As a second generation player getting on in years, if a bunch of the next generation doesn't pick up the guitar and goes the DAW/laptop/plug-in route I can't bl

As a second generation player getting on in years, if a bunch of the next generation doesn't pick up the guitar and goes the DAW/laptop/plug-in route I can't blame them. Sure, there are big selling pop or rock-adjacent bands with guitars - Coldplay, Radiohead, Maroon 5, The Strokes - and country stars like Miranda Lambert, Brad Paiseley, and The Dixie Chicks feature it well. It's not going to die out as long as those kind of groups speak to young audiences. Have you taken a look at the local used instrument market in the US? Try not to drown in oversupply. Maybe not in other markets - actually I see there are lots of complaints about that - import taxes, etc, making it nearly impossible for passionate players to get even reasonable models for prices less than a cheap beater car. That's a genuine problem I think, but not that players don't have enough colors to choose from. Really? Nah... Also it's strange to me that real, loud & proud rock & roll is still very American and very present with a group like Black Stone Cherry[1], and yet they seem to do best overseas (England, Europe), not in the US. I've seen them several times live and they bring it - like groove rock, thunderous sync of bass, guitar & guitar and then vocal melodies - but I don't see them having any crossover appeal to pop or country, so they go where the audiences are. As a result, the Chris Robinson signature PRS guitar is actually not slated for US market distribution - only England and Europe. Business decisions like this add up. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFmIlJUYXeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFmIlJUYXeo The flip side though is maybe the guitarist market has been oversaturated - "a dime a dozen" was the joke we tossed around. Guitar does have a steep learning curve, a lot more like the decibel scale in how it's logarithmic in many ways. Reaching 80% proficiency is staggeringly different than 95% from what I've seen. That's part of the fun of the frustration with the guitar - hard to play, takes maintenance, pisses off the neighbors, heavy to carry around, and then you get people assuming you are a party-all-night-sleep-all-day rock star wannabe, which hey, may be true. The web has been wonderful for guitar. Tabs. Easy access to streaming songs. Excellent teachers like www.JustinGuitar.com who are constantly being discovered by new people searching for ways to improve. It's great!!! Pretty funny an article about Fender starts off referencing the memorable "Sweet Child O' Mine" which was famously crafted by Slash on a Les Paul. I'd gotten wind when John Mayer left in 2015 that changes at Fender were afoot (he since signed with PRS). Something about a Beats executive joining the board and that having an effect on the company's direction (the can be fact checked, the result is simply speculation however). Not having enough guitar heroes go go around might be a valid issue though...I still miss Dimebag Darrell.