“The world doesn’t need another Tele or Strat clone – it just doesn’t”: Why Guitar Center is launching its own guitar brand that’s “meaningfully better and differentiated”
Last month, Guitar Center announced plans to launch its own in-house guitar brand – but caught flak from the guitar community for what it deemed the crowdsourcing of ideas with limited rights for those who submitted successful ones.
At its core, it seems like a worthwhile idea. “Guitars haven’t changed that much in the last 50 years, and we’re about to change that,” said CEO Gabe Dalporto, as he rationalised Guitar Center joining the likes of Thomann (with Harley Benton) in developing its own guitar brand from the ground up.
But some community members took issue with the move, with one labelling a stipulated rule for contributors to waive “moral and similar rights” to their ideas as “peak corporate cringe”.
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Now, Dalporto has joined YouTuber Phillip McKnight to explain a little more about how the brand’s idea to create its own guitar brand came about.
“Our private brands team came to me and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to launch a new guitar. It looks just like a Tele, and it’s a Tele, but it’s not called a Tele.’ I’m like, ‘Reject it. No, this is stupid,’” Dalporto recalls.
“There’s a great Tele out there. It’s made by Fender. It’s an amazing guitar. The world doesn’t need another Tele clone. And it doesn’t need another Stratocaster clone. It doesn’t need another Les Paul clone. It just doesn’t.”
Dalporto explains that while other large musical instrument retailers have their own in-house gear brands, his idea is to do something radically different with Guitar Center’s new one.
“All big companies like Guitar Center, like Thomann – they’ve got their own private brands. Sweetwater’s got a few private brands. It’s what you do, right. You create private brands.
“But all those private brands are just knockoffs of something else. And I’m like, ‘The world just doesn’t need that. We don’t need another knockoff. Why don’t we guys try to do something exceptional? And why don’t we do it out loud, in public, and start with customer feedback.”
Addressing the community backlash that occurred when Guitar Center asked its customer base for ideas, Dalporto continues: “Now, [people say] you’ll get the Homer Simpson car if you take everybody’s [opinion].
“And fine, but would you rather you don’t listen at all? And actually, every opinion that’s out there is out there from here to here, so you’re going to have to make choices. You can’t please everybody.
“There’s been some really cool ideas, and some of it is novel, some of it is like, ‘This guy in the ‘80s designed this nut and it is so amazing, and you’re like, ‘Holy shit, that is pretty cool, let’s take a look at that.’ So we’re taking information from Reddit, from Instagram, we’re getting some really legendary guitarists to come in and consult with us, we’re going to focus groups.”
Ultimately, Dalporto isn’t interested in seeing the project through unless what comes of it is meaningfully different.
“I said to our team, ‘We’re not going to build something if it isn’t awesome, and I don’t want something that looks like or feels like anything else.”
In terms of where things are in the design process, the CEO reveals the team has developed a number of prototype guitars, and is trying out different builds and pickup configurations.
“Our goal is to come up with something that doesn’t look like a Tele and a Strat that actually is reasonably priced – in the $700 to $900 range – a good solid quality guitar, not some $200 knockoff, that is meaningfully better, and differentiated. That is your workhorse guitar that you can take to any gig and travel with and is versatile – that’s what we’re going for.
And while the company is still in the relatively early design process, Dalporto reveals his team already have plans for subsequent instruments.
“We’ll probably also do a second model that is just radically out there on the technology front,” he says. “And so we’re gonna push the bounds of technology and we’re gonna push the bounds of analogue.”
You can stay up to date with the latest from Guitar Center’s project at the r/GuitarLab subreddit.
The post “The world doesn’t need another Tele or Strat clone – it just doesn’t”: Why Guitar Center is launching its own guitar brand that’s “meaningfully better and differentiated” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
