How's your local EBMM dealer?

[Big Poppa]

No smelly...THere really isnt one I was being sarcastic. WE really have covered it as has every single industry know to man woman and child.

I think that Colins observations are good and I m sure that Dave B could give good input.
COling there is no reason why margins should be different for basses and guitars. You are being a textbook entrepenour is having a passion for something that is being overlooked. Look at Pete. Same deal. He loves the guitars, believes in us and as a result he sells more guitars than basses.

 

[Smellybum]

ok - seperate(ish) question - would you ever consider a distribution centre/2nd factory in europe ?

Feel free to tell me to shut the F*** up whenever!

 

[Big Poppa]

SMelly as been answered before. What are you saving? to duplicate my infrastructure would not make costs go down. Also the factory would be very difficult to coordinate and control the quality and execution.

The thing that people dont understand with EBMM is that we make hundreds of guitars a week in batches as low as 4.

 

[KungFu Grip]

Wow. Totally missed this thread.

I bought my first MM (my AL) sight unseen after playing a buddy's Silhouette Special. I did not buy it from a local dealer. Since that time three years ago, I have played a total of THREE Music Man guitars here locally from the two dealers that sell them. One was another AL (which sold fine), one was a limited Silhouette Special in envy green that sat for months before being red-tagged down to a giveaway price, and the third was a Burnt Apple Axis SS that was eventually eBayed by my dealer because the only person to ever play it was me.

I suppose I can't really blame the dealers in my town. They've been pedaling Fender and Gibson for so long that the customer base just doesn't accept anything else. I think the population here is also one of the most close-minded I've seen. It's either kids buying black LTD B-tuned metal guitars or baby boomers buying $3000 Relics and Les Pauls, and really nothing in between.

On another note, I would say that one of those two dealers (the bigger of the two) probably won't be in business in another five years either.

 

[mark_tampa]

My local dealer has been great! Usually stocks a dozen or so EBMM guitars and is very resonable on prices. Good guy to talk to, holds decent guitar clinics (Albert Lee last year, last month was Jerry Donahue). Wish all music shops (or for that matter, CAR DEALERS ) were as easy to do business with. Only problem is whenever I stop in, there goes another $1500 on a new toy, so I limit myself to a couple trips a year..

The the most interesting thing about my local dealer is that they do NOT carry ANY F*nder or G*bson products, Schecter for the low end stuff, EBMM - Suhr - Anderson for the high end. About the only dealer I've ever known not to carry the big two.

EBMM, great guitars!
Express Music, great shop!

 

[Smellybum]

SMelly as been answered before. What are you saving? to duplicate my infrastructure would not make costs go down. Also the factory would be very difficult to coordinate and control the quality and execution.

The thing that people dont understand with EBMM is that we make hundreds of guitars a week in batches as low as 4.

Fair point that I didn't take into consideration.....

So... got the inside track on when GC are opening in Europe?

 

[Jonny Dubai]

My dealer is complete pants......



J

 

[Big Poppa]

OK It is never smart for the owner of a company to publically bite dealers hands....BUT

THere are many fabulous dealers out there. The frustration that you may feel in a particular market is shared by us. It is hard to try to grow this thing being uncertain about retail support.

 

[alibaba128]

I'm in Quebec, Canada (I know I know, I'm not in the US, but we are neighboors aren't we ).

So, who's my preferred local EBMM dealer... well I have none!

The closest dealer is about an hour drive. They're supposedly an institution in the area but I don't like them all that much. The place is cramped, always crowded, and there are always kids playing some loud punk rock through a Metal Zone... Don't get me wrong I have nothing against kids and Metal Zones, but this place is just not the place to seriously test an expensive guitar into an expensive half stack.

My preferred local dealer doesn't carry EBMM. That's sad because it's a local shop, local people, great people. They know their stuff. So I went to them and wanted a JP6 LE so lately they've been trying to open an account with the EBMM distributor. But it didn't work out.

