Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> All this talk about where Leica should go, and digital v. analog, puts me in > mind of the Fender guitar company, who resurrected themselves in the 80s > after being run into the ground by CBS - who blew the brand by churning out > clunky donkey guitars in the 70s - by putting out a clearly differentiated > line of made-to-a-price guitars (Squiers) without compromising the quality > of their top line. CBS was very good at running venerable musical instrument manufacturers into the ground. Steinway was another. > Interesting that in the musical world pretty much everything is now digital, > and strives to emulate analog, except the instruments themselves. Even the > synths are analog (resistors and capacitors), or use waves derived from > acoustic instruments, while every attempt to 'innovate' the electric guitar > further has turned into a blind alley. The Fender Strat has been > incrementally improved, but for my money (and many others) the older guitars > are better. Fender now makes a lot of money making semi-retro versions of > its own product, just as Konica and Voigtlander are doing with the new RF > stuff. Perhaps so in the POP MUSIC WORLD, but classical instruments are very alive :) While electric pianos have replaced klunky, cheap pianos, real concert-calibre grand pianos are well. You will never see Vladmir Ashkenazy or even Kissin to play on a Yamaha keyboard.