Phillip’s Blog

So lately I have been chatting a little with an acquaintance of mine who owns a high end guitar shop (the best in my opinion) in Toronto Canada. He mentioned that surprisingly, even though there is a recession, their profit for the last fiscal year was down only a small percentage from the previous year, which was their best year yet. I guess that it’s safe to say that guitarists who are serious enough will get what they need regardless of the state of the economy.  Business is not down much from before this recession occurred.

Now with the above in mind and with the rising Canadian dollar now is a good time to buy a guitar in Canada.  Not so much for Americans, but guitars are often cheaper down there any way. And there are many builders out there who know that one cannot afford guitars that cost tens of thousands of dollars, so it is achievable for the average joe guitar player to get a really nice instrument made for them at good price.  I was visiting with G.W Barry, who built one of my guitars, about the issue last month. From a builders point of view there are some out there who seem to feel as if they have the right to demand a $25 000.00 price tag for their instruments. Without having the rep to back up the investment. From what I’ve heard through various networks those builders don’t  get many customers.       Gord (G.W Barry) on the other hand, and may other guitar makers, who truly love what they do who charge reasonable rates and make an instrument that is often just as good, if not better that the “high price” makers. I do want to make it clear that there are certainly some builders out there( like Manzer and Laskin, on the Canadian side of the border)  who sell at a high price, but have been around longer than almost anyone. They have withstood the test of time and their works speaks for itself. They are great builders.

As more ideas and personal notes regarding the guitar come to mind I will post more. If anyone happens to come across my little blog and has any questions regarding any of what I have said please feel free to respond and ask. I would be glad to answer as soon as I get the chance. Take care guitar players and I will see you next time.

Phil

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.