So I saw this article in the Washington Post and I have been thinking this all along..
Who are the guitar heroes that the millennials admire? I can't think of any.. the only ones I think of are from my generation.
100 years in the future.. kids will be asking their dad's whats an electric guitar?
Slow Death of the Electric Guitar - (
New Window )
Millenials like those guys? Jack White maybe. Not those guys.
You're right.. but they are not making kids run to the music store wanting to buy a guitar like EVH did in his hey day..
I graduated in 85.. I started with the guitar in 1980 after hearing EVH play for my first time.. Every teenage boy back then took up guitar for a time because of him..
There is nobody here doing that with the kids these days..
Yes, the 'BIG BANG' of the 60's created a couple of generations of players, but just because modern music offers different means of performance and productions, doesn't mean the guitar will die - it just won't always be front and center as it was in pop music of the last 60 years.
Yes, guitar manufacturers are in trouble, and the bigger companies are seeing what can only be described as a troubled future.
I've done my part. Took my middle son for his first electric guitar lesson yesterday. Bought him a nice Squier Strat for Christmas - kid already plays flute and bass, so he has a leg up.
But interestingly - I asked him, his teacher asked him - "what players do you like, who would you want to emulate?" There was no quick answer. After some prodding, 'maybe Metallica, maybe Pink Floyd'.
So for those of us who DO play, be happy. All this means is that each year, as boomers die, their stock of axes gets released, flooding the market with used guitars, while manufacturers continue to make better guitars cheaper.
BUYERS market for us players. :)
The quality $300 can buy these days is remarkable.
That said, I think Derek Trucks is a fantastic player who's still producing (if he's not a hero to the kids by now, he probably won't be). Do yourself a favor and listen to a live version of Midnight in Harlem -- his work is amazingly beautiful, and I don't apply "beauty" to the electric guitar except for, well, Duane Allman.
So for those of us who DO play, be happy. All this means is that each year, as boomers die, their stock of axes gets released, flooding the market with used guitars, while manufacturers continue to make better guitars cheaper.
BUYERS market for us players. :)
That wouldn't surprise me (but I am not giving away my '77 Les Paul custom). :) If the piano market is any parallel, you can get some ridiculous deals now. I just bought a mint condition 1990 Baldwin Acrosonic console piano for $1200 for my daughter with delivery included. The second I showed any interest at all, the store dropped the price from $1900 to $1200. The piano tuner was just here and told me these usually sell for over $2,000 used. I am sure a new one would have been $5K plus back in the day in today's dollars. I haven't been in the market for a guitar in a very long time, but I may be looking for a new archtop in the fall. I am interested to see what I can find as I may offer my '99 Heritage H-575 in a trade.
That said, I think Derek Trucks is a fantastic player who's still producing (if he's not a hero to the kids by now, he probably won't be). Do yourself a favor and listen to a live version of Midnight in Harlem -- his work is amazingly beautiful, and I don't apply "beauty" to the electric guitar except for, well, Duane Allman.
How about Slash?
Felix Martin - ( New Window )
Quote:
there's been a guitar hero in nearly 30 years -- EVH and SRV, and you can sunset those guys by 1990 (SRV for obvious reasons). I just wonder if the instrument has been maxed out by now -- have all the sounds that can be made from it already been made?
That said, I think Derek Trucks is a fantastic player who's still producing (if he's not a hero to the kids by now, he probably won't be). Do yourself a favor and listen to a live version of Midnight in Harlem -- his work is amazingly beautiful, and I don't apply "beauty" to the electric guitar except for, well, Duane Allman.
How about Slash?
I think Annie Clark is a good example of a modern, cutting edge player, doing things in a really unique manner.
The point is, when I was in High School in the early 80's, there absolutely were 3 or 4 guys who could play 'Eruption' or 'Crazy Train' - Charvels, Jackson's and Kramer's were flying off the shelves - kids were even doing tape jobs to make their guitars look exactly like Eddie's.
I just don't see that anymore. Not at all.
The War on Drugs: Holding On - ( New Window )
taz - ( New Window )
Kurt Vile
Tame Impala
Car Seat Headrest
Japandroids
Cloud Nothings
People always say rock is dead it's a cliche. It's just not as mainstream but it lives on and will continue to
If I'm wrong about that, please! Share links!!
