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New Mesa Walkabout-style high powered amp WD-800....and new cabs...


Musicman20

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6 minutes ago, JimBobTTD said:

Is there no US distributor? If the amps go Mesa > Shops in the US, then I can understand the difference. 

If the amps go Mesa > US Distributor > European Distributor > Shops, then I see a great way to simplify the supply chain rather than a reason why there is a huge markup. If this European distributor is liable for the guarantee, then Mesa, by definition, is not, and so can sell the amps at an even lower price. 

If we see $999 as the retail price per amp, add $15 per unit for extra postage costs and then add 20% VAT, the total price should be $1,217 or £916 (at today’s exchange rate). The fact that it costs half as much again suggests that something fishy is going on. 

I understood that Mesa are their own distributor in the US. Could be wrong.

Remember that duty is also added at 4%, so total of 24%, and that is added on the unit cost + shipping cost.

I'll stick to my conclusion a reasonable UK retail should be about £1000.

On the warranty, it is not the variable cost of repair that will add extra cost, but the fixed overhead of having a mirrored organisation to administer and execute returns and repairs.

Although again, it might just be cheaper to rtb to Mesa in the USA given the much higher retail price.

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There is a simple way of dealing with this. Cut out the middlemen/women so that the amps/cabs/pedals actually sell pretty well in the UK etc.

I am pretty certain that TC Electronics decided to go directly to shops which resulted in a drop in prices. This was maybe late summer 2018. 

I understand they cover warranties, but surely the cheapest/easiest way to do this is for Mesa/any other brand to just get in touch with a well known repair hub and say they will be their repair centre and work out  the basics. No need to 'store' gear and deal with things at a middleman/middlewoman dealer. It's adding costs. It is 2019; communication is possible for free via video call...we can ship things securely, etc. 

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2 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

I do wonder why the buyer should stump up via the back door to cover warranty repairs anyway...?

Well they shouldn't.  But even so, a business would have to factor that into a retail price to make a profit.

I just did a quick comparison of USA made (or assembled!) bass gear.  Most brands seem to be at about the 1:1 or less dollars to pounds conversion.

What makes Mesa the exception I guess you have to ask?

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3 minutes ago, No. 8 Wire said:

Well they shouldn't.  But even so, a business would have to factor that into a retail price to make a profit.

I just did a quick comparison of USA made (or assembled!) bass gear.  Most brands seem to be at about the 1:1 or less dollars to pounds conversion.

What makes Mesa the exception I guess you have to ask?

Your question is exactly the right one. 

The 1$: 1£ conversion rate has long been accepted as the ballpark conversion rate to take account of shipping, customs and 20% VAT i.e. US made gear will cost approx 30% more in the UK. We can live with that, it's just a fact of life. 

But there is a level of profiteering going on here at the expense of Mesa's otherwise loyal European user base, which we are all finding more than a little like having one finger stuck up at us by the suppliers. And it's getting an understandable two fingered reaction from us as consumers.

I'll be voting with my wallet. 

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This thread has morphed into a pretty pointless discussion. All these comments are based on very little information and a lot of pie-in-the-sky guesswork.

Why aren't BMW's the same price as Fords? They're not. If you want one you'll have to pay the price that BMW have set. If you don't want to. . . then you're not in the demographic, so move on and buy something in your price range.

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10 minutes ago, chris_b said:

This thread has morphed into a pretty pointless discussion. All these comments are based on very little information and a lot of pie-in-the-sky guesswork.

Why aren't BMW's the same price as Fords? They're not. If you want one you'll have to pay the price that BMW have set. If you don't want to. . . then you're not in the demographic, so move on and buy something in your price range.

That's not the discussion at all.  The discussion is why are BMWs in the UK are a lot more than BMWs in Germany (spoiler, they're not, just using your terms).

Edited by No. 8 Wire
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1 minute ago, chris_b said:

This thread has morphed into a pretty pointless discussion. All these comments are based on very little information and a lot of pie-in-the-sky guesswork.

Why aren't BMW's the same price as Fords? They're not. If you want one you'll have to pay the price that BMW have set. If you don't want to. . . then you're not in the demographic, so move on and buy something in your price range.

The discussion is about why a BMW seems to be priced far more in the UK than in another country. It's nice to get a bit of rationale behind why, even if we don't agree with it.

By the way, if you click the cross at the top-right of your browser, it'll close the window so you don't have to tolerate it any more.

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50 minutes ago, Bobthedog said:

An interesting dynamic for me. There is a possibility I could be moving to live in Santa Monica next year. In which case I would get the US price and warranty anyway! A meeting at the end of the month will help decide to wait or not.

Are you sure you're not taking the whole issue of getting a fair price on your WD-800 a touch too far? 😄 

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  • 2 weeks later...
6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Ah ok, I got excited too soon then! 

They are only managing to knock £17 off the normal stock, which is not much, but at least showing willing...

Your exitement is palpable.... GAS does strange things to a bassist :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

After reading the early posts on this topic I've just hopped back on at the end - so apologies if this has already been mentioned.  I recently bought a new Genzler Magellan from Andertons for £749.  This is a latest-generation, fully-featured D-class amp that oozes quality and sounds great.  I take my hat off to them for bringing it to the UK market at such a reasonable price.  Compare and contrast with the GK Fusion 800 (equivalent but around £220 dearer) and Mesa D800 (fewer features, a bit of a one-trick pony and around £120 dearer).  I've owned both and they are great amps but not IMO good value for money and too expensive for me to buy new.

Edited by scrumpymike
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I think you need to be careful when being too dismissive of Mesa amps. This is because the eq sections are far more versatile (and sensitive) than they might appear.

When I bought my Bass 400 in 1988 I pretty much gave up on it after a few weeks because it didn't sound like I wanted it to. After a while I gave it another go and worked to understand the eq section. It took a while but it paid off in spades.

Since then, I have compared other Mesa amps (including the Subway) and concluded (as has my listener in crime) that there is a definite 'dna' to Mesa amps but you might need to do some twiddling to get to grips with the amps eq.

Well worth the effort.

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  • 1 month later...

Found myself at BD today, albeit not for as long as I would have liked, and had a brief chance to try out the Mesa WD-800 through a couple of VK 112s. It's a pretty capable amp - I particularly liked being able to boost the bass whilst engaging the HPF. You could really see / hear / feel the HPF doing it's thing with significant cut when set at 125hz but much more marginal when engaged at 25hz. The combination of amp and cabs was crisp and articulate.

I would need to spend a bit more time with it before having something more in depth to report  but first impressions were good and I suspect more time would only confirm that view!

Interestingly Mark was gobsmacked when I pointed out that these are available at $999 retail in the US. He messaged Westside whilst I was there to find out why he can buy more cheaply from a US distributor than he can from them! 

Like us, he would have expected these to be priced to allow a £999 retail price in the UK allowing for VAT, Customs and transport. 

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  • 1 month later...

Out of curiosity in US cause i've never actually been there but is the US price exclusive of additional taxes whereas the UK price includes VAT.

I know when i was in Canada i had to pay 2 different additional taxes or costs on most things i bought altho i was able to reclaim one of them when i got home.

Just a thought 

I've seen the WD800 now at £1299 down from original retail price of circa £1599 i think.

Dave

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