• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

VERY Interesting article on the Guitar's Demise.....

#301
Muttleybass said:
...My feeling is we need a new guitar god to break through... It's time for another Stevie Ray Vaughn or Eddie Van Halen to emerge from the primordial guitar pool and create a new music scene from the ashes of grunge, re-light the torch and set the music world on fire.

O where are you, chosen one? The time is nigh! :bassist:
Click to expand...
Patience! I'm working on it, just give me a little more time, please. :D

bassclef112 said:
...I have an all original '66 Jazz bass. At some point the old guys like me that had the desire and the means to own one will be gone. Will they hold their value? What'll happen to that in 10 or 20 years? I don't know. It's hard enough to sell one now - the circle of buyers grows smaller and smaller.
Click to expand...
Let's cut to the chase, why don't we. I'll give you $500 for it right now (assuming it is in mint and fully playable condition - nice low action, too). :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Anachronism
#306
Badwater said:
There was a time when there were more people than guitars. But that's not the case today. A flooded saturated market will need a step back.
Click to expand...

Especially when you have companies like Gibson who just make the weirdest decisions (Gibson = Henry... who is out of his mind). Even Fender could do better with the products they offer. It seems like every time either company messes with a good thing, sales go down. They could both make guitar cool again... if they would listen more to what the consumer wants.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SpazzTheBassist and Badwater
#307
Lownote38 said:
Especially when you have companies like Gibson who just make the weirdest decisions (Gibson = Henry... who is out of his mind). Even Fender could do better with the products they offer. It seems like every time either company messes with a good thing, sales go down. They could both make guitar cool again... if they would listen more to what the consumer wants.
Click to expand...
What does the consumer want? (Notice: No snark intended) It seems when Fender does put something new out sales are tepid, like the AeroDyne basses. I'd get one of those in a heartbeat (when I get some $$) I was at my local Fender dealer the other day, they got in a P Bass, a Tele and a Strat in flat black. Matching headstock and black PG with a red layer in the middle. Very sharp, they said they sold the Tele the day they put it out.
 
#308
J-Bassomatic said:
What does the consumer want? (Notice: No snark intended) It seems when Fender does put something new out sales are tepid, like the AeroDyne basses. I'd get one of those in a heartbeat (when I get some $$) I was at my local Fender dealer the other day, they got in a P Bass, a Tele and a Strat in flat black. Matching headstock and black PG with a red layer in the middle. Very sharp, they said they sold the Tele the day they put it out.
Click to expand...

I can tell you that both companies (Gibson and Fender) keep putting out duds that stray too far from their original designs, and then put insanely high price tags on them. (Gotta pay the idiots who designed them, right?). These same companies also don't seem to know when to leave something alone (Gibson Les Paul, Fender Jazz Bass and Precision Bass). Rather than do stupid gimmicky things to already existing designs, give us more colors and USEFUL options. That costs less than putting automated tuners (which cost millions to "invent") on a guitar that doesn't need them. Also, Fender and Gibson have both come out with some great "new" models that people actually DO buy, but then they inexplicably STOP making them. These are just a few of the issues I see with both companies. Both are out of touch. I mean, how long will the Fender PJ Mustang Bass last? People seem to love it, so that tells me that it will be gone in a few years. They could just offer some more colors for it and watch the sales go up even more on that model. I don't think faded sonic blue was a great choice for a color to launch that bass. Faded sonic blue in itself is just a bizarre thing to come up with in the first place. Sonic blue never faded like that. It turned green! Okay... rant over.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: _Some Dude
#309
Lownote38 said:
I can tell you that both companies (Gibson and Fender) keep putting out duds that stray too far from their original designs, and then put insanely high price tags on them. (Gotta pay the idiots who designed them, right?). 'These same companies also don't seem to know when to leave something alone (Gibson Les Paul, Fender Jazz Bass and Precision Bass). Rather than do stupid gimmicky things to already existing designs, give us more colors and USEFUL options. That costs less than putting automated tuners (which cost millions to "invent") on a guitar that doesn't need them. Also, Fender and Gibson have both come out with some great "new" models that people actually DO buy, but then they inexplicably STOP making them. These are just a few of the issues I see with both companies. Both are out of touch. I mean, how long will the Fender PJ Mustang Bass last? People seem to love it, so that tells me that it will be gone in a few years. They could just offer some more colors for it and watch the sales go up even more on that model. I don't think faded sonic blue was a great choice for a color to launch that bass. Faded sonic blue in itself is just a bizarre thing to come up with in the first place. Sonic blue never faded like that. It turned green! Okay... rant over.
Click to expand...
Good rant, answered my question very neatly. I would have loved to get my MIM Jbass in Black, black PG and a blocked maple neck but that's almost 1800.00 from Custom Shop. Even if I would have to have paid 800 or 900 I would have. I totally agree about the colors. MIM Custom Shop, there's an idea.
 
