The Slow Death of the Electric Guitar

[MCChris]

“What we need is guitar heroes,” George Gruhn says. Indeed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?utm_term=.668497bb6887

[Steve Haynie]

Taylor Swift was responsible for more girls playing guitar.  She is not a "hero."  Perhaps instead of a guitar hero, people just need to see someone they think is cool holding a guitar.  Elvis was such a person 60+ years ago. 

[sonic1974]

I saw that article, didn't have a chance to read it. In classic web forum style, I'm going to comment anyway!! ha

In terms of top 40, for sure there's not too much guitar. In terms of local/underground/indie, whatever term you want to use, plenty of folks are still rocking out. My hometown of Ottawa has plenty of guitar based bands.

In terms of "mainstream" culture, it seems hip-hop has taken over. I still think some form of rock will be around a long time.

Excuse me while I go smoke my pipe, take my arthritis pills, yell at kids on my lawn and listen to Rocks by Aerosmith.

[Biz Prof]

13 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Taylor Swift was responsible for more girls playing guitar.  She is not a "hero."  Perhaps instead of a guitar hero, people just need to see someone they think is cool holding a guitar.  Elvis was such a person 60+ years ago. 

Verily, verily. Carl Perkins was the real shredder out of that Sun Records clan, but 'twas Elvis' aesthetics and velvety vocals that made him an icon and helped propel rock-n-roll to its dominance as a genre. 

[MCChris]

12 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Taylor Swift was responsible for more girls playing guitar.  She is not a "hero."

The definition of "guitar hero" has certainly changed since we were coming up. Taylor may very well fit the bill, as well as the hipster types who plink around on offsets strapped up to their collarbones. Will they be able to sustain the guitar industry? Don't ask me, I do a damn KISS podcast.

Also evident in articles like these that come from the coastal media outlets is an outright dismissal of rural America. Specifically, completely ignoring country music. Lots of electric guitars in that genre, more than ever, in fact. It's immensely popular (not that the WaPo would know) so you have to assume there are plenty of kids wanting to be in country music bands.

[Stike]

Yesterday afternoon I was at a grocery store and "Dazed And Confused" was playing on the stores piped in music. Not sure if that has any relation to the article in the OP but it might.

[Studio Custom]

This has been known for a decade.  Seriously, who the hell will want a used Hamer SS in twenty years? 

[scottcald]

Good article.  If it gets kids playing, great, but I'm not a fan of the Schools of Rock or those types of things.  Someone can show you technique and how to play chords, but to me there's something character building about having to find players, play some crappy gigs for nothing, load in your own gear etc. that you can't teach.   Having a bad gig in front of people you don't know teaches you a ton.  

@MCChrisI hear you about country music, but honestly, I can't get into current country music.  Some great players there, to be sure, but to me much of it is sort of the new hair metal from the late 80s.  

[gorch]

13 minutes ago, sonic1974 said:

Excuse me while I go smoke my pipe, take my arthritis pills, yell at kids on my lawn and listen to Rocks by Aerosmith.

Love this!

I think there will always be stringed instruments that includes guitars unless the world is not breaking up. Neither has the classic died nor jazz nor the blues nor will rock do. Once a style is there it will have it's followers. A friend of mine is a classic guitar teacher, very academic, very high up in standards. He keeps bothering about todays student's laziness while the next day he makes compliments to engaged and talented students. What he does is far from my reach and centuries' old stuff. Still there...

[Studio Custom]

4 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

Good point. I just don't get how can anyone ignore the likes of Johnny Hiland?!!? He's a freaking MONSTER picker and I'm sure there are tons of young  fans looking to be him!

You're kidding right?

Kids are attracted to image, that guy is an old & obese.

 

[Stike]

24 minutes ago, scottcald said:

 

@MCChrisI hear you about country music, but honestly, I can't get into current country music.  Some great players there, to be sure, but to me much of it is sort of the new hair metal from the late 80s.  

Florida Georgia Line, Brantley Gilbert, etc. are to country what bands like Tuff were to 80's commercial hard rock.

10 minutes ago, Studio Custom said:

You're kidding right?

Kids are attracted to image, that guy is an old & obese.

 

And it's the modern country equivalent of Shrapnel Records in the 80's, dude can shred but the audience is extremely small. 

[Studio Custom]

5 minutes ago, Stike said:

And it's modern country equivalent of Shrapnel Records in the 80's, dude can shred but the audience is extremely small. 

No one on Shrapnel Records looked like that, they all had chops and image. 

GIWF!

[alantig]

43 minutes ago, MCChris said:

The definition of "guitar hero" has certainly changed since we were coming up. Taylor may very well fit the bill, as well as the hipster types who plink around on offsets strapped up to their collarbones. Will they be able to sustain the guitar industry? Don't ask me, I do a damn good KISS podcast.

Also evident in articles like these that come from the coastal media outlets is an outright dismissal of rural America. Specifically, completely ignoring country music. Lots of electric guitars in that genre, more than ever, in fact. It's immensely popular (not that the WaPo would know) so you have to assume there are plenty of kids wanting to be in country music bands.

Fixed that for ya!

And 'modern country' is what used to be played on rock radio, for the most part.  Yeah, they twang the vocals up a bit, but musically, it's very similar to what we grew up with in the 70s.

Johnny Hiland is a MONSTER player, but he'll never get recognition because he won't get air play.  There are a bunch of guys in the same boat - great musicians who will only ever have a small, cult audience because they'll never get the kind of exposure they need to become big.  And a fair part of that is because that exposure doesn't exist in the industry any more.  There are way too many entertainment options for that kind of thing on anything other than a limited basis.

