James Hetfield, Kirk Hammet - Metallica just had number one album in Nov 16, still at 37 all these months later and it climbed again to number two only a few months ago.

Dave Mustaine, Kiko Loureiro - Megadeths last album Dystopia made number three on the charts on release last year.

Dave Grohl, the dude is a Legend on the guitar..and every other musical instrument you can think of.

There are absolute heaps of new/newer bands pumping guitars these days as well.

Check out these Aussie chicks, maybe not your style, a purely old school guitar drums driven band, a ton more bands like them out there. The death of the guitar is extremely exaggerated but i suppose it gets clicks

For sure, so many gifted guitarists on YT. We have wasted hours into the early morning watching young guitarists absolutely blow us away!

You can find examples of anything on YT, but IMO the guitar has died when compared with past decades.

Personal example...

The pic below is of my wife visiting my house for the first time to meet my parents (sorry, it's still on my mind so soon after closing). I cannot for the life of me remember owning that guitar in the background, unless it was a loaner while I was taking lessons (only thing I can figure). I had a couple of electric guitars, including a sweet Ibanez with a small Peavey amp (unfortunately I have no pics, my film and Polaroids are but a handful) but I don't remember this one, and it's not my current Fender Redondo.

Just about every kid in my neighborhood my age had a guitar, it's what you did back then. You had 3 or 4 stations on your black-and-white bedroom TV (if you were lucky), a stereo, some stashed girly magazines, a BMX-style bicycle and a beat up acoustic guitar. I remember going across the street to show off something I learned (Stairway to Heaven, Dream On, Hotel California, Freebird, Wish You Were Here, Smoke on the Water, More Than a Feeling, etc.) and the other kids did the same. When you turned on the radio, you got guitar! Even the King of Pop included an Eddie Van Halen solo in one of his most popular songs!

Is it like this today?

I only knew one guy who had a guitar while I was growing up.

ETA make that 3, but one had a bass.

Yeah, now that I think about it, maybe it was just my small circle of friends with similar interests. I remember a couple of these kids getting a guitar for Christmas, probably from the Sears Wishbook Christmas catalog, so quality would be questionable.

I actually had one of the Sears guitars, and an amp from K-Mart. I remember the surprise I had when I finally got a quality guitar. What a difference. The "action" on those cheap guitars turned many new players off. My older brother got me a used Fender Mustang when I turned 16. I kick myself today for not hanging on to that one.

Everybody had a guitar or drum set when I was in high school. Very few keyboard guys, and no one wanted to play the bass. My first garage band we all had to take turns.

A few years ago I decided to learn guitar after I bought an old (1986) Ovation Applause acoustic/electric from a friend who was moving for $20. Started getting decent with it and then bought a new Fender T-Bucket acoustic/electric. After a deployment with some extra cash from bonuses for hostile fire, imminent danger, and family separation I went to the Sweetwater store that's about 30 miles from my house and bought a new Fender Stratocaster and a Line 6 Spyder IV amp. Along with Rocksmith 2014 guitar learning simulation for my PC I'm having a blast. Two weeks ago I went back to Sweetwater for their annual "Gear Fest" and bought an Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue guitar (limited edition and plays like a Strat or a Les Paul with a mini humbucker, single, and a full humbucker pickups!). I currently have six guitars and a concert ukulele that I mess around with.

As far as dying, I think people just aren't listening to the right music. Yeah, the stadium rockers and hairbands who did the awesome "Eruption" style solos are pretty much in the past but there are still some. Grunge veered away from solos and concentrated on the drop D, Eb standard, or other off tuning power and barre chords but there are still a lot of amazing guitar players.

Look at any of the bluesy rock bands and they're killing it. Warren Haynes, The Black Keys, Joe Bonamassa, Tedeschi Trucks Band, even Zac Brown Band. Also, as said above, Dave Grohl can do no wrong...lol. I saw the Foo Fighters in concert two years ago and John Popper from the Blues Travelers joined Grohl on stage and they did a fantastic bluesy jam session that was unscripted and unpracticed since Popper just happened to be in the area for another concert a day before.

Radio is too much sucked into either playing nothing but classic rock (not bad mind you) or new pop stuff. There are still some cool guitar rock bands coming up.

As mentioned before, there are just as many avid and talented guitar players now as there were in the past. What has changed is the mainstream pop culture and thus what kind of music it is interested in.

Rap, hip-hop, and modern R&B didn't exist other than in small, indie scenes 30-40 years ago. I mean, back then Boz Scaggs was considered R&B, and his music was fairly guitar-heavy. As much as anything that wasn't considered "rock," anyway. So did EW&F, Sly & the Family Stone, Kool & the Gang, King Curtis, and a lot of other funk/R&B/soul bands from the 60s into the 80s.

^ Hell yeah!

Occasionally we get lucky in the French Quarter and find a band similar to the above, either playing outdoors (usually at or right outside a restaurant) or in a pub. Sometimes they'll cover songs we know from the artists you mentioned or something like George Benson and sometimes they just jam. I'm looking for something similar in the BR area, a little funkier than the Classic Rock that I'm used to.

Who doesn't like the short and simple relaxing guitar solo in Commodores' "Easy" or the fantastic playing in EW&F's "Shining Star"? Ya gots to have electric guitar, brotha!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu9a29UR2dU

Im a huge EW & F fan.

RIP Maurice White.

Weasel Keeper, I had a Line 6 Spyder amp too. I HATED that damn thing. I had a hard time getting rid of it. Guitar can turn into one of those hobbies that one can sure spend a lot of money on. Like guns, it starts with just one guitar, then another, and another...............

Yeah, that's called GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). Most guitar players are afflicted, I certainly am. I have way more guitars than I could need, but it's kinda out of my control

I am totally non-musical.

Well, almost. I can play a little bit on the accordion, but I think it's genetic hardwiring and not a real skill.

I was thinking about music the other day and it kind of hit me:



Um, yes and no.

Pre-internet, bands could rotate through small venues and refine their craft and even genre. I saw R.E.M. in a little bar in Athens, GA before they got a record deal, and let me tell you, they weren't ready for one at that time. But they were surrounded by other bands and musicians to get ideas and develop in relative anonymity.

Today, YouTube means that bands get a public face instantly, and probably before they need one. That means that a band that is crappy today might miss bookings or get tagged as crappy...meaning we miss out on a great band in the future.

I'm sure there's a bar scene for young people today, though I suspect it's a lot of folks standing around in the same room with their eyes fixed on the iPhone in their hands instead of the people around them. How much they're missing out on.

So then we men can't give women a hard time about their endless collection of shoes and purses. Got it!

Exactly PM!

When I saw my newest guitar sitting proudly on a table at Sweetwater my wife said which one are you going to get rid of? I laughed out loud and said NONE! Other guitar guys were standing around and they laughed too...lol.

It's the same for RC airplanes, flight sims, fishing lures, and so on.

Well as far as current guitar players go, two names:

Vernon Reid

Tim Sult

John Petrucci, and 2 of my all-time faves who've been playing for 50 years or more - Steve Howe and Alex Lifeson.