I just say "More for Us"

As long as we don't want to sell any guitars. In general the used guitar mark seems pretty depressed for sellers. Great for buyers though.
 
So many things wrong with that article I don't even know where to begin. He's just a crusty old fart. Look at the website for his store. Tired "same ole same ole". 6 pages of guitar inventory and 4 of them are strats and LP's. Nothing to see here.

Yes it's not sustainable - for him and his being stuck in 1972. The world keeps moving and he forgot to move with it.
 
"Figures don't lie but liars can figure" (Mark Twain(?)). Seems to fit here simply because there is no real way to know how many new instruments are actually being sold. With the advent and continual rise of boutique and private builders, along with the parts manufacturers like Warmoth, Musikraft, USACG, Allparts, etc..., the average Joe can now have a custom guitar made fairly economically or build their own. This is starting to have an impact on the large manufacturers and they don't seem to like it much. I don't know the author from Adam, but in the end it reads like a lot of sour grapes and "woe is me" from someone who seems to have lost the fire and passion for the business.
 
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If Ford were still trying to sell this:

92-94_Ford_Tempo.jpg


And all the Ford dealers were like "Wow cars must be dying" you'd laugh until you passed out.
 
USMC_Trev said:
...He's just a crusty old fart....
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i dunno...but that made me laugh out loud. ;)
But I hear ya...I'm actually excited that there are devices like the axe and recording technology has advanced and on and on...must everything be based on how much money corporations aren't making? who cares...
 
I didn't read the whole article... But one of the guitar mags I subscribe to (Guitar Player or Guitar World) started a series similar to that article a few issues back.

The general gist of things is that the younger generation is not buying many guitars... All of these companies that are springing up and doing alright are still selling to the older generation... It's pretty interesting.

They also talked about how it appears many of the young players starting out now are females inspired by Taylor Swift. In fact, they basically called her the Eddie Van Halen of that generation.

And just for the record, George Gruhn is not just some "crusty old fart"... His reputation in the industry is long and well known.
 
unix-guy said:
And just for the record, George Gruhn is not just some "crusty old fart"... His reputation in the industry is long and well known.
Click to expand...

His rep is irrelevant to me. I've never heard his name before today. I'm never going to wander in his guitar shop. If you've seen one guitar museum/store you've pretty much seen them all. I looked at his website and laughed. The whole thing is laughable. I'm never going to buy anything from him and that's the whole point. I've no interest in yet another Strat or LP (If I cared about any of this I wouldn't be playing through an Axe-FX II). I have no interest in spending that much for not that much. I really like it when anachronistic institutions collapse under their own weight, like the retail music industry. I effing love hearing about a guy like Gruhn wandering around NAMM and not understanding/refusing to accept that the landscape has changed, like Frye in Futurama after being thawed out 1,000 years into the future. In fact, in my head, reading the article I gave his quotes Abe Simpson's voice. "WHAT ARE ALL THESE BLINKING LIGHTS I'M SCARED TAKE ME BACK THE THE HOME". :rolleyes:

Gruhn and Gibson and Fender need to learn to live lean, and pay attention to the fact that:
1 - Their time defining the marketplace is over
2 - Their ideas and methods are obsolete
and they need to
3 - Modernize or perish just like every other company in every other sector because it's 2017.

Why is PRS doing well? Paul picks up Tremontis and Holcombs and doesn't let himself get stale. Carlos Santana's name isn't going to sell a whole lot more guitars down the road, and I had to google me up some "McCarty" to understand why his name was on PRS guitars. You don't see him staring into the abyss.
 
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USMC_Trev said:
His rep is irrelevant to me. I've never heard his name before today. I'm never going to wander in his guitar shop. If you've seen one guitar museum/store you've pretty much seen them all. I looked at his website and laughed. The whole thing is laughable. I'm never going to buy anything from him and that's the whole point. I've no interest in yet another Strat or LP (If I cared about any of this I wouldn't be playing through an Axe-FX II). I have no interest in spending that much for not that much. I really like it when anachronistic institutions collapse under their own weight, like the retail music industry. I effing love hearing about a guy like Gruhn wandering around NAMM and not understanding/refusing to accept that the landscape has changed, like Frye in Futurama after being thawed out 1,000 years into the future. In fact, in my head, reading the article I gave his quotes Abe Simpson's voice. "WHAT ARE ALL THESE BLINKING LIGHTS I'M SCARED TAKE ME BACK THE THE HOME". :rolleyes:

Gruhn and Gibson and Fender need to learn to live lean, and pay attention to the fact that:
1 - Their time defining the marketplace is over
2 - Their ideas and methods are obsolete
and they need to
3 - Modernize or perish just like every other company in every other sector because it's 2017.

