GrantB wrote:If you're going MIM, try and play it first...some are dead and lifeless, IME.
I see this mentioned every now and then... something being "dead and lifeless". What does this mean exactly? To me it's the resonance of the guitar acoustically/unplugged that makes it feel "alive". The body and neck resonates with the strings. More often than not I have fixed or improved this with a good setup. I haven't had a huge number of guitars so my experience is limited to the less-than-a-dozen that have crossed my workbench.
Are we talking about the same thing?
Yep, that's it. If the guitars sounds like a wet sock, then it typically has little resonance or movement. I had a MIM Strat body that despite the best set up and supporting parts, was just a shitter. Then I had briefly an all original MIM Strat - that one had the tone of damp cardboard. Then again, I played Danny's MIM Road Worn and it was great.
And yes, not just MIM...and not just a Fender thing too.
"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible god and destroys a visible nature. Unaware that this nature he's destroying is this god he's worshipping." - Hubert Reeves
GrantB wrote:If you're going MIM, try and play it first...some are dead and lifeless, IME.
I see this mentioned every now and then... something being "dead and lifeless". What does this mean exactly? To me it's the resonance of the guitar acoustically/unplugged that makes it feel "alive". The body and neck resonates with the strings. More often than not I have fixed or improved this with a good setup. I haven't had a huge number of guitars so my experience is limited to the less-than-a-dozen that have crossed my workbench.
Are we talking about the same thing?
Yep, that's it. If the guitars sounds like a wet sock, then it typically has little resonance or movement. I had a MIM Strat body that despite the best set up and supporting parts, was just a shitter. Then I had briefly an all original MIM Strat - that one had the tone of damp cardboard. Then again, I played Danny's MIM Road Worn and it was great.
And yes, not just MIM...and not just a Fender thing too.
Totally!
My MIA that I played for about 5 years was a great guitar, I soon clicked that it was because the finish seemed rather thin (you could see the grain through the black) and not necessarily because it was "an american guitar" and it sounded quite loud unplugged. Setup properly it was all class. Never regretted selling it though cause I bought some fun gear with that money and I never cared much for the color.