A: Someday, tapping instruments will be found in any music store. (If in fact, in that future, music stores still exist.)
But that day is still some years in the future. And in some ways this works to your advantage.
For example, one of the reasons our pricing is (relatively) low for a specialty instrument is that we sell direct.
We did experiment slightly with selling through dealers, but it became obvious that we’d have to raise all prices quite a lot and we didn’t want to do that. (There is one manufacturer who does sell through dealers; and you’ll notice how their prices are considerably higher than ours.)
And so this is one reason that we don’t have any music store dealers. Not even in Los Angeles or Noo Yawk; not nowhere.
We do realize it’s a bit of a ‘leap of faith’ to order an instrument without playing it first.
Because, usually, when we want to buy a guitar, we trot down to Guitar Center and try some off the wall.
But a touch-style instrument is a different kind of beast. You won’t normally find them in a music store, because …
- The instruments don’t fit on the racks on the wall;
- The salesmen don’t know what it is;
- The younger customers all want to try it, but then hang it horizontal trying to pick it and don’t know why their hand won’t reach all the strings in that position;
- Then it gets banged up;
- And after failing to sell it for a few months, naturally the music store wants to return the banged up instrument. Bummer.
So this doesn’t actually work well, quite apart from the 40% markup that they want to charge.
I (Traktor) remember the first time I took that leap of faith. It worked out for me, and it works out for most folks.
However, since we cannot offer you the opportunity to visit our instrument at the music store, this is why we have our “Universal Guarantee of Satisfaction.”
It says: “If less than completely delighted with any standard instrument purchased from our factory, return it within one week in new condition for full refund of your purchase price.”
Now please realize that when you try a guitar off the wall at Guitar Center, it becomes immediately clear that you either like it or you don’t. And if you’re not quite sure, then you go back the next day to check. And that’s really all it takes to know.
So since you can test the instrument on your own gear in your own home for up to seven days, this is plenty of time to make sure it’s going to be fun and productive.
