Zado
Well-Known Member
Carvin is probably worried about it...
He's probably worried too about Carvin being worried
![Fawk :fawk: :fawk:](http://www.sevenstring.org/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/fawk.gif)
![Fawk :fawk: :fawk:](http://www.sevenstring.org/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/fawk.gif)
Carvin is probably worried about it...
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The only ones I've seen in person are the cheapo models hanging at Guitar Center. I'd want to try a higher end model before making a judgment.Has anyone played a Laguna guitar? In my experience with them, they were just...wrong. Everything felt wrong.
He's probably worried too about Carvin being worried![]()
Greg has the right attitude. Glad to see he's about mutually benefiting from an endorsement and not shilling for free gear.
"They have a really high standard of quality. They’re one of the few companies that’s actually raising their quality and raising their prices. As opposed to going for quantity and lowering prices and lowering quality. Which is what a lot of the other guitar companies are doing. They seem really interested in, sort of, entering or filling the void of maybe like, what PRS used to be, or like what a Tom Anderson did."
Yeah, having owned two Carvins with Flaws, played others with similar ones, SEEN some issues with them on here, and seeing how an artist is trying to bash other brands and stating how yours is the best, Carvin has lost my respect once more.
Does Carvin ship directly to Canada? The trick to Carvin, and sorry if it seems like I've been belaboring this point lately, is that the reason Carvins are so cheap in the US is that they sell directly, rather than through dealers. Buying a Carvin overseas introduces not only the usual taxes and fees for shipping, but also a dealer markup, which makes the cost increase of a Carvin much higher than other brands that are only sold through dealers.Do Carvins really cost 2K Euros in Europe? I was expecting his bolt model to cost more around the 1000$~ (+Import fees) mark given Carvins other bolt model prices.
Does Carvin ship directly to Canada? The trick to Carvin, and sorry if it seems like I've been belaboring this point lately, is that the reason Carvins are so cheap in the US is that they sell directly, rather than through dealers. Buying a Carvin overseas introduces not only the usual taxes and fees for shipping, but also a dealer markup, which makes the cost increase of a Carvin much higher than other brands that are only sold through dealers.
You are guessing wrong.Let me guess, you're just in this thread to bash Greg Howe?
I hope replying in a topic without saying how awesome guitars and guitarist are is not considered "bashing" now
And I'm well aware that Carvin uses international dealers, just didn't expect the mark up to be so massive. Good thing I live in NA![]()
That's kind of my point, though. The markup only seems massive if you compare it to other brands that already have a dealer markup in North America. You don't see the dealer markup on other brands; you only see the price of the guitar. So the difference between a guitar with a dealer markup in Anerica and a dealer markup in a foreign market is going to be much smaller than the difference between the domestic price with no dealer markup and the foreign price with a dealer markup. Carvins are, if you'll pardon the expression, artificially cheap in North America. The foreign prices of Carvins are more like what Carvins would cost in North America if Carvin sold through dealers.
Yes, that is, as far as I can tell, exactly what I just said. I imagine there's a reason they stopped selling directly to customers outside of North America, because it may just be that the business model didn't really work for them on an international scale.The point of contention, though, is that unlike with other brands where there is a markup on guitars through retailers in both the US and other markets, Carvins are available direct and sans retailer markup in the US but not in other markets. Outside of the US, people pretty much expect to pay more for American products (or in the bizarre case of Korea, even for Korean-made products produced for non-Korean companies), but we usually know that that's because of import duties, taxes, shipping, or whatever, and not because a company just doesn't use the same business model outside of its own borders.
Yes, that is, as far as I can tell, exactly what I just said.
Again, I don't really keep up on Carvin, so I'm genuinely asking this question, not trying to trick you into saying any particular thing. Do you feel that statement is untrue or dishonest? If so, how?
Also, the way it's worded, it sounds like they only offered international direct shipping for one year. Is that accurate?
Greg Howe said:Not to mention that Laguna was never available anywhere other than Guitar Center. So you know, you couldn’t get one of these guitars overseas. You couldn’t get this stuff. You couldn’t get them anywhere other than Guitar Center. And a lot of my fans are overseas. So that was always a bit of a problem.
The interview with Howe just had me scratching my head a bit I guess. He didn't "leave" Laguna so much as GC basically retired the brand under the radar because it didn't sell well and they realized it was a bad investment, so the whole pitch surrounding all that seems a bit forced to be honest.He should have focused more on how he got picked up by Carvin and less on it being a "decision" to leave Laguna since they basically dried up and disappeared off the face of the planet without a sound.
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Just as a point of clarification: Greg Howe did not leave Laguna. Guitar Center discontinued the brand.