i know right, id way rather have something like an ibanez axion, those have fishman actives, gotoh locking tuners, really cool finishes etc and they are under $1000. idk whos paying that sum for a brand that ive never even heard of before this video
@@Glamosapien Actually I don't know why it wouldn't, I'm not paying the same price for a brand I've never heard of when compared to an LTD or Ibanez, or at a brand that's supposed to be considered a "budget friendly" brand.
@@Glamosapien I get having different model lines but these guitars are the same lines as when they started from what I understand just more expensive now. Like they sucked everyone in with the less expensive price then when everyone took notice now they're more expensive.
I just did this purchase...this exact guitar thru the app. I had problems getting signed into the app, but an email to them and Kevin got that fixed for me. $400 delivered came with a cable and allen wrenches. Was double box shipped and took about a week to arrive. I can attest to that it is a professional quality guitar. It weighs 7.7 lbs, bridge pickup 15.3 k, neck pickup 8.6 k. The pots are very stiff, a drop of wd-40 down the pot shaft fixed that. It was almost in tune and the action was a little high with the neck pickup a little low, neck needed no adjustment. Easy set-up to my liking, but honestly could have been played right out of the box. Hope this helps any considering purchasing one. Thanks Max. =)
I've noticed similar situations on other brands as well. Some consumers are not very thorough when shopping online and end up paying hundreds more. Thanks for pointing this out, it's very helpful!
Went on their website a few weeks ago because I remember your video pointing out that the base model with a real Floyd Rose was $449 which is an awesome deal. When I saw that the price had nearly doubled I laughed. That neck/fretboard and headstock scream "$200 guitar" and the pickups are budget quality. For $750 you're talking about pretty much getting an actual Charvel, Schecter or nicer ESP LTD. Their $949 option is really a joke in my opinion.
You're spot on bro , i'll by a nice Schecter if i'm gonna spend that kind of money. At least i know i'll be getting a quality guitar , i've had 4 and currently own 2 now..
This! These guitars eare basically generic Charvel San Dimas copies, with cheapo pickups, when the actual Charvel Pro Mod Series, cost more or less the same price and have genuine Duncans. Sure, they may have a german Floyd, but the Korean 1000 Series OFR on the Charvels is just as good.
@@greekfreak1980 Absolutely. Nobody ever has an issue with the Korean Floyds. Sawtooth would be smart to overhaul that headstock shape, go with Korean 1000 Floyds and lower the price to $399. That would be a perfect spot for the Sawtooth brand to live.
@@enthused7591 Hate to be "that guy", but I own a ton of different Floyd Rose models, and the OFR is much better than the FR1000. It stays in tune better, it feels more articulate, you can feel the bridge resonate when you bend, and the bar doesnt move as much as a FR1000. This makes sense as to why Batio insisted on using this part in his guitars. Personally, I'd rather have a Gotoh FR over a FR1000 (Schecter used these on their "Schecter branded FRs".) They even come with a brass bar preinstalled. You do you of course, but if I ever get the option, Im sticking with an OFR.
My take on this, is that maybe they expect more traffic and sales on Amazon, rather than their own website. But its still a pretty considerable difference between the prices on the listings. Great Video, Max!
I was thinking that too especially if it were the same price or slightly lower then they could excuse the extra fees for higher sale numbers but this is just weird lol.
CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, BUT.. IS’NT THE PRICE BEING JACKED UP ( BECOMING EVEN MORE XPENSIVE ) BECAUSE OF THEIR SPOKESPERSON/SPONSORED MUSICIANZZ 1 Micheal Batio 🤔 🤨?
I purchased a left handed Sawtooth ST M24 and I love it. However, Max is spot on about the varied pricing. I bought mine for $159 with all the accessories, gig bag, tuner, tiny amp etc etc. The guitar itself was going for $249 at the time. At $159 I expected junk to be honest but it has become one of my favorite guitars.
