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This is so interesting to me. I'm not a guitarist, but have really missed guitar solo's. Sort of a strange thing I've seen in current country, or whatever, is the emergance of a pseudo-guitar solo. It's only 4 bars long! It's not a main course, it's not even a side, it's that lady/guy standing at the grocery store asking if you want to try a sample  I like it and would gladly ask for more please! Somewhat odd timing on this, I was listening to Nickelback's latest CD that came out last Friday and I heard...dare I say...a guitar solo?! WHAT?! Now, you may not like them, their music, their style (music, clothing, hair, or otherwise), but...there is a solo! I personally think it sounds pretty decent too! [video:youtube] https://youtu.be/5LKOvlS3dnw?t=2m3s[/video] Ironically "Guitar Hero" was not a guitar hero at all. Thanks for posting this FJ. Maybe with a bit more talking, more can happen.
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
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Darn it Floyd! Just found the article a few minutes ago only to discover you beat me to posting a link.
Seriously, the article makes some good points. The art of music as well as the art of making music is changing. The musicians that use to use guitars and other traditional instruments are dying. I thought the point that Clapton and other musicians that also guitar collectors are downsizing their collections is stark evidence things are changing.
I didn't realize both Gibson and Fender are carrying such huge debts.
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Great, after 25 years of trying to play this thing turns out it is no longer cool! 
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I've been reading about the demise of the saxophone in the United States, which seems to be plotting a similar course for similar reasons. According to this guy, mass-produced Chinese instruments have attained a level of quality where it's a better choice to buy a brand new saxophone instead of repadding an older one. The demand for these instruments isn't coming from the United States, but from China, Russia, and South America. We just happen to get the benefit of inexpensive instruments. There's a guy in my town that buys instruments returned to Amazon, fixes them up, puts a decent mouthpiece on them and resells them on Craigslist in the $200+ price range. That's an amazing deal for someone like me, who could never afford a "pro" instrument, but doesn't want the risk of buying an instrument sight unseen. I've picked up an alto for my daughter in hopes that some of her EWI skills might transition over, and a tenor for myself. Fortunately, my kids are exposed to "oldies" when I'm driving around, so they are currently unaware of the demise of the saxophone.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Typical golden goose story. The big guys crank out thousands of guitars, new models every year, special editions, distressed versions (for musicians too lazy to screw up their own guitars), etc. And their corporate owners demand bigger revenue every year. Then lots of little guys (and Chinese) see the huge sales and get in with guitars that are about as good for half the price which further gluts up the market. And at some point the bottom drops out. I'd hate to see Gibson and Fender go but if they cannot compete in a shrinking market then..."ByeBye"!
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This was an interesting article, thanx for sharing.
As mentioned about saxes Chinese guitars are of high quality for a fraction of the cost of a Fender or Gibson. It's hard to compete with China in today's climate.
One thing missing in this report is the fact that many today want instant gratification. It takes time and patience to play an instrument and many kids today do not want to learn the basics. I could tell be the second lessons which students would stick with it and which would drop out. Now they can load up a DAW and record a song using loops, BiaB/RB, VSTis that have automatic playing programing like finger picking a guitar, etc without touching an instrument (this is not a knock on those of us on this forum - I'm just trying to prove a point). The attention span is dwindling!
Just my thoughts - YMMV
I think my wife has started to show the first signs of dementia.
She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me!
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Interesting, but not totally accurate on more than one level. No more guitar heros? I've never actually liked the term "guitar hero", but there are plenty of good, young players out there still. Check out Joe Bonamassa, doesn't get much better than that. Clapton may be selling off his collection, but Bonamassa continues to add to his. Yes, rap music and electronic music doesn't need guitar players, but so what? There will always be young people coming up that want to get into blues or jazz or music that has soul. I think one of the main reasons Fender and Gibson are having problems is not because no one wants to play guitar anymore, it's because they are overpriced. Mario made the point about the chinese guitars and he is 100% correct, same or similar quality at a fraction of the price of the american made guitars. Having said that, I just bought myself an american made tele last year, but it was the first new guitar I had bought in 20 years so I figured I deserved it 
Last edited by BlueAttitude; 06/23/17 11:54 PM.
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Interesting article, thanks for posting, Floyd!
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I know a guy who bought a Chinese knockoff Les Paul, the one that is covertly spelled "Gibsun" with embellishments to make the U look like an O. He then put Grover tuners on it, a Floyd Jane Rose tailpiece, and DiMarzio pickups in it, and it sounds GREAT! With his having some used parts on hand, he probably brought that guitar in for under $400. The Les Paul Standard it resembles would have cost him WAY more than that.
Only point here is to not dismiss those knockoff so quickly if sound is your only criteria. With a little tweaking they can sound good.
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I started a thread on this forum a few years back asking 'is the guitar dead?' or something to that effect. I thought so then, no one else here did, and I think so now. I use FL Studio as my DAW, along with a couple of others, and if you go on the forums there you see very, very few guitar songs. I even hear some of the guys there comment that they hate guitars. Computer music is the wave of the future or technology, IMO. And I like a lot of it (for an old fart) and like to write it, too.
Pop music is about the singers and dancers and there's no guitars anymore. All the music is mostly keyboards and programmed music. R&R is long dead except for us old timers. We're a dying breed. I love old country music and it's dead, too. But everything dies and fads come and go. Maybe we'll have a resurgence (right and I'm going to be 18 again).
Country music is leaving a lot of strings behind also, it seems, like steel, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, etc. I went to Billboard website just to see what country music was doing these days and of the songs I listened to I heard only guitar, bass and drums.