Just because the era of the guitar solo reached a zenith of self-indulgence and absurdity and then ended, it doesn't mean anything good has died.
The application of the electric guitar has (thankfully) shifted toward songwriting and performance collaboration.
One of the few (like many named above, huge Jack fan here as well) who still gets phenomenal tones and expressions even from simple even repetitive licks. Been digging both "Cold Companion" and "Watch Your Step" by The Arcs last couple weeks
Also similar is Leopold & His Fiction. Tho I can't speak to overall guitar work since it's new to me, "I'm Caving In" and "Cowboy" are a couple great tunes with awesome blues rock tones & riffs. Love the dudes pipes too, ripping, screamy, raw...good stuff
just because a major guitar manufacturer is losing share doesn't mean an instrument is dead.
OK, that kinda died.
I hear Donna Summer I need love and I hear the roots of any rave/electronic music (caveat: I don't hear much rave/electronic music). I think the same thing when I hear M Funky town.
Bottom line, no music style ever goes away, it just slides into a new groove.
I hear Donna Summer I need love and I hear the roots of any rave/electronic music (caveat: I don't hear much rave/electronic music). I think the same thing when I hear M Funky town.
Bottom line, no music style ever goes away, it just slides into a new groove.
And there's nothing wrong with that - I absolutely LOVE the fusion, the freshness and the complexity of a lot of newer bands.
But back to the OP, yeah - the days of the lone Hendrix/Clapton/Page/Beck/Gilmour guitar god are long gone.
Jack and Elton worked out the Piano and Guitar parts, and the vocal phrasing right there in the studio. Jack improvised the backing vocal and they did one take -- Direct to Disk.
Fascinating to see these two musicians at work....
Two Fingers of Whiskey - ( New Window )
just because a major guitar manufacturer is losing share doesn't mean an instrument is dead.
its not the manufacturer Guitar Center and Sam Ash are in the red big time...
Guitar Manufacturers are now building their guitars with cheap labor but still charging adsorbent prices.
I looked at an Ibanez JEM77WDP Steve Vai Signature "Woody" and that is 1700 bucks and made in Indonesia. Indonesia?!?!? GTFO .. its a money grab for the manufacturers ... cheap labor and they raise the prices to consumers..
Quote:
but don't almost all bands have guitarists? maybe not those rave bands (a joke to show my age), but pretty much every other band?
just because a major guitar manufacturer is losing share doesn't mean an instrument is dead.
its not the manufacturer Guitar Center and Sam Ash are in the red big time...
Guitar Manufacturers are now building their guitars with cheap labor but still charging adsorbent prices.
I looked at an Ibanez JEM77WDP Steve Vai Signature "Woody" and that is 1700 bucks and made in Indonesia. Indonesia?!?!? GTFO .. its a money grab for the manufacturers ... cheap labor and they raise the prices to consumers..
That is true, but it is extremely competitive biz now and their are a thousand guitar manufacturers. Anytime there is any leverage for a signature model, one made with rare tonewoods, custom and hand made instruments, you are going to pay for it. Simple supply and demand.
And the other part of that is that there are many amazingly well-made guitars available for relatively dirt cheap.
You can get a fantastic guitar for a few hundred dollars now.
Quote:
mentioned this, but I think it works the other way around. It's not that there aren't tons of great players, it's just that "guitar god" music is no longer as popular so we don't hear about them. It works the same way in other genres. Plenty of people have heard of Joe Pass, but few have heard of great young players like Lage Lund because very, very few people listen to jazz these days. If music in the style of VH became popular again, all of a sudden there would be well-known young players.
It's also that the wheel has largely been invented. We've got 60 years of Rock and Roll behind us, and there really aren't many 'firsts' left for guitar - virtually every great modern player has a 'sounds like' tag adhered to them. Most of it has all been done already.
If I'm wrong about that, please! Share links!!
