Eric: "Maybe the guitar is over?"

Maybe the guitar is over?

So what is it that is killing guitar sales? Could it simply by greed from the instrument industry? Gibson lost a packet so much so that they have closed their Memphis factory and moved their archtop manufacturing to their solid body plant in Nashville. Fender are just going nuts in desperation to stay on top of it.

The new(ish) CEO at Fender is a data guy offering (initially) free guitar tuition for new guitar buyers and every time you turn on your Mustang GT amp you're saying hello on the direct line to the Fender data collectors. I can only hope all this data Fender are collecting will do good for the humble guitar.

I found an interesting article in Billboard magazine in a recent Eric Clapton interview. Firstly I don't think old Eric in his retirement gives a dam about the guitar industry but here were his thoughts..

When told guitar sales were down and that teens are flocking to EDM and music education in schools typically lean towards brass, woodwind and strings now days Eric quipped, "I didn't realize it was that bad,” laughing. “I’m out of touch. I mean, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know where it’s gonna go either. I think anything that has a natural process will end up where it’s supposed to be. My kids listen to classic rock, but that may only be because of me, because that’s what I’ve played to them. I mean, from the time of their conception, they’ve been listening to music through the womb. I played them playlists, just brainwashed my kids, and at the back of it was always the guitar or some kind of solo instrument or a singer. My belief in music is it’s all good. It’s all good. Even stuff that doesn’t appear to be so, it’s all good.”

“I don’t know. Maybe the guitar is over,” Clapton said, laughing again. “Good question though.”