I would think that is pre discount but yes Fender pricing in ZA is loosely based on R20 to the dollar on the street price in the USA plus a lil bit here an there.

Fender pricing in ZA been discussed on the forum a number of times, its kinda surreal and loads have imported directly themselves as a result

Edit: Sound select has it at 10 500 and the blues jr at 11 500. in store I would guess you going to end up paying around 7500 for the pro and around 8500 for the blues jr these days..at a guess.

that's for 420 and 520 dollar amps respectively so around 17 to the dollar.

Yeah I know! Fender prices are hectic right now. Should be directly related to the Rand-Dollar exchange rate at the moment.

Last year I was quoted for a CHINESE made Fender Modern Player Tele R5500 which is "normal" in relation to overseas prices. Last week I was quoted for the same guitar R8495!!!!

Yeah, I think that's a full retail price. The PJ has never been imported AFAIK, so they will be working on current Rand exchange rate too.

US full retail is $590, so that's ridiculous by any standards. You can get the handwired VOX AC15 for less than that. Or pick up one from the UK for

Fender is more of a brand these days, and you pay for the brand, especially in South Africa. They are still quality guitars and amps, just not for those prices, not when basic necessities like food already cost so much.

UNBELIEVEABLE . . . i am truly shocked !

Thank you very much guys !

Looks like i will opt for a Graigs Amp custom build then.

We should be getting them for 8600-ish with discount if you were to compare with online EUROPEAN website prices and add VAT.
(If we were on a direct par with UK/European prices)
Fender SA buys on the Euro,not the Dollar (its distribution source is in Holland,not America - same as Gibson).

so ja, still a couple K too much ... sigh ... and it's made in Mexico! ?

Vintage Vibe wrote:
We should be getting them for 8600-ish with discount if you were to compare with online EUROPEAN website prices and add VAT.
(If we were on a direct par with UK/European prices)
Fender SA buys on the Euro,not the Dollar (its distribution source is in Holland,not America - same as Gibson).

so ja, still a couple K too much ... sigh ... and it's made in Mexico! ?

Europe ?

Well that at least explain the massive price diff's between us and Musicians Friend, and other US family owned mom and pop stores.

Thanks for the info mate !

Does anyone know where we get Ibanez from ?
I am just asking because their prices are still OK, compared to the States.

Stoner Riff wrote: Does anyone know where we get Ibanez from ?
I am just asking because their prices are still OK, compared to the States.

That's because they are imported from Asia into the US by a distributor, the same as here, incurring duties and an extra markup. We also have VAT.

Still, Fender are overpriced locally by any standards because they have an extra step in the chain (Europe). Feedback (Fender SA) do what they can to keep the prices down, but ultimately are at the mercy of Fender US's policies - they can't even sell direct the way Marshall do Gibson. And SA buyers as a whole are too "small fish" to be able to effect any influence on Fender's policies. Corporate bullshit rules the world ladies and gentlemen, corporate bullshit.

FWIW, I haven't bought any new Fender product since the 90's. One exception being a very tasty Baja Tele that I got at a truly excellent price...

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:

Stoner Riff wrote: Does anyone know where we get Ibanez from ?
I am just asking because their prices are still OK, compared to the States.

That's because they are imported from Asia into the US by a distributor, the same as here, incurring duties and an extra markup. We also have VAT.

Still, Fender are overpriced locally by any standards because they have an extra step in the chain (Europe). Feedback (Fender SA) do what they can to keep the prices down, but ultimately are at the mercy of Fender US's policies - they can't even sell direct the way Marshall do Gibson. And SA buyers as a whole are too "small fish" to be able to effect any influence on Fender's policies.

Corporate bullshit rules the world ladies and gentlemen, corporate bullshit.

I hear 'ya mate !

Stoner Riff wrote:

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:

Stoner Riff wrote: Does anyone know where we get Ibanez from ?
I am just asking because their prices are still OK, compared to the States.

That's because they are imported from Asia into the US by a distributor, the same as here, incurring duties and an extra markup. We also have VAT.

Still, Fender are overpriced locally by any standards because they have an extra step in the chain (Europe). Feedback (Fender SA) do what they can to keep the prices down, but ultimately are at the mercy of Fender US's policies - they can't even sell direct the way Marshall do Gibson. And SA buyers as a whole are too "small fish" to be able to effect any influence on Fender's policies.

Corporate bullshit rules the world ladies and gentlemen, corporate bullshit.

I hear 'ya mate !

The other problem is that Fender USA doesn't give a damn thing if they sell Fender in SA (Africa) or not. Otherwise they would have adjusted their Corporate Bullshit Rules. It's as simple as that. In a still recovering economy(USA that is) one would think that the Corporates would sit down and start thinking where they could increase market share for their products ?(don't ever think they want to increase their staff wellbeing) Typical American arrogance and stupidity, I experience it daily. I import myself.
We have 54M people in this country , I'm sure there are a fair amount of them that would be interested in obtaining a Fender product. Would be nice to know how may of this figure are musicians (or to be musicians) If 0.25%(maybe that's optimistic but you can still halve that) are guitar players(or to be) that means a production line of 135K of guitars, (and amps and other related products). How many Fender guitars are produced in the USA yearly ?
Now it this government of ours( maybe I offendending some people here, sorry, just a matter of speaking) could include "music" in their education there would be a future for a local guitar factory (supplying the rest of Africa (1Billion people) as well, rather then from the EU, UK or Asia) Even it would only mean manufacturing the least expensive products e.g. Squire or Affinity type etc.
Maybe the US (the world) is running out of suitable wood to built the possible required guitars(135K) They could start a plantation of suitable trees in Africa ?(I know one needs hard wood and cold winters, but hey scientific research can take over here to emulate it) There is plenty suitable land available.
It could lessen Zuma's burden of creating 5M jobs just in this country.
We would export !(in to Africa)
We would earn Dollars !
We would increase GDP ?
We would educate our people ! (maybe the Corporates are in cahoots with our government who don't want this ?)
Need I go on ?
Needs a clever (wanting) CEO to exploit al this and seriously sit down and think about all this. The Corporates have it to good obviously and don't give a damn ?

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: FWIW, I haven't bought any new Fender product since the 90's. One exception being a very tasty Baja Tele that I got at a truly excellent price...

Very Tasty Baja Indeed!

The problem is that business is booming for Fender in our country regardless of it's deranged pricing structure. I once read somewhere on this very forum that Feedback has won the European distributor of the year award a few times, so why would they change it if it's working? Folks around here still want Fenders and are apparently happy to pay top dollar for it...
I own four Fender guitars and two amps at the moment - all of them either imported or bought second-hand. The only new Fender that I bought locally (bit have since sold at a moer of a loss btw) was an entry level Chinese DG-5 acoustic that was my favourite guitar for quite a few years. But I paid full retail for her and still have a bad taste in my mouth about the experience. It was a heck of a lot of money for me back then and today the thought that I not only paid for Fender's inflated system but also the full retail sticker price..... I cringe at how much my ignorance cost me back then. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.... not a chance.

Prices in South Africa are pretty whack imo. Ex. $99 equates to anything between 1,5 - 2,5k. (SA) depending on the brand. The European distribution is really screwing us over, especially with this weak currency of ours. Regarding us forumites, I think we are especially cut-throat about prices and the general public don't research prices as meticulously as we do.

My 2c.