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Differnt perspective, ignoring wood/material for a moment
I just gave a guy his vintera strat back this evening.
He brought it a few months ago and didn't really like it. He'd pretty much convinced himself it was shit because of a Pau Ferro board and stuff he had read online.
It needed a a bit of fretwork.. just a slight level of the higher frets and a polish of all of them. Softened the fretboard edges, Oiled the board, gave the nut a little attention, changed the trem springs so they were parallel. Shimmed the neck a little so grub screws on the bridge didn't need to protrude as much, tweaked the truss rod, adjusted the intonation and lowered the pickups a bit
I could have said none of it really matters. None of it makes it sound better at a gig. Sure, The strings vibrate better as there is less choking and, but thats only gonna be noticeable on a few bends high up the neck, and no punter is really going to notice it when played live.
He left with a big grin and a guitar he was really happy with. I think that connection to the instrument matters. Sometimes that means focusing on the details no punter will ever notice.
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I am yet to take a guitar for a set up and have that much love, care and attention offered.
Still young though !
Very interesting range of responses in this thread
Ahhhh, so you’re saying what you hear on a recording is exactly what was coming out of the amp at the time the recording was made?
The Strat example was a decent guitar already with no faults. It was playable and sounded fine. It was already better set up than anything Jimi or Rory played. As a functional instrument it could be argued I made no improvements. It was just as capable of producing music before the work as it was after.
For some, the guitar playing well will inspire them to play, others seem to prefer a guitar that puts up more of a fight. Some don't give a shit about how the guitar resonates, other like to feel it. Its not for me to decide which one is more inspiring for each player ... if they tell me a resonant guitar feels better to them, I'm not going to write it off.
I'm very detail oriented with guitars, but that's because I come from the builders perspective. I don't think most players need to be, but I'm not telling them they should ignore it altogether
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Personally, I’ve got one guitar that plays really well, however acoustically sounds like there’s a blanket over it… it’s dull… it has a horrible metallic overtone to it… it sounds shit…
plug it into an amp tho’ and it is a beast of a guitar… a beautiful sounding thing!
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my point is that when amplified (as an electric guitar would be) the natural resonance of the instrument counts for nothing…
you have pickups through to your amp… everything in between will affect the sound/tone/noise you hear… at anything over a whisper in volume you won’t hear how “resonant” your guitar is, you will be hearing the end product of the amplified signal…
going back to one of my own guitars… it sounds shit acoustically… but it’s not an acoustic guitar is it!… it’s made to be plugged into an amp… and that “plugging in” negates ANY acoustic response/resonance you feel/hear/perceive!…
if an electric guitar is set up well for you and is great to play… what does it matter how it sounds acoustically? Again it’s not an acoustic instrument…