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Thomann Jerry


Happy Jack

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For the last 10 years, Thomann have been my go-to supplier for most musical stuff. 

I haven't been entirely faithful, you understand. I've lapsed and bought elsewhere ... GAK, Andertons, the usual suspects, sometimes through an anonymous intermediary like Reverb. I had a bit of a thing going with Studiospares for a few years, but they ditched me so callously earlier this year that I even started a topic here on Basschat about it.

So now (this is NOT a B***** thread!) I have to seriously consider abandoning Thomann, despite their pretty much perfect service record. Where to go ... what to do?

When a relationship starts to get stale, sometimes you need to pep things up, experiment a little, so I've been ... erm ... dipping my toe and testing the temperature elsewhere. I may have found a new squeeze, someone to keep me satisfied through the bleak years of the BoJo Presidency.

Gear For Music.

I remember them when they sold chiefly entry-level stuff apparently aimed at the schools market. Nowt wrong wi' that but they had little that interested me. During Lockdown 2.0 I placed several orders with them and their service was in every case as good as Thomann's.

Just thought I'd share.

 

 

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I peruse the Thomann site an awful lot, but haven't bought anything from them in a long time; I think it's a great site for browsing and I do live in hope that I'm going to by chance hit upon a nice (unannounced) Les Paul Junior DC (not one of those horrific Tribute models) in the new arrivals, but alas no.  Luckily, I only really have GAS for one bass and a) the maker went out of business years ago and b) it dates back to the mid-80s.

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47 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Gear For Music.

I bought my ukulele there last summer. All was fine. Realistic ETA, better pricing (the same Kala KA-STG uke I got for 188 Euros at G4M would have cost me 245 Euros at Thomann!) and while their main storage and shipping facility is in Germany, I was surprised to find they appear to have a stock here in the Netherlands as well which means some items can be shipped to me more quickly. 

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3 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

I bought my ukulele there last summer. All was fine. Realistic ETA, better pricing (the same Kala KA-STG uke I got for 188 Euros at G4M would have cost me 245 Euros at Thomann!) and while their main storage and shipping facility is in Germany, I was surprised to find they appear to have a stock here in the Netherlands as well which means some items can be shipped to me more quickly. 

for now :(

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I've just bought a couple of bits from Thomann (replacement part of a strap, TC clip-on tuner). They had what I wanted in stock and the price was very reasonable, so great service as usual and no problems at all. 

Let's see how it all works from January onwards... 

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25 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

I bought my ukulele there last summer. All was fine. Realistic ETA, better pricing (the same Kala KA-STG uke I got for 188 Euros at G4M would have cost me 245 Euros at Thomann!) and while their main storage and shipping facility is in Germany, I was surprised to find they appear to have a stock here in the Netherlands as well which means some items can be shipped to me more quickly. 

Damn! I thought they were a UK company?

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I don't have an always go to GAS dealer.  I check the usual suspects, Andertons, GAK etc and go with the cheapest.  I bought a pedal from Thomann during lockdown, all went well but it took longer than the UK based dealers.

The only dealer I have had bad service from is PMT.

B***** might make Thomann and also all European imported gear a bit dearer next year but as we will now have our seas back we can all eat loads of pickled herring and all the other weird fish we flog to the Europeans.

 

Edited by BillyBass
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I am fiercely loyal as a customer.  If I get a good deal and service from someone I will absolutely use them next time. 

Unless someone else is cheaper.

One thing G4M does is a loyalty discount, which sometimes works out well.  At one point I had a platinum discount available to me and it coincided with my wanting to buy one of those 'horrific' Gibson LP Jnr DC RI and saved me a decent wodge of cash.

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Buying from Thomann and other EU based merchants may well become less attractive to UK punters come the new year anyway given the likely increased costs and delivery times to the end user. Personally I’d be holding fire on selecting a new bedfellow until it becomes clear what’s what if you’re not going domestic.  

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I've bought from several of the bigger UK online music retailers, I can't remember having any problems.  I recently bought a cab from HAM and at check out you can decide which day it will be delivered, which is very helpful. From what I remember G4M do that as well.

One thing I noticed about the cab I bought was where it had come from. The packaging labels showed it had been to the Netherlands before arriving in UK. 

There are too many unknowns about buying from Thomann right now. Price, delivery time (which has always been excellent from them), right of return, warranty status - will any warranty be valid, or will you even get one. I thought about getting an amp from them recently however, it was the after sales unknowns that put me off.

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I like Thomann for all the small bits like accessories and so on, and before Andertons had Sire I bought one from there. I've been tempted by quite a bit of their Harley Benton stuff recently. But, as a "professional buyer" and a Yorkshireman I'll do anything to save a penny, so I shop anywhere and everywhere! But service-wise I've always found Thomann and Mansons in Exeter superb. 

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52 minutes ago, LeftyJ said:

I wasn't aware. My order showed my ukulele shipping from Germany with UPS :)

 

G4M.jpg

I bought a Fender electro acoustic from Gear4 years ago and that shipped from the Netherlands. I just assumed it was direct from a European distributor or something, didn't realise Gear4 had spread outside of York! 

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After careful research, I have established that G4M is actually a subsidiary of @ped Industries Inc., a massive conglomerate based in the British Virgin Isles and owned (through lawyers, natch) by Basschat.

It was the urgent need to control a $14bn manufacturing complex that led to @Kiwi relocating to China, and they are now the main suppliers of nanochips (for vaccine insertion) to Bill Gates.

They also erected the steel monolith in Utah and the huge phallus in Bavaria.

Honest guv.

 

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Regarding Gear4M, one can only assume for EU orders they now have a warehouse in the Netherlands, as I suspect much of their gear comes in from China via Rotterdam so it makes sense to avoid too much double handling. As for UK orders, a couple of years ago when I bought from them last, it was UK sourced, as was the Customer Service Team but maybe they have now out-sourced all to the EU as well? You used to be able to visit their store/warehouse outside York: when I lived in Yorks I made a few visits. I'm sure Ped applied for a job with them in the past so he may know a bit more about it as part of his extensive pre-interview research....?

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