Members Ryancamped Posted July 14, 2018 Members Share Posted July 14, 2018 Hi guys, my post doesn’t have anything to do directly with playing the guitar, but more about why we buy certain guitars. I’m a huge guitar enthusiast myself, got a standard SG I bought a few years back, looking into a Strat & got a standard LP a couple years ago which I’m really happy with 😊 Mostly into rock & metal, but I really enjoy my fair share of blues! In another life, I’m also a Master’s student, and I have to complete a research project to be able to buy more guitars when I get my first salary! So, I’m counting on you guys to give me a hand, and answer a short questionnaire (8-10 mins) about purchasing iconic electric guitars. Please help me out people, I’m desperate for answers hahaha Cheers! Ryan. https://edinburgh.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5c0cn5whsjlLOsJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emory Posted July 14, 2018 Members Share Posted July 14, 2018 Bit late, but I would remove term "idol" and replace with "admire". I don't idolize anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted July 14, 2018 Members Share Posted July 14, 2018 I buzzed through your little questionaire - sounded more like a marketing ploy than masters level research. (Fwiw I have a masters degree in control systems engineering, my thesis was the simulation of a non linear control system in the nuclear industry, slightly more esoteric than asking folks on an internet forum which guitar they planned to buy). I own none of the guitars in your (short) list and I don't intend to buy any of them either, but I do happen to currently own a dozen different guitars, and usually when I want a particular style of guitar or sound or playing style I build it. Good luck with your research and thesis, when you publish it be sure to put a link here so we can all read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doublecross Posted July 15, 2018 Members Share Posted July 15, 2018 I'm actually a master of buying and playing non iconic guitars. My kid threatened to bury me with a Strat, Tele and an LP. In which I replied. Damn Son its going to be a shame I out live you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 15, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2018 Thanks for your time & your feedback! I see where you're coming from, but I wanted to remain loyal to the terms used in academic literature when it comes to celebrities, influencers, endorsement etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 15, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2018 Thanks for your time & your feedback! I'm doing a Masters in marketing, so to me that sounds like a compliment! Typically when you're doing research in social sciences, this is the sort of path you have to take, it's obviously not an irrefutable truth you're trying to set out in your conclusions, not like in your field of "hard" sciences. At this level, we have 2 months to conduct a 15k piece of research, so it's a very modest attempt to understand what motivates people to purchase iconic electric guitars, from an indeed short list, consisting of the 10 most frequently featured guitars on Guitar Magazine's cover. Thanks for the encouragement, I definitely will post a link once I've submitted everything in August! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 15, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 15, 2018 Hahahah nice one, it's probably a smart decision, better value for money most of the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted July 15, 2018 Members Share Posted July 15, 2018 Glad you came back to look at some of the replies to your thread. I don't know how many people are going to take the time to do the survey but the question of why we buy certain (iconic) guitars is one that gets discussed over and over and over here. First, let me congratulate you on doing your thesis - it is huge amount of effort and I hope it will pay off for you. Both my wife and I have done post graduate research, I think we benefited materially but I know that the satisfaction is worth the effort. Now the critique - please take this constructively. When I first read you mission statement "I am interested in understanding what motivates individuals to purchase iconic electric guitars" I thought "this should be interesting, just exactly WHAT does drive a person to buy a certain guitar" so I dove into your questionaire. First it asks me some demographic stuff - age, gender (you don't offer enough options), income - the usual. Then you present a list of (your) iconic guitars and ask which one(s) I own. I happen to own a dozen or so guitars, none of them exactly on your list... Next you present the same list (I think, I was going pretty fast) and ask which ones I plan to buy. Again, I've got some guitars I want to add to my quiver but it really isn't any of those. (I'm also in kind of a unique position since I build guitars so most of what I own are mine). Then there were some little push buttons about how likely I was to buy the guitar that I'm not going to buy and whether I could afford it (I can). Bingo, survey done. There wasn't one question about what kind of (iconic) music I play or listen to, who my (icon) guitar heros were, whether I associate a certain guitar with a genre of music. There is a wonderful little book out there called Play It Loud where the author argues that each new form of popular music from about 1950 to the present had a player and guitar that we associate mostly strongly with the genre. Clapton and his 335, Allman and the '59 Burst, the Beattles and their Ricks, the list goes on but I pretty much agree with it, at least up to Hendrix and Townshend, after that I mostly don't give a poop about contemporary music. So, how much of that drives your choice to buy a guitar. How many people went out and bought a Rickenbacker after they heard Hard Day's Night? How many people would buy a signature model? How many people would avoid a sig model at any cost? How many people know that the Beatles were basically give the Ricks just in time to play them on the Ed Sullivan show? So, no questions about associating my next guitar with some guitar hero, how about the kind of music I play? Are certain guitars associated with certain genres and if so why? Do you need a semi hollow to play the Blues or and Ibanez to shred? Can you only play Metal on pointy guitars? OK, no questions about music or playing styles, how about things that I might look for in my next guitar? Do I care about construction methods (neck joint, scale length, body wood, neck shape, fretboard radius, fret size, yadda yadda yadda)? Do I care about finish and appearance, setup and playability? Will I go to a