How Many Colors Do We Paint?

[dalto]

As consumers, why would we not want more colors? More to the point, it is normal to be a little disappointed when things the breadth that was previously offered was no longer offered.

I think most people understand that changes are sometimes needed and will get over it. You still make great guitars which is what really matters.

If I had one suggestion for next years color line-up it would be to make sure there is at least one somewhat "colorful" guitar for each model line. For example, the entire Silhouette line-up is only available in black and white. If it was available in almost any color, red, blue, green, orange, whatever I would have bought one already. Because it is only black and white and will probably find a used one.

Ultimately, I totally get that trying to please everyone may not be an effective business model. I have been impressed with every EBMM guitar I have had in my hands and am looking forward to several of your new models.

 

[Magic Jason]

BP knows his business and his balance sheet. I'm sure he's making the right choices for EBMM.

You bet!!!

 

[Steve Nukather]

I don't really care about color. As long as the guitar plays in tune and has low action, I'm happy.

 

[sanderhermans]

I totally understand you bp! If dealers and buyers dont want stuff, what's the point in making it....

I will just miss the fact that NGD for a certain guitar was allways something new (different colour, pg, fretboard)
With the current line-up, if we see a new albert lee or armada, it will allways be in the 1 spec that is offered right now. Doesnt make it anny less of a good guitar, but it's allways more exciting to get a new guitar in a rare or special colour. (For me) guess i'll be looking at the pdn runs.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

We as the consumer still have lots of choices from the factory offerings, and there are always refinishing companies looking for work.


As a dealer it certainly helps with what products we should keep in stock, although I did like having oddball stuff from time to time.

A good example is that there were 32 ways to order the original JP in just one color.

1-JP6 Pearl Redburst, no options
2-matching headstock
3-matching headstock JP inlays
4-natural headstock JP inlays

5-JP6 Pearl Redburst, piezo
6-matching headstock, piezo
7-matching headstock JP inlays, piezo
8-natural headstock JP inlays, piezo

Lather, rinse, repeat for left-handed models = 16 ways

Double that again for the 7 string models (both lefty and righty) = 32 ways.

Now offer the JP in 15 colors like back in 2015 and you have 480 different ways to order the JP nevermind the BFR versions in flame/quilt, and JPX, XI, etc

 

[sanderhermans]

480 ways, yes, but as far as i go, that's kind of what attracts me and keeps it interesting.
From a economic point of view it's a absolute nightmare! But only time will tell if reducing options is the way to go for ebmm, it propably is. They will most likely add a whole bunch of customers but they might loose some too... i see ebmm in the market somewhere between a custom guitar builder and a mass production company, they might have shifted towards mass production a bit more.
Oh well, as i said before. The pdn offerings and bfr are a big deal for me. Just wish my pockets where a bit deeper

 

[Fleeeep]

each time you paint one guitar one color it is spraygun changes spray gun cleaning lots of mechanincs...but since I dont make inventory dealers and international distributors were stopping ordering because it was too hard to guess the buying public..nop matter what they had in stock someone wanted something different.

see i can totally understand that. and a lot of people would never think of things that way.
Having just 1 body of each model in each available colour would take up a huge amount of space.

 

[ErnieJohn]

I was a spray painter for a few years, changing colours (that's the correct spelling ) was a serious ball ache,

 

[Bryan]

I'll be honest, at first I was bummed that the LIII was only offered in black and Bodhi blue.

However, that didn't stop me from ordering one.

As it turns out, Bodhi blue is stunning in person.

But the way the guitar feels and sounds, it could have been pink with purple polka dots and I still would have bought it.

You can't please all the people all the time.

If color selection is the "major" issue, I'd say that isn't much to worry about.

Some companies out there make beautiful looking guitars that play and sound like crap. That's a MUCH bigger problem in my book.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BrickGlass]

As a customer, of course the more color options we have the better. As the business owner though BP, you've got to do what is necessary for your business to succeed.

 

[alf cockle]

The best playing EBMM guitar I have is a silver axis sport..I never liked the color much..kinda dull..but the thing plays and sounds awesome….then a very cool friend said he thought this guitar looked great…now I think it looks great…from dull to great…instantly….Do what you*re doing,BP…the human being is way too fickle to please.

