Posted on 06/22/2017 4:29:03 PM PDT by Drew68
The convention couldn’t sound less rock-and-roll — the National Association of Music Merchants Show. But when the doors open at the Anaheim Convention Center, people stream in to scour rows of Fenders, Les Pauls and the oddball, custom-built creations such as the 5-foot-4-inch mermaid guitar crafted of 15 kinds of wood.
Standing in the center of the biggest, six-string candy store in the United States, you can almost believe all is well within the guitar world.
Except if, like George Gruhn, you know better. The 71-year-old Nashville dealer has sold guitars to Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift. Walking through NAMM with Gruhn is like shadowing Bill Belichick at the NFL Scouting Combine. There is great love for the product and great skepticism. What others might see as a boom — the seemingly endless line of dealers showcasing instruments — Gruhn sees as two trains on a collision course.
“There are more makers now than ever before in the history of the instrument, but the market is not growing,” Gruhn says in a voice that flutters between a groan and a grumble. “I’m not all doomsday, but this — this is not sustainable.”
The numbers back him up. In the past decade, electric guitar sales have plummeted, from about 1.5 million sold annually to just over 1 million. The two biggest companies, Gibson and Fender, are in debt, and a third, PRS Guitars, had to cut staff and expand production of cheaper guitars. In April, Moody’s downgraded Guitar Center, the largest chain retailer, as it faces $1.6 billion in debt. And at Sweetwater.com, the online retailer, a brand-new, interest-free Fender can be had for as little as $8 a month.
What worries Gruhn is not simply that profits are down. That happens in business.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Maybe fifteen hundred to two grand for the amp and twelve to eighteen for the Strat.
Well. I just wrote a long reply that disappeared. Basically saying that kids here listen to fad cRap. I often play with amazing guitarist Neil Zaza. Us audiences aren’t that interested, but he’s wildly popular in Europe and specially China and South Korea. Constantly on tour!
http://www.neilzaza.com
Me on pedal steel with Neil;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puov93SDltM
On lapsteel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAY1WKouT18
The guitar playing in larger bands like the early Allman Brothers was always enjoyable. Joe Bonamassa plays a great guitar.
A few years ago, there were a number of musicians who performed and chatted on stage with Les Paul - most of the videos are on YouTube. The one with Billy Gibbons was pretty good - during the banter portion, Les asked Billy if he ever got the urge to shave it off. Billy responded that he was afraid to see what was under there, now. Understandable, he and Dusty Hill have been bearded since 1979 or so - pre-MTV.
Guitar playing is one skill I wish I had, I just don’t have the time.
I’ll have to settle for the long range shooting 2000 yards plus, and all the good stuff that goes with it.
There was a time when Guns N Roses was the biggest rock band in the world. Axl Rose decided to put the N-Word in a song. The heads of the music industry in New York decided that was it. No more!
These white men in rock bands had been defining the pop music world for 50 years and that had to end. That was going to change right now!
It did. Don’t believe me? My wife was in the room when it happened. You will never see straight white men with any kind of aggression or sexual potency mass marketed in the music industry again. Never!
Plenty of guys out there play guitar like nothing you’ve ever seen. The public will never see them. The doors were closed to the mainstream.
No.
Anti-rock star crP.
I saw Chris Botti & Diana Krall
Original stuff that’s old school Zeppelin style!
[All the music I’ll need for the rest of my life has already been recorded.Thousands and thousands of recordings...rock,pop,folk,country,instrumental,”easy listening”,classical.Music from the 50’s...60’s...70’s...80’s,etc.Even a few from *this* decade.]
You know, I never thought of it that way. Your right, the hell with lamentation and enjoy what is there already.
I was not really aware of Joe B. until my wife treated us to one of his cruises last spring. It was a five nighter out of Miami and I heard more excellent blues played that in my 60+ years of listening and playing music.
I wonder if those numbers represent NEW guitars? Lots of used guitars bought/sold on ebay and reverb.com. The prices of GOOD new guitars has gotten pretty high and with this economy many are trading and buying used.
I have no idea about total guitars bought/sold but my sense is the level of guitar proficiency is increasing (quality as opposed to quantity). Youtube has changed the game. I am constantly shamed by some wiz kid on youtube. Bands like Yes and Journey are recruiting replacement singers surfing youtube. The amateur level competition has increased immensely.
So rock and blues guitarists are not dying off and still exist even if there are less of them.
“Gibson was persecuted by Obama regime: non-union and quasi-conservative, as I recall.”
Yes that’s right. Obongo’s goons swept in, ransacked the Gibson assembley building and confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars of materials using an obscure wood import law. Martin who uses much more of the same wood was left alone, guess who they donate to.
Somebody should’ve told the 64,000 plus people who who watched Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica with me last week at Soldier field in Chicago
Rock and Roll as it was in the 60s and 70s is long dead. Similar to what happened by the end of the 60s/70s with young people and hot rods...Now all ya see are gray haired old guys driving 100k++ rods or high end cars on holidays..
Most young people have no interest, or the big bucks to get involved in that game today.
Very true.
When I started playing, the cheap guitars were Japanese knockoffs made by Hondo II. Plywood bodies with warped bolt-on necks, cheap die-cast hardware. You couldn't intonate them. They played like crap and sounded just as bad. Today's "entry level" Epis and Squiers are an order of magnitude better. They are actually, I dare say, instruments one could make a living with (and many do).
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=2324
great acoustic video, blues, lots of driving rock...indie
Volume does not make one a better player. Why not acoustic?
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