There are a legion of choices available to the modern guitarist. I often wonder whether or not with both guitars and amps - we are over complicating it at times. If you think back to those we admire with great tone from yesteryear - what did they have? A rigged out fender typically, with a hidge-podge of pickups, a basic neck profile, radius. and bridge - but hey....look at what they did with it back in the day (Hendrix, Beck, Clapton, Green, even SRV, etc)
Lets take neck and fretboard radius as an example. People obsess over 7.25 or 9.5'' radius and 12'' for bending etc.....I am coming to the opinion alot of this is nonsense - or at the very least does not translate into any meaningful differences to the player.
I've played 7.25 and 12'' for Barre chords and soloing and could not find any difference between them. I could chord the 12'' fine and bend the life out of the 7.25. There was a difference in feel - but this was down to neck shape - not radius. Gilmour (Pink Floyd) does some enormous bends in his playing - yet his signature strat has a 7.25'' radius if i am not mistaken.
Then there are compound necks....dont get me started on that. Our heroes all played very basic stuff back in the day - so my question is - are many of us (or at least people we know) over complicating it and ultimately we should just go with the guitar neck that 'feels' nice and crack on with that (and its no more complicated than that)?
Dealing with the devil at the crossroads
Guitars
G&L USA Spalted maple Legacy
G&L Tribute Asat Classic (Indonesia)
Amplification
Vox VT-15 Valvotronix
Influences
Eric Clapton
Peter Green
Richie Sambora
many such differences will be noticed by some and not by others...
higher action would make FB radius less noticeable, for example...
we have many more options than they did back in the day...and while everybody worked with what was available then, i think they would've loved to have the options we have now...
They used what they had, and had to make due. We use what we have, and do not necessarily have to make due thanks to an increase in technology. How nice is that. Personally I really hate tight radii, and if you want to do big bends on them, you need to sacrifice nice low action. I don't notice much difference on chords but playing leads and bending, yes, there is a noticable difference. If you aren't playing anything terribly demanding you may not notice it, but writing it off as useless/meaningless, that is ridiculous. Can you still play it, of course, the bass I learned on had me fretting 1/4" down up the neck and I could blast Rush on it. Should you be comfortable and not fighting your instrument while playing? Yes, guitar playing is not a competition.
We aren't over complicating it, a lot of those older guys were modding their gear heavily to change their sound and acquire what we are getting standard. EVH was a guy who made his own guitars and cabinets. Iommi had modded his amps for higher gain levels and like some others used banjo strings on the high guages to make it easier. You mention Peter Green, he had the magnet on his neck humbucker flipped over, so he would get 2 out of phase humbuckers in the middle position (as the old humbuckers were one conductor + shield, you could not wire them that way). The original strats came with a 3 way switch, bridge,middle,neck. People started filing extra positions onto them for the notch position you now know as the 5 way switch. That was not the standard. These guys often weren't settling and were breaking boundaries every way they knew how, does this sound like them accepting and playing at face value because it is there?
Compound radii are designed to take advantage of the best of both worlds, you lose action on the outer strings (bass and treble) on the lower frets though. How many of 'our heroes' were rewiring their guitars, and tweaking them to hell. These guys were also using every single piece of gear they could get their hands on. Look how much technology and effect units etc goes into Gilmours Rig alone? Is he using the same rig he did back then, no.
A lot of bridges now are more comfortable, more stable, and just made better. Nothing wrong with improvement. Look what the floyd brought.
Pickups I am not even going to touch.
Everyone heres a different song in their head, is it wrong for us to chase it because some other guy didn't have the options I did. WE all have different shaped hands and set up preferences is it a waste of time for me to find the most comfortable instrument possible?
I wouldn't necessarily consider everything they used back then was "stock". Some of them even had amps that went to 11. But seriously, there wasn't a plethora of boutique builders back then. When you think about it though, the boutique builders today are people trying to make what they think were the best of something back then.
But to your point, yes, we do make things more complicated. For years I played a stock '75 strat through a 50-watt Marshall Super Lead head sitting on a 2x12 cabinet. The only effect I had was a Vox crybaby. That was one of the best sounding rigs I have owned.
In this case, where back then is the '40s and '50s, the electric music industry was just starting out. The products we see today have evolved into what they are now. Like Sirmy has said, musicians would use anything they could get their hands on to get different sounds. Look at Les Paul - the man made a whole bunch of innovative stuff and he was there at the beginning.
We are spoiled for choice these days in every aspect of our lives - no way that my Nan would have had an entire aisles worth of breakfast cereals to choose from at the supermarket - hell, there wouldn't even have been a supermarket to go to! Things do get over-analysed, hyped and critiqued on internet forums but it's nice to have a place to discuss these things. I say enjoy it
This whole discussion so reminds me of this Louis CK routine. Puts things into perspective in terms of progress in technology and what not. Enjoy!
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I love that video and it's so true. I also agree with Neil Peart (who is constantly evolving his drum kit) about the idea that older is not necessarily better. We tend to think about the "old days" as simpler times unfettered by technology and choice, but the truth is that what we have now are better tools that are the results of previous generations pushing what they had to the limit and coming up with new ways of using existing technologies, which were integrated into subsequent versions of their equipment. But at the same time, some of us suffer from a syndrome that requires us to always be seeking something new that can "push our playing to the next level or dramatically alter the sound."
I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. At the same time, I don't get the obsession with "vintage" gear. Electric guitars, especially Strat Style guitars are wood, wire, metal and plastic. They are products of mass manufacture. Take an old one apart, replicate the specs, add in today's better manufacturing techniques and you've got a guitar that will sound just as good that will be infinitely more reliable. Sadly, today's manufacturers cut corners (I'm looking at you, G_bs_n!) and the results are less than spectacular. But I'd measure a modern Legacy against a vintage Strat any day.
CGT, you explain it well. I am not into vintage gear either but prefer the reissues for the reason that you stated. Todays pickups and electronics are the finest and continue to improve. It would be cool to have a pristine vintage guitar, especially if I had owned it since new. The Rampage that was purchased by a member on the board recently is very cool as it appears to be pristine. That is cool!-- Darwin