Well in that case you could say almost everything had been done in music hundreds of years ago. How did the violin ever survive past 1800? Van Halen didn't do anything that was harmonically a breakthrough. Hell, he didn't even invent tapping. He was just a great player who emerged during a period when guitar virtuosity was very mainstream among young people. Unfortunately, that's not popular music today, but maybe an emphasis on high-level playing will come back into popular music again at some point. Then the players will be back in the public eye rather than hanging out on Berklee's campus.
Guys like Randy Rhodes and EVH are awesome, but there were also a lot of guys who tried to continue on that path and push lead guitar more & more and a lot of it just turned into musical masturbation.
Guys like Randy Rhodes and EVH are awesome, but there were also a lot of guys who tried to continue on that path and push lead guitar more & more and a lot of it just turned into musical masturbation.
I agree, but to me, the bottom line is that none of this stuff is popular among kids today as it was back then, so it shouldn't be surprising that guitar sales are declining. When I was 13, we all loved AC/DC, LZ, Van Halen, etc. Now, as the parent of two 13-year-olds, none of my kids' friends care about anything that even remotely resembles that type of music. It's mostly hip-hop as far as I can tell. My son is a huge Yes fan, but he got that from me, and he's an extreme outlier among all of his friends. Nobody else cares.
Below is something I ran into. Fun little nothing video....
Steve Kaynan - ( New Window )
Tosin Abasi of the band Animals as Leaders is one of the most notorious....
As you can see, a lot of young kids are choosing 7 and 8 sting guitars to get that ultra-beefy guitar tone that is popular in this style of music.
Animals as Leaders - ( New Window )
the lines between genres are being blurred. Yes, you don't really have people solo anymore... but the solo has been dead for a while. That kind of took "guitar heroes" with it.
As for current heroes.. I speak for myself personally but it'd be Tosin Abassi and Thomas Erak. Nick Reinhardt of Tera Melos as well. Plenty of great guitarists.
Sales are either declining or they aren't. Everything I can find online says that they are declining. How is the article not accurate in that sense?
There's also some non-traditional usage of guitars out there that they like to. For example, I do know a genre known as synth-wave is gaining rapidly in popularity with this demo and some of the music does rely on guitars. So I don't think they'll ever go away. They may sound different and the way they are used may be different, but I suspect there will always be a place for them.
Quote:
Rock music is alive and healthy. Music in general is just fragmented. Math Rock / Post Rock are huge genres, and electric guitar is being used in electronic music as
Sales are either declining or they aren't. Everything I can find online says that they are declining. How is the article not accurate in that sense?
Everything exists in its own silo nowadays. There isn't much of a common music-based consciousness as there used to be.
There's also some non-traditional usage of guitars out there that they like to. For example, I do know a genre known as synth-wave is gaining rapidly in popularity with this demo and some of the music does rely on guitars. So I don't think they'll ever go away. They may sound different and the way they are used may be different, but I suspect there will always be a place for them.
Peopel now have access to many different types of genres at their fingertips. You won't see the "rockstars" of yesteryear, but that doesn't mean the instrument itself will not be around.
So there is also the question of - has America reached something of a guitar saturation point? 61 years of electric guitar production. That's a lot of axes.
So there is also the question of - has America reached something of a guitar saturation point? 61 years of electric guitar production. That's a lot of axes.
I've thought about that as well X. A good majority of those guitars played by the old guitar gods and the legions of people they inspired? They're still around, often in the hands of new owner, with a mystique and "mojo" you'd be hard-pressed to replicate with a brand new instrument. Some of that mojo might be a placebo in some cases -- maybe your average listener couldn't tell the difference between a '58 Telecaster and a brand-new one -- but that's kind of immaterial. If the musician who owns it is affected by that mystique, chances are his playing will be just that much better.
When the practice of selling "relic" guitars became popular a few years back I thought it was utterly ridiculous, the musical instrument equivalent of selling jeans with holes in the knees. But I once picked up a Relic'd Custom Shop Tele at a Guitar Center and was really impressed by how comfortable and just worn-in it felt, played and sounded. I've never played an actual vintage Tele so I can't quite compare, but it certainly felt a bit better than your average new Tele.
Nowadays there are quite a few upper-tier luthiers who build and sell more relic'd Fender and Gibson style-instruments than instruments than look brand-new.