The whole show in Miami was a real learning experience for me. Here are a few things that I noticed that perhaps some of the other guys may have noticed also. By no means do I mean for this to be a absolute review of how to market guitars, but just an observation of some strange things I noticed in Miami.
1. there were about 20 guitars all lined up in a row in the section of tables where my table was. of those 20, there was one guitar that had a finish on it that was tinted amber. This amber was a deep color, much like the color that a well aged guitar would have. People would come to the top of the stairs and immediately go directly to THAT guitar, much like a moth being attracted to a light. That guitar was one of the first that I saw sold during the show. This makes me wonder if people want darker colored (tinted) tops on their guitars?
2. Paul Woolson had the only 12 string that I saw at the show. There may have been other 12's there, but it was the only one I saw. People were attracted to this guitar more so than the other sea of 6 strings that surrounded it...even his other 6 strings. It makes me wonder if 12 string guitars are what people want?
3. There was one company who had spent a TON of money in advertising on a whole page of the show guide, they had three 8' long tables and a huge background board to hang their instruments on. People seemed drawn to that booth even though they had several fully painted guitars (a flag, racing stripes, a "metal" looking paint job, ect) which I tend to look down on. They also had several natural finish guitars to show. Every one of the guitars they had to show had an obvious ripple in the top with the bracing telegraphing through the top wood. I didnt play one, but My friend who is an accomplished player spent quite a bit of time over there playing them and said they sounded good. BY NO MEANS DO I LOOK DOWN ON THIS COMPANY OR ITS GUITARS, but This makes me wonder how educated people are on construction and are they willing to overlook obvious problems if the company spends a ton of money and appears to be well funded?
4. There was a braz/spruce parlour guitar sitting right next to me all weekend. This is another guitar that by sight people were drawn to. It was a perfectly constructed guitar and sounded fantastic, but the thing that got to me was that people would bypass every other guitar and go straight for that one apon seeing it. Most people never picked it up or played it or heard it, but were somehow just drawn to that guitar out of all of the others that were in line with it. It makes me wonder if the eons of braz guitars have people seeking out these kinds of guitars just because they are braz?
5. I tend to look at people and imagine what kind of music they play. Boy was this WRONG! people who look like they would play a mean classical style music would be the strummer types, only playing a few chords. People you think only play bluegrass would play some of the finest fingerpicking jazz styles and other people who you would think are the rocker style guys would be the hard core classical players. I am going to have to give my preconcieved notions of how people play guitars more thought. Somehow I doubt that I ever will nail this one down
Anybody else noticed these kind of things at other shows or at this show that you want to share?
![[headinwall]](./images/smilies/headbangwalluf8.gif "Mad")
