WHAT????!!! I hate to say this, but Swee Lee really needs to relook at their marketing. Fantom G8 pricing at other overseas retailers is about 3700 USD (list price 4300 USD). Conversion rate is now very good towards S$: 1USD=1.4S$. It's nowhere near 5 figure for the Fantom G8, even after factoring in shipping costs...
They are quite stupid.. Well last time you could do this since they were the sole distributors, and there is no such thing as the INTERNET..
Now you can purchase stuff online on the fly, and makes their pricing irritatingly redundant..
Side note: Funny thing how people complain about overpriced instruments, but not overpriced coffee (Starbucks).. Hmmmm..
RD700GX has basically better keys to the older model with escapement and keys surface which absorb sweat. And of course, more patches and better piano patch.
Oh, can be a super duper big mp3 player by playing songs from USB port.
__________________
Let me hear the melodies of heaven.
oh they have a new pricing scheme la. Nowadays it's no longer 20% but 40% discount for Roland products.
$10k minus 40% = 6k, it's about there la.
anyway i think for corporate quotations they quote sticker price and not discounted price they give u in the store; this is speaking from personal experience. so if u're ever buying stuff for your church or organisation, just take note.
I wonder whether Roland has MSRP for their products and if they actually enforce it. after 40% discount, the selling price appears to be roughly at the MSRP. but for the corporate sales they are marked up way above..
Bongman, the price I quoted is for the G8 not G6. MRSP about 4000+ USD which is about S$6000 or so. But various places has the price lower than 4000 USD.
Which brings to the next point about why push up the sticker price by 40%. I remember seeing the GW7 at close to a 5 figure price the last time I was there (which was some time ago). Mentally, I know the price was jacked up and I could get a lower price by asking. But I was so put off by the price tag that I just walked off and couldn't be bothered to ask for the actual price. I wonder how many people had already walked off being put off by the ludicrous price tag. Never encountered this in any other retailers overseas, either in the US or Hong Kong. Even in Singapore, I believe Swee Lee is the only one that put the sticker price way above the actual price, for some unknown marketing reason. It just creates deterrence. I hope Swee Lee is reading this. Not the first time it's being mentioned.
And the main differences between the RD700GX and SX is not just the keys and the sounds, but the audiokey function which lets you manipulate mp3/wav/aiff files - splice it up and recall the chorus/verse etc using key-switches, and also time manipulation without pitch shifting etc. Extremely useful in a live situation when needing some backing tracks.
Hi Cheez,
Good discussion there, we all know Swee Lee pricing scheme.
Strange anyway, I guess this was the way they run business for the last 40 years ?
They survived well because they hold all the good brands and models.
Side note: Funny thing how people complain about overpriced instruments, but not overpriced coffee (Starbucks).. Hmmmm..
you can't buy coffee over the internet ?
kopi shop coffee at $0.90 can't compare to a fresh brew coffee for $5.00 !!!
and of course the up market feel of the joint.
if you say coffee, how about a $6.00 bottle of Tiger beer compare to
a jug of $35 beer in a club ? and you can order beer over the internet !!!
Roland Fantom G8 @ Swee Lee
