NAVIGATING THE EVOLVING GUITAR CULTURE
NAVIGATING THE EVOLVING GUITAR CULTURE
In the years leading up to the pandemic , the guitar industry already had one foot in the grave . Electric guitar sales had plummeted from about 1.5 million units annually to just over 1 million . The biggest , most venerable companies , including the likes of Gibson and Fender , were deep in debt , laying off staff , and shuttering factories . Some companies , Gibson among them , filed for bankruptcy .
Guitar culture found itself on life support . And with a glut of small makers contributing still more excess capacity , things were only going from bad to worse . Indeed , the market was plunged into freefall thanks to the perfect storm combination of oversaturation , an aging Boomer generation ( a dominant guitar-buying demographic ), a shaky recovery from the 2008 meltdown , and Millennials ’ abject lack of interest in the instrument .
Enter COVID and its attendant remote work paradigm . Suddenly millions of idle hands found something new ( or rediscovered something old ) to do : play guitar ! What a difference a year makes . The tide had turned , with demand quickly outstripping supply . And the slope of that demand is still holding strong . All the major guitar makers are witnessing the biggest sales numbers in their histories , with lead times only stretching further . And with the current shortages in guitar supply , you can be sure that the entire supply chain is affected . The raw materials have never seen such demand , and competition for them is fierce — tonewoods foremost among them , which were already facing sustainability issues .
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( CITES )
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