I bought my left handed yellow cream guitar with all the accessories for 70 bucks at a discount surplus store as no one wanted to buy it and it was picking up dust, amp at that price isn't the best but it did work fine case, stand, and tuner work awesome though and I'm glad i bought it
Most guitar manufacturers sell the guitars at a 40-60% wholesale discount to retailers. If you look at each of these listings you will see they are “sold and fulfilled by Amazon” so hypothetically if the merchants are selling them at a 40% discount to Amazon and Amazon sells them at a 20% discount of msrp it’s a win for amazon and the retailer. Amazon also uses technology to crawl the web and find the lowest price of any product they sell which is also sold be competitors to make sure they are 99% of the time cheaper. Another thing is if you buy the guitar on Amazon, they now know what you like and can start showing and cross selling other products; pedals, tuners, strings, amps, etc. Lastly people trust Amazon and their return policy so it’s Easier for a lot of consumers to buy on Amazon vs others retailers, and Amazon makes a millions and millions of annual prime subscriptions so it’s all factored in to make it profitable. Love your channel, great content and super informative. Thanks for all you do!
This is how i shop for guitars as well! Anyway, since the inception of the internet and Korean made guitars. I remember buying a shecter C1 classic circa 2010. It litterally was dirt cheap and the only cheap thing about it was the price. Oh boy i wish those kind of deals were around in the 90s when i was learning to play and had little disposable money.
I would never spend that kind of cash on a Sawtooth guitar , that's insane. There's so many name brands that are proven quality guitars in that range , Ibanez , Schecter , Epiphone , Jackson etc...
idk why Batio just didn't stay with Dean (or any good, name brand) and just have them put out his signature stuff, guitars, amps etc i just don't get the whole 'sawtooth' thing. Batio is an amazing player, and a good guy (but the sawtooth thing is just kinda 'uncomfortable') if you know what i mean.
@@C_mao Personally I believe he's part owner or a silent partner of some sort, it's the only thing that makes sense. Plus you got to realize his Dean models were $3000 and probably didn't sell great but a Sawtooth guitar that's sub $1000 or even $500 is selling a heck of a lot more and that's more money in his pocket.
I'm probably one of the very few, if not the only, mid-70's person that may remember this...It was a movie or TV show where grabbing both handfuls of hair, yanking, while screaming..."I'm So Confused!!!!!" is the only part I remember. I think it fits. (If that's the "best" part, as in the only part I remember??? I think that pretty well covers how "memorable" / or not that show / movie is.) Great Job, as always, Max. Please keep these great videos coming!!!
You can find this with some other brands too. They sell on Amazon, eBay, and their own website. You’d think their website would be the least expensive but it’s not always. You have to check around or you might end up paying a lot more. Another RU-vidr found this out buying a budget Strat on Amazon for about double the price on the company’s website.
It could be as simple as a bulk buying discount. They can warehouse, say, 100 of each model. Amazon, can warehouse 1,000 of each. So, the price for the larger delivery is cheaper per unit.
Max, good looking out for us! Picked up a Sawtooth St- M24 in Primal Red on Amazon today for $555 where other sites you mentioned were all $799 to $849 for the same guitar. And it came with the gig bag for that price as well! Thanks for watching out for our pocketbooks!
@@GuitarMAXMusic received the Primal Red Sawtooth. What a great guitar. The ONLY thing I can find on the guitar are some gritty frets that needs a little polishing. That's an easy fix though. The guitar came in near perfect tune. Just amazing playability for the price. I was a little skeptical about the Sawtooth brand, but now I would recommend this model to anyone. Sawtooth and MAB are making sure they are putting out a great product. Thanks again Max for watching out for our wallets and the initial reviews of these guitars.
@@user-zf8cw7yy6t gritty frets in unacceptable..especially for that much $…means the builders were lazy as hell…hopefully that’s all you end up finding wrong with it…good luck dude
I picked up on this too recently. I love the white guitar. I’ve noticed it’s priced differently in several places, on the website, on the GoDPS app, on Walmart, on Amazon, and it’s kept me from buying the guitar. Right now I’m in the app and it says $400 on the product page, but when I go to check out for the same guitar it’s $700. They need to fix this, it ruins their credibility. Michael Angelo should be informed. I work in e-commerce and it looks like their quality control needs improved.
To make matters more confusing, official outlets on eBay also have different prices, plus they often push discounts to viewers. To further muddy the waters, models also sometimes get refreshed/upgraded without changing the model number or mentioning it in the description. That can be a real kicker either way. Glad you mentioned the app. It isn't just Sawtooth that does this.
