Two questions about products

[Jonny Hotnuts]

First, I want A J. Ramirez shirt or jacket. How cool would that be? I will order a few as soon as I can find them.
(A GSI shirt would be cool also.)

What is the deal with tuners? I don’t think my 81 Ramirez 1a has stock tuners but they look and work fine. Is there any performance advantage in machines that cost 250 -650+. Mine are listed for around 70$ and was thinking that better tuners might impress the ladies. But if there is no performance advantage I will find other ways to spend my money.

Just wondering.

-JH

[adrian]

Hi Johnny. Thanks for the great posts. Keep 'em coming.

First, the shirts and clothing is a good idea--one we've given thought to. We'd appreciate your thoughts on how popular you think that would be among the guitar community.

As for tuning machines: I think of it like driving a new car after being used to your older one (which may have been just fine). There's something about the newer one which just "feels" tighter and more precise in the way it responds to you.

I've found playing a guitar (even a mediocre one) with finely-made, solid tuners does seem to make a noticeable difference. Perhaps it's my imagination, but the instrument just seems to resonate a little more and clearer. But I feel the greatest benefit is in, well, TUNING! Good tuners often have a higher gear ratio, which means you have more control over the pitch of the string. None of that pesky struggling to get it "just right". A cheaper set of tuning machines can also be fickle and sometimes even noisy. Keep in mind tuners made with good materials also don't wear so quickly, causing that annoying grinding feel.

I remember replacing the tuners on a Yamaha CG-100 classical I had with nicer ones. To this day I'm convinced it made a difference in the ways I described above.

:arrow: Here is our selection of tuning machines (http://www.guitarsalon.com/store.php?template_id=gsi_site_a.tpl&render_it=CATALOG&product_cat=AC&product_subcat=mach&header_tpl=AC_HEADER_CAT2.tpl&row_tpl=AC_ROW_CAT2.tpl&actual_page=0&order_by=web_price&max_prod_page=10&num_cols_page=1)

Cheers,
Adrian, GSI

[Pepe Vergara]

Jonny: In your picture you look like Andres Segovia's twin brother. The tunning machines made a difference. How accurate the mechanism is let you tune the guitar easier. If the roller do not slep, you can keep the tunning longer. IF they are cast the higher mass would provide a less vibrating head and a more resonant top. Try this experiment: Clamp a C-Clamp (steel - 4 or 6-inch long) on the head of your guitar and play it. Tell me how do you like the difference. FUstero have the added beauty of being hand carved (is that whay you do to metal?).

[Jonny Hotnuts]

Adrian, I fully understand where you are coming from as far as introducing a new product line. And I know there is a good deal of issues including marketing, warehousing and handling cost to consider to name a few. But the one good thing is that there is a great win loss ratio with shirts. Meaning you can buy 100 shirts for around 3$ each and sell from 15-20$ per unit. Shipping cost for shirts in nominal and have almost a zero percent damage claim from you preferred carrier (hopefully UPS, a large client of mine.) They take up very little space, and usually do not have a shelf live (unless they are dated in some way [a shirt that says "the new 2004 1a, or similar]) so it would not matter if they sat a while before they moved.

This all translates to a high profit margin "if" they would sell.
Here are a few things to consider:

1. I have not found anywhere else to buy them.
2. It would be a cool special to include a Ramirez "T" with the purchase of a new Ramirez, a generic classical guitar or a GSI shirt with a purchase of 500$ or more.
3. Classical guitarist flock together and would inquire "where did you get that shirt" (the answer GSI) and potentially new sales.
4. In the world of so few classical guitarists it would be nice to tell the world that we are members of an elite group.
5. I would buy a few and wear them, would you?


Even if you started with a limited trail basis of 100 units or so to see how well they would move the initial cost is so low it seems crazy not too.
So hopefully with my begging you will be able to make lifelong dream of having a Ramirez “T” shirt come true.


I will order some new tuners soon.

Pepe Vergara, That is not my pic, it is a pic of Segovia in his early days.
I would never wear glasses like that!
Maybe I will use my own pic as an avatar to avoid any confusion in the future!

[edwardcav]

hahaha those glasses are awesome, hey.

[jsilva]

Just to throw in my $.02, If the Ramirez shirt was really cool, I'd buy it. :wink:

[keith]

i always thought a ramirez or conde shirt would be cool and since you distribute for both, it should be easy to do (or you could also do a antonio loriente--what better way to advertise than.....).

jonny hit on this which i think would be too cool: A GUITAR SALON INTERNATIONAL SHIRT. what better way to impress folks than with a g.s.i. shirt. maybe you could have two models: a g.s.i. classical guitar shirt and a g.s.i. flamenco guitar shirt (pegs of course). the model would be a picture or outline of a guitar.
send me a g.s.i. flamenco model !!!!

[snetzley]

I love the idea of GSI t-shirt. Make mine classical, please. ;-)