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Guitar Longevity
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Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
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RE: Guitar Longevity (in reply to RobJe)
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quote:
I am probably alone on this forum in believing that so-called “opening-up” of guitars is a partly mythical and mainly due to the player learning how to get the best out of a guitar. No you're not RobJe.. I know guitars "open up" because I've read that they do and everybody else tells me so, probably because they've read or have been told the same thing too. I have no idea if they do or not, but your point sounds equally valid to me. Anyway, I doubt if I would ever buy a guitar that I wasn't truly happy with on the promise that it would "open up" in a few months. Puts me in mind of the time (when I was young and foolish) when I got an Irish Gypsy tarmac gang to resurface my drive, since they offered me a good price because "they had just finished a big job for the Roads Department and had a bit of spare left". When they finished, I pointed out that there were "waves" in the finished job and was reassured by the "foreman" that.."oh that'll be no problem, to be sure Sur, ...it'll all 'bed in' after a few days....just wait and see...it just needs time to settle..mark my words...besides, we give a 10 year guarantee on all our work..." When I told them in that case, maybe they could come back in a few days and I'd pay them then...well, I was basically told to pay now, unless I liked Hospital food. Of course after a few days it was exactly the same....worse in fact...because the tar started coming away in lumps! I would have taken them up on their 10 year guarantee, but unfortunately I had no phone number for them and they had no permanent address... Happy days! cheers, Ron
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Date Apr. 6 2010 5:22:43
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minordjango
Posts: 918
Joined: Feb. 26 2005
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RE: Guitar Longevity (in reply to minordjango)
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Ron always in good spirits !! are you being served thats a classic, good old English comedy. Nice to hear the Feedback, on the M.Bellido, just the rare opportunity i have had to play one its like wow !! i mean i can barely p;ay any flamenco, but i love the sound and look, and an 80's era one could cost mmmmmmmmm around 3000 Euro ,a fellow in Granada said ! thats going to have to wait until im about 114 years old or i guess i could put my lego set down and get a job envious of you're guitars ! how to express the typical sound of a bellido , depth , and a big boom , love it anyhow , if his sons are like it , and a lot cheaper who knows one day, even a classical i heard was unreal for flamenco
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Date Apr. 6 2010 6:40:19
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a_arnold
Posts: 558
Joined: Jul. 30 2006
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RE: Guitar Longevity (in reply to RobJe)
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quote:
Players used to say that flamenco guitars did not last. They also said that classicals didn't last. Here is the reason Huber gives in his book: Back in the 1930's, Segovia's favorite gut string maker ended up "behind enemy lines" in Nazi Germany, and the strings became unavailable. Segovia went to Dupont and persuaded them to give him some miscellaneous nylon string -- fishing monofilament, tennis racket strings, etc. and he talked Augustine into starting up the nylon string industry. Before that time guitars had been built to withstand the lower tension gut strings, but Segovia changed that forever. People followed him and started putting the higher tension nylon strings on their old guitars that had previously been gut strung, and the guitars couldn't take it. Some actually came apart, others just started sounding dead. People thought it was age. It was the higher tension. But that is what started the mythology that good guitars have a "use by date." It was just all the pre-30's guitars that were ruined by nylon strings. But higher tension also means more volume, so Ramirez (and then others) started making guitars that would stand the tension. They were noticeably louder than their predecessors -- loud enough for unamplified performance in concert. That was why Segovia put his beloved Hauser aside and switched to Ramirez. Since then, much of the science of guitar design has become focused on increased volume and projection. Some say, at the sacrifice of tonal quality.
_____________________________
"Flamenco is so emotionally direct that a trained classical musician would require many years of highly disciplined formal study to fail to understand it."
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Date Apr. 7 2010 5:36:33
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estebanana
Posts: 9378
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: Guitar Longevity (in reply to minordjango)
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Guitars do open up and change over time. It is fact. Enough guitarists, violinists, cellists etc. over the last 450 years have observed the phenomena that instruments open up and change over time. The real question is not why or how, but do you have enough experience with instrument to be able to understand the difference between a guitar or violin... to intuit an instrument that is more than an instant gratification guitar. Is the instrument a dud or is it simply built properly and tightly enough to be loose and responsive when it opens up? It's easier to build or judge an instrument that is under built and "open" in the beginning than to try to calculate how tight a guitar has to be made to allow it to bloom over time. If a guitar is built too open to begin with it may become weak or compromised as it ages because it did not have enough meat built into so that when it dries out and shakes loose it still has guts. A guitar that is difficult to play or seems tight at first or seems to have a a closed voice in the midrange or trebles can open up as the instrument gets to know itself and all the constituent parts act in harmony through being vibrated together. That does not mean a guitar should sound like it has no mid or trebles, but it's like green fruit, it has flesh, but it is not ripe yet. How do you tell those guitars? Experience, time, heartache, practice, talking to old people who have played for 45 years, all that. Guitars can last a long long time if they are built and cared for. Some players do want a more aggressive guitar and prefer a young sound, but they also may just get bored with the same guitar and want to change for the sake of exploring a new instrument. It's kind of like a married person having an affair that turns into a new relationship. the old spouse might not be worn out, and may even be working better with time. However since men are men, and a new guitar is like Viagra for some dudes so it's natural for them to want to eat all the candy in the store. It's a fact that men like to have hard ons and it's a fact that they like to change guitars. They will find any excuse to have both. It's just biology and a guitar has it's own biology, which is if it is tightly constructed it will get better with age. Thank you, that will be 150.00 dollars U.S please. I take pay pal and major cards.
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https://www.stephenfaulkguitars.com
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Date Apr. 8 2010 10:53:53
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