I do not believe that it is part of the business plan of most big music stores, "brick-and-morter" as well as online, to put the small independent musical instrument makers out of business. I don't know, maybe it is. Intended or not, that has been the effect...duh!...what happened to all of the great small specialty stores when the world's largest retailer took over? What happened to all of the small hardware stores with staff who actually knew what you were talking about when you asked them for something like a "single disk flap hinge"?
Buying a Musical Instrument From a Mega-Store Can Cause Fantasy-Induced Poor Judgement
Oh, those low prices on all of the cool stuff. And you get what you order right away or within a few days. And those low prices. All of this can cloud a reasonable person's judgement. For instance, just the other day I was talking to a young bassist, who works at the Vet's office where we took our dog Buster for a checkup. She learned to play on a Fender Squire bass (Fender's inexpensive mass-produced line of instruments). Actually, when propertly set up and the tuners, bridge and electronics replaced, it is not a bad bass guitar...one of my sons had one for a while.
This is Just Sad!
Anyway, this young lady I was talking to said that 5 years passed before she knew that a bass guitar neck was not supposed to be visibly bent forward and that the strings were not supposed to be 5/8 inch from the end of the fingerboard. It cost her more than she paid for the instrument to have the neck straightend, new tuners, new bridge and proper setup...and she had REALLY strong fingers.
I, myself, I not proud to admit that I have fallen victim to the Music Mega-Store temporay insanity on several occassions. The up side is that I learned a lot about instrument setup that I would not otherwise have learned...silver lining and all of that. My personal examples (the ones I can remember and/or admit to) over 3 decades:
Fender Electric Violin: Spent 50% of the cost of the instrument to get it set up right. I loved the way it played, but it sounded pretty bad in live amplified performance. Had I gone for replacing the crappy electronics, it would have been MORE than the cost of the instrument. I sold it to someone else who intended to replace the joke transducer and associated electronics.
Yamaha 5-String Electric: Combination of work done by Matt Phillips at Atlanta Violins and my own work...$300+ ($400 if you count the cost of the strings) on a NEW instrument to make it playable. Part of the problem, I believe, originated in Yamaha's apparent belief that Electric Violins should have a nut and bridge height as high as a gut-strung acoustic violin for character-building or something like that.
Guild F40 Blond Arch-back accoustic guitar: 50% of the cost of the instrument on proper bridge setup and fret work.
My son's Fender Squire Bass: Just decided to replace it with a vintage Fender Precision Bass, as it would have cost well over the price of the instrument to make it right.
To be fair, the various amplifiers I have bought from Mega-Stores have worked just fine.
You get the idea.
An Alternative to the Music Mega-Stores and Their Mass-Produced Instruments
Read the next posting to find out.
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