[murkat]

25 minutes ago, Studio Custom said:

that guy is an old & obese.

Not really.

I just got back from a luncheon roundtable event with Johnny attending. we caught up. He has lost over 150lbs since I saw him last.

[Studio Custom]

7 minutes ago, Ed Rechts said:

Nobody?

 

I do not know of a Shawn Lane Shrapnel record, just this:

Quote

Mike Varney was the first to capture him on record: the 4th volume of Shrapnel’s U.S. Metal (1985) features a guitar solo by Shawn called Stratosphere II.

 

[Studio Custom]

2 minutes ago, murkat said:

Not really.

I just got back from a luncheon roundtable event with Johnny attending. we caught up. He has lost over 150lbs since I saw him last.

Did he get any younger too?  Or is he still old enough to be the father of coveted 18-24 market segment? 

If you want to appeal to the youth, you need someone at MAX ia decade older than them, which is why they always use to say: if you didn't make it by 25, find a real job. 

[Steve Haynie]

Marcus King is about 20 and getting noticed.  The guitar magazines are mentioning him.  He ain't thin, but he is young and he can play. 

[Never2Late]

22 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

Your couth and etiquette continue to inspire and amaze us all.

He's not wrong - "Guitar Gods" had sex appeal along with riffs.  There was a time when being a good guitar player got you status AND it got you laid.

That's not really happening now- today's "hot guitar player" is a Midlife Dentist with a $7,000 Suhr playing 'blooz' riffs.....Dave Grohl has too many torches to carry.

I'm inclined to believe another factor in this equation is money (cost of gear vs. teen job prospects) and work ethic ("let's wall ourselves up for years learning the fretboard and arpeggios, or play with our cellphone!  What to do....").  Modern guitar instruction is terrible - the "school of Rock" concept is taking-hold here in MA, my local music store is seriously considering abandoning retail altogether to convert their space into a Jam/Practice facility for aspiring students.

[RobB]

1 hour ago, Studio Custom said:

Seriously, who the hell will want a used Hamer SS in twenty years? 

Oh, gawd. This is too easy...I'm DYIN' ovah heah!

Rechts...RECHTS!! Where are you?!

[Studio Custom]

35 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

Your couth and etiquette continue to inspire and amaze us all.

Well you certainly could use some improvement, so I'm glad I could be of assistance. 

[Studio Custom]

3 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

And I still don't give a fuck if you like me!   Haven't you figured that out yet? 

[Jeff R]

Does a $10 GoFundMe contribution constitute half a twenty?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[crunchee]

My fave guitars in the last few years have been early '90's Les Paul Studios.  I still have to separate the wheat from the chaff, but for the most part they've got good wood, they're built decently, play well and sound great...provided that I can find one that hasn't been ravaged by time and previous owners.  Most of the ones that I see anymore are pretty well beat up, and I chalk that up to 'The Slash Effect'.  When they were new, Slash and G 'N R was HUGE.  Gibson made a lot of 'em, young'uns bought a lot of 'em, and they got used.  A lot.  Good used examples at good prices can still be found, if I look hard enough, but there's a lot of overpriced ones out there, too.    But the key thing is, is that THEY GOT USED.

Youth culture nowadays still embraces guitars and guitar-driven music (is Taylor Swift the 'new Slash', as well as the 'latest EVH'? ), and it's not just in a pre-fab 'Radio Disney' kinda way.  But times change faster than I can say 'Ken doll with a man bun' anymore.    Music nowadays, plus the choice and variety of media outlets now, definitely ain't what I grew up with...and don't ask me what the latest of ANYTHING is anymore.  But guitars and guitar-driven music is still out there...and no, not as 'product placement' either, but as an actual regular 'fun' activity.  For instance:

 

 

 

[Jeff R]

Crunchee's point above is a good example of where the WP and that article's author dropped the ball. They got data from the big three manufacturers, GC and Sweetwater and used a sample of new retail sales (albeit a large one) to paint a broad and horridly weak statement on the health or lack of as it pertains to the guitar.

They, however, didn't take into consideration Reverb, eBay, Craigslist ... nor did they point out to the readers that between the big three alone, there are thousands and thousands of basically the same guitars to be found on the used market without a retail markup, without applicable sales taxes and very likely just as good, if not better, than new examples. And it's not just the aging fogies the article cites. The kids today who are even more web savvy (whether it's shopping for deals or the research in forums and message boards like this one leading up to the buy) and have less disposable income for leisure items like guitars are Reverb'ing and CL'ing as much as us old fucks. What are they buying? Used, due to less disposable income, and subsequently discounted versions of the same shit the big three have been putting out basically unchanged for decades. I know it for fact - their used online and CL purchases are crossing my bench daily.

On that note, well over half the guitars that cross my repair bench were not purchased new - whether a storefront or online - by their current owners. And while more than half of my clients are men who fit within this dying if not dead already socio-demographic the article cited, there are enough young people coming through - male and female - to tell me I have a viable fretted instrument repair business for as long as I wish to do it, and I won't have ANY problems selling my business, tooling and my client database to a worthy successor down the road.

Sure, you don't have the guitar heroes of decades gone by as economic drivers for the product, but a blanket statement like electric guitars dying on the vine is ridiculous. 

[LordsoftheJungle]

Why my guitar gently weeps (The death of the electric guitar industry -and why you should care)
Washington Post ^ | 6/22/17 | Geoff Edgers

 

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 ...

 

sorry, I don't have a WaPo subscription (and never plan to) but I thought there was enough of a snippet here to generate discussion,,, and maybe somebody here has a subscription and can post the rest of the article.