Box O'Bodies

[dadagoboi]

Carlo, no doubt he's making a profit. I'd be surprised if his landed cost is more than 1/3 of his retail price. My somewhat murky point was that your neck alone costs much more to manufacture than the whole guitar from Rondo. And that's because it's a better quality neck.

I was talking to my former partner the other day and we were trying to figure out how Rondo is holding their prices, for the reasons I mentioned.  He knows first hand exactly how much costs have increased in China, he owns a factory.  Somebody is taking less money for prices to remain steady and it's not the factory workers.  I KNOW what Curt's landed cost theoretically is based on his retail prices.  It's not rocket science.  I even know exactly how many will fit in a container.  It's what I did for a living: designing, developing and exporting product made in China and other Asian countries to the US, Australia, Japan, and Europe in a highly competitive market.  That meant getting the most for the least.

I understood your point.  Believe me or don't but the AP necks are not really any better than Rondo's based on my small scale sample of around 70 AP and 30 Rondos.  There's no reason for the APs to cost any more except for the middlemen involved.  If I could buy the Rondos unfinished I would.  Truss rods work great and frets are top notch.  I considered buying full basses for the necks and tuners but the adjustment is in the wrong place for me.  Most of my customers wouldn't care.

Fender's Indonesian long scale Jag necks are also great, I've put ThunderBuckers in three of the models that retail for $200.  Also considered buying them just for necks, tuners and miscellaneous parts.

Parts are almost always more expensive than completed products.

[Highlander]

MIA, MIM, MIJ, MIK, MIC, MII, etc... they can be manufactured in any of these countries, or a bunch of others, and be effectively the same product... the key thing for all sellers is what they can make to survive as a business...

As a deal, a group of bodies is just that...

Now, where is that guy who is selling the box of necks...

The MII 20th Anni Jazz I picked up for £68 (poorly advertised) and had a wonderful sound, from the get-go; easily as good as any Fender I've ever played... the only issue was a sun-bleached scratchplate that I junked... I wanted a fretless Jazz and picked up a MM licenced one with an "ebanol" type top for £100... It's spot-on... Scott supplied me a pair of cast-off Fender pups from his MIA Jazz from '08 (? iirc) and the sound is no better, but for me the esthetics of the neck pup being slightly smaller and poles lining up with the strings was a psych thing...

I am holding the neck for the (hopeful at present) day when I have enough readies to approach Carlo for a T'bird or Explorer unfin body to go with it, but that's wish-list stuff at the mo...

A box of bodies would be a good deal for a builder to play with... someone with a good box of complementary parts to go with... or if you sold parts for a living and had the time to sell them as individual items... there is a market...

As an aside, one of the bodies had a pair of doubled-up Jazz style pups, which is what I've considered for one of mine with a pair of (single) Jazz pups in a TBII position...

[ack1961]

Say what you will about SX basses, but there's no denying that Kurt runs a pretty good ship up there at Rondo.
I ordered a "box 'o basses" sometime on Tuesday, and FedEx just rang my doorbell - 6 well packed bass bodies are here.
I paid $20 for shipping and it arrived in less than 2 days.  By contrast, I shipped a Peavey neck (in a neck profile box) to AL this morning via UPS and it cost me $20.53 to send it.

Amongst the bass bodies are:
2 shortscale Jazz bodies (1 loaded J & 1 unloaded MM/J)
2 34" Jazz bodies
1 P/J (P-bass body)
1 6-string Jazz