Mario said that the guitar companies are pricing themselves out of business and I agree. The last two guitars I bought were a Squier Strat and a Squier Tele (hollow body). They tune and play just as well as, to me, as the more expensive Strat's and Tele's. They sound as good as well to me. But what's a guitar body or neck got to do with sound these days when everything you're playing through is electronic and it controls the sound? And at 72, I don't think I'm going to hit the big time anyway. So, as they say, only change is constant.
"The desire for fame is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise."
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Charlie, this happened here about a year ago. My friend brought over his $3000 Fender Tele. I played his first then my $110 SX Tele from Rondo music. He looked at me and said "I just wasted $2900"!
True story
I think my wife has started to show the first signs of dementia.
She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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A few years ago, one of my work friends withdrew his 401K money and started investing in musical instruments, figuring they would grow in value faster than the investments that were available to him in our 401k plan. And for a while they did.
I lost track with him when I retired... but now I'm curious to know if the stringed instruments he bought are continuing to grow in value.
FWIW, I think he was mostly buying banjos, not guitars. Given the current popularity of bluegrass and Americana music, I'd guess that banjos are more marketable than guitars these days.
I have some guitars I'd like to sell... maybe I'd better not wait...
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As far as the guy saying the guitar is dead, that is not new, people have been saying that for many years. Back in the 70s keyboards were king, and there was a guy called Larry Fast who was quite popular at the time. I remember on the back of one of his albums he had a quote "..and nobody played guitar". Well, here we are 40 years later, still lots of guitar based bands out there, and when was the last time you heard anything from Larry Fast?
Also lots of guitar in modern country music. Doesn't sound much like country music to me, but it is music young people identify with. My nieces and nephews, all in their teens and early 20's, love that music. I've heard some of it, some fine guitarists in those bands!
Last edited by BlueAttitude; 06/25/17 01:15 AM.
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In my parents day the Trumpet and to a lesser extent the Trombone were the kings of pop music solos. Before that it was the violin.
The clarinet and accordion entered the scene.
Then the sax which during the early rock era, was the king of pop music solos.
With the invention of sustaining technology the guitar gradually took it's place, and the keyboard synth horned in too. Today the sax is rarely heard in pop, and usually for a repetitive figure if it is. (Fortunately I play for an older audience that still loves the sax).
Now the guitar seems to be fading out in the place of things like Ableton Live and other DJ looping machines. (Fortunately I play for an older audience that still loves the guitar).
Everything runs in cycles.
Like the trumpet, trombone, sax, the guitar isn't going to disappear, it just isn't the alpha dog anymore.
That's my opinion anyway.
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Generally, China is great at customer service too. Living in Hong Kong, I've had US companies refuse to ship and refuse to deal with me. Those amazing single PA amplification systems that got a mention on our site are an example. The company never responded to my email and then the distributor said they wouldn't ship one to me in HK. Just saying. I have a PA company in China who will save a mixing desk or a PA for me from a production run and provided I find suitable transport will send it to me for peanuts. Their transportation quote was more expensive than the Amp. Nothing is too much trouble for them. In the old days, quality was an issue - not so now.
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In my parents day the Trumpet and to a lesser extent the Trombone were the kings of pop music solos. Before that it was the violin.
The clarinet and accordion entered the scene.
Then the sax which during the early rock era, was the king of pop music solos.
With the invention of sustaining technology the guitar gradually took it's place, and the keyboard synth horned in too. Today the sax is rarely heard in pop, and usually for a repetitive figure if it is. (Fortunately I play for an older audience that still loves the sax).
Now the guitar seems to be fading out in the place of things like Ableton Live and other DJ looping machines. (Fortunately I play for an older audience that still loves the guitar).
Everything runs in cycles.
Like the trumpet, trombone, sax, the guitar isn't going to disappear, it just isn't the alpha dog anymore.
That's my opinion anyway. Your opinion, but supported by history. I was going to write about the same thing in response to this article, but you wrote it well. I started noticing the slow death when reviewing CDs starting about 15 years ago, even guitar-heavy bands were just using the electric guitar for rhythm, leaving out leads. There are TONS of growler vocalist, chugga-chugga bands these days playing not only 6 but also ye olde 7-string and 8-string electric guitars, but there seems to be less and less lead lines and solos. This isn't 100% true, but the guitar solo seemed to leave rock music as a 'must have' quite a long time ago. What I have enjoyed in pop-rock lately, however, is a return to some really catchy rhythm guitar work. This was missing for a couple decades in my opinion, with guitar slingers like Johnny Marr seeming to be missing. These days, you have bands like Colony House, which are bringing it with pop-tastic, clean-tone hooky chord work. Here's an example that's an example of what I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/IBTB54ty-tc?list=PLKXpG3IlfP1p2of_2C1735cFXewK-h00G
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A lot of people say that the death of the guitar started in 1962, when I started playing it.
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i can't get past the WP sign up page on my iMac but I get the gist of the article from the thread. We were watching one of Clapton's "Crossroads" the other night and I commented to Janice that there was no way you could fill a stadium with folks nowadays to watch guitar centric music. Yeah, there will always be young folks who want to enter the fray but I think the movement toward cult status has begun. Sad, to us because guitars and vocals are what so attract us to a song...and a sax. Yeah, Billie Holiday and Lester Young! J&B Edit: found the article here if you have a WP issue. https://pilotonline.com/entertainment/music/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar-and-why/article_04ccc8ca-b36f-548d-950f-d538eeb36e98.html
Last edited by Janice & Bud; 06/27/17 04:20 AM.
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Death of the 6 string guitar?
I think not....
As long as young men understand the "chick magnet" power in playing guitar, and as long as girls go gaga for guys with low slung, amplified, 6 string guitars... guitars will never die.
Face it, it's way more sexy to play guitar than it is to play piano or drums.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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