I think Sawtooth had an introductory price discount and it's been discontinued. My guess is that's close to or even slightly below manufacturer cost. The lower prices on Amazon are for stock they bought at the introductory price. My guess is Schaller had overstock they were willing to move cheap in bulk and Sawtooth had a body shape that didn't sell well. Put the two together and blow it out at cost to create a buzz online for the brand. Use the buzz to pimp the lower cost offerings and quietly discontinue the higher price stuff in 18-24 months.
Great video! I've got several of their better guitars since MAB went over to them. I think most of these price variations revolves around the 20% discount on the app and its overall impact. If you recall, when they first launched the app, they were going to charge $5 a month for it, because of the discount, and then almost immediately scrapped the charge and made it free. Maybe this 20% discount has had an impact on their bottom line greater than they were expecting. Or, maybe this was all an introductory push to get their exposure up. Either way, they have increased the price of the equipment, so that once the 20% is applied, they are still getting what they wanted originally. Unfortunately, because of shipping container pricing and inflation, now you have the new increased pricing structure. But honestly, that doesn't explain everything. Depending where you look, Reverb, Walmart, Amazon, Ebay, GoDPS, the prices are all over the place. So like MAB always says, they do things differently from any other company. Maybe there is a strategy in there, we just don't see it. Anyway, another great video!
Yeah, Max. I just went through a related situation last night with guitar stands. I'm still trying to figure out how I could have handled it better. Thanks for your insight here. It helped in the sense of specifics to watch and why.
I purchased the model you have hanging. They sent me the Americana version. It was 450$ ordered off reverb. I believe it was one of the first demos, because the serial number is hand printed. I love the guitar, and might paint the body eventually.
Check this out. I bought a Sawtooth es Strat style guitar with a great very well made Chromecast gig bag. I got it through Walmart in 2017 for $53.00. The same guitar now sells for around $189.00 and if you look around the price is all over the place. So it does pay to look around. As always thank you for the great content. Your site has always been a great help for me in shopping for guitars.
I experienced a similar thing on Walmart online. they had a Sawtooth amp that was listed as a forty watt amp with a nice tweed covering. and from what I could tell from the photos it seemed to back up what was written in the listing. and it had a really decent price if I remember rightly it was like $129.00. but it went out stock really quickly, I should have probably snatched it up when I first seen it.
This seems to be common for many foreign based guitar companies. Limited web site management and cut n paste seem quite common too. Hopefully someone will contact them and suggest the corrections or check the site from time to time for conflicts in listings.
Great video. I'm sure as a musician, RU-vid, teacher, guitar reviewer etc., it may be tough at times to love an instrument but need to slam the truth to the company. Keep doing what you're doing! We listen and appreciate it!
I've only had my hands on a couple sawtooth guitars and without exaggerating I think they should have been in the sub hundred bucks range. The only thing I didn't hate about them was they had good sized frets.
Never owned one , but i thought they prided themselves as budget guitars. I'd buy a Firefly before a sawtooth , even Grote makes a decent guitar. I picked up a Grote SG last year for a mod project and the thing is flawless with pearloid inlays and perfect binding. I put locking tuners on it and SD pickups and it's a beast , i spent $159 including taxes. A no-brainer , the quality is on par with my Epi SG G400 Pro which was almost $600!
@@mikeg.9238 Never owned one either because I didn't like them. For the same price I've had waaaaaay better. Like in the video I couldn't really say anything was "wrong" with them but they just weren't what any guitarist I've ever known would like. They felt cheap. They sounded cheap. Just nothing really going for them. I will admit better than a $10 sears guitar from the 70s but these days what isn't?
@@randomperson.6693 Yeah i can't imagine that sounding any good , plus those pickups seem shady. Putting SD's in a guitar that should cost around the same price as the pickups. Doesn't seem legit to me. Like i said , for that price i'll buy a name quality brand!
