Washington Post: "The slow, secret death of the six-string electric"

Aidanspaghetti

streethawk said:

You think that's bad, try selling a few screws for a living.

Great comment and very apt username

riscado

guitars4you said:

An additional comment in that if the big manufactures did not make a new guitar for 12-24 months there will be no shortage of guitars to buy, be it in store, forums or e-bay - There is a flood of guitars on the market today and this has an impact on the new builders - The figures in that article are a bit distorted about  a decline from 1.5 to 1 million as that is for new sales only and does not show the size of the used market

I would also like to add that in many ways today is the golden era of guitar building - From £100 to 10K or whatever, it has never been this good across the whole spectrum of big brands to small luthiers - Granted there are some good old vintage guitars but there was some pure crap made in the 50's and 60's as well

I really agree with this statement... No matter how much we might love the old 50s/60s iconic guitars, we are in the golden age of guitar building, not just for the diversity but also for the quality.

And obviously the market is over saturated, not exactly sure how that is going to play out for all the stores out there in the medium term, or for people who are still under the impression that guitars make up for a good investment.

Bridgehouse

Merry Torgan

usedtobe

Jalapeno said:

Sassafras said:

I think if Kim Kardashian took up guitar we might see a rise in it's popularity.
Then I could sell all mine and take up the piccolo.

There's a gag about too much bottom end in there somewhere

You can't have too much bottom end, imho...

streethawk

Aidanspaghetti said:

streethawk said:

You think that's bad, try selling a few screws for a living.

Great comment and very apt username

Took me a while. We're not there yet. 

usedtobe

Fretwired said:

Axe_meister said:

It's also the kids of today. They have in their hand a highly complex device they cannot get their head out of. With modern software they can create tunes without the need to learn an instrument, and the guitar is actually quite a hard instrument to learn.
Then with youtube/snapchat, etc you don't need to actually perform live to your mates, just edit and show off.
I'd love to see figures on sales of other instruments.

^^
This - the only thing you can't buy is time. People lead busy lives and don't have the time to learn an instrument and if they do where would you play? There used to be around 10 pubs and clubs that hosted rock bands where I live. Every single one has gone - some of the pubs closed, most turn into gastro pubs. Music usually means a DJ.

My old guitar teacher used to work in schools - that's pretty much dried up as the kids no longer want to learn and pupil numbers overall are in decline.

Times they do change - kids spend too much time on iPhones and socialising online.

Some of the not teaching instruments in school is down to politics and funding and academy/privatised schools, though, I imagine...?

Dominic

My 12 year old daughter ...." Daddy ,how long have you played the guitar ? .........So if you were that young why did you choose an old Man's instrument ? "

Bridgehouse

usedtobe said:

Fretwired said:

Axe_meister said:

It's also the kids of today. They have in their hand a highly complex device they cannot get their head out of. With modern software they can create tunes without the need to learn an instrument, and the guitar is actually quite a hard instrument to learn.
Then with youtube/snapchat, etc you don't need to actually perform live to your mates, just edit and show off.
I'd love to see figures on sales of other instruments.

^^
This - the only thing you can't buy is time. People lead busy lives and don't have the time to learn an instrument and if they do where would you play? There used to be around 10 pubs and clubs that hosted rock bands where I live. Every single one has gone - some of the pubs closed, most turn into gastro pubs. Music usually means a DJ.

My old guitar teacher used to work in schools - that's pretty much dried up as the kids no longer want to learn and pupil numbers overall are in decline.

Times they do change - kids spend too much time on iPhones and socialising online.

Some of the not teaching instruments in school is down to politics and funding and academy/privatised schools, though, I imagine...?

Bloody Tories, killing our guitar market...

scrumhalf

Bridgehouse said:

Merry Torgan

And a Merry Torgan to you as well, I didn't realise it was Torgan today, doesn't time fly?

Bridgehouse

scrumhalf said:

Bridgehouse said:

Merry Torgan

And a Merry Torgan to you as well, I didn't realise it was Torgan today, doesn't time fly?

Well the Torgan Tree is up, the Torgan Cake is in the oven, and the Torgan Cards written.

I proper Torgan'd out.

Found out my Torgan Chocolate Log is a fake tho.

