Accessory Fetish

With all of the talk this week about the millions of Chinese-made toys that were recalled, in addition to all of the other Made in China issues we’ve faced this year, it got me thinking about our industry.

Other than toy instruments, I don’t think any musical gear has been affected by these recalls. We’re lucky, since more and more instruments are being imported from China.

The running theme of Chinese recalls has been product that people or animals put into their mouths. Pet food. Toothpaste. Children’s toys. I think most people in the US take for granted that we’re safe and we trust that our government is looking out for our safety (although I slightly cringed at my own naivety as I typed that last line!). The truth is that, as more and more products are being imported from China, our government is allotting less and less funds for the inspection of these products. This is scary.

Now, let me preface this next section by saying that I have no knowledge of issues with musical instruments and I am not accusing anyone of anything. I’m just going to be a typical blogger and speak about an issue I don’t know that much about!

There are plenty of items that do come from China that we do put in our mouths. Of course, there are the obvious things like harmonicas and horn mouthpieces. I’m sure that the companies who are marketing these products have speced out the materials that can be used and, unless a factory switches without informing them, we should be safe.

But what about something like guitar picks? How many times have you put a guitar pick in your mouth? What’s scary is that, since it’s not a product designed to go in your mouth, the factories are probably not thinking about this when deciding which materials to use in the production process.

I’ve never heard of celluloid poisoning, but what about the other materials used in this process? Do you think anyone ever tests the ink that’s used to print the logo on a pick? What about the sand that picks are tumbled in to make the edges smooth? Surely there is some residue left on the product. Is it safe for human consumption?

As more and more products are made outside of our country, we have to assume that the people producing them do not have our health as a main priority.

So, think twice before you toss that pick in your mouth during a fingerpicking section! Food for thought.

It was announced yesterday that Guitar Center, which went public in 1997, is returning to private hands. Bain Capital Partners LLC, will reportedly pay $1.9 billion for the largest music store chain in our industry.

How this will change GC will be interesting. There seem to be some people of the opinion that this will be a good thing for their retail locations since, as a public company, the mighty dollar was the most important thing. News flash: To a company with “Capital Partners” in its name, the bottom line will be more important than ever.

It’s been a while since the GC culture revolved around customer service (ever stand in the middle of a GC on a Saturday and see how long it takes for a salesperson to talk to you?) or cool gear (how many red, black and sunburst Strats can you hang on a wall?). Well see if that changes. It will also be interesting to see how this affects the other industry names that they own. There are already rumors that the Music and Arts stores will be sold off. We’ll see what happens with Musicians Friend and Harmony Central (yep, GC owns them, too!).

Here’s some more info.