What percent of guitar/amp/gear sales are for "metal" vs. other genres?

[JediMasterThrash]

Curious since I always get annoyed by all the "fender vs. gibson" threads. To me they're kind of irrelevant. At least in the metal sphere (virtuoso instrumental guitar, 80's metal/hair/thrash, prog, neo, djent, death, etc), ESP/Ibanez seem to dominate, with other traditional "metal" contenders being Jackson, Schecter, Dean, BC Rich, Kiesel, Musicman, even Agile and Legator, and the majority of boutiques are all metal-oriented, Strandberg, Solar, ormsby, aristides, mayones, skerveson, Caparison, etc.

Sure Yngwie plays a fender, but you gotta have his violin vibrato fingers to make it work, and the rhythm on it is pretty flubby.

And Mustaine just switched to Gibson, but I'm sure that's a money thing.

But it still seems that Fender, Gibson, PRS seem to still dominates sales, I'd assume most of this goes to Pop/Session musicians, country, blues, etc.

So I just wondered how big a chunk of the overall guitar market "metal" represents.

Same would go for amps, with fender/vox/vintage marshall dominating over the more metal offerings

 

[budda]

When isnt gear used a money thing?

Les pauls have been used for metal since we’ve had metal.

 

[StevenC]

I see more Schecter vs Fender discussions these days than Schecter vs anything else.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

If by "metal" you mean, "guys playing djent in their basement," probably a lot

if by "metal" you mean "actively gigging/recording bands," probably not a lot

I'm sure part of it comes down to availability. A touring musician can either cart their boutique amp head everywhere with them or use what's available which is probably Orange/Marshall/Fender. Also if your shit breaks you want it to be something you can replace with (relative) ease. The odds of replacing a recent production LP are a lot better than your super custom triple scale 18 string purple flame heart skervesen djentstick.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

explicitly marketed towards metal? not a lot from what I can tell, like under 20%.

 

[StevenC]

Have you ever gone to thegearpage, waited 5 minutes and refreshed to see how many comments have been posted?

Point being, metal is an incredibly small percentage of the market.

 

[tian]

Honestly wouldn't be surprised if Strats and Teles and their derivatives alone sell as many guitars or even eclipse all other "metal" oriented guitars combined.

And that's not even getting into Les Pauls like mentioned above. Customs and Standards have a huge representation in metal bands. Even in my local hardcore scene growing up, everyone wanted Studios to gig and beat the shit out of.

Ibanez probably has one of the largest footprints in metal guitars and they're still dumping a ton of focus into the AZ series which walks away from that so...

EDIT: This article doesn't site sources which is obnoxious but the numbers make sense: https://musicstrive.com/guitar-sales-statistics/. For context, it says Fender's revenue is $700 million versus PRS's $75 million. That's a fuck ton of "non-metal" guitars lol.

 

[mongey]

If you ask me what’s the most common”metal “ guitar out in the wild I’d probably say les Paul.

 

[sleewell]

17.4%



also most statistics posted on the internet are just made up on the spot sooooo

 

[mongey]

Also does anyone buy a guitar and only play 1 style on it ? I know I don’t. I play everything on all my guitars.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Also does anyone buy a guitar and only play 1 style on it ? I know I don’t. I play everything on all my guitars.

lucky, whenever I play metal on my telecaster the neighbors call the cops

 

[tian]

lucky, whenever I play metal on my telecaster the neighbors call the cops

Shit, you too!? Can't help myself since realizing how good a Tele in drop C# for Norma Jean songs sounds.

 

[JediMasterThrash]

By metal i mean gigging recording metal bands, from 80's metal/hair/thrash to prog/neoclassica/power/melodic to isntrumental virtuoso metal, as well as the basement players who primiarly want to play that kind of music. (as was stated originally)

I really have no idea how you jumped from a standard $1000 ESP/Ibanez/Schectar/Jackson guitar to an 18 string djentstick. Seems like a troll attempt.

I'm just curious on the industry stats. I did a google search, but all the industry research data/reports have to be paid for, I couldn't find anything posted publicly on teh interwebs.

 

[BusinessMan]

17.4%



also most statistics posted on the internet are just made up on the spot sooooo

Hmmmm...

 

[JediMasterThrash]

As for the touring amp question, I'm pretty sure you can find a 5150 or JCM800, or even a mesa mark just about anywhere. Heck I'd run my THRX live if i had to.

 

[StevenC]

Feel like I've made my point.

 

[JediMasterThrash]

No really, if I went to a metallica concert and saw James and Kirk with those guitars, I'd be freaked out they were about to play southern blues or something.

That black epiphone is the only one that looks "metal". THe mustaine bumblebee is a cool body, but that country headstock man, nope.

And really, I don't actually care whether metal people play a gibson, I'm just curious on what % of the market is metal, and I'd also be curious on what % of the metal sub-market is ESP/Ibanez etc. vs traditiaonl fender/gibson. I don't have an opinion on what those numbers should be, I was posting because I wanted to know what the numbers are. Facts are facts, not worth arguing about.

THe whole "does it look metal' is just my biased opinion, and does not reflect on what other people think or what the sales numbers are. Just to be clear I'm not trying to push an opinion here, just curious on the sales numbers.

 

[NoodleFace]

No really, if I went to a metallica concert and saw James and Kirk with those guitars, I'd be freaked out they were about to play southern blues or something.

That black epiphone is the only one that looks "metal". THe mustaine bumblebee is a cool body, but that country headstock man, nope.

And really, I don't actually care whether metal people play a gibson, I'm just curious on what % of the market is metal, and I'd also be curious on what % of the metal sub-market is ESP/Ibanez etc. vs traditiaonl fender/gibson. I don't have an opinion on what those numbers should be, I was posting because I wanted to know what the numbers are. Facts are facts, not worth arguing about.

THe whole "does it look metal' is just my biased opinion, and does not reflect on what other people think or what the sales numbers are. Just to be clear I'm not trying to push an opinion here, just curious on the sales numbers.

Hammett has been known to play Gibson's live. He has a crazy expensive one too. Either way I think metal is a relatively small %

I have a feeling it's the one with more people shooting way above their ability and buying lots of CS stuff though

 

[tian]

I think the point everyone is trying make is that this idea is so subjective there's no way there's any hard stats on it. And even if there was

THe mustaine bumblebee is a cool body, but that country headstock man, nope.

It 100% would not follow a criteria anything like this. Also it's the same headstock as the black Epiphone just the Gibson shape so, uh..?

Unrelated, but that picture makes Hammett look like he has tiny little fingers compared to everyone else lol.

 

[budda]

Hammet has multiple Greenie clones for touring. This thread is funny.