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Marc
Jun-10-2004, 2:23am
I've just cofirmed a small order of Dogal RW92 strings for sale through the Belmando website which I hope will be of particular interest to mandolin players Stateside.
This will help me bring in revenue to progress Belmando's recording projects (historical releases etc)and allow you to buy string sets as required and pay by credit card through a secure server.
Initial cost will be 22 USD per set ( + P&P, so total of 25 USD for 1 set, postage as applicable for larger orders) but if demand is sufficient I'll be able to place a bigger order and reduce the price in future.
Let me know what you think,
regards
Marc
www.belmando.com

Jeff_Stallard
Jun-10-2004, 7:33am
String tensions?

Bob A
Jun-10-2004, 7:41am
Marc, Dogals do have a US distributor, unlike Lenzner. (They run about $50/4 sets, with postage). It would be sweet to have a Lenzner connection. Of course, then we face the question of Which Lenzner. (When I did that order last year, we got the Consort sets, and some light gauge sets that were marked medium(?!). I'd be interested in an order of a half-dozen sets of Lenzners, if you go that route.

Thanks for your efforts on behalf of this strange community.

RSW
Jun-10-2004, 9:27am
Marc, I'm definitely interested in your Dogal strings. Do you also have RW 92b (the lighter tension variety)?

Martin Jonas
Jun-10-2004, 11:41am
Of course, then we face the question of Which Lenzner. (When I did that order last year, we got the Consort sets, and some light gauge sets that were marked medium(?!). I'd be interested in an order of a half-dozen sets of Lenzners, if you go that route.
Bob --

That answers the question I had over in the Lenzner thread. I recently ordered a Consort set and a "light" set and was surprised when the latter was marked "mittel". Did you (or anybody else who got both types of set) notice any difference between them other than the wound "a" string? On the two sets I have, the gauges of the e, d and g string seem identical. In fact, when I put the Consort set on, I broke an e string and replaced it with one from the light (or medium?) set. Seems to work fine.

I do wonder, however, what Lenzner's distribution channels are: there doesn't even seem to a European online distributor. It seems they trade exclusively through specialised music stores. Given my experiences with trying to order mandolin strings in UK music stores, this does not seem a wise policy to me.

Martin

Bob A
Jun-11-2004, 10:34am
Taking a dial gauge to the Lenzners, I get the following: 0.009"; 0.014"; 0.023"; 0.035" for the set #3020 "medium". The Consort is the same except the wound a string measures 0.015".

These strings were ordered well over a year ago. I don't know whether there have been changes before or after the order. All in all a confusing situation. Still, they are quality strings, and a contrasting tonality from the Dogals. Martin, if you have access to a micrometer in inches, it would be of interest to know what your recent sets measure, by way of comparison. Seems odd that the manufacturer doesn't supply the data.

It would be nice to be able to get these things easily, without the added expense of bank wire charges and multiple postings, which add considerably to the cost and hassle.

Jim Garber
Jun-11-2004, 10:58am
I just spoke to Steve at Acoustic Musicworks. He said he is having difficulty working out payment with Lenzner which seem to ba company that a) barely speaks English and b) is still somewherre in the 19th Century. He is planning on buying 36 sets of these strings for us. Pirce looks like it may be in the mid teens. I think he is not getting a wholesale price but figures it is a good service for us.

he will let us know whenthe deal goes thru. Evidentally they will not take credit cards for some odd reason.

Jim

Bob A
Jun-11-2004, 11:10am
Is he getting a selection, or just the Consorts?

Situation reminds me of a tale of Victor's: he described a Greek bank that refused to respond to his email because it didn't arrive during banking hours! Hoots.

Martin Jonas
Jun-11-2004, 11:43am
One thing that may be relevant is that Lenzner are in the Vogtland, very close to the Czech border. #That's in the former East Germany. #There have, of course, been many changes since reunification, but especially amongst older people, the ability to speak English and sometimes also the appreciation of commercial realities are somewhat more rudimentary than they are in the former West Germany.

Another thing that is a constant source of hassle when dealing with international order from Germany (including eBay.de) is that the most common way to pay for anything substantial has been for many decades the direct bank transfer, which is free within Germany but very expensive internationally. #A company that is not used to and/or not interested in international customers does not need to take credit cards (and pay card fees); they will deal exclusively with bank transfers. #Very annoying for an expat German like me when I want to get things from Germany to the UK!

I should also say that "mid-teens" sounds to me a very good price for the Lenzners: I paid 21 Euros for a set when I ordered from the Netherlands (which is why breaking one of my e-strings was an expensive mistake to make).

