TUNING UP
GUITAR ECONOMICS
As the cur- you’re looking for—and then some.
rent state of Rather than scaling back, we’re rolling the
the economy is knob to 11. We’re upping our commit-undoubtedly in ment to producing a high quality mag full
the forefront of of reviews, in-depth articles, interviews,
everyone’s mind gear porn, mods, etc. We continue to
these days, I print on high quality paper stock, we’re
have taken the still travelling the country to bring you
liberty of draft- the best stories and on-location videos,
ing a petition we’re still cramming our website full of
with all of my web exclusive stories, soundclips, videos,
fellow gearheads podcasts, galleries, etc. and of course,
to
lobby
Congress for a gearhead bail
out! Let’s face it—many of
us acquired too many guitars, amps and pedals this
past year. We couldn’t help
ourselves. Rather than take
responsibility for our reckless
tonal financing, perhaps we
can urge Congress to bail us
out with some sort of bipartisan effort where Democratic
and Republican gearheads
alike can reach across the
aisle and exchange hits off
of each other’s skull bongs.
Joe the Plumber? What about
Gary the Gearhead? You can’t
tell me he doesn’t deserve a
break.
Hartley built his company on a proven
basic philosophy: quality gear at a fair
price. Now over four decades later,
technology has certainly changed but
Hartley’s basic principles have not. I still
have two CS 800s (remember those?)
in my rehearsal space and a variety of
replacement crossover modules for them.
I’ve had those amps since high school.
They’ve been dropped from the back
end of pickup trucks, had every bar fluid
known to man spilled on them, supported
the weight of a varsity cheer-
leader and are still kicking ass.
I have an old M2600 mono
power amp powering a small
karaoke system, not to mention
an Autograph Two in my FOH
rack. The point is that many of
us have a long term gear con-
nection to Peavey, and chances
are, the idea of ‘quality gear at
a fair price’ has something to
do with it.
Okay. ‘Nuff already—all of this
economic maneuvering these
days makes about as much sense
to me as that last paragraph.
On a more serious note, the
guitar industry really does
have many challenges ahead
of it. Just as players might find
themselves adjusting their gear
budgets during these difficult
times, manufacturers, retail-
ers and even magazines are
changing things here and there
in order to streamline their operations.
This is understandable. However, I’d like to
take this opportunity to make something
very clear.
Also of note this month, you’ll
notice we’ve partnered with
WorkshopLive to bring you
quality lessons to help you
add more licks to your arsenal.
WorkshopLive’s community
of more than 50 professional
instructors and more than 3000
students centers around work-
shoplive.com, which features
an award winning platform for
instruction. As a Premier Guitar
reader you’ll have free access
to new WorkshopLive lessons
every month.
we’re still giving you the option of reading our entire magazine online for free, as
we always will.
We’re proud that our magazine can provide
a great escape from these economic woes.
Guitars are instruments of art and expression and we believe a gear mag should
service you in your passion, something we
refer to as the relentless pursuit of tone.
Now, more than ever, a guitar mag should
step up to the plate and give you what
As you know, we celebrate the luthiers and
builders in this industry as much as we do
the players. Getting inside their heads is
the best way to learn about the gear they
make. This month we kick it with a man
who knows a thing or two about honoring
a commitment to quality within the realities
of gearhead budgets—Hartley Peavey.
As we head into the holidays,
keep the faith. Remember, this
generation has produced some
of the best risk takers, problem
solvers and inventors ever. We
have experienced success, fail-
ure and responsibility and have
learned how to deal with it all. You are
an important part of this movement—you
are also the reason why we will make it
through challenging times. We thank you
for that. Happy holidays.
Nuff Sed,
Trent Salter, Publisher
trent@premierguitar.com
888.247.2009
