Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
Welcome to TalkBass! Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Will tariffs cause MIM Fenders, Squiers and other imports to become more expensive. 25% or more
- Thread starter ics1974
- Start date
Prices rarely go down after the situation that created them (COVID for example) goes away. Corporations won't lower prices now, even though they are making record profits. They will not absorb tariffs.
Thanks for making us all pay because eggs were expensive - even though the real reason is different.
FAFO
Thanks for making us all pay because eggs were expensive - even though the real reason is different.
FAFO
Even the American made instruments use parts made overseas, which means prices for all go up.
Consider the marketing power of how pricing looks. If the tariff increases the cost of the instrument by $72, the retail price could very well get rounded up $100.
$1,000 to $1,072
$1,000 to $1099.99
$1,000 to $1,072
$1,000 to $1099.99
Since USA is a net import country everything will increase in price.
As someone who works for a manufacturing company that imports a lot of stuff, you will absolutely see prices everywhere going up. Just Basic Econ 101.
Fender Schmender. I was getting ready to build a house 
The whole point of tariffs is making imported goods more expensive. That's what they are for. So, yes. Imported bass guitars will very, very likely become more expensive.
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes. I work adjacent to the poultry industry, and the eggs got expensive because they had to euthanize thousands and thousands of birds to avoid spreading the avian flu.
Lol, 10 lbs too.
The idea of the tariffs is to make "foreign" products less economical than your "home-grown" products. If the price of a MIM goes higher than a MIA you'll buy the MIA and keep your $$ in the USA.
Hopefully it will reduce prices for Asian (Indo, Japan, China) instruments in non-US markets when the manufacturers need to increase sales into more free market economies. US companies building and selling products without them ever touching US soil will probably avoid any import tariffs.
There may also be an accompanying devalue of the $US, making it even cheaper for overseas buyers to spend money in the US. Importing a $300 Squier from the US works out cheaper for me in Australia than paying $600 retail.
Hopefully it will reduce prices for Asian (Indo, Japan, China) instruments in non-US markets when the manufacturers need to increase sales into more free market economies. US companies building and selling products without them ever touching US soil will probably avoid any import tariffs.
There may also be an accompanying devalue of the $US, making it even cheaper for overseas buyers to spend money in the US. Importing a $300 Squier from the US works out cheaper for me in Australia than paying $600 retail.
Im not sure why but something about the fact that your avatar pic is Sam the Eagle made reading your response both hilarious and sad at the same time.
I think a lot of people must have missed the 'prepare for hardship' speech given by a certain richest person not too long ago.
MIA will go up proportionally to help recoup costs and also because many of the parts are imported and then assembled in the USA. They don't make the parts for MIA Fender basses in America.
That’s the point of tariffs - it’s a tax imposed on imported goods, which the manufacturer/seller will pass onto the customer. The goal is to drive purchases of locally sourced products, but given the international supply chain necessary to manufacture instruments (ex: rosewood) it’s inevitable that some of those costs will be passed onto consumers.
The most damning example of how bad tariffs are for consumers is the tariffs passed during the Great Depression. In an attempt to spur job growth, huge tariffs were put on all imports. This led to 1. Manufacturing costs rising, since raw materials were imported and 2. Reactionary tariffs from other nations. This led to even further manufacturing reductions and worse job loss.
I think tariffs are a certain someone’s favorite empty threat, I believe they’re designed to get other countries to the negotiating table.
Because actually implementing for any length of time would be batsh** crazy if voters think you’re going to lower prices.
Because actually implementing for any length of time would be batsh** crazy if voters think you’re going to lower prices.
Here's what I can tell you from the industry that I work in every single day (foodservice design, so I deal with commercial kitchen equipment):
During the last Trump presidency he levied a 30% tariff on imported stainless steel. This made all equipment using foreign stainless steel raise their prices roughly 30% to pass that 30% tariff on to the consumer.
All of the US stainless steel manufacturers raised their prices 20%, because that was still cheaper than foreign stainless and it let them give themselves a 20% raise without being the highest price on the market. So all of the manufacturers that exclusively used US stainless also had to raise their prices to pass that 20% increase on to the consumer as well.
So what does commercial kitchen equipment have to do with any of this? In the end, NOTHING was cheaper and EVERYTHING was more expensive, across the board. The impact of that stainless steel tariff has not gone away to this day, because nothing ever gets cheaper. Once the price goes up, it stays there. Over the 4 years spanning from the point in which Trump levied that tariff on stainless steel through the COVID years (which, granted, were a totally different issue), prices for commercial kitchen equipment went up 20%-30% every 6 months until roughly the 2nd quarter of 2023 when they finally stabilized at the current prices.
I would expect that any tariffs that impact the musical instrument industry at all will impact THE ENTIRE industry. Because even if there is a builder out there using 100% US sourced parts, those parts suppliers will also raise their prices just under the tariff increases, because hey, a free raise is always a good thing for the bottom line, right? So anyone who thinks that a tariff will ONLY affect builders using imported parts is insane. It will impact the entire industry.
During the last Trump presidency he levied a 30% tariff on imported stainless steel. This made all equipment using foreign stainless steel raise their prices roughly 30% to pass that 30% tariff on to the consumer.
All of the US stainless steel manufacturers raised their prices 20%, because that was still cheaper than foreign stainless and it let them give themselves a 20% raise without being the highest price on the market. So all of the manufacturers that exclusively used US stainless also had to raise their prices to pass that 20% increase on to the consumer as well.
So what does commercial kitchen equipment have to do with any of this? In the end, NOTHING was cheaper and EVERYTHING was more expensive, across the board. The impact of that stainless steel tariff has not gone away to this day, because nothing ever gets cheaper. Once the price goes up, it stays there. Over the 4 years spanning from the point in which Trump levied that tariff on stainless steel through the COVID years (which, granted, were a totally different issue), prices for commercial kitchen equipment went up 20%-30% every 6 months until roughly the 2nd quarter of 2023 when they finally stabilized at the current prices.
I would expect that any tariffs that impact the musical instrument industry at all will impact THE ENTIRE industry. Because even if there is a builder out there using 100% US sourced parts, those parts suppliers will also raise their prices just under the tariff increases, because hey, a free raise is always a good thing for the bottom line, right? So anyone who thinks that a tariff will ONLY affect builders using imported parts is insane. It will impact the entire industry.
Exactly, it’s all about accelerating the concentration of wealth.
Prices will rise in the US if the tariffs are implemented. It is intriguing that the purported aim of the tariffs is not to achieve a change in trade dynamics per se, but to incentivise the target countries to clamp down harder on alleged illicit activities. This suggests that there is a chance that the tariffs are never implemented or are rescinded if the target countries successfully negotiate with the incoming administration.
An example of the use of this sort of trade leverage to achieve other aims was the tariff wall erected by China against certain Australian primary products (including barley, lobster, and wine) in response to perceived negative rhetoric by the Australian government. Upon a change of administration and a softening of rhetoric by the Australian government, the tariff wall was gradually dismantled and Chinese consumers had access to these products at realistic prices again. The tariffs imposed were of the order of 100% to 200%, so they effectively prohibited trade.
An example of the use of this sort of trade leverage to achieve other aims was the tariff wall erected by China against certain Australian primary products (including barley, lobster, and wine) in response to perceived negative rhetoric by the Australian government. Upon a change of administration and a softening of rhetoric by the Australian government, the tariff wall was gradually dismantled and Chinese consumers had access to these products at realistic prices again. The tariffs imposed were of the order of 100% to 200%, so they effectively prohibited trade.