I own several Sawtooth guitars and every one of them have been great! I’ve even bought them for presents for special people because they’re an amazing instrument for a great price and you’ll shock guys that have never played one before! Their “Strat- like” guitars are an incredible value without breaking the bank. I bought a starter setup for a friend’s daughter to learn on, and he compared it favorably with his Fender Hendrix model! I’ve purchased a couple of their hybrid guitars with the stacked pickups and you can get an incredible variety of tones but it’s pretty heavy. I bought one of his 24 fret models that MAB was endorsing with 24 frets in flat black and twin humbuckers and it was incredibly light and a joy to play! I even bought an acoustic electric parlor guitar from them because sometimes you just want to grab and go, and that little box was all SOLID WOOD - no plywood or other junk in that box, so she should just get sweeter with age! Nice action right out of the shipping box too! If I had any complaints, it’s that they don’t come with a hard case, but that’s not really a bad thing either because it keeps the costs down, they do an incredible job of packing and protecting the guitars the way they do ship them, and the gig bags most of them come with are more than sufficient for MOST of what we’re using them for. If we were a serious touring musician we would want to have an Anvil type case made for any guitars regardless, so your fiberboard or lightweight wooden cases Fender and the rest are using wouldn’t hold up either. FIVE STARS to Kevin and the guys at Sawtooth!!! Tell ‘em Thorin sent you!!!
I bought an Epiphone Les Paul Custom from Musicians Friend for $150 cheaper than Guitar Center a couple months ago. Same company and it shipped from my local Guitar Center. Plus I got points at Musicians Friend that I wouldn't get from Guitar Center. Definitely have to shop around.
I bought the MT-24 last year off Sawtooths website for only $350, and it has the German Floyd Rose. I grabbed that deal. It’s not my favorite guitar however, it’s a great guitar!
Yes, I agree. On Amazon itself. As an example I have seen the, Sawtooth ES - ST (just the guitar) listed at $114.00 and during the same day search have seen it for $199.00. A huge and confusing price point spread.
I got a used saw tooth on Amazon for $80 and a few years later I see them selling essentially the same model with a special pickguard with 2 humbuckers and 3 single coils for $900. It's ridiculous. Getting an endorsement from MAB might have meant something in the 80s but it's certainly not worth a massive premium now.
I've never bought a guitar from them but I've seen price jumps with pedals, one manufacturer I just bought from the pedal was cheaper on their reverb page than it was on their own website.
Thank you for the information.I had a lot of discernment about this brand.I will admit I am no shredder and is not really my thing.I have been noticing in Marketplace the Sawtooth amps for sale for 0$.I dig your channel when I catch it.I remember a custom Tele? from Italy you had from wine casks and shotgun shell caps for knobs and I think custom tooled leather pickguard.That is BADASS! Thanks for your all you do! That Sawtooth brand had me interested I guess you could say or good or eh?
So happy about that video !! Me and my wife where checking out sawtooth last week for one of my kids, cause i bought 2 of them about a year ago the white satin and the black one !! Cost me 600$ on amazon, and now its like way more expensive and its ok cause they where very cheap for the quality !! Gotta admit they are well built and sounds pretty good !! Thats when i check out godpsmusic and realize damn man !! There is some issues here !! So happy you notice and talked about it !! Extremely pertinent video !!!🤘👍
@@officialdandaman yeah i know about firefly they look good too !! But my kid those not like those vintage shape, he is more into metal , thats why i was checking out the sawtoot!! Thanks for the suggestion , have a good one !
