Why do the stars play common & popular brands?

[oska]

Hi,

There are thousand companies building boutique guitars, each hand made with exquisite quality, materials & aesthetics....and of course they are priced ridiculously......considered to be works of art.

then why do the biggest stars who have 100s of guitars & can buy anything stick to gibson, fender, jackson, esp, ibanez?

the same applies to an extent to pedals & amps.

[tonemonster]

people play gibson, fender, & marshall because of some rediculous sense of retro "mojo". just because the design is old doesnt mean its good.

[Newc]

Plus they know what sound they're going to get from traditional brands, and they know the service they'll get when they break.

I mean, you're Eric Clapton and you have a boutique guitar and boutique amp and you're on the road in Moscow. You get to the gig and find your boutique amp's main board has a crack through it, making it inoperable. You're not going to the nearest dealer to have it fixed, and you're not going to fly the builder there (unless you're lucky enough that he's only a few hours away).
Also suppose your boutique guitar's fretboard has decided it doesn't want to be attached to the neck, and has ejected a couple of frets. There's no dealer for that. Yeah your tech might be able to fix it, but you paid out the ass for the guitar and for the Plek the builder did to it. You're going to have your tech slap some new frets in it and hope it's good to go for the gig? You're Eric Fucking Clapton, you got the best, you want the best, you ARE the best.
You gonna fly a new one to Moscow in 2 hours? Maybe if the builder is local, but otherwise.....

So instead you go with Fender and Marshall so that if your amp's board is cracked or your fretboard is ejecting frets, you walk into the nearest Authorized Dealer and grab the same model off the rack, have your tech do his magic setup on it, and 2 hours later you're rocking Russians like they want to be rocked.

Then there's the simple fact that Fender and Gibson and Marshall give money, free gear, and heartfelt blowjobs to big names for using their products.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

To me they are icons, legendary pieces of equipment, and that's the appeal. But, many of the guys who play them either have them extensively modified or they are fakes.

Clapton's Strat isn't like one you grab off the rack, unless it's the signature one, from the custom shop, and maybe not even then. And many of the stars' Gibson Les Pauls are fakes made by small-time luthiers. Just because Slash is playing a guitar that looks like a Les Paul and says Gibson on the headstock doesn't mean its even remotely the same as the Custom Shop Les Paul Standard they have hanging on the wall in some store.

[markD]

i my opinion, it's just that those brands have a specific sound that caters to what players want. if you think about it, each of those brands covers a specific type of sound. for classic rock tones you have fender and gibson. those two cover so many genres it is crazy. love them or hate them, the reason goes beyond being icons....they are great playing, well designed and versatile guitars. these guitars represent the music of the 50's through the 70's....

ibanez and jackson have the "virtuoso" guitars. yes, they are "metal" guitars too, but each was crafted to be easily playable and have a cutting type tone. these brands, too, are iconic - but again their appeal goes beyond this. they are great playing, well designed guitars. jackson owned the early 80's and ibanez owned the late 80's....

ESP, love them or hate them, recognized what ibanez and jackson were doing and capitalized on it. because of their willingness to spend money on artists, AND (whether you want to admit it or not) build excellent guitars, they have cornered the heavy metal guitar market. they ARE the number one EMG loaded metal guitar in the world. why? availabilty of good guitars at every price point. why? endorsement appeal. not just old guys like fender and jackson have, but new, up and coming bands that feature fresh players. ESP was the guitar of 90's and the new millenium...

obvioulsy, each of these brands catered to people beyond the years i mentioned, which is why each is still a vaiable company (though jackson less than any of the others). the years i mentioned repesent, in my opinion, the time period in which each guitar became "iconic".

as far as the pro's sticking to these guitars over boutique...newc hit it pretty well. i have always felt that boutique products are more for the player that sits at home and wants to brag about having some exotic piece of gear. yes, they are nice products, and i am sure they play exceptionally well, but when i am gigging i want reliability and the feeling that if i drop my guitar i am not going to die. now, i have never dropped a guitar, and i gig with some very expensive guitars (ironically, all from the brands that are mentioned in this post), but ultimately they are tools - very pretty ones, but tools all the same. i am sure most pros feel the same.

[tomanyjacksons]

I'm with Newc on this, big companies endorse as many big names as they can. It sells more of their stuff because they want everyone else to buy it to get the artist sound. Which I think is silly because most of their sound comes from them. As far as the guitar having troubles I always take back up guitars in case something does happen. An amp problem for me would piss me off too but I do drag an old guitar processor with me to plug straight into the board in case my amp goes down. Using tube amps has taught me to be prepared. The boutique stuff is like showing how important a player is, usually to themselves but it helps them feel better I guess.

[wilkinsi]

I was under the impression its also down to endorsement. These stars get gear for free. If they have always been given freebies, they won't change until they get a better offer.

[Rsmacker]

Or they want to spend their money on sluts and drugs.

[tonemonster]

Or they want to spend their money on sluts and drugs.

money well spent.

[MartinBarre]

Because they like them?

[eakinj]

Here's another angle on it. You're a kid in a garage band trying to make it. You're playing your 300 dollar epiphone and dreaming of the day you can go in and buy that Gibson Les Paul custom - you play your gigs and then one day you've made it playing your piece oh crap epi, and maybe a studio you were able to scrape up for and now you've got the money and you go buy that Gibson Les Paul custom and it's so far superior to what you've been playing that in your mind you just bought the greatest guitar in the world.

Plus I would imagine most of the famous guys have boutique guitars sitting out home, why take a 10,000 dollar boutique one of a kind guitar out on the road to get beat up and damaged when you have an arsenal of guitars that you could go up and light on fire if you wanted too?

[TKEblue]

I think it also has a lot to do with the era that the players come from. When clapton was coming up, you either played a les paul or a strat, so what does clapton play?

Then I think part of it is what guitar they lusted after when they were starting out. "Man I want a jackson but all I can afford is this kalamazoo" then they get money and what do you think they buy?

Then finally, I think the rest of it is endorsement deals. If schecter wants to give you free gear and let you design your own guitar, all that stuff. Chances are you're going to take it.

Then if you think about this, a small lutherie shop can make you a guitar. A big company can make yours then produce a signature model. Which would only highten your fame. For example, me not being a megadeth fan, had no idea who chris broderick was till I seen he's now being endorsed by jackson. So I looked him up, watched some youtube vids and now im a bit of a fan. It really gets your name out there. A small shop isn't going to be able to compete with that imo.

[nor]

Plus I would imagine most of the famous guys have boutique guitars sitting out home, why take a 10,000 dollar boutique one of a kind guitar out on the road to get beat up and damaged when you have an arsenal of guitars that you could go up and light on fire if you wanted too?

This.

[sully]

Clearly the boutique-y stuff has it's niche, but I'm of the mind that the touring musician views guitars as tools and treat them as such.

[jgcable]

Almost every star guitar player technically plays custom made guitars regardless of what the head stock says or what the guitar looks like. They are custom made to the players specs exactly like a boutique guitar would be made to the players exact specs.
Regarding amps... the same applies. It may say Marshall on the front but its custom made inside. Same thing with pedals and processors.