Wanted: Big Poppa's take on the state of the industry

[SteveB]

This question is primarily for Big Poppa, should he have the time and inclination to respond. But everyone else is welcome to chime in, as always.. especially those of you in the business of musical instruments.

I know that here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania it is very difficult to find a Music Man guitar on a store wall. From reading the forum, this seems to be true in other places as well.

Now, I'll take that a step further and say that I've noticed that most local stores are not carrying any high-end guitars in stock, with the possible exception of the Christmas shopping season. This post does not apply to Guitar Center, which seems to be the one place where you can expect to find some high-end stuff in stock.

When I ask the local guys, they claim that the high-end axes hang on the wall too long before selling. So, I would like to hear from some folks in the industry what might remedy this situation somewhat.

I called my two nearest EBMM dealers when I was in the market for a Petrucci. I wanted to play one before plunking down my hard-earned cash, you know? Alas, the local dealers didn't have a one of 'em. In fact, they each had perhaps a single EBMM 6-string in stock. (They *DO* tend to have StingRays everywhere, though.)

It's not just EBMM guitars, by any means. My local ESP dealer only has the low-end LTD guitars in stock. I think there's a single Charvel on a shelf in nearby McKees Rocks.

You can find PRS, Suhr, Brian Moore, and of course Gibson and Fender guitars without any problem.

What can be done to help local dealers stock more EBMM guitars? Maybe more advertising would stir up more interest? You've got the greatest players in the world endorsing your guitars but apparently that's not enough. I realize that the laws of supply and demand rule supreme, but can something be done to upset the equilibrium?

I'm doing my part by singing the praises of my JP6 to anyone who will listen (especially if they play guitar). I'm toting my JP6 into the local stores to try it out with various amps, and taking the opportunity to show it off to the store owners and staffers, and just generally brag about how good it is.

Is there anything more that we players can do to help these local store owners see the error of their ways?

Let's have a little brainstorm, shall we? Try to keep this thread constructive!

 

[kbaim]

The Guitar Center just released earnings and sales figures for the year. Who knows if these are accurate as it seems everyone everywhere is better at actually fudging the numbers, but...

Earnings were around 64 million on sales of 1.5 billion. GC accounted for 77% of revenue in the 4th quarter, (leaving 23% for Musician's Friend, American Music, etc. , I'm guessing).

GC acounts for between 20-25% of musical instrument/recording equipment sales in the US. It ain't Microsoft domination, more like Coke numbers.

Needless to say, Huge! And I have heard at least one person say GC is thinking of offering way fewer high end guitars in the future. In which case, those companies that rely heavily on GC (as most do), may find themselves soon scrambling to make up sales.

Hope this is just false rumor as I still enjoy going in there to play high end guitars (that never seem to play or sound better than my Lukes, and the new Albert...not that I'm implying eb isn't high end, duh)
KEITH

 

[jimmyp]

Not sure about what the guitar stores can do, but recently I wanted to try a Petrucci and was speaking to Strings and Things, UK distributors for EBMM. They said that they would send out a Pet to one of my local music stores for a no-obligation trial if I wanted. That's pretty good service

 

[francric]

The only thing that kinda scares me about this is that if EBMM becomes so big some things may suffer, quality, customer service. I hope not but you never know. It's happened to others. But I do agree to some extent. I have 3 stores in my area that are EBMM dealers in NC. I believe one had a low end and the others had none. EBMM could make those dealers carry more product in their contracts as preferred dealers but that can also put a strain in the relationship. Unfortunately smaller dealers do not have the economic means to have a higher end guitar sit around. I'm not sure if they do this now but maybe if EBMM had a dealer network where dealers could swap inventory that would help the smaller guy. If JP's for instance sell better at one store and he ran out, he could get one from a store where it's just sitting. That would help out the dealers but that may put a strain on EBMM. There has to be a solution that works for everyone but the bottom line is it comes down to money and you can't blame them for that.

