26 Nov 2017

The plight of the electric guitar: George Gruhn

From Sunday Morning, 10:35 am on 26 November 2017
Vintage American guitar expert George Gruhn.

Vintage American guitar expert George Gruhn. Photo: Supplied

According to Walter Carter, archivist for the Gibson guitar company, George Gruhn is the world's leading expert on vintage American guitars. His Gruhn Guitars store in Nashville is a mecca for guitar lovers internationally, and has sold them to some of the world's great guitarists - Duane Allman, Taylor Swift, Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top and Eric Clapton, who has bought more than 50 guitars from Gruhn.

But a recent article In the Washington Post says electric guitar sales have "plummeted" from 1.5 million sold annually to just over 1 million. Over the past three years annual revenue sales for both the famed Gibson and Fender brands have fallen dramatically according to data gathered by Music Trade Magazine.