Yet more new PRS for 2018.

crunchman

Jez6345789 said:

Nothing wrong with Fenders I have played but how long can you feed a market purely on Nostalgia. Gibson QA issues aside can't really find a modern narrative. A youngster these days is not going to covet the guitar of his great grandad. With Suhr and PRS out competing them on the perception of quality at similar price points, both companies need to rethink doing another rehash of the past. 

Gibson has the answer to revamping their line in Valley Arts if I had the money I would buy that brand in a heartbeat.
It sits in the portfolio of Gibson brands occasionally being stuck on custom Nashville Teles with lots of gold and birds eye maple. 

So in my mind Bring back  Valley Arts
Spin it off as an independent division with a talented team of hungry young enthusiastic builders.
reissue the Custom/Standard Pro it gets you back legitimately into the Strat/Super Strat Market then pivot from that into the type of guitars young guys want  7 Strings, Metal machines again get a price friendly range produced in ASIA that competes with Ibanez/Esp etc. Get some new and up and coming artists. Keep the Gibson button downs and sports jacket brigade away from it. 

It's not just your Grandad's guitar though.  If you see a picture of Taylor Swift with an electric guitar, it's normally a Les Paul.  All the pictures I've seen of Ed Sheeran in public with an electric have been with a Strat.  They might be the two biggest name artists on the planet at the moment.  Like it or not, the 7 string metal stuff is not mainstream.

The brand awareness and history is still a major benefit for Gibson and Fender.

Whitecat

crunchman said:

Jez6345789 said:

Nothing wrong with Fenders I have played but how long can you feed a market purely on Nostalgia. Gibson QA issues aside can't really find a modern narrative. A youngster these days is not going to covet the guitar of his great grandad. With Suhr and PRS out competing them on the perception of quality at similar price points, both companies need to rethink doing another rehash of the past. 

Gibson has the answer to revamping their line in Valley Arts if I had the money I would buy that brand in a heartbeat.
It sits in the portfolio of Gibson brands occasionally being stuck on custom Nashville Teles with lots of gold and birds eye maple. 

So in my mind Bring back  Valley Arts
Spin it off as an independent division with a talented team of hungry young enthusiastic builders.
reissue the Custom/Standard Pro it gets you back legitimately into the Strat/Super Strat Market then pivot from that into the type of guitars young guys want  7 Strings, Metal machines again get a price friendly range produced in ASIA that competes with Ibanez/Esp etc. Get some new and up and coming artists. Keep the Gibson button downs and sports jacket brigade away from it. 

It's not just your Grandad's guitar though.  If you see a picture of Taylor Swift with an electric guitar, it's normally a Les Paul.  All the pictures I've seen of Ed Sheeran in public with an electric have been with a Strat.  They might be the two biggest name artists on the planet at the moment.  Like it or not, the 7 string metal stuff is not mainstream.

The brand awareness and history is still a major benefit for Gibson and Fender.

guitars4you

crunchman said:

Jez6345789 said:

Nothing wrong with Fenders I have played but how long can you feed a market purely on Nostalgia. Gibson QA issues aside can't really find a modern narrative. A youngster these days is not going to covet the guitar of his great grandad. With Suhr and PRS out competing them on the perception of quality at similar price points, both companies need to rethink doing another rehash of the past. 

Gibson has the answer to revamping their line in Valley Arts if I had the money I would buy that brand in a heartbeat.
It sits in the portfolio of Gibson brands occasionally being stuck on custom Nashville Teles with lots of gold and birds eye maple. 

So in my mind Bring back  Valley Arts
Spin it off as an independent division with a talented team of hungry young enthusiastic builders.
reissue the Custom/Standard Pro it gets you back legitimately into the Strat/Super Strat Market then pivot from that into the type of guitars young guys want  7 Strings, Metal machines again get a price friendly range produced in ASIA that competes with Ibanez/Esp etc. Get some new and up and coming artists. Keep the Gibson button downs and sports jacket brigade away from it. 

It's not just your Grandad's guitar though.  If you see a picture of Taylor Swift with an electric guitar, it's normally a Les Paul.  All the pictures I've seen of Ed Sheeran in public with an electric have been with a Strat.  They might be the two biggest name artists on the planet at the moment.  Like it or not, the 7 string metal stuff is not mainstream.

The brand awareness and history is still a major benefit for Gibson and Fender.

I recall a dealer day with PRS and Paul talking about various issues as per above - He passed comment that he can't compete with the history of Gibson and Fender - Woodstock - Hendrix, Early Led Zep albums - early Rolling Stones - Cream - Fleetwood Mac and Pete - Free and Paul etc etc etc and you'll see no PRS Guitar - the influence of this, many more and pre-Beatles is so powerful in pop/rock/blues - And compared to other 'boutique' brands PRS are in a pretty strong position 

crunchman

guitars4you said:

crunchman said:

Jez6345789 said:

Nothing wrong with Fenders I have played but how long can you feed a market purely on Nostalgia. Gibson QA issues aside can't really find a modern narrative. A youngster these days is not going to covet the guitar of his great grandad. With Suhr and PRS out competing them on the perception of quality at similar price points, both companies need to rethink doing another rehash of the past. 

