Posted on 10/23/2022 8:47:33 AM PDT by Drew68
I have both. A 70 LP and a Gvt. Series II Explorer. 2 Strats, also a couple Squires, a Warmoth Frankenstrat, and a Mary Kaye type that needs to be assembled.
Born and raised on Strats. A Strat player I will remain.
‘Pod
You and me both.
I havenorth of 30 guitars. Have todo an inventory. 🤔
“The Fender/Gibson target market appears to be the well-to-do Boomer/Gen-Xer who is willing to overpay to imitate their childhood heroes.”
Been hearing that for at least 40 years. Laughing in the face of folks who warned, circa 1980, that vintage Les Pauls were a terrible value and nobody would ever get their money back (because ‘boomers’ would be dying out and nobody else would ever buy an old fashioned guitar like a Les Paul).
I'd have to sit down and think about how many guitars have passed through my hands over the years. Drives my wife crazy with what I have now!
What I'm really jonesing for is a Rickenbacker 12-string, but there's a two-year waiting list for a new one. And I won't buy a used Ric. Too many of them have had their necks ruined by owners who didn't understand how to adjust Ric's patented dual truss rod system and new Rics come with warrantees.
Really, Gibson more than Fender. Fender has done a much better job appealing to younger players while Gibson is still set in their ways, marketing unchanged 50s designs with skyrocketing price tags to well-to-do Boomers.
It's Epiphone that keeps Gibson afloat. Newer, modern designs all seem to have Epiphone headstocks (and affordable price tags).
At the recent Coachella festival, almost every guitar on stage was a Fender.
Ironically, Gibsons are now seen more in the hands of country players, a switcheroo from the days where every country picker played a Telecaster.
If you can sit through this extrememly annoying video, this extremely annoying Zoomer explains why Gibsons don't appeal to her generation (and Fenders do).
Fender gave her a free guitar for her efforts.
Originally, I was from Pa; moved to Alaska 30 some years back. I had helped neighbors tear down revolutionary war grant barns down; got hand hewn Pa chestnut beams. I hauled like 30 two inch chestnut boards to Ak years back (guitar builds). Ron Kirn (Jacksonville) built me a couple guitars like 25 years back. You should see his Kirn Signatures. He has a web site; if you see the fresh Alaska in his strat gallery; that's my baby.
I still try to play, but with age (70) and sugar & Rheumatism; my fingers are warped, swelled up, and just don't work. So I started calling my cousins back east; see if any of their grandkids were guitar players. I got lucky and found a 13 year old cousins grandkid that is quite good for that age and he sent me a utube. Reminded me of when I was learning Hendrix in the late 60s. I sent the kid a chestnut tele GOLDTOP pretty sweet and he luvs it. Also sent him a baby blue strat with lollars that I bought around 2002. I want to keep the guitars in the family and will only give them to kids that play.
My sister's boys have kids. They'll take my guns but don't want their kids playing guitar; can't figure? I begged my one nephew to just put the guitar cases under the bed and his boy will find them down the road; still working on him. I just don't want these chestnuts sold. I spent like 2-3 gran on each guitar 20-25 years back. You can't buy American Chestnut that's of guitar quality nowadays from a barn built in the 1790s. I even have chestnut strats that have wood pegs in the body. They couldn't haul nails over the mountains in the 1700s.
FedEx ships everything good, but spendy; $300 for a 18 lb guitar box; nuts.
Ya luv the guitars, just wish my fingers would hang in there. Take a look at Ron Kirn Signature Guitars web site.
Fender gave her a free guitar for her efforts.
Why I HATE Gibson Guitars
I forgot to put a language warning in that vid. She drops an occasional 'F' bomb.
She's actually a very talented Canadian player and singer.
Now that’s funny. I don’t care who you are, That’s funny right there. Thanks for the great laugh.
“Just have to be enameled because the wood’s not pretty enough to be natural. I imagine that affects the sound too.”
I’ve seen that idea debated for many years. The general consensus on guitar forums I frequent is that if there is an effect it’s more likely to be to the unamplified sound of a solid body guitar - but AFAIK no one’s shown the ability to consistently detect the difference between (for example) an amplified polyurethane-coated guitar and a nitrocellulose guitar in a blind listening test (assuming identical electronics, hardware, strings, etc). As always, YMMV.
Yeah, that’s definitely on my list.
Over the last two years, I have invested in acoustics. 2 Guild 12’s, 4 Yairi’s, 2 Alvarez’s, a Yamaha 12, and am having 2 guitars hand built for me.