@@Zack-hn2ui 🆒 I currently have a Firefly FFLP blueberry burst and a Ibanez Gio translucent blue, both are great guitar's and fun to play. I think Ibanez has a decent guitar for metal players under $500. Because of COVID 19 I think shipping has gotten shitty and more expensive. Check out my vids. ヾ( ͝° ͜ʖ͡°)ノ♪
Very interesting. Man, I'm glad I haven't purchased one. I want one of the red single cuts with Floyd rose. I guess I'll be looking at the Amazon site instead of Godps. I have tried to make buying a guitar simple. I have like 3 criteria basically. First it has to look good or I won't want to play it. Second it has to be balanced and have the features I want. Such as a trem, good pickups, etc. It also has to be balanced when standing such as at a gig without neck dive. Then past, but not least is it has to have good fretwork. Level frets, jumbos or super jumbos and recently I want stainless frets. It also must have a good but and bridge. The things that truly affect tone basically. Physics tells us the nut, bridge, strings, and pickups are more important than anything with sound. I personally like Gibson scale guitars more than any, but I own fender scale guitars I love too. What's up with all the inexpensive guitars using horrible fret metal or having sharp ends. I have guitars from the late 80s and early 90s that have almost no wear and have never had fret sprout, and I've bought guitars such as cheaper fenders that had terrible fret sprout and I wore out the frets in a year. Maybe I just received a lemon, but I've heard other guitarists speak about this as well. I've decided I almost have to build super strat parts casters to get what I want at a reasonable price because it's so hard to find quality like I bought in the 90s. As far as a couple brands go anyway. Still, we live in the best time overall to buy gear. I don't want to sound cynical. I'm old and grouchy maybe. 😂 Good video man.. 🤘❤️🤘
I worked for a company that sold their products through infomercials, website, and storefronts. We had a marketing guy come in and he wanted to run an experiment on a handful of our best selling products to see what the best pricepoint would be. So if we sold it for $800 through the call center, what if we sold in in the store for $700 and $750 on the website. Would the $50-$100 lost on the other selling avenues be offset if the amount sold raised the overall profit margins on that product. He did the same thing, one region had extras added, another region didn't. Once they got data on which sold the best and also brought in the most profit, they rolled it out across the board. This looks exactly like what that marketing strategy is. They are testing to find the sweet spot of profit margin.
You need to check out the brand new 2022 Kramer Pacer Classic guitars. Killer shred machine for $379!! And I almost bought the Sawtooth white guitar with Floyd like yours until I saw the new Kramer I got
Max, Sawtooth guitar parts are manufactured in Indonesia aka China. If they are producing enough of them, these are probably being shipped to the Staes fir sub$100 dollars, maybe way less. The biggest cost is assembling them in the States.If they sell mostly direct , they can do whatever they want.They are not Fender who dictates to stores that carry their brand. My advice is to buy the best package at the lowest price
Yeah, I noticed the prices too. It all stated when I had my eye on a buttercream Sawtooth Strat which was around $160 and still is around that price. Bit my lip and, a while ago, opted to buy a Donner cause it had an ebony fret board (now it's recently changed to Laurel Wood.) Either way, both are much the same and still a lot of setup work on each out of the box. But pay over $500 for a Sawtooth - just not happening.
According to Momoprice, Amazon takes stock of their guitars, they give them the msrp, then amazon raises their prices without consent. Sometimes Amazon is cheaper by $10 to $20. Other times it can be the same or $100 more. But this is only my experience with Monoprice guitars.
There is some weirdness going on with Sawtooth. I enjoyed the video though. Although I like to focus more on playing and enjoying music and guitars, there is another side to consider. And I appreciate you doing some research and sharing it with us :)
I had noticed this maybe over a year ago. I used to buy the Chromacast cases and I always checked both GoDPS and Amazon and ordered whichever was less. I have had several of the guitars and they were cool and I got good deals on a Strat clone but now the same guitar is like $70 more but I will say that the one I got seriously needs a set-up as the strings are about 1/2" off of the fretboard at the 12th fret. Once I ordered a guitar from them and it never arrived and when I called the guy said that my order got lost in the shuffle. It appeared to me that he was a one-man show and was over-extended which lead to some of the problems that they might have.
Love my sawtooth, had to shim it to get a decent action out of it and the setup sucked but otherwise everything else was pretty good. Got the package, the gig bag is worthless as it has got padding. Your right though it really does pay to shop around with this brand.
I have bought a few of the ES kits in different colors and I could not be happier . For entry level guitars , I think these are very good . I also have an ES Hybrid that is really great . Two of my ES’s have also been autographed by Michael Angelo Batio during promotions for Sawtooth guitars and he has a major input in design as well . Great customer service to boot .
The company seems to have dealers that it wants to protect. Often you'll see this, where the dealers are allowed to sell under MSRP, but not below MAP pricing. SO they have a lower limit to their price. You know when this is happening in any product line when you shop and shop and every dealer has the same price. This eliminates the possibility to undercut, and they are all selling below list. Then go to the manufacturer's site and they either don't sell directly at all or they sell AT list, thereby discouraging direct sales and promoting dealers. It's always good to have a network of loyal dealers.
