WaPo: Why my guitar gently weeps The slow, secret death of the six-string electric.

[teach1st]

Washington Post: Why my guitar gently weeps. The slow, secret death of the six-string electric. And why you should care.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/

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 manufacturers 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.”

[C_U_L8R]

1. The market won't get bigger

But it would help if there wasn't so much cheaply made crap out there. The decline of true craftsmanship (with boutique exceptions) over the past decades is heartbreaking.

[Aristus]

2. They make it sound like the 6-string electric is disappearing from use.

It sounds like the market is oversaturated, that's all.

Some of the fly-by-nights will go under, and the problem will correct itself.

[longship]

3. I weep for the demise of the viola da gamba.

AKA Viol



Electric guitars? Bah!

[WinkyDink]

11. Didn't she recently win an Oscar?

Last edited Wed Jun 28, 2017, 05:06 AM - Edit history (1)

[Hoyt]

4. It is a market like guns where you end up asking, just how many does that fool really need?

I get how a musician who makes their living might need a bunch of different guitars to meet different needs. But, I'd bet that 80 - 90% of people don't make their living from music. Having 10 - 20 guitars and always looking for the next purchase seems excessive nowadays and most folks are yielding to economic pressures.

[vkkv]

6. I'd say it's closer to 99.95 % of musical instrument buyers do not make a living performing on

a purchased instrument.

People collect stuff..

Stamps, art, books, maps, guns, instruments, cameras.. I know I do!

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. People like to collect stuff n/t

[Hoyt]

8. But i think people are cutting back. I'm getting ready to sell most of my remaining

stuff but two guitars, a bass, mandolin and Mandola. Well, I might keep a uke.

[DFW]

13. There are those, like me, that fall into some cracks somewhere there

I don't make my living playing music, but I still perform and record, and I need a range of instruments for different sounds. That said, I only have one electric guitar and one bass (a fretless l'Arrivée whose pickup stopped working), plus a prototype Rickenbacker 12 string they never put into full production--Byrds fan from way back. I have just a few 6 string acoustics, one for fat low end for accompaniment, one with clear high for acoustic lead, and one for straight chords, Bluegrass style. I have a lot more 12 strings, and they all have different sounds, too, except for two nearly identical mid-sixties Guild 212-XL guitars that are so fragile, I don't dare travel with them any more. I keep one here in Germany and leave the other back home in Dallas.

So, I have more than ten guitars, less than twenty, play only for fun nowadays (though I have played before two US presidents, which WAS fun, but not the same category as playing for my neighbor's birthday party).

[Hoyt]

14. Byrds, Gene Clark, Flying Burrito Bros fan here. Chris Hillman has new album produced by Tom

Petty coming out.

[vkkv]

5. I have to ask - Is ANYTHING sustainable?

Really?
I mean besides the law of physic that 'energy is conserved'.

On the other hand...
My brother in the S.F. Bay Area has made a good living as a piano tuner for the last 40 or so years.

20 years ago I thought his profession was doomed.
He has more business that he needs.

[Skittles]

9. well-written, great pictures, awesome format

recommended!

[yallerdawg]

10. "Electric guitar will never die!"

[Blue_Tires]

12. How many strings do they have now?

and what real difference does it make?