Electric Guitar is Dead (your opinion)

Started by yuri, May 25, 2016, 08:51:57 AM

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Smash

Quote from: Frank on November 09, 2016, 05:15:44 AM
Guthrie was my teacher back in the early 1990's (we're from the same town)

Another Essex boy! Just down the A130 from you...

Elantric


chrish

#77
This guy doesn't think guitar is dead.

Jack Thammarat covers Pat Metheny 'here to stay' using gr 55


Elantric

#78



Elantric

#79
its true  - a lot of "Guitar" heard today is played on a keyboard for TV commercial tracks



https://www.audiodeluxe.com/search/site/musiclab?f
  • =im_field_brand_term%3A259&mc_cid=92b1d06999&mc_eid=0b95bac45a

    luckily in 2017 , some still prefer the "real deal" 

















CodeSmart

These guys.... makes you just sooooo happy!!!  :D
But I got more gear than I need...and I like it!

clearlight

Guitar is certanly not "dead". It hasn't been the focus of pop music for a while but then again look at John Mayer.
I think the underlying problem is that music has generally become saturated and peripheral. Tons of little "scenes" are happening all over the world.
The interest in the guitar is certainly there as you can just post a video of you strumming a few choreds and if "guitar" is in the title, it will get a few hundred hits just on that.
But thats part of the problem, its great that everyone wants to play , make music and videos etc....but many of the simply shouldn't "put them out"/
The internet is clogged with tons of bad music , such that the better musicians tend to get lost in the mix, so to speak.
If everyone is onstage, there is no show.
I think that the internet, in many ways, was too much too fast for humanity. It kind of destroyed music as we know it.
How sad that in an era where a home recording sounds great and you promote yourself online that only a handful of "suits" are still making all the money.
How sad that music has become "background" in an era where it has never sounded better and the tools to make it are just incredible.
You also have a generation of musicians "learning" music online, which I don't think is a viable way to ever get good enough to really do much.
I'll stop rambling, but something has to change/
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GuitarBuilder

I think it's amazing how one poorly researched, crappy article can cause so much consternation.
"There's no-one left alive, it must be a draw"  Peter Gabriel 1973

admin

#84
Quote from: GuitarBuilder on July 20, 2017, 10:24:31 AM
I think it's amazing how one poorly researched, crappy article can cause so much consternation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?hpid=hp_no-name_graphic-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.36ab0577796e
Its the way of the world -  all Click bait fake news from upper management (Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos)


Man bites Dog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post

mooncaine

I heard a business show on the radio (remember those? radios, not business shows) doing a short piece on the decline of electric guitar sales (half of what they were in year so-and-so), adding near the end that more females are buying guitars now, which could perhaps be an unrecognized opportunity for guitar vendors. Not sure I got it all right, but the point of the story was that guitars used to sell about twice as often as they do today.

Tony Raven

Do notget me wrong -- I love synth. That's one the reasons I'm here, an abject adoration for Roland keyboards.

But the fact remains that guitar will ALWAYS be more immediate onstage in a way that is simply NOT approachable by keys.

I ain't partular good, but someone can bring an offtune gutstrung axe out to the firepit, twobusted strings & all, & I can keep them happily howling until sunrise.

So long as THAT remains, the guitar ain't by any stretch dead.  ;D

Hurricane

;)

Quote from: admsustainiac on July 20, 2017, 10:58:28 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?hpid=hp_no-name_graphic-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.36ab0577796e
Its the way of the world -  all Click bait fake news from upper management (Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos)


Man bites Dog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post

;D

admsustainiac :

The media is a double edge sword , you just have to know which side of the
blade and tip are on  :o , and you are good . It's like a lock , it helps keep and
honest man honest in many ways .

Since I was first exposed to [ Meet  The Press ] as a kid ( yep I was a nerd @ 4 years
I had a 1st. cousin Korea ) I could tell when something stunck on the part of the press .
Maybe not so much at first but in time it's easy to tell the difference between chicken
salad and - - -  :-X .

The 60's sealed the deal with the press during those wild day's of that decade till
Walter Cronkite and a few select other news journalist told it as it was about Vietnam .
With out guys like Walter Cronkite the press would have floundered , withered & faded
away as a credible source of info .

It comes and goes with the press , during WW2 it was suppressed big time for obvious good reasons ,
during the time of the American Revolution it was the blood stream that flowed to George Washington ,
the minutemen and the rest of what was to become the USA .   

Today more of the populace is educated in developed nations where higher education flourishes
( more or less ) and the yellow journalism - sensationalism - spectacle and exploitation for obvious
personal/corporate materiel gain is usually found out in time . In Venezuela the media is essential to the
plight of the common citizen today in that pre revolutionary atmosphere .

