[Bird]

Was at Long & McQuade recently and the Mesa 2x12 has gone from just over $600 to over $900... WTF?!? A 2x12 for a $1000 is absolutely ridiculous. Have they put gold leaf between the plywood plys?

 

[davetcan]

I'm about to list an old Thiele 1 x 12, guess I can jack the price way up now

 

[Ti-Ron]

On talkbass.com there's a Mesa Boogie engineer (agedhorse) that explains why there's a prince increase:

Not getting into ANY politics (and this really isn't a politics issue anyway):

There are some good reasons why many places are expensive to do business (especially manufacturing) in. We do have higher costs than many parts of the country, some of these costs are due to a generally good education system that is responsible for the education of everybody designing and building products. We have strong environmental controls (not a bad thing overall), strong workplace safety rules (Cal-OSHA), a higher than average state minimum wage (which affects suppliers and every other cost too), higher than average land and property tax costs, more comprehensive health insurance requirements for those companies who do choose to offer health care, and let's not forget the ever increasing costs of product safety and emc regulatory compliance. Then, there's the cost of purchasing, fabricating and shipping mostly American materials by California labor and trucking (which have their own set of environmental and regulatory hurdles, and the costs of maintaining a comprehensive quality control and service department (including legacy parts) that still services amps that we built over 40 years ago.

Some companies are not as "full service" at this, it is one of the trade-offs between cost and customer service/support. For those who believe in high quality domestically produced products and long term support, yes it does cost more to produce them which is why they cost more. There is this business model which works for us and our customers, but there are also other business models (including the disposable product model) that appear to work well for other companies. You as a customer need to choose which model fits you the best, remembering not to be hypocritical, and that other customer's choices may be better for their needs and not suit yours.

I hope this helps the understanding.

You can read it here, if you want: Official Mesa Boogie Subway Series Club

 

[keto]

Came in to post that same info ^^ thanks. Rounded out my Subway set (had 112 115, added 210) about a month and a half ago, glad I beat the increase.

 

[TubeStack]

Been that price for a while now, no?

 

[_Azrael]

Lets not forget the exchange rate. Every time the value of the US dollar goes up Mesa's get more expensive.

 

[RBlakeney]

I really have a hard time justifying buying regular cabs for myself. They are easy to make and you can usually find used speakers around for a good price.

 

[_Azrael]

Been that price for a while now, no?

I think $600 was the price I paid around 7 years ago.

 

[Bird]

This price jump is fairly recent, and on par with US pricing. While I appreciate what Mesa is saying in that post it still doesn't justify jumping in price like that. $300 in one year for a 2x12 cab.... give me a break. Maybe on their amps which are obviously much more complex and require R&D to develop, but we're talking about a plywood box here. Not even ported or theile or what have you, just a simple 2x12 cab with v30s. Other companies can be worse though. I bought a Petrucci Musicman back in 2009 and they have gone up $100 per year since I purchased mine. I doubt those kinds of increases are anything but greed. Eventually they just price themselves out of the market.