As guitar player, I can tell you that there is at present a huge oversupply, particularly of electric guitars, relative to the number of guitar players there ar

As guitar player, I can tell you that there is at present a huge oversupply, particularly of electric guitars, relative to the number of guitar players there are around currently. Some of this is of course caused by people with oodles of spare cash taking up playing guitar, only to find that it is quite hard and time consuming and then dumping their catch-and-release nice guitars for much less than retail. Regardless, one only has to browse craiglist "musical intruments" to see many incredible guitars, lightly used amps and other equipment selling for far less than retail. The result - people who actually know what they are doing and have some spare money are scooping up bargains. Plus of course kids are sampling, etc, can't be bothered, and/or playing nicer acoustic guitars - as made by Martin, Collings, etc. Also - as other posters have pointed out - gibson diversified over its means. But it will come back, and then we will own all of the guitars :)