RIP Sam Ash. All stores closing

MaxOfMetal · May 6, 2024

Sermo Lupi said:
This is sort of how I see it. It is a window into the industry, but not necessarily into its overall health.

Looking in from the outside as a non-American, I'd imagine the doomsaying is mainly from the fact Sam Ash was once a big name in the industry, no? I remember hearing their name thrown around alongside Sweetwater's back in the day, albeit ages ago when Sweetwater was likely a fraction of its current size. How big was Mars Music in comparison?

Retail giants are shrinking their physical presence in many industries now, as well. This has coincided with a period of considerable corporate prosperity, but the writing is sort of on the wall as far as big box stores go.

In the 90's Mars Music was the second largest musical instrument dealer in the US, and just about the biggest in the Southeastern part of the country. They sponsored concerts and festivals had a fairly big media presence, at least in the pre-social media days. At their height they had 40+ stores in 20 states, so basically half the Continental US.

Sam Ash would replace Mars as number two, but didn't expand from the Northeast until around the time Mars was failing. I want to say they had a similar number of stores and footprint until closures started maybe 10 years ago.

It's important to note that Sam Ash had been on a somewhat steady decline for at least a decade, closing at least a store or two a year since 2015.

In comparison Sweetwater was a small five person studio gear business run out of the dude's house until the late 90's. They focused on studio gear, and more importantly information and tutorials and sort of hit it off in the internet age. They grew super quickly and since they didn't have a sprawling chain of stores to prop up they were able to do it safely.

Sermo Lupi · May 6, 2024

MaxOfMetal said:
In the 90's Mars Music was the second largest musical instrument dealer in the US, and just about the biggest in the Southeastern part of the country. They sponsored concerts and festivals had a fairly big media presence, at least in the pre-social media days. At their height they had 40+ stores in 20 states, so basically half the Continental US.

Sam Ash would replace Mars as number two, but didn't expand from the Northeast until around the time Mars was failing. I want to say they had a similar number of stores and footprint until closures started maybe 10 years ago.

It's important to note that Sam Ash had been on a somewhat steady decline for at least a decade, closing at least a store or two a year since 2015.

In comparison Sweetwater was a small five person studio gear business run out of the dude's house until the late 90's. They focused on studio gear, and more importantly information and tutorials and sort of hit it off in the internet age. They grew super quickly and since they didn't have a sprawling chain of stores to prop up they were able to do it safely.

Thanks for that--that fills in a lot of the gaps.

I grew up nearer to the Northeastern US, so probably a bit of a regional bias at play in my personal experience. By the time I was getting into gear online, that must've been around 2001, at which time Musicians Friend was the largest online retailer I was aware of. Sweetwater was growing rapidly via word of mouth, but, where Guitar Center and Sam Ash didn't really have much of an online presence yet, the advice was often to try to travel to stores if you could. Sam Ash was mentioned a lot in terms of finding good deals on gear.

Even accounting for that bias, the entire physical retail industry feels more tenuous to me today than it did in 2002 when Mars Music officially shuttered. Socio-economic realities are different, which, while not necessarily affecting the overall volume of guitars being sold these days, does affect consumer buying habits and where they shop.

I could see mom-and-pop shops making a comeback before big retail outlets, honestly. Which isn't to say tiny...those middle-sized kind of places that are large enough to gain traction as dealers but are small enough in terms of regional influence.

STRHelvete · May 6, 2024

STRHelvete said:
I got my first guitar from a Sam Ash store. Epiphone Bully SG. Sad to see the company to go...oh well, anyways, Y'ALL MUFFUGGAS GOT GUITARS FOR CHEAP?!

Oh wait...it wasn't Sam Ash it was Mars Music where I got my first guitar. Well anyways...SALES!?

MaxOfMetal · May 6, 2024

Sermo Lupi said:
Thanks for that--that fills in a lot of the gaps.

