Fender Expands Select Line

AlanRatcliffe

I just noticed Fender have expanded the Select line by seven models. I played the Carved Maple Top Telecaster the other day and was impressed with everything but the price tag (R35K retail) while it's well in line with the US price, it's still a lot of money for a production line guitar.

Anyway, these are the new models:

Fender Select Carved Maple Top Jazzmaster HH

Fender Select Thinline Telecaster with Gold Hardware

Fender Select Telecaster HH

Fender Select Active Jazz Bass

Fender Select Stratocaster HSS

Fender Select Thinline Telecaster

Fender Select Carved Blackwood Top Telecaster SH

kayDUB

Fender Select Thinline Telecaster for me! ?

singemonkey

:?

Guitars for Gibson nuts who must own a Fender. Kinda like putting off-road tyres on your Porsche 911. Or fitting a spoiler to your Land-Rover. Take your pick.

BluJu

I love fender but sadly they have lost the plot.

35k for a guitar with that crappy bridge (don't like those saddles) and a standard fender neck.

AlanRatcliffe

Brendon "BluJu" Neuhaus wrote: 35k for a guitar with that crappy bridge (don't like those saddles) and a standard fender neck.

I think the stamped Strat saddles are the best sounding ones and the Select Tele I played had a quartersawn and highly figured flame neck (nice fattish C profile too).

21Fretter

I haven't been loving a lot of Fender's recent releases looks-wise.

IceCreamMan

Brendon "BluJu" Neuhaus wrote: I love fender but sadly they have lost the plot.

35k for a guitar with that crappy bridge (don't like those saddles) and a standard fender neck.

2200 dollars in the states which is closer to 20k ...so 35k could be around 25 out the door.

Nice kit for sure

AlanRatcliffe

21Fretter wrote: I haven't been loving a lot of Fender's recent releases looks-wise.

Well, let's be honest: they already have the classic bases well covered. In fact, it's a massive range, catering mostly for classic tastes. These are aimed at a different market segment that they haven't really covered properly before.

stompie

I love guitars where you can see what they made of, which is wood

Norman86

how is R35k retail in line with the US retail price?? :?

Nice guitars, but once again, us Saffa's are getting a raw deal.
Even at R10/$, R35k is at least R13k TOO much.

Sean

Norman86 wrote: how is R35k retail in line with the US retail price?? :?

Nice guitars, but once again, us Saffa's are getting a raw deal.
Even at R10/$, R35k is at least R13k TOO much.

IceCreamMan wrote: 2200 dollars in the states which is closer to 20k ...so 35k could be around 25 out the door.

Nice kit for sure

I think ICM is closer to the possible mark-up.

What would you feel would be a fair mark-up?

Norman86

considering Fender SA buys at FMIC wholesale prices, not US retail..
also considering that the volumes at which they should put their shipping WAY lower than importing a single instrument..

also considering the street price in the states of the Select thinline ($2300), the equivalent in SA should retail for less than R24k. imo of course ?

AlanRatcliffe

Norman86 wrote: how is R35k retail in line with the US retail price?? :?

There you go again - comparing local retail price with the street price in the US. Must I really explain it again? OK. for the last time, I'll bite (in future I'll just post "WRONG" and you can do the math if you want to try prove yourself right).

Comparing Retail prices on both sides or, more realistically, street prices is actually the fair way to compare. That's apples to apples and oranges to oranges. The Select Carved Maple Top Telecaster is $3,499 RRP in the US (follow the link and you will find it in large, easy to read numbers) and R35K RRP here. As ICM pointed out, That translates to $2,200 street there or R24.5K street here (at 30% discount), which is well in line. In fact it's damn good if you consider that the US is the country of origin and there is, by needs, a distributor between there and here.

Sure, as usual, the street price in the US is discounted higher than it is here. However even if you were to take the US street price, by the time you add on shipping and VAT, bank charges and exchange costs, you would be paying more than you would buying one locally - plus have no (usable) warrantee.

Norm, you must really take a look at this wild and unreasoning tinhatted hatred you have of local distributors and retailers. It really is getting tiresome. You make these bold and incorrect statements every time, are proved wrong every time, but choose to ignore that in order to keep your illusion intact so you can scream "foul" next time any prices are mentioned anywhere.

[@ShreddySmurf - feel free to edit if you think I am not "being nice" as per my own rules]

coynegfsa

singemonkey wrote: :?

Guitars for Gibson nuts who must own a Fender. Kinda like putting off-road tyres on your Porsche 911. Or fitting a spoiler to your Land-Rover. Take your pick.

