We've made the death list kids.

[Studio Custom]

https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/budweiser-and-more-products-becoming-obsolete.html/9/

[tommy p]

If a whole lot less people are playing electric guitar, will that make my playing seem any better?  Looking for a positive here.

[Steve Haynie]

Future players are going to live in a buyer's market. 

[Studio Custom]

1 hour ago, Steve Haynie said:

Future players are going to live in a buyer's market. 

In that case, take up the clarinet and accordion!

[Steve Haynie]

While clarinet music is actually something I like, I do not want one. 

I did look at accordions a lot, though.  They have gained in popularity over the last decade just enough to get more people looking for them.  What I found out is that when buying a used accordion one really has to be careful.  The reed blocks are held in place with wax, and sometimes the wax can crack and break loose.  Reeds can get out of tune, too.  If someone finds what was a top of the line accordion fifty or sixty years ago it might be playable or it might require a hefty repair bill.  A deal can be good or bad depending on whether or not the used accordion holds up.  Unlike guitars where we can immediately identify problems, accordions are a bit harder to take apart. 

[LucSulla]

I actually play clarinet.  Go figure. 

I'm not too bummed about it.  I'll be able to find crowds of 25-250 people to watch what I do for the rest of my playing my life.  And let's face it, it's never going to be more than that for me and most of the rest of us anyway. 

We are all now Sultans of Swing by circumstance if nothing else. 

[Biz Prof]

 

16 minutes ago, LucSulla said:

We are all now Sultans of Swing by circumstance if nothing else. 

Do you know all the chords?

Are you strictly rhythm and don't want to make it cry or sing?

Or are you Harry?

😆

[LucSulla]

2 hours ago, Biz Prof said:

 

Do you know all the chords?

Are you strictly rhythm and don't want to make it cry or sing?

Or are you Harry?

😆

Definitely Hair... er, Harry. 

[bkrownd]

LOL at that list.  Some kid probably cooked that up in 5 minutes for simple clickbait. 

[shankyboy]

That website is rife with popup ads. Guitars and Motorcycles. The only vices I have. Hmmm.

[Rich_S]

I’m glad to see they spread the blame around a bit to include arts-education budget cuts.  It’s not ALL Henry’s fault.

[Willie G. Moseley]

Accordion tangent: First time I interviewed 38 Special founding guitarist Jeff Carlisi, one portion went like this when I asked him about his first guitar:

JC: My first instrument per se was an accordion; my parents wanted me to learn to play one when I was about ten years old.

WGM: I don't believe in stereotyping, but I take it you're of Italian heritage.

JC (chuckles) Right! I had an espresso maker built onto the accordion!

(Carlisi went on to note his first acoustic was a Stella/Silvertone and his first electric was a two-pickup Gibson Melody Maker:)

http://jeffcarlisi.com/theearlyyears/1965.html

[Biz Prof]

1 hour ago, Willie G. Moseley said:

Accordion tangent: First time I interviewed 38 Special founding guitarist Jeff Carlisi, one portion went like this when I asked him about his first guitar:

JC: My first instrument per se was an accordion; my parents wanted me to learn to play one when I was about ten years old.

WGM: I don't believe in stereotyping, but I take it you're of Italian heritage.

JC (chuckles) Right! I had an espresso maker built onto the accordion!

(Carlisi went on to note his first acoustic was a Stella/Silvertone and his first electric was a two-pickup Gibson Melody Maker:)

http://jeffcarlisi.com/theearlyyears/1965.html

Let me guess... You conducted the interview over a Pasta lunch at a restaurant with red checkered tablecloths.

[crunchee]

Speaking of accordion and clarinet, ukulele seems to have become trendy and more popular in the last few years:

 

 

 

[LucSulla]

You know, the missing comma between "list" and "kids" in the thread title leads me at first to a sense of hope in regard to what horrible sin against nature this forum has finally produced (as I have always assumed that was this forum's actual purpose) but has ultimately led only to this shitty joke about commas. 

[Biz Prof]

4 hours ago, LucSulla said:

You know, the missing comma between "list" and "kids" in the thread title leads me at first to a sense of hope in regard to what horrible sin against nature this forum has finally produced (as I have always assumed that was this forum's actual purpose) but has ultimately led only to this shitty joke about commas. 

"Let's eat grandma."

 

 

 

 

 

I mean, "Let's eat, grandma." 😆

[LordsoftheJungle]

I think the interwebz and UPS have played a big role in the drop in new guitar sales. It's so much easier and cheaper to buy used guitars these days.

[Jeff R]

Ukes are more popular than one would think or guess in recent years, particularly among young people. I haven't seen many on my bench but I've seen substantially more than I would have guessed I'd see.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/17/smallbusiness/ukulele-sales/index.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-15/humble-ukulele-strings-along-new-generation-of-players/8124288

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/ukulele-sales-see-explosive-growth-as-small-instruments-popularity-soars-a3599566.html

[jwhitcomb3]

32 minutes ago, Jeff R said:

Ukes are more popular than one would think or guess in recent years, particularly among young people. I haven't seen many on my bench but I've seen substantially more than I would have guessed I'd see.

Both my kids (older teens) have ukes and love ‘em. 

[Brooks]

On 2/27/2018 at 8:28 PM, shankyboy said:

Guitars and Motorcycles. The only vices I have. Hmmm.

