes ago, pete.young said:

Possible, yes. But how likely do we think it is? I wouldn't bank on it.

I'm much more optimistic. May not be this year given the election in the US. But should be in place by the end of next year - trade deals are generally a win-win, certainly for consumers.

[fretmeister]

28 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I'm much more optimistic. May not be this year given the election in the US. But should be in place by the end of next year - trade deals are generally a win-win, certainly for consumers.

We are coming out of about 750 different treaties.

Going to have to be a hell of a deal on amplifiers to make up for all of that.

 

And I'm going to bet you a quid that Trump gets another term. Why? Because it's the stupid outcome. And humans in large groups manage to do that very often.

[Steve Browning]

Just in the process of ordering. Just waiting for confirmation they can get the rack ears and footswitch.

Looks like at least one M-Pulse is on its way out.

[Lozz196]

There’s a simple, cost effective, customer focused solution:

Ashdown.

[Steve Browning]

8 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

There’s a simple, cost effective, customer focused solution:

Ashdown.

Each to their own. I've been a happy and loyal Boogie customer for 32 years non-stop, so won't be changing now. I do acknowledge the (very apparent) excellent customer service that Ashdown offer.

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

We are coming out of about 750 different treaties.

Going to have to be a hell of a deal on amplifiers to make up for all of that.

And I'm going to bet you a quid that Trump gets another term. Why? Because it's the stupid outcome. And humans in large groups manage to do that very often.

750 treaties is quite impressive, given the number of countries on the planet! You've obviously taken the inter-planetary alliance into account.

You'll find that just 10 treaties gets us to 80% of the UK's total trade and, in fact, just two treaties (EU and US) gets us to 60%. So I'm still optimistic.

I'll take that bet. But let's make it a £10, at least that way the loser gets to buy the first round 😉

[fretmeister]

12 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

750 treaties is quite impressive, given the number of countries on the planet! You've obviously taken the inter-planetary alliance into account.

You'll find that just 10 treaties gets us to 80% of the UK's total trade and, in fact, just two treaties (EU and US) gets us to 60%. So I'm still optimistic.

I'll take that bet. But let's make it a £10, at least that way the loser gets to buy the first round 😉

The FT has the database. You'll need a sub to read them. https://www.ft.com/products?location=https%3A%2F%2Fig.ft.com%2Fbrexit-treaty-database%2F 

 

It's 759 treaties and international agreements. 

Trade agreements rarely cover all types of business. That's why there often more than 1 with another country. Just for different products / services / tax brackets etc.

Many of them took more than a decade to negotiate.

 

Music equipment won't be on any lists of important businesses to UK or the US. It's inconsequential compared to other products.

 

I accept the £10 bet!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

And I'm going to bet you a quid that Trump gets another term. Why? Because it's the stupid outcome. And humans in large groups manage to do that very often.

Probably not. The Average American Idiot would tolerate him so long as their pocketbook wasn't affected. But a side effect of C-19 that bothers them even more than the deaths is the unemployment. As that has mostly impacted the uneducated working class that usually votes conservative his core base of supporters has shrunk considerably. 

[fretmeister]

Just now, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Probably not. The Average American Idiot would tolerate him so long as their pocketbook wasn't affected. But a side effect of C-19 that bothers them even more than the deaths is the unemployment. As that has mostly impacted the uneducated working class that usually votes conservative his core base of supporters has shrunk considerably. 

I do hope you are right.

 

[Al Krow]

24 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I do hope you are right.

 

I look forward to the £10, then  

[fretmeister]

18 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

I look forward to the £10, then  

I will pay it gladly.

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

I do hope you are right.

 

On this side of the pond there's a saying 'it's the economy, stupid'. Americans don't vote for ideology, they vote for their bank accounts.

[scalpy]

Meanwhile, Andertons finance arrangements aren't helping with my mesa temptation.....

[Al Krow]

Amazing what a few £hundred off a ridiculously bloated price does for demand and enthusiasm for a product!

Who would have guessed? 😁

[krispn]

There is a wd-800 on a Facebook group for £700 shipped if anyone is super keen. Hard not to be tempted at that price. 

[Steve Browning]

54 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Amazing what a few £hundred off a ridiculously bloated price does for demand and enthusiasm for a product!

Who would have guessed? 😁

Dead right!! 

[Dan Dare]

10 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

For the most part, maybe. 'Made in USA' these days is mainly a euphemism for 'Assembled in USA from parts that came from Asia'. As an example of how weird things have become, one of the main sources of winter clothing, especially that made for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding, is Vietnam.

True. Thinking about it, Aguilar use ICEpower modules. Ah well...

[agedhorse]

On 27/07/2020 at 09:47, fretmeister said:

Those sorts of threads have been on many forums for years but as far as I know this is the first one where Mesa have engaged with it.

I think I have a fairly well established reputation (both here and on TalkBass) for being open and honest on topics where I can be. I am posting this in response to several PM's and e-mails I have received over the past week from some of you, so rather than responding individually I am making the assumption that these are common questions to many of you even if you didn't PM me.

