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FENDER CEO Response to 'Is the Electric Guitar Dying?'


Rabs

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...I found the comment interesting, about how if they can just increase new player retention rate by 10%, it could double hardware sales. :-k

I found much of it both interesting and surprising. Clearly the research carried out has had a profound effect on their current thinking and subsequently the direction taken.

 

As far as the percentage specifically mentioned by Saturn goes;

45 % of Fender guitars were bought by 'new players' yet 90% of that 45% give up before the year is out. That means 40% of their total guitar sales effectively lead nowhere in terms of ongoing 'clients'. No wonder there is a focus on keeping some of that number of potential purchasers.

 

IMX not long after I bought my first electric guitar in '75 - a cheap'n'cheerful Japanese-built LP copy - my best mate thought he would get a guitar too. One day, around six months later, he knocked on my door and handed me his guitar. He simply didn't take to it....or at least he didn't want to put in the hours necessary if even a reasonable basic level was the aim. Some things, it seems, never change.

 

Pip.

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He simply didn't take to it....or at least he didn't want to put in the hours necessary if even a reasonable basic level was the aim. Some things, it seems, never change.

 

I'm not sure if this is still the case but it certainly was when I was teaching guitar, and taking lessons from more advanced teachers than I was at the time. Many people simply don't want to put the time and effort into doing something that isn't easy and takes time. They want to play but aren't willing to put forth the effort. I had females not want to cut the fingernails on their left hand, even when they weren't able to press down fully to get a clear note. I had people who simply didn't practice and their parents continued to keep them going to lessons until I brought up the fact that their child wasn't practicing. I got paid the same when they showed up, whether or not they practiced. I had a few that would put forth a lot of effort and time and it showed.

 

I think the fact that it "hurts" to play until callouses are built up is a factor for new guitar students. That may make them not want to practice more, thus not building up their callouses. Then they don't want to play more and give up since they're never getting anywhere.

 

I suspect if the major guitar companies create some type of lotion that builds up callouses quickly and include a hand/finger exerciser with their guitars, some people might continue playing guitar more. That and making the lower end guitars play better will help. They seem to have been making inexpensive guitars play better than they did years ago.

 

That was always the number 1 complaint I got from students who were learning to play, had inexpensive guitars with high string action and thick strings. People don't want to spend a lot of money on a guitar if they don't know if they or their child is going to continue playing, therefore it makes the guitar harder to play, therefore making it painful and less fun to play.

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I'm not sure if this is still the case but it certainly was when I was teaching guitar, and taking lessons from more advanced teachers than I was at the time. Many people simply don't want to put the time and effort into doing something that isn't easy and takes time. They want to play but aren't willing to put forth the effort. I had females not want to cut the fingernails on their left hand, even when they weren't able to press down fully to get a clear note. I had people who simply didn't practice and their parents continued to keep them going to lessons until I brought up the fact that their child wasn't practicing. I got paid the same when they showed up, whether or not they practiced. I had a few that would put forth a lot of effort and time and it showed.

 

I think the fact that it "hurts" to play until callouses are built up is a factor for new guitar students. That may make them not want to practice more, thus not building up their callouses. Then they don't want to play more and give up since they're never getting anywhere.

 

I suspect if the major guitar companies create some type of lotion that builds up callouses quickly and include a hand/finger exerciser with their guitars, some people might continue playing guitar more. That and making the lower end guitars play better will help. They seem to have been making inexpensive guitars play better than they did years ago.

 

That was always the number 1 complaint I got from students who were learning to play, had inexpensive guitars with high string action and thick strings. People don't want to spend a lot of money on a guitar if they don't know if they or their child is going to continue playing, therefore it makes the guitar harder to play, therefore making it painful and less fun to play.

 

I guess I was part of the "determined" lot. My first guitar, was a "Western Auto" "True Tone" (Stella), and the action on that thing

was impossible! With Black Diamond acoustic strings, stiff as a baling wire! But, I had a great Mom (my Dad passed, before I ever

wanted, or started to play), and she saw me struggling, but being determined, too, so she invested in a much better playing Harmony

which easily allowed chord shapes, and even some very, very basic "lead" riffs, etc. When it was determined I was really "serious"

about playing, she bought my first ever, "electric" guitar, for my 14th birthday present. My '64 Fender Strat! Which, I still have!

