Guitar Center Files for Bankruptcy

NY Times ^ | 11/22/2020 | Lauren Hirsch

[wastedyears]

The filing by the nation’s largest retailer of musical instruments highlights the growing gap between the strongest and weakest companies in the pandemic.

[EvilCapitalist]

Was it in the summer of 69’?

[Drew68]

I don’t know much about guitars but aren’t Gibson and Fender high-end companies? Maybe companies that are more the high-end of a market can do okay in this environment.

Gibson (where every guitar is American-made) has several entry-level models that sell for under a grand. Fender has an import line made in Mexico that sells for much less.

[dfwgator]

[Chainmail]

There is hope: I saw my 11 year old son fiddling around with the electric guitar I bought for myself decades ago, so I enrolled him in professional training once a week and now that he's 13 he's wonderful.

Oddly, he gravitates towards Surf - which is more from my era - but he's doing great in other forms of folk and rock.

But what we discovered is there aren't any guitar parts for the new stuff. Have you heard any of that stuff called "music" lately?

[T.B. Yoits]

As a guitar player myself, I remember when you could barely walk through a Guitar Center without tripping over a guitar. These days, there's ample vacant space on the shelves (where guitars used to hang). The change happened, oh, around a decade or so ago.

True. Guitar Center's problems started years ago. I didn't leave them, they left me. I got tired of going in there and asking for something pretty common and the staff, and often even the manager, didn't know what I was talking about. Worse, it was clear the staff didn't even follow up with things from manufacturers enough to even say "we haven't gotten those in yet" or "sorry, I know what it is but we don't carry it".

They became retail/no information with poor customer service and then couldn't compete with direct from the manufacturer or from Amazon, Reverb, Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, etc.

[Clemenza]

Meh. Manny’s and Sam Ash were much better back in the day. Showing my east coast bias here.

[BradyLS]

Boy, if I only had a good guitar and a big amp. Boy, it wouldn’t be somebody else taking my girl away, I tell ya. I know what I should do: I’ll put an ad in the paper and get a few other guys who want to play as much as I do. I tell ya, I ain’t playin’ no surf music. I’m gonna play some heavy music.
I’m gonna play bad, I’m gonna play loud, and I know just what I want it to sound like...

[eyedigress]

Did you play it till your fingers bled?

[dfwgator]

I would sound like Chong in Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH9_y91ihTo

(BTW that was Steve Lukather playing there)

[Yardstick]

Big box plexi head reissue with inputs jumpered. 54 strat reissue, two tone burst, ash body, maple neck. Some sort of historic LP reissue, plain top, and a very toned down cherry sunburst, pickguard delete. Overall a nice, tasteful collection. Maybe subtract a point for mixing in the modern A cab with the vintage style B cab and head.

[ResponseAbility]

A Gibson ES-335 and a Fender Stratocaster. You have good tase my FRiend.

[Poser]

One of mine (1971 Les Paul Custom)

[Drew68]

Pretty good!

'58 VOS Historic Les Paul. '54 reissue Wildwood-exclusive thin skin nitro Strat. Marshall YJM100 signature head. For a while, I was running it on just the bottom cabinet (Celestion Greenbacks, naturally) but then a neighbor was selling the top cabinet (Marshall JCM900 with Celestion G12t-75s) cheap. his wife wanted it out of the house and I thought, "Sure, I'll buy it!"

In addition, I've got a couple more Les Pauls. A HWY1 Stratocaster that I modded with 2 Humbuckers, a couple of Telecasters, a cheap Samick that I "Malcolmed Young'ed" with a single pickup, and a Martin acoustic.

My Les Pauls:

Old pic. The Epiphone 335 is gone. I replaced it with a P-Bass.

My HWY1 today:

I need a proper family photo.

[left that other site]

So let it be written, so let it be done!

You’re ON.

(((My Les Paul Studio is an Ex-Robot. I stripped the guts out of it and replaced the silly heads with Grovers)))

[wastedyears]

Meh. Manny’s and Sam Ash were much better back in the day. Showing my east coast bias here.

My dad bought me a black Mexican-made Stratocaster for my 18th birthday at Manny's.

[Chode]

my first was a used Sears/Harmony arch top western...

i hated that thing, but learned to play on it

[wastedyears]

I want to make a copy of Dave Murray's red Jackson Strat from Maiden's 90's era.

[BradyLS]

Here’s a youtube video of a guy who took a $100 “INDIO” electric guitar and added $100 worth of spare parts to turn it into the “ultimate budget guitar.” (~20min)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oE71INVjGng

In an earlier video where he does an unboxing of the same guitar, he says, “I bought a $100 guitar bag and it came with a free guitar!”