Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

^ what a rambling mess that is...wow.

um i'm trying to understand your point and respond concisely...here goes:

Cars aren't made like they were in the 50's and 60's for a lot of reasons.

The Military doesn't just get customized vehicles for free out of thin air for no reason...THEY PAY MONEY.

You can get a custom one-of-a-kind Fender, left-handed, in any color you want.

It just costs money.

That's what I'm trying to say. They've paid a team of people to sit around and figure out what guitars to build, how many of them to build, and where to try and sell them. They need to sell those guitars in order to pay those people in the first place!!

They can't just say "Oh wow some kid somewhere wants to see a Strat the same color as his favorite toy race car -- let's do a batch of 3,000 and send one to every store that's a Fender Musical Instrument dealer!" because that's ****ING EXPENSIVE.

You're sitting there talking **** on the corporations for charging money to do things, but dude, it COSTS THEM money to do things! Nobody does anything for free and they CERTAINLY don't want to SPEND MONEY for no reason.

So yeah, write 'em e-mails, ask which models will be available in a left-handed configuration and at what price point. You gave us a really long list of good-enough guitars a few posts ago...I'd say Fender is trying really hard to cater to your needs despite being less than 10% of their customer base!

I think the big companies do pay attention to customers -- CUSTOMERS as in people who spend money on their products. They look at what sells and what doesn't, they make more of what sells and forget about what doesn't.

If you don't like the guitars that are hanging on the wall...modify 'em, or build a better one! If you can...
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

My thoughts on Empty Pockets last post:

1) "They've paid a team of people to sit around and figure out what guitars to build." Fun job, but if they do this without significant input from everyday guitar players, you wind up things like the V2, Reverse V, Zoot Suit SG, etc. Design teams can't work in a bubble. There's not really any new technology involved anymore, they just combine design features in a way that (should) appeal to the public. If they don't think they need to ask the public what appeals to them, and at what price point, then they may end up with a warehouse full of unsellable guitars. Their expertise and intellect isn't a guarantee they'll come up with anything that anyone else will want to buy. If the designs are uninspired or questionable, quality-control is spotty, or the are products over-priced, don't blame the public when they buy someone else's guitars. "Value" is defined by customers, not manufacturers.

2) "...Corporations for charging money to do things, but dude, it costs them money to do things." Very true, which is why they can't afford to design and build guitars the public doesn't like or thinks are over-priced. It doesn't take a genius to design a guitar, everything today is a copy of something else; to design one the public rushes out to buy is another matter.

3) "I think the big corporations do pay attention to customers...customers as in people who spend money on their products." Agreed, satisfied customers are very important. But equally important are the ones who don't buy from you, and understanding why they don't. No company sells as many guitars as it wants to. Consumers 'vote' for products with their dollars; pay close attention to the 'votes' other manufacturers get; there's a lot to learn. The market is constantly changing. What worked 5 years ago, or even last year, may not work now. Be in touch or risk the consequences.

4) "If you don't like the guitars that are hanging on the wall...build a better one if you can." Ah, the GM approach that almost put them out of business (formerly the world's largest corporation). Look how many other countries stepped up and and sold cars to Americans. No, we don't need to build a car, or guitar, ourselves, but we will buy them from your competitors. Treat us with indifference or contempt, and we can all watch your competitors prosper.

Detest them if you will, but in the long run, all of us work for the customer, without them we don't have jobs, and our futures are dependent on an steady influx of new customers.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

Empty Pockets said:
^ what a rambling mess that is...wow.

um i'm trying to understand your point and respond concisely...here goes:

Cars aren't made like they were in the 50's and 60's for a lot of reasons.

The Military doesn't just get customized vehicles for free out of thin air for no reason...THEY PAY MONEY.

You can get a custom one-of-a-kind Fender, left-handed, in any color you want.

It just costs money.

That's what I'm trying to say. They've paid a team of people to sit around and figure out what guitars to build, how many of them to build, and where to try and sell them. They need to sell those guitars in order to pay those people in the first place!!

They can't just say "Oh wow some kid somewhere wants to see a Strat the same color as his favorite toy race car -- let's do a batch of 3,000 and send one to every store that's a Fender Musical Instrument dealer!" because that's ****ING EXPENSIVE.