I grew up nearer to the Northeastern US, so probably a bit of a regional bias at play in my personal experience. By the time I was getting into gear online, that must've been around 2001, at which time Musicians Friend was the largest online retailer I was aware of. Sweetwater was growing rapidly via word of mouth, but, where Guitar Center and Sam Ash didn't really have much of an online presence yet, the advice was often to try to travel to stores if you could. Sam Ash was mentioned a lot in terms of finding good deals on gear.

Even accounting for that bias, the entire physical retail industry feels more tenuous to me today than it did in 2002 when Mars Music officially shuttered. Socio-economic realities are different, which, while not necessarily affecting the overall volume of guitars being sold these days, does affect consumer buying habits and where they shop.

I could see mom-and-pop shops making a comeback before big retail outlets, honestly. Which isn't to say tiny...those middle-sized kind of places that are large enough to gain traction as dealers but are small enough in terms of regional influence.

Sam Ash locations usually felt more like smaller, more "mom and pop" sort of shops, but that too stopped when they thought they could beat GC at their own game.

I don't see small general purpose music stores ever coming back. It's all going to be specialty and boutiques shops that survive.

Andromalia · May 6, 2024

Sermo Lupi said:
I totally agree that the late 2000s and early 2010s were pretty much the peak of gear trading in hindsight, though. Despite the marketplaces being less robust (no 'one-stop' shopping, poor quality photos on listings, a lot of gear trading went on behind closed doors in forums, etc.), the prices were generally pretty good and people weren't so panicked to miss out on things.

As a side note, as a non-american, that peak coincided with the US Dollar being pretty weak relative to the €. I did a few excellent deals importing stuff from the USA, including an ESP Viper for 700€. Gibson and Fender were affordable. (Some other US brands weren't, really, but it was more because of distributor greed)

Overall, we are nowadays in a consumption crisis, for everybody. Even Apple is losing revenue. The luxury watch market is in crisis, too. People can't afford cars, which I suppose to an american is like me not being able to afford my daily baguette.

TLDR: it's not just guitars.

M3CHK1LLA · May 6, 2024

I work around a lot of people from all ages and backgrounds and speak to them on a daily basis.

Most of these younger folk don't even listen to rock, much less metal based music. Everything these days seems to revolve around rap and hip-hop. No need for guitars.

I think that's pretty evident if you watch any popular music videos or even movies (soundtracks). In. at least the last 10 years, rock and metal have been on the decline.

This would take its toll on any busines that sells guitars, drums and related equipment. Couple that with more and more people ordering online. Brick and mortar stores are becoming a thing of the past sadly.

Why would these kids who don't even care about this type of music buy anything when they can do it all on their computers...and it's cheaper.

Shawn · May 6, 2024

RIP Sam Ash. I bought alot of good stuff from Sam Ash.

OmegaSlayer · May 6, 2024

Andromalia said:
As a side note, as a non-american, that peak coincided with the US Dollar being pretty weak relative to the €. I did a few excellent deals importing stuff from the USA, including an ESP Viper for 700€. Gibson and Fender were affordable. (Some other US brands weren't, really, but it was more because of distributor greed)

Overall, we are nowadays in a consumption crisis, for everybody. Even Apple is losing revenue. The luxury watch market is in crisis, too. People can't afford cars, which I suppose to an american is like me not being able to afford my daily baguette.

TLDR: it's not just guitars.

Eh...but don't tell to some that capitalism is collapsing...

wankerness · May 6, 2024

Sermo Lupi said:
The online gear market is completely nuts these days, though, so it seems to me that as much or more money is being spent on gear as ever, it just is just going to online retailers/marketplaces, overpriced second-hand goods, and toward higher-end gear destined for collections. Maybe that gear ends up in fewer hands than it used to, but I don't think demand is the problem.

I think certain brick-and-mortars are struggling because they're being squeezed out of their market by their corporate partners rather than their consumers. Dealers simply aren't as valuable in terms of generating consumer interest as they used to be, which we've seen reflected in the manufacturer malaise toward trade shows like NAMM as well.