#310
J-Bassomatic said:
Good rant, answered my question very neatly. I would have loved to get my MIM Jbass in Black, black PG and a blocked maple neck but that's almost 1800.00 from Custom Shop. Even if I would have to have paid 800 or 900 I would have. I totally agree about the colors. MIM Custom Shop, there's an idea.
Click to expand...

They just need to expand the options throughout the entire Fender bass line instead of coming up with weird basses like the Dimension bass (I see a ton of those used, so they aren't really that popular). It would cost a lot less to offer things like what you want instead of introducing an entirely new model that no one is familiar with. That's just risky. Plus, they could bring down the prices a bit on just about everything by just sacrificing one "company party" per year. I'd lvoe it if you could get the Classic Series MIM basses in other colors. I mean, even the 58 and 63 reissues from the U.S. don't come in enough colors. Where's lake placid blue?
 
#311
I'm confused on the argument "people love it so they stop making it". Are you saying that they see their sales numbers, see that something is selling well, so they stop making it? Or are you saying that they have an item that doesn't have great sales, but the people who did buy it absolutely love it, but because the sales aren't great they stop making it? Or...something else?
 
#312
The problem is that these are public companies, ane I would guess that the vast majority of the employees at both have nothing to do with guitars.

Note again, rickenbacker is not on this list, nor g&l. The model of giant corporate behemoth is not a good fit to this industry.

Deciding the all time peak of sales is always the new normal is a corporate publicly traded MBA decision.

This is about foolish American business culture, not guitars, nor the people who play them. I am American and have ample experience with these sorts of thinking, not bashing blindly.

I
 
#313
Muttleybass said:
My feeling is we need a new guitar god to break through... It's time for another Stevie Ray Vaughn or Eddie Van Halen to emerge from the primordial guitar pool and create a new music scene from the ashes of grunge, re-light the torch and set the music world on fire.

O where are you, chosen one? The time is nigh! :bassist:
Click to expand...

Of course, one of the points from the original article (itself drawn from an earlier GP feature) is that Taylor Swift IS the current generation's chosen one. My guitar teacher friends attest that the number of young female students they had exploded when she hit the scene. She HAS been called the "new Eddie van Halen," not because she has chops anywhere near his but for the way she has attracted kids to the guitar - girls specifically.

And I think that raises a point; any new music icon is not necessarily going to inspire kids with chops, but with charisma. Chops are beside the point, and that's OK. Get a kid hooked on playing and they'll have plenty of time to explore the complexities of music as they progress. But that also raises another point - there's no particular reason that the next inspiring icon is going to play GUITAR. For all we know there could be a saxophonist or pianist or mandolinist who's going to create a sensation over social media, go viral, and send millions of teens off begging their parents for a sax or a piano or a mandolin or banjo or whatever.

The ELECTRIC guitar is very much the instrument of rock and roll in people's minds, and by now for teenagers electric rock and roll is their grandparents' music. They're going to want something of their own.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Son of Wobble and wintremute
#314
Gully Foyle said:
The problem is that these are public companies, ane I would guess that the vast majority of the employees at both have nothing to do with guitars.

Note again, rickenbacker is not on this list, nor g&l. The model of giant corporate behemoth is not a good fit to this industry.

Deciding the all time peak of sales is always the new normal is a corporate publicly traded MBA decision.

This is about foolish American business culture, not guitars, nor the people who play them. I am American and have ample experience with these sorts of thinking, not bashing blindly.

I
Click to expand...

Umm...both Fender and Gibson are privately own, friend... G&L is owned by BBE sound...private, but quite large.
 
#317
Jeff Scott said:
My turn to be confused. If there are a ton of them out there, they must have been pretty popular, right?
Click to expand...

At first, but now they're being unloaded all over the place. Fender has slimmed down the different Dimension basses you can buy new, now as a result. If they offered a budget version that has the two pickups, and a real tone knob instead of the weird select switch knob, I think it could have been more popular.
 
#318
dxb said:
So are people not buying as many guitars as a decade ago, or are they just not buying as many NEW guitars? A guitar doesn't wear out like a car or a cell phone does so the used market is huge.
Click to expand...

This was my initial reaction. 'Way back when' there wasn't Craigslist or the various for sale groups on Facebook. That makes buying a used instrument much, much easier. Hell, I've been playing for 15 years and just this year I bought my first NEW bass. I've ALWAYS played second hand instruments...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back