New Rick Beato Gibson Signature

thegummy

This might be an obscure comparison to some, but when I was young and watched wrestling (not young enough to think it's real) I had always saw the championship belts as a way to reward the wrestlers who put in the best work, made the most entertaining matches and drew the biggest crowds.

More recently as an adult I've been getting quite in to the behind-the-scenes stuff from back in the day and interviews with the writers from that time. They're asked questions like why did so and so wrestler never win a championship belt and sometimes the answer was that he didn't need it - he sold masses of tickets without having one. So I realised it was nothing to do with rewarding anyone, it was purely used as a way to add interest to matches to sell more tickets.

It's pretty much a direct comparison to signature guitars; it's understandable for people to think that a signature model is a manufacturer honouring a great player but really it's purely an attempt to sell more guitars and nothing more.

idiotwindow

thegummy said:

it's understandable for people to think that a signature model is a manufacturer honouring a great player

Does anyone think that? Even the Les Paul was introduced on a strictly commercial basis and nothing to do with honouring the man.

thegummy

idiotwindow said:

thegummy said:

it's understandable for people to think that a signature model is a manufacturer honouring a great player

Does anyone think that? Even the Les Paul was introduced on a strictly commercial basis and nothing to do with honouring the man.

Read this thread.

NelsonP

Agufish has a signature Harvey Benton. With a pickup change it's better than even a custom shop Gibson ;-)

WiresDreamDisasters

thegummy said:

idiotwindow said:

thegummy said:

it's understandable for people to think that a signature model is a manufacturer honouring a great player

Does anyone think that? Even the Les Paul was introduced on a strictly commercial basis and nothing to do with honouring the man.

Read this thread.

I don't know if you missed the intentions behind my head scratch - but it was nothing about honouring the artist.

AK99

Jim54 said:

AK99 said:

Jim54 said:

I like watching Rick, really nice guy. 

Hmm.  I naively posted a polite comment on his Youtube channel that said his 'Quickest way to learn the fretboard' or similar was rather complex, and got a response calling me an 'A-hole' (sic) in return.

Fine as long as you keep telling him how great he is.

What, by Rick?! If so, well out of order.

Have to qualify/correct the initial comment Jim - The video was called "How to QUICKLY LEARN The FRETBOARD" (his caps). I watched and found it pretty damn complex (certainly far too complex for somebody with only a modicum of music theory from a few Piano grade exams as a kid, and ,mostly playing be ear on the guitar, like me).

I said:

"Had to give this one a thumb down. Love your videos Rick, but I don't see how this helps in terms of learning the fretboard quickly "

His reply was:

Rick Beato

1 year ago

I’m sorry but only a holes announce that they’re going to give a thumbs down. People that say they love my videos don’t act like that. They quietly move on.

Should still be up here:


I like LP doublecuts - but won't be forking out for a Beato branded version, or indeed a Beato branded anything, in this lifetime

Jim54

Didn't realise he was so thin skinned, think he's the one who should have quietly moved on there.

monquixote

WiresDreamDisasters said:

stickyfiddle said:

The man has 2m youtube subscribers, and probably double that in individual viewers. That's a chunky market.

In music tech we don't look at numbers that way. It's simplistic and from a marketing perspective, is a hail mary attempt trying to address a market in a quantitative way.

Maybe that's why Gibson are failing. Not clever enough with their marketing and still thinking it's the 1980's.

I guess I don't see the sense in this. His Youtube channel is not a guitar channel, it's an everything jack of all trades kinda channel. You can't assume that there is a pool of 2m people to attempt to sell a Gibson guitar to. Perhaps his audience breaks down into chunks of 100,000 people interested in a variety of things; composition, guitar, production, drums, mixing, etc.

May not be as much overlap there as you'd imagine. Then of the 100,000 which ones would look to buy a guitar anyway.... even if it's 20% (a very high figure when you actually look at historic trends relating to click-through-ratios and that kind of thing) that'd cut down each chunk to 20,000. And of those, how many would buy a Gibson?? Again.... even if you say 20%.... cuts it down to 4000 people per chunk. And of those chunks, how many are looking to buy a new guitar within the next 1-2 years? 20% again... cuts it down to 800 per chunk.

So total potential sales, 800 people per 100,000? So a slice of 16,000 people from the original 2m. Not really an impressive number. And that's just looking at the numbers in a simplistic quantitative way.

That's not what we do. We develop customer profiles, and user profiles, that take way more into account than just the total imagined pool of addressable people.

I guess from a marketing perspective, I don't see how Gibson benefit from this really. I'm sure Rick is very happy though.

I don't disagree with you and I've seen far too many startup decks with "Our total addressable market is 2 billion people" when it's probably like 100k or something.

