HornGuys is out; LowBrassWerks for now...

[bort2.0]

https://lowbrasswerks.com/

I hadn't checked the Horn Guys website in a little while, but just did... there have been major changes to the company and their business model. Not quite "all done," but sounds like they are winding down until they're all done. I'm not sure if this is still run by Steve, if he sold it, or if he's behind the scenes to sunset it, or...?

What's interesting is that Low Brass Werks was the name of the company that Tony Clements had like 20 years ago, and sold it to Steve Ferguson and it became Horn Guys. I wonder if the rebranding was done BACK to LBW because they already owned the domain?

What's happening
This is a slow relaunch of the Horn Guys internet store sometime between now and retirement, but only the cool stuff. And cool people.

What services do you offer?
Online sales of new European boutique brass instruments, cases and accessories.

Do you offer used, consignment, rentals, repairs, lessons, parts, appraisals, bids?
No, we're a shipping warehouse and photo studio.

May I visit and come play these instruments?
No.

May I visit to test mouthpieces?
No.

I wish them luck. But I'll miss the old Website and all of the pretty photos. Maybe those will come back as they build out the new website.

[YorkNumber3.0]

.

[kingrob76]

re-branding. ("Low Brass Werks at Horn Guys") and repurposing:

What's happening

This is a slow relaunch of the Horn Guys internet store sometime between now and retirement, but only the cool stuff. And cool people.

Not ready for new business , new orders or e-commerce yet, nor advertising 4000 skus. Look for rare instruments and items not sold at Guitar Center. We'll see how it goes...

[bort2.0]

re-branding. ("Low Brass Werks at Horn Guys") and repurposing:

Just seems like a pretty big loss for the left coast tuba people, that it's a warehouse and photo studio now. Don't ask me no questions!

It's like @bloke's model with JP, that you only deal with the stuff that's good enough to ship unseen. I don't mean that to sound negative towards Joe, but it does seem to delete a pretty huge part of what I thought the Horn Guys store was all about.

And we see how Custom Music's venture into the warehouse-or-whatever-they-are-now has gone.

Dillon is still old-school-cool. Baltimore Brass too, although it seems a bit pricier than it used to be.

[Stryk]

They are still posting in some fashion on facebook.

[bloke]

OK: bort2.0 mentioned me and my bidness prakses...

selling new horns (@Mary Ann - "generic - wind musical instruments" and not your waldhorn thingie...)

- too many tire-kickers/pretend-buyers (returning for refund: "it's just not for me", when maybe ...?? it's "I need to get this off my credit card before the bill comes.")...I'm not gawd's (nor Goddhh's) gift to the tuba, yet/but I can tell when someone actually plays well enough to know whether-or-not it's "for them".

- It scares the he11 out of me to ship off something (brand spankin' new) that costs ME a friggin' TEN GRAND (in hopes of selling it for an additional $700 or so...) - HOPING the shipper doesn't smash it, HOPING the buyer "likes" it (see previous remarks), and HOPING that - if returned - the shipper doesn't smash it and the tire-kicker didn't scratch/dent it/spit it all up.

- OTOH...I don't have enough energy to sell crap to people , and tell them on the phone that "the stuff that's wrong with it" is due to them mishandling it, the humidity, or some such other bullsh!t.

- With the (used) high-end/extra-slick stuff that I offer for sale, I strongly encourage a road trip, and a blokeplace trial (like - or not - buy - or not)...and even stay overnight and "trial" again tomorrow - to make damn sure. Refunds SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

- There have ALWAYS been the disingenuous and full of $h!t amongst us, but it seems as though (particularly beginning with MY generation - and parents idiotic enough to raise their children according to that personality-devastating/me-me-me-at-all-cost "Dr. Spock" book) it's really become quite a "thing".

- If I wanted my life to be a bunch of hassles, I'd never have moved away from a big city.

- Were I really interested in getting "rich", I would have been a pawn shop owner, mega-church preacher-man, president, insurance salesman, or investment broker

[bort2.0]

@bloke -- totally understand, and never intended to knock your business. And this, after ya said I was one of the nice guys.

Over the years, I've been told these two things by the same (household name to us tuba seller):
* There's no money in selling new tubas (everyone has the same prices)
* There's no money in selling used tubas (everyone knows what these things should cost)

[DonO.]

I MISS “old school”. I’ll never forget my road trip to N. Carolina to visit Tuba Exchange when Vince was still in charge. He had just gotten in a shipment of 6 Amati 481s (pretty much the same as Cerveny 681s) and he let me test play ALL of them so I could pick out the cream of the crop. And yes, there WERE audible differences in tone and tangible differences in playability, even though they were the “same”. Of course I left with my choice. Now THAT’S how to buy a tuba!

So why was I willing to buy my King without playing it first? I took a leap of faith to save big bucks, and fortunately it worked out for me. But the way I bought my Amati, that’s ideal in my book.

