Eldon Tyrell

In fairness to Andertons, another retailer also quoted me £2,899 for the new 4HH Raspberry Burst, so it is not only Andertons. I am sure there are Covid related supply issues, however, how come they keep the price increase in the US pretty low ($100-200) and increase it here by £750-1000?

I guess we will pretty much know when we see if the price increase in other big markets (e.g., Germany and France) will be like the one in the US ($100-200) or like here (£750-1000 up).

Agree on most points. However, do you think it is S&T's decision or EBMM's?

Yes, looks like Spector and Dingwall will go head-to-head indeed. Cool. Will be interesting to see how many people, current Spector bass owners or not, will go for the new Dimension instead of the already established Combustion or NG. BTW, I still think they should have used a different name instead of Dimension. It always makes me think of this one. Sorry, I just cannot "unthink" it 😉 And you won't now either 😁

Disclaimer: Sorry if this has been discussed earlier but I cannot check all 21 pages of the thread😉 Seeing custom duties getting mentioned here: I thought we do not have to pay custom duties when ordering from Thomann. Is this not the case? Only VAT and handing charge, no?

Cheers. Makes business sense, at least at a first glance: big demand coupled with limited supply = price increase. Economics 101. However, this is based on the assumption that there is a big demand and I am not sure that this is realistic (BTW, having unrealistic assumptions is typical for economics, at least for classical economics ;- ). I think the price hike is just way too much and there are just too many great alternatives on the market. EBMM does not have a monopoly. So, apart from the die-hard EBMM fanboys and girls, many others will just walk away with their money and hand it over to someone else. Well, we'll see.

Do you think the distributor (S&T, I guess) is behind the huge increase and not EBMM?

If you want to stay in the EBMM world, you may want to check out the Caprice, EBMM's take on the Jazz bass. I have never played one but I own the Cutlass (EBMM's take on the P bass) and it is a killer bass: very well made, lovely neck (one of the best I have ever played), not too heavy and a P bass sound on steroids. Amazing bass. There is one Caprice on sale here on BC at the moment (in white). Here is a video showing both the Caprice and the Cutlass:

Yes, I am not into 5ers, I can hardly cope with 4ers and enjoy playing many AIC songs on 1 or 2 strings 😎

Yes, the quality is great and I have some and want some more. However, the previous finishes cost £1,899-£2,099 for the 4H, (there is a great screenshot from Andertons website on the second page of this thread) and now the cheapest is £2,749, followed by £2,899 and £2,999 (all 4H). Interestingly, the price increase in the US was only £100-200. So, what's going on here (literally here - in the UK)?!?

Agree, however, the Euro Classic comes as a JJ, only as a5 string through (and with gold hardware)

Well, another retailer quoted me £2,899 for the 4HH in the new Raspberry Burst finish. Looks like it is not only Andertons alone having these ridiculous prices. Hope to find out from S&T what is going on here.

Well, if they keep pumping up the price by 43%, then we will be there in 3 years 😎

Good point. Even the brand new 75th Anniversary US Fender P is only £150 more than the current Fender Pro II (£1849 vs. £1699, Andertons). So, not sure why EBMM thinks that charging £750-£1000 more is such a good idea.

Although, the Classic probably won't come back as I posted yesterday: "I did some googling and found this in the EB forum. Dargin from EB customer service wrote back in September: "I don't think we'll make an Old Smoothie or Classic how we used to again. We'll have a limited version of a Classic drop soon and then hopefully we can improve those concepts in 2022." Sounds to me like an even more expensive "new and improved" Classic/Old Smoothie getting released in 2022. Then we will look back at this thread and say: "we really should have bought the new Stingrays when they were still affordable" 😉

Good point. They are normally a bit more expensive than the Specials. Guess I better get a used one before these also become unaffordable.

Makes a lot of sense. I guess I better get a used one for a decent price before sellers figure out what's going on with the new and crazy prices 🙂

Congrats, £2200 sounds like a great bargain now 😉

Oh, maybe not, thought they must have some kind of agreement in place. Well, just trying to get my head around this huge increase here in comparison to the small increase in the US. What could be the reason?

That could be the answer. Up to Dec 31.12.20, the UK was trading with the US as part of the EU (and there is a US-EU trade deal in place). Now, outside the US, how is the UK currently trading with the US without a US-UK trade deal in being in place yet? WTO? Could that increase the huge price increases? By comparison, in the US, prices only went up $100-200.

Fully agree with you, Ian. Their basses are made to order anyway, so I never understood why they don't offer some simple options, e.g. black hardware instead of chrome, or an ebony fretboard instead of a maple one or a different pickguard. Nothing fancy (and not as extensive as e.g. G&L's option models: http://glguitars.com/guitar-options/ or Sandberg's http://configurator.sandberg-guitars.de/). I cannot see how that should mess up the building process much and they could even charge a small premium for that "service".

You are too generous to Andertons. You rounded down. I rounded up: 43%!!!! 👿

Here is a nice side-by-side comparison of the same model: on the left the old finish, on the right the new finish. Is it April 1st today? Am I missing something?

Insane 👿