Martin

vkioulaphides
Jun-11-2004, 4:34pm
[QUOTE]"Situation reminds me of a tale of Victor's: he described a Greek bank that refused to respond to his email because it didn't arrive during banking hours!"

Ha, ha... indeed. The bank in question was no less than THE National Bank of Greece. Folks in Europe (at least some folks in some places) still don't understand present-day realities. Upon e-mailing the NBG, my e-mail was immediately bounced back with a hilariously anachronistic reply saying something like: "Sorry, no e-mails accepted before 11:15 a.m.— Summer hours, you know..." #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Or, trying to pay Raffaele C., Jr. for his grandpa's Method a few years back, there was no efficient way to pay him from Athens to Naples– FROM euro TO euro! The $22 method cost me over $50, as I had to make the transaction from New York, also paying currency exchange commissions. Argh!

But the Old World holds no monopoly on inefficiency: Recently, a very gracious, Canadian MC-friend was forced to return my Mandolinatas with a thousand apologies and evident embarassment: No, it was not that he did not like the music; nor did he think the price of the scores themselves was unfair; still, he was enraged by the fact that the banks standing between him and me were making this simple transaction obscenely costly for him, and more than he and his family could justify as a "fun expense". http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

But I am, once again, grinding the axe of the grumpy, market-efficiency-rabid, ex-economist... Apologies. If only mandolins and their paraphernalia could be exempt from all these maddening, infuriating barriers standing between people...

Bob A
Jun-11-2004, 11:29pm
One thing I've done is to go to a local currency exchange and purchase euros, and then mail them. No ridiculous bloodsucking bank fees, but you have to trust the mails. And your town might not have a fellow who sits in a little office with boxes full of foreign currency.

Jim Garber
Jun-12-2004, 6:04am
One thing I've done is to go to a local currency exchange and purchase euros, and then mail them. No ridiculous bloodsucking bank fees, but you have to trust the mails. And your town might not have a fellow who sits in a little office with boxes full of foreign currency.
When I bought my Pandini, I spent the better part of 3 or 4 hours of a morning trying to find a bank in New York City to buy Euros at a semi reasonable price. The going rate seemed to be about 15% above the exchange rate. And this was no small town. What a pain.

I ended up send Sr. Pandini the full amount in dollars plus some additional money to pay for his exchanging. Why is this so difficult in this day of the supposed global economy?

Jim

vkioulaphides
Jun-12-2004, 6:40am
*bubble... bubble...splat!... bubble*
(sounds of boiling blood— of yours truly)

"EFFICIENCY!!!" (delirious scream by same, in the middle of the night)

But all that requires a growth in people's minds— no small feat!

Talking to the branch-manager of the NBG my last time in Athens, I asked him whether I could have internet access to my account. "Certainly, Sir", he replied, "provided, of course, you are located inside Greece." http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

It took EVERYTHING in me not to burst out in laughter; I surely did not wish to offend this man, a senior bank officer and my senior by a decade. But, oh... how could I even try to convey to him that the internet is by definition locality-indifferent, and that it did not matter one little bit whether I would be logging in to view my account from my Athens apartment, located a block and half away from the bank branch office, or from my New York apartment, located an ocean away?

Sad, very sad... #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Bob A
Jun-12-2004, 2:01pm
Moving wealth around the planet can be a difficult thing, given the interest that governments and other armed bodies have in what we might as well call Control. Thankfully most places which have goods to trade are no longer on the Cattle Standard.

When I worked at my father's restaurant many decades ago, we' accept Canadian currency at face value, even though we were losing 10% (at the time) just to avoid hassle. I did not fail to notice, when I later visited our northern neighbor, that the favor was returned. They'd be glad to sell me goods for US dollars, at Canadian prices. Although somehow I think I'd been had, given the exchange rate. Oh, well.

vkioulaphides
Jun-12-2004, 2:49pm
To steer us back to the original topic, http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif (to which I have contributed generously by way of digression): Have you, Marc —or anyone— ever dealt with Dogal (Co.) directly?

I once wrote to them, offering to put in an order; no response. I wrote again, in Italian; ditto. I e-mailed from New York. I wrote from Athens... no sign of life.

The (String) Merchants of Venice weary me... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Jim Garber
Jun-12-2004, 4:35pm
The only life I got from Dogal was when I emilaed them to inform them that the URL listed on ntheir string packages was incorrect. I think i did get a response that they would fix that.

Jim