window shopping

every time I go to a music shop, I come away with more questions than answers... as well as a whole heap of observations. so I thought I'd put them all together in one thread. Sometimes I'll just make observations, sometimes I'll ask questions.

hope it's ok!

I visited two music shops today, the first one was shire music, where I've bought my tele from. The tele arrives in two weeks!

I also visited Billy Hydes Music at Camperdown/Newtown. I know that means nothing to you yanks ...

Billy Hydes has heaps of guitars. Literally hundreds. But they keep them in such bad condition! I found a leftie tele to play, but the strings were rusty, the pup switch felt wonky and loose, and the knob at the end of it fell off. All the hardware was tarnished. I know it's trendy to relic a guitar, but this wasn't cool, it was just garbage. The pickups hummed like crazy!

Anyway, I plugged it into some sort of crate tube amp. The guy said it sold really well in the states last year, and has just come to Aus. One channel, class A tube amp. It sounded really nice! But I'd want a tube screamer or an alberta to have a sort of two channel thing happening. But the pickups in the tele were humming stupidly loudly. The MIM tele I played at shire music didn't hum at all; would this be an individual guitar problem, or would it be something to do with the power circuit, flourescent lights etc? I played the other tele (at shire) through a fender tube amp, and it didn't hum at all. Same pickups and everything. Is all that noise an amp thing? Could it be shoddy wiring in the Hydes tele? I'm guessing if the switch was loose, it would indicate that it had been opened up and had some work done on it.

I also found a leftie Les Paul; the black one with gold hardware and white binding ... my GOSH they're HEAVY!!! But then I saw something really special (with a really special price tag too ... AU$4499) ... a leftie, goldtop Les Paul custom (?) the dual cutaway thing with P90's. It was so light! and nice, I wish I could afford one!

Oh, I also saw the Fender Champion 600. It's AU$419. It was smaller than I thought!

Final question for today; is all this guitar shopping unhealthy for me, mentally? Up until recently I've been so satisfied with my guitar and amp, but shopping around has made me lusting after all this gear, to the point where mentally it's quite hard to feel content with my stuff. Even though it sounds pretty cool. I think.

oh! I also found out that the guitar tech guy at shire music also refinishes guitars as a bit of a hobby! Apparently, he'd love to hear that I know a guy in the paint industry, so refinishing my tele is seeming more possible!

so ... Arctic White or Olympic White?

EDIT: this was the goldtop les paul that I saw ... Classic Double Cutaway. It had a really thin body and was super light! And leftie! But the one I saw had the soap bar white P90's.

EDIT #2 (it's not letting me edit my previous posts anymore

I also played a leftie strat. I never really liked strats, probably because my first experience was a cheap copy. There are so many cheap copies around!

Anyway, after 14 years of guitar playing, I think I now 'get' a main part of the strat ... it's pretty comfortable to play huh? Sitting down, there was no part of the guitar that feels like it's getting in the way. I've been playing acoustics and my archtop for so long that I forgot how big those things actually are.

EDIT #3!!!

Here is the crate amp I mentioned, the V18-112: https://www.billyhydemusic.com.au/sh...n=view&id=3469

Matt,

Yes....we've all dealt with music store envy at one time or another. My lessons learned:

1. Don't buy gear unless you plan on keeping it forever. I have a closet full of amps and guitars that I really liked at the time. If I would have held off and bought the really high end stuff in the first place, I wouldn't have collected all of this stuff that is pseudo high end (Mesa Boogie..."new" Fender stuff, Line6, etc.). I went "ugly early" and I'm stuck with my decisions. My buddy has a Badcat, some choice effects, and a "newer" vintage Les Paul & custom shop Relic'd Strat...and that's all he uses live and in the studio. He never longs for anything (although he collects real deal vintage guitars worth more than most cars as well). Buy the BEST stuff that is fit for the music you make....when you settle for less, you are doing just that. You will always desire more.

2. It always sounds better in the store. I think this is more of a psychological thing. A nice new Strat will sound awesome in a store, and Fender will always have some new gimmick claiming that their latest stuff sounds better than ever.... but once you play it side by side to a real good vintage one (or a good custom shop relic, which most likely won't be at the shop), you'll notice a lot of nuances that make the "tried and true".....tried and true. If you look at all the mods that are available for new guitars, they are primarily about making them sound like a vintage instruments.....so why not start with one instead?