My suspicion is a lot of those online markets are just bustling cause of all the older people that are often just buying from each other over and over - either they are just selling stuff constantly and using that money to get something else, or they have more money than sense. I know a few old doctors that have like, an entire wall of guitars in their basement, many of them vintage super expensive ones, and none of them ever gig, and a couple of them can't even play guitar! So what I'm saying is, which is based on nothing more than what I've seen and guesses, is that the online market is a whole bunch of recycling of used gear between the same several thousand people. As opposed to back in the 00s, where there were vastly more consumers out there, and all the adolescents and college kids that were buying guitars certainly weren't looking on obscure forums on the internet for them, they were going to the local store. Now that the base of "people that buy guitars" has shrunk mainly to obsessives, it makes sense that the online marketplaces now seem to get the bulk of the traffic. The product and the client base are both really stale compared to where it was at in the early 00s at the height of everyone wanting to be like Korn or 3 Doors Down or try and get laid by playing Jack Johnson songs on an acoustic or whatever.

It's kind of weird, the local music stores around here still seem to be mostly doing OK, but the guitar sections have shrunk and everything related to concert band has expanded. I guess it's kind of like how chain stores are mostly phasing out DVDs/Blu-rays/4ks entirely (Best Buy, Target, etc).

Rev2010 · May 6, 2024

ElysianGuitars said:
I low key want one of those F shapes in a 5 string.

They actually have the same bass in 5-string but neck through body whereas mine is a bolt on. I've become a total neck through body whore and actually considered buying the neck through body version but as the old adage goes if it ain't broke don't fix it. The neck through version has different pickups than the EMG passives that are in mine and they just sound so damn good that I can't bring myself to "upgrade" it.

nightsprinter · May 6, 2024

For how I like to do my business, I think sweetwater sucks.

I want as little communication as possible with another human on the phone. I just use Zzounds. Shipping takes 1 to 2 days max for me, they don't ding your credit report if you want to use their 0% payment plan, if I don't want to pay what they're asking i just go to reverb - find another retail seller- add the guitar to my watch list, and get an automated 10% off offer from zzounds within a day, I like that I can request a return with zero questions asked at the click of a button on their site, and I like that they haven't blackballed me for returning half of what I buy from them due to my eagle eye for factory QC and wanting to get a good value for my money.

Grindspine · May 6, 2024

lost_horizon said:
What a dog crap take. The natural state of free market capitalism is for things to get cheaper unlike government where everything gets more expensive.

I thought the natural state of capitalism ends in monopoly without any outside interference or regulation. That topic belongs on a different thread though.

Sweetwater was still pretty small in 1996, but had built a cult following of synth players and studio engineers. The site on US 30 where the main store is located was literally the farm field across the street from my drummer's house when I was in high school. I was playing guitar on that block a decade before SW broke ground there! In 2014, when I started there, it was only a 1,700-person company. It blew up and expanded uncomfortably fast soon after.

Buffnuggler · May 7, 2024

youve got to remember too that most luxury markets pumped hard during covid. idk about watches but vintage jazzmasters and juniors quadrupled in price. pull back is healthy, it cant go up forever, but people start freaking out because all of a sudden you cant sell things, and it calls into question if these things have any real intrinsic value or if it is all just hype/marketing. i think social media has really made these cycles feel more brutal than they are.

if you are trying to sell gear that is rare/desirable, itll still sell for close to what it was worth at peak. people are getting destroyed on “everywhere” gear though because theres like 10+ of everything for sale. vintage guitars have held up shockingly well but prices are no longer increasing and rare stuff is no longer flying out as soon as its posted.

kiko loureiro just sold 3 LACS guitars for 15k a pop through his reverb store though, which is mind boggling. still lots of demand for the right stuff

JSKrev · May 7, 2024

I just bought a pickup from there for a good price. Not sure I'd bought from Sam Ash before that. The closest one was like CT.

littlebadboy · May 7, 2024

I agree on the mention above by @NickK-UK that kids nowadays just want to TikTok all day and not learning a skill or a hobby.

