Connections

Guitars and drums have long had their celebrity-endorsed versions, iterations customized for a particular player’s specifications and tastes. The hook here is obvious: they focus the aspirational qualities of the instrument on a musical hero, be it Les Paul or Dimebag Darrell. But MI manufacturers are having some success with heroes of the non-musical sort, too. Fender earlier this year came out with its Major League Baseball-themed guitar series. Each Stratocaster guitar in the series will feature official team logos along with custom-designed landmark imagery unique to the team’s market, as well as the MLB logo adorning the neck plate. In September, Peavey added to its line of Marvel super-hero products with new Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy musical instruments and accessories, including guitars, ukuleles, straps and picks. Hey, even talking raccoons gotta play, right?

Going beyond the realm of music for connections that resonate with customers isn’t all that new, but these in particular and others like them are reaching deeper into the mainstream culture than before. That has its potential upside, but also its pitfalls. Any connection to popular culture is by nature ephemeral and subject to the whims of the moment, and we’re in a more culturally volatile period than most. Guardians of the Galaxy was the summer’s biggest movie; this time next year it’ll be on at 2 a.m. on FX. (Set your DVR.) Baseball seems like a sure thing – it’s America’s pastime, right? Except that MLB attendance has been trending downward for the past several years, with teams like the Philadelphia Phillies’ attendance down 8,290 per home game from a year ago, the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers each down more than 4,000, the Minnesota Twins more than 3,000, the Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, 2,000-plus. Ratings for the 2013 World Series were an improvement over 2012, but still the fourth-worst in history.

Baseball’s not going away, but it’s trending downward. Football, the nation’s biggest spectator sport, might seem like a better investment, but what if a manufacturer had decided to hitch its wagon to the NFL just before this season’s domestic-abuse charges? And let’s not even think about an Aaron Hernandez model six string.

From a larger perspective, comic book heroes and sports in general are still a good bet. Stalwarts like Batman and Superman have become perennials on screens both big and small, and if baseball’s fading a bit and the NFL is temporarily radioactive, then soccer’s Q rating is on the rise. And playing a musical instrument has always involved a bit of fantasy, so the generic connections to these categories remain at least perceptually valid. Fender made a point of saying that its MLB-themed guitars are made from maple and ash wood, the same material used for many baseball bats. It’s just once you start linking to more specific entities — leagues, teams, and individual players — the risks rise. And that will just continue to increase as a 24/7 news cycle searches relentlessly for scandal and click-throughs.

Musicians, though, will remain the cornerstone of celebrity instrument models. After all, their peccadillos often serve to enhance reputations rather than diminish them. Derek Jeter swings a mean bat, but he would never bite the head off one. So tread down the collectibles road, but do so carefully, because in the era of TMZ and Perez Hilton, that road can also be a minefield.