[kingrob76]

Horn Guys, if I recall, primarily sold Miraphone and Alexander tubas, plus the associated gear like gig bags and such. The market for "new" instruments (specifically for tubas) is tough right now meaning it's basically Miraphone or Yamaha, all the stuff Tuba Showroom sells (Besson / B&S / MW) and then various flavors of instruments made in China (Eastman, Packer, Zo, etc). Lee has a angle with some of the Lidl stuff that could be interesting. But that's basically the list, and there's a LOT of used instrument out there that are better than just "okay" that work against the new market.

A friend of mine was seriously considering making an offer for Baltimore Brass when it was for sale and after we sat down and played with the numbers the new horn business just didn't seem to add up. Used horns and servicing (primarily servicing) seemed to make numbers go, and serving horns at the scale BBC does it is WORK (last summer I think they had 5 or 6 people in there 40 hours a week). Used horns are tough to depend on because of places like this site where transactions can be conducted player-to-player.

I'm guessing Horn Guys "moving on" is probably good for Dillon's and a few others in the long run, but, we'll see...

[tofu]

[YorkNumber3.0]

.

[bort2.0]

...creating joint facilities...

Yeah, we're getting joint facilities starting August 1st.

https://www.minnpost.com/state-governme ... explained/

People who want to sell marijuana legally will need to get licenses, and applicants from high-poverty areas and those living with criminal convictions for possession and sale of marijuana will be given preference.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong? We have long had corner liquor stores, and those are true pillars of society, so...

[Jewood]

Sad to hear they are changing. I just ordered from them a few weeks ago. Purchased a slightly customized 188 which they listed as a 188-LA model. Thought they were very easy to work with, shipping went very smoothly. Horn was exactly what I thought it would be. Very happy with the purchase.

[Sousaswag]

This is interesting. Everything about it seems… Sarcastic? I do wonder if the amount of tire-kickers and undesirables has made them rethink the operation.

However, there really is a certain type of person that buys high-quality equipment like that they sell.

I’ve always been happy with the service I’ve received from Horn Guys. Several years ago I purchased a Miraphone bag and a bunch of other accessories since then and they’ve always been communicative, personable and helpful. I wish Steve the best in this next step for sure.

[bloke]

I think I may have coined the term fantasy sale or fantasy purchase here, unless that's something that's long been established and defined as a thing.

I actually was the one who defined it, I'm complimented that someone else picked it up on it and used it.

More than once or twice, I've had people drag me all the way to one inch to the finish line - after weeks of jabber - and then not buy something.

Yeah... fantasy buyers.

Particularly when someone is only forty minutes away from here and says they're going to come and look at something I have for sale "next week", it seems pretty clear that they don't have the money or that they are just screwing with me for some reason. Recently, I had a tuba like that, and ended up selling it to someone who actually flew into here and landed in our little County Airport to buy it. To their credit, the other people did show up to check it out, but they didn't call and say they were coming; it was already sold.

[Finetales]

I have to wonder if part of the reason is that they are somewhere in between a small boutique shop like the BrassArk and a big store like Dillon. We really don't have any sort of big store you can go to try lots of factory instruments/mouthpieces in the LA area, which has always been very odd to me. Out of those with the sort of money to drop on some of the cool new European horns Horn Guys sells, many of them are into vintage Conns and the like rather than the new stuff. Horn Guys seems like it's in kind of an awkward place where most players here would rarely have a reason to go, but I have no idea what their traffic is like.

[bloke]

I don't really see how anyone can run a retail business and make a profit in Southern California based on everything I read about Southern California, much less a small shop where several employees with special abilities are required.

Heck. When I was brick and mortar, I always felt like the employees were taking me away from getting things done - instead of helping me get things done, and Tennessee was - at that time - a much easier place to have a brick and mortar store than surely southern California is today.

Southern California is one of the places that I wouldn't even want to visit anymore... at least I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.

[JRaymo]

I think I may have coined the term fantasy sale or fantasy purchase here, unless that's something that's long been established and defined as a thing.

I actually was the one who defined it, I'm complimented that someone else picked it up on it and used it.

More than once or twice, I've had people drag me all the way to one inch to the finish line - after weeks of jabber - and then not buy something.

Yeah... fantasy buyers.

Particularly when someone is only forty minutes away from here and says they're going to come and look at something I have for sale "next week", it seems pretty clear that they don't have the money or that they are just screwing with me for some reason. Recently, I had a tuba like that, and ended up selling it to someone who actually flew into here and landed in our little County Airport to buy it. To their credit, the other people did show up to check it out, but they didn't call and say they were coming; it was already sold.

One of the easiest big purchases I ever made was from you when I bought that big Willson CC. I wish it was still that easy. A trip to the distributor, pick out the one I wanted, a quick phone call and done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bort2.0]

Joe, that was my thought as well. Thought it was just a lousy place to try and run a business.

I also don't know where in Los Angeles it was located, but if things had started to get bad in the area in terms of homelessness and drugs and crime, it could have been the sort of situation where they didn't want to have all that expensive inventory in a place that was going downhill. Or they didn't want to drive through all that themselves to get to work. Or, they realize that no customers would show up to the store if it was located in such a location.

All guesses though

[bloke]

Steve saw this thread, emailed me, said he's been making really good money - right up until now, no fooling, and is simply burned out.

Asked me to pass it on, and explained that he put the other name on the website basically is a placeholder.