works0fheart · May 7, 2024

wankerness said:
It's less people buying guitars, flat-out. It's hard to say what the cause is, but it's definitely a thing. I mean, when I was in high school from 1998-2002, out of a class of like 150 students, we had like 4 different garage bands playing crappy hard rock/metal covers, and other classes had bands in them, too. These days it's a shocker if there's one band in the entire school. I've heard people speculate it's cause of social media making it so people are way more petrified to "put themselves out there" since anything they do will immediately be immortalized in video, but I think it's more just that rock music has not been popular in the mainstream sense since the early 00s. Like, you just don't see rock bands selling out big venues anymore unless they're a band that's been around since the early 00s if not earlier (Foo Fighters, Metallica, etc), and then most of the fans are old dudes. The only local rock bands you see anymore around here anyway are a bunch of over the hill dads who have day jobs. Some zoomers like bands like My Chemical Romance cause they liked them when they were 10 or whatever, but they don't seem to be much interested in actual new music.

And the impossibility of making enough money as a rock musician to even be able to like, afford health insurance in this country means it's no longer viable as a dream job for anyone.

Certainly plenty of zoomers listen to classic rock and stuff but only the real weirdos show any interest in actually learning how to play guitar, and they usually can't find anyone else that shares those interests to make a band with. The handful of weird high schoolers I've heard of the last several years (I have multiple music educators in my family and friends) have mostly been the type to just do everything themselves on their computer, either with a midi keyboard or just mouse/keyboard entry. We're just in a dark age for rock guitar.

Band programs have been suffering since Covid, but other than that I don't think there's a big change in the number of kids who take up instruments like that. They just aren't doing guitar or doing it purely as a hobby.

I'm kind of with you on this but I think rock music has just stagnated really hard in recent years. It's either the same bands that have been doing it forever or none at all.

I think the advent of the internet has also lead more kids to getting into metal now than ever before but being the (historically) less popular genre than rock and less accessible over all, I don't think as many people are getting into rock or guitar oriented music. Most of the young dudes I've worked with in the last few years usually immediately bring metal to mind when I tell them I play guitar or something. I really can't bring to mind a rock band that has come out in the last 10 years that's really done anything. Plenty of metal bands, sure, but not as many people are going to be drawn to that.

Rock music in general I think killed itself a bit in the late 2000's/early 2010's. It all started becoming so homogenized and boring that I think people just aren't interested. Sure, there are plenty of people who still like the stuff from the 2000's and prior and those bands sell out arenas and whatnot, but you don't have any more up-and-coming bands like there used to be. I'd hate to shit on people's taste, but I think the more radio-friendly sort of emo bands played a part in killing this stuff too. Bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, MCR, Fallout Boy, Paramore, etc. I think all of these bands are still around but I'd be hard pressed to call anything they really release now 'rock-music'. Hell, even before Linkin Park dissolved they were more pop-sounding I think with a little bit of that rock edginess.

It almost feels like we're back in a blending period of different genres but it's a little more acceptable now days and maybe even more well executed. Bands now days are pulling off these blends better than ever, but it's on the underground. In general underground music is kind of going through a bit of a golden age again. The creative juices are certainly flowing, but the outreach is definitely not there. We've probably all been to the metal shows where it's like 15 - 20 people in the place and then you notice that like 2 or 3 of them are young people.

It's also hard because we don't really listen to the radio anymore. We're all using Spotify or something now days where we're kind of staying within our bubble of interests and not really being exposed to things we didn't necessarily look for like when the radio was around. It's had a weird, ironic sort of effect where back in the day I would listen to the radio waiting to hear my favorite Metallica songs or something and with even dial-up internet being a thing in only a few households, it wasn't as easy to find the underground bands.

