The August ,2008 edition of Greg’s guitars, “Vintage guitar news and views”        

                        Thinking out of the box

     With the fall of yet another American iconic company being bought up by a worldwide multinational giant, is anything ever going to be the same? How can I relate this to the past, present and future of the guitar industry? Well let me see.  Company “A” starts production, builds some great guitars, innovates the industry and sells out 7 or 8 years down the road to a larger corporation “company B”. Company B makes some changes to the product, most which are almost irreversible , then bleeds the original company for all they are worth until they too finally succumb and are forced to sell . For all realistic purposes company “A” is gone and so is the original product, never to be again except in a nostalgic nod and wink to the past in a somewhat pale attempt to recapture the glory of days long gone by. This scenario is for the most part repeated over and over through the years until only 2 to 3 large corporations now control the manufacture, marketing, sales and distribution ,as well as hype of almost all the guitars sold today. Sound far fetched? Look again. With this scenario in place , the bottom line becomes …. Well, the bottom line. Their will be a few aha moments and a select few great products come back out to market, and even some “niche” builders will fill the void where once a great product once stood.
            As the large conglomerates prey upon our nostalgia and production overrides innovations everyone and everything slows to a simmering suffrage.  So where does it all lead and Greg what is your point?  Certainly the big boys will continue to crank out and reap the lions share of rewards due mainly to the brainwashing of us as consumers, think about it, we play certain styled guitars because that is our perceived “norm”, you could build the most fantastic guitar ever and if it doesn’t “fit” well, it will not sell. Period. Which is where I now lead us,  I have been lucky enough to play and get turned onto some really cool guitars. These are not made by any of the big boys, not expensive, but rather inexpensive (cost only) Very well built attention to every detail and yes they all share the same mold that we have been taught are the right shape. Yet they feel different, they feel…. Better, they seem to be even made better with better attention to detail and finished product that once graced the land in the beginning, yet they cost a fraction of the comparable models that should be the best.
    I believe in change, change they say is good, certainly manufacturing has changed ,yet the big boys, the heavy hitters ,rely on making us think inside the box of constraint, where the unattainable past is the present and the present isn’t anywhere near as good as the past that they want us to buy into……. The bottom line is still the bottom line. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some and will continue to be great products being pumped out for all to be had of that I am sure. But, well, I just wish we as a group would look outside the box, the small builders the lesser known guys and maybe just maybe some change could do us good, maybe ,like our micro brewery buddies they too have learned something from the past and are just waiting for the rest of us to catch on….. But hey  like always this is just my news and views. May all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true and all your riffs be killer, till next month Thanks for reading Greg’s guitars “Vintage guitar news and views.”http://www.gregsguitars.net