patrick.net

Tenpoundbass says

If you have good gear made before 2004, I suggest you hang on to it. They just don't sell it anymore. Most all gear is cheap shit,

Would that be that the old gear is USA made, while the new gear is from China? I noticed the same trend with high end bicycles.

HeadSet says

Would that be that the old gear is USA made, while the new gear is from China?

Mostly they quit making a lot of gear. Try to find a sensible Drum machine. I mean something like the Doctor Rhythm Drum machine. You would think Boss would have something even better now. Not only is that line discontinued, they don't make anything to replace it. You can still find the classic Alesis SR-16 NOS, but there aren't any in stock once they are gone. I have a friend that keeps borrowing my drum machine. Finally I was like Dude just buy your own.
Anything like a drum machine now, you have to tap on it, it looks like toddler toy than something musicians would play. Fitting giving this generation of perpetual babies. Or you can find Midi controllers, and some claim you can load the sets and performances to play live without the need for a separate drum synth module. But when you read the comments on Amazon and Guitar Center, that feature doesn't work very well, and the device is not recommended for any serious music making live or recording.

Don't get me started on Guitars, Fender hasn't put a decent model of Guitar since the Strat 50th anniversary in 2004. That's when the whole industry shifted I noticed. Fender's historical cheaper guitars made in Mexico(now a premium import) and guitars made in Asia, are damn near what American Strats were selling for they started raking their customers over the coals. American Strats started at $799 now a decent Mexican strat goes for that, when the top of the line Mex strat was $399. American Strats start at $1300.

There's just example after example I could cite.

But no I'm not being just Chinese specific, as that has always been an issue. It appears that good pro music gear is under assault.

Try to find a decent Power Amplifier in the 300 to 400 watts per side range. You're not going to find it. If you do, they are selling for almost $800. I even noticed at Seismic Audio their amps that were selling for $199 just two years ago, are selling for $799 now.

The move seems to be toward cheap Class D powered Speakers. You see those for sale everywhere from music stores, to electronic stores to mega marts in the impulse isle. While those are nice to bluetooth some party tunes over your rowdy back yard pool party. They suck balls for reproducing accurate highs, mids and lows in a live band situation. Plus you're limited to the speaker specs that comes with it. You're not going to get 3 inch mid range coils, 1 and 3/4" tweeter coil, and a whopping 4 inch bass woofer coil, and rated 127db spl, with a slew rate with great response. But then again it's damn near impossible to source speakers at those specs in a passive box.

Tenpoundbass says

Don't get me started on Guitars, Fender hasn't put a decent model of Guitar since the Strat 50th anniversary in 2004. That's when the whole industry shifted I noticed. Fender's historical cheaper guitars made in Mexico(now a premium import) and guitars made in Asia, are damn near what American Strats were selling for they started raking their customers over the coals. American Strats started at $799 now a decent Mexican strat goes for that, when the top of the line Mex strat was $399. American Strats start at $1300.

TPB,

I can't speak to the quality of new amps or PAs, but have you played the Classic Vibe series Squier guitars? They're really good! I have a few. The ones I have are "crafted in Indonesia." You can find them used for $250-350. In 1962, a Fender Jaguar had a list price of 379.50!!! No wonder all those surf/garage teen bands played Montgomery Ward guitars. I can get the Squier Classic Vibe 60s Jaguar for $479.99 with free delivery. They are so much better than the cheap guitars that were around when I was young.

I did not mention Squire, that's their bargain line. But the America I grew up in, $479 for a Squire is an insult!

Those Squire price points are what the classic Mexico and Asian "Fender" brand guitars should be going for. Those used to go for around $350 or so. While the Squires would top out at $225 for one of their more fancier models. You got a lot of guitar for $199, but the bodies are plywood, and the neck and how it is set, the bridge, the saddle and the scale, are not the same as even the Mexican Strats. Pro players that do play them. Have them so heavily modified, hardly nothing but the body is original They were going for the cheap cool factor. Even if they did put high end boutique guts in it.

HeadSet says

Would that be that the old gear is USA made, while the new gear is from China? I noticed the same trend with high end bicycles.

I bought my son a used 2007 Specialized Roubaix Expert for $475. Mint condition. Full carbon/Ultegra.

The new Roubaix with the same specs is $8k. The markup on the new stuff is insane, and the new ones seem heavier and clunkier than the older ones.

Went to the Trek store and looked at the Madones. Again, right around $8k+, where my 2012 Giant TCR is lighter and nicer looking than this new generic looking Chinese Huffy shit.

joshuatrio says

Went to the Trek store and looked at the Madones.

My local Trek store has nothing in it that is not from China. That includes other brands like Jamus. Even Cannondale now makes their bikes in Taiwan instead of New Jersey. Might as well buy a Schwinn at Walmart - the only difference seems to be the Walmart bikes have last year's model Shimono shifters and have cable brakes. As for brakes, it is easy and inexpensive to add hydraulic lines.

Wow it makes me sorry I ever got rid of my Specialized bicycle that I once had. An ex- girlfriend bought it for my Birthday, IIRC she paid around $500 for it in the early 90's. My new girlfriend at the time, now my wife. Wasn't happy with it, I pawned it so we could have BBQ money for some family function.

I didn't realize Specialized is such high-end bikes now. Looks like something comparable to what I had then now goes for around $3500.

Tenpoundbass says

An ex- girlfriend bought it for my Birthday, IIRC she paid around $500 for it in the early 90's.

Nice girlfriend.

trying to get retail prices

Same thing has happened on eBay. 20 to 25 years ago there was lots of stuff at auction. People would buy huge lots of stuff that department stores were getting rid of and resell it for cheap on eBay. I bought a bunch of Wüsthof Trident "classic" knives (those are the good line) for $10 to $30. Now, those items would be $70 to $120 plus shipping with a buy-it-now listing. Might as well just pay full retail from Amazon and have easy and free 1-day shipping and easy and free return policy.

Then there's the "ships from China" type listings. Never worth it! Takes a month to reach you, garbage products, and you basically can't return because it'll cost you literally $30 to ship your $12 product back! In fact, there have been a bunch of outright scams where a seller in China shipped out literal junk, buyers filed for a return, but then found out it would cost more for return postage than the price of the item. That kind of scam is aided by a weird USPS deal where items can be delivered to US addresses for a greatly subsidized price.

Ebay was more destructive to the vintage market than anything. 1/2 of the buyers, would swoop up any deals they could find. And if it didn't work 100%, rather than doing even the most basic or cheap fix. Like getting a capacitor replaced or replacing the power cord. They would chop them up and canabalize them. It happened to more than half the stock of vintage Hammond tonewheel organs of every model. Future generations will not know the wonders of the sound or the process to generate that sound, in a tonewheel organ.
Also many classic Fender Stratocaster guitars have been hacked up, and necks swapped and bodies repainted. That the chance of finding a real rare Start is even more unlikely.

Don't get me started on what they did to the analogue Synth market. Even models that were meant to be nothing more than student level, or even toys were going for over $700. The amount of people who were willing to speculate on instruments, (putting price pressures on them, to prey on future would be musicians in the market) were outweighing those that were in the market for those Synths. So while you saw a Moog Model D on Ebay for $30K, there certainly no serious takers. Unless some investor thought, someone someday might pay $40K.