I guess basically when I think about it, new mainstream music died so that underground music could take off again. Bands that I grew up listening to that I used to go see for $10 - $30 are now hundreds of dollars. I think I saw Cannibal Corpse easily like 15 times in the 2000's and I probably paid at most $30 to see them. Even at big festivals. Summer Slaughter, Sounds of the Underground, hell, even Warped Tour, were pretty cheap to go to and the bands were way better. I was going to go see Cannibal Corpse with Gorguts this last year and it was expensive as shit. I just stayed home lol. I know this has a lot to do with the scummy business practices of Ticket Master and the like, but something has got to give.

Sorry for the old man yelling at clouds rant, but I really do think rock music absolutely killed itself years ago. Even harder than what happened in the 80's going into the 90's with grunge. The music world is long overdue for a shakeup, but it's so hard because it feels like it's all been done. As much as I don't like mainstream rock really, it was my gateway to playing guitar. If I'd never heard Metallica, The Offspring, Slipknot, Alice in Chains, etc, I probably wouldn't be playing guitar. It sucks that kids now days are just going to miss out on a world of great music because the stuff being shoved in their faces for 10 - 30 seconds at a time is just such braindead garbage that they can't even begin to form interests in anything else. There are any number of other things at play here that are toxic as fuck and not helping, such as social media rotting people's brains.

TL;DR - We need introductory rock music to make a come back to get kids interested again.

Spaced Out Ace · May 8, 2024

works0fheart said:
I'm kind of with you on this but I think rock music has just stagnated really hard in recent years. It's either the same bands that have been doing it forever or none at all.

I think the advent of the internet has also lead more kids to getting into metal now than ever before but being the (historically) less popular genre than rock and less accessible over all, I don't think as many people are getting into rock or guitar oriented music. Most of the young dudes I've worked with in the last few years usually immediately bring metal to mind when I tell them I play guitar or something. I really can't bring to mind a rock band that has come out in the last 10 years that's really done anything. Plenty of metal bands, sure, but not as many people are going to be drawn to that.

Rock music in general I think killed itself a bit in the late 2000's/early 2010's. It all started becoming so homogenized and boring that I think people just aren't interested. Sure, there are plenty of people who still like the stuff from the 2000's and prior and those bands sell out arenas and whatnot, but you don't have any more up-and-coming bands like there used to be. I'd hate to shit on people's taste, but I think the more radio-friendly sort of emo bands played a part in killing this stuff too. Bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, MCR, Fallout Boy, Paramore, etc. I think all of these bands are still around but I'd be hard pressed to call anything they really release now 'rock-music'. Hell, even before Linkin Park dissolved they were more pop-sounding I think with a little bit of that rock edginess.

It almost feels like we're back in a blending period of different genres but it's a little more acceptable now days and maybe even more well executed. Bands now days are pulling off these blends better than ever, but it's on the underground. In general underground music is kind of going through a bit of a golden age again. The creative juices are certainly flowing, but the outreach is definitely not there. We've probably all been to the metal shows where it's like 15 - 20 people in the place and then you notice that like 2 or 3 of them are young people.

It's also hard because we don't really listen to the radio anymore. We're all using Spotify or something now days where we're kind of staying within our bubble of interests and not really being exposed to things we didn't necessarily look for like when the radio was around. It's had a weird, ironic sort of effect where back in the day I would listen to the radio waiting to hear my favorite Metallica songs or something and with even dial-up internet being a thing in only a few households, it wasn't as easy to find the underground bands.

I guess basically when I think about it, new mainstream music died so that underground music could take off again. Bands that I grew up listening to that I used to go see for $10 - $30 are now hundreds of dollars. I think I saw Cannibal Corpse easily like 15 times in the 2000's and I probably paid at most $30 to see them. Even at big festivals. Summer Slaughter, Sounds of the Underground, hell, even Warped Tour, were pretty cheap to go to and the bands were way better. I was going to go see Cannibal Corpse with Gorguts this last year and it was expensive as shit. I just stayed home lol. I know this has a lot to do with the scummy business practices of Ticket Master and the like, but something has got to give.

