According to recent stories by Guitar World, Guitar.com and Premier Guitar, Guitar Center is going to build “..a revolutionary guitar and guitar brand from the ground up. Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years, and we’re about to change that.”
Haha! Here’s a few thoughts about that –
Unique Guitars
Many boutique, small and even some large manufacturers have tried to market “unique guitars”. I’m thinking of Enya, Ricks “backwards” 12-string, Fender Swinger, Gibson Firebird X, Eko.
Problem is – they didn’t sell.
The basic guitar designs we have today, sell great. And they haven’t really changed in half a century.
When you think “guitar”, these are the ones you think of and the ones you want to buy.
Guitar Center Branding
Squires, Carlo Robelli and Indio, aren’t half-bad for the price. But what’s the one thing you can do to increase their value? That’s right – sand off that brand name!
Guitar Center brings many things to mind, but quality isn’t one of them. Putting their name – or any name associated with them, is not going to help sales.
GC Has a Relationship With You?
We’re told that Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto, who holds a B.S. and M.A. in Nuclear Engineering, said “We have something that nobody else has: a relationship with you,” he continues. “Our customers are incredible musicians. And we’re going to work with you in public, out loud, and share our designs, take your feedback, iterate, and make the best guitar that has ever been made.”
A couple things to note – “relationship”, yes. But what is the quality of that relationship. Methinks Gabe has not been talking to GC customers.
People tend to appreciate the availability of accessories like strings, straps and picks. And they love being able to pick up and actually play guitars before ordering from Sweetwater.
Has Gabe asked his customers how they feel about the service they receive in his stores? Has he had a GC tech setup any of his guitars? I’ll bet not.
Hank’s Plan
If I was GC CEO, I’d space stores out more sparingly. Clearwater and Tampa GC’s are a mere 16 miles apart. Well stocked large stores with plenty of inventory should be further apart, perhaps with small accessory stores to fill the gaps or even kiosks inside Walmart, Target, etc. with strings and straps.
GC should stop doing the things they can’t do well, like repairs and setups, leaving those to smaller mom & pop shops where knowledgeable, experienced techs can give truly great service. That one move would reduce their 1-star reviews and raise their ranking from 4.3 to 4.7 or so.
Or, actually train techs and go big on service. That’s where the money is – but it’s also where you really have to know what you’re doing and it’s hard work.
Hey Gabe – We’ll cut a deal to train your techs through Guitar Tech Academy!
Instead, they plan to follow the path of others who’ve tried to reinvent the wheel (I still like mine round!), without concern for how those others ended up.
And selling your own store-branded guitars? Ask Sam Ash how that worked out for them with Carlo Robelli. Yeah, it’s cool designing and building guitars. But there’s no money in it and you’re not likely to design a guitar people will want over the common popular designs that have sold well for half a century and more.
Hail Mary?
I think this may be GC’s desperate attempt to find market success since their world has been turned upside down by the Web. Their one “good play” – Musicians Friend, has been soundly defeated by Sweetwater.
Maybe Gabe can use his Nuclear Engineering degrees to build guitars that glow in the dark!
Note: As of this date, I can’t find a single word to confirm this on GC’s website nor on their Facebook page, so unless Gabe is just giving someone a scoop, well.. “trust, but verify!”