RobF -> RE: Breaking in a new guitar (Nov. 12 2023 0:52:18)
|
I think well made guitars that sound good generally will improve with age, but a dog will probably be a dog forever. I’m not convinced playing them has anything to do with it, however. I think the wood just ages on its own, regardless. Some examples… I have an old Gibson steel stringed acoustic that’s never sounded good. I’ve played the living daylights out of it over the years. It records well and also responds well to an old-style sound hole magnetic pickup, but it’s never sounded any good. I used to keep it right beside loudspeakers and PA systems, in the hopes that would help. It didn’t. The guitar is 60 years old now, and it still sounds like crap. My 1963 Gibson Firebird doesn’t seem to sound as good as it used to. I think the pickups might have degraded a bit? It doesn’t play as well, either. I’m going to have to restore it, I guess. The electrics I play are all relatively new. I actually think some of the Fenders made between 2012-16 are the best they’ve ever made, ever. On the other hand, the first flamenco Blanca I made didn’t sound good at all when I first strung it up. I was really disappointed. I had used Turkish cypress, and I was too green to realize that so was the wood. Over the course of about four years the wood cured and the guitar turned into a really outstanding sounding instrument. I still have it and I’m keeping it. During the pandemic I saw an ad from a person looking for a slot head Martin 000-28. I had one, it had sat in a closet for about 18 years because it wasn’t very inspiring. It was good, but nothing special. I had purchased it second hand and it was still in mint condition. When I put new strings on it to prep it for the sale I was absolutely blown away by how good it sounded. It hadn’t been played in close to twenty years, but it was way better than I had recalled. When I showed it to the client I took it out of the case and strummed an E chord. I looked up and he was standing there with the money in his hand. He said he didn’t even have to try it, he had heard enough. Another similar example was the first steel stringed acoustic I made (second guitar, actually). I frikken hated the sound of that guitar. Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything nice to say about it. It looked really good and the neck was great, but the sound simply wasn’t happening, it was thin and trebly. It just sat in its case taking up space so finally I decided I’d give it away to a homeless person. I actually was walking down the street with this in mind when I came across an old friend who was looking a turn for the worse for wear. He had had a stroke and I think one of his sons had passed. Over the years he had bugged me about fixing his guitar, a luthier made dread that he never could get to play right. I told him I had no interest in fixing other people’s mistakes but he was more than welcome to have one of mine. When I got home I pulled it out of its case, it hadn’t been played in close to 15 years, put new strings on it and, once again, was blown away. I couldn’t believe how good it sounded, it was nothing like I recalled it being when I first made it. Being a man of my word, I gave him the guitar. The next day a wind came up and blew my fence over. It cost me just about what I could have sold that guitar for to get a new one put in. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.
|
|
|
|