Sassafras

I'm sure if only Terry Morgan would make more guitars a lot more people would want to take it up.

dindude

I don't personally think there will ever be a guitar boom again. Yes there have been peaks and troughs before, but no more than around 10 years was between them, conversely, it's been 25 years+ since Nirvana and not much less since Brit-pop. Naff all has "really" happened since then Jack White, Muse etc is clutching at straws regarding their overall influence.

And crucially, since then the world has changed - everything that people like and consume is incredibly dispersed and the variety is off the scale.

Think of it in TV terms, used to be 4 channels so a particular programme that captured the zeitgeist and pulled in a quarter or more of the adult population was possible. Now, with so much choice, it's almost impossible. "Water-cooler" moments don't really happen anymore.

It's the same in musical terms, lots of music genres happily co-exist, but crest of the wave stuff is very rare (I wonder how many sales needed to reach no. 1 these days compared to 30 years ago!) and I think the industry is still coming to terms with how to effectively monetise more overall content but less density. Guitar isn't dead, it's just found a new level, which is less dominant overall.

So the guitar industry needs to adapt too, ultimately it needs to downsize but this could mean waiting for a few to go to the wall and rise from the ashes.

JezWynd

Roland said:

Terry Morgan

Bridgehouse

I wish another luthier would come along and start making knock off fakes so we can have a different name. 

Me and @richardhomer are getting bored now. 

And if his name could be Mike Hunt that would be great.

dindude

Bridgehouse said:

I wish another luthier would come along and start making knock off fakes so we can have a different name. 

Me and @richardhomer are getting bored now. 

And if his name could be Mike Hunt that would be great.

You're getting bored!, spare a thought for the rest of us

Bridgehouse

dindude said:

Bridgehouse said:

I wish another luthier would come along and start making knock off fakes so we can have a different name. 

Me and @richardhomer are getting bored now. 

And if his name could be Mike Hunt that would be great.

You're getting bored!, spare a thought for the rest of us

Mike Hunt.

Rocker

Young people don't associate music and guitars (any more).  They see singers doing dance routines on TV, the music is just 'there'.  So why should they take up guitar?  In our youth, the guitar was seen as a rebelling instrument, an instrument on which we created our sounds.  That does not appear to be happening for the younger generation.  And brace yourselves guys, it might not happen ever again. 

Fretwired

usedtobe said:

Some of the not teaching instruments in school is down to politics and funding and academy/privatised schools, though, I imagine...?

No .... as the parents pay (it's peanuts as he teaches 5 or 6 at a time) and my teacher lives in an affluent area. Kids aren't interested.

Rabs

Ha.. Yeah they are probably more interested in being some kind of Youtube star where they do reaction videos or something like that which requires little if any practice or skill to get some public attention.

Getting good at guitar is HARD.. Most of us know that first hand...  Its easier to use a fidget spinner and not bother (does anyone else find that fad weird?)

Bellycaster

I think it's more that mainstream music doesn't feature as many Guitar "Solos" these days, but if you listen to a lot of modern day Bands/Artists such as George Ezra, John Newman, James Bay, Florence, Ed, Bruno Mars, One Direction, Adele, Katy Perry and countless others, you will find Electric Guitar featuring quite obviously in the mix.

I think it's just a more conservative use of Electric Guitar or a General use. Heavy Rock or any type of Metal isn't as mainstream as it was in the 80's or 90's. There has been a shift in music, even in the mid 2000's there was a resurgence of Guitar Bands...Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand etc, but I think the Solo Artist has taken the foreground now, but guess what....they usually have a Guitarist on board, like, sitting in the mix. I love the Guitar as a Rhythm instrument and it has always taken it's place even in Motown and bands like ABBA(who are great).

Modern recording production with certain artists may make it a little harder for our older trained ear to pick out Guitar, but I've noticed - if not listening on a shite device - that sometimes it's just mixed in more scooped sounding or more cleverly mixed with Synths.

A lot of Guitar parts in 80's music could be misheard as Synth due to the modern effects of the time in the 80's.

With artists like Vai and Satriani emerging in the 80's, it was kind of a "Peak" of technique. It was a hard act to follow and in itself probably brought about a cheesy or ego-wank image of Guitarists to regular pop music fans back in the day (remember the Whitesnake videos in 1987)

Anyway, some bugger must be buying them, if you've ever tried to find a particular Fender model of a certain colour from a mere 3 years ago, no sod in England or Scotland had one left in stock. They get bought eventually.


But....yes...there maybe are too many to choose from