Why is PRS doing well? Paul picks up Tremontis and Holcombs and doesn't let himself get stale. Carlos Santana's name isn't going to sell a whole lot more guitars down the road, and I had to google me up some "McCarty" to understand why his name was on PRS guitars. You don't see him staring into the abyss.
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I've got no dog in this fight, and honestly I have no idea why you're so worked up about it...

I'll just step out of this conversation now since I'm not up to an argument. ;)
 
mr_fender said:
The site logo says "THE Source for the Vintage Instrument World." Pretty sure Nashville shops that sell "Flattops" and Banjos aren't really aimed at the modern metal crowd.
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It's not really about "modern metal" but Grampy is wondering where his market went and thinks guess no guitar heroes anymore and I'm just over here like "Well what about Andy Wood though?"
 
Name the...
Guitarist in Van Halen?
Guitarist in Cream?
Guitarist in Led Zeppelin?
Guitarist in Queen?
Guitarist in Linkin Park?
My Chemical Romance?
Panic At The Disco?
Fall Out Boy?
And any other band that made it in this century?

That is the problem

I'd also add- half the reason music sucks today is no one realizes where we are- they're trying to be something else from another time and always looking back and not looking ahead- look at NAMM- most there are living in the decade I was born in- not the one I live in.

Ironically enough- so do music stores and manufactures... for the most part.

On the bright side- people know who Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani and many others are now today - who never heard of them before with youtube and stuff... I started playing guitar in 1999/2000- and up until youtube (or guitar hero) no one my age or especially younger knew who any of my favorite guitarists were.

Anyway- last thing
above i said 'half the reason' the OTHER HALF of the reason is no one knows how to write a song- in the 50's we used to have professionals to do that for us- then 4 guys came along who could write it and perform it themselves better than anyone else before them- now we're living off the stardust scraps of the british white guys who liked black american blues artists and played american guitars. And now everyone is a songwriter whether they can do it well or not- and wonder why they fail.

So- 1. Write good songs 2- make a name for yourself.

Be you- don't be Jimmy Page- unless you're Jimmy Page.
 
@Jeries I hear you and for the most part agree but...

Jeries said:
On the bright side- people know who Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani and many others are now today - who never heard of them before with youtube and stuff.
Click to expand...

...even in 2017 your chances of stopping someone on Main Street, USA who knows any of these names is slim to nil. Unless that Main Street is directly in front of a Guitar Center.

Eric Johnson? Defenseman, plays for the Colorado Avalanche, right?

But the thing is, and this is the most important point of all of this: The whole "Rock is dead, guitar is dead" lede has been churned repeatedly since the early 80's when synths started making inroads to popular music. It gets kicked up as a matter of course when journalism failures like the article's author have nothing to write about and nothing interesting to say. So, simply regurgitating, yet again, the same old tunes to make a deadline.

Pointless drivel. But it does make for a good forum discussion thread.
 
The author displays an uncanny ability to miss the trends he's writing about as surely as Henry misreads the wants of his customers.

A moment of silence for George Gruhn who, like so many before him, misread a speculative bubble as the new normal. I do feel for him as it would be difficult to be at the center of such a lucrative game only to see it evaporate around you. That said by 2006 or so he should have cleared the inventory, sold the shop and wandered off to a place where they bring you an endless supply of fruity drinks while you await your end in the hammock outside your front door.

Guitar Center killed mom & pop music retail. Mail order nearly killed Guitar Center. Online shopping is here to finish the job of killing all of the above ... same as it is doing in many other areas of retail (see also Gruhn's Guitars). Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Henry buys Gibson and three decades later amidst an alleged free-fall the company is generating an annual cash flow equal to 300x his purchase price (call it 75x adjusted for inflation). If that's failure sign me the Hell up!

Only a million guitars sold last year? Quelle horreur! Were a million accordions sold last year? If not why aren't we reading about the imminent death of polka? A million pianos? If not whomever shall perform Arabeske? And really, does anyone seriously think a million electric guitars were sold in, say, 1975 when guitar gods walked the Earth? I doubt it. Plus surely the fact that the Internet is a giant swirling sewer chock full of gear, a global garage sale that's open 24/7 and whose used inventory competes directly with retail & manufacturers, has something to do with it. Come to think of it I'm amazed anyone can sell any new guitars at all!
 
I don't know if you guys watch any of the business channels, but its not just guitar shops its malls closing, brick and mortar stores in general are closing. Amazon is killing it right now buying Whole Foods for 13 billion dollars.:openmouth: My wife buys clothes online (Well everything) (Amazon) I ask here " How can you buy something you cannot touch and try on?" And It must be a pain in the ass to have to send things back. She said "no problem here." If your in business you will at some point be in this situation and if you don't figure it out you go the way of the dinosaur.... Change sucks, but that's when you know you have become lazy at your business what ever business it may be. Lead or step inline with other sheep... My 2 cents
 
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