The ShadowMusic Web Community

Interesting article in The Washington Post regarding the fortunes of the musical instrument industry, especially the likes of Fender and Gibson, both of whom are in debt, Fender much less so than Gibson. 'No body wants an electric guitar these days'. McCartney says we need more 'guitar heroes'. No I disagree, what we need is some good music- this is why Shadows Clubs have survived for so long, it's the quality of the music.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics ... 17527d08a8

This reminds me of an agent, back in the seventies, who told my band that we were very good but that, unfortunately, the electric guitar had had its day. He actually used the words, 'The electric guitar is dead'!

Tigerdaisy wrote:Interesting article in The Washington Post regarding the fortunes of the musical instrument industry, especially the likes of Fender and Gibson, both of whom are in debt, Fender much less so than Gibson. 'No body wants an electric guitar these days'.

I'd rather say : "fewer people want expensive guitars", cheap ones still sell well !

Still plenty of people of all ages buying electric and acoustic guitars
The major guitar Brands are losing out to the less expensive ones
for the new comers and amateurs why spend £1,000's when getting
into learning and player when you can get a very adequate one for
£100's

Pete

Maybe the cheapo guitars have got much better and closer in quality to the expensive ones? Were not those cheap Tokai's better than the Fenders years ago??

Some of the cheap'o guitars have certainly got better. I have purchased a roundback deluxe electro acoustic from gear for music recently and could not believe the quality for under £100.00. It just needed a little fret leveling and a lot of fret polishing,even the strings were OK (they used to be rusty on far east guitars). Just need to change the plastic nut and saddle for bone ones and I will have an excellent guitar for very little money. Also got a Harley Benton ST-59HM strat in fiesta red on it's way to me for under £200.00.

Well it appears Gibson have filed for bankruptcy, sad news indeed. It appeared to me that guitars were as popular as ever but it seems not. I know these days there are some excellent cheap guitars which is a good thing so i thought there would be more budding guitarists who would progress to Fender and Gibson.
Its difficult to know how values of vintage guitars will be effected, my collection may soon not be worth quite as much. Such is life.

Dave

The electric guitar wìll never die because it is the ideal intermediary between real, acoustic instruments and the soulless all electronic instrument. It has all the advantages of both. It responds to the player's touch and technique transmitting every nuance (and error) that the player makes. It is easily amplified to any level unlike so many acousic instruments.It also is very very versatile in the range of sounds it can produce even without effects added.When you add its ability and ease to be used live with effects too , you open up an even larger range of sounds.I
cannot think of one other instrument that is so versatile,so adaptive and so expressive. The guitar certainly is not dead.

Fingers crossed that the money men find a solution. However when the history books are written the fact remains that the golden age of electric guitar innovation was the 1950s. Both main brands, Fender and Gibson have failed to improve their respective products and counter the cheap imports from the Far East. What other category of 'engineered' product has remained unchanged for the past 6 decades? And yet Gibson and Fender products have huge room for improvement, and here are a few thoughts that come to mind: their respective neck joints (Fenders' are agricultural and Gibsons' are hardly ergonomic), Gibsons' headstocks fall off at the slightest provocation and Fender's vibrato is hardly the best a man can get! The amazing fact is that the competition have for the most part let them get away with their respective conservative strategy and blindly followed them both with 'me-toos'.

To the 1960's generation a flamingo pink guitar seemed new and exciting. Sadly, this appeal is lost on the current teenager who is more than likely to see a pink Strat as something his or her grandfather plays, in the way the 1960's generation viewed the banjo.

I accept that some of the guitar buying public appear to be very conservative, and there is / was a believe that 50s & 60s guitars are / were better than current production! However, I would suggest the consumer has not been offered much choice and the problems exist because Gibson and Fender have followed the market. Had they both taken the initiative by driving consumer expectations with creativity and genuine product benefits they may be looking at a better commercial environment.

There is a lot of truth to the adage: innovate or die.

HAIRY wrote:Both main brands, Fender and Gibson have failed to improve their respective products

An interesting statement. You see so many Strats, Teles and Precisions nowadays in the hands of musicians across the board, isn't there a case for saying that Fender got it right from the off, hence "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?"