Gibson has the answer to revamping their line in Valley Arts if I had the money I would buy that brand in a heartbeat.
It sits in the portfolio of Gibson brands occasionally being stuck on custom Nashville Teles with lots of gold and birds eye maple. 

So in my mind Bring back  Valley Arts
Spin it off as an independent division with a talented team of hungry young enthusiastic builders.
reissue the Custom/Standard Pro it gets you back legitimately into the Strat/Super Strat Market then pivot from that into the type of guitars young guys want  7 Strings, Metal machines again get a price friendly range produced in ASIA that competes with Ibanez/Esp etc. Get some new and up and coming artists. Keep the Gibson button downs and sports jacket brigade away from it. 

It's not just your Grandad's guitar though.  If you see a picture of Taylor Swift with an electric guitar, it's normally a Les Paul.  All the pictures I've seen of Ed Sheeran in public with an electric have been with a Strat.  They might be the two biggest name artists on the planet at the moment.  Like it or not, the 7 string metal stuff is not mainstream.

The brand awareness and history is still a major benefit for Gibson and Fender.

I recall a dealer day with PRS and Paul talking about various issues as per above - He passed comment that he can't compete with the history of Gibson and Fender - Woodstock - Hendrix, Early Led Zep albums - early Rolling Stones - Cream - Fleetwood Mac and Pete - Free and Paul etc etc etc and you'll see no PRS Guitar - the influence of this, many more and pre-Beatles is so powerful in pop/rock/blues - And compared to other 'boutique' brands PRS are in a pretty strong position 

If that applies to PRS though, it applies even more when talking about a brand like Valley Arts.  PRS do have some big name players, and you see them on stages all over the place.  When I watched last year's CMA awards there were several PRS on the stage at various points.

guitars4you

crunchman said:

guitars4you said:

crunchman said:

Jez6345789 said:

Nothing wrong with Fenders I have played but how long can you feed a market purely on Nostalgia. Gibson QA issues aside can't really find a modern narrative. A youngster these days is not going to covet the guitar of his great grandad. With Suhr and PRS out competing them on the perception of quality at similar price points, both companies need to rethink doing another rehash of the past. 

Gibson has the answer to revamping their line in Valley Arts if I had the money I would buy that brand in a heartbeat.
It sits in the portfolio of Gibson brands occasionally being stuck on custom Nashville Teles with lots of gold and birds eye maple. 

So in my mind Bring back  Valley Arts
Spin it off as an independent division with a talented team of hungry young enthusiastic builders.
reissue the Custom/Standard Pro it gets you back legitimately into the Strat/Super Strat Market then pivot from that into the type of guitars young guys want  7 Strings, Metal machines again get a price friendly range produced in ASIA that competes with Ibanez/Esp etc. Get some new and up and coming artists. Keep the Gibson button downs and sports jacket brigade away from it. 

It's not just your Grandad's guitar though.  If you see a picture of Taylor Swift with an electric guitar, it's normally a Les Paul.  All the pictures I've seen of Ed Sheeran in public with an electric have been with a Strat.  They might be the two biggest name artists on the planet at the moment.  Like it or not, the 7 string metal stuff is not mainstream.

The brand awareness and history is still a major benefit for Gibson and Fender.

I recall a dealer day with PRS and Paul talking about various issues as per above - He passed comment that he can't compete with the history of Gibson and Fender - Woodstock - Hendrix, Early Led Zep albums - early Rolling Stones - Cream - Fleetwood Mac and Pete - Free and Paul etc etc etc and you'll see no PRS Guitar - the influence of this, many more and pre-Beatles is so powerful in pop/rock/blues - And compared to other 'boutique' brands PRS are in a pretty strong position 

If that applies to PRS though, it applies even more when talking about a brand like Valley Arts.  PRS do have some big name players, and you see them on stages all over the place.  When I watched last year's CMA awards there were several PRS on the stage at various points.

agree - I think what Paul was trying to state is that he did not have the big influential 'household'  names that would increase sales almost immediately - Clapton, Beck, Page, Slash etc - this was about 5 years ago, so no Mayer on his books then

So yes PRS have a head start over many others but not that old school history

Jimmy Page owns a McCarty or two - Gary Moore had the odd PRS - Steve Vai has one - but they are just additional tools in the box and not a main stream guitar for them

57Deluxe

I love my PRS Soapbar II but wouldn't want a Custom end model of anything, They do some great SE models now though and that is the smart buy.

That multi foil fin looks cool now, but would we be sick of seeing it everywhere soon??

http://www.prsguitars.com/images/blog_images/2018MultifoilBlog.jpg