Classical Musicians

thisisguitar

Do they get Classical GAS?

guitarfishbay

http://d3819ii77zvwic.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Grumpy-Cat.jpg

thisisguitar

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa183/lyndos/52088ea831cc43843517cfc006989b37.jpg

beed84

Good question, it's something that has crossed my mind too.  

Ditching electric guitar for the classical variety, I've been playing classical style of music for a year or so and I've experienced 'Classical GAS' once.  In fact the only guitar I have is my Antoria classical, a cheap £35 find in an antique shop, which happens to sound and play above average/student level.  I asked my tutor if I needed to upgrade and he praised the sound of what I already have and advised me not to bother for a couple of years until I've really improved.  He explained that by then, buying a more expensive classical will be more appreciated. I almost caved in and bought a 80s all solid Admira for £450, which was beautiful, however, I came to my senses and realised that it wasn't necessary as there wasn't that much in it between that and my Antoria.

Put it this way, I am happy with what I already have and aiming/looking forward to treating myself to something more suitable when the time is right.

That's my 2 pence worth anyway.

chillidoggy

'Classical Gas' is my favourite acoustic piece of all time. I aspire to play it, yet will never have a chance of coming even close. Mason Williams is a genius bastard.

viz

Yes they do but it's more of a 'one-out one-in' thing rather than a 'I need 50 pedals' thing.

viz

unless it's an organist of course.

mart

I'd been thinking about this, as we took our son to buy a cello at the weekend. 

The shop didn't have any on display, but had six laid out for us in a back room. And, of course, they all looked completely identical. They'd even taken the prices off, so we could choose based on sound/feel alone. 

Now, I'm sure there's some lust for an older instrument, or one made in a different country, but let's be honest, if all guitars looked the same, and we didn't know their prices (so couldn't lust after something just because it was mega bucks), would we feel gas as strongly?

guitarfishbay

I can't think of knowing a classical player with multiple instruments of the same type. I know a Jazz saxophonist with 3 Tenor Saxes though, for tone reasons.

richardhomer

I knew a double bass player who had two basses. One was a 'spare'. He'd owned both for pretty much the duration of his career (I met him when he was in his late 60s - he played in The Halle).

The great jazz bassist Danny Thompson has owned 'Victoria' (his main instrument) since - IIRC - the late '50s.

It seems that 'serious' musicians stick with what they've got, once the have a quality instrument.

VimFuego

I wonder if part of it is that guitars are easily available whereas a lot of classical instruments less so. Even here, living right next door to the middle of no where I can be, in less than an hour, be in a location where I have a choice of shops where I can buy high end guitars and amps. If I wanted to buy a high end violin, brass instrument, woodwind etc. then that'd be a bit more tricky. These places are odd, many of the ones I've seen you have to make an appointment (as was described above, you don't see the stock, they lay out a selection of instruments chosen for you in advance), there is an expectation you will buy one of the selected. It doesn't encourage casual shopping, it's a commitment.

fretmeister

I wondered this too - I'm playing in a Music Trust orchestra at the moment.

Most of the people seem to think about upgrading their 1 instrument rather than building a collection. I would say that only a small proportion of them have a spare instrument, and if they have access to one, it usually belongs to their offspring.

For them it seems weird to have more than 1, and downright perverted to have 3 or more!

I used to rotate the basses I took with me, but now just take the same kit every week to avoid the "how many???" questions.

ICBM

My kids' violin and viola teacher has at least two violins and three violas, but she is a very accomplished professional player in a wide variety of styles from historical to avant-garde, so I can understand that more than one who only plays in the same sort of format. Even accounting for a main instrument and a spare, three violas would seem to be a lot… she did say that she bought the third one just because it was different-sounding, so there is at least some of the same sort of logic as a guitarist "needing different sounding guitars" there. The one she's just bought is "vintage" (at least by our standards, it's early 20th century) too.

VimFuego

thing is, guitars evolved to meet certain requirements, so the steel string acoustic was developed as there was a need for a louder guitar to play in bands. Then flat top dread was developed. Then the resonator, the archtop then some joker stuck a magnet wrapped with wire on one and it went a bit pear shaped. A violin is a violin, it does one thing. Though many of the violin players I know also play viola, cello etc, many of the flute players also play piccolo, whistle, pipes and so on. Guess that's their equivalent to having a strat, LP, a...

Clarky

my uncle is a concerto flautist.. he's got loads of flutes, modern ones and old 'baroque flutes'..

he says that some sound and feel different and so they make him play a little differently..

sounds like a pretty familiar story to me..

Axe_meister

My daughter as two violins, both 150 odd years old, that we fortunately got for free.

Both have very distinctive sounds, one has a far more in your face top end sound the other
is very mellow. Both sound great mind. She chooses which one to use based on context.

If she is in the second violins in one orchestra she'll go mellow, first violins in the other orchestra

she goes bright.

She does lust after a strad though, having been fortunate to have a go.

stickyfiddle

When I was learning clarinet and sax I had one of each. I upgraded the sax eventually, but sold the old one when I did.

My teacher was the same - one clarinet, two saxes (one alto, one tenor), an oboe and a couple of flutes. 

The difference is that all wind instruments of a type look and sound broadly the same. A £5000 sax is undoubtedly nicer than a £200 one, but it's not night and day . With wind stuff the difference is like getting an Squier Affinity, then a Fender USA Strat then a CS one. All trying to be basically the same thing at different prices

With guitars most non-musicians would be able to tell you that a Gibson Les Paul, Fender Strat and Gretsch 6120 all sound different if played one after the other in isolation. And they all have different pros/cons in terms of playability, not to mention looking very different too. But with the squier/USA Std/Custom Shop thing it's much harder to the untrained eye and ear.

rolls1392

Interesting thread.

I bought a reasonable classical guitar about 6 months ago with the intention of having a bash at flamenco. Since then I've been dabbling at both flamenco and classical stuff with this guitar.

The electrics hardly get an outing! But there are those days when making a racket is the only way to go and then the GAS hits home 'cos I just need that extra "something"

PolarityMan

who cares how many oboes they ahve..the real question is how come they never have *any* distortion pedals.....fucking weirdos.

Clarky

PolarityMan said:

who cares how many oboes they ahve..the real question is how come they never have *any* distortion pedals.....fucking weirdos.

totally... or Floyds too

Axe_meister

Where the Gas does come in is in composing. My daughter is now asking for an imac, decent audio interface and logic. And of course all of those really expensive samples of the best instruments played by the best musicians.