I suspect for the Beato sig it's probably something like an FSR type model they might do anyway and make a few thousand off. They would probably sell anyway and maybe they will sell a few more if Beato features them on his channel.

It's similar to Ibanez. Pretty much every model variant of the AZ is a sig model. In reality the Martin Miller model is the AZ in blue and the Tom Quayle is the AZ in natural. Half the people buying them probably have no idea they are YT folks.

That said Beato is a bit more weird as I think of him more as a music theory guy than a guitar player.

Haych

I lost interest in Rick soon after I watched his string gauge experiment.  As interesting as it was it was hardly an objective experiment and it was extremely flawed.

However, Rick decided that 8s sound better, no matter what, and he did his usual thing of surrounding himself with people who nod and agree so they can ride his coat-tails a while longer.  Yeah, nah, stroll on, Rick.

AK99

Jim54 said:

Didn't realise he was so thin skinned, think he's the one who should have quietly moved on there.

Yeah. I do actually rate his Why This Song is So Great series - and still watch the odd thing he does mind you. I can almost truthfully say I bear him no grudge,  his narcissistic @rsehole outlook on life notwithstanding  

thegummy

WiresDreamDisasters said:

thegummy said:

idiotwindow said:

thegummy said:

it's understandable for people to think that a signature model is a manufacturer honouring a great player

Does anyone think that? Even the Les Paul was introduced on a strictly commercial basis and nothing to do with honouring the man.

Read this thread.

I don't know if you missed the intentions behind my head scratch - but it was nothing about honouring the artist.

Nah I hadn't even read your comment at that point.

It wasn't anyone in particular that I think is totally mistaken, just seems obvious to me that there is a general feeling that there is at least some degree of honor, reward or congratulations in signature guitars.

Just this thread in general where a lot of people are surprised, I don't think that everyone is purely thinking Rick doesn't have a big enough audience, some of the surprise will be due to his status as a guitar player.

DLM

AK99 said:

Jim54 said:

I like watching Rick, really nice guy. 

Hmm.  I naively posted a polite comment on his Youtube channel that said his 'Quickest way to learn the fretboard' or similar was rather complex, and got a response calling me an 'A-hole' (sic) in return.

Fine as long as you keep telling him how great he is.

Sad to say that I've seen quite a few examples of his not dealing well with any sort of criticism. Some where he's subsequently deleted his posts.

soma1975

Philly_Q said:

I'm not a fan of his channel, his appeal totally eludes me.  But he's very popular - lots of you guys like him - and in this day and age a popular YouTuber seems to justify a signature model as much, if not more, than a guitarist in a band nobody's heard of (who can't tour and aren't selling any records).

The guitar's a bit boring though.  I like LP Specials but I hope it has some unique specs.

Not a fan. Especially of him ranting about people whose work he used without permission not wanting him to use their work. 

Danny1969

I'm a fan of his channel. I like the way he focus's high on content and getting through a lot of good stuff quickly rather than making sure his hipster beard is looking good on camera and using stupid cuts and multiple shots like the newer breed of youtubers. He can be brash but all New Yorkers are like that. 

The thing is there aren't any guitar heroes selling millions of records anymore. Last big Gibson slinging International hero I can think of was Slash, Noel G in this country and maybe the guy from The Killers (old stretchy chord man) So Youtube artists are the new sig target. 
Be nice if they did Tom Bukovac (501chorusecho) as he's a real Gibbo guy with an incredible touch but he's got a Duesenberg sig out now 

WiresDreamDisasters

It's not like most of the Youtubers are selling millions of anything either. Tons of them live in flats and shared accomodation because they can't afford to move out.

Roysterdoyster

I generally like him, and he’s done some great videos, and he obviously knows his onions, but I have observed a few shitty comments from him on YouTube (as above) which I find pretty astonishing. 

Now maybe I just don’t have enough theoretical knowledge to appreciate them, but I find his “quick lesson” clips on Instagram a bit condescending. It’s usually some hideously complex theory that I cant believe most players would realistically use, or even understand, which is then demonstrated by playing some bizarre chords, finished off with some technical shredding. I see it as more of a “look at me, aren’t I brilliant” than a lesson. 

Alterlifeson

I expect part of the clause of him having a sig Gibson is that he will play much more of them (or even play the exclusively) to his 2m subscribers. Although he never really talks about his gear in the song breakdown videos, I still take notice. 

That blue PRS he has has sent me to the PRS website once or twice...

blueskunk

He can stick his signature Les Paul up his ass. What a prick. 

pintspiller

I am sure there are people more worthy of a signature model who are known to be solely Gibson users. Whether rock stars these days have the same sort of following as YouTubers remains to be seen of course.

thefez

He has some really good videos and he obviously knows his theory but he's just too thin skinned. I've seen numerous comments where someone has barely been critical and he responds like a dick.