International distribution is a VERY complicated thing. For example, I'm responsible for the technical and regulatory side of international safety and EMC compliance. I spend considerable time and effort (which translates to cost for the company) to sort through and follow the laws and rules governing each country (or in the case of the EU, the region). Even though there has been a lot of talk and efforts over the years about bringing all of these rules under a single unified umbrella, in practice that really hasn't happened. Coming up in December, there is an entirely new set of safety standards (UL/cUL/EN/IEC-62368) that all products imported into the EU must comply with. Initially it was promoted as being an easier, less time consuming and less expensive way to bring everybody together for safety compliance but in practice it has been the opposite. It has almost doubled the work for design/compliance engineers as well as the test labs themselves. Add to this the fact that many regions that initially signed onto the new standard and the agreed upon transition dates have begun to back away from their commitments and will require new products to be certified to the older (60065) standard. Since the two standards require different analysis and testing procedures, this means that now we need to maintain two costly certifications per product! All of the Subway amps, for example, are now fully dual certified to both the 60065 AND 62368 standards. Who pays for these costs? Ultimately the customer does. 

Maintaining customer support, service centers and service agents is another costly aspect to sales (where customer service is better than the bare minimum). This includes training technicians, providing service documentation, multi-language paperwork, and transporting/stocking of parts necessary for service and warehousing product for sale. I understand the frustration regarding distributors like Westside, but at the same time they have done a good job supporting the product. Every service tech that I have dealt with at Westside was in fact very good and well qualified. It's been part of the cost of providing customer support.

With the changing of the way global is being done, we have shifted as well, though admittedly it took quite some time. Hopefully this will make our products more attractive to the rest of the world. There are bound to be some learning curve experiences, please bear with us as we take this step forward. Covid-19 has made this more difficult due to many of us (still) working remotely, but once I receive the information and links to service centers in the EU and UK, I will post this information. Warranties will continue on uninterrupted, region by region, since each region shares a different set of governing rules it's necessary to respect the rules and different requirements of each region.

I hope this helps you understand the changes.

[Steve Browning]

Just ordered my TT-800 from Andertons. I'll review when it arrives (and I can use it).

[Al Krow]

11 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Just ordered my TT-800 from Andertons. I'll review when it arrives (and I can use it).

Good man. I see that the change in pricing / distribution policy is already having an impact.

Look forward to your review!

[Steve Browning]

9 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Good man. I see that the change in pricing / distribution policy is already having an impact.

Look forward to your review!

.............. and I can even charge my phone with it. Money very well spent.

I expect to be impressed. In 1988 I spent £3k on a Bass 400 and 2 x Diesel 2x15s (plus flightcases) simply because a review said it was the Rolls Royce of bass amps. I found that to be accurate then and I believe it to be the case now.

[agedhorse]

To follow up to the many messages I have received from you guys (both here and on TB), I thought it might be helpful to provide the following information so that you are basing your comments and decisions on factual information.

The warranty is now 5 years for amplifiers, 3 years for speakers, 1 year for pedal and accessory products, and 6 months for tubes. See the attached warranty documents that detail the conditions and the countries/regions included.

As far as service centers, this is something that I receive questions about regularly and now I know why. When searching for service centers on the website locator, the service center flags that come up on the map only apply to that page of service centers. Be sure to look at all of the pages to left of the map as there are MANY more EU service centers than the first map might suggest.

https://mesaboogie.com/support/locations.html?q=europe&t=repair

I hope that this helps clear up any confusion, and you can always contact me directly if you encounter difficulties and I will put you in touch with the right folks.

2020-OneYearWarranty_FINAL_200715.pdf 2020-Warranty-FiveYear_FINAL_200715.pdf

[Steve Browning]

3 hours ago, agedhorse said:

To follow up to the many messages I have received from you guys (both here and on TB), I thought it might be helpful to provide the following information so that you are basing your comments and decisions on factual information.

The warranty is now 5 years for amplifiers, 3 years for speakers, 1 year for pedal and accessory products, and 6 months for tubes. See the attached warranty documents that detail the conditions and the countries/regions included.

As far as service centers, this is something that I receive questions about regularly and now I know why. When searching for service centers on the website locator, the service center flags that come up on the map only apply to that page of service centers. Be sure to look at all of the pages to left of the map as there are MANY more EU service centers than the first map might suggest.

https://mesaboogie.com/support/locations.html?q=europe&t=repair

I hope that this helps clear up any confusion, and you can always contact me directly if you encounter difficulties and I will put you in touch with the right folks.

2020-OneYearWarranty_FINAL_200715.pdf 78.47 kB · 0 downloads 2020-Warranty-FiveYear_FINAL_200715.pdf 182.04 kB · 0 downloads

Thank you. In 32 years I have had a single issue. A rattle from one of my (new) Subway 15 drivers. Contact with Boogie confirmed a likely fault and a new speaker was sent over. On removing the faulty speaker it was obvious that the issue was, in fact, a block of 4 staples that had fallen from the gun used to attach the wadding to the inside of the cab. I guess the chap fitting it had reloaded the stapler and not noticed these staples fall out into the cab and stick to the back of the magnet.

Bass Gallery (where the swap was being done) contacted Boogie who let me keep the replacement speaker! Very happy with that level of service. The guy at Bass Gallery also came in to the shop on the day he was due to go on holiday, in order to effect the repair.

[Al Krow]

On 28/07/2020 at 19:44, krispn said:

There is a wd-800 on a Facebook group for £700 shipped if anyone is super keen. Hard not to be tempted at that price. 

Had a quick search - seems to have gone already? 

[krispn]

At that price I’d think so!