I know it's all about business, but why are dealers required to buy thousands and thousands worth of instruments to actually open an account and be able to be an 'authorized' EBMM dealer

 

[Meedleyx10]

My only "local" dealer is Music Villa a few hours away up in Bozeman, MT ( I live in Great Falls). From what I understand they keep pretty decent stock of EBMM guitars and basses and do pretty well with them, it's a shame they're the only EBMM dealer in the state because I avoid business with them at all costs. The only reason I would be an EBMM there rather than just getting one somewhere else (like Minnesota, where I go to college) is that Montana doesn't have sales tax.

The guy who heads pretty much all guitar sales (i think he's a manager there too) burned me on a Mesa Boogie deal last summer. I had a few gigs lined up and about a month ahead of time I was talking to him about getting an f-30 combo. We talked on the phone a few times and everything was smooth sailing. Then when I finally decided to pull the trigger I called him up and said "hey man, here's the deal. i've got my credit card ready and I will buy this amp 100% for sure from you guys. The only thing I want first is for you to call your Mesa rep. and get an estimate for how long it will take them to get one out to you guys so I can come pick it up or have you ship it to me". I made it very clear that I had my card ready and was going to purchase the amp regardless of the wait time involved (i just wanted to be sure what was up BEFORE I paid, and I had already heard talk of that point of the F series being discontinued and wasn't sure if I could even get a new one), we agreed that he'd call me back no later than the next day (which would've been a tuesday) to give me the wait estimate and I would give him the credit card number. Wednesday rollls around and I still haven't heard, so I call the store and I'm told that he's out of the building. The same thing happens every other day or so for the next week. Finally, I got ahold of him and ask what was up with the amp. His response was "Oh....well I didn't think you were a serious customer so I didn't follow up on making the sale". Needless to say, I shopped elsewhere....I DID get an f30 though and couldn't be happier

Now out in MN where I go to school, the Guitar Center is pretty cool as far as having stock goes. Last time I went (early May) they had a new pearl redburst JP6, a black Luke, a 20th Silo (quilt, trem, RW fretboard, no piezo), and a Vintage Honeyburst(not sure if that's the official color name) ASS with maple board and trem. The only problem with them is that they take such horrible care of the guitars there. I shouldn't have to slowly run my hands along the neck before I play the guitar to make sure I won be cut on fret edges (which actually happened when I played the 20th). Customer service is shoddy there too. I worked in a guitar store when I was in high school, and if I had acted like the guys in that GC i would have never made a single sale, not that I would have been employed there long enough to do so anyway.

 

[5Stringer]

I know it's all about business, but why are dealers required to buy thousands and thousands worth of instruments to actually open an account and be able to be an 'authorized' EBMM dealer

We ask for a pretty minimal commitment compared to almost any other guitar company.

Just a scant representation of our guitars and basses for players to be able to check out our instruments. We really don't need dealers who are only going to have our instruments available by special order only. We don't think it's too much to ask that they also have a few instruments in stock.

Dan

 

[Plaschkes]

Then could you please make the Israely dealer order some JP7-F1 so that I won't able to resist myself?!

Siriously though, the Israely dealer has quite a nice collection these days, they've really improved over the last year in the MM guitar departmant.

Too bad they say they can't bring in a seven string that isn't a special order because they think there isn't a crowd for it here. I really do believe they are wrong.

 

[5Stringer]

But Amit, if they did, then you would no longer be the sole owner/player of the JP7 in Isreal.

Dan

 

[Beth]

Hehehehe, thanks for chiming in on the international stuff, Dan!

You're right, we only ask for a very minimal commitment on behalf of new Music Man dealers, especially in smaller communities in places like Quebec. Alibaba, if you don't mind me asking the name of the shop? I don't recall having refused any dealership applications. The dealers are even allowed to schedule out half of the opening order. It is really easy to be a MM dealer in Canada - probably too easy.

Marom in Israel has been doing quite well lately! Thanks Udi and Gil!

 

[Plaschkes]

Trust me Dan, I believe if they'll bring more, It's not me being the only JP7 owner that'll change, I just won't be the owner of just the sole JP7.

Yeah Beth, Gil is quite the man! He just can't stop praising your guitars! Espiaclly the rosewood ASS, that is quite the guitar...