music store and actually play the guitar thru the amp I plan to play it thru next to several more that I might be considering? Or will I go to the old internet and start shopping for the lowest possible price? Does the name on the head mean anything to me? How about the country where it was built? Warranty? Factory support? Do I care if the manufacturer is currently bankrupt? Do I want fancy high tech stuff - robotic tuners, MIDI, active pickups..... Do I want classic or vintage, whatever that really means? I'm not seeing any of these questions in the survey. But I can go on, do I care about price (you kind of asked that in the button could I afford the guitar). Do I care about value? If I'm a professional musician am I willing to cut a deal to get a guitar? How will I endorse it if I do. Ryan, I think you can see where I'm coming from. If you really want to understand why I (or anyone else) would buy the next guitar that I'm going to buy you need to ask a whole lot of different questions that you did. There are some answers that will make complete sense (I like short scale guitars with deep neck profiles...), some answers that make no sense (... fill in your own....), some that may or may not make sense (I play metal therefore I need a Vee). Ideally your research will be done without bias and you'll do all the double blind sort of stuff that good research involves. I'll look forward to seeing your conclusions, but I'll also look carefully at your methodology - I'll read that part of the thesis as carefully as the body. I might question your results, I know it won't affect my next purchase. Maybe you can complete it in time to give to Gibson, heaven knows they need some market research. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 16, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2018 Wow, thanks very much for all of the feedback. If I may, I'd suggest you actually say you intend to purchase one of the guitars, which then takes you through to an extra 10 quesions all about why you'd want to purchase an iconic electric guitar under the assumption that it could be linked to the antecedents of luxury purchases. The survey was programmed to boot anyone who didn't intend to buy an "iconic" guitar, even if they already owned one, simply because this is what I'm interested in. I'll let you go through it again so you see where I'm coming from, but rest assured that the survey isn't limited to 10 questions of which 7 demographic. So, from this point onwards, you can better understand why I'm asking questions that are so concerned about conspicuousness, the extension of the self, identity, social value, hedonic value etc.. The idea is to stick as closely as possible to existing marketing theory, not to actually dive into what people are prepared to fork out to buy an LP depending on what music they prefer to play, nor to discover the specific likes and dislikes of 200 odd people when it comes to what pickups they prefer, it wouldn't make much sense unless I was working for a manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 16, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2018 Wow, thanks very much for all of the feedback. If I may, I'd suggest you actually say you intend to purchase one of the guitars, which then takes you through to an extra 10 quesions all about why you'd want to purchase an iconic electric guitar under the assumption that it could be linked to the antecedents of luxury purchases. The survey was programmed to boot anyone who didn't intend to buy an "iconic" guitar, even if they already owned one, simply because this is what I'm interested in. I'll let you go through it again so you see where I'm coming from, but rest assured that the survey isn't limited to 10 questions of which 7 demographic. So, from this point onwards, you can better understand why I'm asking questions that are so concerned about conspicuousness, the extension of the self, identity, social value, hedonic value etc.. The idea is to stick as closely as possible to existing marketing theory, not to actually dive into what people are prepared to fork out to buy an LP depending on what music they prefer to play, nor to discover the specific likes and dislikes of 200 odd people when it comes to what pickups they prefer, it wouldn't make much sense unless I was working for a manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 16, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2018 Wow, thanks very much for all of the feedback. If I may, I'd suggest you actually say you intend to purchase one of the guitars, which then takes you through to an extra 10 quesions all about why you'd want to purchase an iconic electric guitar under the assumption that it could be linked to the antecedents of luxury purchases. The survey was programmed to boot anyone who didn't intend to buy an "iconic" guitar, even if they already owned one, simply because this is what I'm interested in. I'll let you go through it again so you see where I'm coming from, but rest assured that the survey isn't limited to 10 questions of which 7 demographic. So, from this point onwards, you can better understand why I'm asking questions that are so concerned about conspicuousness, the extension of the self, identity, social value, hedonic value etc.. The idea is to stick as closely as possible to existing marketing theory, not to actually dive into what people are prepared to fork out to buy an LP depending on what music they prefer to play, nor to discover the specific likes and dislikes of 200 odd people when it comes to what pickups they prefer, it wouldn't make much sense unless I was working for a manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 16, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2018 Wow, thanks very much for all of the feedback. If I may, I'd suggest you actually say you intend to purchase one of the guitars, which then takes you through to an extra 10 quesions all about why you'd want to purchase an iconic electric guitar under the assumption that it could be linked to the antecedents of luxury purchases. The survey was programmed to boot anyone who didn't intend to buy an "iconic" guitar, even if they already owned one, simply because this is what I'm interested in. I'll let you go through it again so you see where I'm coming from, but rest assured that the survey isn't limited to 10 questions of which 7 demographic. So, from this point onwards, you can better understand why I'm asking questions that are so concerned about conspicuousness, the extension of the self, identity, social value, hedonic value etc.. The idea is to stick as closely as possible to existing marketing theory, not to actually dive into what people are prepared to fork out to buy an LP depending