I mostly play acoustically, these days.
My bff is a noodler with a ton of guitars.So I ended up getting a few too. The strats do not appeal to me with all those pickups and a hole thingy in the back for bar thing. But teles seemed kewl and simple. I got a Michael Kelly one with two humbuckers (53DB) but it can do a lot of things because the knobs can be pulled up. Then I got a Michael Kelly 54OP which is a simpler telecaster with a humbuckers and only one knob pulls up. That is probably my favorite. I also bought a Fender tele that is like a Les Paul. I thought it was very pretty.Somebody named Jim Atkins designed it and it is different and has hole in it for a different sound. I also took one for partial payment on a bill. Squeeky says that it is a tranny 335. It is beautiful blood red and has two holes in front. The sound is different than Squeeky’s ones like that. It is supposed to be a semi-hollow BUT it isn’t. The block of wood does not go all the way to the back and there maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch gap on the bottom which Squeeky says is way less than a hollow body but not all the way like a semi hollow. That guitar makes the most beautiful sound!Very bluesy and soulful even unplugged. It is supposed to be a Kay KV335. I just replaced the 3 on a peg tuners with individual locking tuners. It still sounds wonderful and I oiled the fret board real good and put 10/46 slinkies on it. Squeeky helped me and was super hard putting the screws into the back of the head board. And we had to buy 10mm bushings too and it took forever to sand just a bit out for them to fit and now they are pushing up a bit. I may have to buy some where the bushings screw into the tuner. And I have to buy a new cream colored knob for the switch.
New guitarists tend to buy something cheap, which is maybe part of the reason why they tend not to stick with it. In today’s market, it’s not very difficult to find used guitars that are a good value & sometimes better than a new one.
In the 90’s I was working as a contractor at Microsoft. They had a weekly company newsletter that included want-ads and announcements. In one I read of auditions for a production of the musical version of “Forbidden Planet” where they were putting together a stage band.
Unable to read music scores, I lost out to another guitar player but I got a call from the music director about a week later asking if I was interested in playing the bass in the project. I never quite understood why my musical illiteracy made a difference on one instrument vs. the other but I just wanted to play so I eagerly agreed.
My only Bass was a Peavey knockoff of a Precision so the music director allowed me to use from his personal collection. I quickly focused on a Fender Mk VI, which was a six-string Bass with a Jaguar body. I never had so much fun playing that beast!
I’m a guitarist, NOT a bassist, so I’m sure that my approach to covering the bass parts might have upset the purists, but I was having fun and the director was pleased with the sound he was getting so no foul. That is, no foul except for Sidney, the guy who was chosen to play guitar. Sidney perpetually had a stick up his ass about me being in the band (and I found out later behind the scenes advocated for my removal).
During one rehearsal we did an impromptu “battle of the bands” solo warz and I (on the Mk VI) ran circles around our star player. He almost quit the project over that.
I looked to purchase a Mk VI for several years but could never find one that I could afford (they quit making them decades ago).
What a great instrument that was!
What a great instrument that was!
Fender occasionally re-releases the Bass VI from time to time, most recently under their "Pawnshop" series.
Currently, an Indonesian-made Bass VI is sold by Squier for $459.
That's the absolute truth! Besides, it tends to be too darn loud. Overly loud electric instruments caused me to leave one church. Told the pastor that if I wanted to listen to loud music, I'd go to a concert.
“ Fenders are everywhere on stages these days. Gibsons, less so.”
Hmmm. I’ve notice that years ago Country music in general and Nashville in particular was Fender heavy,Al most exclusively.
These days it’s 90% Gibsons..
I believe politics played a role.
I bought an SJ200 at the Gibson Garage in Nashville this year.
I’d be in the same league but my wife will/would kill me:-)
Me too, been buying selling trading guitars etc for years. This year I retired so what I have now is what I’ll have till:-)
Interesting. I guess I’m too much of a snob but I would always regard them as inferior to an original. The one I saw, complete with sunburst paint scheme, runs around $13k.
“But I’d never, never sell my guitar ‘cause that would, honey that’d be a sin”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgsCxHGAe_8
Silly little ditty from Ten Years After but embodying a sentiment that I embraced. I’ve sold different amps and effects over the years but never any of my guitars.
I did burn one. A cheap Harmony acoustic that I got from my brother. Someone had stressed the neck and damaged the truss assembly. I could never get it to stay in tune and it almost drove me away from playing altogether.
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