Jan 19 Lunch Report

[Elemeno P]

Lunch: Wifey made a killer Enchilada casserole last night. Funny how, growing up in S. Texas my favorite hot sauces are the Louisiana style ones. Don't get me wrong, I've put away tons of salsa. For flavoring up food though, I usually go for the skinny bottle.

G&L Question: In most of the hospitals I used to work at, we would yearly go through a SWOT analysis. Curious how the Board veterans would answer if they found themselves at G&L headquarters being asked:

What are G&L's

Strengths -
Weaknesses -
Opportunities -
Threats -

Still being in my G&L infancy, my answers are coming from a 50k ft. view, but:

Strengths - High Quality
Weakness - Name brand recognition
Opportunities - "Bucket List" Guitarist (late bloomers like myself)
Threats - continual erosion of disposable income

For those that have never been through one of these....picture four blank 3' x 5' sheets of paper on the wall labeled Strengths, Weakness, etc. and a group of people (usually dept managers) shouting out answers for each one with someone writing them on those sheets.

Non G&L Question: Anyone have a cool electronic gadget they use to practice / play with? I have one of these coming that I found on ebay http://line6.com/pocketpod/

Most of my practicing is done when everyone is asleep, so I needed a headphone solution. I tried a few iphone gadgets, but the sound wasn't very good. It has some good reviews and the price was right.

Have a good one!

[meowmix]

Strengths - High Quality
Weakness - Name brand recognition
Opportunities - "Bucket List" Guitarist (late bloomers like myself)
Threats - continual erosion of disposable income

Lunch is Turkey and blueberries, not together.

G&L not having a name brand recognition is a strength because it keeps the price down.
Not much into acronyms, I wish G&L will take the opportunity to build a baritone and a 12 string. That would be cool.

Playing with headphones can work. Mostly the clean channel from my preamp into the ADDA converter to headphones.
Without it, I would practice 1/3 what I normally would. But the sound quality has to be there, I can't stand solid state.

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

Undecided on lunch. Enchilada anything mmmm

I think you have nailed this but I made a couple adjustments:
Strengths - High Quality
Weakness - Name brand recognition
Opportunities - Anyone not currently playing a G&L also make the best of what you have requiring the least expense => get organized
Threats - continual erosion of disposable income and scarcity of quality materials, their rising costs and the rising costs of labor

My private practice tool: S-Gear on a computer.

[sam]

Lunch?!? That's a luxury these days, time crunch for too many projects. Banana, granola bar and hot tea today.

Ah, the 'ol swot analysis. IMHO this is a good way for all of us to look at ways we can promote G&L guitars when talking with fellow or future players.

I agree with you and others so I will add my adjustments:

Strengths - High Quality - growing product line - leverage Leo Fender name and history
Weakness - Name brand recognition, no more 3-bolt necks (just kidding, had to throw that in)
Opportunities - "Bucket List" Guitarist (late bloomers like myself) - Anyone not currently playing a G&L also make the best of what you have requiring the least expense => get organized - get another major name endorsement
Threats - continual erosion of disposable income - competitors growing product and online offerings

Gadgets are my downfall. I love 'em but am very inept at compewturs and progarmmable stuff. I looked up that pocket pod and it looks cool and maybe even I could plug it in and get some use. Let ua know what you think when it arrives.

[sickbutnottired]

I haven't been able to play much this week, el., But you have some nice questions.

This SWOT analysis is a fun exercise, since I can just make stuff up. I don't have any profound thoughts that others haven't mentioned

Strengths - product value, build quality, support community.

Weaknesses - brand value - by this I mean when joe public thinks electric guitar, they think fender, gibson, G&L is way down the list.

Opportunities - educate public on product - I agree with Sam, a major endorser might help, but the big boys have their stuff on every music video (that actually uses instruments), variety show, etc.

Threats - I know I am not quite as flush as I used to be. Lady Gaga.


cheers

[yowhatsshakin]

Strengths - They are popular enough to have their own forum where G&L nuts talk about their instruments to spread the word.
Weaknesses - They are popular enough to have their own forum where G&L nuts talk about their instruments to spread the word.
Opportunities - They are popular enough to have their own forum where G&L nuts talk about their instruments to spread the word.
Threats - They are popular enough to have their own forum where G&L nuts talk about their instruments to spread the word.

Cool gadget for practicing playing the base is my Café Walter Audio HA-1A practice amp.

- Jos

[darwinohm]

John, something different for lunch today. Left over pizza and it was just as good as I had remembered it to be.

Good analysis on the G&L health.

Many of us wish they would increase in value but the down side is they would be more expensive to sell

As Jos said, they are popular enough to have their own forum to share the good and it is also used to hang laundry out!

Four years ago I was researching a box that could do most. I looked at Pods, Digitech setups and ended up getting a VOX Tonelab and have really enjoyed it. I do not gig with it but it is a great front end for recording. John, tomorrow is Friday and maybe I will get lucky and use up my left over pizza for lunch. Fun week so far!-- Darwin

[louis cyfer]

strengths - name brand recognition, and the related low resale value. i can buy custom shop quality (or better) usa made instruments for 5-800 bucks. can not beat that.
weaknesses- inflexibility, a small maker should make any and all options available, like no pickguard, other fret sizes etc. also the responsiveness of the tech support is horrible. took me
weeks of calls and couldn't get an answer, i had to call the sales people and have them look for the tech support and force them to return the call. 4 months to get them started on a
replacements body. never would hear from them, took dozens of calls to get anything answered.
opportunity- instead of just letting players choose g&l, approach them and use them to promote.
threats- name brand recognition and getting bought out.