Maybe Sawtooth produced a large number of guitars at a fixed price and sent them to an Amazon distribution center for delivery. As a result, when Sawtooth raised their prices the Amazon listings weren’t included but will be addressed when the next batch is sent off.
thanks for the heads up on the pricing, in case i do happen to get a sawtooth. it's good to be aware of with these diff listings. (originally thought this was a review, but it was still great info, thanks!)
Apps generate advertising, advertising generates money...they want you to download the app for that purpose. You'll find this very thing you are talking about with a lot of products, today. Amazon have huge warehouses and they may buy quantities of items that get reduced pricing from the manufacturer, which would affect pricing. But if the items are being shipped direct from that manufacturer, then that makes no sense! Modern mysteries! At any rate your videos are great and your guitar playing is pretty awesome; thanks for all the info you share.
I’m glad you did a video for this , I was looking at buying an M24 a few days ago , but the irrational pricing just confused me and put me off buying, as I was Not sure if the irrational pricing is due to them all being slightly different models that is not transparent to the buyer in the description . I ended up giving up.
There are 2021 Epiphone Custom Koa Les Paul's out there selling between $950.00 to $1,200 the huge difference is the Epiphone Custom Koa is worth every penny of it
Get Michael Angelo Batio and Mike Pinera (Blues Image, Alice Cooper, Cactus, Iron Butterfly, etc...) on Sawtooth's case... both are endorsed by the company! :)
I ordered the MAB m24 with the Floyd Rose today for 274 bucks, shipping included, based on your evaluation of it, Max. I couldnt find anything with original Floyd Rose shipped within 100 bucks. Hopefully, its good! Its a starter guitar for me, so...even if its garbage I wont know for a couple years however:) Anyways, i found your review of it as an blank canvas with good hardware and the fact that you own and use the same model compelling. Fingers crossed.
Me too , saw his black Friday video and hopped on it . Not bad price for a Floyd Rose guitar, gonna put on Seymour Duncan invader on the bridge as my first upgrade 👍
I was going to buy a Sawtooth amp from Walmart online. it looked like a pretty good amp that had a nice looking tweed covering. it was listed as a forty watt amp. and from what I could tell by the photos it looked like a pretty good amp and the price was pretty good. but it was out of stock really quickly. I should have snatched it up when I first seen it.
This kind of thing really hurts their brand. When I see a price on Amazon that's very inconsistent with the manufacturer's price my first thought is it's a counterfeit or you're not getting what you think you're getting. Kind of an odd brand to knock-off but...
got a hybrid ES used for $150. had no idea it had anything to do with Batio, it was simply in a pawn shop and i thought it was cool that it had 5 pickups
I just got a surf green Sawtooth Telecaster from Amazon for $117 it has black locking tuning pegs on it which absolutely blew my mind especially for that price let's hope it holds up to my Sawtooth Strat
They obviously have great pricing contracts on the manufacturing side because they seem to have alotta leeway to give deals. I had an email from them the other year where they were doing 50% off on guitars. I was sure it must only be for select models even though it didn't specify. I was wrong. I went there and added a $1050 7st Americana Heritage Les Paul shaped, Floyd equipped guitar to my cart and proceeded to the checkout stage. Sure as hell it cut the price in half. How do they afford these cuts is my major question. What are they actually paying to produce these? I'm not saying anything about the quality. Idont know because I haven't bought one yet but seriously, is somebody making these for free for them somewhere?
some guitars are marked seconds at the factory which means that they didn't meet some of the standards, so they sell them to other not as musical retailers and are sold for less. but you got me on the gig bags idk maybe they are really nice and threw it in for free?
Guitar Center does the same thing but it is most obviously seen in their drums. You'll see a drum shell pack for a price but then look it up and see the same shell pack with cymbals and stands for the same price. Different SKus, same shels sme prices but totally different packages.
I haven't bought any Sawtooth guitars, but they look interesting. I've noticed the wide price ranges and I have been confused. I keep thinking some are used guitars.
A few years ago, I was buying multiple lower end guitars. The one I really wanted was an American Strat. A friend said to me, "Instead of buying these lower end ones. Save the money and buy the Strat." He was right. Because when I started adding up these purchases, and accessories, I could have gotten a genuine American Strat!
