Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Stuart McConaghy said:
> With that said, the showroom real estate is allocated primarily to
> acoustic products. [SNIP] From a salesperson's perspective e-drums aren't
> very profitable

I'd imagine that Edrums also have quite a much larger technical support &
training overhead. With acoustic drums the training is comparitivly
trivial*** (i.e. if you hit it hard, its loud, hit it soft... what color
did you want? :)

Whereas there are about a bazillion things that can raise a question with
an electronic set.... MIDI? Trigger rejection? Crosstalk? Piezo?
Polyphony? Sample rate? Layers? Programming? WTF??? :D

Vern

***Now, don't get me wrong, I'm NOT talking about training for PLAYING,
I'm talking about training for setup....

-- 
Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" VLG




Stuart McConaghy said:
> GC does buy the demo kits, designated demo kits are subsidized by the
> manufacturers, so there's no incentive to limit demo kit availability.
>
> With that said, the showroom real estate is allocated primarily to
> acoustic products. There are plenty of products which aren't displayed,
> especially in the electronic field, because the emphasis is on acoustic
> drums. From a salesperson's perspective e-drums aren't very profitable,
> high purchasing costs compared to acoustics plus lack of training from
> the company, or the manufacturers make for a lethal combination of "we
> don't really care" from the employee's and buyer's perspectives. Shame.
>
> Stuart McConaghy
> Canopus Drums
> Meinl Cymbals
> SilverFox Sticks
>
> On Sunday, February 1, 2004, at 12:22 PM, feefer2 wrote:
>
>> Hi Stu,
>>
>> You might post this info. over at VDrums.com, as there's some
>> interest in checking out the Yamaha stuff over there....  Might help
>> get the DTXTreme IIS on the floor....
>>
>> Just curious: does Guitar Center buy the kits on display?  If so,
>> they basically invest in the demo kits, and thus have the expense
>> of upkeep, depreciation, etc. for the demo kits.  I could see how
>> they'd want to limit demos....
>>
>> But even if not, I could see how they'd want to limit demos only to
>> gear that offers the best ROI; in the battle for showroom floor
>> space, a manufacturer's products either moves, or they lose their
>> real estate.....
>>
>> ####
>>
>> Seems GC would be better off showing the DTXpress III SP vs
>> the III, as they'd get lots of spill-over sales of the newer round
>> cymbal pads, plus offer potential buyers a 'taste' of the PCY150S
>> from the DTXTreme IIS....
>>
>> That's a tough break for Yamaha's DTXpress III line, since
>> visually the non-SP kit looks alot like the older stuff, and visually
>> raise an eyebrow to warrant further investigation by many
>> buyers....  I don't follow that product line closely, and there's
>> nothing to tell me a buyer upon casual inspection that it's a new
>> product.
>>
>> In that regard, I don't know why Yamaha EVEN offered the
>> plain-jane III kit: why offer a kit with wedge pads, when everyone
>> has left that behind?   It seems a tactical blunder now: Yamaha
>> is stuck without the ability to get both kits on the showroom floor,
>> so loses on the perception front (ESPECIALLY if the XTIIS is
>> absent)....
>>
>> ###
>>
>> I suspect Roland will milk the demand for the TD-20S by trickling
>> kits out to dealers, and many dealers WILL get MAP for quite
>> some time (at least for the initial waves of buyers).  That's bound
>> to put a smile on many dealers faces, and THAT'S the kind of
>> thing that gets you on the showroom floor: dealers not having to
>> discount below MAP on hot new gear, and a manufacturer who
>> protects the dealer's margins.
>>
>> FWIW, I called my favorite Roland retailer a few weeks ago (the
>> weekend after NAMM), and he already had (8) TD-20S kits
>> pre-sold, with credit cards pre-authorized.  That's quite a
>> statement, right there....
>>
>> Chris
>>
>