Sam Ash on the decline

[Dave W]

Sam Ash to close 18 of its 44 US stores

They've been advertising a15% off code on Facebook the past couple of weeks, applicable to anything in stock, even to brands with MAP. They're obviously in inventory reduction mode. Not a good sign.

[Alanko]

Covid-related lockdown was probably the last time there will ever be a surge in guitar sales for these big, generic retailers with physical stores. Guitar 'culture' seems increasingly irrelevant and at odds with the direction popular music is taking. Coverage of NAMM from thus year looked especially desolate, with several major manufactures notable in their absence. Increasingly, guitar culture is becoming akin to baseball card collecting, with a smaller pool of hobbyists with deep pockets determining the discourse. $600 boutique overdrive pedals that never leave the 'man cave', etc.

[Ken]

Covid-related lockdown was probably the last time there will ever be a surge in guitar sales for these big, generic retailers with physical stores. Guitar 'culture' seems increasingly irrelevant and at odds with the direction popular music is taking. Coverage of NAMM from thus year looked especially desolate, with several major manufactures notable in their absence. Increasingly, guitar culture is becoming akin to baseball card collecting, with a smaller pool of hobbyists with deep pockets determining the discourse. $600 boutique overdrive pedals that never leave the 'man cave', etc.

Totally agree with the baseball card collecting reference.  I see so much of it in the TalkBass Thunderbird group.  WHY?

Not sure about guitar culture becoming irrelevant, though.  I see a lot of really good younger players, and with the writeups about Taylor Swift influencing tons of young women to pick up a guitar.

[gearHed289]

They just closed the one near me (Buffalo Grove, IL). Kind of shocking while not shocking at all. I barely ever set foot in a music store anymore. I almost never buy a NEW bass, and I buy strings online.

And Alan's comments bring up something I've been thinking about a lot lately. The bubble is going to burst on things like guitars and muscle cars, and I'm sure a lot of other things. The people who worship these things are getting to the age where they're selling things off or dying. Guitars and cars are outrageously priced right now, but I don't see them as a good investment anymore. Their popularity won't go away completely, but demand will eventually plummet, and so will values. Just my opinion.

[uwe]

Everything seems better when looking back. We live in an era which will one day to a lot of people appear as "good old times".

I believe that rock will remain a sizable niche market (it already is) with some longevity. And to a young band still playing rock in say 2040, something like a 90ies TBird will be a thing of awe and wonder. My son who is in fashion buys old denim from 1890 or so or narrowly post-WWII beaver felt stocks for the California company he works for, he laughingly ascribes "vintage & mojo voodoo" to them. There is definitely a market for that and it's not nostalgic baby boomers, it's (well-to-do) people in their 20ies to 40ies.

[gearHed289]

I see your point, but look at the percentage of "well-to-do" people versus the general public. I still think supply will outpace demand.

[Dave W]

Sad news.

[uwe]

The small dinosaurs died first (mom and pop stores), but the larger ones followed in due course.

[Alanko]

Everything seems better when looking back.

[Dave W]

[uwe]

🤣 Oh, so you did find a pic of a couple of Heinkel 111s in flying in formation rather than shot-down state? That was rare during the Battle of Britain.

The He 111 was a good-looking plane and also the reliable and robust backbone bomber of the Luftwaffe (all other available German bomber types were more fickle and fidgety), but nothing you could build a strategic bomber force with. As Mark once said, "flying artillery", that sums it up.

[slinkp]

Sam Ash holds a special place in my heart. I'm sorry that the Huntington, NY store is already gone. It was the best-stocked store in driving distance from the north shore of Long Island where I grew up. As a young geeky aspiring rocker in the 80s, I constantly begged my mom to drive me the hour it took to get there, so I could meekly try to get the staff to let me play various basses.  It was the time period when you might still hear "Stairway" from the guitar area mingling with endless repetitions of "Jump" from the ever-growing keyboard section.

I bought my first instrument there, a terrible Montoya thing that my mom paid $50 for at a used sale, as well as its replacement, the Ibanez Blazer that I still have. Got my first amp and pedals there too.

I hope they don't shut down all the locations. I'll have to go check out the remaining Manhattan store and see what's there.

[Dave W]

...
I hope they don't shut down all the locations. I'll have to go check out the remaining Manhattan store and see what's there.

It's official, all stores are closing.

https://www.samash.com/closing-stores

[uwe]

I bought my Kubicki Factor in their Manhattan store in 1988, sniff ...

[Alanko]

🤣 Oh, so you did find a pic of a couple of Heinkel 111s in flying in formation rather than shot-down state? That was rare during the Battle of Britain.

The He 111 was a good-looking plane and also the reliable and robust backbone bomber of the Luftwaffe (all other available German bomber types were more fickle and fidgety), but nothing you could build a strategic bomber force with. As Mark once said, "flying artillery", that sums it up.

I've seen the preserved He 111 in the RAF museum in Hendon (I'm 99% sure it is a Heinkel rather than a CASA, dressed up as a Luftwaffe aircraft). It is an elegant machine! Tucking the engines next to the fuselage, combined with the wing profile, make it look a bit more advanced than a lot of British designs. The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, for example, definitely looks like it came from a prior era of aviation design despite being of similar age.