Sorry for the old man yelling at clouds rant, but I really do think rock music absolutely killed itself years ago. Even harder than what happened in the 80's going into the 90's with grunge. The music world is long overdue for a shakeup, but it's so hard because it feels like it's all been done. As much as I don't like mainstream rock really, it was my gateway to playing guitar. If I'd never heard Metallica, The Offspring, Slipknot, Alice in Chains, etc, I probably wouldn't be playing guitar. It sucks that kids now days are just going to miss out on a world of great music because the stuff being shoved in their faces for 10 - 30 seconds at a time is just such braindead garbage that they can't even begin to form interests in anything else. There are any number of other things at play here that are toxic as fuck and not helping, such as social media rotting people's brains.

TL;DR - We need introductory rock music to make a come back to get kids interested again.

There is no way more kids are into metal than in the 80s and early 90s.

Rock music was dead in the late 90s when retirement age rock bands played the only card they had left: reunion tours. Then, rock became nothing but nostalgia tours with greatest hits set lists. What little new music they released was virtually ignored -- by the fans and by the bands. The parents would take their kids, and thus "dad rock" was born. As a result, rock died pretty quickly.

NickK-UK · May 8, 2024

works0fheart said:
I'm kind of with you on this but I think rock music has just stagnated really hard in recent years. It's either the same bands that have been doing it forever or none at all.

I think the advent of the internet has also lead more kids to getting into metal now than ever before but being the (historically) less popular genre than rock and less accessible over all, I don't think as many people are getting into rock or guitar oriented music. Most of the young dudes I've worked with in the last few years usually immediately bring metal to mind when I tell them I play guitar or something. I really can't bring to mind a rock band that has come out in the last 10 years that's really done anything. Plenty of metal bands, sure, but not as many people are going to be drawn to that.

Rock music in general I think killed itself a bit in the late 2000's/early 2010's. It all started becoming so homogenized and boring that I think people just aren't interested. Sure, there are plenty of people who still like the stuff from the 2000's and prior and those bands sell out arenas and whatnot, but you don't have any more up-and-coming bands like there used to be. I'd hate to shit on people's taste, but I think the more radio-friendly sort of emo bands played a part in killing this stuff too. Bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, MCR, Fallout Boy, Paramore, etc. I think all of these bands are still around but I'd be hard pressed to call anything they really release now 'rock-music'. Hell, even before Linkin Park dissolved they were more pop-sounding I think with a little bit of that rock edginess.

It almost feels like we're back in a blending period of different genres but it's a little more acceptable now days and maybe even more well executed. Bands now days are pulling off these blends better than ever, but it's on the underground. In general underground music is kind of going through a bit of a golden age again. The creative juices are certainly flowing, but the outreach is definitely not there. We've probably all been to the metal shows where it's like 15 - 20 people in the place and then you notice that like 2 or 3 of them are young people.

It's also hard because we don't really listen to the radio anymore. We're all using Spotify or something now days where we're kind of staying within our bubble of interests and not really being exposed to things we didn't necessarily look for like when the radio was around. It's had a weird, ironic sort of effect where back in the day I would listen to the radio waiting to hear my favorite Metallica songs or something and with even dial-up internet being a thing in only a few households, it wasn't as easy to find the underground bands.

I guess basically when I think about it, new mainstream music died so that underground music could take off again. Bands that I grew up listening to that I used to go see for $10 - $30 are now hundreds of dollars. I think I saw Cannibal Corpse easily like 15 times in the 2000's and I probably paid at most $30 to see them. Even at big festivals. Summer Slaughter, Sounds of the Underground, hell, even Warped Tour, were pretty cheap to go to and the bands were way better. I was going to go see Cannibal Corpse with Gorguts this last year and it was expensive as shit. I just stayed home lol. I know this has a lot to do with the scummy business practices of Ticket Master and the like, but something has got to give.

