Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

PART IV - Here is the last part of the 2012 thoughts on the single coil manifesto

16. Fender and Gibson will continue to dominate the market, give or take about 10% from time to time. Guitar players are inherently conservative about equipment. That's just the way it is.

Not anymore. Quality control in the Gibson line has gone to heck in the past five years. What seemed like a solid instrument five years ago has left many players wondering what the future of Gibson will be. Fender has gone off on a pawn shop tangent shipping mid grade guitar building to Japan. As secondary companies like Ibanez and ESP bring cheaper guitars to the market that have equivalent quality as their counterparts, and USA companies like G&L increase their customer base, Fender and Gibson will lose market share. As long as Disney Superstars are given a Gibson guitar, Gibson will have a cult following. That is really how it is in 2012.

Follow up:

17. The $800 rule. On solid body guitars you get what you pay for (at regular street prices) up to about $800. After that, quality continues to increase with price, but with diminishing returns. Another way of saying this is that you pay most dearly for that last 10% or so of quality. That's just the way it is.

Not any more… An $2,000 fender may be equivalent to a $900 Carvin. These days, you have to play an individual instrument to determine what quality it is. Most great players are going to change the pickups or wiring anyway. There are GREAT sub $500 guitars out there easy enough to find on Craigslist every day. There are also GREAT RIPOFF $1,500 guitars on Craigslist every day. And like they say, you can’t play the paint. That is really how it is in 2012.

18. The guitar and amp markets are dominated by lower end gear. The high end gear is the most fun to discuss. But most players are shemps who play in their bedroom on low priced equipment. That's just the way it is.

Maybe, in the real world, but everyone a Burlap and Blues has a real guitar and a real amp. Those that don’t play well enough to fake the rest of you out. That is really how it is in 2012.

19. If you've been on the guitar forum long enough to remember who Dave Zhirsky was; or if you know "Kensky," "Hecubus," "Dot Neck," "Tyr," "Bladerunner" or my real name; if you remember when John Ou stopped posting for a while; if you've ever submitted a post complaining about tab requests or to many "Epiphone versus Gibson posts; or if you've actually read this entire message, you should consider playing more guitar and reading less forum stuff. That's just the way it is.

I don’t know or give a crap who those people are. A google search for all those names give no results, except for a recap of the manifesto. None of us play enough, but if we take time to read and learn we can get better. There really is nothing more annoying than a member of a guitar forum who asks for advise and then never follows through. It might be okay every once in awhile to sort through what your fellow forum members say, but when you outright ignore things for years, then you don’t belong to play or to post , That is really how it is in 2012.

20. Collecting guitars is fun. But actually keeping more than five guitars properly set up, in fresh strings, and in tune is a pain. More than five is for collectors, not players. That's just the way it is.

Yes, but you can have 21 guitars and play them all, and still have fun, That is really how it is in 2012.