The MI industry loves nostalgia. Vintage colours. Classic shapes. Period correct limited runs for exorbitant prices. Artist tie-ins from records released before 90% of TikTok users were born. Nothing wrong with that history and heritage is part of our magic! But here is my question : Is a huge part of our industry still building and marketing guitars/amps/pedals to an audience that is no longer the primary market? and most certainly not the future of it? I’ve spoken to brands

Why the industry keeps treating the symptoms while ignoring the cause. Last time we talked about the guitar industry’s “midlife crisis.” This week, I want to go deeper into the reason the crisis exists at all: MI keeps misdiagnosing the real problem . And if you diagnose the wrong thing, you fix the wrong thing. The industry doesn’t have a pricing problem. It doesn’t have a stock problem. It doesn’t have a marketing problem. In my opinion... it has a   misalignment problem .

After nearly a century of riffs, reissues, and reinvention, the guitar industry’s hit a strange point in its story, what I'm going to call the midlife-crisis years.   Clinging to the past, chasing reissues, lusting after the 'good old days' and pretending everything’s fine when for many in MI right now it really isn't. This isn’t just a story about brands. Retail’s right in the middle of it too. We’ve all been guilty of trying to replay the hits and that’s fine 🎶 until the c

Walk down MLK Boulevard in Portland and you’ll find something rare: three formerly competing music businesses under one roof, working together instead of against each other. I’ve just read about this in   Music Inc Magazine   (October 2025) and found it genuinely inspirational. It got me thinking, what if we saw a model like this in the UK? 🤔 The story is about Hank’s Music Exchange (🎸 guitars), Rhythm Traders (🥁 drums), and Eastside Guitar Repair (🛠️ service), who recent

By Lee Alexander Walk into almost any guitar shop today or scroll through their online listings and you’ll see it everywhere. Red sale...

By Lee Alexander The last issue of   Fret Not Friday   had record engagement — more reads, more comments, and more debate than ever.   If...

By Lee Alexander The guitar industry   loves   to talk about “disruption”… but we usually spot the real shifts   after   they’ve already...

By Lee Alexander You don’t go to   IKEA   because it’s quick. You go because it   works   — even if it means dragging yourself through a...

By Lee Alexander After a bleak spring that saw both GAK’s Brighton flagship and PMT’s entire chain close their doors, it’s been easy to...

By Lee Alexander Well, it's been wall-to-wall doom-scrolling for UK guitar retail (and beyond) these past few weeks: first GAK, then PMT...

By Lee Alexander Hope you've had a great week, this weeks edition is short but hopefully still as useful! I just wanted to put something...

By Lee Alexander This week I heard something that made me stop and think. Norman’s Rare Guitars  one of the most iconic guitar retailers...

By Lee Alexander Big names are falling. Are you next?  Walk into some MI stores today and it’s like stepping into a time capsule, some...

Ok we are going a little off-piste for this week’s  Fret Not Friday  but bear with me! For some context I pulled into a service station...

So the dust has settled on another  NAMM   Show  in Anaheim, California, an event that I've been exhibiting at since 2005 and what a show...

Looking back at what’s been achieved I have to say it truly has been a phenomenal and truly memorable year —one marked by significant...

Welcome to this week’s  Fret Not Friday™ . In business, there’s always the temptation to push every possible profit lever. Dynamic...

Anyone who’s ever been in sales in any capacity knows the old-school mantra: “Sell, sell, sell!!” It was phrase I heard incessantly...

As the 2024 Olympic Games kick off in Paris with tonight's grand opening ceremony, the world will once again be captivated by the...

Welcome to Fret Not Friday! I hope it’s been a great week! Despite the seemingly never ending rain 🌧️ summer is most definitely upon us,...