 

[DrKev]

As a customer, of course the more color options we have the better. As the business owner though BP, you've got to do what is necessary for your business to succeed.

As a customer, EBMM doing what best for the business is also, in the long run, best for us.

I love the ice cream analogy. I think that makes the point just perfectly.

And now I want ice cream too. It's a win-win!

 

[lumberjack]

Color choices are still pretty good. There are some companies that offer 1 maybe 2 colors per model and that's it. I'm happy with the colors that I've got. Just a little disappointed in the fact that the Axis was narrowed down to 3. Man, I missed the boat when the Axis was available in purple. That's my favorite for that model. But with the Canadian dollar the way it is I'm out of the running for a new guitar right now, anyway. Hopefully it might be offered in that color again one day.

 

[Big Poppa]

Brick thanks...

But at what cost if nobody buys it.. How about if I list colors and then never make them because nobody buys them?

 

[Spudmurphy]

even if it's black.

Grrrrrrrrr! I love black!

When I ordered my BCB I felt that it was being built personally for me - and it was! Well worth the wait.

Colour options as they stand seem fine?

Inventory = Non Value added activity

 

[DrKev]

Grrrrrrrrr! I love black!

Truth be told it's red I like the least.

 

[fbecir]

Truth be told it's red I like the least.

Red is the future for Music Man ...
Music Man is now officially the first brand of electric guitar that designed a guitar with a woman : the Saint Vincent (such a good design : even old grumpy Frenchman like me likes it !).
Now Music Man has to do a new step and choose its colors according to this chart :
LE VERNIS VERNIS À ONGLES - CHANEL - Site officiel et Boutique en ligne

And it will be perfect every time we do a ding on our beloved guitars : just go to the Chanel shop and you will find the perfect same color ...

But seriously (yes sometimes I'm serious) : there are 25 colors in the Chanel palette. Thus women are able to do their choice between 25 colors and us (mostly men), we ask 1000 colors to Big Poppa !

 

[ksandvik]

Long time ago Fender based their color models on existing car paint colors...

 

[the explode man]

Brick thanks...

But at what cost if nobody buys it.. How about if I list colors and then never make them because nobody buys them?

Hi Big Poppa,

I think you may be taking some of this too negatively. I certainly can appreciate that EBMM is doing what it can to survive, while at the same time trying to make as many people happy as they can.

But this quote from you is the main thing that has me confused. With respect, what would be the problem with listing 10 million colours if nobody buys them? Like, say your standard production colours are black, blacker and white, and everything else is up-charged as specialty, what's the problem with this? We do understand that "green basses don't sell", so you can't make a standard green bass and sell it to stores for regular stock. We're not saying that you need to make a fucsia instrument and make 10,000 of them for dealers. But why not consider offering additional colours that you can up-charge for to those that will willingly buy them? This way, if it's prohibitively expensive for most people, they just won't buy the extra colours, which they wouldn't have done anyway because they aren't even currently available. But for those that do have the extra money kicking around, they'd be able to get the instrument they want with the finish they want and EBMM won't be losing any money in the process because their additional manufacturing costs are covered by charging the appropriate premium for these options.

Yes, okay, I understand that I can buy black, blacker or white and then take it to a luthier to have it repainted, but now (from a customer perspective) I have to go through that extra hassle, and I'm also erasing all of the EBMM branding in the process. I would much rather be giving this money to you guys than a luthier.

I just feel like this hasn't been addressed by you guys. The EBMM team keeps saying that they can't stock random colours as standard items. We know this. We know it costs you extra money to change paints. We know it costs you money to make deviations. But what has never been explained is what is holding you back from even allowing the customer to have the option to PAY extra for a custom instrument.

 

[Johnny Alien]

Because of the time and money involved with changing colors, having to stop and set up to shoot a handful of bodies is just not worth the money. I would assume there is probably a general number that is ideal to reach before making it make fiscal sense. So limiting it to an available but non-stock color would introduce the same scenario that they have today. If there were tons of orders coming in for a color than it wouldn't be a problem and that color would likely still be available. By limiting the colors you now have control over that situation.