Now that made me laugh. Seriously, no harm intended. Have a good one.
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Please bare in mind that pissing off the flock could potentially cost sales. Maybe you dont care, that is quite possible. I am hoping that you are a person that does care because - how I am treated directly influences how and from whom I choose to spend my money.
And on the lighter side...
How do you become a millionaire managing a Guitar company?
It's easy, just start with $401 million and buy the Gibson Co.
Seriously, I'd be interested to hear if the U.S. Market for electric guitars and basses has changed significantly since its inception in the 1950's and 1960's. What was the target demographic for first time electric guitar/bass purchasers then vs now. And what was the target saturation (number of units per user) of those purchasers vs today's buyers.
It's totally just an observation and not scientific by any stretch but it looks to me like fewer young people (per capita) are getting into electric guitar/bass purchases today vs 50 years ago but many older buyers are purchasing larger quantities of units vs what they were 50 years ago. If those observations are correct it doesn't bode well for the long term health of the industry. It almost implies that current product consumption is being driven by a customer base that cannot sustain their purchase levels for much longer (maybe 10 or 15 years tops) while at the same time there is not a new wave of buyers following close behind. That's called a bubble, and it's usually not good for companies that don't have a rock solid financial foundation.
I really have no idea how many "young people" are into playing guitar/bass and have no good comparison to bygone years. But something that does remain relatively static is the spending power of the young vs. their parents. It is the parents that have the money to spend. It was true in the 50s and it is true now. Young people will not keep a company in business; they will be used and cheap.
Musical instruments are much like sports cars. They are most desired by the young, but most affordable to the old. I suspect that the difficult part for a marketer is creating a product that is desired by the young, but bought by the old. With a diversity of brands, you can take a consumer and move them up from the value brands to your high margin brands as the consumer's spending power increases. That is why a brand such as VW has their Skoda line as well as their Lamborghini line and many price points in between.
I think that the suggestion being made that Gibson offer a diversity of price points is based on that strategy working well in many other fields and in musical instruments as evidenced by Fender. There may be other strategies that could work, but this is one that has been shown to work.
- Jul 1, 2005
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You might be on to something...
All joking aside, I wouldn't buy a pet rock from a company that would allow this kind of attitude to be displayed by a employee/representative and I'd go out of my way to steer others away as well. My hard earned money will go where it's appreciated. No ill will intended but by your own admission you "have had a bad attitude for over 70 years". Potential customers don't want to deal with that. But since you don't care I guess this means nothing. Peace out.
OK kids, let's all play nice and move along. Agree to disagree and get back to business please. 
Well, start off with good quality, good customer service, and products that people want to buy. My grad degree plus 30 grad credits are not in business, but my undergrad was in marketing/public relations. Yet, I think people of any education level would agree with my points. You can't charge 4k for a guitar that is not built well.
I have a degree in politics and that's banned here so confine myself to cats and tangents about oil can emulation.
I appreciate directness and abhor obsequiousness.
I appreciate directness and abhor obsequiousness.
Lol. The Clint Eastwood of boutique pop-luthiery... (ever see Gran Torino? "Get off my lawn"...)
I don't expect Gibson, which does a lot of volume, generally, to speak to me this way over the phone. An independent builder, maybe you're standing in their kitchen- different context altogether. Ever talk to Ken Smith? Again I say, lol. You gotta take people for their own self. Deal, no deal, your ball really.
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...speaking of TBirds (IIRC that's what we all have common interest in on this thread) I've been asked to join a 4th of July bash and I'd like to use a TBird on this one vs one of my other basses.
Was kinda kicking around the idea of getting a used white Eppi Pro and asking our TBird custom pickguard friend here in the club if he could make a red guard that would would cover the face of the entire upper body wing and a blue one that would cover the entire lower body wing (keeping the uncovered raised center section white) for an interesting red/white/blue look for the bass. Just a thought. Is something like that possible (can pickguard material be had in that large of a sheet size)?
Was kinda kicking around the idea of getting a used white Eppi Pro and asking our TBird custom pickguard friend here in the club if he could make a red guard that would would cover the face of the entire upper body wing and a blue one that would cover the entire lower body wing (keeping the uncovered raised center section white) for an interesting red/white/blue look for the bass. Just a thought. Is something like that possible (can pickguard material be had in that large of a sheet size)?
It might come across as France.
LOL - possibly if I held the bass vertically. Technically I guess it would be the flag of Luxembourg though.
Hey, just shows what an inclusive kinda guy I am.
I've been thinking about the fact that even a bunch of mad keen TBird enthusiasts can't talk about nothing but TBirds all the time in a single thread, so how do the daily P/J/Tort/Flats threads sustain themselves?
Not a clue, and in this case, my ignorance is truly bliss.
Throughout the general population, things go south without that much provocation, seems to me. Of course, some of us think that's pretty funny, esp when we goad the situation. It's alright, we know who we are.
Having the Thunderbird Jones in common is sort of a pathway to reason, perhaps.
Antiobsequiousity?
The correct number of Thunderbirds is n+1
I was surprised by how much I liked Paris. I expected to not hate it, but I ended up really liking it. But places I really need to go back to; Kyoto.
Yes to everything! Huge pain in the ass but it worked out great(one wing only) on @Mike.C. 's Epi TV Silver.
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You may want to consider a wrap, or maybe shelf paper (liner) kind of thing if the gig is just a one off.