Yep , the media - Love and  Hate it .

Long live RNR and it's guitars and the musicians that play them .
EZ :

HR

Elantric

#88
This happens a lot lately


https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/flea-market-luck-has-been-bad-for-a-while-but.1860312

Found this at local flea market- The guy wanted $3. I gave him $5 and told him to keep the change

arkieboy

Quote from: carlb on July 09, 2016, 10:21:57 PM
Still have mine. Heavily modded - what do you expect from a then 15 year old with a soldering gun?

But guess what odd duck I sold to get the the Custom Agent? Bwaw! Grown man crying here:



The Les Paul Signature wasn't cool enough for the 15 year old, noooo. Dumb.




I have one of those living under my bed.  It was my first good guitar. :-)
Main rig: Barden Hexacaster and Brian Moore i2.13 controllers
Boss SY1000/Boss GKC-AD/Boss GM-800/Laney LFR112

Other relevant gear: Line 6 Helix LT, Roland GR-33, Axon AX100 MkII
Oberheim Matrix 6R, Supernova IIR, EMu E5000, Apple Mainstage, Apple Logic, MOTU M4

arkieboy

#90
But seriously.  I don't see the electric guitar dying for a couple of foundational reasons.


The guitar itself is a cheap, polyphonic (chordal, accompanying) instrument capable of expressive soloing.  Its not as good a chordal instrument as a piano, or as good a soloing instrument as a saxophone.  But it is a great middle ground between the two and you can get a better guitar than either for the same money.  And you can't sing while playing sax.


An electric guitar can be more readily amplified and can be loud.  As someone who has played brass, synths (from a guitar) and guitar in bands, there is really nothing like the interaction between a guitar amplifier and a guitar in either.  For brass (to be loud) you have to work with other people who want to read dots and not practice ;-).  Where is the camaraderie, the essence of the band taking on the world?  Synths get louder, but they =just= get louder (with the exception of Taurus bass pedals of course). 


A loud electric guitar is an organic thing and standing in front of a stacked pair of 4x12s is a visceral experience.


Besides theres no room on a sax for a sticker that says 'this machine kills fascists'.  And a keyboard is just a bunch of switches.  This is a serious point.  Saxes and keyboards look the same - save uncle Rick we don't associate any of their kinds with people.  However, if I say: 'Black Stratocaster with cigarette burn on headstock'; a pick-guard free sunburst Les Paul; a double necked SG; a red guitar made out of a fireplace; a red strat with black and white stripes; Lucille; a SG with cross inlays; a black Manson Telecaster with a Chaos pad.  Get the picture?


What has happened is that in the 70s, a kid's idol was either a sports star or a rock star, often playing guitar.  Today, kids often want to be games developers, or animators.  Or bypass all the hard work and sell their soul to Simon Cowell.  But the electric guitar is still a cool thing worthy of sinking time and money into - my son dropped his granddad's 16th birthday money on a T-spec Gibson Firebird with a through neck and Schaller banjo tuners about a month ago.  And all his friends think its as cool as f*ck. 
Main rig: Barden Hexacaster and Brian Moore i2.13 controllers
Boss SY1000/Boss GKC-AD/Boss GM-800/Laney LFR112

Other relevant gear: Line 6 Helix LT, Roland GR-33, Axon AX100 MkII
Oberheim Matrix 6R, Supernova IIR, EMu E5000, Apple Mainstage, Apple Logic, MOTU M4

billbax

I think of the electric guitar as though you are delicately holding a 10,000 volt cable.  A guitar has pitch, velocity, decay and nuance. On the other hand generally, a piano/keyboard only has fixed pitch, velocity, controlled decay and minimum nuance.  In terms of expression, a guitar wins hands down (keyboard players agree).  Saying that, there's nothing worse than hearing an uncontrolled noisy guitar player.

Jeff Beck and his masterful dynamics.

rsm

This was a fun read. Can't apply subjective reality to objective reality IMO.  The guitar is not the center of mainstream music it once was, and other than a few genres that's not likely to change.

How many boomers, GenX and GenY have more than one guitar? Who is buying most of the guitars today? I think the demographic information correlated to sales would be eye opening. What instruments/gear are being purchased by what ages?

Other than the posts about young kids / younger (under 30) guitarists, there really isn't a vibrant youth oriented guitar scene outside of metal or country.  IMO. Perhaps that's different regionally, but I think

Most of the local live music scene around here caters to tourists; rock, blues, country (to a lesser extent) shows are heavily attended by older folks. The dance and electronic music clubs are full of millennials, mostly college students. 

