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Vintage threads from the first ten years

previous: Anon Mark, why are you so quick to shoot down everything?? -- 5/16/2000 1:46 AM

Because I like people and respect craftsmanship

5/16/2000 1:45 PM
Mark Hammer	Because I like people and respect craftsmanship Kudos for retaining your optimism. Cherish it and nurture it. We need more of it. Although the world is chock full of plenty of ideas that are exciting and just waiting for the gate to open, the commercial world is similarly full of bright-eyed brainstorms that went down the storm-drain because they were impractical. I'd love to give my full endorsement to ANY nifty idea that shows up here, but at the end of it somebody will want to make a living...and that's the sticky point. It's certainly not MY sticky point (Lord knows I'll probably never live any better than a graduate student), but it's a sticky point for a lot of people. I like to encourage people, but I like them to be safe from harm too. A company like Texas Instruments or Apple can screw up with a poorly implemented computer, and take a hit. A guy working out of his basement with his mortgage money can't afford that more than once, if at all. If you have never seen them, get hold of some back issues of Guitar Player. I'm not talking 1992 issues. I'm talking 1974 issues, through 1985. What you'll see is an endless parade of ads for stuff that would generate exuberant threads here, but they died horrible painful deaths because they were poorly implemented, had a limited market, or just weren't well thought-out enough to be commercially viable. The musical device world has had more than its fair share of Edsels. I suppose that if a large company with stable sales of its major catalog items wanted to futz around with on-board effects for a year, just for variety, then I'd give it my blessing. In the end, we'd all smile wistfully and say "Hey, remember those XYZ guitars with the on-board chorus? They were way cool." If a pedal maker wanted to trot out a deluxe tube-based special-order "trophy" item for trade shows (like Gibson's USA Map guitar), cool. No different than PRS making a few special order guitars with fancy inlay. Where I get pessimistic is when someone starts thinking that a cool idea is necessarily a sustainable idea. Witness the re-birth of Electro-Harmonix. You will note that their line of products is approximately one third to one quarter of their original line, as of the early 1980's. Anyone familiar with the published aspects of their corporate history knows that there were a lot of things that went into its downfall in the 80's, so I won't heap blame on the overextension of their product line. HOWEVER, you will note that with all that unpleasantness behind them, with solid sales around them, and a bright future in front of them, EH is sticking to a dozen or so products. Even though they don't rely on out of production components, many of the things that were catalog items in 1982 will never see the light of day again....because it is too risky and the market just ain't there. In keeping with this, my bold prediction is that we can expect to see Danelectro going through the cycle of a burst of products, followed by a trimming back of their line, as they realize that the world doesn't need or crave another 8 distortion units that sound like the 197 already competing for the market. I have every confidence that Zack's on-board stuff will incorporate his usual dose of whimsy, counter-intuitiveness and lateral-thinking, and be well-designed to boot. I don't have every confidence that sinking a big chunk of resources into this will be rewarded by continued sales, for all the reasons (or at least some of them) mentioned in my posting in that thread. I'd like to think that Zack is still making cool stuff in 2005, and that he hasn't thrown up his hands in bankrupt despair and gone off into e-commerce web-hosting BS. So, I'm light, but when you think people are wandering too close to the edge of the cliff, voiced pessimism is good too.

5/16/2000 1:45 PM

Mark Hammer

Because I like people and respect craftsmanship

Kudos for retaining your optimism. Cherish it and nurture it. We need more of it.

Although the world is chock full of plenty of ideas that are exciting and just waiting for the gate to open, the commercial world is similarly full of bright-eyed brainstorms that went down the storm-drain because they were impractical. I'd love to give my full endorsement to ANY nifty idea that shows up here, but at the end of it somebody will want to make a living...and that's the sticky point. It's certainly not MY sticky point (Lord knows I'll probably never live any better than a graduate student), but it's a sticky point for a lot of people. I like to encourage people, but I like them to be safe from harm too. A company like Texas Instruments or Apple can screw up with a poorly implemented computer, and take a hit. A guy working out of his basement with his mortgage money can't afford that more than once, if at all.

If you have never seen them, get hold of some back issues of Guitar Player. I'm not talking 1992 issues. I'm talking 1974 issues, through 1985. What you'll see is an endless parade of ads for stuff that would generate exuberant threads here, but they died horrible painful deaths because they were poorly implemented, had a limited market, or just weren't well thought-out enough to be commercially viable. The musical device world has had more than its fair share of Edsels.

I suppose that if a large company with stable sales of its major catalog items wanted to futz around with on-board effects for a year, just for variety, then I'd give it my blessing. In the end, we'd all smile wistfully and say "Hey, remember those XYZ guitars with the on-board chorus? They were way cool." If a pedal maker wanted to trot out a deluxe tube-based special-order "trophy" item for trade shows (like Gibson's USA Map guitar), cool. No different than PRS making a few special order guitars with fancy inlay. Where I get pessimistic is when someone starts thinking that a cool idea is necessarily a *sustainable* idea.

Witness the re-birth of Electro-Harmonix. You will note that their line of products is approximately one third to one quarter of their original line, as of the early 1980's. Anyone familiar with the published aspects of their corporate history knows that there were a lot of things that went into its downfall in the 80's, so I won't heap blame on the overextension of their product line. HOWEVER, you will note that with all that unpleasantness behind them, with solid sales around them, and a bright future in front of them, EH is sticking to a dozen or so products. Even though they don't rely on out of production components, many of the things that were catalog items in 1982 will never see the light of day again....because it is too risky and the market just ain't there. In keeping with this, my bold prediction is that we can expect to see Danelectro going through the cycle of a burst of products, followed by a trimming back of their line, as they realize that the world doesn't need or crave another 8 distortion units that sound like the 197 already competing for the market.

I have every confidence that Zack's on-board stuff will incorporate his usual dose of whimsy, counter-intuitiveness and lateral-thinking, and be well-designed to boot. I don't have every confidence that sinking a big chunk of resources into this will be rewarded by continued sales, for all the reasons (or at least some of them) mentioned in my posting in that thread. I'd like to think that Zack is still making cool stuff in 2005, and that he hasn't thrown up his hands in bankrupt despair and gone off into e-commerce web-hosting BS.

So, I'm light, but when you think people are wandering too close to the edge of the cliff, voiced pessimism is good too.

Replies:

aron I understand what you are saying Ma... -- 5/16/2000 8:21 PM