Sorry for the old man yelling at clouds rant, but I really do think rock music absolutely killed itself years ago. Even harder than what happened in the 80's going into the 90's with grunge. The music world is long overdue for a shakeup, but it's so hard because it feels like it's all been done. As much as I don't like mainstream rock really, it was my gateway to playing guitar. If I'd never heard Metallica, The Offspring, Slipknot, Alice in Chains, etc, I probably wouldn't be playing guitar. It sucks that kids now days are just going to miss out on a world of great music because the stuff being shoved in their faces for 10 - 30 seconds at a time is just such braindead garbage that they can't even begin to form interests in anything else. There are any number of other things at play here that are toxic as fuck and not helping, such as social media rotting people's brains.

TL;DR - We need introductory rock music to make a come back to get kids interested again.

Well if you can scream at parents, you’re almost there. Just need AI to intepret whatever random notes they play into the latest tiktok viral tune for profit ..

Issue is attention span and motivation- tiktok has made people into goldfish.

wankerness · May 8, 2024

I don't think attention spans or "tiktok" are to blame, that's for sure. I think what he said about Spotify is dead-on - now people can just choose to only listen to the handful of things they like and never be exposed to anything else. Ironically, giving people way more choice allowed them to listen to way less stuff, since they can easily shut out anything they haven't heard before. Not to mention there's now zero correlation between listening to a band and the band making money, unlike back when album sales were a thing. So, it's kind of a vicious cycle, where people are not listening to new music unless it's forced down their throats by the mainstream (ex Taylor Swift or whoever else the corporate overlords decide to put on ads), and new music is discouraged cause there's no money in it unless you have huge corporate backing.

I will say that Tiktok and the like are actually responsible for a lot of zoomers being exposed to older songs, cause they are about the only venue where they'll get random music thrown at them. I am frequently surprised when they recognize some random old song - it's almost always "I saw it on tiktok/instagram" (ex Wonderwall, Hello, etc).

gnoll · May 8, 2024

mpexus said:
Guitar sales are on the decline since a long time... Covid and Lockdown just briefly put a stop to that because people were bored.

Everything changes and new generations give zero F's about Music like we did and much less care about guitar driven music. Prices keep going insanely high like they have been for the past 10 years that also drives people away... I mean how the F does a Amp head cost more than a freaking used car? Who buys that stuff? For what ? To play Live for 20 -30 or 100 tops people once in a while? To capture it and sell the captures?

I really don't understand how Amp builders are still on the business to be honest. How many Amps at 3-4K one has to sell to make a profit? Sure there are Amp collectors out there, we seem them daily on YT with their backgrounds full of shit they rarely use or even demo apart from the flavour of the month. But that is not the majority of players.

Like previous post already noted people live in small apartment's, they cant have Amps and there are hundreds of thousands of player's that grew up not playing a single Amp but VSTs instead and when they dabble outside of them is to get a QC or Helix or Fractal or some other cheaper solution.

Guitars are a bit of the same. For someone not playing live at all which is the majority of guitar players why does anyone need a 2-3-5-6-7K guitar? Those that are endorsed and have free access to them don't even take them on tour instead they use their cheaper off the shelf 1K ones (Insert known old school Thrash Metal players name's here).

Music gear business especially on the guitar world become really a parody. Every year brands keep putting out the same shit with different colours. There's really nothing new and when there is people reject it because that's not how it was in the old days. Can anyone imagine keyboard makers releasing the same model every year just with different colours or some keys coloured different? Would be ridiculous... but for some reason we guitar player geek on that shit

I recently stumbled upon a company making high end porcelain figures and dinner plates and stuff like that. An insane amount of different things, and costing like 5k for a painted porcelain animal or a really fancy dinner plate. Really cool stuff with amazing craftmanship and really well done handpainting. But I wonder how many people buy things like that?

Anyway, if a company like that can stay in business, then I'm not surprised amp manufacturers do too. Think about all the promotion they get from gear-shilling youtube channels. Buying music gear these days isn't about buying something you need to make music. It's about spending money, succumbing to hype and advertising, and acquiring new shiny things that make you feel good. Maybe you can put them on a nice shelf, get some fancy lighting and feel extra good. Until the happy feeling wears off and you need to buy something else.

RIP Sam Ash. All stores closing

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