The Emperor's new guitar

[62burst]

Seeing onewileyfool's post mentioning the old fable of the emperor's new clothes as it relates to $30K guitars on the thread of "agf & gibson" bashing reminded me of how I thought about that same old tale as it relates to vintage guitars. The search for my take on the Gibson tone found me spending the last 3 or 4 months looking for the quintessential J-45 sound, resulting in me getting a custom shop '45, then the TV J-45. This got me wanting to know what was the standard that these guitars sought to capture. This ultimately ended up with going directly to the source, a nicely broken in banner headstock war-era '45.

 

I chose the guitar out of several that had the most unique voice, bringing my True Vintage for a/b'ing. After changing to the same spec strings for cont'd testing at home, the thinner sound of the TV was fairly apparent (to go along with

the thinner, more playable neck), but it was close enough that without a side-by-side comparo, the difference might actually become less of a factor. "The real deal" had, maybe, 35-45% better tone; rounder sound to each note, more opened-up sounding, a warmer tone. The rest was ... mojo (?).

 

Mojo: that's a shop-worn phrase these days, much thanks to ebay hype to try to sell a guitar. But it does account for something. The X-factor. You can't quite put your finger on it. Like Faith, it's value lies in what people put into it. When

they believe in it, there are none better than the Emperor's new clothes.

[milod]

I dunno...

 

I'm playing as my "main" guitars a pair of 35-year-old-plus instruments. When they were new, the wood was aged, but - I doubt for an extra 35 years.

 

Would they sound the same now as then? I dunno.

 

Would two that came out of the factory one after the other have exactly the same tone? I doubt it.

 

But that's just my two bits worth.

 

m

[onewilyfool]

I don't know if I will ever buy a new guitar again.....???? !!!!! I think my three favorite guitars are my Gibson L-20 (1994), Kay K-20 (1950), and my Harmony Sovereign (1965), at least I wind up playing these the most. I have other fantastic guitars, but I keep going back to these.....there is something about age and mojo, and the unique sounds that aging gives that a new guitar just doesn't capture. I understand fully what 62burst is saying......

[Hoss]

I don't know if I will ever buy a new guitar again.....???? !!!!! .

 

I often feel the same about it. (new guitars) (Then I'll play a new guitar that gives me another perspective!)

 

While I also prefer the clarity' date=' warmth and d[i']epth of tone[/i] that a good old guitar has in spades, I still don't mind picking up and hitting a few licks on new instruments every now and then. If only to confirm my impressions..

[J185-4Me]

I often feel the same about it. (new guitars) (Then I'll play a new guitar that gives me another perspective!)

 

While I also prefer the clarity' date=' warmth and d[i']epth of tone[/i] that a good old guitar has in spades, I still don't mind picking up and hitting a few licks on new instruments every now and then. If only to confirm my impressions..

 

So true, Hoss.

 

But all those nice old guitars have to have begun life as new guitars too! Maybe it's not so bad to have examples of each, eh?

 

Fred

PS Are you heading to the Seattle VG show next weekend?

[Hoss]

So true' date=' Hoss.

 

But all those nice old guitars have to have begun life as new guitars too! ....

PS Are you heading to the Seattle VG show next weekend?[/quote']

 

Yes, but I don't know if I'll be around long enough for that new guitar to get old! Don't think I'll hit the Guitar show- the ones I've gone to around here are mostly electrics, and anyway-- I just don't seem that interested in any other guitars.

 

OK-- there is ONE guitar that kind of intrigues me, but it's a new one by a local luthier... well,, there is also one vintage Gibson that I'd like to find,, but I've got to sell a few first. (who am I kidding- I'll see you there!)

[milod]

Some 6 or 8,000 years ago I had a girlfriend who played a Harmony Sovereign. I wondered for more than 4 decades whatever happened to it. I've a hunch a lot of '60s guitars ended up in closets and heaven knows what else.

 

The top-end Harmonies in retrospect had nice sound but just biiiig necks.

 

Interesting. Glad somebody still has one who appreciates it.

 

m