Add moderate booze consumption and monogamous sex and that's all I got left too, ha

[Dana_V]

2 hours ago, Jeff R said:

Ukes are more popular than one would think or guess in recent years, particularly among young people.

 

 

2 hours ago, jwhitcomb3 said:

Both my kids (older teens) have ukes and love ‘em. 

 

Yep. My daughter (age 13) loves her ukulele, and several of her friends have one too.

Last year we went to VidCon in Anaheim, CA. The estimated attendance was 30,000+, and although I don't have exact numbers, I can say from my own observation that the majority of those in attendance were under the age of 30 -- and a good many of them were under 25. (At age 56, I was definitely in a very small minority.) Anyway, I have never seen so many ukuleles in one place in all my life. It seemed like practically everybody there had a uke with them. It got to be kind of funny. How many of them could actually play...well, that's beside the point. But man that was a lot of ukuleles.

[gtone]

Could see this coming for some time now.  One only has to talk to the Mom & Pop music shops (what's left of them) to see how many kids are into what we considered the pillars of popular music (guitars, basses, drums, keyboards).  And yep - ukes are really popular with kids these days, sales outstripping that of guitars, mandolins and banjoes combined according to local sellers in this area.

Pity the delusional souls that're loading up on vintage guitars as an investment thinking that the current market softness is just a temporary lull in an otherwise elliptical and inevitable long term price rise.  Anyone wanna buy my vintage lute and lyre collection? 

[crunchee]

Had to throw this one in as well...

 

[LucSulla]

My next band is totally going to be "The Death List Kids." 

You can tell I am putting off work because I just wrote so much.  

I play guitar because I like to, and I buy what I have because I want to play them.  I've always thought the idea of collecting guitars as an investment is a bit shaky. I was into comic books in the 90s and remember how that worked once people started to buy new stuff expecting it to be collectable. 

Maybe this is selfish, but there are so damned many Gibsons and Fenders out there at this point, that I'm not really worried about not having access to a Strat or Lester in my lifetime, at least my playing lifetime.  Judging from the backorders, places I truly dig like the Charvel custom shop (which I know is owned by Fender) and Shishkov, at least for the moment, seem like they are going to be able to keep producing instruments.  

I don't think it's that no one gives a shit about guitar; they just don't give a shit about the guitar hero.  Additionally, I think the internet has exposed technical virtuosity for what it really is - not really that rare, particularly with all the YouTube tutorials out there.  You can find someone with a video online to step-by-step teach you most any song in the Guitar Hero's Canon.  No more do you have to find a tab (if you could even get that), and slave away trying to figure out how to play something with it and listening to a cassette tape. It's easier than ever to learn to be good if you are willing to commit a little time.  I mean, YouTube is overrun with teenagers who can play everyone here under the table at lead, at least as far as raw speed and technique is concerned. 

What was rare was someone that could plug into a 100 watt Marshall plexi, wrestle that bastard into submission, and produce their own unique flavors of aural existentialism like Jimi, Jimmy, and Eddie.  While all having chops in their own right, you have to admit that there was a quality to watching them play like watching someone wrestle a bear - it was loud, wild, and unpredictable, and it didn't entirely have to do with virtuosity but the entire package. Now all the bears have been put to pasture... or forest... or where ever the hell you put a tamed bear.  There hasn't been a meaningful shift in the guitar paradigm since Eddie, and even Grunge was basically a response to that paradigm.  Nirvana was inevitable a response to what EVH set in motion with "Eruption" as were the legions of circus monkey guitarists it inspired, as inevitable as the Ramones were in reaction to prog rock and the Eagles in the 70s.  But now there is really nothing left to react to, no yin or yang, prog to punk, or Warrant to Nirvana.  Somehow, rock guitar music ended up with the glossy packaging of the 80s and the stripped down aesthetic of the 90s, but none of the spirit of either era.  It was just cynical packaging, and when that ran its course, there wasn't much left. Fun to listen to on the radio, but not terribly inspiring.  

Lastly, there is still a need for people who can play in ensembles and have good rhythm.  I've gotten far more gigs in the last 10 years from being able to count to four consistently than for my lead chops, including over a few guys who are stronger lead players than me.  They can sweep pick four octaves at any tempo, but they don't know how to vamp on an A and make it groove.  I believe this lends more support to my hypothesis that guitar is not dying per se, there just isn't the same interest in gunslingers anymore.  And you know what?  When it comes down to a 12 bar solo break, I can deliver a lead about as well as anyone in town when it comes to entertaining a crowd, and no one wants to hear much more than that anyway these days.  Which is fine with me - solos always should have been the salt; they should have never been the steak. 
 

[Sugartune]

In my early days of playing, there was no guitar hero for me. There were dudes I wanted to try to play as well as, or cop some of their style, but never to the point of buying a guitar they played. I was a huge Nirvana fan, but there's not much there other than rhythm and melody. I suppose I gained an affinity for offset Fenders, but I've never owned one and there were a bunch of other people playing offsets, like J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) and Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth). 

I guess my point is, I've never had a guitar hero, let alone one to influence me to buy a certain look, sound etc. I understand why some do that, but I always just wanted to sing and play. The rest, well now I'm learning it