Washington Post:Death Of The Electric Guitar

AlexC

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?utm_term=.c792b0eba94c

Apologies in advance if someone has linked this before. I knew guitar sales were down, but this really puts it in perspective. Thoughts? Comments?

Plectrum

This was discussed ad nauseum some months ago.

ICBM

Plectrum said:

This was discussed ad nauseum some months ago.

I think the Body Wood Affects Tone thread has redefined 'ad nauseam' since then though .

Sporky

Even I gave up on the body wood thread, and usually if there's a long rambling argument I'm the one who turns out the lights and shuts the door.

AlexC

Ok. This thread is done then.



As is the electric guitar.

Plectrum

ICBM said:

Plectrum said:

This was discussed ad nauseum some months ago.

I think the Body Wood Affects Tone thread has redefined 'ad nauseam' since then though .

Absolutely

darthed1981

On the second time of posting, I've actually read it now.

Surely only the title is that controversial though?  It's hard to argue against the concept that mainstream music is less guitar focused than it has ever been, it is 20 years since the last guitar led musical "movement", and kids just don't hear guitar heroes on top 40 radio any more?  There are modern major artists who play (Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry used to) but they aren't going to inspire a guitar culture like the 70s did, or come close to the impact of Britpop.

Still, the problem comes if you own Fender or Gibson, not if you play.  The Harpsichord isn't a big part of music these days but you can still buy one and play it.  I own 11 electric guitars, a number I intend to reduce, and I'm not thinking "but if I get rid of this I'll never get another".

If anything, the demise of one of more major brands could almost be considered a good thing, maybe smaller local luthiers and British guitar companies would get a chance to make an impact, maybe we would even get a major new design and not a million copies of the "big four"?

prowla

Was it a Fender or a Rickenbacker?

scrumhalf

One of the ways to date how long you've been playing the guitar is to work out how many "the guitar is dead" articles you've read over the years.

Most are written by Phil Space and represent one person's thinking, and often it's not very good thinking.

The electric guitar will never die simply because plugging a guitar into an amp, turning it on, hitting a chord and listening to the resultant glorous noise is one of the greatest pleasures in life.