 

[phatduckk]

yup .... i live right between san francisco and san jose and i couldnt find a jp6 to play before buying one. the sf and san jose gc each had 1 or 2 Axis hangin on the wall but thats it.

i ended up just buying a jp6 from bassplyr w/o ever playing one due to all the raving info on this bored and im really happy that i did. but it does suck to not be able to go to a store and check out MM axes. I asked a dude at my fav local shop why they dont caryy ebmm and he said that they used to but couldnt sell 'em unless they were on blowout.

again, i think this is all just a popularity contest. most people buy les pauls or fenders and some buy prs ... you see those all over tv making them the "generic" stuff the regular joe wants.

(disclaimer: no offense was meant to any of the guitar company's i called "generic" ... i own at least one axe by each of 'em)

 

[OrangeChannel]

The Guitar Center just released earnings and sales figures for the year. Who knows if these are accurate as it seems everyone everywhere is better at actually fudging the numbers, but...

Earnings were around 64 million on sales of 1.5 billion. GC accounted for 77% of revenue in the 4th quarter, (leaving 23% for Musician's Friend, American Music, etc. , I'm guessing).

GC acounts for between 20-25% of musical instrument/recording equipment sales in the US. It ain't Microsoft domination, more like Coke numbers.

Needless to say, Huge! And I have heard at least one person say GC is thinking of offering way fewer high end guitars in the future. In which case, those companies that rely heavily on GC (as most do), may find themselves soon scrambling to make up sales.

Hope this is just false rumor as I still enjoy going in there to play high end guitars (that never seem to play or sound better than my Lukes, and the new Albert...not that I'm implying eb isn't high end, duh)
KEITH

Musicians Friend is a part of GC....don't forget their competitors tho'...like Sam Ash.

 

[slukather]

This question is primarily for Big Poppa, should he have the time and inclination to respond. But everyone else is welcome to chime in, as always.. especially those of you in the business of musical instruments.

I know that here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania it is very difficult to find a Music Man guitar on a store wall. From reading the forum, this seems to be true in other places as well.

Now, I'll take that a step further and say that I've noticed that most local stores are not carrying any high-end guitars in stock, with the possible exception of the Christmas shopping season. This post does not apply to Guitar Center, which seems to be the one place where you can expect to find some high-end stuff in stock.

When I ask the local guys, they claim that the high-end axes hang on the wall too long before selling. So, I would like to hear from some folks in the industry what might remedy this situation somewhat.

I called my two nearest EBMM dealers when I was in the market for a Petrucci. I wanted to play one before plunking down my hard-earned cash, you know? Alas, the local dealers didn't have a one of 'em. In fact, they each had perhaps a single EBMM 6-string in stock. (They *DO* tend to have StingRays everywhere, though.)

It's not just EBMM guitars, by any means. My local ESP dealer only has the low-end LTD guitars in stock. I think there's a single Charvel on a shelf in nearby McKees Rocks.

You can find PRS, Suhr, Brian Moore, and of course Gibson and Fender guitars without any problem.

What can be done to help local dealers stock more EBMM guitars? Maybe more advertising would stir up more interest? You've got the greatest players in the world endorsing your guitars but apparently that's not enough. I realize that the laws of supply and demand rule supreme, but can something be done to upset the equilibrium?

I'm doing my part by singing the praises of my JP6 to anyone who will listen (especially if they play guitar). I'm toting my JP6 into the local stores to try it out with various amps, and taking the opportunity to show it off to the store owners and staffers, and just generally brag about how good it is.

Is there anything more that we players can do to help these local store owners see the error of their ways?

Let's have a little brainstorm, shall we? Try to keep this thread constructive!

At all my local guitar stores, it's all Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, PRS etc etc, as phatduckk said, generic brands, most are cheap, fragile looking, play like crap, sound like crap.

I was lucky, there was a JP in a music store, so l got to try one before l bought mine. They tried to sell it to me, but they only took $70 off the price tag, and it had a stress crack, and had been sitting on the shelf for the past 1-2 years, it was in desperate need of a set up. I laughed at the guy when he said he'll take $70 off, l threw the guitar at him and told him "f6ck you".

Scott.

