Pickup Pricing

[big_teee]

I stand by my integrity statements.
Name dropping and misrepresentation Does Not Fly Here in my area.
Everyone here on the forum, is entitled to their own methods, and their own opinions!
BTW, "Tools and Coil Winding Gear", is a tech forum.
This OP topic IMO should be in the Lobby, or Storm Drain, and has nothing to do with tools, or coil winding gear!

GL,
T

[Achiles]

So,case closed.

[jmaf]

Achiles' shop is across town from me. Knowing him personally I know this was a tongue in cheek thing.

I don't know how old Achiles is, maybe a bit younger (and same good looks) as Yoda from Star Wars. I know he's seen more than a few presidents sworn in cuz he installed guitar pickups for me when I was a teenager.

One time I saved a whole year to buy the hottest new pickup I saw on guitar player. Things here in Brazil were rough, we couldn't easily import anything back then. So getting my hands on a pair of the hottest pickups was quite an accomplishment. In fact buying Guitar Player here was an accomplishment.

But of course I went and destroyed the pickups. I read somewhere that Van Halen did whatever to his windings and I attempted to do the same. And I couldn't get them back together in one piece.

So I end up in Achiles' shop with a broken guitar and no money. He opens up a drawer and pulls out a double blade humbucker and says this thing is no big brand like yours, but it sounds great. I was skeptical and didn't want it, cuz I hadn't seen it on Guitar Player. Days later I returned, and said gimme that pickup. It cost a fraction of the amazing brand name ones I destroyed.

I still have that <insert brand name> thing stuck into my guitar, and it's been a while. It still sounds great. Just saying this because I know Achiles from way back and I know he likes schooling younger players that brands and hype do not make up for actual tone.

[ken]

I reopened this thread because there were some valid points raised about the pitfalls of charging too much or too little for your pickups.

This is a very interesting question, especially since there are so many makers out there all competing for the players' dollar. Basically, do you charge more than perceived 'street value' for your pickup and try to sell quality and workmanship, or do you try to undercut mass market prices and pray that you can make it up in volume?

Also, if everybody (or almost everybody) gets their bobbins, magnets, wire, etc. from the same few manufacturers, how does one differentiate their own creations in the public view from everyone else's?

Effects pedal makers have the same problem, as there are literally hundreds of clones of Big Muffs, TS-9s and Fuzz Faces out there, all seeming exactly the same except size and paint color. Nowadays, you can have made for you in China PC boards of dozens of different types of effects, all you have to do is populate them and put them in a box and you're an effect guru. I wonder how this will work out in the long term.

Ken

[salvarsan]

Nowadays, you can have made for you in China PC boards of dozens of different types of effects, all you have to do is populate them and put them in a box and you're an effect guru. I wonder how this will work out in the long term.

Slow decline.
People who like electric guitars are dying off.
The newer gen uses sampled sounds in large part because of their ubiquity and convenience.

[jrdamien]

I reopened this thread because there were some valid points raised about the pitfalls of charging too much or too little for your pickups.

This is a very interesting question, especially since there are so many makers out there all competing for the players' dollar. Basically, do you charge more than perceived 'street value' for your pickup and try to sell quality and workmanship, or do you try to undercut mass market prices and pray that you can make it up in volume?

Also, if everybody (or almost everybody) gets their bobbins, magnets, wire, etc. from the same few manufacturers, how does one differentiate their own creations in the public view from everyone else's?

Effects pedal makers have the same problem, as there are literally hundreds of clones of Big Muffs, TS-9s and Fuzz Faces out there, all seeming exactly the same except size and paint color. Nowadays, you can have made for you in China PC boards of dozens of different types of effects, all you have to do is populate them and put them in a box and you're an effect guru. I wonder how this will work out in the long term.

Ken

This is exactly it. And I don't have any good answers (which is why I asked the question).

There is an inescapable ubiquity in "custom" and "handwound" pickups, in so much as most (a lot?) of us are getting our materials from the same places and there are only so many ways to make a pickup. The differences between one skilled winder and the other is a matter of taste and not quality, and I tell everyone who asks why they should buy from me that exact thing. I feel any other answer would be a lie.

I'm in a precarious position because I built a small, local, business charging a price that I thought reflected my entry into the marketplace and my skill level. Now that I want to step it up a little I can track the fall off in orders when I raise the price of a humbucker by $10.

I think the only real way to deal with this is to build a brand but this is a decision and a commitment that requires a lot of money and even more time. Advertising costs. Demos of pickups cost. A speedy and responsive website costs. And even with all that in play you (I) am still way behind the big boys. But branding obviously works because Throbak IS selling humbuckers for a lot of money.

So do you then try to price competitively in the hopes of more orders making up for lower prices or build a brand behind a bunch of hyperbole and at least a little bs and make one humbucker for every 3 or 4 you'd otherwise have to sell to make the same amount?

[big_teee]

This is exactly it. And I don't have any good answers (which is why I asked the question).

There is an inescapable ubiquity in "custom" and "handwound" pickups, in so much as most (a lot?) of us are getting our materials from the same places and there are only so many ways to make a pickup. The differences between one skilled winder and the other is a matter of taste and not quality, and I tell everyone who asks why they should buy from me that exact thing. I feel any other answer would be a lie.

I'm in a precarious position because I built a small, local, business charging a price that I thought reflected my entry into the marketplace and my skill level. Now that I want to step it up a little I can track the fall off in orders when I raise the price of a humbucker by $10.

I think the only real way to deal with this is to build a brand but this is a decision and a commitment that requires a lot of money and even more time. Advertising costs. Demos of pickups cost. A speedy and responsive website costs. And even with all that in play you (I) am still way behind the big boys. But branding obviously works because Throbak IS selling $270 humbuckers.

So do you then try to price competitively in the hopes of more orders making up for lower prices or build a brand behind a bunch of hyperbole and at least a little bs and make one humbucker for every 3 or 4 you'd otherwise have to sell to make the same amount?

Other members pricing should not be posted here.
This Thread still has nothing to do with Tools, and coil making gear, and IMO should not be here.
Pickup pricing is up to the individual seller!

[jrdamien]

Other members pricing should not be posted here.
This Thread still has nothing to do with Tools, and coil making gear, and IMO should not be here.
Pickup pricing is up to the individual seller!

I "fixed" the price reference, although it was just a guess.

If the thread belongs elsewhere shouldn't a mod move it elsewhere?

Pickup pricing is obviously up to each seller. What's that got to do with the discussion of it, though?