How has the pandemic influenced the guitar world?
When rock’s biggest believers claimed some time ago that the guitar will never die, few people believed them, seeing how the sales of brands like Fender and Gibson were falling more and more. The latter even filed for bankruptcy and went into private equity to try to get itself back on its feet.
Guitar sales were collapsing, due to the rise of artists and groups where the instrument was not the main actor. One could hear phrases from illustrious musicians such as “the guitar is over” or “the slow death of the electric guitar”.
But 2020 came and with it the pandemic that, in most sectors, has been a great blow to all economic sectors. But the guitar has been able to adapt, especially because of the ease of distribution and sale through the internet and taking advantage of the free time available in confinement.
Being so much time at home has awakened old hobbies, dreams and creativity, which added to the ease of learning online with free online courses and tutorials has made the guitar to be present again.
Fender has published that 2020 has been the year with more sales in its history, Gibson has doubled its production capacity and has increased its workforce to assume the increase in sales volume, helped by the new addition of its CEO James Curleigh who has returned to the traditional characteristics of Gibson guitars.
The final important message is that “many of the guitar buyers are young people” so we can say that “Guitar and Rock never dies“.