 

[alibaba128]

We ask for a pretty minimal commitment compared to almost any other guitar company.

Just a scant representation of our guitars and basses for players to be able to check out our instruments. We really don't need dealers who are only going to have our instruments available by special order only. We don't think it's too much to ask that they also have a few instruments in stock.

Dan

I understand your point.

I don't want to argue, but if I may, I'd like to flip the side of the coin. So my dealer doesn't have any EBMM in stock right now, nor can he order any. Obviously he's not going to sell any at all. If he could have ordered some, however, he could have sold one instrument to me. And maybe another one later this year as I'll need a bass and I'm looking into Stingrays. And, who knows, maybe a few more as other local people come to know that he can order those fine EBMM instruments... Gotta consider as well, that people who are buying EBMM or other high quality equipment are more into customizing and so I suppose the dealer may end up custom-ordering more often than not (could be wrong here though).

In absolute terms, isn't it better to sell only a few instruments, but at least sell some, than sell none at all ?

It's just sad, from a consumer standpoint. I'd like to see more dealers carry real quality instruments like yours and not only FMIC or those 200$ Chinese no-name brand guitars. I'd like to be able to not drive 1 hour to a dealer I don't like in order to buy my JP6.

Oh well... this wasn't a rant, sorry if it ever sounded like one.

 

[Beth]

Hey Ali,

I wish we had a lot of people going around asking the same questions as you. Thanks for your comments.

-Beth

 

[alibaba128]

Hehehehe, thanks for chiming in on the international stuff, Dan!

You're right, we only ask for a very minimal commitment on behalf of new Music Man dealers, especially in smaller communities in places like Quebec. Alibaba, if you don't mind me asking the name of the shop? I don't recall having refused any dealership applications. The dealers are even allowed to schedule out half of the opening order. It is really easy to be a MM dealer in Canada - probably too easy.

Marom in Israel has been doing quite well lately! Thanks Udi and Gil!

Hi Beth,

First of, thank you, and thank you Dan as well, for your anwers. You know, it's gonna be my first MM so it's new to me but I must say I'm suprised and really glad to see real people from the company actually replying, and actually caring!

Now, I feel like relations between dealers and distributors is really not much of my business, and I wouldn't want to stir it up too much or create any trouble so I prefer not to post the name here.

But, I'd like to encourage local people and local economy by buying, well, local
So if it could be of any help at all in bringing great guitars & basses down here I guess I could PM it to you?

 

[Beth]

Please do PM it to me! I'll see what I can find out on our side.

 

[Paul in WV]

My local dealer comes with pretty good recommendations.

When I was there looking about, he had at least one Morse and a couple Axis' hanging on the wall but I was looking for a JP so I didn't really dig around that much.

I talked to one employee that seemed to know EBMM's reputation and said they'd have no trouble getting me the guitar I wanted but it would have to be ordered. I'd been out of the game so long at this point, I was just trying to gather info so I (stupidly) didn't ask to even *hold* one of the EBMMs they had.

Now, comes time to put cash on the table and I was fully prepared to support my local guy. I called and talked to two separate people, then to the owner a couple time but in the end, we couldn't come to terms on the price.

In despair, I decided to look on "The Bay" and during a Google search, after about 20 pages, I discovered Pete and Nick. The price was what I expected for the instrument I wanted and was very much inline with what I'd read in both magazine and online so I dropped the hammer.

I was very nervous...I've bought hundreds of $$ worth of stuff via The Tubes but nothing of this value at one time PLUS...I'd never heard of these guys. I started reading JPs forum and I see that Pete is posting there from time to time and somewhere in one of the threads, there was a link to this place and...

WOW...I'm glad I searched to that 20th page that night with Google.

With this level of quality, I find it quite odd that there seems to be only one dealer here...especially since it's NOT in Charleston where there are four other music stores within 10 or 15 miles of where I work. To my knowledge, there isn't an EBMM dealer in Huntington either but know this...I'm spreading the word. When my JP6 gets here, I'll be spreading even more as I'm having it delivered to the station and we have at least five guitar players and probably at least that many bass guys/gals!

Maybe there will be a need for an additional dealer in the near future!