3. Authenticity matters. After we made our first record...with Line6 gear, auto tune on the vocals, and drum loops.... While it sounded good to a lot of people (our "fans")....the folks with the trained ears (music industry people) could point out all of the inauthenticity in the recordings. Sure, we could tweak and re-do stuff, but at the end of the day, it WAS inauthentic...most of the recording was not REAL....it was an emulation produced by technology. We made a couple of recordings with a grammy winning producer, through mostly analog gear with no "out of the ordinary" studio magic, and guess what? Those same industry people said the new recordings had a truth to them (vintage guitars, vintage tube amps, 25+ year old acoustic guitars, tube pre-amps & big diaphragm condensers on the voice). That was a HUGE lesson for us. Now we record with as much vintage signal as possible, and we're honing in on our true sound and getting recognized for it.

I'm not saying this is exactly what you should do, but I am saying that it was a hard lesson learned for the type of music that I do. If you are doing Moby style dance music or techno, I'm sure these things don't apply, but as for guitar oriented, classic sounding rock....it sure did for us.

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that's really insightful adaptable.

when I was shopping for a coffee grinder, the advice I got was 'plan to upgrade once' ... ie; buy the biggest and best I could get. I spent $700 on a mazzer grinder (the silver ones you see in cafe's) and haven't thought twice about upgrading.

however I need to temper all my lusting with the knowledge that I'm not, and don't ever plan on being a recording musician. my gig is four songs a week at the church service I run, with 15 year old kids on drums and bass. It rocks, they're great little muso's, but I'm not going to be recording or even playing pub gigs etc.

otherwise it'd be like the guys who have thousands of dollars worth of equipment but can't actually play well at all.

Matt,

I come at the "gear envy" topic from a different angle, as I'm not a working musician. However, I love guitars and love playing guitar -- do so every day, even if only for 5-10 mintues. I get huge enjoyment out of having a variety of guitars to play, simply because they all have their own personalities, looks, feel, and tone.

When I go window shopping I start out by reminding myself that I can't come home with anything new, since the budget won't allow it. So I have to go in the right frame of mind -- enjoy looking at, playing, and admiring the guitars, and if you find something that you really love, just walk out of the store telling yourself that when the time is right and you have the funds, you'll find another one just as good. (Let's face it, there are tons of great guitars out there).

Last time that happened to me was when I played a 64 Fender Duo Sonic in an odd sunburst finish. Believe me, I found out what all the fuss is about pre-CBS fenders. That neck played like butter and the guitar's tone was really cool. Plus, it was very nicely "aged."

I enjoyed it for about 15 minutes, put it back on the wall and bought a box of picks instead. I walked out thinking, "some day." And to this day I still have fond memories of playing that guitar.

I don't feel the least bit guilty about owning 8 guitars because I play them all. I would never buy a guitar simply to put it away and hope it appreciates, and I agree that it's a shame when people do so.

To sum it up, I believe that you can really enjoy the window shopping experience if you go at it with the right attitude. Plus, it makes the purchase of your next guitar that much sweeter. Think of it as research!

Great perspective badger! I hadn't thought of it that way.

Interestingly, Jackson's Rare Guitars had an article recently saying that in 2007, the price of rare guitars appreciated something like 54% !!! That's a higher rate than any superannuation fund down here!

Mind you, they're also advertising a $90,000 Telecaster.

Yeah, there's a monthly article in Vintage Guitar magazine called 401K Guitars (or something like that). Over the past couple of years it has consistently provided data that shows investment-grade vintage guitars outperforming the stock market.

Then there are articles and comments being made about whether guitars are approaching a "market correction" like real estate has in the US the past year. As guitar buyers move to new generations, when will 59 Les Pauls no longer be attractive -- especially at $300,000? Guitars from the 70s have been appreciating despite the general belief that they are lower in quality...is that because the generation that grew up in the 70s is now buying the guitars of their youth? If that's the case, will interest in the guitars of the 50s and 60s wane? Or will people just say that paying more for a guitar than you did for your house -- or at least your car -- is no longer worth it?

Then there are other effects, like the fact that hip hop dominates popular music, and rarely uses guitars...

It will be interesting to see what happens the next 5 - 10 years.

my super is staying right where it is!

but a vintage guitar would be nice. just incase.

though if I cashed in my super, I definately couldn't afford that tele.