| Toots, my guess would be that it comes down to the simple laws of supply and demand. Although you can go online and get a Bach for a fairly decent price, most people are not too comfortable purchasing musical instruments online; they would rather go to a music store and pay a little more, but they also get to talk to the sales rep and they can feel happy if they think they were able to finesse the price down a little.
In my case, I'm pretty lucky. I can walk into Chuck Levin's Washington Music center in Wheaton, Maryland, ask for Byron Tony, a formy Navy bandsman and someone that knows me on a first name basis, and I can have confidence that:
1.) I am going to have a superior selection of instruments to choose from, (my Bach was the pick of a litter of about 20 - 25 horns) either Bachs or anything else that is on the market that isn't custom, and
2.) Because he knows me, I'm a former military bandsman myself, and we have a relationship that goes back about 7 years, he's pretty much automatically going to give me the best deal the store will allow him to give me.
But that may not be the way it is where Reverend is from. If the music store he is referring to is pretty much the only game in town, then they can dictate a higher selling cost to their customers. Especially so if they don't deal in the same quantities that Chuck's deals with.
I guess that's a pretty cool thing about the ZeuS. It's going to cost virtually the same anywhere you get it, and it's going to be priced consistently lower than a Strad. Not too shaby considering how they play.
__________________ Patrick Gleason
email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com
"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
"At my signal, unleash hell."
- Maximus Decimus Meridius |