A new guitar is like a Dog.

All things guitar, Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, Tokai, Ibanez etc. etc. etc.

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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Dharmajester »

Darth Sabbathi wrote: I disagree. I reckon guitars need to be worn in for their character to come through. Very new guitars almost always feel a bit sterile to me. Not to say they need to be 30 years old to be any good - but they need the show room shine taken off. Which can take quite a long time...
Exactly.
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by H671 »

Timoes wrote:I,m lucky. I can take both my dog and guitar to work. Dog every day, guitar some days. A dog is alot of work. People just dont realise.
Yeah, tell me about it!
I used to have 3 Afghan hounds at the same time. Used to race them & show them.
I had to spend hours brushing & cleaning them.
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by crowbgood1 »

Only ever purchaced one new guitar. Ibanez hollow body. Can't find anything that needs improvement.

I'm usually a rabid tinkerer!
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by jeremyb »

I kinda prefer secondhand, too gutting getting that first scratch or chip on a new one...
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by crowbgood1 »

Someone start a, show us your dog thread. I'm guessing there'd be a lot of poodles.
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by jeremyb »

crowbgood1 wrote:Someone start a, show us your dog thread. I'm guessing there'd be a lot of poodles.
Codedog will win this by a mile :lol:
Slowy wrote: That's the problem; everything rewarding is just such hard work. Regret takes much less effort.

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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Slowy »

crowbgood1 wrote:Someone start a, show us your dog thread. I'm guessing there'd be a lot of poodles.
Been done already.
I grew up with poodle breeders; don't get me started.
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Slowy »

As for guitars, I'd never buy a new Martin for instance because I won't live long enough for it to really wake up. (This having owned a Martin that is now nearly 60 years old).
I think my Strat has improved as it has become more bedraggled; certainly feels more comfortable.
The Korinacaster, which I built 7 years ago has forgotten it used to be bits of tree and has settled nicely into being a musical instrument.
The Aria 335 is by far the best built electric I've ever owned. It feels precise, finished, accurate and a bit sterile. Every now and then it shows me something it can do and they're usually WOW! moments. But we're still getting to know each other. I'm pretty sure there's a superb instrument lurking in there.
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.

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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Dharmajester »

Slowy wrote: The Korinacaster, which I built 7 years ago has forgotten it used to be bits of tree and has settled nicely into being a musical instrument.
That's it. It's like reincarnation. The wood is still locked into its former existence as a tree until it's had enough time being treated as a guitar to realign itself to its new instrument incarnation.
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Molly »

I think I know what you're getting at. New guitars seem like a collection of parts whereas old guitars seem to have settled into themselves.

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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Dharmajester »

Molly wrote:I think I know what you're getting at. New guitars seem like a collection of parts whereas old guitars seem to have settled into themselves.
Indeed and as such they require a time commitment in order to settle them in. Just think of all the newish guitars that have passed through your hands some of them for that very reason and imagine them with ten years on the clock. Just a though.
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench - a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Slowy »

Dharmajester wrote:
Molly wrote:I think I know what you're getting at. New guitars seem like a collection of parts whereas old guitars seem to have settled into themselves.
Indeed and as such they require a time commitment in order to settle them in. Just think of all the newish guitars that have passed through your hands some of them for that very reason and imagine them with ten years on the clock. Just a though.
I've encountered this enough over the years to consider it true. The ageing debate is a complex one, and I admit much of the perception may simply be getting used to a guitar over time but there's more to it. New Martins of the '70s to late '80s were universally stiff and restrained when new. So much so that you could get amazing results by standing them in front of a stereo speaker while you were at work and vibrating them for a week or so.
Then in the '90s, Martin started shipping guitars that felt much more open and relaxed. No idea what changed and I've never found any reference to it.

That said, I've encountered plenty of old Martins, Gibsons and Guilds that just felt tired and bored. Ageing isn't an automatic path to perfection.
I've stuck to talking about acoustics because I think the effects are more pronounced. And I have a lot more experience with old acoustics.

Oh, and the Brown Acid was OK, Man. It gave me a lifetime of new perspectives.
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Molly »

Dharmajester wrote:
Molly wrote:I think I know what you're getting at. New guitars seem like a collection of parts whereas old guitars seem to have settled into themselves.
Indeed and as such they require a time commitment in order to settle them in. Just think of all the newish guitars that have passed through your hands some of them for that very reason and imagine them with ten years on the clock. Just a though.
Naa. That doesn't concern me. I've had oldish guitars that sucked and newish that didn't. But if they start out great then I can only imagine what they'd be like a decade later (for obvious reasons).

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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by AiRdAd »

Disregarding the feel of the guitar (with playing a guitar making it feel more comfortable), and the changes to the electrics (with pot and cap values changing over time) - How does age and playing change the physical properties of the wood on an electric guitar to make it better?
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Re: A new guitar is like a Dog.

Post by Single coil »

One would assume all the moisture in the wood evaporates. Blah blah physics, less water getting in the way of where air can move and resonate.

That lp you have from 1978 probably still sounds the same. The sounds cut into it haven't aged, but everything around it has been affected by time passing.

Maybe it works in reverse too.
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