on what music they prefer to play, nor to discover the specific likes and dislikes of 200 odd people when it comes to what pickups they prefer, it wouldn't make much sense unless I was working for a manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryancamped Posted July 16, 2018 Author Members Share Posted July 16, 2018 Wow, thanks very much for all of the feedback. If I may, I'd suggest you actually say you intend to purchase one of the guitars, which then takes you through to an extra 10 quesions all about why you'd want to purchase an iconic electric guitar under the assumption that it could be linked to the antecedents of luxury purchases. The survey was programmed to boot anyone who didn't intend to buy an "iconic" guitar, even if they already owned one, simply because this is what I'm interested in. I'll let you go through it again so you see where I'm coming from, but rest assured that the survey isn't limited to 10 questions of which 7 demographic. So, from this point onwards, you can better understand why I'm asking questions that are so concerned about conspicuousness, the extension of the self, identity, social value, hedonic value etc.. The idea is to stick as closely as possible to existing marketing theory, not to actually dive into what people are prepared to fork out to buy an LP depending on what music they prefer to play, nor to discover the specific likes and dislikes of 200 odd people when it comes to what pickups they prefer, it wouldn't make much sense unless I was working for a manufacturer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted July 16, 2018 Members Share Posted July 16, 2018 OK, Ryan, I went back and did it again. For the question about what guitar I already own I clicked the Les Paul button, what I really own are custom luthier built LP and L-5 clones. For the guitar I plan to buy, I clicked the Telecaster button, I have built several tele clones and have been kind of planning to make one for myself. Now comes the interesting part - a whole bunch of questions about one or both of my guitars - do I agree with this or that. Here is question 17 17. Thinking about the Fender Telecaster you next intend to purchase, or/and the Gibson Les Paul you already own, please indicate to what extent you agree/disagree with the following statements From here onwards when answering, please take into account the specificities of the guitar (reissue series, custom, standard, USA, special etc..), and the influence this may have on pricing, scarcity, quality, etc.. If I apply those questions to a basic garden variety telecaster, you get a row of dots down the left side of the page. If I apply them to my one of a kind custom LP, down the right side. Point is, I still don't think the question answered any of those things in my last post about why I would buy (or build) a certain guitar. My questionaire will be obvious and it will be meaningless. Go ahead and toss it out. Fwiw, here is my LP clone and one of the tele's that I've built - pretty much what I'll make for myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 16, 2018 Share Posted July 16, 2018 I own about two dozen different stringed instruments - primarily guitars. I have a Gretsch, but it's chambered, not hollow, so I couldn't select that option. I don't have a ES-335 either - I'm more of a Casino kind of guy, so the lack of options on your list didn't properly reflect the extent of my personal assortment of instruments. I was able to click the boxes for Strat, SG, Tele, and Les Paul though. I do think you left off some relevant questions pertaining to a couple of primary motivating factors when it comes to guitar purchases, such as "does it impress the ladies" (or guys, depending on your preferences), "is the way it plays and fits your hands of primary importance to you when selecting a guitar?" and finally, "is the way an instrument sounds (or is the sonic appeal of the instrument) a primary motivating factor in your purchase decision?" I care much less about what other people (including my musical inspirations and heroes) think about a guitar, or whether or not they like (or use) the model I'm considering than I do about how the neck feels in my own hands (I have fairly short fingers, so I'm picky about neck dimensions and profiles), and whether or not the sound(s) it can make are musically useful to me or not. YMMV. Good luck with your research and your thesis. Please do let us know when you have it finished so we can check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jtr654 Posted July 17, 2018 Members Share Posted July 17, 2018 I own most of these guitars or have owned them . At this time most of the questions really do not apply to me. The guitars I play the most are not represented in this survey. I have 40+ guitars and over the years have had 250+ to get to the 40. A Jackson Custom Soloist is my #1 ( versatile and great sounding guitar ) and I don't play Metal. I say you can play ANY type of music on any guitar you just have to work with it. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Ryan, I'm deleting the second thread that you started over in the Open Jam forum - it's not really appropriate for that forum, and you aren't likely to get good data from there. Best if you stick with this forum and thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted July 21, 2018 Members Share Posted July 21, 2018 Phil, I'm going to guess that is the last we will hear from Ryan. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that his survey was for real, that he really is a masters candidate and this will turn out to be a piece of scholarly research. It didn't work for me, but then by now you know that lots of things don't work for me. Ryan, if you are still listening, I thought this was interesting. Apparently the nice folks at Sweetwater have a different definition of "iconic guitar" https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/6-iconic-guitars-the-stories-behind-them/?id=LBpSAVYNB1MPTggJUA1QRQAHDlIGAAY&utm_content=article1-button&utm_source=insync&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180721 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mikeo Posted July 21, 2018 Members Share Posted July 21, 2018 Took the survey for what it was worth. If it's real, I hope it helps in his research. I own a few guitars, I'm thinking my next purchase may be another acoustic, but If I bought another electric, I know what I would get, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mikesr1963 Posted July 23, 2018 Members Share Posted July 23, 2018 Interesting survey but it looks like what I did in marketing class when I got my BS in business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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