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Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

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Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#51

Post by internetman55 »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #32

Music tastes run in cycles. If vinyl can make a comeback so might guitars. That said, anecdotally, kids today don't do adversity; they want instant gratification. Learning to play guitar takes time, lots of it. In the current climate a comeback seems pretty unlikely.

Kind of disagree. Kids are still learning the piano, violin, etc. In my view learning how to play pop songs on your guitar is sort of an instant gratification approach to music. These days a lot of folks just use rapping or electronic production in that niche.

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#52

Post by juanuys »

wishinghand wrote: post #17
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be my question, too. People were puzzled when tablet sales came to a crawl, until they started to consider whether people stopped buying them because they were good enough and still worked . I mean realistically, how many guitars does one need? I'm an amateur bass player. I have a cheap-ass practice bass and, if I get some pocket change, I may buy a $1500 professional bass. I would think that should last m…

My personal answer to "how many guitars do you need?" is basically one for each tuning that I use regularly. Unless it's simply changing one string from E to D, re-tuning a whole guitar is a pain in the ass and just being able to swap guitars is a lot nicer. I have one for standard tuning, one tuned like a cello, and one in open D-minor. I do admit if you're playing a bass guitar this rule isn't as applicable.

Check out Gibson Les Paul Robot :)

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#53

Post by chiefalchemist »

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #40
chiefalchemist wrote: post #32

Music tastes run in cycles. If vinyl can make a comeback so might guitars. That said, anecdotally, kids today don't do adversity; they want instant gratification. Learning to play guitar takes time, lots of it. In the current climate a comeback seems pretty unlikely.

Eh, get off my lawn with your generalizations about "kids today" =/ Maybe at least provide one of your anecdotes?

How about I get off your cloud? ;)

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#54

Post by cr0sh »

bherms wrote: post #16

As a lifetime guitar player and owner of way too many, I think what I've seen (and keep in mind this is only anecdotal) is that boutique guitar makers are making a big comeback while traditional mass producers are seeing less interest. If I'm going to spend $2500-7500 on a top of the line guitar (that is often an art piece as well) I'd rather work with a craft builder and get something unique to my specs versus a mas…

I can't speak to Gibson, but I know that if you have enough money, you can certainly get Fender to work with you on a custom spec guitar.

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#55

Post by mbroncano »

Everything old is new again. I wasn't even a teenager when everybody was convinced the guitar bands were gone for good. As mentioned somewhere else in the thread, back in the sixties the same history.

I'm been playing for almost 30 years, and what I've seen in the last few ones is, I can buy a guitar for 300 bucks that beats anything that I owned as a teenager for that same price. And I'm not even touching the amp market, it's crazy what the same money can buy in terms of quality and flexibility.

I'm hesitant about this, but I'm half sure this deflactionaty process is going to actually popularize playing the guitar in the middle term.

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#56

Post by albutr »

wishinghand wrote: post #17
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be my question, too. People were puzzled when tablet sales came to a crawl, until they started to consider whether people stopped buying them because they were good enough and still worked . I mean realistically, how many guitars does one need? I'm an amateur bass player. I have a cheap-ass practice bass and, if I get some pocket change, I may buy a $1500 professional bass. I would think that should last m…

My personal answer to "how many guitars do you need?" is basically one for each tuning that I use regularly. Unless it's simply changing one string from E to D, re-tuning a whole guitar is a pain in the ass and just being able to swap guitars is a lot nicer. I have one for standard tuning, one tuned like a cello, and one in open D-minor. I do admit if you're playing a bass guitar this rule isn't as applicable.

How do you do the cello tuning? Assuming you're not using a tenor guitar, it's CGDA on the lowest four, then do you just keep going up in 5ths to EB for the last two strings or do something else?

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#57

Post by chiefalchemist »

surrey-fringe wrote: post #37
chiefalchemist wrote: post #32

Music tastes run in cycles. If vinyl can make a comeback so might guitars. That said, anecdotally, kids today don't do adversity; they want instant gratification. Learning to play guitar takes time, lots of it. In the current climate a comeback seems pretty unlikely.

Yeah, I always associated your generation's music with hard work and discipline. Jimmy Hendrix and The Who and the like.

My era was more The Clash, Joy Division, and the like :)

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#58

Post by cr0sh »

bherms wrote: post #42
levicole wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo! I'd say it's similar to the craft beer movement.

Exactly... I think my generation specifically (Gen Y) is 1) starting to come into having disposable income (hitting our 30's mostly), 2) skeptical of traditional marketing, big corporations (to some extent), etc, 3) learning to value craftsmen/women and quality goods over brand names. It's an interesting shift to watch.

I know you can't trust me because I'm just another stranger on the internet, but I worked for Fender briefly in their marketing department a few years back (as a web developer).

I can unequivocally say that they still care about valuing craftsmanship of their products. It may not be to the level of an individual craftsperson constructing a one-off instrument, but it is there.

At least, that's what I perceived while I was there. But take my words for whatever they're worth; I don't play guitar, nor did I take advantage of learning while I was there (part of me regrets not doing so, as the employee discounts were generous, but I still couldn't justify another potentially expensive hobby).

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#59

Post by tobr »

alexanderstears wrote: post #31
iamcasen wrote: post #10

As a life-long guitarist, and skeptic of capitalism, I have an anecdote: I own a few high-quality guitars. They have served me well for many a decade, and they are still in perfect condition. Why buy any more guitars? Perhaps the total number of guitars in circulation is enough? Businesses seem to think that there should be infinite growth forever, but that seems ridiculous to me. I don't think capitalism has a good…

> I don't think capitalism has a good answer to this problem. Let me put on my capitalist apologist hat. It used to be the case that people bought light bulbs regularly. When I grew up, my parents had a cache of incandescent light bulbs - then they started buying fluorescent lights and we replaced bulbs much less often. Now, they're starting to buy LED lights and I don' think an LED has ever 'burned out' on them. The…

Aren't incandescent light bulbs pretty much the poster child of the problems with capitalism's expectations of infinite growth? It is possible to create incandescent light bulbs with extremely long life time, but it doesn't make much economic sense, so no one does.

Re: Is The Guitar Market Really Dying?

#60

Post by microcolonel »

iamcasen wrote: post #10

As a life-long guitarist, and skeptic of capitalism, I have an anecdote: I own a few high-quality guitars. They have served me well for many a decade, and they are still in perfect condition. Why buy any more guitars? Perhaps the total number of guitars in circulation is enough? Businesses seem to think that there should be infinite growth forever, but that seems ridiculous to me. I don't think capitalism has a good…

> and skeptic of capitalism

Well, I'll bet you bought at least one of those guitars, didn't you? Welcome to the capital market. If guitar makers can't sell guitars, and do something else instead, then that's no less capitalistic.

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