Guitar Center (and Gibson) again...

[Boyd]

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/04/17/guitar-center-bankruptcy/

 

"As guitar sales plummet, some of the biggest guitar brands and retailers are facing bankruptcy. The latest is Guitar Center, which narrowly averted default and just got downgraded by S&P."

 

"Of course, the fates of both Guitar Center — the largest guitar retailer in America — and Gibson — one of the largest guitar manufacturers — are intricately linked. In both cases, these businesses have been unable to adapt to a precipitous slide in guitar sales. Younger buyers, who once drove the guitar surge, have now shifted towards EDM, rap, and less guitar-driven indie music — even though interest in music itself has never been higher."

[10K-DB]

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/04/17/guitar-center-bankruptcy/

 

"As guitar sales plummet, some of the biggest guitar brands and retailers are facing bankruptcy. The latest is Guitar Center, which narrowly averted default and just got downgraded by S&P."

 

"Of course, the fates of both Guitar Center — the largest guitar retailer in America — and Gibson — one of the largest guitar manufacturers — are intricately linked. In both cases, these businesses have been unable to adapt to a precipitous slide in guitar sales. Younger buyers, who once drove the guitar surge, have now shifted towards EDM, rap, and less guitar-driven indie music — even though interest in music itself has never been higher."

+1 Ive been seeing this trend for years,,sad but true. Sampling instrument gear contributes to this as well. One can press a few buttons,,call up a "bass trk" press store,,and add a "drum trk" ect,,ect. Well see what happens,,music tastes seem to go in cycles,,maybe things may shift back at some point.

[american cheez]

i find it kinda funny how many people say this NOW.

when i said it years ago, many people told me i couldn't be more wrong.

[SteveFord]

Every time I go into a Guitar Center there's a complete change of sales staff.

Maybe there's a revolving door in the break room customers aren't allowed to see.

[Dub-T-123]

+1 Ive been seeing this trend for years,,sad but true. Sampling instrument gear contributes to this as well. One can press a few buttons,,call up a "bass trk" press store,,and add a "drum trk" ect,,ect. Well see what happens,,music tastes seem to go in cycles,,maybe things may shift back at some point.

The whole “push a button, out comes hit song” critique is what people said about Dark Side of the Moon when it came out. I feel like it’s easy for us guitarists to look down on electronic music or rappers if that’s not what we like, but it’s not right to suggest that it’s so easy. If it were so easy, we could all just make a bunch of hit records and be rich and famous

 

I think the average electronic musician or rapper is very likely to spend money at guitar center, whether it’s for cables, maybe a SM58 or other cheap dynamic mic, midi controller, etc. Or maybe they’re pretty serious and they buy a Neumann mic and expensive interface or thousands of dollars worth of synths, etc

 

I think guitar center has plenty of ability to profit off of this “trend”, and their troubles are the result of deeper issues

[NighthawkChris]

I hope GC can get their act together and figure out a damn good plan. Yeah it’s the Walmart for musicians but I think that it keeps the market in check sometimes. Places have no issue matching GCs lower prices most time and I couldn’t do that before this place was around. Not that they sell all low priced stuff but usually they set the bar many times it seems. Mind you this is purely my observation. I mean as a consumer I want to pay the least for the most to get the best value deal I can most times. GC also sends me a ton of coupons for 15 and 16 percent off and I’ve had these come in handy a few times. I feel that over the years they’ve done me right and that’s why I don’t ever hate on them. I get it the employees are what they are but the merchandise is what I am most happy to see when I go there. I have bought 88 key keyboards there and a few guitars; speakers... you name it. Never had issues with returns either. Their issue right now is something else though because I think we are talking about billions of dollars they need to work stuff out. That’s worse than Gibson right?

[Notes_Norton]

If GC goes out of business it doesn't matter to me. They put many mom & pop music stores out of business with predatory pricing.

 

I hate to see Gibson go belly-up though.

 

What happened with guitars happened to saxophones before that, and (in no particular order) trumpets, clarinets, violins, accordions, and so on.

 

None of these instruments are gone, but they are all post-peak. At one time they were the 'must have' instrument of the day, but their 'must have' day is over and they have fallen back to their 'pre-peak' position. It's a little like a stock market correction.

 

Back to mom & pop music stores. You may pay a bit more, but you get personalized service from a professional who knows your needs and gives you advice that the pimple faced kids at GC don't even know about.

 

Example:

 

My PA was a little muddy. The owner asked what I had, and I explained all the components. He said because of my speakers, his first choice would be a BBE Sonic Maximizer. He told me to take it home, be careful not to scratch it, use it on the gig and come back Monday either with the Maximizer or the money.

 

We played our first set at the club we were the house band at for 4 months or so. By the third song a regular customer came up and raved about the improvement in sound. He said we always sounded great, but now we sound even better and he said that he could hear things he couldn't hear before.

 

When I took it from the music store, I left no deposit, no credit card number, just trust, and it was understood that there would be no re-stocking fee. When I came back Monday, I came back with my credit card.

 

Perfect advice.

 

Another example:

 

My old sure was giving me trouble and I never really liked the way my sax sounded through it anyway, so I went to the M&P music store for a new mic. The owner zipped to the recording studio in the back and gave me a Sennheiser MD421. He said this would be the dynamic mic he would use to record my sax if he had the choice of all the dynamic mics available. Again, use it on the gig and come back.

 

It sounded great, and a musician friend who came to see us immediately noticed the difference.

 

I went back Monday with the mic and the intent to purchase a brand new one. He said he didn't have any new ones, but he'd order one for me. He also told me to keep the mic until the new one came in (again, no deposit, no credit card, just trust). When the new one came in, I bought it. A month or so later I got a Sam-Ash catalog (this was pre-Internet). If I bought the mic from Sam Ash and payed their shipping charge it would have cost me a few dollars more than what I paid for at my local store (tax included).

 

I have a few more stories like this.

 

You don't get this kind of service from a GC, and with their predatory pricing they ended up putting way too many local stores out of business.

 

I buy all my strings and reeds at my M&P store, pay about 2% more, but keeping him in business for the service and expert advice is worth it. And when I need major gear, I always give my M&P store first choice. If he can get it or has it in stock, he gets my business. He has Internet access and on major equipment he pays me back for buying my strings there by beating the prices offered at GC and other 'net stores.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

[kidblast]

"yunger buyers, who once drove the guitar surge, have now shifted towards EDM, rap, and less guitar-driven indie music even though interest in music itself has never been higher."

 

makes me sad....

 

on the other hand, things run in cycles,. so...

[darling67]

Guitar Center should change its name to, "DJ Center"… then, people will start buying guitars again, and the cycle of life will continue.

 

But, seriously… I "blame" amazon for much of Guitar Center's woes. Amazon has hurt a lot of retailers, who used to own their respective markets, and GC is just one of them. Guitar Center has been advertising and selling a lot of DJ Mixers, controllers, etc.—whatever it is they use—for a long time now. Not just guitars and drums.

 

Anyway, I wish both parties well. As for Gibson, they should stick to GUITARS and not try to be an all-encompassing "Music lifestyle" company.