Originally Posted by
Brocephus
His point about times changing was also valid (and I think, misunderstood). Kids these days want instant, painless, easy, gratification, and modern technology is giving it to them.
Everyone wants that, and modern technology didn't just make it possible. It's the human condition - why do you think TV got so big? I definitely doubt "kids today" are what made cable TV so big in the 1980s/1990s/2000s. Fast food, too. Let's not get into drugs and alcohol.
Originally Posted by
Brocephus
The same concerns the OP mentions the bike industry having, is also affecting the guitar makers. It takes patience and dedication to master a musical instrument, and kids these days have less and less of those qualities, especially when modern "music" can be created on a lap top.
I had been thinking about the guitar industry since hearing of struggles Gibson was going through. Part of it may just be fashion changing - definitely in my teenage years we had a combination of computers, video games, and the Internet - yet many of us played (even I did for a bit). If anything, the 'net made it easier, since I could order my guitar online and get lessons online.
Literally nowhere in my town growing up sold Guitars. Not even the one music shop we had. Don't remember seeing a place advertise lessons, either, until I was about 20 or so.
Sales are down because a lot of the mainline stand-bys have declined in product quality yet not price - you pay a premium for a not-so-great guitar. Older ones were good, and they stick around because the actual guitar itself doesn't take much damage in use (and pickups on electronic ones can be readily replaced). Kids wouldn't be buying those nicher ones directly anyways - that's for more established players. Mine was a Behringer, just about everyone else I knew had a variety of no-names or
maybe a entry level model from some of the bigger ones.
If you swing by the pawn shop where I live now, they have an entire rack of guitars of varying makes and models. Were I to start playing again, I might check there for a good deal on a higher-end model maybe - or grab an inexpensive one online.
FWIW my toddler seems to like playing around with a busted up old one my wife has around, so once she's actually physically large enough to hold a child's guitar I plan on getting her one.
To bring this back around to bikes, a lot of the above about guitars parallels what others here have said about bikes - BSOs from Walmart (etc) do still sell (and the quality may have gotten better overtime - definitely better now than when I was a kid). It's the bigger name brands that seem to have issues - and kids likely wouldn't be buying them anyways.