If you are buying new musical gear, the window to pay 2014 prices is quickly closing so get your orders in at the old prices
By Stephen Pate – The falling Canadian dollar is putting prices up 20-30% across the board for guitars, amps, keyboards and even guitar strings.
Prices for musical equipment in Canada were just about the same as the United States for years. Since Christmas the Canadian dollar has fallen to 80 cents US and that means prices are going up in Canada.
The Fender guitar and amp price list went up today.
“It’s crazy,” said one veteran Long and McQuade sales rep “the prices are jumping up every day.”
At LA Music, a manager said they will honor prices on the internet for orders they get in the next few days because it will take him days to change all the Fender prices.
The shoe is expected to drop on Gibson guitar prices any day. Smaller manufacturers like pedals are already jumping 30%.
Both dealers expect prices to keep rising as manufacturers calculate the cost of doing business in Canada with a weaker dollar.
While dealers have 2014 inventory, they generally price to replacement market. 1 month into 2015 is at least 25% higher.
I spoke to the internet sales manager at LA Music and he said they would honor the lower prices for a few more days.
When the dollar starts to slide, its hard to predict where the bottom is. I remember the bad old days in 2005 when a guitar in Canada cost 50% more than the United States. We didn’t stop buying gear but it was hard to afford.
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Totalitarian_Tabloid
Prices are insane, it’s currently March 19, 2015 not even 2 months ago every major brand of guitar was several hundreds of dollars cheaper per model on the mid to higher end guitars . Some models have jumped as much as $500.00 forget it. I’ll be putting off additional guitar purchases for a very long time. Glad I bought the one’s I have when I did.
Stephen Pate
There was a magic moment around the time of the story when the prices were still at last year’s level.