See, as a big name, I would be inclined to push out guitars as quickly as possible to meet the obvious demand for my guitars and in doing so, I may miss things in the Quality Control department or I may bring on more staff, putting more hands into the making of a guitar and therefore giving more people the opportunity to screw up making my guitar before it gets shipped out. And since I run a big company it's not like I can sit down and play every one of the them before they head out the door. I have a company to run! I'm the face of it and that requires getting out, traveling the world, shaking hands and signing pick guards and basically being an evangelist for my brand.
Because even though my company is big I want it to grow.
That's the American dream and the American dream is not limited to these borders anymore. Companies the world over are looking to expand as much as possible, to reach the edge of their threshold and pray that when they reach it they have the common sense to stop trying to grow before they break it and collapse.
Now, I could just focus on making great guitars and hope that the players like it so much that they tell their friends and they buy one and tell THEIR friends, but I know an easier way.
I'll make guitars with the maximum appeal as possible. Some may say cookie-cutter guitars with similar shapes as other companies or similar sonic goals as other popular companies but these have mass appeal and the more people that want my guitar, the more buzz it will generate and I'll be able to sell out of my guitars just about as fast as I (we/my employees) make them and then I can start adjusting the price to accommodate the demand meaning more money for less guitars, but the popularity of my guitars will hopefully mean more demand so hopefully this cycle can go on for a long time.
XXXXXXX
Perhaps I'm a little unfair with the cookie-cutter comment but the thing is that big name manufacturers are charging an arm and a leg for guitars, guitars made by fairly anonymous builders (and many of them) and they aren't able to be ordered custom unless you want to pay a RIDICULOUS amount of money.
And while this used to be fine, it was fine in a time when there was no competition. The Internet either wasn't around or wasn't being used to the maximum level of efficiency. Now however, independent luthiers are offering guitars that can best be described as niche and these niche guitars may not have the mass appeal but they do have passionate players. These passionate players are sold not only on the quality of their guitar that maybe has two or three people touching it, but also on the fact that so many can be contacted directly, and the owner of the company can sit down and talk to the customer and talk about any modifications that can make the player end up with a guitar that is truly right for THEM.
What used to be an aftermarket scrounge for parts that leave you with a higher overall bill and a bunch of left over parts is now a cleanly made guitar that arrives at your door step after you spend fifteen minutes on the phone with the builder laying out your dream guitar.
And the prices are similar. Right now a lot of the independent luthiers are on the high side, but justify this by offering you that interaction and the fact that they're making this all alone or with very limited help and because of this, it takes a while to make guitars. If it takes a while to make guitars, that means less sales and less sales means a lower likelihood of being able to survive off of this job they've chosen.
I'm all for feeding families so I don't baulk too much at most custom guitar makers but it strikes me as odd that some of them are so close to on par with the big names or even cheaper and yet the big names are still big.
It makes me wonder why. I've given it some thought and even pushed it out to our Facebook fans and I think it boils down to two things:
1) It's what you're used to. Just as I can't imagine a Les Paul with anything than an open book headstock, a lot of people can't imagine a guitar that doesn't have a big name on it or the right headstock shape and body dimensions.
2) Resale value. Just as you can charge more for a guitar made in the US regardless of whether it's made with parts from all around the world that were bought because they're cheapest and regardless of whether a foreign guitar could play circles around it, US guitars sell for more. When it comes to the big names, the only US company that makes better guitars than foreign counterparts is PRS. The best Fenders I've ever played came from Mexico for instance.
But the US has a stigma of being the best because they have the history and pedigree and snobs everywhere agree that this is the land of milk and honey when it comes to making guitars and I COMPLETELY disagree. I think it boils down to passion in the end and even an independent luthier in Fiji could make a great guitar (may need to spend some time in a case to adjust to the temperature and humidity of your house before you open it, but you know what I mean) that could rival a US builder.
And big names have a stigma too. If a non-guitarist has heard of a brand, they're probably going to look at that brand because they equate hearing about it to quality. If a company has been around for 80 years, it's more likely to be bought because they wouldn't have been around for 80 years unless they were good, right?
And if you gave up on it, wouldn't a popular guitar be safest to buy for resale value? If you were a practicing guitarist that was looking down the road to when you needed money to buy another really nice piece of gear, wouldn't a big name guitar sell faster with more profit than a custom guitar that was made JUST for you and has limited appeal to everyone else?
A talking head in the move Fuzz: The Sound That Changed The World said resale is ALL that matters to a musician. When times are tough is he going to be able to sell this piece of gear to get dope?
That's a pretty jaded outlook, but still a good point (maybe not to that extreme). Getting a guitar that's made JUST for you can be a gamble, just like getting an amp in anything but black or cream could be a gamble when it comes time to sell it.
So I kind of understand why people are sticking with the big names. The independent luthiers are also offering their own modified models that have those classic looks though and these have some serious appeal to a larger amount of people (usually not the whole mass of people, but the builder's favorite shapes to build) and their quality control is through the roof and the appeal is getting there. More and more are popping up in ads in magazines and reviews on the web and given time, they'll grow and start to rival those big names because they're building their pedigree and history.
It won't take too long before they're replacing the big names. You watch.
Stay tuned for the next blog post where I tackle my top five independent builders and talk about why they appeal to me.
-Pappy
4 comments:
Excellent post, totally mirrors my thoughts on the subject.
Lately I've found myself moving away from the big names toward the smaller and even relatively unknown brands. I've just recently put a deposit down on a guitar from a new company who have only made 2 models so far. I love the fact that I will we one of a very select few to own one and I will obviously get a hell of a lot more bang for my buck.
The more you look into these smaller companies the less you can justify dropping coin on a mass produced guitar which has had its soul ripped out by CNC machines...
I've never actually owned a Gibson or Fender. Though now I do have a Schecter (the cheapest one they make) I've owned a weird Yamaha franken-tele that they don't make anymore for more than 20 years. I'd also give credit to some of the lesser known companies for just making better inexpensive guitars. Look at Xaviere, Agile, and SX. For the prices, they're really not bad.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but I'm not so sure that it's an "either/or" type situation. Perfect example, I know a guy who runs a music store and buys guitars that I'm sure are "CNC'd" and imported from China. His difference is that he assembles and sets up each piece to exacting standards. If that means working a neck pocket or a fret job before going out the door, he does it. This results in a fairly low cost instrument that has a different feel and playability than the standard China fare. I have a Tele copy that he did that has EMG pickups in it and at least 3 different Fender Telecaster owners have played and all stated that it plays/sounds as good or better than theirs. Granted, none of theirs are custom shop models but you get the idea.
Thanks for a good article!
I didn't mean that there had to be a choice between completely handmade in the US and CNC'd in the US by big names and I apologize if I gave that impression. Companies like Sparrow Guitars are importing guitars built by the Peerless Plant in S. Korea and then changing out everything humanly possible from the pickups to the pots and wiring, even the frets get swapped out so that owner Billy can offer an affordable guitar with a high reported quality.
Of course, Sparrow is also attached to another company name called Streetlight Guitars where they make a lot more guitars of the hand-made variety in Canada for about $1,000.00 US so they also offer the option.
This is just another example of a small guitar company finding ways to separate themselves and distinguish themselves to a public that may be hungry for some gear that's off the beaten path a bit.
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