The open mic nights let anyone play anything, sometimes have younger musicians (under 30) on guitars, basses, drums, often playing originals but usually it's older guitarists playing covers that are 20+ years old, not surprising the younger crowd practically ignores the music. OTOH, many show up with computer rigs and play electronic music that does get positive attention.  Many of these electronic musicians are using pre-recorded samples, etc., and perhaps doing some parts live.

To that end, I started getting into electronic music (non-guitar focused) more seriously about 2 years ago, it's been a fun learning experience. My latest endeavor is a techno / trance / IDK-what-else-yet rig that may include guitar (I purchased an Ibanez RGKP6 and plan to install a GK-3, and will use my GP-10 for this rig) and may include a computer with Serato DJ and a hardware DJ controller.

I still dig guitar because it was a large part of my life and music growing up, so I'm trying to find ways to make more modern electronic music and incorporate guitar in both traditional and non-traditional ways.

I think for many millennials guitar music is considered their parent/grandparents music, while they may know and appreciate some music/bands/songs because they heard it growing up, it's not their music nor is it being made by people their age, which makes this point even more clearly. Guitar based music = old people music.

Some of the younger bands that are guitar focused will be challenged to break through that characterization while older generations that should be happy about any younger bands making guitar based music / existing seem to find ways to criticize it...I'm thinking about bands like Greta Van Fleet, Purson, etc., bands that are clearly derivative of older music styles, but they are bringing these types of music to their generation, and proving guitar music isn't just metal, country or old people music.

IMO
rsm
bass | guitar | keys | Push

Rickenbacker | Steinberger | Boss | Roland
Using Digital and Solid State by Choice

ericar123

It's easier for kids to learn how to rhyme words than learn an instrument. That seems to be all that most kids want
to do.


Elantric

#95
I actually think in many aspects,  hes right

Read my blog

I wrote this 8 years ago
--'


Remember All These devices provide icing, a few more colors to your "sonic artist palette" - not talent, and you certainly don't need anything on this entire forum to find a job and much success as a working professional guitarist.

Speaking from experience - if not kept in check, its too easy to be stuck in an endless cycle of G.A.S -   with its never ending stack of manuals to read , only to discover the "known bugs" the manufacturer will never tell you exists, which forces you to find yet another solution -  can actually hinder your progress as a musician.


Remember Music is a means of non verbal communication.  Advanced musicians with soul and mastery of their instrument can instantly move the human spirit like a puppet master.  - don't fall into the trap of thinking that stepping on that shiny new FX pedal will ever replace learning new scales, studying harmony and composition, and improvisation, working on your timing, learn how to listen to the rest of your band and find your role to contribute everything you can to each bar and measure of the song you are currently playing  - often that means channeling the gods, and knowing when to play a spontaneous improve solo that blows peoples minds, or play one well placed chord stab, or just one note, or  know when its best to stand still and play nothing at all.






Rhcole

It's the discipline of learning an instrument, especially in your younger years that is the secret payoff. When I was 16 I took a week of summer vacation and practiced 7 - 13 hours a day. My parents were amazed.

EDM and electronic styles require different skills and likely don't develop the motor and brain skills that playing an instrument requires.

As far as trends, a guitar player buddy and I were talking about OUR parents music a long time ago - the big bands, complex arrangements and charts. I casually said "you do realize that most of those players could have our musical asses any day of the week!" He sheepishly said "Yep!".

germanicus

#97
I definitely think that its easy to fall into the cycle of getting more toys and focusing on gear rather than working on one's technique or musicality (theory, composition, playing skillsets/ear training).

That said, he is definitely looking down on someone who stands on a stage with a guitar and performs Sigur Ros type ambient songs. Seems silly for him to do so.

This statement is particularly damning:

"I know I'll get sh!t for saying this, but it's fvcking lazy. It's insulting to people who spent 35 years playing and learning, like a lot of players. And we continue to work at it! These guys can barely play a chord but call themselves soundscapists. Get the fvck outta here! It's bullshit."

So because they have a guitar strapped to themselves, instead of say a keyboard, they are "insulting"? What difference does it make?

They are instruments - tools to create sound.

If someone who can't shred or play amazing fingerstyle or do advanced chordal jazz playing still wants to make music.... why not?

My albums done with modeling/guitar synth at http://music.steamtheory.com

JTV69/59P/Godin LGXT/Multiac ACS/Variax 700 AC
Helix/FTP/GP10/VG99/SY1000
Traynor k4

ffata

So I guess Adrian Belew and The Edge are not on any of Joe's iTunes playlists, too many effects.
And Robert Fripp is definitely nowhere to be found.
We don't need no stinkin' Frippertronics or Soundscapes!