 

[kbaim]

Musicians Friend is a part of GC....don't forget their competitors tho'...like Sam Ash.

True.

What I was saying was that 77% of GC's revenue (not industry rev) came from the GC chain. Leaving 23% for GC's other divisions like, mf and american music.

Does anyone know if Sam Ash is #2 in the industry and how big their slice of the pie is? And does anyone know if GC is really planning on carrying fewer high end guitars?

KEITH

 

[kbaim]

Btw...2 or 3 years ago GC stock was at $5. It's now in the low 50's I think.

Anyone smart enough to buy it back then?

I sure wasn't.

Let's see, I've bought 7 ebmm guitars since then which equals roughly $10,000. That would've bought 2000 shares at 5 bucks each.

2000X$50 price now equals $100,000

...but now I'm just pissing myself off.


Hope ernie1966doesn't read this.


KEITH

 

[kbaim]

Oops. My mistake. The stock is closer to 60. Make that $120,000.

 

[SteveB]

francric,

You've got a good idea there with the 'dealer exchange' concept. I don't know how practical it would be to implement such a thing, but I like the idea. I know nothing about retailing guitars... I just buy 'em and play 'em.

JimmyP,

That's fantastic that Strings'n'Things would send a Music Man to your local retailer for your perusal. I've never had that type of offer from a local store.


All:
Well, as I said originally, Guitar Center is exempt from what I'm describing in this post, as they do seem to carry high end stuff for the here and now. (And I *DO* consider EBMM to be high-end.)

My real concern is how to compel smaller stores to carry EBMM guitars in stock. Obviously, if the demand were created, the stores would have 'em. But, I think that these guitars could be sold if the local store staff had a little training about the instruments. Let them know to point out the nice birdseye, the quilt tops, the locking tuners, the tremolo that stays in tune without locking the nut, the attention to fret work, the unfinished neck, the easy truss rod access, and so on.

This would work well when a staffer could hand the customer another brand for comparison on certain features. Let 'em feel the fretwork on a Squire versus a SUB1. You get the idea..

 

[edensdad]

My local dealer in Seminole, FL - Express Music - has 4 or 5 Petruccis (both LE models), a couple of Silo's, 3 or 4 subs, a Benji Madden, and just told me he was ordering the new Morse 20th model. (I don't really ever look at the basses, but I'm sure he's loaded up there). I guess it depends on how the ordering/shipping systems works - when I bought my JP in Nov - he didn't have a single one.

 

[kbaim]

And will the first forum member with the BENJI MADDEN signature come on down!








Anyone? Hello? Hmmnn.

 

[jimmyp]

And will the first forum member with the BENJI MADDEN signature come on down!



Anyone? Hello? Hmmnn.

Try the Busted fan club site

 

[jongitarz]

And will the first forum member with the BENJI MADDEN signature come on down!








Anyone? Hello? Hmmnn.

You guys think you are gonna get on Big Poppa's good side with posts like this?

 

[Lew]

It's great that Big Poppa is looking at these forums and I am sure that he can take a bit of Keith's humour....I mean...look at the bongo,the guy does have a sense of humour see

Beside's we have you Jon!
Your the one who answerd my p.m's about wood or how best to deal with a nut issue in my time of need.
And get's our DOB's.

FWIW I know i'm not alone when I say
your'e the daddy

 

[jongitarz]

Thanks Lew! Sterling, I had nothing to do with this!!!

 

[kbaim]

It's great that Big Poppa is looking at these forums and I am sure that he can take a bit of Keith's humour....

Let's hope so.



KEI...I mean, just another guitar hack customer.

 

[bluebullet]

as far as the benji thing goes its all about exposer. luke and steve and albert are great musicians but the kids dont know who they are and never see them play. Music Man signed somebody that the kids will see. its probably a good move even if that model doesnt sell, it gets the company name in there head. when every signed artist you have is at least 50 thats not exactly a bridge to the next generation.

 

[OrangeChannel]

You guys think you are gonna get on Big Poppa's good side with posts like this?

To boot, we ain't on the low end of the sonic spectrum...sheesh!