Do electric guitars mature with age?

Bridgehouse

richardhomer said:

Says a man with a ‘64 P bass @Bridgehouse

Yep. And it plays and sounds fantastic. I passed up on about half a dozen other 60s fender basses cos they were average at best.

I don't deny being a vintage whore. I accept it is because of what they are and the time they represent. Not because they are better than new ones.

AlexC

See I was getting lols on my post - probably because I put I got this guitar in 2017, not 2000. So it looked like I was taking the mick, but I wasn't. Honest! Now amended. Who's laughing now, eh? Sorry, guys. 

Freebird

I hope so, my '89 Les Paul will be vintage in 2019   

tampaxboo

pickups definitely weaken because magnets (especially of the type used in pre 1970 guitars) naturally lose their pull over time. and noticably. that's physics, not anecdotal or speculation.
modern alnico and ceramic not so much, maybe 1% over a decade, which is as good as nothing. but old iron and steel magnets 40 years old or more will be double figures weaker.

Schnozz

Yes.

57Deluxe

EVERYTHING matures with age! Age=maturing

WezV

tampaxboo said:

pickups definitely weaken because magnets (especially of the type used in pre 1970 guitars) naturally lose their pull over time. and noticably. that's physics, not anecdotal or speculation.
modern alnico and ceramic not so much, maybe 1% over a decade, which is as good as nothing. but old iron and steel magnets 40 years old or more will be double figures weaker.

It's more like 1% in 50 years for alnico... not enough to hear in the lifespan of the electric guitar so far

but other factors can shorten that.  Knocks, magnetic fields etc...

Cunife was fairly terrible for this.

EricTheWeary

I know I’ve said it before but I liked the Andy Summers story about how he reckoned he degaussed guitar pick ups by carrying his instruments on the London Underground  and that was part of his sound. 

A lot of instruments become Trigger’s Brooms so all the various changes will make changes to the sound ( good or bad) but someone listening to their guitar and saying it sounds sweeter or whatever than it did twenty years ago is pretty much... well, I think the notion that any other of us can be that accurate across large gaps in time doesn’t reflect how memory tends to work. Saying a guitar sounds less bright than it used to probably reflects a loss of hearing more than it does a change in the guitar.

WezV

So the real question, what factors will lead to the magnets losing some charge?

in a humbucker they are fairly well protected and unlikely to receive significant knocks... a strat with raised poles might receive a knock every time you strum

are the other magnets in the guitar close enough to drain each other... do they need to be reverse polarity to even consider this

is bobbin shrinkage going to cause more of a change?

Bridgehouse

WezV said:

So the real question, what factors will lead to the magnets losing some charge?

in a humbucker they are fairly well protected and unlikely to receive significant knocks... a strat with raised poles might receive a knock every time you strum

are the other magnets in the guitar close enough to drain each other... do they need to be reverse polarity to even consider this

is bobbin shrinkage going to cause more of a change?

When playing bass I rest my fingers on the pickup covers, and definitely make contact with them often. I wonder how much I'm affecting the sound....?

tampaxboo

WezV said:

Also worth remembering that the classic guitar tones were created on relatively new instruments.

totally agree with this. it's the elephant in the room and 'the great unmentionable' in vintage gear circles, because they have so much capital invested in the myth that you need vintage gear to get an authetic 'vintage' tone. none of those big rock legends (clapton/hendrix/page etc) were playing on kit that was more than 5-10 years old.

gear ageing badly also applies to fx pedals. caps die.
hendrix played a spanking new fuzzface at woodstock, not some fifty year old relic with crapped-out leaky caps that no longer perform their function.
a modern build by someone who can pick transistors and diodes (@juansolo and others here) to match known vintage specs will sound more like the pedal hendrix used than anything 'totally original' hanging around from that time now.

skaguitar

EricTheWeary said:

I know I’ve said it before but I liked the Andy Summers story about how he reckoned he degaussed guitar pick ups by carrying his instruments on the London Underground  and that was part of his sound. 

A lot of instruments become Trigger’s Brooms so all the various changes will make changes to the sound ( good or bad) but someone listening to their guitar and saying it sounds sweeter or whatever than it did twenty years ago is pretty much... well, I think the notion that any other of us can be that accurate across large gaps in time doesn’t reflect how memory tends to work. Saying a guitar sounds less bright than it used to probably reflects a loss of hearing more than it does a change in the guitar.

or it just needs the strings changed...

HAL9000

I don't know that my Lite Ash Tele sounds any better or different with age (admittedly only 12 years). What has happened, though, is that the wood has changed from being fairly anaemic looking to a rich golden honey colour. So, yes, it has improved with age.

juansolo

tampaxboo said:

WezV said:

Also worth remembering that the classic guitar tones were created on relatively new instruments.

a modern build by someone who can pick transistors and diodes (@juansolo and others here) to match known vintage specs will sound more like the pedal hendrix used than anything 'totally original' hanging around from that time now.

For the vintage fuzzes it's getting them that's the problem. Or rather getting ones that are in the sweet spot when it comes to gain and leakage. But you're absolutely right. Another thing to bear in mind that all the Tonebenders subsequent to the Mk2 are designed as they are because getting good trannies back then was becoming a nightmare! The Jumbo Tonebender being a silicon model that has more in common with a muff than a tonebender (though it is a thing of much awesomeness).

You are going to start to get problems with electrolytic caps after 30 years or so (I also restore old computers and consoles and they are the bane of my life, particularly in PSUs). Then you've got carbon comp resistors in old pedals, they were all over the place even back then.

I'm all for replacing things that don't work any more/properly with things that do, rather than keeping things 'pretty' or original on the inside.

JDE

WezV said:

bobbin shrinkage

Bridgehouse

JDE said:

WezV said:

bobbin shrinkage

Child...

proggy

I don't know if my guitar has improved with age, but it certainly sounds better since I clipped a Snark tuner on the headstock. Worked wonders.

mbe

proggy said:

I don't know if my guitar has improved with age, but it certainly sounds better since I clipped a Snark tuner on the headstock. Worked wonders.

Well the penny has dropped. I was moved to ask the question in the original post because my Jackson Dinky sounds better now than I ever remember.

Must be the recently fitted locking tuners adding more mass to the headstock end of the neck.

  

WezV

mbe said:

proggy said:

I don't know if my guitar has improved with age, but it certainly sounds better since I clipped a Snark tuner on the headstock. Worked wonders.

Well the penny has dropped. I was moved to ask the question in the original post because my Jackson Dinky sounds better now than I ever remember.

Must be the recently fitted locking tuners adding more mass to the headstock end of the neck.

  

Which is why things like the fatfinger headstock clamp exist.  

Problem is is it's not as predictable as they would have you believe.  The random addition of weight is just as likely to be negative as positive.

WezV

Bridgehouse said:

JDE said:

WezV said:

bobbin shrinkage

Child...

Hey! It's a real issue affecting 100% of burst owners!