Chapman Guitars at NAMM

JayGee

TTony said:

Wonder who's making them?

Whoever it is I’ll bet they’re NDA’d up to the eyeballs...

carlos

£1k guitar + £3k for the monkey lord's signature

DiscoStu

Are they all finished in snake oil?

WezV

Are they still sold with shit Pickups and the expectation you will upgrade anyway

Funkfingers

Realistically, this announcement amounts to a handful of trade show demonstration instruments and the opportunity to place orders.

Publicity is sure to be generated. Aspirations may be generated. The overwhelming majority of purchases will be of the Asian-made ranges. This is the same sales model by which a shop in my town used to have one Gibson behind the counter for months on end whilst selling Epiphone lookalikes by the dozen.

humbucko

"These are going to be made in very small runs... so if you get one, congratulations"

and that was the moment I vomited

dindude

Chappers says “as few as 15 a month” made. I reckon he may need to lower that a tad.

TTony

dindude said:

Chappers says “as few as 15 a month” made. I reckon he may need to lower that a tad.

If they make 15 in a month, how many months will it take to sell all 15?

monquixote

The price is not that surprising.

Most of the luthiers on here seem to indicate that it's hard to make a living on a handmade premium guitars if they cost much less that a couple of grand. Add on a chunk for Chapman and for Andertons (assuming they aren't being sold direct).

I'm assuming it will be a bit like Fret King where you could theoretically get high end UK models, but very few were made and they were more of a halo product.

Given his fan base I would have thought they would struggle to sell them as the market for high end, hand made British stuff is very stacked to to the grey ponytail market.

digitalscream

TTony said:

dindude said:

Chappers says “as few as 15 a month” made. I reckon he may need to lower that a tad.

If they make 15 in a month, how many months will it take to sell all 15?

It's OK, those 3 or 4 luthiers will still have plenty of work to do in QA on the factory-made Chapman Guitars (and subsequently fixing them).

Whitecat

If you want one just wait until Andertons is forced to blow them out for a grand apiece. “Andertons Big Deal” will mean two things!

RMJ

digitalscream said:

TTony said:

dindude said:

Chappers says “as few as 15 a month” made. I reckon he may need to lower that a tad.

If they make 15 in a month, how many months will it take to sell all 15?

It's OK, those 3 or 4 luthiers will still have plenty of work to do in QA on the factory-made Chapman Guitars (and subsequently fixing them).

Remember the "one piece mahogany" days? Haha

WezV

It would be really nice if a uk brand could get those prices and survive.  I would happily work for them if they could

Whitecat

WezV said:

It would be really nice if a uk brand could get those prices and survive.  I would happily work for them if they could

Not really a “brand” but a luthier - Rob Williams charges near that and deserves it. 

https://robwilliamsguitars.co.uk/

digitalscream

RMJ said:

digitalscream said:

TTony said:

dindude said:

Chappers says “as few as 15 a month” made. I reckon he may need to lower that a tad.

If they make 15 in a month, how many months will it take to sell all 15?

It's OK, those 3 or 4 luthiers will still have plenty of work to do in QA on the factory-made Chapman Guitars (and subsequently fixing them).

Remember the "one piece mahogany" days? Haha

I remember trying the B-stock ML-1s at Monkey Fest. They were B-stock purely because they weighed too much...I'm not kidding when I say that one of them was a similar weight to my amp. Unfortunately for them, Jaden's guitars were about 5 yards away for comparison...I'd say there was rather more wrong with those CGs than just the weight

RMJ

digitalscream said:

RMJ said:

digitalscream said:

TTony said:

dindude said:

Chappers says “as few as 15 a month” made. I reckon he may need to lower that a tad.

If they make 15 in a month, how many months will it take to sell all 15?

It's OK, those 3 or 4 luthiers will still have plenty of work to do in QA on the factory-made Chapman Guitars (and subsequently fixing them).

Remember the "one piece mahogany" days? Haha

I remember trying the B-stock ML-1s at Monkey Fest. They were B-stock purely because they weighed too much...I'm not kidding when I say that one of them was a similar weight to my amp. Unfortunately for them, Jaden's guitars were about 5 yards away for comparison...I'd say there was rather more wrong with those CGs than just the weight

Haha

carlos

DiscoStu said:

Are they all finished in snake oil?

Butter, for the proverbial ease of playing

Musicman20

I’ve just watched some of the promo vids. I get that they have a crowd who like their guitars and the bands associated with them, but I honestly don’t know one guitarist or bassist who is interested in the products they have. That niche of certain type of metal must be huge!

Fortheloveofguitar

TTony said:

Wonder who's making them?

MD Philips 

Jez6345789

really think the business model is all wrong for Chapman. It really seems like a whole load of gold-plated bull. 
Yes, the original idea of a basic range of guitars that were based on the wisdom of crowds seemed very apt at the time with elected features. Now with all the price points and signature models with their names on them it has become one big ego trip.
 
Again with only a single dealer in the UK despite being a big online seller they are going to run out of money and steam. If you think of the market penetration Fender/Squire or PRS SE or ESP  has, Chapman, is never going to survive with that level of SKU's and a single outlet. 

I will look with a little interest when they publish the first-year accounts in the new format.