That's one way of putting it. I just can't get used to the look. Too over the top in my opinion. Strats and Teles look good in a lot of different finishes, to me this isn't one of them.

MH

I love the look of the Malaysian blackwood top on the HH tele.
Love at first sight... but I must say, if i go tele i want SH instead of HH so i will be dreaming about the Carved Blackwood Top Tele with the SH setup.

Norman86

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
Norman86 wrote: how is R35k retail in line with the US retail price?? :?
There you go again - comparing local retail price with the street price in the US. Must I really explain it again? OK. for the last time, I'll bite (in future I'll just post "WRONG" and you can do the math if you want to try prove yourself right).

Comparing Retail prices on both sides or, more realistically, street prices is actually the fair way to compare. That's apples to apples and oranges to oranges. The Select Carved Maple Top Telecaster is $3,499 RRP in the US (follow the link and you will find it in large, easy to read numbers) and R35K RRP here. As ICM pointed out, That translates to $2,200 street there or R24.5K street here (at 30% discount), which is well in line. In fact it's damn good if you consider that the US is the country of origin and there is, by needs, a distributor between there and here.

Sure, as usual, the street price in the US is discounted higher than it is here. However even if you were to take the US street price, by the time you add on shipping and VAT, bank charges and exchange costs, you would be paying more than you would buying one locally - plus have no (usable) warrantee.

Norm, you must really take a look at this wild and unreasoning tinhatted hatred you have of local distributors and retailers. It really is getting tiresome. You make these bold and incorrect statements every time, are proved wrong every time, but choose to ignore that in order to keep your illusion intact so you can scream "foul" next time any prices are mentioned anywhere.

[@ShreddySmurf - feel free to edit if you think I am not "being nice" as per my own rules]

Okay, im being a bit unfair with regards to US street vs ZA msrp. however, you can find the street price in the USA is reasonably stable from store to store.
and even compares favourably to online pricing. any discount afterwards is a freebie.
that pretty much makes the street price the retail price anyway, because the US msrp is never followed from my dealings.

and this brings us back to the sad state of affairs here in good old SA.
Whats the street price here? well, its NEVER the same. you can speak to different sales reps in the same store and get different prices every time.
so until such time that we have a definite street price, to what shall we compare the prices?

to the uninitiated, a R12k "discount" sounds like a good deal.. but that only brings it in line with the US street price. and thats also only IF you get the R12k discount.
but again, not all manufacturers products follow this same ludicrous pricing structure.. other products are priced in line with the US street price, why cant Fender products??

AlanRatcliffe

The US has something called MAP - minimum advertised price, which stops sellers from selling under a specified minimum price. While it serves to level the price to the consumer, that's not the reason for it (which is more to prevent the perceived value of a brand being tarnished by someone selling them off cheaply and to prevent the bigger bulk-buying retailers from retailing a product lower than a smaller retailer can buy it for).

There are big problems with the MAP model - the least of which is it is technically price fixing. Here in SA we have a little something called the Consumer Protection Act and, under the act, a distributor may not specify a MAP price to a retailer because it is regarded as price fixing.

Now, in the case of the Select Tele we have here, it's astounding that it is selling for a comparable price here, given that the local distributor doesn't have the buying power of a US chain, has significant overheads to merely get the product to shelves and there is 14% VAT added on top of the local price. This basically means that to sell something like this at a comparable price, they have to make a lot less profit than the US retailer.

If the price is comparable, the US retailer is still making approximately 50% gross profit and the SA wholesaler and retailer are each making 10 - 15%. So... which consumer is being gouged? The US or the SA?

Makes ya think, doesn't it?

chris77

I'm also not too fond of it when Fender (and Gibson mind you) stray too far from their classic designs, but I will gladly offer a good home and lots of love to any of these.... :-[
My favourites are actually the two least traditional ones, the Jazzmaster shaped one and that HH Tele with the skunk stripe.

Charlie4

I have to admit I was quite shocked when I inquired on importing gear myself. I also had a good chat with a respected rep at a shop - It seems the red tape is getting worse if there are in fact local distributors such as the case with Fender.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Now, in the case of the Select Tele we have here, it's astounding that it is selling for a comparable price here, given that the local distributor doesn't have the buying power of a US chain, has significant overheads to merely get the product to shelves and there is 14% VAT added on top of the local price. This basically means that to sell something like this at a comparable price, they have to make a lot less profit than the US retailer.

If the price is comparable, the US retailer is still making approximately 50% gross profit and the SA wholesaler and retailer are each making 10 - 15%. So... which consumer is being gouged? The US or the SA?

Makes ya think, doesn't it?

Hate to admit it but you are probably right Alan.

Btw, Tele all the way. 8)