I'm confused

Welcome back fret heads and twang queens....people read a blog expecting definitive opinions and amazing insight but this time you ain't gonna get it...oh no dear readers. Because I am perplexed and confused! Firstly we hear all this talk and commentary for better informed and higher paid men than me concerning the state of consumer spending and the "high street", but sales of guitars were up 3.4% in December according to GK market research (whatever that means right).

More tellingly those of whose involved in this guitar dealing game are seeing a very odd phenomena. Most guitar shops and dealers with premises work on a 100% markup/markdown system. You buy a guitar worth a grand from one dealer take it round the corner to another dealer and you will be offered £500 for it regardless of age condition You might be able to haggle them up to £600 if you are lucky...but there you go! So quite clearly your cash strapped guitar owner isn't going to retail stores. Now with the plethora of freeads sites across the U.K. I counted 9 in total and I am sure there are more, you would think that there would be some great deals available on there with people selling guitars at knock down in order to pay off credit card bills and the gas bill etc....once again it isnt so! So what dear readers is going on out there in second hand guitar land? A couple of guitar dealer mates I know are complaining about the problems of replenishing high end stock when you have to spend £40,000 - £50,000 a quarter to keep well in with the main distributors of the type of high end guitars we all know and love. So in turning to the second hand market they have found a dearth of good quality guitars that have been well looked after and require little setting up or any sort of repair. I had expected there shops to be awash with nearly used and never abused eye candy given the current state of the economy but sadly the reverse seems to be the case! So dear readers where are all the great guitars hiding....answers on a postcard to.....

Its time to start recycling....great guitars!

You may think dear readers that a huge 9.6% slump in Japanese factory output announced today would have little or no effect on the world of guitar. But think again that factory output includes the factories that make many of the guitars imported from the Far East, South Korea and China are showing similar if not quite so bad figures. This means only one thing, global trade is starting to dry up as the recession/depression bites. I am not saying it will be as bad as the 1950's with trade barriers and high import duties, but neither will there be a free flow of goods between nations. At the moment this is due to supply chain corrections where dealers don't order from distributors and so on back to the factory gate. So get used to looking at pretty much the same stock on dealers walls until this recession sorts itself. Until then I foresee much of the trade as being in second hand guitars, swaps and trade ins....second hand goods always sell well in times of recession as people "cut their cloth". I foresee guitars coming out of private collections and from under people's beds. What will be interesting is what prices they realise when they do actually appear.

The Top Five Guitars We Like This Week

1. PRS Prism Al Di Meola
2. Hutchins Brian Jones "Vox" Teardrop
3. Gibson Les Paul 295 Goldtop 'Its a Gibson, its like an ES 295, its a Les Paul, what's not to like?'
4. Fender Road Worn Mexican Relics "How Cool....?"
5. Michael Messer Blues Resonator "How Cheap....?"

Until next time fret heads!