DarrellM5
SS.org Regular
I'm glad I recently picked up a couple E-II guitars and got a handle on the G.A.S. I'll wait a year or so until the used market gets flooded before I buy anything else.
Products - Horizon Series Guitars - The ESP Guitar Company
One of the world's leading manufacturers of high quality guitars and basses.
www.espguitars.com
For those who said just get a Japanese one, they are already 8 thousand doll hairs in some cases.
Even solid black with a top mounted TOM they've used since dinosaurs roamed the earth is >5k and its yet to get a hike.
narad
Progressive metal and politics
I meant the USA ones. The JP solids are phenomenal.
AltecGreen
SS.org Regular
So how are prices holding up in Japan. It's hard for me to gauge because I convert everything to USD and since the yen dropped like a rock, everything in Japan has been so much cheaper. I bought a few guitars from Japan recently because things were so 'cheap'. Still, I look at the prices in yen and many of the guitar brands I follow there seem to be holding prices steady.
Fender Japan released two new series and the prices were not any higher than the other lines. A MIM Fender is now as much as a MIJ Fender.
Yeah I was looking for a CS Tele to go with the CS 63’ Strat I bought about a year ago and they’re all almost $1000 more than I paid for my Strat.
narad
Progressive metal and politics
Yea, I can't say a price hike is unlikely on the JP side, but it's not like the US. People's salaries have been far more stagnant for a long period of time, and just the rise in grocery prices in the "middle class" have been painful. Maybe ESP will raise prices, but I find it hard to imagine people in Japan continuing to buy them. There is already a cooling off on luxury good purchases, and while ESP is positioning themselves as a fairly high-end brand globally, their position here feels much more in the luxury zone. That said, stores are filling up with E-II. It's really sad - BigBoss Ochanomizu used to have dozens of high end ESP / original series and exhibition, cool sigs, etc. When we were in last Wednesday, there was like an amorous, a streamer, an M-I, an FRX, and a maverick, and I think that was basically it. basically 2 meter of wall of high-end where there was 4-5x that in 2019. Maybe it's related.
I went a few years ago and Big Boss was custom heaven filled with around a dozen exhibition models to top it all off!
I still sort of regret picking up the carbon fibre seven string arrow even if it was 4 times the price of the second hand crying star I got which played just as nicely...
I still sort of regret picking up the carbon fibre seven string arrow even if it was 4 times the price of the second hand crying star I got which played just as nicely...
AltecGreen
SS.org Regular
Thanks for the reply.
I did notice that there are not that many ESP high end guitars when I last looked. I also notice a trend where several of the high end makers are putting out more budget lines. T's, Kz Guitar works, Kino, etc. all started to put out more affordable lines of striped down guitars.
I didn't do any NGD posts but bought these two recently. That second guitar I just bought because the price was too hard to pass up.
NoodleFace
Delicious Noodles
At that price point I'd just order 2 kiesels jesus
gunch
Riff Chugman
I think we're just now starting to feel all the butterfly effect bullshit precipitated by the pandemic and it's going to get immensely more shitty.
Flappydoodle
SS.org Regular
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Guess you haven't seen the recent prices of plane tickets either!
daveyisgreat
SS.org Regular
Guess you haven't seen the recent prices of plane tickets either!
No joke, got a flight to Europe recently, way high prices, like three times my last flight a few years ago.
Apex1rg7x
Agent of Chaos
I am an ESP fanboy and have 2 Custom shops on order, both before the most recent insane price hikes. The current pricing is well beyond ridiculous and has put an end to any new orders I will make with ESP, or most of these companies for that matter. For example, the most recent ESP USA I had is now $1100 more than it was new around 2 months ago. Raise prices by 25-30% and reduce the amount of options to choose from...sounds like a solid plan haha
Great timing! Looking forward to those NGDs!
FitRocker33
My tone is tighter than my hamstrings
This makes me even more thankful for the gent on reverb who gave me a stellar deal on my USA Eclipse a few months ago. With the new pricing, I got mine for half the cost of a new one and it was basically brand new when I got it.
It’s a damn good guitar at 2500 or even 3000 bucks but 5000? Errrrrr…..no…I can’t justify a whole lot past a certain price point…
It’s a damn good guitar at 2500 or even 3000 bucks but 5000? Errrrrr…..no…I can’t justify a whole lot past a certain price point…
This brings up a fair point: I wonder what the average (and by average I mean people who actually do entertain/have bought stuff at ESP/Jackson USA tier and other customs etc) person's cap is for a purchase, barring some ultra-custom filled with personal meaning or sentiment? I'd guess maybe around $4k?
Just seeing these guitars be over $5k just seems absurd...I know in terms of the economy/inflation etc it makes sense that all goods would seem too expensive to pretty much everyone, but I think everyone here knows what I mean...eventually it becomes a "this would be a fair price given labor/material cost, but we aren't selling enough at this high a price" kinda thing.
Just seeing these guitars be over $5k just seems absurd...I know in terms of the economy/inflation etc it makes sense that all goods would seem too expensive to pretty much everyone, but I think everyone here knows what I mean...eventually it becomes a "this would be a fair price given labor/material cost, but we aren't selling enough at this high a price" kinda thing.
I mean, Alembic and Fodera have no problem filling huge queues and wait lists for five figure basses with, relatively speaking, minimal variation. They've been doing it for decades too.
Same with Spector USA, PRS PS, Sadowsky, Lull, etc.
It's just now happening with some brands we've long associated with getting for less, especially used.
It's just like super cars, giant trucks, ultra luxe cars, etc. There will always be an outlier enthusiast class that has the means to buy whatever, and values the more esoteric aspects since money isn't a concern.
I could buy my dream Fodera today if I wanted, but I'm not rich, and don't have a death wish. I want it, but the cost outstrips the happiness I'd get from it.
But I've bought some expensive guitars, and while cost is always a factor I don't really look at it as something I need to mental gymnastics to justify. I know how the sausage is made and it doesn't bother me that I'm paying a premium because the objective itself sparks joy.
Apex1rg7x
Agent of Chaos
Well I will say that both Custom Shop orders I have in right now are gonna cost me less than what a USA Horizon-II will cost you now. I know that ESP USA is out over 2 years with backorders so I wonder if this is relative to what Jackson did a year or so ago, by increasing prices so much that it seems unrealistic so that orders don't keep flooding in? With these prices though, I feel like part of it is materials/labor but also the ability to maintain current profit margins by building fewer guitars if necessary.