As she was a newly widowed "single parent," then...and working 2 jobs and going to night school, to get another degree, so she could

get more money, in her medical records position, at our hospital, "Money" was tight!! Yet, she made sure I had the "electric" guitar

of my dreams, rather than just something "OK!" A Fender Bandmaster (Blackface piggy back) was next. Was I lucky, and "Spoiled?"

Absolutely, in both cases! But I consider her attitude, and unwavering support, critical, to my continued interest, and advancement...

modest as that "advancement" may be!

 

CB

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I guess I was part of the "determined" lot.

CB

I actually went through both...

 

I was first forced to learn guitar at school by my mum when I was 11 (first year of high school).. She was determined that one of her kids was going to learn an instrument.. And I was the last child (thanks mum :) )

 

At that time I wasn't interested... I hadn't discovered rock yet although I always loved music...So I learned how to read and did stuff like Greensleeves where it was all proper finger picking (I can still play that actually :)).. BUT its just seemed like more homework to me so by the time I was 13 I had given up...

 

Then a year or so later I started getting in to rock.. And another year or so after that I got my first electric... the thing is because of my earlier lessons I took to it pretty quick and once I discovered power chords I was well away...

 

So the difference in me wanting to learn and not wanting to was that one thing.. that now I loved rock and wanted to play like my heroes (still working on that over 30 years later [rolleyes] )

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I agree. Although, being 'Merican, I probably would have worded it like "he seems like a pretty cool dude" B)

 

Actually I was being a little silly..

 

In my part of London (east) we would more likely say hes a Top Bloke or Diamond Geezer :)

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In my part of Edinbondon EH5SE20 9BH7RJ (No. 5546 only, though) we'd still be more likely to say "Seems like a decent enough chap" so AFAIamC you were correct in the first instance, Rabs!

 

Och Aye. Not to mention Hoots, Mon!

 

msp_thumbup.gif

 

Pip

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In my part of Edinbondon EH5SE20 9BH7RJ (No. 5546 only, though) we'd still be more likely to say "Seems like a decent enough chap" so AFAIamC you were correct in the first instance, Rabs!

 

Och Aye. Not to mention Hoots, Mon!

 

msp_thumbup.gif

 

Pip

:)

 

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That actually IS me dancing! Well; near enough....

We really should post that in Izzy's thread on the subject!

 

msp_thumbup.gif

 

Pip.

Which part.. The dad at a wedding dancing or the sword dance near the end?

 

;)

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The problem for new players is, it looks so easy when in fact as we know it is not. Watching a guitarist with an acoustic singing it looks so easy, even walking past down the subways.

Look at Nile Rodgers at Glastonbury dancing around the stage, it looks so easy. Evan when you see a closeup of a hand running across the fretboard on TV to looks so easy, it looks as if he is just sliding his hand up and down the fretboard.

 

If you compare that to a piano player you can see all the keys and how his fingers move, now that looks difficult. So the new guitar player has a preconceived notion that playing guitar is easy and therefore becomes very disappointed when he can't get it. That's why there are more guitars in lofts and under beds than in the hands of guitar players!

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Great players seem to make every instrument they play look easy! The guitar is often considered the

easiest instrument to learn the basics, and the most difficult instrument to learn to play really Well!

Kind of a "the more you learn, the more you realize how much more, you need to learn," that seems to go

on forever. [biggrin]

 

Lindsey Buckingham, no "slouch" on guitar, once said he considered himself a sort of "polished primitive"

guitar player. I like that! [cool][thumbup]

 

 

CB

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Kids complaining about callouses gave me a chuckle. If I could trade joint damage for a lack of hard fingertips...

 

Oh, I know. Between playing for so many years and spending time typing on a keyboard, I can often feel a bit of pain after playing for a few hours. I remember having strings so high off the fretboard that when I'd bend the string, the one next to it would go under my fingernail. But, I wanted to play so badly, I kept with it. My teacher eventually told my parents that I wouldn't progress as far nor as fast unless I got a better guitar. They got one for me that Christmas and it made a world of difference. By then, I had tough callouses and that made the guitar even easier to play.

 

Now if I only I could bring back my hearing as well after years standing in front of a Randall stack.

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