@@GuitarMAXMusic I'm still trying to understand how you like some of the lower end guitars so much that you down talk honest goodness in some of the higher end guitars. I mean I have both and love both....I see the value in my modded cheap guitars....but man my higher end guitars sound, feel, and respond better.
finally, a review that's 2022!!!! i just discovered Sawtooth and there are some elec guitars i just REALLY like. came here to see how they stack up in practice. (fukkin awesome designs on some. some are funky like my current fav - "Sawtooth 6 String ET Hybrid Electric Guitar, Spalted Maple Trans Cherry Burst with Wilkinson Tremolo" according to amazon)
Yep - buyer beware! Another confusing one is Jackson's "Pro" series vs. their "X" series. A Pro Series King V KV runs about $1000, and the X Series King V KVXMG runs about $800. I've seen listings on Reverb that show an X series guitar with Pro series prices. Not cool. Unless you're really familiar with a guitar make & model, always double check the specs of the listing vs. those of the manufacturer while hunting for better prices, too.
Artificially inflated prices seems to be the norm these days with a LOT of companies - especially the OIL companies! 100 gallons of heating oil costs us nearly $400 here in New England!
This may or may not help a bit. Many companies use outside retailers to move their products because they just don't have the infrastructure to do it. This lets the main company take advantage of the outside services that these retail companies offer such as storage facilities, transportation/shipping, customer service and volume. The main company may not be able to provide those services cost effectively. What they do is make arrangements with a list of retailers and provide a lower price for them as an incentive for consumers to purchase through these retailers rather than purchasing direct. Everybody wins. This is a frequent strategy across multiple markets, not just guitars. The rest of the stuff in the video about package pricing vs single guitar pricing seems to be a lack of quality control. Kind Regards.
It's absolutely bonkers! Who knows what craziness lurks in the hearts of guitar manufacturers. Great video thanks for all the info max. I'm going to go check out there website. Toodle Lou brother!
The amazon listings show 'sold by amazon' 'shipped by amazon' the visit store thingy is just a brand storefront. I think Sawtooth guitars are making big bank on their guitar sales, amazon got a big stock from them for cheap and is selling it at low margins. It will run out sometime though.
Max, have you ever checked out the 'Bootlegger' Brand on Reverb. They have some seriously nice guitars in the $600 - $800 range and some cool amps too.
I bought a white ST M24 right after I saw your first video from Music Store Live for $450 and it was already $700 on DPS. I really like and enjoy playing it but I had to smooth up the sides of the fretboard but that was a minor detail but I definitely bought it for the cheapest price I could fine. Great videos Max! Thanks.
Excellent video. I wonder how many other manufacturers do the same thing. But still. MAB is really endorsing these guitars on every one of his live streams.
It's common for prices to vary a little bit, but I don't think I've ever seen it vary by this much. I just want people to take their time when they're shopping so they don't pay more than they need to.
I'm russian and I've got myself involved with guitars at the end of 2021. This price situation with sawtooth... In my country it is basically the same with all guitar brands. Since the internal guitar manufacturing is still in it's experimental phase, the prices on foreign guitars is basically double the price. I purchased my Ibanez S for 27000 rubles from Europe which directly converted into $400 or whatever the original price was. In Russia this guitar costs twice in Rubles. Jackson JS32 Rhoads costs triple amount in rubles here and always was, just because retailers think that most of the customers don't know better. Because of that, the whole guitar market in my country is fucked and electric guitars are borderline luxurious products thanks to few greedy big music shopping networks.
SX guitars are still very good quality for a very reasonable price. I just got a Furrian sss (Nashville style Tele), and it sounds and plays GREAT!!! for $179USD, $196 delivered. I'd love to see you demo one.
One other place to be aware of price differences is when you're searching guitar's on ebay. You're definitely better off buying from seller's in the U.S. than some of the overseas listings. A lot of seller's in Japan sell U.S made guitar's back to us for three time's the price and outrageous shipping fee's. Before i get too excited over a guitar, I search for the best price overall.
maybe it's the FBA shipping? i think it means their stock uses amazon warehouse space, so they don't have to factor in cost of their own warehouse/shipping?
