2020: Biggest Year EVER for Guitar

2020: Biggest Year EVER for Guitar

Howdy gang, so last week we talked about the dismal state of live music through 2020, and our hopes for a brighter future.  However, there is an enormous silver lining to have came out of the dark cloud of 2020.  Fender announced that they sold more new guitars in 2020 than in any year in history ... ever!  Wow. Read the whole uber-cool story at Guitar World HERE.  Seriously, it's worth the read.  Just as good is this article in the New York Times entitled "Guitars are Back, Baby!".  Folks, ya just flat NEED to read that one.  In this era of discouragement, we can ALL use a little encouragement.

Let's talk about the WHY of this resurgence!

First, I've just got to say that the Fender thing really does not take me by surprise all that much.  I mean, they really ARE making the coolest guitars of any company EVER in the history of guitar making.  A few years back I was invited to Fender's new digs on the LA strip, and met all the new team members.  It was obvious:  things had changed.  Fender was back to being a company with a 100% fully operational give-a-damn, and they were all about finding out exactly what people actually WANTED in a guitar ... and then actually MAKING those guitars.  Seams it payed off BIG TIME.  Go figure!  Paying attention here Gibson?

And second:  yep, during the xenophobic lock-down of the "pandemic" folks afraid of their family, friends, and neighbors at least were NOT afraid of buying a guitar and working toward that life-long goal of learning to play the darn thing.  So, just like we found in last weeks blog, there IS yet another silver lining to this pandemic insanity: folks are buying guitars and (presumably) learning to play.  Cool beans!  So for all of you new players reading this blog; be prepared, someday you'll once again be permitted to interact with other real live musicians, and when that happens ... DO IT!  Woodshed your arse off and get ready to rock with a band y'all; there ain't nothin' in life :-)