You're sitting there talking **** on the corporations for charging money to do things, but dude, it COSTS THEM money to do things! Nobody does anything for free and they CERTAINLY don't want to SPEND MONEY for no reason.

So yeah, write 'em e-mails, ask which models will be available in a left-handed configuration and at what price point. You gave us a really long list of good-enough guitars a few posts ago...I'd say Fender is trying really hard to cater to your needs despite being less than 10% of their customer base!

I think the big companies do pay attention to customers -- CUSTOMERS as in people who spend money on their products. They look at what sells and what doesn't, they make more of what sells and forget about what doesn't.

If you don't like the guitars that are hanging on the wall...modify 'em, or build a better one! If you can...
Click to expand...

One of the best posts in this thread.

We have to remember that this is all a business, and in the end, Fender doesn't make a guitar in a certain colour just because it's cool.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

you got part of my point, what i was aiming at was Customer input, Yeah the military pays money for those vehicles but it is still customer input, however 'customer' can refer to mr Smith walking down the street, because he might not buy that exact product but if there is impetus from others to make things better for mr Smith then he may buy that product.

Also Blueman335's #1 answer is what i mean, in a way, if the guitar companies come up with this supposedly radical design which in their eyes will sell like hot cakes and they don't do much market research into what the customer or potential customer would like (in our instance the guitar player) they could well end up with a warehouse full of 'new guitars which they cannot sell.

actually as a whole Blueman335's whole post summerises near enough what i mean......

Nice one dude :D
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

Empty Pockets said:
I think the big companies do pay attention to customers -- CUSTOMERS as in people who spend money on their products. They look at what sells and what doesn't, they make more of what sells and forget about what doesn't.
Click to expand...


So how do they know if they should put out a new product? not asking any potential customer and then producing a batch of 3000 guitars and finding out they don't sell is a pretty expensive method.

Also, how do you explain Gibson's fiascoes with such model as the signature Jimi Hendrix Gibson Strat? didn't they have a team of professionals telling them what to do?

And of course, what about smaller companies that don't have the funds to take the best marketing specialist... I mean, Fender and Gibson are not the only companies around. How do the smaller manufacturers make decisions?
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

JohnnyGuitar said:
And of course, what about smaller companies that don't have the funds to take the best marketing specialist... I mean, Fender and Gibson are not the only companies around. How do the smaller manufacturers make decisions?
Click to expand...

I'm with that too, how do companies by the Likes of Eastwood guitars and Fret King manage to make decisions?? they are not exactly the largest guitar manufacturers around.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

JohnnyGuitar said:
So how do they know if they should put out a new product? not asking any potential customer and then producing a batch of 3000 guitars and finding out they don't sell is a pretty expensive method.

Also, how do you explain Gibson's fiascoes with such model as the signature Jimi Hendrix Gibson Strat? didn't they have a team of professionals telling them what to do?

And of course, what about smaller companies that don't have the funds to take the best marketing specialist... I mean, Fender and Gibson are not the only companies around. How do the smaller manufacturers make decisions?
Click to expand...

It's already been said -- new products come as trends dictate. You watch the competition and you listen to your custom shop, for sure. You go to shows and see what mods people are doing to your instruments; you establish contact with reputable musicians that use your product and ask them how they'd improve them.

I'm not advocating in any way that the big companies stop listening to customers -- i'm saying that an e-mail from a random cat is an ineffective way to communicate with these guys. They don't know who you are and even if you tell them, you could be lying -- it's just the internet.

The more effective way to communicate is to buy something from the competitor or not buy anything at all.

As for that Gibson Hendrix guitar...they weren't listening to experts, they were listening to Jimi's sister...and it didn't get released because everybody and their gramma pooped themselves when they read about it.

Honestly, i bet Gibson would've sold an Elic Crapton of them but they seem to have bailed on the idea so no worries.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

I applied for Gibson - President of North American Operations.

They chose to continue doing dumbass stuff instead of hiring me. And if you saw what they wanted in the position, it didn't bode well for the future.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

JohnnyGuitar said:
So how do they know if they should put out a new product? not asking any potential customer and then producing a batch of 3000 guitars and finding out they don't sell is a pretty expensive method.
Click to expand...

