Yamaha Acquires Line-6

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Not sure how I feel about this yet.
Can potentially be phenominally great!
Can potentially be catastrophic.

http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/yamaha-acquires-line-6/?utm_source=insync&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=insync-20131227

 

[Cagey]

Depends on the management. I used to work for a very large company that often bought up smaller companies to gain their IP/technology/market share, then ruined them. Not necessarily through any sort of malice, but because the bureaucracy and administration large companies bring to bear is expensive as hell and extremely time-consuming. It's like giving crippling arthritis and arteriosclerosis to a 21 year old sports superstar. Thing is, the upstart often doesn't know what's going to happen and the marriage comes with a huge dowry for the founders, so it seems like a great idea.

But, it doesn't have to work out that way. Large companies also have a lot of inertia in the form of financial and marketing resources, so they can afford to do things that small companies can't. I mean, look at Microsoft. They can ship pure garbage in mass quantities and get away with it for years on end, and still come out ahead of the game and ready to take another hit straight to the gonads.

Line 6 has made some interesting products, as has Yamaha, who has great resources. It could be a marriage made in heaven. Or, it could be the end of Line 6.

 

[stubhead]

Yamaha has come up with some really great products that sort of... dwindled or something. Those "SBG" guitars of the late 70's were great guitars, as were their semi-hollow "SA" series, and then... nothing, then the Magic Stomp that Holdsworth liked to stomp, then nothing, the good (Warmoth) Pacificas, the not-so-goodish (Chung King) Pacificas... they've recently popped out those sheet-metal THR10's and now metal ones and blues ones and acoustic ones...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE6V3QqGppA

Seems like they just need to keep the pedal down for a five-year spell maybe.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I'm concerned that Yamaha may dumb down the L6 technology and hardware.  The L6 floor units have been a mainstay in the market place for a long time, and it's mainly because they're good, and therefore appeal to the consumer.

I just don't want to see what L6 has accomplished to just fade away.  I hope they do indeed operate independently. 
If anything, perhaps this will afford L6 greater distribution and more manufacturing capability.

 

[swarfrat]

Yamaha makes good stuff at great prices, but outside of Pianos and classical guitars they've never garnered a lot of respect. I'm not concerned about quality suffering, but they're not exactly an innovator, nor do they cater to the three sigma types. I am concerned that they'll drop  anything under 3.7 bazillion units a year. Over here we say "the squeaky wheel gets the grease". The Japanese version of that proverb is "the peg that sticks out gets hammered down". Hope you like this years color.

 

[Neo Fender]

Yamaha was an early contender in the digital modeling market.  The DG-80 and DG-100 had very good tones - as good as, if not better than what Line 6 was doing at the time (and I’m a Flextone owner).  Whenever a new amp sim/model was selected, the sound change would kick in instantly, while the motorized knobs would slave to their appropriate positions.  Very practical design.  Better for Yamaha to buy Line 6 than Fender or Gibson. 

 

[bagman67]

Yamaha was an early contender in the digital modeling market.  The DG-80 and DG-100 had very good tones - as good as, if not better than what Line 6 was doing at the time (and I’m a Flextone owner).  Whenever a new amp sim/model was selected, the sound change would kick in instantly, while the motorized knobs would slave to their appropriate positions.  Very practical design.  Better for Yamaha to buy Line 6 than Fender or Gibson.

Yeah, the early DG's were pretty impressive compared to the Line 6 competition of the same period.  MOre practical, interface-wise, than the Roland VG-8 and VG-88 doodads that also were coming up then, but perhaps less versatile when it came to details that could be modeled. It would be interesting to sit down with a DG-80 or 100 today, next to a Line-6 Spider Valve and see which wins.