Leaderboard

It’s the first gig as a guitarist this Saturday (private party outdoors following social distancing rules) so we’ll find out if the nerves are still a thing! Preparation seems to be the key so I’d best go practice some more!

There are loads of products already out there that I think should be more mainstream. The Wilkinson VS100C vibrato bridge for example. Or any number of innovative modular pickup systems. It's not the guitar or guitar makers that are the problem, it's the retro-obsessed market. One part of it is retired middle class professionals with cash to burn. Another part of it is young players with no clue about how gear works beyond brand names. But the net result has been a market that eschews technology and innovation (in guitars, less so in effects ironically) as if it's an anathema to 'authenticity'. The only real innovation in guitars that I can see is in prog metal. They've re-embraced headless guitars and active pickups.

Well, do you? I occasionally give a rosewood board a light oiling but I understand that there are other schools of thought on whether this is a sensible idea. So… do you?

Me, I'd love to see a high quality, solid body electric guitar.... made from plywood. I've come back to the material after years of looking down on it as a green, sustainable wood that actually looks great in the sort of furniture that appeals to me (mid-century modern; I hope to move house in the next few years, and my intention is to give it a very late 50s and earlier aesthetic). This has made me look back on the era of affordable, plywood guitars. When I first took up guitar in late 1991, plywood was the norm. Then Yamaha hit the marketing triumph of selling the Pacifica 112 with a natural finish to emphasise that they were solid wood, and everyone else soon followed suit. As I've come to find the ply aesthetically pleasing, I've come to wonder whether a truly great guitar could be made from it - an extension of the "tonewood is a superstition and nothing more" philosophy, I suppose. I'd love to see someone with crazy money have a Strat made from ply by Fender's custom shop, and then play it off against the one-piece, exotic swamp ash types. Of course it's not in the industry's interests at present to do something like that in case it undermines years of marketing expensive woods, but I can't help but wonder if necessity will bring it round again one day, perhaps from the environmental perspective. I mean, twenty years ago who expected bamboo guitars would be available now?

Totally get you on this. My own tastes are pretty caveman when it comes to guitars: I've tried but didn't cared for locking trems and active pups and such. Thing is, I gave them a go and decided they weren't for me. Aesthetically, I like my guitars to look like they could have been made prior to 1962, but even then I find the market very limited and closed minded - especially as a left handed player. (It's incredible how often some idiot these days still trots out the old lie about "guitar isn't handed", "you should find it easier with your dominant hand on the board" and such). Even within my own tastes, which do have their limits, I find the market narrow. I'm sick to the back teeth of hearing about "tonewood", or dogma that "guitarists should always buy the best [best meaning most expensive] they can afford." The worst I remember was when the first Variax was released, guys all over Harmony Central falling all over themselves to be the 3,009th say "Enjoy your toy" in sneering condescension. Even those who said they'd try one if they put fake pickups on it and made it look like a "real" guitar.... Honestly, I know Leo Fender had a time of it back in the fifties, but if he had to deal with selling something innovative to today's market, I don't know how he'd cope. Probably the one that drives me up the wall most is the abject refusal by so many to try something other than tubes - I've even seen many flat out reject the idea of even trying non-tube where it was guaranteed to sound exactly the same, simply because of, as you say, this misplaced notion of authenticity. The absolute worst are these fifteen year old kids who sound like their grandparents haughtily announcing "there's no good much like Led Zeppelin being made any more." You're bloody fifteen!!! Find your own thing, you have the time!!! MARLOWE ANGRY! MARLOWE SMASH! RAAAAHHHHHH! Ironically, I'm going to end up with tubes myself for no better reason than I can find a small, simple Champalike much cheaper than anything else I've looked at, but I always have an eye out for the price coming down on those Roland BluesCubes, or a chance to try one of those Session Blues Babies that claims to make SS sound like tube. If that works at the right price, I'll dump the tubes in a heartbeat. I'm already perfectly happy with SS for bass. I always have a laugh when some brand-snobs criticise the like of Tokai for not doing "something new", then when they do see something new (even from Tokai)....

You're in good company if you have a touch of the stage fright; Brian Wilson was regularly crippled with it (to the extent of serious stomach cramps and vomiting) before he went on stage with the Beach Boys. It's one of the reasons he went off the deep end originally.

I went through a phase of being almost crippled by it, I think it had a lot to do with stress I was going through outside of music. I ended up on Prozac for a few months and it went , I'm pleased to say that it broke the cycle and I've been fine since. The nearest I got to serious stage fright since was when I accidentally became lead guitarist after a lifetime of bass or rhythm duties. I took a very systematic approach and worked out solos where I needed them with no improvisation , no stepping into the unknown.Early on I realised that I couldn't fill the previous guitarist's shoes but I could put on my size 12s and do it my way. I borrowed about 20% his stuff and filled in the gaps with what I was comfortable with. The band was well rehearsed and as someone said earlier as soon as I hit the first chord I was off. Not the most relaxed gig I ever played but no silly mistakes and no mistakes caused by worrying about making mistakes. Just before we started one of the best guitarists I know came through the crowd and stood right in front of me....a few seconds later and for the duration of the gig he was dancing with a cheesy grin on his face.

I saw an Andertons video the other day (I think the video was about 2 years old) where Lee and Rob were showing the new Danelectro range. At the start Lee was adamant that Danos are "a bit shit", but they had some of the coolest jams and I think he might have changed his mind (but maybe wasn't ready to admit it!)

I wondered what this thread was about initially as fun bags are what an old friend of mine used to call bobbies . However, back on topic, black seems to the rather dull standard option, as you have found. But, digging a little deeper, I found these 2 links, although I don’t know if they’ll be too big: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glenmi-Bohemian-Acoustic-Backpack-Protector/dp/B07LCN53YT/ref=asc_df_B07LCN53YT/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=256001072850&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1165433688170745420&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046984&hvtargid=pla-719976734370&psc=1 https://www.wish.com/product/5bab4b3dd89e577dda95f246?from_ad=goog_shopping&_display_country_code=GB&_force_currency_code=GBP&pid=googleadwords_int&c={campaignId}&ad_cid=5bab4b3dd89e577dda95f246&ad_cc=GB&ad_curr=GBP&ad_price=20.00&campaign_id=8163884845&guest=true&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4ImEBhDFARIsAGOTMj-ZPiBhvbG0UlDLKZdP0NHtLhAyfMOhmaenD_RVjvSuhUB7CoXURwwaAiclEALw_wcB&hide_login_modal=true&share=mobileweb