a_arnold -> the consequences of NOT playing in a guitar (Jul. 18 2007 23:29:43)
|
I recently bought a guitar that I fell in love with immediately. Couldn't keep my hands off it, played intensely (at least 6 hours) every day for months, wearing through a set of of strings every 2 weeks and giving myself tendonitis. I had never done that before, but I noticed that (more than any other newly made guitar I have owned) the "playing in" improved the guitar very noticeably. That got me thinking. I'm sure there are some of you guys who have had a guitar go unsold and almost unplayed for some time. I once bought a guitar that, when I got it home from Granada (in the '70's), and compared it to the guitars I already had, didn't capture me the way this one did. So I didn't play it enough to "play it in." My question: If a guitar isn't played enough after it is first made, does it season and "solidify" (for lack of a better word) in the unplayed state, so it can never be played in as fully as it COULD have been when it was new? Is it important to play it in when it is new? Or can the playing in be put off? What, in fact, is the luthier's position on what physical changes take place while a guitar is being played in? (assuming it is well made of seasoned woods to begin with). Also: I know guitarists who habitually tune their guitars a half step low or high, or who almost always play with a capo on a particular fret. Does the habitual frequency (key) or tension used during play in matter? Tony Arnold
|
|
|
|