You've got to be in constant touch with your dealers, customers, potential customers, trade publications, forums, surveys, etc. All this has to be filtered & the impractical and ridiculous suggestions removed. If you know what products of your competitor's aren't selling well, and why, that tells you what not to do. What do players consider 'value' to be. What disappoints them? Look at the street prices of the most popular models. High-priced models never sell as well as mid-priced ones (in guitars and most consumer goods). You're probably better off to design models and features targeting specific market segmants, rather than doing a one-size-fits-all. The right product at the wrong price, is just as bad as the wrong product.

What if you could profitably sell an attractive set-neck mahogany guitar with a C8/PGN in it, for $500 retail? That would get players talking. Even if they don't know anything about PU's and magnets, they'll know it sounds good, better than the competition in that price range.

There's a small, but devoted (and growing) segment of P-90 lovers. You can move some units if you make nice guitar designs that appeal to them at the right price point. Look for other hard-core niches like this.

A crucial part of all this is to have an efficient, focused, innovative manufacturing operation that will allow you to price your guitars very competively. If you're over-staffed, wasteful, have a lot of flaky designs, buy over-priced raw materials, have poor quality control, etc, then the best of intentions and the best designs probably won't be enough for you to survive in the long run.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

I emailed GHS asking why the got rid of the B-52 bass string set... They just said they were discontinued and offered suggestions of replacements.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

woemoejack said:
I emailed GHS asking why the got rid of the B-52 bass string set... They just said they were discontinued and offered suggestions of replacements.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the sad part is they dont really owe us any explanations.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

Empty Pockets said:
It's already been said -- new products come as trends dictate. You watch the competition and you listen to your custom shop, for sure. You go to shows and see what mods people are doing to your instruments; you establish contact with reputable musicians that use your product and ask them how they'd improve them.

I'm not advocating in any way that the big companies stop listening to customers -- i'm saying that an e-mail from a random cat is an ineffective way to communicate with these guys. They don't know who you are and even if you tell them, you could be lying -- it's just the internet.

The more effective way to communicate is to buy something from the competitor or not buy anything at all.

As for that Gibson Hendrix guitar...they weren't listening to experts, they were listening to Jimi's sister...and it didn't get released because everybody and their gramma pooped themselves when they read about it.

Honestly, i bet Gibson would've sold an Elic Crapton of them but they seem to have bailed on the idea so no worries.
Click to expand...


Dude, you are seriously pessimistic at age 23. Wow.

The best way to communicate is to buy from the competition or not buy at all? Do you really think that there is a team of 10 people at Fender who come to work everyday, lock themselves in a room and discuss what guitars they should make? I would suggest that they are definitely NOT doing that. They are gathering data from every possible source so that they can make smart business decisions. Do you think that Fender builds and markets guitars based on what John Mayer thinks? Hell no, they are working on new products based on customer feedback, market trends, potential opportunities, etc

While a random single email to a company isn't likely to do anything, multiple emails and/or letters can make a difference. As do customer surveys, internet forums, focus groups, usability tests, etc.

I think it is sad that many of you hear think that writing a letter or email to a company will have no impact. I work in marketing for a company 5 times the size of Fender and I can tell you that customer feedback definitely plays into our business decisions.
 
Re: Have you ever wrote to your favorite guitar companies...

The Dali said:
Dude, you are seriously pessimistic at age 23. Wow.

The best way to communicate is to buy from the competition or not buy at all? Do you really think that there is a team of 10 people at Fender who come to work everyday, lock themselves in a room and discuss what guitars they should make? I would suggest that they are definitely NOT doing that. They are gathering data from every possible source so that they can make smart business decisions. Do you think that Fender builds and markets guitars based on what John Mayer thinks? Hell no, they are working on new products based on customer feedback, market trends, potential opportunities, etc

While a random single email to a company isn't likely to do anything, multiple emails and/or letters can make a difference. As do customer surveys, internet forums, focus groups, usability tests, etc.

I think it is sad that many of you hear think that writing a letter or email to a company will have no impact. I work in marketing for a company 5 times the size of Fender and I can tell you that customer feedback definitely plays into our business decisions.
Click to expand...


I'm sure that they are like the company I work for
they have a R&D Dept ( probably understaffed )
that will collect assorted pickups,necks, bodywoods and blanks,hardware,etc
coordinate with vendors some OEM stock
test said stock
with a variety of amps effects and pedals
run it thru oscilloscopes
quantify and approve each aspect of the next version of

as best as 2 under paid overworked people can
 
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