Why are most of us so firmly stuck in the past

Jez6345789

I was in a long conversation with my mate yesterday and we spend a good amount of time reflecting that we are as guilty as the next guitarist of buying 50+ year old design guitars and that for a lot of guitarists Fender/Gibson/ and the various variants on those guitars form the largest part of the volume of guitars sold around the world. And for all this time nobody has really broken that stranglehold yes a few different shapes have come and gone like fads Steinberg Klein, BC Rich.

So is it the power of the big companies marketing 
Is it they keep putting their guitars in the hands of our heroes

Are we that weak minded we only want what our young heroes played. 

I know there are people here who go their own way but just interested why we are largely the equivalent of a Vintage motorcycle club. 

SteveRobinson

Players of orchestral instruments are even worse I hear

Jez6345789

It sort of fascinates me in terms of human behaviour, I like lots of other things in my life as teccy and up to date as possible.
But like most people I tend to stick with Les Paul Tele Strat variants and even when i had no money and was young I had a black les paul copy then later a cheap strat copy hmm.  

Kilgore

If it ain't broke don't fix it. 

JerkMoans

Kilgore said:

If it ain't broke don't fix it. 

Quite.  Isn't it (a) that they basically got the designs more or less right by the 50's/60's: these are not really hi-tech bits of kit, and (b) all the ace cool rock n roll heroes/heroines we so desire to emulate were slinging Strats, Teles and Les Pauls.  

guitars4you

SteveRobinson said:

Players of orchestral instruments are even worse I hear

I read the original posting and 1/2 way thru' I was thinking the same as you, plus it works so why change it - Then I think of Steinberger and Parker, + others and it reminds me that there is nothing wrong with what we have 

The initial op also said 

So is it the power of the big companies marketing 
Is it they keep putting their guitars in the hands of our heroes

Do you believe that the likes of JoBO only play such guitars because they are led down that direction by a sponsor/manufacture ? - In fact when EC chose a LP for the Beano album, such guitars were about as un-trendy as possible, so EC chose it because he liked what he could do with it - Only one example, but the same principle covers most of our hero's selection of guitars that have been purchased to do a job

JerkMoans

Anyway, nostalgia's not what it used to be.

roberty

SteveRobinson said:

Players of orchestral instruments are even worse I hear

Yeah this. The electric guitar as we know it was designed in the 50s. There is innovation in signal processing

dazzajl

Let's not underestimate the contribution of the 80s. 

guitars4you

roberty said:

SteveRobinson said:

Players of orchestral instruments are even worse I hear

Yeah this. The electric guitar as we know it was designed in the 50s. There is innovation in signal processing

I think innovation in hardware - ie the trem, be it PRS or F Rose - Certainly innovation within the production lines, to produce such quality today in the mid/low end of the market + even boutique etc - Probably the single biggest development within the last 50/60 years IMO

LastMantra

You know there's probably more types of electric guitar than any other instrument ever?

Funkfingers

Musical instrument students attempt to assess their progress by comparison to acknowledged masters. 

There exists a widespread belief that one shortcut to getting as good as the masters is to buy the same gear as them.

Thus, if the master’s career pinnacle involved a Les Paul, a wah pedal and a modified Marshall Major, that is what the suggestible student is going to purchase.

The disadvantage to true innovation is the time taken to gain acceptance. 

Jalapeno

dazzajl said:

Let's not underestimate the contribution of the 80s. 

Yes, that explains everything - why we've gone back to LP/Tele/Strat !

soma1975

I wonder if there's a similar thread on the Violinfingerboard forums 

Bridgehouse

soma1975 said:

I wonder if there's a similar thread on the Violinfingerboard forums 

There’s a thread on Basschat from time to time - and the general consensus is bass players are a far more experimental lot. There’s still plenty of die hard P and J fans, but nearly all will try or have at least one “wacky” bass.

I’m almost exclusively playing my fretless these days and it’s far from ordinary at all..

p90fool

The electric guitar has a known repertoire of tones which can be placed in an infinite variety of new contexts, just like all other instruments have. 

You can be as progressive as you want with any classic instrument, you don't HAVE to use it to emulate Lynyrd Skynyrd or Bad Company. 

JerkMoans

p90fool said:

...you don't HAVE to use it to emulate Lynyrd Skynyrd or Bad Company. 

Now that's just crazy talk.

ourmaninthenorth

The older I get, the better I was. 

Musicwolf

Jez6345789 said:

So is it the power of the big companies marketing 

I think that there are many reasons but I suspect that a reluctance to accept new designs is actually harmful to the guitar manufacturers.  Old guitars, far from going 'out of fashion', stay in circulation reducing the demand for new instruments.

Being head of Product Development at Fender must be a thankless job.

chrisj1602

There were a hell lot of guitars designed in the “golden era” and I haven’t got though them all yet! I am always drawn to those models first though.

There is a lot of cutting edge technology available to guitarists, albeit more in the amp and effects side of things, I have a HX Stomp and an iPad that I use a lot for guitar.

roberty

guitars4you said:

roberty said:

SteveRobinson said:

Players of orchestral instruments are even worse I hear

Yeah this. The electric guitar as we know it was designed in the 50s. There is innovation in signal processing

I think innovation in hardware - ie the trem, be it PRS or F Rose - Certainly innovation within the production lines, to produce such quality today in the mid/low end of the market + even boutique etc - Probably the single biggest development within the last 50/60 years IMO

True there are production efficiencies, but these innovations result in a similar instrument at a lower cost. Compare with a car or television design from the 1950s