Joe
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by Joe on Apr 30, 2020 0:10:22 GMT
I'm really new to the discovery of this brand and when looking at the Thomann site it seems like ALOT of the higher end popular guitars are out of stock. Is this a normal occurrence? I'm sure some on here have watched the site for months plus and have seen a change.
Tons of 450' no 550's, Is this a normal thing?
My thought is that the covid thing has put a damper on production??? Am I wrong? Will I be on a eternal wait )
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Joe
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by Joe on Apr 30, 2020 4:39:10 GMT
Personally, I find it quite annoying that I'll see a guitar I like only to find it out of stock and will be for ages. I just ordered a Fusion-II, the exact model I ordered wasn't my 1st, 2nd or even 3rd choice... The Coronavirus had made things worse but it's not all down to that. An additional thought is that the reason the Fusion-II's are out of stock for so long is because they are revamping the line again. I can see the current line being discontinued and replaced by a Fusion-III line. But again, good business practice wouldn't allow the out of stock period to be so long. I'm not sure you seen it but under new items was more of the Fusion line and it had a pre-order button on a few of them.
Basically you are saying its first come first serve, when its gone its either months before avail or even unknown if it comes back.. There has to be a better way.
Bothers me that there are great reviewers out there showing off the guitars and basically its for nothing because the guitars are not available. IMO They should keep the top ones they give to reviewers in stock.
On another note, My Bday is in middle June someone please make the Tabacco or the Desert Flame 550 avail please.
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Post by jollyca on May 4, 2020 12:11:05 GMT
Let me just chime in here and say that I'm equally ****ed off because of this whole out-of-stock thing. I've been saving some money for a new guitar for some time now and I decided to make the move but... out of stock. My first choice was an SC-550 - no luck. The second choice was an HSH configuration without a Floyd Rose - no luck, out of stock. I ended up ordering a Fusion-II HH OCT and hoping that I'll get to like the color in the end (side-question: my order is "open" since the 27th, anybody knows how much it takes to actually ship it?) ...and all this time Youtube is full of reviewers showing off their models, yet those models are nowhere to be found. There is some method to this though - this brand awareness basically guarantees that any stock will be sold out pretty quickly
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Donut
Harley Benton Club Member
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Post by Donut on May 4, 2020 15:18:28 GMT
Let me just chime in here and say that I'm equally ****ed off because of this whole out-of-stock thing. I've been saving some money for a new guitar for some time now and I decided to make the move but... out of stock. My first choice was an SC-550 - no luck. The second choice was an HSH configuration without a Floyd Rose - no luck, out of stock. I ended up ordering a Fusion-II HH OCT and hoping that I'll get to like the color in the end (side-question: my order is "open" since the 27th, anybody knows how much it takes to actually ship it?) ...and all this time Youtube is full of reviewers showing off their models, yet those models are nowhere to be found. There is some method to this though - this brand awareness basically guarantees that any stock will be sold out pretty quickly lol, I know what you mean. I wanted a Fusion-II in flame cherry, HSH with ebony fretboard and Wilkinson trem for £259. Instead, I ended up with flame cherry, HH, maple fretboard and FR for £304. Lucky I had the extra £44 to hand and I'm not afraid of the FR. So only 1 of my first choice options and I had to pay extra for it! Instead of stumping up that extra, I could have bought a Jackson JS32 HH FR for £249 from GuitarGuitar... The problem with having guitars out of stock all the time is that people will eventually not even bother to look at Thomann's website at all; they'll be so used to the guitars being out of stock for 2 months that they'll just shop elsewhere instead. That way Thomann loses out not just on the sale of the guitar but cables, strings, stands, pedals etc too.
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700 posts
YouTube Channel: ToroK Channel
Disclosures: See Signature
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Post by taurash on May 4, 2020 16:00:07 GMT
I've pretty much always seen some HB guitars being out of stock. Sometimes it's just a few models, sometimes it's many. It generally lasts for 2-3 months, rarely more.
Now, since the Covid-19 pandemy has begun, I have noticed there are more models out of stock. Sounds logical, nothing's the same anymore. But, they still manage bringing some back in 2-3 months.
It might sound long, but I have the experience of other brands and other distributors who go to 6+ months. For instance, Gear4Music and its homebrand Subzero guitars will have you waiting for over 4 months for their brave new models.
If I analyze what I see with the Amaroks and EX84 and 76 modern, I think they go for a first batch, see how fast they get sold out, and then tell the factory how big or small the next batch must be. I think we also have to keep in mind that HB guitars sell easily. More and more guitar players want some. But Thomann's warehouses don't grow bigger, eventhough they make more and more different HB models.
So, all in all, I think Thomann still sells pretty much all the guitars they make under the Harley Benton brand. To be honest, I'm absolutely not worried about them. They sound like they're victims of their own success and try to find the best way to avoir building new warehouses which would increase their costs and still keeping the delays for restocking as short as they possibly can.
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Post by jollyca on May 5, 2020 10:18:08 GMT
This makes a lot of sense, I just wished Thomann would communicate better about this.
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Post by hallon on May 6, 2020 9:16:10 GMT
The factories that Harley Benton use will be making guitars for multiple clients. If these have been affected by the pandemic and are operating at a reduced output, which seems likely, they may well be concentrating on the biggest orders from their biggest customers. If HB aren't a high enough financial priority, their orders may be getting pushed back. That might explain why so many HB guitars are currently pending stock. I know HB guitars are always going in and out of stock but I don't recall it being quite this bad until recently. But that could just be my rubbish memory..... The virus has disrupted business everywhere, and I heard they had some serious backorders on certain models, but had some huge shippings coming in, in the near future.
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kappa123
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by kappa123 on May 6, 2020 18:22:42 GMT
Any clue when te-30 is going to be available?
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fourelms
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by fourelms on May 7, 2020 8:36:08 GMT
Thruout Europe this C19 has caused sales of some items to collapse whilst, others have gone ballistic.
Music instrument sales are in that later category and have risen to unheard of levels, boredom, time to do something new etc.
Have two friends in the industry, one owns a shop, the other on the wholesale side.
Both mentioned that when new stock is coming in, prices have risen around 20% wholesale, get in there quick, snooze n loose.
It's going to take time to get going again, maybe a lot longer than we think, thinking of the supply trails for these items😎
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on May 7, 2020 10:14:54 GMT
Have two friends in the industry, one owns a shop, the other on the wholesale side. Both mentioned that when new stock is coming in, prices have risen around 20% wholesale, get in there quick, snooze n loose. It's going to take time to get going again, maybe a lot longer than we think, thinking of the supply trails for these items😎 Expect low tier, tight margin models to remain out of stock or see a price rise. My guess is that Thomann would postpone ordering these until they can offer them at the usual price. Failing this, they'll have to make a price update but this ought not to be the first choice and competitors will be playing chicken with this, knowing that raising prices will first incite potential customers to look elsewhere.
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prowla
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by prowla on May 7, 2020 14:05:02 GMT
The virus has disrupted business everywhere, and I heard they had some serious backorders on certain models, but had some huge shippings coming in, in the near future. Yep, looks like the corona thing has disrupted both manufacturing and shipping schedules from Asia. I'd expect the backlogs start to clear after the summer. Usually Thomann has had most of the Harley models in stock, so yeah bit unusual. Meanwhile, you can always take a look at your used market if any 2nd hand HB's pop up
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