While My Guitar Gently Weeps

I just finished a very long week of work which means I have had plenty of time to come up with more of my lunatic ravings.  I'll give a quick view into my creative process before getting to my subject.

Work for me involves long periods of driving, mostly at night, on mostly deserted roads.  To keep myself alert, I carry on conversations with, give lectures to and teach lessons to myself.  The subject matter comes from things I've read, heard or seen, and I'll spend hours examining and debating a subject.  Then I come home, go to sleep, wake up and the brilliant and insightful message I spent all night preparing comes out as incoherent rambling.

About 18 months ago I decided to teach myself how to play the guitar.  After some research, I headed to the local Guitar Center, found a used Ibanez acoustic guitar and bought it for a good price.  Knowing next to nothing about guitars, I ended up getting a good one and it goes with me in the truck every week.  Since that time I've bought and sold other guitars and I now have a 12 string acoustic, 3 electrics (1 awesome, 1 decent, 1 crappy) and 2 electric basses (1 excellent, 1 crappy), along with my original acoustic.  I've put a lot of effort into learning to play and either I'm a really bad teacher or a very slow student.  The problem does not appear to be with the guitar.  Still, I enjoy what I play and slowly I'm improving.

No musical instrument exemplifies American music like the guitar.  It is the Grand Ol' Opry and Woodstock, Eddie Van Halen and James Taylor.  Unless you're a drummer or a bass player, you probably can name only a few of the icons on these instruments, but the list of guitar players goes on and on.  The guitar itself has become a very important symbol for America and our freedom.

If the guitar is symbolic of our music, then the Fender Stratocaster is the symbol for all guitars.  The list of players who became legends on the Strat is too long to even begin.  Personally, I prefer the Les Paul to the Stat, but I'm in the minority.  There is something about having a guitar that weighs as much as a recliner strapped around your neck that appeals to me.  Currently, the Fender company is in trouble and their future is uncertain.  A big part of that uncertainty revolves around Guitar Center.

Guitar Center is by far the largest retailer of guitars in the United States.  Just this week they opened their 238th store and I believe they have opened up several new stores in just the past few months.  On the surface that looks good.  The downside is that in 2007 Guitar Center was acquired in a leveraged buyout by Bain Capital.  For a brief education on leveraged buyouts see my post "Money,.. It's a hit.  Bain Capital has a proven track record for making money for Bain Capital.  They also have a very long history of bankrupting companies and putting them out of business.

The Musical Instrument industry is heavily influenced by the economy.  If the economy is weak, lots of used instruments are available and cheap, so why buy a new guitar?  If the economy is strong, then sales of new instruments will increase.  Since 2007, our economy has been struggling, although it appears to be showing signs of a slight recovery.  So why has Guitar Center opened up 19 new stores in the past 16 months?  The existing stores are losing money at an alarming rate and industry experts have described their current business model as unsustainable.  Without a major overhaul of Guitar Center's operations, the only question is when they will go out of business, not if they will go out of business.

Between the weak economy and some poor business decisions by management, Fender is having their own difficulties.  Without the sales going to Guitar Center's continued expansion, they would have probably already gone under.  Once Guitar Center goes down, Fender and possibly Gibson will go with it.  Gibson and Fender both manufacture the majority of their guitars overseas, so the U.S. manufacturing losses will be minimal, but the retail unemployment problems will be significant.  Perhaps more importantly, the heart an soul of our music will be a thing of the past.

This is not an appeal for everyone to run out and buy something from Guitar Center.  Personally, I've chosen to avoid them so that I don't in any way add to the fortunes of the bloodsucking parasites at Bain Capital.  But, when the company that helped give us the music of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and Stevie Ray Vaughn goes away, think about how much has been taken from our lives by the greed of Bain Capital and all the other groups that are happy to destroy lives, even entire industries in order to make more money.  The thrill is definitely gone...