Re: music just for musicians?

[pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hughes)]

Greg:
>>We have sold around 8000 JAMMEN as opposed to maybe 5000 each of the M300
>>and M480L. 

I am utterly amazed.  Utterly.

neato says:
>there is however a big difference...reverb processing machines are a known
>entity...the jamman was basically a new concept all together...it takes
>time to promote an entirely new idea...

But it wasn't.  It could have been pushed as the replacement EH16sec delay.
 Robert Fripp should have been photographed with it as soon as it came out,
rather than waiting years till Obie produced a similar product.  The one
thing that seems to win lower market share is major artist support,
something that wasn't even attempted until very late in the campaign (and
then, with the exception of DT, hardly major artists.  Yes, mark Isham is
huge, but does Joe Average Guitarist care?  The names were, I suspect, too
highbrow - again, with the exception of the widely-known DT).  Where were
Chet Atkins or Warren Cuccurelo, both of whom went as far as to name album
tracks after the machine???

>perhaps lexicon is just not the company to break
>them (as their strength was never really catering to a low end market)

I think Lexicon produced marvellous tools that the great unwashed don't
understand.  Give Joe Average Guitarist an M300 and a Quadraverb and ask
him if one is _worth_ 10xc the other - but this is fine since he;s not the
target market.  But show him a Vortex and a Midiverb and he'll take the
latter - it has MIDI and many more preset locations (and costs slightly
less).  The JM and Vortex were tools for the "serious" user, part of larger
systems but given "beginner" prices.  So they assumed they _were_ beginner
boxes, and continued to lust after 2290s etc.  Now with the MPX Lex should
be onto a real winner - it _looks_ serious and is percieved as an effects
powerhouse.  It might be Son of Vortex and Reflex With Other Bits, but it
looks like something people expect from Lexicon.  The "baby" range will be
looked back on like the Gibson MIII; great guitars, but not what
conservative guitarists expect a Gibson to look like.

(rant mode off again) 

Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes      Bioelectronic Research Centre, Rankine Bldg,
Tel: (+44) 141 330 5979        University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K.
    "Wha's like us?  Damn few, and they're a' deid!" - Scottish proverb